Read and Appreciated in 2003
An Editorial Year’s Best List
Music Top 10
In this category, I had to go with the CDs I listened to the most—the ones that I kept picking up and playing in the car on the way to work. Is Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s “Take Them On, On Your Own” as artful as The Swimming Pool Q’s? Maybe not, but I sure listened to it a lot more. That said, I could easily have put picks #2 or #3 in the top position.
1. Take Them On, On Your Own, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
If Oasis and the Stone Roses had ever gotten their brand of rock-pop right, it might have sounded something like this second CD from BRMC. Every song is loud and intense and hook-heavy, with no filler material. Standout track: 4, In Like the Rose. (A great soundtrack for Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon.)
2. Built on Squares, Starlight Mints
It would have been hard to top their first CD, but “Built on Squares” comes close. It’s hard to describe the Mints’ sound, but it’s a little like carnival pop mixed with some Bowie mixed with some Violent Femmes mixed with… oy. It’s not possible to do it justice. It’s weird, strange, beautiful, crunchy music. Stunning. Standout track: 1, Black Cat (Detective).
3. Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers, The National
This rock band gives The Tindersticks some competition for writing sad songs, while sometimes ratcheting it up a notch into searing, loud music. The ends of relationships, bad relationships—mix Leonard Cohen with vintage Afghan Whigs and you have some idea of The National. The lead singer has a wonderfully husky, smoke-worn voice. Standout Track: 2, Slipping Husband.
4. Das Capital, Luke Haines and The Auteurs
Luke Haines, through The Auteurs, Black Box Recorder, Baader Meinhof, and his solo recordings, has made a stunning amount of superb pop-rock/glam-rock in a stunningly short period of time. This CD collects some of his best, re-arranged and re-recorded, some with a strings section, one with a saxophone. From “How Could I Be Wrong” to “Unsolved Child Murder” to “Lenny Valentino,” all of these new versions are top-rate. As an added bonus, new songs such as “Satan Wants Me” are also included. “Baader Meinhof” is perhaps the most interesting alternate version since the original was extremely sparse. The CD also contains a hidden orchestral medley of Haines’ songs at the –1 position. Standout track: 6, Satan Wants You. (especially for the lyric, “Satan wants me/not you.”)
5. Kind of Light, The 88
Imagine listening to the radio one day and hearing what has to be a Kinks song circa 1967-69 that you’ve never heard before. And yet it also sounds like 2003. Is it a remix? Then you find out you were really listening to The 88, a new band out of California. Brilliant pop from devotees of The Kinks, among others. Standout track: 11, Sunday Afternoon.
6. Countrysides, Cracker
Dropped by Virgin, who wouldn’t release this cover CD of country songs, Cracker turned to BMG and promptly recorded the greatest label-kiss off song of recent memory, “It Ain’t Gonna Suck Itself,” as the last track on Countrysides. But the stars here are Merle Haggard, Bruce Springstein, Hank Williams Jr. The Cracker covers are wonderful, especially “Family Tradition,” “Sinaloa Cowboys,” and Ike Reilly’s “Duty Free.” “Duty Free” is just a wonderful pop-rock song. I think I listened to that song more than any single song all year. Standout track: 2, Duty-Free.
