Top Ten (plus one) Records from 2003 For Which You Should Pay Money:
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1. Kelley
Stoltz: Antique Glow. The album begins with a riff
from "Here Comes The Sun," then veers immediately
into "Venus In Furs" territory, and dips into Meddle-land,
all sung through a Beck-infused psychedlic folk sheen. Sorry
to drop all the names but Kelley invites it on this
record, which manages to be so much more than the sum of its
influences. From the Drake-y "Mean Marriane" to the
T Rex scuzz "Are You Electric" to the stupid "Underwater"
to the touching "Mt. Fuji/My Silverlining," Antique
Glow was the album that I played most obsessively this year.
Kelley's previous album The Past Was Faster was a lo-fi
novelty; Antique Glow is a
lo-fi masterpiece, a happy neighbor to Bee Thousand.
Outstanding!
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2. The
Fall: Country On The Click/The Real New Fall LP. It's another Fall
record; this one took a long time to show up. It seemed like a
bad sign and an inevitability when it was called back to be remixed
after review copies were already sent out, but luckily the remix
only pumped up the good bits to extreme levels and eradicated
the dull bits. Finally, the first Fall album in a few years to
be consistently listenable all the way through; I don't think
there's a boring track on here, and it has at least three of the
best songs MES has written ("Protein Protection,"
"Sparta FC," and "Mountain Energie").
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| 3. Dizzee
Rascal: Boy in da Corner. Is this hip-hop? Is it electronic?
It is definitely paranoid, musically offputting, and claustrophobic,
and extremeley English. DR's rhymes and stylings are, well, I
don't even know what to say about them. This is
coming out next year in the US and Matador hopes are high for
this to break-through big time, but I think it's too weird for
American audiences; one of the most original albums to come
out of England in a decade. |
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4. Radiohead:
Hail to the Thief. Hearing guitars on a Radiohead album
again was confusing at first but I adjusted.
In the end, I find it a stronger record than Amnesiac,
and certainly more fun. |
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5. Nina
Nastasia: Run to Ruin. Like a dark night drive down
a crappy overgrown road, in the middle of a tense conversation
with someone you used to love about something you regret. Jim
White's drums provide the migrane.
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9. Belle
& Sebastian: Dear Catastrophe Waitress. Thank
you Trevor Horn, for passing on the latest Seal borefest
to make Belle and Sebastian into the best New Wave Band of 1984.
This should have been issued on orange vinyl. If the guitar
solo in "Stay Loose" doesn''t move you then it would
take an earthquake.
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11. Grandaddy:
Sumday. The boys from Modesto coat their desert soundscapes
with sugar and push the bliss envelope. A record with so many
surprisingly pretty moments. If only the rumored double album version
had been released.
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Other recommendations: Matt Elliott: The Mess We Made; these ghosts hate you.
Don't sleep tonight. George: the Magic Lantern; english-post-folk,
pretty textures. OutKast: the Love Below/Speakerboxxx; Sylvain
Chauveau: Un Autre Decembre; more of the pretty. David Sylvian,
Blemish; finally a challenging release from Sylvian. Uncompromising.
More in this vein, please. Juana Molina: Segundo; lovely Spanish
electro-folk, like a blippy Cat Power. Robert Wyatt: Cuckooland;
another solid record, too bad they don't happen more often. Arab Strap:
Monday at the Hug and Pint; opens with "The Shy Retirer,"
my new favorite Strap song, because it bolsters my belief that the
english do nothing but sit around pubs, eat pills, and lech on each
other; the Mars Volta: De-loused in the Comatorium; this might
be a stupid record, the cover art certainly is, but it fulfills
some adolescent urge to listen to Rush, so it gets a recommendation.
the Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Fever to Tell; the
Rapture: Echoes; I like Gang of Four and PIL. The Wrens: Meadowlands;
a screamy emo Red House Painters; Sun Kil Moon: Ghosts of the Great
Highway; why wasn't this called an RHP album? In a lesser year
would have placed higher, for "Duk Koo Kim" alone, probably
Kozelek's best song since "Drop".
Labels: 2003, reviews, top ten
