Some Winning Sounds in a Sea of Mediocrity

The good news in a bad year for mainstream pop music is that there were more worthy contenders for album-of-the-year honors than any time since the photo finish in 1986 between Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band’s “Live/1975-85,” Paul Simon’s “Graceland” and Peter Gabriel’s “So.”

The difference is that all three of those 1986 albums were bestsellers, packed with enough hit singles to contribute strongly to the commercial tone of the year.

By comparison, this year’s most compelling albums--including Beck’s “Midnite Vultures,” Moby’s “Play” and Tom Waits’ “Mule Variations”--have had to struggle to find an audience. They are largely commercial outsiders at a time when the nation’s airwaves and sales charts are dominated by the heartless, anonymous sounds of such pop and rock acts as Britney Spears, Kid Rock and Jennifer Lopez.

The year’s best works--which also included Rage Against the Machine’s “The Battle of Los Angeles” and Nine Inch Nails’ “The Fragile”--don’t have as accessible a tone as the 1986 batch, but the artists assert the same kind of purpose and passion.

Their common goal is to challenge the musical status quo rather than dumb down a sound to fit in with what’s selling. That independence was summarized by Waits during an interview earlier this year.

“There was a time back when I could see that we 1/8recording artists 3/8 were all going to end up in the Salvation Army 1/8bargain bins 3/8 unless we did something unique,” Waits said, looking back on the early days of his recording career. “It came to me in a dream. There was my album sitting in this big stack of old records underneath a bunch of old clothes and old platform shoes and shovels. . . . I realized I wanted to try to make something unique, something that you’d want to keep.”

This year’s 10 best albums vary considerably in style, but they are all collections you’ll want to keep.

1. Beck’s “Midnite Vultures” (DGC). Beck turned “Odelay” into 1996’s most commanding album by mixing folk, blues and country influences from the ‘30s and ‘40s with trailblazing ‘90s sensibilities. This time, he reaches back to ‘70s soul-funk (Prince to Cameo) and rock (Kraftwerk to David Bowie) for a starting point. As before, however, the key is the overlay of contemporary attitudes. Beck mixes hip-hop and electronica with collision force, creating spectacular soundscapes that are more than simply sonic delights. Sometimes the satirist, sometimes the social critic, sometimes just a goofball, Beck examines a wide range of modern temptations and obsessions. Lively and deceptively smart, “Midnite” is the ideal millennium party CD.

2. Moby’s “Play” (V2). Moby opens a door to 21st century pop in this liberating work, which explores matters of spirituality and faith. In the central tracks, he links virtually every pop style that has ever delighted him--from old blues and country field recordings to rock and gospel. Like Beck, Moby doesn’t just try to match the emotional highs of his musical heroes. He tries to surpass them by putting the influences into a new and inviting setting. The soul-baring “Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad” is one of the year’s absolute peaks. Another millennium party natural.

3. Tom Waits’ “Mule Variations” (Epitaph). For all his fascination with grating musical textures, Waits has always found time for lovely, engaging ballads. But the singer-songwriter has never been as consistently personal as he is in the key moments here. From the compassion of “Come On Up to the House” to the devotion of “Picture in a Frame,” Waits takes a brave and revealing step forward as an artist.

4. Rage Against the Machine’s “The Battle of Los Angeles” (Epic). Think of “Battle” as Rage’s equivalent of U2’s “The Joshua Tree.” Both albums elevated an already acclaimed band to an even higher artistic level. The breakthrough for Rage is greater musical range. Where the politically charged quartet used to always come at you with the force of a fist in the face, it now throws surprise jabs and hooks. But none of this wider emotional tone lessens the urgency of Rage’s message.

5. Nine Inch Nails’ “The Fragile” (Nothing/Interscope). In portions of this two-disc album, Trent Reznor takes us back to the despair of “The Downward Spiral,” Nine Inch Nails’ landmark 1994 CD. But this time there’s no sense of youthful bravado, no feeling that the demons can be eventually purged. This is a darker and more profound work--one filled with such helplessness and self-doubt that it seems at times to be a wounded cry for help. The words are sometimes conventional, but the music itself carries an almost symphonic sweep.

6. The Magnetic Fields’ “69 Love Songs/Vols. 1-3” (Merge). There are places in this three-disc set (the volumes can also be bought separately) where songwriter Stephin Merritt tickles you more with his cleverness than touches you with his insight, but there are times when his wistful wit and wordplay are absolutely captivating. Rufus Wainwright has a rival in today’s pop sophistication sweepstakes. Grandiose but grand.

7. Eminem’s “The Slim Shady LP” (Aftermath/Interscope). “God sent me to piss the world off,” the Detroit rapper declares in an album that takes the bratty humor of the early Beastie Boys and gives it an electric shock of R-rated, hard-core ‘90s rap. It’s street-driven role-playing that is as funny as it is crude. Parents beware.

8. Meshell Ndegeocello’s “Bitter” (Maverick). This much-acclaimed singer-songwriter tosses aside the aggressive R&B; and funk strains of her first two albums, almost as if she doesn’t want anything to draw your attention from these stark, unusually naked tales of romantic ups and (mostly) downs.

9. Dr. Dre’s “Dr. Dre 2001” (Aftermath/Interscope). Much of the hard-core rap language here seems uncomfortably close to pandering, but the production work--blending soulful grooves and hip-hop bite--is exquisite. The bonus: more personal and revealing themes, including acknowledgments of the consequences of the gangsta lifestyle.

10. Ibrahim Ferrer’s “Buena Vista Social Club Presents Ibrahim Ferrer” (World Circuit/Nonesuch). When people talk about albums being good for the soul, they are talking about ones as pure and uplifting as this one by a 72-year-old Cuban singer, whose warm, effortless style is as radiant as a sunset. *

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Robert Hilburn, The Times’ pop music critic, can be reached by e-mail at robert.hilburn@latimes.com.