by Arsenio Orteza
Post Date:
May 24, 2003 Issue Date:
May 24, 2003

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The Top 5 most-played Triple A albums according to CMJ NMR (College Media Journal New Music Report) Issue #813

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1 WORLD WITHOUT TEARS Lucinda Williams

4 weeks on chart

STYLE Stark, bluesy, emotionally raw electric folk.

OBJECTIONABLE MATERIAL "Those Three Days" (obscenity).

WORLDVIEW "If we lived in a world without tears / How would bruises find / The face to lie upon / How would scars find skin / To etch themselves into / How would broken find bones" (the title song).

OVERALL QUALITY Comfort for the afflicted, affliction for the comfortable.

2 SUMMER SUN Yo La Tengo

3 weeks on chart

STYLE Autumnal alternative rock.

OBJECTIONABLE MATERIAL None.

WORLDVIEW "You can only hurt the ones you love, not the ones you're thinking of" (possibly "not the ones you think you love") ... "I don't care what's wrong or right if you're not there by my side" ... "I want to make you feel O.K. right now."

OVERALL QUALITY Pleasant and sweet; just experimental and ironic enough to defuse accusations of wimpiness.

3 RAINY DAY MUSIC The Jayhawks

5 weeks on chart

STYLE An accomplished blend of the Eagles, the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, the Hollies, CSN, America, and Tom Petty.

OBJECTIONABLE MATERIAL None.

WORLDVIEW Women-you can't live with them, and you can't live without them; you can, however, float your women problems on the twin wings of lush harmonies and vulnerable- male cliches and thereby predispose future Miss Wrongs toward believing that you're Mr. Right.

OVERALL QUALITY Roots-pop at its catchiest.

4 EVOLVE Ani DiFranco

8 weeks on chart

STYLE Hebephrenic folk-punk-jazz.

OBJECTIONABLE MATERIAL "Promised Land," "Slide," "Serpentine" (obscenity).

WORLDVIEW Explicitly pro-marijuana, anti-capitalism, anti-war, anti-"religious fundamentals," anti-conservative blacks ("Uncle Tom is posing for a photo op / with the Oval Office clan"), and "[N]ature is our teacher and our mother / and God is just another story that we tell."

OVERALL QUALITY For radicals only.

5 ELEPHANT The White Stripes

4 weeks on chart

STYLE An accomplished and often dryly humorous blend of '60s-era garage rock, psychedelia, and proto-punk.

OBJECTIONABLE MATERIAL None.

WORLDVIEW "We mourn the sweetheart's loss in a disgusting world of opportunistic, lottery ticket holders caring about nothing that is long term, only the cheap thrill, the kick, the for the moment pleasure ..." (from the Dylanesque, apparently tongue-in-cheek liner notes).

OVERALL QUALITY A refreshingly light take on notoriously heavy music.

Arsenio Orteza

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

@ArsenioOrteza

Bestsellers

The Top 5 most-played Triple A albums according to CMJ NMR (College Media Journal New Music Report) Issue #813

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