NME Albums Of The Year 2003

Kurt Cobain's Top 50 Albums List

NME Albums Of 2003

1. The White Stripes – Elephant
2. The Rapture – Echoes
3. The Strokes – Room On Fire
4. Elbow – Room On Fire
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever To Tell
6. Rufus Wainwright – Want One
7. Kings Of Leon – Youth & Young Manhood
8. Outkast – Spekerboxxx/The Love Below
9. Radiohead – Hail To The Thief
10. My Morning Jacket – It Still Moves
11. Evan Dando – Baby I’m Bored
12. The Coral – Magic And Medicine
13. Spritualized – Amazing Grace
14. The Distillers – Coral Fang
15. Hot Hot Heat – Make Up The Breakdown
16. Dizzee Rascal – Boy In Da Corner
17. Funereal For A Friend – Casually Dressed And Deep In Conversation
18. The Sleepy Jackson – Lovers
19. Muse – Absolution
20. Jet - Get Born
21. Blur – Think Tank
22. The Hidden Cameras – The Smell Of Our Own
23. The Cooper Temple Clause – Kick Up The Fire, And Let The Flames Break Loose
24. Four Tet – Rounds
25. The Darkness – Permission To Land
26. The Kills – Keep On Your Mean Side
27. Super Furry Animals – Phantom Power
28. The Mars Volta – De-Loused In The Comatorium
29. Peaches – Fatherfucker
30. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Take Them On, On Your Own
31. 50 Cent – Get Rich Or Die Trying
32. The Thrills – So Much For The City
33. Mogwai – Happy Songs For Happy People
34. Jay-Z – The Black Album
35. Nick Cave – Nocturama
36. British Sea Power – The Decline Of British Sea Power
37. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Master And Everyone
38. 22-20’s – 05/03
39. Patrick Wolf – Lycanthropy
40. Devendra Banheart – Oh Me Oh My..The Way The Day Goes By The Sun Is Setting….
41. Soledad Brothers – Voice Of Treason
42. Stellastarr* - Stellerstar*
43. Ten Grand – This Is The Way To Rule
44. Basement Jaxx – Kish Kash
45. Cat Power – You Are Free
46. The Ravonettes – Chain Gang Of Love
47. Canyon – Empty Rooms
48. Jane’s Addiction – Strays
49. The Duke Sprit – Roll, Sprit, Roll
50. Starsailor – Starsailor

Damn you, Martian!

typo alert: Cast of Thousands !

Busted have cleaned up at this year's Smash Hits Poll Winners awards.

They bagged five top awards, including best band in the world ever, best album and best UK band.

Westlife were voted as the best international act and Girls Aloud picked up the Hot new talent title.

Justin Timberlake won most fanciable male and Beyonce Knowles most fanciable female.

And Gareth Gates proved he has not lost his appeal by winning best male solo artist and best single for Sunshine.

Christina Aguilera was voted best female solo artist.

Rachel Stevens and Duncan James from Blue won the best dressed titles, while Mark Owen was awarded the Comeback King accolade.

Big Brovaz have been given the best urban act award and the magazine's readers decided DJ Sammy was the best dance act this year.

The best music video title went to Beyonce for her Crazy In Love single.

Smash Hits usually announce the award winners at a star-studded Poll Winners' Party.

But the bash was scrapped because none of the US winners would agree to turn up.

Story filed: 16:38 Tuesday 16th December 2003

23. The Cooper Temple Clause – Kick Up The Fire, And Let The Flames Break Loose
38. 22-20’s – 05/03
39. Patrick Wolf – Lycanthropy
43. Ten Grand – This Is The Way To Rule
47. Canyon – Empty Rooms
49. The Duke Sprit – Roll, Sprit, Roll

Also never heard of Funeral for a Friend until Frank Kogan reviewed it for me two weeks ago. And I didn't even know Evan Dando or that Bonnie Prince Billy guy were still ALIVE. And I have no idea what Elbow or Sleepless Jackson or ???? or ???? or ???? actually sound like. So um, maybe I'M the clueless one around here. But I doubt it.

an eclectic multi-instrumental effort with passionate vocals

These guys were a local Minneapolis band, spazzy punk indie...their lead singer/guitarist tragically died this year....They were not very well known, so I'm pretty shocked to see them here. I never saw them, but have heard good things about them live....

Their debut back in 2001 made the Mercury Music Prize shortlist.

Time and time again, SFA are met with rave reviews upon release, and when reviewers are ready to sum up the year, they have to stick with some kind of "excuse" placing among the lower half of the year's best albums.

It is about time SFA get the universal praise they deserve. As several times before, SFA have released on of the best fucking albums of the year, and it is about time they are not just a Top 50 item, but a Top 3 one!

OK, not bad. Certainly understandable.

11. Evan Dando – Baby I’m Bored

Well... uh. I haven't heard it. Maybe it's great tragic pop or something.

20. Jet - Get Born
[...]
44. Basement Jaxx – Kish Kash

OK, now it's a bad awful list of dumb.

Hidden Cameras and Basement Jaxx clearly Very Great Things also, though am kind of surprised that Kish Kash placed at all in NME this year. Otherwise it's mostly a spectacularly dull and predictable list but hardly any worse than yr uncut/mojo/q/x-ray etc etc yes.

It is about time SFA get the universal praise they deserve. As several times before, SFA have released on of the best fucking albums of the year, and it is about time they are not just a Top 50 item, but a Top 3 one!

The first 3 SFA albums all made the NME top 5 of their respective years and Rings Around The World only just missed the top 10 in 2001; if anything there was previously kneejerk tendency to position them RightNearTop, regardless of quality

And it is about time they have their "OK Computer", "Odelay" or "Elephant" now. They deserve it!

My son's Scottish penpal sent a note to him at school saying Busted were his fave group. Who are they?

I listened to the Canyon album for the first time in months yesterday and was really quite taken with it, so that's a nice minor entry. It's just, like, when you see fucking spirit-sapping void music like Kings of Leon and Jet in there it can't help but invalidate the good bits, even the fact that NME's top two were in my own top 10.

At least it didn't have Blur as album of the year, like the truly dreadful new issue of the Observer Music Monthly. Christ, that was like reading death.

i pushed to get bonnie prince billy on the list. this year was the year i bought my first bonnie prince billy album and was rather taken with it.

thanks,

griffin doome

Business as usual in general.

Yeah I know... which makes it more astounding that of everyone voting enough people forgot about Cat Power! Though I completely forgot about BOTH Electric Six singles this year so it's understandable.

I'm sure the Distillers are really shit... I mean, I like ALL Courtney-esque girl punk and I still don't like them.

I think You Are Free has the best Cat Power songs I've heard on it... dunno whether it's her best album but it's not a huge drop in quality.

I'm also wondering whether the Bubba Sparxxx album actually exists other than online, I downloaded it and it's awesome but I haven't ever seen a physical copy of it and no one outside of ILM seems to have heard OF it.

(xpost, I was going to buy the Bubba but neither HMV nor Virgin had it so I was FORCED to download it)

Fuckin' magazines...

i do think his sugarbabes song was genius and v. unsettling - liked the kelis single but the album did nothing for me. i will listen to it again tonight.

cheers,

gd

The weird and unconventional thing this year is the way I'd decided on my top 3 albums* 3 months ago and I'm sick of the lack of love they got outside ILM - usual "critical acclaim not equalling sales" crud.

*The others being Kish Kash and Deliverance, which we gab about a fair bit anyway. Deliverance is espesh disheartening, because I wanted people to hear 'Nowhere' and learn more about the (carrer-wise) wonderful and tragic (and also strangley buff) Kiley Dean.

X-post: Baaderist: 'RX1' - I like - sounds like his catalogue codes. And you forgot 'YOU USED TO'!! Hopefully no.1 in the 2nd/3rd week of Jan.

Thank you!

As long as I'm functioning as Ten Grand's PR guy on this thread, their singer (the one who passed away) Matt Davis is one of the people featured in Afro-Punk, a documentary on African Americans in, natch, punk rock music....enjoy!

www.afropunk.com

What the hell does this mean? You're saying that British critics are still superior to US critics? If so, then why you slagging 'em off and calling 'em morons??

???

ha, jet/darkness = build em knock em down works *fast* these days.

or do you not bother much with new releases?

I have defended The Darkness to friends and on this board before, but album of the year for an LP that has six good songs maximum is insanity.

At least the NME list had a bit of variety and some left-field treats in there: betcha most of the K! staff had never even heard of Ten Grand.

Um, if you look at the individual best of lists for the staff, they're actually pretty varied and leftfield. Not all to my taste, but I'm not asking them to be.

1. The White Stripes – Elephant
2. The Rapture – Echoes
4. Elbow – Room On Fire
6. Rufus Wainwright – Want One
9. Radiohead – Hail To The Thief
10. My Morning Jacket – It Still Moves
24. Four Tet – Rounds
37. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Master And Everyone
39. Patrick Wolf – Lycanthropy
44. Basement Jaxx – Kish Kash
45. Cat Power – You Are Free

4 of these alums are excellent and i would have them in my top ... twenty, say. The Rapture and Elbow are the best of them.

there are four of five more i have heard and think are pretty rubbish (Spiritualised, YYY's, King of Leon).

Not too bad overall considering how generally shit this mag is.

I've downloaded quite a few 2003 tracks, DJ Martian, but I can't think of more than about four other 2003 albums I've got.

Playlouder present The Shitlist 2003 [many of the ghastly bands the NME have supported in 2003 ! - get a mention. I prefer to keep things positive but when bad music gets in the way on radio - these aural abominations need to be flagged up for ridicule]