ILx'ers Top Albums of 2003

Re: Geir - for this purpose I resurrect my solar system model: Geir thinks that melodic traditionalism is the sun in the musical solar system, and he will look favourably upon the face of any planet (musical style) which receives and reflects the sun's light. Outkast is like the sunny side of the planet Hip-hop while Lil' Jon is forever shrouded in darkness. However I would imagine that for him hip hop is like Pluto and meat-and-potatoes rock is like Venus, ie. the light that Outkast gives back is weaker and more distant than the light that Travis gives back.

Also, more or less the entire "black" music community needs to start making concept albums, I mean, hardly anybody but Prince has done previously.

I still don't consider this list definitive - I'm sure I have forgotten some things and there are some 2002 releases that slipped in. Everything falls into one of two basic categories, 1) albums that surprised and blew me away on first listen, and 2) albums that reminded me of other things I've liked in the past (comfort music, basically). Not too sure about the order after the first five or so.

1. Shiina Ringo - Karuki Zamen Kuri No Hana
2. A-Frames - 2
3. Radio Dept. - Lesser Matters
4. Thermals - More parts Per Million
5. Lightning Bolt - Wonderful Rainbow
6. Kevin Blechdom - Bitches Without Britches
7. Animal Collective - Campfire Songs
8. Blood Brothers - Burn Piano Island Burn
9. Ellen Allien - Berlinette
10. Lucky Dragons - Dark Falcon
11. Fannypack - So Stylistic
12. Brunettes - Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks
13. Pipas - Golden Square
14. Stars - Heart
15. Matthew Dear - Leave Luck to Heaven
16. Envy - A Dead Sinking Story
17. Erase Errata - Live at Crystal Palace
18. My Favorite - The Happiest Days of Our Lives
19. Matt Elliot - The Mess We Made
20. All Girl Summer Fun Band - 2
21. A.R.E. Weapons
22. Tujiko Noriko - From Tokyo to Naigara
23. Wire - Send
24. The Like Young - Art Contest
25. Sunroof! - Cloudz

1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell - Interscope (15 points)
2. Blur - Think Tank - Virgin (15 points)
3. Martin L. Gore - Counterfeit² - Mute/Reprise (13 points)
4. Concretes - The Concretes - Licking Fingers (12 points)
5. Wrens - The Meadowlands - Absolutely Kosher (11 points)
6. British Sea Power - The Decline Of British Sea Power - Sanctuary/Rough Trade (9 points)
7. Woven Hand - Blush Music - Sounds Familyre (8 points)
8. Kenna - New Sacred Cow - Columbia (7 points)
9. White Stripes - Elephant - V2 (5 points)
10. Hidden Cameras - The Smell Of Our Own - Sanctuary/Rough Trade (5 points)

1. Magic Dirt - Tough Love
2. The 88 - Kind of Light
3. Clear Horizon - Clear Horizon
4. KaitO UK - Band Red
5. Tegan & Sara - If It Was You (2003 re-release in the US)
6. MF Doom - Viktor Vaughn Vaudeville Villain
7. Dizzee Rascal - Boy In Da Corner (really hated this at first)
8. Laptop - Don't Try This At Home
9. Lilys - Precollection (great but feels somewhat irrelevant)
10.Joy Zipper - American Whip (2004 version will be different, therefore the promo counts for 2003)

The new music/bands I found in 2003 that I enjoyed the most:

Neurosis
Isis
Opeth
Oneida

1. Outkast, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
2. Radiohead, Hail to the Thief
3. Prefuse 73, One Word Extinguisher and Extinguished: Outtakes
4. Belle & Sebastian, Dear Catastrophe Waitress
5. Basement Jaxx, Kish Kash
6. M83, Dead Cities, Red Seas, and Lost Ghosts
7. The Postal Service, Give Up
8. Broken Social Scene, You Forgot It in People
9. The North Atlantic, Wires in the Walls
10. Schneider TM, 6 Peace EP

1. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks Pig Lib (Matador)
2. Sightings Absolutes (Load)
3. The Microphones Mount Eerie
4. Lightning Bolt Wonderful Rainbow (Load)
5. Belle & Sebastian Dear Catastrophe Waitress (Rough Trade)
6. Neil Michael Hagerty The Howling Hex (Drag City)
7. Skullflower Exquisite Fucking Boredom (Tumult)
8. Jeff Hanson Son (KRS)
9. Cursive The Ugly Organ (Saddle Creek)
10. Radiohead Hail to the Thief (Capitol)

After getting "Room On Fire" for Christmas, I'd like to put it in the place of Skullflower.

Explanations and blurbs here if you scroll down a bit. As you can see the order from about 7 down is in a permanent state of flux...

Metric - "Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?"
Belle and Sebastian - "Dear Catastrophe Waitress"
The Russian Futurists - "Let's Get Ready to Crumble"
Holly Golightly - "Truly She Is None Other"
KaitO - "Band Red"
White Stripes - "Elephant"
The Handsome Family - "Singing Bones"
Quasi - "Hot Shit!"
Crooked Fingers - "Red Devil Dawn"
The Band of Blacky Ranchette - "Still Looking Good To Me"
The Dirtbombs - "Dangerous Magical Noise"
The Detroit Cobras - "Seven Easy Pieces"
Outkast - "Speakerboxx/The Love Below"
The Deadly Snakes - "Ode To Joy"
Adult. - "Anxiety Always"
Janet Bean and the Concertina Wire - "Dragging Wonder Lake"
M83 - "Dead Cities, Red Seas, and Lost Ghosts"
Stereolab - "ABC Music"
The New Pornographers - "Electric Version"
Playgroup - "DJ Kicks"

(note, these are my favourites, not "most important" or even "best" just the one's that I responded to in a very deep, meaningful, and emotional way.

1. I LOVE THE MODERN WAY - Andrew Vincent & the Pirates
Openly acknowledging their debt to Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers, this Ottawa trio deliver post-teenage kicks aplenty through a surprisingly effective mix of catchy, unadorned rockaroll and life-as-dealt lyrics about everything from losing your hair to watching Oprah. I LOVE THE MODERN WAY is as much fun as back-to-back episodes of SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS.

2. ODE TO JOY - the Deadly Snakes
Toronto's garage rock ambassadors of mean-spiritedness made the album of their career with ODE TO JOY. Despite its sinister themes of murder, spite, and general oblivion, this raucous album mystifyingly manages to live up to its title.

3. NOW THIS IS FIGHTING - Parkas
Like Sloan in their prime, the Parkas make guitar pop fun again without insulting the intelligence of their audience. If there was any justice in this world, "Giants in my Field," with its irresistible hooks, killer harmonies, and lines like "revenge is just the local favourite pastime," would be the new fight song of every high school football team in the country.

4. BROKEN SPIRIT, I WILL MEND YOUR WINGS - Soft Canyon
Though the reformation of Tricky Woo, from whose ashes this band rose, likely signals the end of Soft Canyon, BROKEN SPIRIT... stands as a gorgeously grandiose document of epic imagination and rural psychedelia.

5. TALKIN' HONKY BLUES - Buck 65
Even though he's now acknowledging conventional song structure, Haligonian hip hop artist Buck 65 is still just as much Beat poet as rapper. Watch for his Gregory Corso-meets-the Neptunes sounds to crack the mainstream in 2004.

6. BLOW THE HOUSE DOWN - the Great Uncles of the Revolution
If acoustic country jazz with classical leanings gets its own rack in record stores anytime soon, it will be because of this album. Andrew Downing, along with Kevin Turcotte and Juno Award-winners Jesse Zubot and Steve Dawson, delivers a handful of great, crisp originals and a remarkable, rustic reworking of Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf."

7. WHO WILL CUT OUR HAIR WHEN WE'RE GONE? - the Unicorns
Wacky, nerdy, and morbid, yet bright, fun, and engaging music inspired by the glittery stickers elementary school girls put on their notebooks. Lying somewhere between Despistado and Junior Senior, the Unicorns are the clown princes of silly art rock.

8. HOT NEW SPIRITS - Tangiers
With all the swagger of the Strokes and none of the baggage, this Toronto quartet lived up to their NYC counterparts' promise and then some. Dark, desperate and dangerously cool.

9. ON TOP OF THINGS!- the Chains
If five French-Canadians can capture the sound of the 1960s British Invasion so convincingly, maybe all this talk of power pop being the next garage rock might amount to something. ON TOP OF THINGS! is the Beatles' RUBBER SOUL meets the Stones' AFTERMATH while still sounding fresh and optimistic.

10. LATE NIGHTS, EARLY MORNINGS - Bottleneck
This Vancouver band brings the best elements of classic country-pop into the 21st Century on their second album. Jazzy inflections, heart-wrenching lyrics and tremendous vocals make this a great record by which to consider the sunrise.

Bubbling Under (still non-imports), 2003 releases from: John Millard & Happy Day, Despistado, Fight the Monster, Junior Pantherz, Kid Koala, Warsawpack, Big Dave McLean, Joel Plaskett Emergency, Tyler Banadyga, and the High Dials.

Best of the Rest (non-non-imports), 2003 releases from: Junior Senior, Black Eyed Peas, Lyle Lovett, Panjabi MC, Frank Black & the Catholics, Mary J. Blige, the Jessica Fletchers, Neil Michael Hagerty, the Singles, and Howe Gelb.

In other words, I think I really need broadband in the new year.

Here tis:

1. David Banner, Mississippi: The Screwed and Chopped Album
2. Bubba Sparxxx, Deliverance
3. Drive-By Truckers, Declaration Day
4. The White Stripes, Elephant
5. OutKast, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
6. The Mars Volta, De-loused in the Comatorium
7. The Shins, Chutes Too Narrow
8. Cat Power, You Are Free
9. The Darkness, Permission to Land
10. Neil Young, Greendale

My also-rans: Kid Rock, The Strokes, Death Cab For Cutie, The Rapture, Radiohead, Metallica, Ying Yang Twins, The Bug, 50 Cent, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, M. Ward, The Kills, Basement Jaxx, Grandaddy, Richard X, Fog, Led Zeppelin, Super Furry Animals, New Pornographers, Scene Creamers, Nada Surf.

FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE – Welcome Interstate Managers
YEAH YEAH YEAHS – Fever To Tell (Interscope)
THE BLACK KEYS – Thickfreakness (Fat Possum)
THE WHITE STRIPES – Elephant (V2)
THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS – Electric Vision (Matador)
SHELBY LYNNE – Identity Crisis (Capitol)
THE SHINS – Chutes Too Narrow (SubPop)
GRANDADDY – Sumday (V2)
THE JAYHAWKS – Rainy Day Music (American)
THE CLIENTELE – The Violet Hour (Merge)

I always think a Top Ten is too little. 25 probably covers it better for me.

Honorable mention: Drive-By Truckers - Decoration Day; New Pornographers - The Electric Version; David Banner - Mississippi: The Album; Aesop Rock - Bazooka Tooth; Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher; The Darkness - Permission to Land; everything even remotely brushed up against by MF Doom

Though I just mail-ordered Saturday Looks Good to Me and Ballboy.. Maybe I like those more?

1. Basement Jaxx
2. Drive-By Truckers
3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4. King Sunny Ade
5. Dizzee Rascal
6. Bubba Sparxxx
7. Atmosphere
8. Electric Six
9. The Rapture
10. New Pornographers
11. Jay-Z
12. Outkast
13. Justin TImberlake
14. Amy Rigby
15. Audio Bullys
16. Yo La Tengo
17. White Stripes
18. Lyrics Born
19. Liz Phair
20. Kathleen Edwards

1)= My Morning Jacket, It Still Moves (RCA)
1)= Mars Volta, Deloused In The Comatorium (Strummer)
3) Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Fever To Tell (Dress Up)
4) Blood Brothers, Burn Piano Island Burn (Artist Direct)
5) Deerhoof, Apple O (5 Rue Cristiane)
6) Nefilim Modulation Systems, Woe To Thee O Land If Thy King be a Child (Big Dada)
7) Outkast, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (RCA)
8) The Gossip, Movement (K)
9) The Hunches, Yes No Shut It (In The Red)
10) Lightning Bolt, Wonderful Ranbow (Load)

Top five compilations and/or box-sets

1) GBV, Hardcore UFOs Box (Matador)
2) V/A - Goodbye Babylon (Dust 2 Digital)
3) The Wonder Of Stevie (compiled by Bobbito & DJ Spinna)(Harmless)
4) V/a, Root Damage (Sympathy For The Record Industry)
5) Movement Soul (ESPDisk)

Top five reissues

1) Jeff Buckley, Live At Sin E (Sony Legacy)
2) Neil Young, On The Beach (Warners)
3) Glenn Branca, The Ascension (Car Park)
4) Guided By Voices, Get Out Of My Stations (Siltbreeze)
5) Uncle Tupelo, Still Feel Gone (Sony Legacy)

Blood Brothers - Burn Piano Island Burn
Super Furry Animals - Phantom Power
Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
Murder by Death - Who Will Survive, And What Will be Left of Them
Xiu Xiu - A Promise
British Sea Power - The Decline Of
Ted Leo - Hearts of Oak
Sufjan Stevens - Michigan
Cooper Temple Clause - Kick Up the Fire...
Belle and Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress
Non-Prophets - Hope

Best comp:
Guided by Voices - Human Amusement at Hourly Rates

Great 2004 albums so far:
Walkmen - Bows and Arrows
Xiu Xiu - Fabulous Muscles
Liars - They Were Wrong So We Drowned

Most anticipated 2004 album:
Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News

(excluding any Metal - haven't made my mind up yet)

jacques lu cont - fabric 09
david guetta - fuck me i'm famous
gus gus - mixed live at sirkus
motorbass - pansoul reissue
jackie-o motherfucker - wow/magick fire music 2cd

i listened to youngsbower's "relayer" more than anything else above this year but it's actually late 2002 i guess.

lightning bolt on the other hand should be number one. or anybody that's actually DOING SOMETIHNG.

rock music gets so boring sometimes.

Cooper-Moore/Assif Tsahar: America
John Fahey: Red Cross
William Parker: Scrapbook
Matthew Shipp: Equilibrium
Wadi el-Safi: Netrik Sahran
Rahim AlHaj: Iraqi Music in a Time of War

geir likes outkast?

yes he always used them as his exception to the rule.

My 2003 top 10 would be something like this:

Black Moon - Total Eclipse
Luomo - The Present Lover
Renée Geyer - Tenderland
Barbara Morgenstern - Nichts Muss
The Modernist - Kangmei
Meshell Ndegeocello - Comfort Woman
Burnt Friedman & The Nu Dub Players - Can't Cool
Ellen Allien - Berlinette
Dinky - Black Cabaret
The Majesticons - Beauty Party

super furry animals?! are you kidding me? who's going to even think of that when naming good albums that were released in 03? nobody. nobody even talks about it now.
lightning bolt on the other hand should be number one. or anybody that's actually DOING SOMETIHNG.

rock music gets so boring sometimes.

― seahorse genius (seahorse genius), Thursday, September 23, 2004 7:37 PM (8 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

10 years later and it's still a great album.

who was seahorse genius?

The Present Lover AND Alcochofa in 2003. Killer year for those alone.

Was just listening to Worldwide Underground last night. That wd make my list for sure