Albums 15 –
6
===
15.
Super Furry Animals: Phantom Power (XL; 82%)
The departure from
their influences is in the Welshmen’s superlative use of subtle electronic
and sound tweaking, but more importantly, a consolidation of their sound,
a tightening that leads to a more free-flowing confidence, and as a result,
a more cohesive, collected, composed (any other complimentary c-words?) album.
The Super Furry Animals are now making albums that sound like SFA albums,
not Wilson homages. And really, that’s how it should be. Obvious or in-your-face
genre-bending and influence-grabbing is for the new guys, the eager innovators;
great bands make albums that do these things without the slightest hint of
doing them intentionally. SFA is six albums in now, and they understand this
perfectly. –Amir Karim Nezar
14.
Gordon Downie: Battle of the Nudes (Wiener Art; 83%)
For most, it was
2001’s the original review archive that really put Downie’s eclecticism on display.
Though the Hip’s transformations were far more subtle than obvious (it’s not
like they ever decided to make a Kid A or something, thankfully), the original review archive was a slap in the face. So when it came to another solo album,
Downie surely had the choice to revisit the “formula” (if you can
call it that) that made his last album so memorising: variety, and lots of
it. What we get with Battle of the Nudes, however, is something much
more straightforward than any of us could’ve anticipated. The songwriting
is sharper, the arrangements are far more focused and it’s much closer to
the Hip’s work than any cut from the original review archive. It’s far less varied
than I had expected and a little shorter than I had hoped, but another pleasant
surprise from one of the most creative minds making music today. –Scott Reid
13.
The Strokes: Room on Fire (RCA; 83%)
For those who’d
love to see the band fall flat on their face with this album and reveal themselves
as the media-fueled style-without-substance wannabe/has-beens they “certainly
are,” Room on Fire will no doubt offer them a fair amount of ammo
to once again use in proclaiming their disgust. Several of the songs are merely
different from their precursors in minuscule ways –in one case, “Meet
Me in the Bathroom,” the similarity to a former song (Is This It‘s
shining moment, “Hard to Explain”) is downright ridiculous. Yet
for the flaws that the detractors will continue to magnify in attempts to
magically prove the band’s irrelevance, Room on Fire ultimately proves
itself a worthy successor and by far one of the year’s best rock albums. –Scott
Reid
12. The
Decemberists: Her Majesty, The Decemberists (Kill Rock Stars; 84%)
A year after the
original release of their debut comes Her Majesty the Decemberists,
an album that continues in the same lyrical tradition of their previous work
but manages to burst out into even more production and song-writing ideas.
For as much of a surprise Castaways and Cutouts may have been, Her
Majesty will probably be the album to take most by surprise and convince
them that this really isn’t a gimmick, but a band of enormous talent with
a seemingly endless amount of great ideas. Inventive, clever, accessible,
prolific and challenging, the Decemberists have accomplished more with their
sophomore album than I had originally thought them capable of in their entire
career and they’ve only just begun. –Scott Reid
11.
M83: Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts (Gooom; 84%)
To get to the point:
this is feedback-infused, synth-drenched, guitar rung, sampled explosive beauty
like nothing else. Whereas My Bloody Valentine drenched their noise in soups
of feedback, M83 let killer melodies and hooks and crescendos of lovely noise
shine in their own right, expertly producing and organizing their sounds so
as to make a terrifically unified album of almost non-stop beauty. Yet their
refinement is most evident in their understanding of how to maximize the number
of hair-raising moments while keeping them all precious. M83, with a little
bit of bombast, but more of a pure joy for sound, don’t overdo it, and that
tiniest bit of restraint keeps this album fucking awesome instead of damn
draining. Peter Gabriel could use a few lessons from these guys. –Amir Karim
Nezar
10.
Broken Social Scene: You Forgot It In People (Arts & Crafts/Paper
Bag; 85%)
So what sets this
album apart from all the other hundreds of pop albums that have come out this
year? It seems that there are basically two things: mastery of instrumentation
and production, both of which set-up the overall fragile, almost damaged atmosphere
of the album. The experimental background of the musicians allows for some
really terrific instrumentation and are able to create huge, lush soundscapes
and then also minimize the sound at times to create a more personal environment.
The music is awash in a sea of reverb but then crystallizes perfectly at points
to provide moments of great beauty. These two factors come together perfectly
to create an album with 13 nearly perfect tracks unified into a proper album.
Which isn’t too shabby for a pop record. –Peter Hepburn
9.
Cat Power: You Are Free (Matador; 85%)
You Are Free
is Chan Marshall’s best release to date –still not completely free of the
expected monotony or the odd embarrassingly bad lyric, but more often than
not, she strikes home with a great melody. Her voice, as always, is still
her biggest assett, taking what are often decent melodies and makes them stirring
and affective. It’s much more consistent than I thought she’d ever be capable
of and despite many doubts about her songwriting ability, she has crafted
one of the best albums of 2003. –Scott Reid
8.
My Morning Jacket: It Still Moves (ATO; 85%)
An epic album (hell,
it’s practically a double album, with 12 tracks clocking in at over 70 minutes
of play) that, while more consistently upbeat than either of their previous
full lengths, is one of the most stunning and imaginative country/alt-country/rock/whatever-you-want-to-call-it
albums I’ve heard all year. But don’t be mistaken; “more consistently
upbeat” certainly doesn’t mean it sounds or feels (the band is excellent
with atmosphere and mood) happier than their past work. Though the beauty
of the music in itself is very uplifting, Jim’s love of minor chords and somber
lyrics perfectly balances the music in a way they’ve rarely achieved before.
–Scott Reid
7.
Outkast: Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (La Face; 85%)
It’s a double album
that allowed Andre and Big Boi to breathe and discover what they could accomplish
outside of the confines of Outkast the group and expectations that
had been arising from that. While this may be wishful thinking, it might have
also given each time to work out their artistic “visions,” freeing
their individual palettes to start all over as a group no longer connected
to preconceived notions of what either is capable of. Their individual talent
is undeniable, even devoid of the chemistry they share with one another –something
which makes their future as a group an inconceivably promising one. –Scott
Reid
6.
TV On the Radio: Young Liars EP (Touch & Go; 85%) Let’s
just say this: If TV On the Radio comes out with an LP that’s as consistently
good as this EP, it will absolutely fucking kill. –Amir Karim Nezar.
