Seeing as I only bought a handful of records this year — a significant percentage of which being compilations of more ‘vintage’ material — the list I am about to present is not so much my top eleven albums of the last twelve months as it is the only albums in my possession that were released this year. However, not having the same access to music as I did in previous years forced me to choose more wisely than usual.
So without further ado I present to you, as selected from albums and compilations heard in their entirety more than once within the previous 12 months, my Top Eleven Albums of 2003:
#1 Rough Trade Shops: Post Punk 01 by Various Artists
#2 New York Noise: Dance Music from the New York Underground 1978-1982 by Various Artists
#3 Burn, Piano Island, Burn! by The Blood Brothers
#4 We Are The Lazer Viking by An Albatross
#5 Cell-Scape by Melt-Banana
#6 Canada Songs by Daughters
#7 Wonderful Rainbow by Lightning Bolt
#8 Tiger Thrush by Ami Yoshida
#9 Echoes by The Rapture
#10 Altered States of America by Agoraphobic Nosebleed
#11 Unloved and Weeded Out by Converge
Over the next few months I’m looking forward to hearing new albums from The Futureheads, Converge, Franz Ferdinand, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Boards of Canada and The Von Bondies, among others. (On the other hand, the aforementioned might turn out to be utter shite, in which case I’m sure there’s a vertiable cornucopia of comfortably credible music that I’ve overlooked — don’t you dare mention the word ‘hipster’, boy.)
Any further suggestions? Did I miss anything truly great this year? I’m sure I have. Feel free to inform me.