2) Guided By Voices, Do The Collapse (TVT). An indie pop thoroughbred that many GBV fans were initially tempted to stall in the paddock. Under the stewardship of producer Ric Ocasek who somehow managed the trick of sounding both lush and thin at the same time, GBV achieved the same feat. They sound bigger and more realized than ever before on Do The Collapse, without completely sacrificing the naively thin sound that won them fans in the first place. One need only hear the opening track, "Teenage FBI" to hear the sound of success.
3) April March, Chrominance Decoder (Mammoth). Ok, this is really not for everyone. For starters, most of it's in French. But this blissfully straight-faced sendup of Francoise Hardy-style '60s ye-ye Euro-pop is dead-on historically accurate at capturing the French '60s obsession with indiscriminate assimilation of American traditions ranging from Burt Bacharach to rock and roll, to cocktail jazz and Brill Building bubblegum. Meanwhile, April March (really American Elinor Blake, ex-Pussywillows and former Ren and Stimpy illustrator) sounds like if she had only been alive at the right time, she would have been duking it out with Brigitte Bardot to dangle on Serge Gainsbourg's arm.
4) Moby, Play (V2). Like the Beastie Boys' trilogy, Paul's Boutique, Check Your Head and Ill Communication, this album has many tracks that feel like meanderings. It is an album of starts and stops, entrances and exits. But like the Beasties, you can't help but want to Moby around on those meanderings. Utterly mindless, but the best dance hybrid of the year. As much fun as Moby appears to be having on the album cover.
5) Belle and Sebastian, Tiger Milk. Soon after the band released this album, Belle and Sebastian decided it hated the songs so much, they destroyed all remaining copies they could find. But they couldn't find them all, lucky for us B&S junkies. This album is more of the cheeky-but-pretty boy angst that I love them for.
