The Best Albums in 2002
Teen pop continued to be an extremely popular genre in the early 2000s with the success of teenage pop singers Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Spears’ “Oops!…I Did It Again” and Aguilera’s “Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)” became huge hits in the year 2000. By 2001 and 2002, however, the teen-pop trend faded due to modern R&B and hip-hop influenced music that later dominated throughout the middle of the decade. Spears’ 2001 album Britney and Aguilera’s 2002 album Stripped are examples of teen pop artists transitioning from teen pop to more grown-up, modern R&B influenced records. Here are all of the 2002 albums ranked.
Don’t miss out the music of 2002. Relive the most memorable songs by clicking below.
10. Up The Bracket (The Libertines)
“The Libertines are a band that would have fitted in perfectly in the golden days of rock’n’roll, and it’s only a shame that they shattered after only two albums. In their debut album, “Up The Bracket,” this London band churned out catchy, gritty rock’n’roll with a Britpop twist — definitely good stuff.”
9. By The Way (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
“Probably the most consistent album Red Hot Chili Peppers has released. Some great tracks (By the Way, Can’t Stop) and some that seem to barely have the will to exist (Dosed, Warm Tape). Still, By the Way, is enjoyable enough for multiple listens.”
8. ( ) (Sigur Rós)
“It’s for a golden-hour summer in the woods, a dark wintery night on a mountain, the first fall of leaves in the autumn, and when the snow melts in the spring. It’s for every moment, big or small, happy or sad, lonely or comforted. A masterpiece.”
See more: The Libertines Albums Ranked
7. Sea Change (Beck)
“One of the best acoustic albums of all time. It’s hard to put yourself in the mindset of the Beck fan in the late 90s/early OOs with all of the pivots he can do with his sound- and still excel at them. Here, he cultivates a brittle, delicate sound of heartbreak and somberness along with some soothing, yet interesting, guitar licks.”
6. You Forgot It In People (Broken Social Scene)
“Should be called Meditations of Urban twentysomethings, most of the songs feel like vignettes of moods collected to a whole diorama of experiences, the lyrics are mostly second to the music. Pretentious but a healthy dose of pretension”
5. Songs For The Deaf (Queens Of The Stone Age)
“Their most iconic for sure. There are few to no mistakes on this album. They have their style, they show the possibilities, it has its perfect flaws (which are important) where they get a bit too confident and experimental (the offsetting pauses on ‘God is in the Radio’), and where they grab a style out of the old hat that adds the perfect amount of cringe (the Jethro Tull-ish obsession with overly medieval-sounding folk on ‘The Mosquito Song’).”
4. Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (The Flaming Lips)
“This album is catchy and fun to listen to and the feeling and concept behind it are great. I don’t listen to a lot from this genre but I genuinely love everything about Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, and it’s been the gateway for me to listen to more albums like this.”
See more: Coldplay Albums Ranked
3. A Rush Of Blood To The Head (Coldplay)
“This album is almost perfect! Though I like a little bit more their previous record Parachutes, I can say that I enjoy listening to every song on this one and think that every one of them has something to offer and you just can’t get bored, which I can’t, unfortunately, say about their newest releases.”
2. Turn On The Bright Lights (Interpol)
“Truly a mind-blowing piece of work. Started to listen to this album and didn’t know what to expect. Finishing it with my mouth wide open and uncontrollably staring at my speaker. Tremendous, heightened, amazing sound. Right on!”
1. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Wilco)
“The songs here are beautiful, especially “I Am Trying to Break Your Hear”, “Kamera”, “Jesus Etc.” and “Heavy Metal Drummer”. If the band simply played these songs straight, as I suppose they must in concert, unless they resort to MIDI gimmicks or something, then this would simply have been another good Wilco album. And, I aver, sound a lot like A.M. But instead they labored over, fussed with and generally obsessed about these songs, tore them apart and put them back together again with a lot of noise in between and on all sides of the music. They went from being just songs to sonic landscapes. If you don’t like that sort of thing, then forget about this album.”