Best Albums 2003 (6-10)

10. Junior Senior – D-D-Don’t Stop the Beat These kitschy Danes were apparently an important transitional moment for a generation of uptight indie kids in overcoming dancephobia. For the rest of us, they were just fun fun fun, self-conscious but never self-serious, whether outlining their statement of purpose on “White Trash,” treating sexual orientation as [...]

Bettie Serveert — “Wide Eyed Fools”

Released: 9.8.03 Peak: Did not chart Anyone can be a weirdo at twenty-five–kind of sad actually if you aren’t. But let’s see you hang on to your quirks till the far side of thirty. That’s where real bohemian lifers watch their sensible acquaintances drop off, either parlaying their cool into niche opportunism or bailing entirely [...]

Lumidee — “I’ll Never Leave You (Uh Oooh, Uh Oooh)”

Released: 8.4.03 Peak: #3 So, yeah, dancehall again. I suspect that one reason Jamaican music made broader inroads into U.S. R&B about now is because dancehall itself was enjoying one of its periodic creative spurts back home. (Then again may be the circular reasoning of a U.S. R&B fan–”creative spurt” = “sounds like music I [...]

Sean Paul – “Like Glue”

Released: 7.1.03 Peak: #13 Foxy as he might have been, Sean Paul was a curious crossover star. If all you knew of dancehall was Dutty Rock you might be forgiven for suspecting that Jamaica’s biggest export was nothing more than awkwardly sung R&B. To say that Sean sings flat is unfair to him and to [...]

Beyonce feat. Jay-Z – “Crazy in Love”

Released: 7.1.03 Peak: #1 Hard to believe that this monster horn blast had been collecting dust for over thirty years, ever since 1970, when the Chi-Lites’ “Are You My Woman (Tell Me So)” stiffed. Sometimes a songwriter or an arranger just doesn’t quite grasp how to capitalize on a killer hook. But Rich Harrison, who’d [...]

Best Albums 2003 (11-15)

15. Lightning Bolt – Wonderful Rainbow Noise rools, but that hardly makes it a genre–just another element of music, its uses multifarious but hardly limitless. And my resolution thereto is unswayed by public displays of affliction that recall the candle-wax on bare skin of suburban-basement goth as well as instrumental forays that need a GPS [...]

Dizzee Rascal – “I Luv U”

Released: 5.26.03 Peak: Did not chart Dylan Mills is Britain’s greatest MC. Poor Dizzee deserves a less qualified compliment than that, a genuine plaudit, not the condescending head-pat reserved for America’s greatest cricketer or, say, France’s greatest MC. The idiosyncratic nature of his limited competition (Mike Skinner, Lady Sov, Roots Maneuva) only makes his accomplishment [...]

The White Stripes – “Seven Nation Army”

Released: 4.21.03 Peak: #76 Jack White lives in a world where guitar heroes transcend the petty confines of genre, beguiling the intelligentsia with their artistry while their heft clobbers the masses. The identities of his fellow trickster warriors in It Might Get Loud say it all: Jimmy Page, who alloyed his art-rock in a metallic [...]

Blur – “Out of Time”

Released: 4.15.03 Peak: Did not chart Damon Albarn could be contemporary white male Britannia’s greatest gift to pop. When it comes to world music, Albarn not only “appreciates” rhythm, as did (do?) his globally minded UK predecessors like Sting and Peter Gabriel–he cultivates an actual sense of it, and he’s got good ears rather than [...]

Coldplay – “The Scientist”

Released: 4.15.03 Peak: #18 [Modern Rock] The biggest band in the world should have been a lot worse. That simple fact makes it possible to hear the rank, gooey sentimentality we’d fear in Coldplay’s music. And yet, listen to the band’s three biggest hits–a huge, emotional anthem about a color; a huge, emotional anthem about [...]