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By Chris Willman

Chris Willman

Chris Willman is a senior music writer for Entertainment Weekly

1 LOVE AND THEFT Bob Dylan (Columbia) Speaking of thievery, Dylan managed to cop just about every musical style native to America in the first half of the last century to deliver what has to be the least derivative-feeling disc of 2001. It's a Mississippi-size stream of consciousness swelling beyond its shores with raw nerves, crazy random details, weary mea culpas, and more belly laughs than The Producers.

2 TROPICAL BRAINSTORM Kirsty MacColl (Instinct) If you didn't know Kirsty was English folk singer Ewan MacColl's daughter, you'd suspect she was really the bastard progeny of Cole Porter and Noel Coward. Maybe Celia Cruz was an aunt, considering how magnificently MacColl's dry wit thrives in Tropical's sweaty south-of-the-equator settings. Knowing there won't be a sequel (she died shortly before its release) dampens the fun only slightly.

3 LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band (Columbia) Some fans were years past salivating by the time Bruce finally gave us the great live album we'd been waiting for, but later isn't necessarily lesser. The joyful abandon that was once a conceit of youth feels harder earned -- especially in ''Land of Hope and Dreams,'' so bittersweetly apropos to the mood that would soon settle upon New York.

4 ''THE LILLYWHITE SESSIONS'' The Dave Matthews Band (no label) Their best album to date deals with weighty subject matter -- mortality, the absence of God -- without losing ballast. Did we mention it was leaked, not released? Thanks to Napster, this abandoned project went where no bootleg has gone before, a ''lost album'' that'd be a keeper even without the mythology.

5 SURVIVOR Destiny's Child (Columbia) The singles are actually the weakest moments in this triumph of deliriously convoluted vocal arranging. Proceed right to the middle of the album -- principally, to ''Nasty Girl'' through ''Happy Face'' -- for the most pleasurable half hour you'll experience under any circumstance this season.

6 ROCKIN' THE SUBURBS Ben Folds (Epic) His first ''solo'' album unfolds like a series of brilliantly funny and forlorn character vignettes from great musical comedies yet unwritten. So why isn't Folds busy reinventing the Broadway musical? The legit stage's loss remains rock's gain.

7 TIME (THE REVELATOR) Gillian Welch (Acony) This heroine of the O Brother set can be one dour sister, but her even more minimalist third album steps away from gothic country toward classic Neil Young territory. Long may she run.

8 MAHOGANY SOUL Angie Stone (J) Stone throws in a fleeting Curtis Mayfield cover and a few insignificant samples, but her original material is so on par with soul's golden age, she keeps you imagining she's nicked much more.

9 BUDDY & JULIE MILLER Buddy and Julie Miller (Hightone) Nashville's first couple (well, after Tim and Faith) finally teamed up, leaning neither to hubby's country nor to the missus' folk, but taking a third tack and rocking out, sweetly and hard. Take a lesson in compromise, young marrieds.

10 MEANINGLESS Jon Brion (Artistdirect.com) Turns out Aimee Mann's former right-hand guy has a melancholy wit almost as wicked as his ex's to go along with his one-man-power-pop-band chops.

Posted Dec 21, 2001 | Published in issue #631-632 Dec 21, 2001 | Order Article Reprints