BBC - collective - albums of the year 2003

editors review

content by: editor

Ten winners plus runners up, in alphabetical order.

The hip-hop record of the year from Warp’s inventive offshoot, Lex Records. Danger Mouse and producer Jemini perform that so-rare trick of fusing great lyrics and beats with catchy, hair-raising hooks on every track. Rap for the head and heart.

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Elbow’s second album is a masterful demonstration of how to tug at heartstrings. More uplifting than their debut, it retains their sense of powerful, soulful songwriting and inventive arrangements. A bruised beauty that can’t fail to move.

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Kieran Hebden’s Rounds, with its effortless collection of screwed up beats and melodies, was by far the most nominated album on this list and it’s easy to see why. It’s electronic but with a warm organic glow that gets under your skin. Essential.

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This is filthy. Boy and girl + guitar and drums = 2003’s recipe for success. Low-down, elemental songs banging on your door and sounding like they’ve crawled out of the swampland. Every track a bastard. Makes PJ Harvey look like Beyoncé. Fantastic.

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Now the dust has begun to settle around these young Deep South rockers it’s still obvious what all the fuss was about. Caleb Followill’s fantastic bluesy rasp is backed up by some great rock’n’roll tunes. Music from the heart that gets your feet going.

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This is contender for the most creative album of the year. Canadian laptop whizz-kid Dan Snaith combines authentic, hazy psychedelic folk vibes with geeky clicks and bleeps. It’s a crazy ride and a classic in the making.

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Scott Herren must really know his way round a sampler. He cuts up beats, vocals and bleeps like a master surgeon and plasters them all up again to create an altogether more advanced being. Mostly mesmerising.

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The latest instalment from our cheery friends has taken a while to unravel into many listeners good books. But Hail To The Thief is the perfect soundtrack to a year that saw Radiohead reconnect with their audience.

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What is it about Jack White? He so obviously borrows from the past, yet sounds unique. Maybe it’s the neurotic, Grimm-like strangeness that lurks beneath Elephant’s raw exterior, with its brutal guitar swipes and phobic lyrics. Whatever, this is genius.

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Scuzzy beats and irresistible grooves from Japanese Londoner Susumu Mukai. One of the most inventive records of the year, Zongamin makes this collection sound very human yet from another planet at the same time. Basslines so dirty you wouldn’t introduce them to your mother.

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best of the rest

Blur - Think Tank
Buck 65 - Talkin’ Honky Blues
Bonobo - Dial M For Monkey
The Coral - Magic And Medicine
Goldfrapp - Black Cherry
Matt Harding - Commitment
Kid Koala - Some Of My Best Friends Are DJs
King Geedorah - Take Me To Your Leader
Simple Kid - SK1
Amy Winehouse - Frank

mix track list

Kings of Leon - Red Morning Light
Zongamin - Serious Trouble
Elbow - Fugitive Motel
Manitoba - Bijoux
Prefuse 73 - Uprock and Invigorate
The Kills - Fried Your Little Brains
Four Tet - As Serious As Your Life
DM & Jemini - Ghetto Pop Life
Radiohead - 2+2=5

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	Best albums of 2003
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see also

best films of 2003
this year's cinematic highlights worst films of 2003
we stuff the turkeys games of the year
daniel picks his favourites what are you listening to?
your current favourite

also on BBCi

dance albums of the year

film

film archive
The best of cinema in the UK from 2002 to 2008.

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