90 Day Men, “To Everybody”
Hands down the best full-length rock album to hit the streets from Chicago in 2002, “To Everybody” exceeded all expectations, casually balancing a gift for intelligent indie-rock with influences from seventies-style art and prog rock. If that sounds like pretentious tripe that will rob the music of its fun, trust that the boys in 90 Day Men blend it all into a perfect elixir that can both stimulate the mind and deck the body. The key that opens “To Everybody” is its durability, the type of record you can listen to constantly for three months without hearing every nuance, put it away, and come back to a month later as if you’ve never heard it before. All that, and a Morrissey reference too—it’s hard to make the same case for another. (And for those who read between the lines, we apologize to keyboardist Andy Lansangan—your name contains neither verb nor noun.)
Southern Records
Audience choice:
Wilco, “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot”
Nonesuch Records
Best of Chicago 2002
