by Arsenio Orteza
Post Date:
March 1, 2003 Issue Date:
March 1, 2003

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Name: WORLD
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The Top 5 best-selling albums according to CMJ NMR (College Media Journal New Music Report) Issue #801

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1 MARY STAR OF THE SEA Zwan

1 week on chart

STYLE Smashing Pumpkins, right down to singer- songwriter Billy Corgan.

OBJECTIONABLE MATERIAL "Yeah!" (obscenity).

WORLDVIEW "Jesus, I've taken my cross / all to leave and follow thee.... So perish every fond ambition / God and trouble are all I've known / Yet how rich is my condition / God and heaven are all my own" ("Jesus, I / Mary Star of the Sea").

OVERALL QUALITY Pretty good for a Smashing Pumpkins album.

2 COME AWAY WITH ME Norah Jones

45 weeks on chart

STYLE Acoustic love songs softly sung, evocative of coffeehouses and jazz clubs.

OBJECTIONABLE MATERIAL None.

WORLDVIEW When experienced as ends in themselves, the pleasures and pains of romance are largely indistinguishable.

OVERALL QUALITY High; unlike her father, Ravi Shankar, Miss Jones operates strictly within the Western pop-musical tradition, sounding older than her 23 years and inspiring hopes that her five Grammy nominations this year will be the first of many.

3 CHICAGO Various artists

3 weeks on chart

STYLE Kander-Ebb show tunes evocative of the Roaring '20s.

OBJECTIONABLE MATERIAL "All That Jazz," "Funny Honey," "Cell Block Tango," "Class" (profanities), "When You're Good to Mama" (double entendres).

WORLDVIEW "A story of murder, greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery, and treachery-all those things we all hold near and dear" (from the stage-production "Overture").

OVERALL QUALITY Inferior to other available versions.

4 A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD Coldplay

19 weeks on chart

STYLE U2 slowed down and featuring piano instead of guitar.

OBJECTIONABLE MATERIAL None.

WORLDVIEW Love is God ("Honey, you are a rock / Upon which I stand"; "Give me heart and give me soul / Wounds that heal and cracks that fix, / Oh Love"; "Where do I go to fall from grace? / God put a smile upon your face").

OVERALL QUALITY Pretty good for a U2 sound-alike.

5 MAMBO SINUENDO Ry Cooder & Manuel Galbin

1 weeks on chart

STYLE Cuban rhythms swathed in late-'50s echo-chamber guitar twang and space-age-bachelor-pad hi-fi sound effects.

OBJECTIONABLE MATERIAL None.

WORLDVIEW As these songs have no words, the only discernible trace of anything other than art for art's sake herein is the inclusion of liberal Sens. Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein in Mr. Cooder's liner thanks.

OVERALL QUALITY Ideal incidental music for a hard-boiled detective B-movie set in Havana.

Arsenio Orteza

Arsenio is a music reviewer for WORLD Magazine and one of its original contributors from 1986.

@ArsenioOrteza

Bestsellers

The Top 5 best-selling albums according to CMJ NMR (College Media Journal New Music Report) Issue #801

Full access isn’t far.

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