DECEMBER 18, 2000 VOL. 156 NO. 24

ALSO IN TIME COVER: The Best (and Worst) of 2000 When we look back, we'll remember Tiger Woods, Harry Potter and Sydney's Olympic gala BURMA: Commander-in-Waiting General Maung Aye stands ready to take over as hard-liner-in-chief, though he may have to beat out the country's top spy • Bringing the House Down: Suu Kyi and her brother face off CHINA: The System Isn't Working Premier Zhu Rongji's involvement in a business dispute in Shenyang epitomizes the nation's struggle with the rule of law INNOVATORS: New Lights of the Spirit From a multimedia bishop to the Chinese master of Fa Lun Gong, meet Time's religious visionaries for the millennium CINEMA: Off the Rails in Angkor Wat TIME goes tomb raiding with Angelina Jolie in Cambodia TRAVEL WATCH: For Every Paradise, There's a Parasite

Music

ALSO
The Best (and Worst) of 2000: Year in Review
When we look back, we'll remember Tiger Woods, Harry Potter and Sydney's Olympic gala

1. D'ANGELO VOODOO Slick As Chicken Grease. Hotter than summer asphalt. D'Angelo summoned old ghosts—Jimi and Marvin—and woke up a new artistic spirit in R. and B. Voodoo is a ménage à trois of soul, hip-hop and jazz, all tangled up like lovers caught in the act. Even as D'Angelo pays homage to music's past, he proves the future is in good hands.

2. RADIOHEAD Kid A. Well crafted and inscrutable, this deceptively mellow CD has the haunting power of a dream remembered. Tinged with electronica, bursting with restless creativity, it delivers rock's elegy and its raison d'etre.

3. SINEAD O'CONNOR Faith and Courage. This time around, the defiant Irish singer delivers not a sermon of fire but a psalm of forgiveness. Her pop songs bear weighty spiritual messages about loving oneself, but they carry themselves lightly, as if lifted by seraphim's wings.

4.THE EMERSON QUARTET Shostakovich String Quartets. Shostakovich turned Stalin's Great Terror into art in his 15 string quartets, a laceratingly vivid document interpreted here by America's greatest quartet.

5. SADE Lovers Rock. The soulful singer returns with a solemn CD that was worth the eight-year wait. These elegant songs explore heartbreak, yes, but racism as well. On each cut, Sade's lovely, melancholy voice blossoms like a blue bruise.

6. SHELBY LYNNE I Am Shelby Lynne. Is it country? Is it soul? Maybe the words rhythm and bluegrass best capture the revelatory jolt of songs with which Lynne, a Nashville escapee, bends two great rivers of American music into a pool brimming with fresh ideas.

THE WORST GENERAL WIRANTO The man widely blamed for the carnage that marked East Timor's final push for freedom has a new gig: pop crooning. The former army chief's For You My Indonesia covers syrupy local pop standards that sound like karaoke night in the military mess. Proceeds will go to good causes, but the most charitable thing he can do is spare us a follow-up album.

7. SARAH HARMER You Were Here. Harmer, a Canadian singer-songwriter, has a voice with some of the sublime charm of Dido's and writes erudite but colloquial lyrics that evoke the folksy smarts of the Indigo Girls. This is the year's best debut, with honorable mention going to Nelly Furtado's blithe Whoa, Nelly!

8. MARIA SCHNEIDER Allégresse. Schneider's big band paints musical landscapes full of glowing pastel harmonies and sharp-angled rhythms. Listen to her sweepingly ambitious compositions, and hear the next wave in jazz taking shape before your very ears.

9. JAMES CARTER Chasin' the Gypsy. This tribute to Django Reinhardt offers more than covers of the Gypsy guitarist's songs. Carter also serves up involving originals inspired by Reinhardt and, in doing so, establishes himself as one of the premiere saxophonists in jazz. The chase is on, and Carter is closing in.

10. WYCLEF JEAN The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Book. While other hip-hoppers just lay tracks, Wyclef writes songs. No topic, from romance to the Amadou Diallo killing, is beyond his range, and no musical style, from reggae to country, is beyond his grasp. Political, comical, unpredictable—Wyclef is the most inventive male performer in rap.


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