Best Album of 2003

[Ramo]

I'll have to go with Neil Young's Greendale.

[Agathon]

****ed if I know. Everything's gone to **** since Iron Butterfly broke up.

[Soul Survivor]

Very very tough question....

Elephant by The White Stripes is definitely up there, simply amazing album from beginning to end. But there are so many others thats its almost impossible to decide. Chutes Too Narrow by The Shins is a wonderful little album, only 33 minutes leaves you crying for more though. Not a single bad song, so thats a definte plus.

The most recent Radiohead album, Hail to the Thief was quite good, but I got tired of it after a while. The Strokes newest album, Room On Fire, very solid album, but it didn't really have a big effect on me. Same with Blur's Think Tank. The Decline of British Sea Power was quite an album, but it didn't really reward repeated listens, Pretty Girls Make Graves' The New Romance ultimately suffered the same fate. Belle & Sebastian's Dear Catastrophe Waitress is a very good album, but not quite up to par with some of their previous albums.

A few albums I haven't really made an opinion on yet, Meadowlands by the Wrens is a very interesting album, but I can't really decide whether I like it or not yet. Similarly Broken Social Scene's, You Forget It In People, demands a few more listens before I can say anything certain about it. It Still Moves by My Morning Jacket also falls under this catagory. But the fact that I want to listen to them a few times means something.

Of course there's Warren Zevon's The Wind and Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below are pretty widely praised.

But if I am to choose one album that really just blew me away this year it would have to be The New Pornographer's Electric Version. It may not be the best album musically, nor the most sophisticated lyrically and its far from being the most innovative album of the year. But the songwriting is superb, there are hooks everywhere. If I ever hear one of these songs played outside my cd player or stereo I will be overjoyed.

[Al B. Sure!]

for those who like good music...

The smooth crooner Jaheim returned with his second album, Still Ghetto, a sequel to his earlier Ghetto Love, keeping with the urban love theme. In each song, Jaheim, with a strong baritone sounding like a cross between Vandross and Pendergrass, takes the persona of a weed-smoking, gun-toting thug who shows he is a Diamond in a Rough as he sings a tribute to the children, declaring them Fabulous and though he refers to the target of his affection and his *****, he dedicates a Special Day for his proposal and declares he will cherish her for as Long as I Live. Jaheim weaves his ghetto love stories, complete with an appearance from Mary J. Blige, over hip hop beats that seem somewhat at odds with his powerful voice though in keeping with the theme.

Though its immense anticipation as Jay-z's ninth and final album was doomed to be unfulfilled, Jay-z's The Black Album is an album which possesses a constant feeling throughout which is simultaneously mournful and triumphant and thus, epitomizes the feeling a retiring artist would ideally try to have on his final release. The tracklisting seems odd with a song entitled What More Can I Say? being the second song followed by another misplaced song, Encore, a bouncy yet strangely sad song that causes you to feel that an era in hip hop is ending, as a hypeman hollers asking an invisible audience to holler 'hova, hova, hova!' just to bring jay-z, the j-hova, back to the stage for one last verse. Unfortunately, the next several songs are relatively mediocre considering what was expected for this release. The Rick Ruben produced 99 Problems is surprisingly good, especially considering the very old school and very rockish production. Lucifer is the other notable track, complete with a catchy reggae-influenced beat, but ultimately, the album falls short of the expectations though it is still a solid release and a notch above the usual. Jay-z's goal was to take the listener back to his early days before his first released album but the Black Album comes off as the opposite: the triumphant end of a relatively short but plentiful career.

R.Kelly's Chocolate Factory was released at the height of his legal difficulties and, perhaps to improve his standing in the public eye, is unique among his other releases as being incredibly clean, with none of his former sexuality. Rather, the Chocolate Factory is more concerned with love than sex and the album is filled with the (very strange for R.Kelly) sweet words of a man with an immense respect for women, especially his Dream Girl who he says Made Me Love You Forever and Forever More. Unfortunately, R.Kelly is perhaps not used to such themes and the album itself falls short of being a classic though the bonus remix songs are incredible and addictive. From the bouncy Ignition Remix to the smooth, waltz-like Step in the Name of Love Remix, the remix songs have superior production and superior lyrics to the originals. Even among such amazing tracks, You Knock Me Out is the best of the best, a soulful song reminiscent of Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, and other great artists of the 60's and 70's.

[Buck Birdseed]

Ying Yang Twins - Me & My Brother or Dizzee Rascal - Boy in da Corner. They're the albums to bring production and songwriting forward most this year.

[rev]

I really dig The Postal Service's debut album. I also liked Nada Surf's "Let Go", which is almost 2003's equivilant of the most recent Beck album.

Ben Folds also put out an excellent EP this year: Sunny 16.

My best concert of the year was String Cheese Incident with Keller Williams in Vegas on Halloween. They even had copies of the show for sale within half an hour of the concert's end. Technology is amazing.

The only thing that's on the horizon for me is the new Ben Folds album, which is slated for sometime in '04.

[self biased]

biohazard. kill or be killed.

the album justifies itself. no reveiw by me is needed.

[C0ckney]

i see i bought a few of the same albums as soulsurvivor

i liked blur's 'think tank' but they let themselves down with songs like 'crazy beat'. i loved 'dear catastrophe waitress' but i love pretty much everything belle and sebastian have done, so that wasn't a great shock. i quite liked 'decline of british seapower' but i have started to wish i hadn't spent £15 buying it. 'hail to the thief' was rubbish though and i'm very glad i didn't buy it.

some other stuff i liked included unkle's 'never, never, land' which was really good, but not quite as good as their last offering. athlete's 'vehicles and animals' was great too, probably between these two for my 'best of 2003'.

that said though the album i listend to most last year was probably the limited edition euphoria. 3 cds mixed by matt darey and adam white, the best modern trance with the biggest tunes of the year and a 1992 remix of deacon blue's 'your town', what more could you ask for?

[Verres]

"So much for the City" by the Thrills. I'd never even heard of them before Reading, but that album has helped me through many a dull English essay.

[Verres]

Although having said that, "Absolution" by Muse is also a strong contender.

[Whaleboy]

Iron Maidens "Dance of Death" is rather sweet, the new one from the Yeah Yeah Yeah's and Marilyn Mansons "The golden age of grotesque". I have variant tastes...

[Sava]

Linkin Park: Meteora... best album I downloaded all year

[Imran Siddiqui]

Johnny Cash: Unearthed

[MRT144]

jay Z black album

[Buck Birdseed]

That's a title in somewhat bad taste I'd say.