I haven't done recommendations on the previous 2 years, but I think 2002 have some interesting albums and songs that might be interesting.
The goal here is not to post full lists but to put the focus on a bunch of stuff you think are overlooked.
My album recommendations are all ranked in AM, but might be lesser known than others :
First, Thought for Food by The Books.
I can't guarantee you will love it, but I can guarantee you haven't heard a lot of albums like that. The Books is a duo that primarily use chords and samples to create their music, there is a lot of wit and humor, but the most interesting quality of the album is how it leaves spaces for silences, which actually help their music breathe and gain poignancy. Most artists using samples seem to want to fill as many stuff as they can in their music, but the Books figured sometimes less can be more. Their 2 best songs will come next year, but as an album, Thought for Food is their most consistant work (though the flow between song is sometimes odd).
Might be kind of a cheat to pick the track that sounds the most like a normal song, but hey, it's my favorite :
2nd : mùm - Finally We Are No One
At their best, mùm evokes a whimsical Mogwai (though the band use organs, not guitars) or Sigur Ros (their fellow Icelanders).
Finally We Are No One drags a bit too long, but the first half is full of enchanting songs that never fail to put a smile on my face.
"Don't Be Afraid, You Have Just Got Your Eyes Closed" is a fantastic slide of electro (and surprisingly close to the theme show of the British show Skins) but if mùm has a classic song, it has to be Green Grass of Tunnels.
Got to give a nod to Metro Area (house album that would have been a massive hit had it added some vocals on their instrumental, still pretty good, precursor of a lot of trends in pop and electro since) and Iron & Wine's The Creek Drank the Cradle : I know we have some haters of guys who barely whisper when they sing, but give it to Iron & Wine, he was one of the first.
Songs :
First 2 songs I'm sure would have a solid shot at making the final round where they a better more known :
The Mountain Goats - No Children
I might be biased by my love of 3/4 song, but this is such a powerful song. As upbeat as it might be, this is not a happy song, it's the complete opposite, one of the most hateful songs ever actually : the narrator hates his wife almost as much as he hates himself, it's hopeless but catchy, and possibly even more impactful due to the complete lack of light at the end of the tunnel.
Spoon - The Way We Get By :
Feels a bit strange to recommand a song in AM top 2000, but I'm sure Spoon flew under the radar of a lot of people.
The word that always comes back when talking about Spoon is consistant, but they still have one immense peak, a song with a piano hook so unforgettable that it will be stuck in your head for days.
Finally 2 songs from albums I am sure more people are familiar with :
Dj Shadow - Blood on the Motorway
Private Press is a pretty great album that gets overlooked for "not being Endtroducing" (that's the "classic as a first album" curse, same reason why Wildflowers was so overlooked last year). My 2nd favorite DJ Shadow song is in there too (and help him be one of the very first artists to put a 2nd song in my all time list, after Elliott Smith of course since he got 2 in my top 3).
There's a bit of Endtroducing in there (Stem/Long Stem would be the closest I guess), but more space and more chords, it both classic DJ Shadow and something he never really did elsewhere (though Lonely Soul from the Unkle project comes to mind too).
And Sleater-Kinney - Sympathy
As I said in the voting topic, this is for me the best Corin Tucker vocal performance ever, and that's high praise because she keeps delivering. In her biography, Carrie Brownstein says her and Janet Weiss ended in tears after they recorded Corin's vocals, and you can believe that. Sleater-Kinney's career is full of very personal songs, but Corin singing about her new born son and Carrie about her deepest anguish makes it a high point in their fantastic career + the riff is awesome, Janet is a drum goddess (though other songs showcase that better). It's one of their bluesiest songs, most intense ones, most earnest ones, and just one of their very best. There's good reason why it has been a staple of their comeback concerts.
