Best Music of 2003
on the occasion of it being 20 years of serious music listening
Photo: Nigel Parry/for Vulture
I published this as a comment on Brad Luen’s excellent Semipop Life a few months ago, but reading his subsequent posts on 2003 had me revising it over the next few months and it’s finally in the shape that I want it. It turns out that my listening habits at 14 have changed fairly decisively as I round the corner into 14+20 years, which, I hope, is also true for you?
My top pick didn’t even make the top 10 of the other readers of Semipop Life, though I’ll defend its perfection to the death, just like Matt Berninger does in “Not in Kansas”: “First Testament was really great/The sequel was incredible/Like the Godfathers or the first two Strokes albums/Every document's indelible.”
Otherwise, the excellence of Fountains of Wayne, The Knife, Viktor Vaughn (MF Doom), the Drive By Truckers, Magnolia Electric Co. or that one Wrens album were not at all apparent to me at 14, and I’d now count them as some of my favorites. Same for some of the singles artists, even if 2003 was not a great year for Andre 3000 or Deftones albums. I wore out to skipping cds from My Morning Jacket, Dizzee Rascal, the Constantines, Radiohead, Broken Social Scene, and The Postal Service.
200 points, 26 albums
Room on Fire, The Strokes 20 pts
Deep Cuts, The Knife 17.5pts
Welcome Interstate Managers, Fountains of Wayne 17.5
Vaudeville Villain, Viktor Vaughn 15pts
Decoration Day, Drive By Truckers 15 pts
Songs: Ohia, Magnolia Electric Co. 12.5pts
It Still Moves, My Morning Jacket, 12.5 pts
Boy in Da Corner, Dizzee Rascal 10 pts
Shine a Light, Constantines 10 pts
The Meadowlands, The Wrens 10 pts
Speakerboxx, Big Boi 10 pts
Hail to the Thief, Radiohead 10pts
You Forgot it in People, Broken Social Scene 5 pts
Michigan, Sufjan Stevens 5 pts
Reconstruction Site, Weakerthans 5pts
The Decline of British Sea Power, British Sea Power 2.5 pts
Electric Version, The New Pornographers 2.5pts
This Is Not a Test!, Missy Elliott 2.5pts
Meteora, Linkin Park 2.5 pts
Give Up, The Postal Service 2.5pts
Transatlanticism, Death Cab for Cutie 2.5pts
Rounds, Four Tet 2.5pts
Think Tank, Blur 2.5pts
Dear Catastrophe Waitress, Belle and Sebastian 2.5
Cursive, The Ugly Organ 2.5pts
Singles
“House of Jealous Lovers,” The Rapture
I saw these fuckers in Colorado Springs in like, 2004, and they ripped the roof off of The Black Sheep, which is still the only cool thing in Colorado Springs. The rest of this album is very, very mediocre compared to that song, which was evidenced by their lack of subsequent success.
“Hey Ya,” “Roses,” “A Day in the Life of Benjamin Andre,” Andre 3000
Yeah, I wish The Love Below didn’t exist, but at least we have these three songs.
“Pink Bullets,” The Shins
They almost make the album list, but there’s too many sleepy songs on Chutes Too Narrow for me to get excited about it.
“Maps,” “Date with the Night,” “Y Control,” Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Fuck, these singles are unbelievable, but the rest of the album definitely sucks. It made me want to see them live really badly in 2003 (they never came to an 18+ show in Denver), because the other songs would be some cool performance art, but as songs they are not good.
“Hexagram,” “Needles and Pins,” Deftones
Probably the largest difference between me at ~14 when I was obsessed with Room on Fire and me now is that I now love to listen to metal/hard rock, especially when I’m working out, and these two songs are solidly in the rotation. The Deftones are the opposite of cool, and their self-titled album this year is probably their fourth or fifth best, but every one of their albums has at least two or three songs that make me want to life heavy things.