Crit & Shap

You wanted the worst--you got it!

Comments (0) By Michael Chamy and Zac Crain and Eric Waggoner and Robert Wilonsky and Mikael Wood Thursday, Jan 10 2002

8. Sum 41, All Killer No Filler (Island Def Jam): At the risk of putting too fine a point on it--something these Canadian pop-punk ne'er-do-wells probably wouldn't mind--Sum 41 might well have been the poster band for the considerable drive of pre-September 11 Western capitalism: shiny, gratifying and a hell of a lot of fun. Now, of course, that pheromone factor rings a little hollow, as outside market forces make us all question just how important unbridled purchase power--or dildos or Judas Priest or freedom or whatever--is when we're sending troops overseas. "In Too Deep?" No shit. --Mikael Wood

9. Lenny Kravitz, Lenny (Virgin): On his sixth album of sterile, strangely anonymous cock rock, Lenny Kravitz finished what he started in 1993, when after two attempts at honesty he slapped on a pair of oversized aviators and effectively blocked his audience from his heart. Kravitz gets close to emoting on Lenny exactly once, in "Bank Robber Man," a fuzzy stomper inspired by his run-in with a couple of Miami cops who took Kravitz for a local thief who also happened to be African-American. Thing is, until this dude dispenses with the vacuum-packed pablum, he can't really blame us when we mistake him for somebody--or anybody--else. --M.W.

Albert Sanchez

Mick Jagger made a record only Rolling Stone could love.

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10. Staind, Break the Cycle (Flip/Elektra): Hurt hurt pain squeal hurt pain sad (riff) anger depression sad (chord) pain suffer neglect pain hurt ignore mope squeal hurt sad depressed angry (drum) family hurt pain emotional distance hurt cry sad (acoustic guitar) rail suffer scream stand alone survive scar damage pain bleak mope wasted tired angry hurt (solo) desolate hurt alone alienation desert pain (fade). I mean, really: If I wanted this kind of ceaseless, mundane bitching, I'd be working at the crisis hotline. --E.W.