My Rating - is - 5 stars AND Year - is - 2003
It's that time again (actually it probably was a few weeks ago.) Here are my top records for 2003, with useful linkage. Again, sorted in iTunes-alphabetical:
310: Recessional (Leaf) [Amazon UK|US]
Alan Licht: A New York Minute (XI) [Amazon US]
Alias: Muted (Anticon) [UK|US]
Andy Votel: Music To Watch Girls Cry (Fat City) [UK|US]
Aphex Twin: 26 Mixes For Cash (Warp) [UK|US]
Arne Nordheim: Dodeka (Rune Grammofon) [UK|US]
The Be Good Tanyas: Chinatown [UK|US]
The Books: The Lemon Of Pink (Tomlab) [UK|US]
Busdriver & Radioinactive with Daedelus: The Weather (Mush) [UK|US]
Cassandra Wilson: Glamoured (Blue Note) [UK|US]
Cat Power: You Are Free (Matador) [UK|US]
Chris Watson: Weather Report (Touch) [UK|US]
Christoph Poppen, Hilliard Ensemble, Münchener Kammerorchester, Johann Sebastian Bach, Anton Webern: Ricercar (ECM) [UK|US]
David Sylvian: Blemish (Samadhi Sound) [UK|US]
Debashish Bhattacharya & Bob Brozman: Mahima (Riverboat) [UK|US]
Dizzee Rascal: Boy In Da Corner (XL) [UK|US]
Erlend Øye: Unrest (Source) [UK|US]
Four Tet: Rounds (Domino) [UK|US]
Ghazal: The Rain (ECM) [UK|US]
The Innocence Mission: Befriended (Badman) [UK|US]
Jackie-O Motherfucker: Wow!/The Magick Fire Music (All Tomorrow's Parties) [UK|US]
Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette: Up For It (ECM) [UK|US]
John Zorn: Masada Guitars (Tzadik) [UK|US]
Loose Fur: Loose Fur (Drag City) [UK|US]
Marc Ribot: Soundtracks II (Tzadik) [UK|US]
Miles Davis: Complete Jack Johnson Sessions (Sony) [UK|US]
Miles Davis: In Person Friday & Saturday Blackhawk (Sony) [UK|US]
New York No Wave (ZE Records) [UK|US]
New York Noise (Soul Jazz) [UK|US]
Omid: Monolith (Mush) [UK|US]
Outkast: The Love Below/Speakerboxx (Arista) [UK|US]
Pluramon: Dreams Top Rock (Karaoke Kalk) [Boomkat]
Radiohead: Hail To The Thief (Parlophone) [UK|US]
Sasha Frere-Jones: SFJ 2003 reel (S/FJ)
Souad Massi: Deb (Wrasse) [UK|US]
Super Numeri: Great Aviaries (Ninja Tune) [UK|US]
Ted Reichman: Emigré (Tzadik) [UK|US]
Tim Berne: The Sublime And... (Thirsty Ear) [UK|US]
Twine: Twine (Ghostly International) [UK|US]
Supersilent: 6 (Rune Grammofon) [UK]
Yo La Tengo: Summer Sun (Matador) [UK|US]
From that list, The Books, Alan Licht, Miles, Four Tet, Masada Guitars, and Busdriver are standouts plus Jackie-O Motherfucker's Wow/Magick Fire Music places them for a second year running (despite them being recorded in 1999 and 2000 respectively.) Also Ted Reichman's Emigré, being a hypnotic portrait of the great early 20thC photographer André Kertész
Singles-wise, everybody loves Beyoncé's Crazy In Love and Outkast's Hey Ya! right?, Yo La Tengo's Nuclear War was a great cobweb-blower-outer, Bowie's New Killer Star was surprisingly good, any Homelife or Mice Parade EPs are worth mentioning, and Koushik's One In A Day single was great too. Oh, and I still feel that the bootleg scene has blown itself out, but the work of Go Home Productions is fun [via S/FJ].
Stuff from previous years I ended up listening to a lot: Themselves' The No Music; Ella Fitzgerald's Cole Porter Songbook, and Michael Gallasso's soundtrack to In The Mood For Love. But on the reissue front, nothing comes close to Television's Marquee Moon.
Best Design award goes to the usual suspects: Tzadik, Hat Hut, Revenant, ECM, and Rune Grammofon - particularly having had a look at the latter's new release, which is a beautiful book.
Looking at 2002's list it looks OK, but perhaps suffers a little in comparison? Still, every year produces extraordinary music and I'm still listening to insane amounts of it. How nice.
