2003: Favorite Music
I'm definitely forgetting some music, and some I haven't heard yet, but here are my favorites from 2003.
Favorite Tracks of 2003:
1. Rob Dougan - Furious Angels
2. Muse - Butterflies and Hurricanes
3. Radiohead - 2 + 2 = 5
4. The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
5. The Dandy Warhols - The Last High
6. Jet - Are You Gonna Be My Girl
7. Goldfrapp - Black Cherry
8. M83 - Gone
9. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps
10. Audioslave - Like A Stone
11. Belle & Sebastian - Step Into My Office, Baby
12. Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism
13. Postal Service - Such Great Heights
Favorite Albums of 2003:
Muse - Absolution
Muse is straight-up Bends-era pomp rock, but with Absolution they've taken it to epic proportions that Radiohead abandoned in favor of electronic experimentation. So, we got the best of both worlds: from Radiohead, OK Computer and Kid A, and from Muse, this. In the same year Peter Jackson gave us the most epic film ever made in Return of the King, Muse gives us the most epic album since Mahler's Symphony for a Thousand. 'Butterflies and Hurricane' can destroy and rebuild the planet with one play. Track Listing:
1. Intro
2. Apocalypse Please*
3. Time Is Running Out*
4. Sing for Absolution*
5. Stockholm Syndrome*
6. Falling Away With You*
7. Interlude
8. Hysteria*
9. Blackout
10. Butterflies and Hurricanes*
11. The Small Print*
12. Endlessly*
13. Thoughts of a Dying Atheist*
14. Ruled by Secrecy*
Radiohead - Hail To The Thief
Radiohead are back, thank God. They seem to be filling in the gaps between OK Computer and Kid A, but that's one hell of a great place to be. 2 + 2 = 5 challenges Muse in what they've made their game. I'll lap up pretty much anything Radiohead throws down, and this is damn tasty, but keep moving, Radiohead! Keep moving forward! We can't wait to see what's out there.Track Listing:
1. 2 + 2 = 5*
2. Sit down. Stand up.
3. Sail to the Moon.
4. Backdrifts.*
5. Go to Sleep.*
6. Where I End and You Begin.
7. We suck Young Blood.
8. The Gloaming.
9. There there.*
10. I will.*
11. A Punchup at a Wedding.*
12. Myxomatosis.*
13. Scatterbrain.
14. A Wolf at the Door.*
Mew - Frengers
Mew delivered on the promise of their demo with noisy, symphonic revampings of their older work and some great new material. Their songs are catchy, fun, textured, and gorgeous. Their followup is one of my most anticipated albums of 2005.Track Listing:
1. Am I Wry? No*
2. 156*
3. Snow Brigade*
4. Symmetry*
5. Behind The Drapes
6. Her Voice Is Beyond Her Years
7. Eight Flew Over, One Was Destroyed
8. She Came Home For Christmas*
9. She Spider*
10. Comforting Sounds*
TV on the Radio - Young Liars
THWACK! That was the gruesome sound of a sledgehammer falling from nowhere and pounding my head in. Barbershop quartet post-punk grunge? ...that kicks ass? Wasn't expecting that one! Seriously, though, every song on this EP dominates.Track Listing:
1. Satellite*
2. Staring at the Sun*
3. Blind*
4. Young Liars*
5. Mister Grieves*
Goldfrapp - Black Cherry
I'm a sucker for the Air/Goldfrapp brand of lush pop electronica, and in Black Cherry, Goldfrapp rubs me down just the way I like it - soft, smooth, and sexy. The whole album is a sensual buildup to the pumping, thrusting 'Strict Machine.'Track Listing:
1. Crystalline Green*
2. Train
3. Black Cherry*
4. Tiptoe*
5. Deep HOney*
6. Hairy Trees*
7. Twist*
8. Strict Machine*
9. Forever
10. Slippage
The Dandy Warhols - Welcome to the Monkey House
Should I even bother to write anything? You either let yourself get addicted to this kind of stuff or you don't. I, for one, will take a Dandy shot in the arm anyday.Track Listing:
1. Welcome To The Monkey House
2. We Used To Be Friends*
3. Plan A*
4. Wonderful You
5. Scientist*
6. I Am Over It
7. The Dandy Warhols Love Almost Everyone
8. Insincere
9. The Last High*
10. Heavenly*
11. I Am Sound
12. Rock Bottom
13. (You Come In) Burned
The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
Songwriters extroardinaire, The Shins prove once again that a great melody and great beat are really are all you need to make great music.Track Listing:
1. Kissing the Lipless*
2. Mine's Not A High Horse*
3. So Says I*
4. Young Pilgrims*
5. Saint Simon*
6. Fighting In a Sack*
7. Pink Bullets
8. Turn a Square*
9. Gone For Good
10. Those to Come
Audioslave - Audioslave
Rage Against the Machine instrumentation with Chris Cornell vocals? Brilliant. Give whoever came up with this idea a million dollars. Oh, they have already? Anyway, this is a match made in heaven, as long as you're fond of Rage riffs and Cornell croons.Track Listing:
1. Cochise*
2. Show Me How To Live*
3. Gasoline*
4. What You Are
5. Like A Stone*
6. Set It Off
7. Shadow Of The Sun*
8. I Am The Highway
9. Exploder
10. Hypnotize
11. Bring Em Back Alive
12. Light My Way*
13. Getaway Car
14. The Last Remaining Light*
Howard Shore - The Return of the King
Just as big and powerful and wonderfully overwhelming as the movie.Track Listing:
1. A Storm Is Coming*
2. Hope and Memory
3. Minas Tirith*
4. The White Tree*
5. The Steward of Gondor
6. Minas Morgul*
7. The Ride of the Rohirrim
8. Twilight and Shadow*
9. Cirith Ungol
10. Anduril*
11. Shelob's Lair
12. Ash and Smoke*
13. The Fields of the Pelennor
14. Hope Fails
15. The Black Gate Opens
16. The End of All Things*
17. The Return of the King
18. The Grey Havens
19. Into the West
Supersilent - 6
In case you're wondering, the album and track naming sceheme here is nothing new. Supersilent's been doing it this way for - you guessed it - 6 albums now. Their latest is the most intense and accessible (if you can call it that) yet. At this point, their group's name is definitely a misnomer, as this is one of the heaviest albums of the year.Track Listing:
1. 6.1*
2. 6.2*
3. 6.3
4. 6.4*
5. 6.5*
6. 6.6*
Rob Dougan - Furious Angels
Yes, I discovered him by tracking down the music for that Audi commercial, too ('Clubbed to Death'). But 'Furious Angels' is the real star, with enough power to reflect an epic battle among the titular supernatural forces.Track Listing:
1. Prelude
2. Furious Angels*
3. Will You Follow Me?*
4. Left Me for Dead
5. I'm Not Driving Anymore*
6. Clubbed to Death [Kurayamino Variation]*
7. There's Only Me
8. Instrumental*
9. Nothing at All
10. Born Yesterday
Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone
The Napoleon Dynamite of pop music? It's fun, it's quirky, it's often a little pathetic but still enjoyable. And thankfully, it's always much better than that soulless movie.Track Listing:
1. I Don't Wanna Die*
2. Tuff Ghost*
3. Ghost Mountain*
4. Sea Ghost*
5. Jellybones
6. Clap
7. Child Star*
8. Let's Get Known*
9. I Was Born (A Unicorn)
10. Tuff Luff
11. Inoculate the Innocuous
12. Os*
13. Ready to Die
Explosions in the Sky - Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place
Explosions in the Sky are not pushing post-rock anywhere, but they do it very, very well.Track Listing:
1. First Breath After Coma*
2. Only Moment We Were Alone*
3. Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean*
4. Memorial*
5. Your Hand in Mine
M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
You like Casio-programmed music? I didn't think I did, either, until I heard M83. 'Gone', spcifically. The whole album is a testament, like Amon Tobin's early work, of what can be done with a little equipment and a lot of talent.Track Listing:
1. Birds
2. Unrecorded*
3. Run Into Flower*
4. In Church*
5. America
6. On a White Lake, Near a Green Mountain
7. Noise
8. Be Wild
9. Cyborg
10. 0078h*
11. Gone*
12. Beauties Can Die Bonus
Honorable Mentions (no order):
Apocalyptica - Reflections
Rum Diary - Poisons That Save Lives
Turin Brakes - Ether Song
Maximilian Hecker - Rose
Maximilian Hecker - Infinite Love Songs
Dragonforce - Valley of the Damned
The Leaves - Breathe
Gregorian - Masters of Chant 4
Xploding Plastix - The Donca Matic Singalongs
Thomas Newman - Finding Nemo
Belle & Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress
Max Richter - Memoryhouse
Nick Cave - Nocturama
The Trills - So Much For The City
Menomena - I Am the Fun Blame Monster
The Darkness - Permission to Land
Dream Theater - Train of Thought
The White Stripes - Elephant
Weird Al Yankovic - Poodle Hat
Pretty Girls Make Graves - New Romance
Postal Service - Give Up
Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism
Cat Power - You Are Free
Borken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People
Super Furry Animals - Phantom Power
The Distillers - Coral Fang
The Kings of Leon - Youth and Young Manhood
My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves
Christopher O'Riley - True Love Waits
Jet - Get Born
Snow Patrol - The Final Straw
Metallica - St. Anger
Massive Attack - 100th Window
Not My Thing (mostly):
Animal Collective - Here Comes the Indian
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell
Dizee Rascal - Boy in Da Corner
Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
Junior Senior - D-D-Don't Don't Stop the Beat
Grandaddy - Sumday
Prefus 73 - One Word Extinguisher
Basement Jaxx - Kish Kash
Jay-Z - The Black Album
The Books - The Lemon of Pink
The Rapture - Echoes
Blur - Think Tank
50 Cent – Get Rich Or Die Trying
Stacie Orrico - Stacie Orrico
Sufjan Stevens - Greetings from Michigan, the Great Lakes State
Alas, Haven't Heard:
Stellastarr* - Stellastarr*
Mogwai - Happy Songs for Happy People
Andy Hunter - Exodus
The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium
Manitoba - Up in Flames
Fischerspooner - #1
Atmosphere - Seven's Travels
The Decembrists - Her Majesty the Decemberists
The Bad Plus - These Are the Vistas
Mahwash & Ensemble Kaboul - Radio Kaboul
The Wrens - Meadowlands
Steven Malkmus - Pig Lib
The Eels - Shootenany
The Strokes - Room on Fire
The Fiery Furnaces - Gallowsbird's Bark
Angels of Light - Everything is Good Here/Please Come Home
Songs: Ohia - Magnolia Electric Co.
2003 produced two of my favorite songs of all time ('Furious Angels' and 'Butterflies and Hurricanes'). TV on the Radio came out of nowhere and knocked me out. Audioslave = genius idea for a supergroup. Excepting the mammoth disappointment of St. Anger, which did grow on me (very slowly), 2003 was a great year for music.
