Best Albums of 2003

I'm inspired by Sports Illustrated's Peter King, who, instead of "grading" NFL drafts the day after they occur, waits 5 years to do so … his recent look at the 2001 was really interesting

anyway, now that they've sunk in some, what do you all think of the best albums of '03? it was a pretty fucking good year for music!

these are my favorites, it's definitely not an exhaustive list, just what i've listened to a gazillion times in the last 3 years or so, and some others that i only discovered later … and there's a shitload more that i still haven't gotten around to listening to, where does the time go…

1) Explosions in the Sky - "The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place"
2) The Decemberists - "Her Majesty"
3) M83 - "Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts"
4) The Shins - "Chutes Too Narrow"
5) The Postal Service - "Give Up"
6) OutKast - "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below"
7) Drive-By Truckers - "Decoration Day"
8) Death Cab for Cutie - "Transatlanticism"
9) Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - "Hearts of Oak"
10) The New Pornographers - "Electric Version"
11) British Sea Power - "The Decline of British Sea Power"
12) Lucero - "That Much Further West"
13) Viktor Vaughn - "Vaudeville Villain"
14) The Fire Theft - "The Fire Theft"
15) Prefuse 73 - "One Word Extinguisher"

Honorable Mentions:

Against Me! - "As the Eternal Cowboy…"
Burt Davenport - "Game Preserve"
Belle & Sebastian - "Dear Catastrophe Waitress"
Danger Mouse & Jemini - "Ghetto Pop Life"
Dizzee Rascal - "Boy in Da Corner"
Fountains of Wayne - "Welcome Interstate Managers"
Four Tet - "Rounds"
Grandaddy - "Sumday"
Guster - "Keep it Together"
Jay-Z - "The Black Album"
Kathleen Edwards - "Failer"
King Geedorah - "Take Me to Your Leader"
Little Brother - "The Listening"
My Morning Jacket - "It Still Moves"
The Notwist - "Neon Golden"
Pretty Girls Make Graves - "The New Romance"
Radiohead - "Hail to the Thief"
Ratatat - "Ratatat"
stellastarr* - "stellastarr*"
The Strokes - "Room on Fire"
Sufjan Stevens - "Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lakes State"
Sun Kil Moon - "Ghosts of the Great Highway"
The White Stripes - "Elephant"
The Wrens - "The Meadowlands"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Fever to Tell"

a few that didn't age so well:

Basement Jaxx - "Kish Kash"
BRMC - "Take Them On, On Your Own"
Earlimart - "Everyone Down Here"
The Rapture - "Echoes"
Ryan Adams - "Rock N Roll"
South - "With the Tides"
The Thrills - "So Much for the City"
The Trouble With Sweeney - "I Know You Destroy!"
Yo La Tengo - "Summer Sun"
Zwan - "Mary Star of the Sea"

While Heaven Wept "Of Empires Forlorn"

1. Drive By Truckers; Decoration Day
2. Josh Rouse; 1972
3. Stars; Heart
4. Pernice Brothers; Yours, Mine, and Ours
5. Fountains of Wayne; Welcome, Interstate Managers
6. The Jayhawks; Tomorrow the Green Grass
7. The Shins; Chutes Too Narrow
8. Thad Cockrell; Warmth and Beauty
9. Calexico; Feast of Wire
10. Jolie Holland; Escondida
11. Andrew Bird; Weather Systems
12. The High Strung; There are Good Times
13. Ron Sexsmith; Retriever
14. Shelby Lynne; Identity Crisis
15. Josh Ritter; Hello Starling

oh man, 2003 year was a strage year for me…i finished college, had two "career" jobs and moved back in with the parents until early 2004, which meant i had a lot of extra spending money and bought a lot of cds, good, mediocre and some downright embarassing.

here's what i still enjoy from 2003:

Against Me! - As the Eternal Cowboy
The Black Keys - Thickfreakness
The Bouncing Souls - Anchors Aweigh
Cory Branan - The Hell You Say
Drive-By Truckers - Decoration Day
The Format - Interventions and Lullabies
Limbeck - Hi Everything's Great
Lucero - That Much Further West
Motion City Soundtrack - I Am The Movie
Murder by Death - Who Will Survive And What Will Be Left?
Muse - Absolution
Rise Against - Revolutions Per Minute
The Shins - Chutes too Narrow
The Sounds - Living in America
Stellastarr* - s/t
Streetlight Manifesto - Everything Goes Numb
Ted Leo/Phamacists - Hearts of Oak
The Weakerthans - Reconstruction Site

Man, looking back I remember I loved the Blood Brothers cd back then…now I can't stand it, or them.