Wilco

The esoteric but alluring collage of sounds on Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot earned them the No. 6 spot on our Best of 2002 poll. The songs traverse styles, from the bleak "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" to the perky "Heavy Metal Drummer," all the while retaining Wilco's signature pawnshop-guitar-run-through-a-dozen-effects-pedals sound.

This is how screwed up the music business is in the early twenty-first century: Last
summer, after completing their fourth and best studio album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,
alternative-country idols Wilco delivered the record to their label, Reprise. The company
reacted as if the music was caked in anthrax, throwing the album back at Wilco and
arranging for them to leave the label -- immediately. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot now a... More >

Purty music, but I yawn like a lawn when I hear him recite ("Jesus, Etc.," "I Am the Man Who Loves You") (Grade - *)