OK, the best album of 2002 goes to a bunch of teenage upstarts from Merseyside, England, but the place to be was underground in Japan. Veterans Shonen Knife and Guitar Wolf delivered their best albums to date, Salt Water Taffy and All Tomorrow's Party kick-started the indie-guitar revival with heart-melting melodies, and Anadorei crash-landed into a vibrant scene sounding like nothing you've heard before. Has Japan ever had it so good? I doubt it.
1. The Coral -- "The Coral"
Pinning down the debut album by Merseyside teens The Coral in a few sentences is like strapping down Godzilla with a bunch of rubber bands. Yes, it's a monster of an album. Big, bold and hugely ambitious. Comparisons have been made to Captain Beefheart, Love, Syd Barrett and The Doors. It's like The Coral have used a time machine to travel back to the '60s, abducted their favorite artists and held them hostage in a recording studio for a few weeks to make a "Sgt. Pepper's" for the new millennium. Best debut album since Oasis? The Stone Roses? The Smiths? It's the equal of all three. And I haven't even mentioned the drunken monks chanting, the Latin flourishes, or the punk-rock Cossack bits.