Finally, after getting some free time to do this, I present the
Top 25 Albums of 2003. I decided against writing about all of them, and have settled on elaborating only on the top 5. If you need to know what the music is really like, well, that’s what Kazaa is for. (Or whatever the kids are using to steal music these days.)
First, some honorable mentions. These are albums that didn’t make the cut simply because I wanted to keep the list to 25 this year (arbitrarily I admit), but I still want to get in a few quick plugs. They are listed in alphabetical order for your pleasure.
Bardo Pond
On The Eclipse (ATP)
The Bug
Pressure (Meow)
Cheap Cologne
Just a Little Sample (Bomb Hip Hop)
Cradle of Filth
Damnation and a Day (Epic/Red Ink)
Sally Crewe and the Sudden Moves
Drive It Like You Stole It (12XU)
Four Tet
Rounds (Domino)
Kevin Blechdom
Bitches Without Britches (Chicks on Speed)
Kill Memory Crash
When The Blood Turns Black (Ghostly International)
Lightning Bolt
Wonderful Rainbow (Load)
Psychonauts
Songs for Creatures (Mo’Wax)
Saturday Looks Good To Me
All Your Summer Songs (Polyvinyl)
Ulrich Schnauss
A Strangely Isolated Place (City Centre Offices)
DJ Scud
Ambush (Rephlex)
SubArachnoid Space
Also Rising (Strange Attractors)
John Tejada
The Toiling of Idle Hands (Immigrant)
And now, the list.
25. Gold Chains
Young Miss America (PIAS America)
24. Savas Pascalidis
Galactic Gigolo (Gigolo)
23. Voivod
s/t (Chophouse)
22. Erik Friedlander
Maldoror (Brassland)
21. Manitoba
Up In Flames (Domino)
20. Vibracathedral Orchestra
Queen of Guess (VHF)
19. Viktor Vaughn
Vaudeville Villain (Sound Ink)
18. Mr. Dibbs
The 30th Song (Rhymesayers)
17. Dimmu Borgir
Death Cult Armageddon (Century Media)
16. Larval
Obedience (Cuneiform)
15. Diverse
One AM (Chocolate Industries)
14. Clogs
Lullabye for Sue (Brassland)
13. Boxhead Ensemble
Quartets (Atavistic)
12. Mars Volta
De-Loused at the Comatorium (Universal)
11. Pepe Deluxe
Beatitude (Emperor Norton)
10. Strapping Young Lad
SYL (Century Media)
9. Supersilent
6 (Rune Grammophone)
8. Aerogramme
Sleep and Release (Matador)
7. Black Keys
thickfreakness (Fat Possum)
6. Carla Bozulich
Red Headed Stranger (Dicristina)
5. Giardini Di Miro
Punk…Not Diet! (2.nd Rec)
This Italian band crafted one of the most beautiful records of 2003. Layering subtle electronic textures over gentle, chamber pop, with the occasional lapse into Mogwai-esque guitar dynamics (minus that band’s occasional amp damage), the album has a flair for the dramatic without ever devolving into the sappy heavy-handedness that afflicts so many bands working classical-infused rock these days. (I know what will make this sound better! More strings!) Instead, GDM let the music unfold gradually, building tension through subtle changes in the music’s dynamics, rather than putting their eggs into the "quiet-loud-quiet" basket. It works often to beautiful effect, allowing you to get swept away by the music’s power, rather than be trampled by it.
4. New Pornographers
Electric Version (Matador)
Every year, in a most predictable fashion, a band or record will be hyped until you just want to punch the next person who says, “you need to check this out.” This year, the three most talked about records (at least in indie circles) were The Wrens
Meadowlands, Death Cab For Cutie’s
Transatlanticism, and this album. Of those three, only the New Pornographers were worthy of the hype. This is some of the catchiest pop music you’re likely to hear this or any year. It’s so well crafted and bursting with energy that when the album finishes, it feels too soon. The vocals are consistently upbeat with some killer harmonies, while musically, they favor the retro-ish power pop feel that made Carl Newman’s old band Zumpano (an under-appreciated and great band in its own right) so great, piling hook on top of hook, without once sounding saccharine. A must have for pop music fans.
3. Sleep
Dopesmoker (Tee Pee)
Okay, so this may be cheating. Yes, the music is nearly 10 years old. And yes, it was released a few years ago in a shortened, broken apart, differently mixed form. But this is the first time the album was released as it was intended, in all its heavy, epic, stoner glory. The album consists of only two tracks, the hour-plus title track and the live bonus track, "Sonic Titan." And while the bonus cut is a nice little glimpse of the band’s live sound (though, the production sounds a bit too thin, with the bass a bit too low to convey the heaviness of the band), it’s the title track that is truly awe-inspiring. A tale about "the Weedian" and his pilgrimage to the "riff-filled land," the music more than the lyrics (which are few and far between) tells the story. With sludgy low-end guitar licks and a rhythm section that is constantly pushing forward (even if at such a tempo it might be hard to notice), it epitomizes everything great about heavy music. Surprisingly, considering the track’s duration and long instrumental passages, there’s not one instance where it comes off as static or boring, which is a testament to the band’s ability to know when to change the music’s direction, if only slightly. Sure, it’s riff after riff after riff…after riff after riff, and it does require patience, but man, the payoff is amazing. If you like music that you can feel (and this is like being pressed under a boulder until your brain shoots out of the top of your head) and you like heavy music in general, your collection is incomplete without this classic.
2. The Black Dahlia Murder
Unhallowed (Metal Blade)
And on the other side of the metal spectrum is this band. Where Sleep destroys you with one big clubbing blow, The Black Dahlia Murder eviscerate you with cut after cut, leaving you a big pile of hamburger meat when it’s all done. With ten tracks clocking in at about half the time of
Dopesmoker, the band is all speed from the get-go. This death metal outfit (from Detroit!) plays it fierce, combining blastbeats and some incredibly fast, dual guitar riffs into a ferocious package. The vocals move between the typical low death snarl and a more high-pitched, "this guy is getting his fingernails pulled off with rusty pliers, but fuck you he still ain’t gonna talk" shriek. And while this combination might sound a little too relentless and monochromatic, it helps itself by injecting the guitar lines with a healthy dose of melody. We’re talking air-guitar inspiring riffage here. If loud, fast and out-of-control metal is your thing, you’re doing yourself a disservice by not picking this album up.
And at number 1…
Explosions in the Sky
The Earth is not a Cold Dead Place (Temporary Residence)
Okay, it’s unavoidable, so I’ll get it out of the way. Explosions in the Sky do borrow from godspeed you! black emperor and Mogwai. Those bands wind up in every review for an Explosions in the Sky record, and it’s not without merit. But it also does a disservice to Explosions in the Sky, especially on this new album. While their first album
Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever, was a bit more derivative of those bands (particular Mogwai, as EitS often injected that album with some heavy, distorted guitar riffs), this one takes a similar starting point, but goes in other directions. The guitars are more languid, with clean tones throughout. The dynamics are also much more subtle. Like Giardini Di Miro, it’s the slight changes in the music that make it move. Despite the more restrained approach, the music never loses its momentum and often builds to beautiful climaxes without resorting to obvious bombast. It’s hard to do this album justice. While the music is good enough that it reveals itself on first listen, it’s on repeated listens that the greatness of the album shines through, with something new making its way to the fore with each listen. Absolutely necessary.
