1 GASTR DEL SOL Camoufleur (Drag City). David Grubbs’s final collaboration with Jim O’Rourke is a fitting swan song, an absorbing collection of art-pop tunes expertly fitted with experimental flourishes. From Rob Mazurek’s sputtering cornet on the breezy “The Seasons Reverse” to Markus Popp’s fractal electronics on the melancholy “Blues Subtitled No Sense of Wonder” to Edith Frost’s gentle cooing on the Beach Boys-flavored “Each Dream Is an Example,” the many components are masterfully arranged, without a single wasted gesture. Rarely have gorgeous melodies and avant-garde tendencies been on such easy terms–unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said of Grubbs and O’Rourke.
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3 LAURYN HILL The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (Ruffhouse). Fugees vocalist Hill challenges the sad status quo of black popular music in one fell swoop on her solo debut: “Come on baby, light my fire / Everything you drop is so tired / Music is supposed to inspire / So how come we ain’t gettin’ no higher?” she sings over and over on “Superstar.” And sure enough her Miseducation blows away the puffy pretenders and the stale new jack swingers alike with the richest, most satisfying fusion of hip-hop and soul since Mary J. Blige first demanded the 411. On “Lost Ones” her rapping flows skillfully on and off the beat, and on “Ex-Factor” she wails like a genuine 60s soul sister, but she manages to erase the tension between the two styles with a magic touch that rarely fails her over the course of the slightly overlong album. Plus, there are no hired guns dropping the beats behind her–she did it herself, with minimal help from her many friends.
5 BLOQUE Bloque (Luaka Bop). Whether nonchalantly shifting stylistic gears or playing demolition derby with disparate genres, this stunningly agile Colombian combo never gets sidetracked by pomo cleverness. Its collective mind is free, and your ass can’t help but follow. Led by vocalist Ivan Benavides and the remarkable guitarist Ernesto “Teto” Ocampo, who can switch from Led Zep bravura to cumbia folkiness in the blink of an ay-ay-ay, Bloque pulls loose the seams of “rock en espa–ol” in its first few notes.
10 BLACK STAR MOS DEF & TALIB KWELI ARE BLACK STAR (Rawkus). Hip-hop has never been more pervasive on the pop charts than it was in 1998, but while most rappers were chasing the loot behind Jay-Z, Timbaland, Puff Daddy, and the Wu-Tang Clan, these NY MCs espoused a thoughtful positivity, asking for solutions instead of excuses, over irresistible borrowings from old-school faves like Boogie Down Productions.
