USA Today Best and Worst Singles of 2001 (DT …
*USA Today Best and Worst Singles of 2001 (DTM is 6th Best)
Posted Friday, December 28, 2001 by Waldos
Best Singles of 2001
1. Lee Ann Womack, Does My Ring Burn Your Finger. A searing, chill-conjuring pe
rformance of a seething Buddy and Julie Miller tune by country's reigning female vocalist.
2. Soggy Bottom Boys (ghost vocals by Dan Tyminski), I Am a Man of Constant Sor
row. You couldn't ask for a stronger musical argument in favor of traditional v
s. modern country. As for the country radio programmers who didn't play it, all you can say is, "Oh, brother, where wert thou?"
3. Shakira, Whenever, Wherever. Not to make mountains out of ... er, molehills,
this is simply a great pop record, an addictive sugar rush from start to finish.
4. Alicia Keys, Fallin'. This is A. Keys' world, but it would be nothing without that familiar James Brown riff that underwires the song.
5. R.E.M., Imitation of Life. A welcome return to classic form, except that the
re were almost no radio formats left to embrace it. Another classic R.E.M. sleeper: the band's Vanilla Sky soundtrack entry, All the Right Friends.
6. Madonna, Don't Tell Me. The stop-start gimmick was a grabber, and you could
hear it cropping up on other tracks throughout the year. But it was the pretty, unadorned melody that made the record.
7. Belle & Sebastian, I'm Waking Up to Us. A gem from this consistently fascina
ting Scottish band < swooping strings and ringing guitars surround a complete s
hort story in a pop song. Added B-side value: a snarky stab at the Beach Boys a
nd a paragraph of Marxist dialectic seamlessly worked into the background vocals.
8. Dixie Chicks, If I Fall You're Going Down With Me. A more astute singles con
noisseur than I has pointed out the uncanny musical and thematic similarities b
etween this and mid-'90s cult-rocker Pete Droge's If You Don't Love Me (I'll Kill Myself), but it's a nifty little country-rocker in any case.
9. Michelle Branch, Everywhere. Lived up to its title by being omnipresent on r
adio, movie commercials, etc., but still a refreshing blast of rock-edged originality for the semi-stale teen-pop genre.
10. Charlie Robison, I Want You Bad. A bold cover of a sterling NRBQ rocker that almost became the air-freshener hit country radio so badly needed.
Worst Singles of 2001
1. Shaggy, It Wasn't Me. The answer to the musical question, "Who made this nagging nursery-rhyme smutfest a hit?" See title above.
2. Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya and Pink, Lady Marmalade. Four talented bu
t exhibitionistic performers staged a ce- lebrity death match in the oversinging and underdressing categories. I don't think we were ready for this jelly.
3. Toby Keith, I Wanna Talk About Me. Not only does this pseudo-rap country hit
contain the excruciating couplet "We talk about your nana/In Muncie, Indiana,"
it then belabors the point by rhyming "grandma" and "Alabama." No wonder when
critics coined a shorthand term for country rap, they just took out the "ountry."
4. Michael Jackson, Butterflies. A hopelessly sappy ballad oozing with fuzzy sentiments. I'd say it's more like caterpillars.
5. Lonestar, I'm Already There. As soon as this sentimental ballad gusher comes
on (especially the version with the kid whining for his dad to come off tour and get home), I'm lready gone.
6. O-Town, All or Nothing. All things considered, I'd prefer nothing.
7. Creed, My Sacrifice. If I have to see that drowned-world video with Scott Stapp's tormented flexing one more time, my sacrifice will be the TV set.
8. Janet Jackson, Someone to Call My Lover. Not singled out so much for the son
g, which is tolerable, but for its Ventura Highway riff. Just one in a series o
f sickly '70s samples in Janet's repertoire. (See also follow-up Son of a Gun's
You're So Vain excerpts and Got 'Til It's Gone's Big Yellow Taxi bits.) She's got to be stopped before she samples Terry Jacks' Seasons in the Sun.
9. Mariah Carey, Loverboy. Speaking of samples, Mariah deserves a special prize
for taking a great sample (Cameo's irresistible Candy)and turning it into diffuse sonic mush.
10. Afroman, Because I Got High. Almost forgot to list this annoying little ditty, because I ... but enough about me.
Source: USA Today, and thanks to hotrad
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