Actually Useful 2003 Roundup Thread

Marc covers/reinterprets a slew of Russian songs from throughout the twentieth century, often in collaboration with the original artists. Elegant, romantic, passionate and distinctly different from everything he's done yet in an already varied career.

"The Storks"
"Oh, My Soul"
"Two Guitars"

Tick-tock-tick-tock-tick-tock

Neptunes 'Clones'

'Light your ass on fire'
'Frontin'
'Popular Thug'

track 1
track 4
papaya

(sorry this came as a promo (hahah) with no details)try papaya.

Effectively a 'back to mine' but why should that put you off when the choices are THIS good (not always as obvious as you may think but still accessible and fun to dance to) - a solid, consistent compilation

My Bloody Valentine 'Soon'
Cristina 'What's A Girl To Do'
Codec & Flexor 'Crazy Girls Make My Heart Go Boom'

American robots take the Factory Records template and rock out. Awesome.

Tracks:

Futureworld
Wasteland
Skeletons

Hard Drive
All my Life
Rancho Santa Fe

Better than anything by The Lemonheads.

Freak
Monkeylips
Snot

Rave music. Does not fuck about.

They tried to tell us the 'No New York' revival was this year's big thing. But the shimmering pop-funk-latin-disco on this expanded Ze reissue made those artists and their '03 copycats sound very flat and ordinary indeed (OK there's a bit of overlap, e.g. James Chance, but you know what I mean). Also, you can't have too many mentions of Cristina on this thread.

Lizzy Mercier Descloux - 'Fire'
Aural Exciters - 'Emile (Night Rate)'
Cristina - 'Blame It On Disco'

Deliriously happy pop music with first-rate production.

Collaboration between two Norwegian Greats. MP incidentally lets jazz-influences surface in earlier individual songs (one album's even called Angels and Deamons at Play) but on this one with the horn-section of Jaga Jazzist (a band mixing jazz in the broadest sense of the term with electronica) they take it a step further, and in another direction altogether. A mixture of jazz, rock, folk, fusion and spacerock, to give an idea of what it sounds like (or not). Laidback and intense simultaneously. Prolly not very ILM at all, but I think some of "you" will enjoy it. I do, a lot.

It's just 5 songs in total, but my 3 picks are:
Bombay Brassière
Pills, Powders and Passion Plays
Tristano (the furthest out there. also: 20 mins long, just to warn downloaders)

Cardigans go AOR in all the right ways.

Sideways melodies, interesting rhythms, superior programming.

Simple, evolving loop-based melodies. Steve Reich meets Susumu Yokota.

Unrecorded
Run Into Flowers
In Church

laptop MBV update - i'm often eager to hear records when i hear they're MBV-influenced, and am left disappointed. Not so here - mysterious, melancholic and beautiful.

Kompakt house + Factory Records indie + unst-unst industrial + gushy dreampop + gristly techno

An odd but great psychedelic pop album. A bit folky here, a bit shimmery and soundscapey there, one track sounds a bit like Neu!. When the sun is out, I put this on and it never fails to put me in a good mood.

"Underwater's Where The Action Is"
"Perpetual Night"
"Are You Electric"

(and you can get the first two as mp3s from his website too!)

"You Can't Hurry Love"
"Lovin' Kind"
"Diana Ross"

Somewhere between Thee Headcoatees, Mazzy Star, and the E-Street Band lies the Concretes. Unpolished female vocals and interesting instrumental choices from a revolving cast of eight.

1. Duk Koo Kim
2. Carry Me Ohio
3. Pancho Villa

Runjamesrun
Can You See The Sunrise?
Black Arts In The Town Hall

Eccentric, melodic but oddly wibbly Beahc Boys/Beta Band-fixated spacepop from former Salako fella. Guest starring Simon from Fonda 500, what more do you need? This is fab.

1."Belo Horizonte"
2."Response"
3."Days Of The Liar"

High quality funky groove-centered house/techno. Think Underworld meets Detroit. Most danceable album of the year and without any filler at all.

"Lord Anthony"
"Stay Loose"
"Piazza, New York Catcher"

Why? It's better than the last one.

Mid-80s alternasynth-pop by an Ethiopian-born nu-dadaist filtered through the Neptune's secret weapon. Plenty of thump, plenty of songcraft, plenty of WOW.

"Hellbent"
"Vexed And Glorious/Better Control"
"Yeneh Ababa (Rose)"

That's a hollow compliment if ever there was one.

"Lacuna"
"Shoot"
"Monument"

Violent and delicious music which goes straight for the emotional jugular; tangential melody, warped rhythms and ambitious arrangements leaven the brew.

I Need Your Love
House of Jealous Lovers
Sister Saviour

Lacy sets Beat poetry to spiky chamber jazz. Euro-philes will dig Irene Aebi's rolled r's and Dagmar Krause-esque diction. Jazz-freaks will swoon over George Lewis's contrapuntal 'bone lines.

"Wave Lover"
"A Ring of Bone"
"In the Pocket"

Perfect DJ/MC coalition which sounds like "Bizzare Ride II The Pharycde", except it doesn't.

Tha Only One
Don't Do Drugs
What You Sittin' On?

I tried to write something to justify this record, but it kept coming off really defensive and apologetic. Anyway, I really like this album, I think it's the best thing he's done and might appeal to even people who hate him for his reputation and/or other records. Definitely in my top 3 for the year.

"The Wayback Machine"
"Stamina"
"Cex At Arm's Length"

Because it's the future, fool.

(Alternately: because it's the release that made me sit up and go what-the-fuck the most this year. While still maintaining a groove.)

"Birds In Da Sky"
"Grimey"
"Playa"

Retreat! The Most Familiar
Surprise, It’s Easter
A Thief Detests The Criminal Elements Of The Ruling Class

Think Dexy's meets Roxy meets Love meets Eno meets Camper Van Beethoven meets Beach Boys meets Sparks. Ambitious arrangements, great harmonies, amazing melodies, and, most important, the skill to pull it off so that it doesn't sound like some sloppy indie rock indulgence. For their record release show in Chicago, not only did they cobble together an 18-piece mini-orchestra, there was a bassoon among them. And a gong.

"Curb That Byrd"
"80 Steps to Jonah"
"The True Wheel" (Eno cover)

Liking this (and related like Dego's mix for Goya's Selector Series) makes me feel like I am one step away from liking acid jazz and nu-soul and Fabio-jungle and Kirk Degiorgio-techno, but the combo of slicked-out 2-step with big fucking basslines and rainstick atmospherics gets to me in the worst way.

"Tromboline"
"Having Your Fun (4Hero Remix)"
"Looking For Love (Bugz Remix)"

Ottawa rock&roller playing alarmingly fun music. Modern Lovers-obsessed, pop culture references galore, but also bravely open-hearted without being terribly sappy. But most of all, it really cooks. Nothing fancy, nothing particularly edgy or innovative even, but it makes you believe that the right chords have magical powers.

"Martha"
"Cover It Up"
"Bahamas"

What could have potentially been an embarrassing foray into cross-pollination for both elderstatesmen results in the most laid back, effortless and transcendent 'blues' album of the year.

"Bamako"
"Jackie-ing"
"Malijam"

Another album: the Stills - Logic Will Break Your Heart

"Lola Stars and Stripes"
"Changes Are No Good"
"Still In Love Song"

A short, lovely little record of gentle guitar-driven R&B, evenly matched with his other two. Effortless and inviting like pretty much every other guy with a Buckley-esque falsetto isn't.

“Say It Ain’t Soul”
“(I Was A Teenage) Symphony To God”
“Lately I Want You”

Nostalgia a go go from the outset, but since Superchunk arent likely to make another brilliant album any time soon, I have Ted Leo.

"Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone?"
"Ballad of the Sin Eater"
tracks 3 and 4...i forget the names.

Fuck you for even thinking he's a novelty act.

What I Am
Twat Farm Revisited
What's The Point?

Alright, back to mine, then.

(Basically the first 30 or 40 minutes are perfect, sublime. But track two where they mash up Kaito and the Erelnd Oye track is the really chiller kller.)

It's really funny, they play them the new Funk D'Void track and Tobias says "it's really just lacking in emotional content". Then the interviewer informs them that the name of the track is Emotional Content

Tries to be hardcore; secretly emo. Best Bush diss yet. Suprisingly subtle.

"Might Getcha"
"Cadillacs On 22's"
"Like A Pimp"

Universally dismissed because hey, it’s a double album from the posse of a barely platinum rapper with questionable fashion sense, but seriously, this record is almost too insane not to love. They take the Roc soul loop formula to its breaking point while rapping about beating women and comparing themselves to the Taliban. Key quote: “we talk real shit, man...well, not all the time...we talk some bullshit too.”

“I Really Mean It”
“Who I Am”
“What’s Really Good”

interesting country/experimental rock, a little reminiscent of the Flaming Lips (but not too much), not readily pigeonholed

Tracks:

Mourning Rain
Rain falls for wind
Tell the Girls

The meeting place between '68 Can and '86 shambling indie. Then leave the tapes in the bottom of yr toilet tank for a few weeks.

"Chocolate Girl"
"Alvin Row"
"Essplode"
"Running the Round Ball"

Better than I first gave it credit for, but still way off their best. You know the drill by now...tech-pop-hous-electro.

"Mushroom"
"Homogen"
"All She Wants Is"

Gorgeous, lovely, cuddly, fantastic

Blooms Eventually
Stylophone Purrs and Mannerist Blossoms
Bless the Drastic Space

Wot U On
I Love U
Fix up Look Sharp

Hearts, they will break you. Arses, they will shake you (infrequently). It's the early 60's coming back, and it's stunning.

Let Me Go Home
A Sisters Social Agony
Before You Cry

Because even I ... sorry we had to admit that this year's Ryan Adams albums were crap.

"Disorder in the House"
"She's Too Good for Me"
"Keep Me in Your Heart"

A song-for-song cover of Willie Nelson’s 1975 concept album about heartbreak and murder, with Willie himself dueting on a couple tracks. Completely bizarre idea, but Carla, one of my favorite voices ever, pulls it off completely, stretching it out and making the mood swings even more dramatic, with Nels Cline's guitar filling out the instrumental passages beautifully.

“Time of the Preacher”
“I Couldn’t Believe It Was True”
“Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain”

cos its beautiful, spare and heatbreaking.

"superstar"
"you her and me"
"the Body"

Because "Isn't anything" was always more interesting than "Loveless".

"Check out my new Jesus"
"Gun control"
"If I'm right"

Fiddo may be right that they don’t really make great albums anymore, but they still make great b-sides collections.

“The Majestic”
“Does Your Hometown Care?”
“Never Too Young To Smoke”

The laziest, most blunted hip-hop record of the year, and that's a compliment. Off the cuff as fuck, produced in the bottom of a well, with raps recorded while lounging on a ratty sofa with blunt in one hand and XBox controller in the other.

"Champion Sound"
"The Heist"
"Starz"

Lush, deep, and evocative.

"Deep Inside"
"You're Still the One"
"Material World"

Okay, it was out in September 2002, but still it's one of my favourite albums of this year. Upbeat punkish power pop, in Spanish!

1) Solo una sonrisa
2) Enfremedad
3) No Te Pongas El Sombrero

Because we don't have the Archers of Loaf anymore, and because we love Canadia.

"Shine a Light"
"Nighttime/Anytime (It's Alright)"
"Young Lions"

Because they're the Pet Shop Boys de nos jours: literate and bitchy, this album is for the head, hips and - most surprisingly - heart.

"Andrew Ridgeley"
"Being Number One"
"When Britain Refused To Sing"

Organ, Piano and Drums, bashed and jingled. Twee as hell, but not "lala love you but you don't love me, here's some kitties, I'm gonna write another song about the city" twee. Twee with balls, if that's not a contrdiction in terms.

1) Parachutes (Funeral Song)
2) Whiner's Bio
3) The Kissaway

Because Jesse Hartman does the cynical 80's revival better than the Dandy Warhols, and because live he has a backing band of foxy dominatrices.

1. Want In
2. Back In The Picture
3. Let Yourself Go

Vaguely goth, vaguely silly, but most of all 2003's most enjoybale rock album.

1) Buried Alive By Love
2) The Funeral of Hearts
3) The Sacrament

Their 3rd great EP in a row, and their sense of humor just keeps getting stranger. The beats have taken a turn towards squishy synth funk and there are more big shout-y choruses than surreal raps, but it’s still another perfect 20 minute dose. Key quote: "miserable assholes aren't into us".

“We’re Into This”
“Benjamin Franklin Music”
“Stocking Stuffer”

A compilation of songs from all the great bands on Elefant, mostly in Spanish, mostly sparkley indie-ish pop.

1) La Casa Azul - En Noches Como La De Hoy (one of my absolute favourite songs of the year, but I don't have their latest album, coz I like to find things in shops rather than order them)
2) Entre Rios - Si Hoy
3) Vacaciones - No Me Digas Que Me Quieres

Classy German electro-pop, kinda like the Postal Service but much better.

1) A Heart Without A Mind
2) It Wouldn't Change A Thing
3) I Have To Keep Reminding Myself To Be Pleased

The finest pop music of the year. Much more than a French Britney; dramatic, erotic euro-pop worthy of Abba, Pet Shop Boys and her mentor Mylene Farmer.

1 - "J'en ai marre!"
2 - "J'ai pas vingt ans!"
3 - "A contre-courant"

No more Archers of Loaf, but we have Crooked Fingers. Fantastic drunken ballads complete with some fantastically dark music, and a couple of horn-driven numbers that shouldn't work but do, like Tom Waits meets Neil Diamond. Weird.

"You Can Never Leave"
"Boy With 100 Hands"
"Disappear"

Matt Hollywood keeps the faith with a mini-album of alternately clever, tender, and ballsy psych-influenced rock songs with prominent tambourine and a whole lotta attitude. Essential if you're one of "us" (yeah, kid with the tight pants, chelsea boots, and Brian Jones fixation, I'm looking at you) or just fucking love rock 'n' roll, man.

"The Gospel"
"C'mon Children"
"Good Morning"

Brit dub with compact guitar/bass lines, keen melodies and flawless production from the dread punk enough to dub up the Slits and the Pop Group.

"Rowing"
"Higher Ranking"
"Shi-cago"

Not the microhouse unit, the mad axe murderers from Norwich. Mentalist guitar pop with the edges left on, but with the occasional soft bit which works very well too.

Should I
Driving Manual Auto
A.S.A. To Accuracy

Gorgeous orchestral pop with cryptic lyrics. Joe Pernice is like the indie Chris Isaak; but good.

Water Ban
Blinded by the Stars
Weakest Shade of Blue

1.Smoked Glass And Chrome
2.Jack's Cheese and Bread Snack
3.Cley Hill

Maximalistic, rich, gorgeously produced electronic/psychedelic dub. Gargantuan basslines.

Cuz you need albums to put on for your Halloween party next year. Cuz you need a soundtrack to driving faster than fuck down the interstate at night. For that part of you that doesn't feel quite natural around norms. For that part of you that wants to kill.

"You Can't Win"
"Capt. Midnight"
"Aktion F1413"

and there's 50 more to come!

First they had the “jam band” albatross around their neck, now it’s “sounds like Radiohead”, but this record is pretty fucking good whatever it’s supposed to be. Live drum’n’bass type hyper beats, big rock dramatics, haunting ambient loops, good shit.

“Bliss”
“I Was Wrong”
“Last Words”

EMI have brainwave and put out a Sandie Shaw greatest hits album. In Italian.

Il Mondo Nei Tu Oi Occhi
Viva L'Amore Con Te
Quelli Erano I Giorni

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B0000C669C.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000C669C/ref=sr_aps_music_1_2/202-1507877-3114221

she is a young reckless and morbid overdose of evanescence and massive attack with more screaming. no sense of 'good judgement' just diary entry rants, etheral swirling, shin-kicking and $$ production values to show it all off.

"Blind Unicorn"
"Cupid"
"57StoRM03"

!

my pick: kelley stoltz, Antique Glow
1. perpetual night
2. mean marianne
3. jewel of the evening

I'm horny and I don't know what to put my dick in and these guys come along and they're like: hey we know how you feel, and they take the noise in my pants and they teach my how to make a mess out of it (like i didn't know that already!).

"Fuck to the Music"
"Hott 4 Discourse"
"Hey Boner"

Because it's a fantastic gimmick, radical and unashamed. Also because the music works both despite and because of it - it's all passionate, riotous stuff, drunk on illicit love and an overdose of helium.

"Show Me Love"
"Clowns (Can You See Me Now?)"
"Malchik Gay"

(because it's not just the singles)

Burial sound tribute to old skool jungle bizness nearly as good as the original records. (Slightly too much IDM break-mashup but damn, who cares when it's timestretched ragga chants and hiphop horn samples rather than Benny Hill fart melodies and bad jokes. Lighter!)

"Call Da Police"
"Badman"
"Soundclash"

Hometown pride carried through on serious doses of skills both verbal and sonic. The best non-Jay MC on the Roc?

"Flipside"
"What We Do"
"Product of the Ghetto"

Secretly ambient come back record (for the Wire crowd, anyway) from long somnambulent new wave god. Opens with a 13 minute crooners dirge with no chorus that's the equal of anything I've heard on Mego. (Not so sure about the Derek B collabos though.)

"A Fire In The Forest"
"The Good Son"
"Late Night Shopping"

If Vangelis remade Loveless.

"Run Into Flowers"

Free improv, you know the deal: creaks, knockings from below, fans on guitar strings, cocktail piano tinkle. Eerie and sad.

"the drone that rises up in the first nine minutes or so of disc one"

No matter how hipster it sounds, it will always be fun to say you listen to German no-wave, especially when the music is this enjoyable. There's an abstract idea of "german funk" I've seen expressed on this board and elsewhere, and this really captures it.

Starter, "Part of You"
MKK, "Arabische Naechte"
Roter Mund, "Mir Dir Allein"

Understated, unbeleivably focused hip-hop classic.

"Jimmy Mathers"
"Coming Round"
"In Da Mud"

Best pulse of where pop music lay in 2003.

"La La La"
"Shake Your Tailfeather"
The M.O.P track at album's end

If you liked that Lightning Bolt record you should hear this. It's god viola, even.

Mek It Burn
Pantyland
Swarm

"Mississippi"
"Like a Pimp"
"Bush"

Scissor Sisters, Filthy and Gorgeous. Funny, incredibly camp synthpop, contains claim that 'monkeys make great pets.'

Electrobix
Laura
Bicycling With The Devil

1. call the kevin shields stuff
2. Happy End - Kazu Wo Azumete (or some relatively close approximation)
3. Bill Murray covering Roxy's More Than This (hidden track that follows Just Like Honey)

One of the best indie pop records in years. HNIA minus some experimentalism + more Motown. Great dub-y/Wilson Spector-y production.

"Meet Me By The Water"
"Ambulance"
"You Work All Weekend"

Despite a tendency towards knee-jerk negativity, indie guilt and (well-deserved) pitchforkhate, here the ILM massive engages in short bursts of illuminating praise.

Luke Haines, Das Capital

LH goes back to some old songs that are good but sound a bit murky and old and turns them into great big fantastic orchestral things.

Showgirl
Unsolved Child Murder
Satan Wants Me

State Property Presents... The Chain Gang vol. II

Maybe all the MCs aren't great, but most of it's very exciting for some reason. Also, I can't get enough of Freeway.

"Can't Stop Won't Stop"
"Temporary Relief"
"When You Hear That"

For being beautiful lap-top indie rock for New York hipsters....for being 80s Peter Gabriel for post-punk fans....for feeling genuinely fresh and new...and (mostly) for the birth of a truly great singer - Tunde Adebimpe.....and for showing us what the Pixies would have sounded like if they were the Nylons.

Satellite
Staring at the Sun
Mr. Grieves

For being almost as good as we hoped it would be....for bringing back Rick Rubin to hip hop.....for Jay-Z's Mom's spoken word....for Kayne West being the best producer in the world....and because I'm going to miss him.

Encore
99 Problems
My 1st Song

because not all goodbyes are sad. (when jesus departs from bethany the apostles return to jerusalem "with great joy" (Lk 24:51-53))

what more can i say
public service announcement
dirt off your shoulder

flotation tanks of desire

1) Could Be Like This
2) What Good
3) Shelter

Because it's nice, every once in a while, to find a modern attempt at a good old '60s-'70s rock (Stones, Bowie, NY Dolls, etc.) album, complete with big hooks:

1) 'Til Sunrise
2) To Your Pretty Face
3) My Name Is Nobody

I second (or third) the Ted Leo suggestion, and I throw in "The Crane Takes Flight" as a tune to download

fab return to form from the gods of AOR. some of their best tracks since Tusk.

listen to:
1) Red Rover
2) Running through the Garden
3) Thrown Down

"Proper" house finally learns from Herbert and Basement Jaxx: goes weird and emotional with a little help from electro.

1) Freeform Five - Perspex Sex (Ewan's Ni-NRG Mix)
2) RJ Project - What Colour Is Love? (Red Jerry Mix)
3) Psycho Radio - In The Underground

dance music that never forgets the first house is a mother's womb.

"easy lee"
"dexter"

it reminds a bit of the divine comedy. but then he is the fella behind Notre Dame. it's in french so it's hard to tell if it is as pompous as Neil Hannon but it's definitely more delightful. the female singer for Notre Dame appears here too and she has an album out very soon as well.

1 les poetes ont quitte paris
2 rock critique
3 en vieillisant peut-etre

took a little while to get past the verbose bits, but exquisite lonely hushed trackscapes like the following must be encouraged!

"You Are Here"
"Illegible Love" (gorgeous arrangement/production!)
"If They Ask You To Stay"

Because they are (a) Belle and Sebastian with balls, (b) the Frogs with heart, and (c) the Pet Shop Boys as a chamber-pop group.

1) Ban Marriage
2) Smells Like Happiness
3) The Animals of Prey

first album in five years - europop, dronerock & some nice electronic bits a la notwist.
oh and no release as far as i can tell outside sweden. bah.

"nonsense"
"blossom"
"dead"

Alt-metal/chamber-pop/post-rock gods. Toolishness and Lowishness and everything inbetween.

Download:

Older
Wood
In Gratitude

Mysteriously not gushed over on ILM, cause it's loaded with great big, sleazy disco/electro grooves. Imagine a Metro Area that believed good taste matters less than tastes good.

"Don't Be a Bad Boy"
"Give It to Me Baby"
"Logarhytmic"

Spanish Indiepop + Mayfield/Philly Soul + more Philly Soul = nice

"Glory Glory"
"Wouldn't You Keep It"
"Looking For Another"

ambitious hip-hop duo conquer the world with their version of ummagumma's second platter, with just as much reefer in tow. not perfect, but amazingly compelling given its scope and length.

"spread"
"the rooster"
"a life in the day of benjamin andré (incomplete)"

The Takeover - "This aint the Streets this is LSK and I was doing this back in the day"
70's 80's Child - Anti-Thatcherism lives on....until she dies (soon)
Walking in the Sunshine - Has anyone else ever covered a Bad Manners song?

Not sure where you can download the above from but LSK did sing a different version of 70’s 80’s child with Nightmares on Wax.

romantic and mel(odic)ancholic late techno full of expert build-ups and tear-downs in a familiar yet inimitable style

untitled-03
untitled-08
untitled-10

Incredibly engaging sometimes jazzy, some times electro, sometimes country pop ode to Michigan.

"Flint (For the Unemployed and the Underpaid)"
"For the Widows In Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti"
"Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head!"

Because you can have your mope-rock and still hate Deathcab.

"Consequence"
"One Step Inside Doesn't Mean You Understand"
"Pick Up the Phone"

P.S. Do what the man says and buy that Ex Models record.

Techno that you can listen to unmixed in your bedroom or car, but also works like a charm on the floor and mixed into sets.

1."Belo Horizonte"
2."Emtech"
3."You Think You Know"

listen to the whole thing (in eeeevil ra) here:

http://www.kanzleramt.com/newka/music.php3?action=detail&id=142

Fairytale hardcore splintery digi-whimsy, big-hearted histrionic ultra-soary madrigals of desolation and redemption for ukelele, accordian, laptop, ghostchoir and handclap.

"Paris"
"Don't Say No"
"A Boy Like Me"

The Kills, Keep On Your Mean Side

There's an electrifying, all-consuming chemistry between them; their vocals are like staring contests. For those into sex and power.

"Cat Claw"
"Fried My Little Brains"
"Wait"

Remember Me
Fear Of Drowning
Carrion

Wistful, arch, post-punk-inflected indie rock. Images of the sea and English countryside abound.

Because it's intensely passionate indie rock that makes a strong case for why Pitchfork is still worth reading after all.

Because as soon as I heard "Happy" the first time I made ten comp cdrs for my friends specifically so they could hear it, too.

Because after a week of non-stop listening, "Hopeless" suddenly clicked and may have become my favorite track of the year. I particularly love the piano climax at the end.

Because the synth strings on "Thirteen Grand" remind of Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me-era Cure without making the song sound kitsch at all.

"Happy"
"Hopeless"
"Thirteen Grand"

They finally surpassed EP+2. In my opinion, this is the most undeservedly ignored album of the year. Stunningly gorgeous.

"Kids Will Be Skeletons"
"Hunted By A Freak"
"Golden Porsche"

Utterly boring

"Watch This House"
"Broken Language"
"Telling Lies Will Get You Nowhere"

Very laid-back, but not in that awful Eagles way. The main instruments here are jazz piano and a gypsy-ish guitar, and Howe's vocals are like Lou Reed crossed with Leonard Cohen crossed with a stiff breeze. (If I have one complaint about his voice, it's that he lays on the Lou Reed a little thick sometimes.) The album doesn't really go anywhere or resolve anything, but that's it's strength. It's like a long quiet conversation that you don't want to end.

"Torque (Tango de la Tongue)"
"Felonious"
"The Nashville Sound"

Stew - Something Deeper Than These Changes

I know ILM dislikes the term "singer-songwriter," but when we're talking about an earnest man with a bluesy voice plinking out sad little acoustic numbers with generalized lyrics ("This song's about a mother's love"), I think you'll find it in your heart to forgive me. A lovely chord change here, a clever turn of phrase there. Not a damn thing wrong with that.

"Love Like That"
"Clear Blue Day in Limbo"
"Tomorrow Gone"

Punk rockers with a folk "tinge" on the lash and a bit emotional, but not like that. On Fat Wreck Chords and not generic sanded-down cracker-holler, which is nice.

Cliche Guevara
You Look Like I Need a Drink
Cavalier Eternel

Featuring endlessly fascinating juxtapositions of rough and smooth, this is my favourite easy listening album of the year.

1) No Letting Go
2) Bounce
3) Metal & Steel

Kelis, Tasty

Because I've literally just finished listening to it for the first time and it's the first Kelis album I've loved all the way through immediately (and her other two are two of my favourite albums ever), and it's made even sweeter by the way I was expecting it to be a disappointment, and it has the best closing line of the year.

"Milkshake"
"Trick Me"
"Marathon"

Probably the best Wu-Tang album since Supreme Clientele. RZA tries to cleanse himself of the naughty, naughty Bobby Digital persona and doesn't quite succeed: this failure is what makes things interesting. Full of that tasty tension between being wise and being stooo-pid...

'The Grunge'
'Chi Kung'
'The Birth'

Joe Henry - Tiny Voices

While I have to admit this isn't quite as good as the last one, Scar, Don Byron's contributions here are more substantial than Ornette Coleman's were there. And that's what makes this some of the most remarkable music I've heard in the last 5 years. Jazz orchestration on top of songwriter music is of course nothing new, but avant-maestro-hornblowing is pretty unique. The production is incredibly dark, and his lyrics kill.

"This Afternoon"
"Sold"
"Lighthouse"

Dark and brooding, but in a glitteringly nasty -- not glum, pah! -- way.

"Spring Garden Drive-By"
"Our Bikes Are Silver. Her Bed Is Hers"
"In Its Mouth A Murder. Oh MNML"

Brooding, melodic, powerful, beautiful. And Jarboe sings on it.

The Package
Weak and Powerless
Pet/Lullaby

Coz, they were good, and now you can have their greatest hits and a DVD of three of their videos, well at least the Belgian import comes with one one. Were they big in Belgium? Anyway, crisp and bright classic-ish pop.

1) Let's Go Down To The Town Oasis
2) Vertical Lives
3) Hey Hey You Say

I was first alerted to this when it made Momus's list of the top 5 of 2003 so far. I won't speculate as to any similarities of this album to Momus's ouevre, but what you have here is light, playful, jazzy laptronica to warm the hearts of corny indie fuxx0rs everywhere. Instead of your typical spastic IDM dick-waving contest ("My beats are faster/weirder/harder than yrs"), Michel gives us old-fashioned pleasures (melody, hooks, impish lyrics) in a new-fashioned context. Imagine Fred Frith's Gravity as performed by the Pet Shop Boys.

"Theme Song"
"Star Spangled"
"Glide"

What Side Two of No New York should have been. Speed-spazz singing, guitar notes falling from the sky, electrobeats in a crossfire with drum beats, appliances flying everygoddamnwhere, synths building mountains and heaving blobs of fire - and an organ playing sillysoul sounds, like we're 1966 and headed for the shindig.

"Pink Motorcycle Helmet"
"When It Comes to Elements, Hydrogen Is Titz"
"Keep It on the LO-LO"

www.actiondriver.com

Universally dismissed because hey, it’s a double album from the posse of a barely platinum rapper with questionable fashion sense, but seriously, this record is almost too insane not to love. They take the Roc soul loop formula to its breaking point while rapping about beating women and comparing themselves to the Taliban. Key quote: “we talk real shit, man...well, not all the time...we talk some bullshit too.”

“I Really Mean It”
“Who I Am”
“What’s Really Good”

-- Al (hoteloper...)

http://dipset4eva.blogspot.com