This was the first year I ever made a top albums of the year list.

2003 was when I started posting on CMJ and the first year I ever participated in the shmoo poll. I think 2001 was the first time I ever tried to make a list.

This was not a great year although there were several albums that I still like a lot.

The most underrated album of this year is probably

Smog - Supper

I think this was the first Smog album I ever bought which I think I picked up right after watching him do an in-store. Or I might have bought Knock Knock before this, not really sure.

Some of my favorites from the decade were released in '03

DBT - Decoration Day
MMJ - It Still Moves
Belle & Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress
The Strokes - Room On Fire
New Prons - Electric Version
Ryan Adams - Love Is Hell and especially Rock N Roll
The Jayhawks - Rainy Day Music

Just to name a few.

I don't like these threads for the years we've done shmoo polls for nearly as much because the chance of really finding something you don't know about or turning someone on to something they don't know seems much smaller.

I had:



Tribalistas - ST

as my #1 in 2003.

Tribalistas are a brazilian "supergroup" consisting of Carlinhos Brown, Arnaldo Antunes and Marisa Monte, a one-off project recorded in three weeks. Rather than being a bombastic overdone mess with each competing for space, its a pretty amazingly beautiful album both breezy and meticulous with no one contributing more than was needed for each song.



It's still deserving of that spot but I'd probably put Joe Henry - Tiny Voices above it now.

Here's a handful that I wasn't listening to back in 2003 but really like now:



Eddie Spaghetti - The Sauce

Lead Singer of the Supersuckers goes country. A handful of originals but mostly covers of good ole country mong classics such as "Best of All Possible Worlds", "Cocaine Blues", "Gotta Get Drunk", and "Misery and Gin." There are certainly better albums from 2003 but few are a better soundtrack to throwing a few back.



The Derailers - Genuine

I first heard these guys on the Sirius Outlaw Country Channel. Over the last year and 1/2, I've been buying up all of their albums. They're a tight band that plays bakersfield style country. Jim Lauderdale and Al Anderson (NRBQ) help out with the songwriting on this one. You probably know if you're one of the 8 that this might appeal to.

Not my link:





Randy Weeks - Sold Out at the Cinema

Catchy Americana/Country Pop recorded with Tony Gilkyson on Guitar and Mike Stinson on drums.

And of course...

Martin Newell - Songs From the Station Hotel (EP)

A great, brief collection of charming, acoustic-based, very English pop songs. Just like he'd been doing for years. One of his better solo releases.

This was the year I kind of woke up to new music after being asleep for a while.



Woven Hand~ S/T- the first of David Eugene Edwards' post- Sixteen Horsepower albums under the Woven Hand name. Sounds like Sixteen Horsepower (a good thing)- creaky sulphur-infused originals, with a side of brimstone. Love it. Killer cover of Bill Withers' Ain't No Sunshine.



Jay Farrar~ Terroir Blues- Second favorite 2003 release. Dense and cohesive, I played this for days on end.



Songs: Ohia~ Magnolia Electric Company- my favorite from 2003. Spoiled only by Scout Niblett screeching on one song. The solo acoustic bonus disk is just as good, in a different way.

Those Broadcast, M. Ward, and Calexico albums are great.

This might actually be my favorite album of 2003:


Need New Body - UFO
Goofy spazz rock. So much fun.

Other favorites:


Deerhoof - Apple O'
Their first album with guitarist Chris Cohen (now of Cryptacize and Curtains). The only time I've seen them live was for this album, a whole ago years now. It's been too long! Seems like they never play Atlanta unless they're opening for someone.


Boris - Akuma No Uta
Strong contender for my favorite Boris album. Better than everything they've done since except maybe Rainbow.


Angels of Light - Everything Is Good Here/Please Come Home
This is the album that made me a fan of M. Gira, Angels of Light, and Swans. I remember it being my favorite of the year for most of 2003, and then when it came list-making time I'd cooled off on it a little. It's still probably my favorite AoL album, though.

Aside from the aforementioned standouts, a few of my favourites:

Cobra Verde Easy Listening
The Dandy Warhols Welcome to the Monkey House
Diamond Dogs That's the Juice I'm On
Frank Black Show Me Your Tears
Kings of Leon Youth & Young Manhood
Lucero That Much Further West
The Sleepy Jackson Lovers
The Sounds Living in America
Starsailor Silence is Easy
Sloan Action Pact
Tommy Womack Washington D.C.
Yo La Tengo Summer Sun

Action Pact & Summer Sun were probably the worst albums in both band's discographies.

Actually, that would be Parallel Play and I'm Not Afraid of You....

I didn't hear this until last year, but it's become my most played album by them so far. I'm still kind of new to them...



Coast is Never Clear is still my favorite but...

Along with the aforementioned Black Album and Sleepy Jackson's Lovers, and :



this really does seem like a Main Era.

Man, what the hell ever happened to Jemini? That album was so much fun - and the remix EP after was almost better - and then nothing while Danger Mouse went on to conquer the world.

Also in that "Where The Fuck Are They?" file: Divine Styler

Also the Speakerboxx disc of that Outkast album.

hells yeah. one of my favorite years of the 00-09 decade. gonna go eat now but i gotta throw at least one down:

Spencer started out way back when in an Australian outfit called The Johnnys. Since that group imploded, he's played w/ The Beasts of Bourbon, Paul Kelly, the Sacred Cowboys, as well as cranking out a half-dozen solo albums. This one is one of his best.

"Guitar Romantic" and Bonnie Prince Billy's "Master and Everyone" alternate with "Is This It?" and "The Blueprint" as my number 1 of the decade.

also since Belle & Sebastian is a big favorite on the board - I think that "Dear Catastrophe Waitress" is my probably my favorite of their albums, or at least it's the one I listen to most

Grand Mal - Bad Timing
One of my personal faves from the last decade. Bill Whitten's previous band, St. Johnny, were capable of great sleazoid tunes like "Pin the Tail on the Donkey", but too often appeared to mistake purposely annoying for musically challenging. That unfortunate propensity followed him to the initial releases by his more straightforwardly rockin' Grand Mal project. 1999's Maledictions, for example, contained some great glam rock concoctions like "Out on Bail", but dissipated that sporadic energy by wallowing mostly in melody-deprived slacker noisefests. But with Bad Timing Grand Mal jumped that glam beast and nailed it to the floor. The lyrics make the band's intent plain by slyly referencing both the Only Ones' Peter Perrett and the Stooges' "Rock Action", and listeners who don't need footnotes to understand those particular namedrops will find much to enjoy. Whitten's main stroke of genius amounts to combining the wasted vibe and lazy riffing of Exile on Main Street with the sultry boogie sensibility of T.Rex. The resulting hybrid replaces glam androgyny with a kind of macho fatalism that sounds immediately familiar, though trust me, glam rock never sounded like this. But it should have.



Gingersol - The Train Wreck Is Behind You
Hard to describe, Gingersol sounds to me like what might have happened if the Replacements had been fronted by Elliott Smith instead of Westerberg. There's a warm, fuzzy Teenage Fanclub-esque jangle to most of the tunes, and vocalist Steve Tagliere's rasp delivers a wealth of subtle hooks.



The Everyothers
The Everyothers were the last band Mick Ronson worked with before his death, so maybe these glittery punks earned their Bowie fixation honestly. On this album they sound like Aladdin Sane mulched through a Foo Fighters filter, with a clutch of songs that enliven any mix tape. Follow-ups never matched this one.



Veal - Embattled Hearts
The last Veal album before leader Luke Doucet went off on his solo career. The Embattled Hearts finds Veal streamlining their sonic wanderlust into a more consistent identity (weirdo instrumental "Defiler" and slight ditty "Toothbrush" notwithstanding). They're now a classic indie-rock band, or maybe an indie classic-rock band, with hummable melodies and honest-to-god guitar riffs featured front and center. Even still, Doucet's songs seldom go in the direction you expect. And when they do, it's because he's trained you rather than the other way around. And if he teaches you to sit and fetch as well, just consider that a bonus.

Same here.

I like that Grand Mal record a lot too, Rads (thank you very much)

NP...and, i could get behind this.

Others possibly not mentioned but certainly well liked...

Andrew Bird - Weather Systems
Constantines - Shine A Light
Beulah - Yoko
Cracker - O' Cracker Where Art Thou and especially Countrysides
Warren Zevon - The Wind (Largely depressing but occasionally uplifting)
Kathleen Edwards - Failer