Best Album Of 2003

The Strokes pick up the win in 2001, but who will win this one? Remember to include who you are voting for if you vote Other, and if you don't like the main choices then quite simply I don't care so don't bother posting it just write it into your 'Dark Thoughts' book, I'm sure someone will care someday :)

Albums to just miss out this year included ones by Super Furry Animals, Cat Power, The Shins, Joe Strummer, My Morning Jacket, Blur, The Thrills, Spiritualized, Arab Strap, Snow Patrol, Fountains of Wayne, Explosions In The Sky and The Rapture

Voting Opens Once All The Videos Are Up

The Strokes - 12:51 - Room On Fire



The White Stripes - Sevon Nation Army - Elephant



Grandaddy - Now It's On - Sumday

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Y Control - Fever To Tell



Muse - Hysteria - Absolution



The Postal Service - The Distict Sleeps Alone Tonight - Give Up

Outkast - Hey Ya - Speakerboxxx/Love Below



Evan Dando - All My Life - Baby, I'm Bored



Belle & Sebastian - I'm A Cuckoo - Dear Catastrophe Waitress

Guitar based music pretty much dominated the best of lists I've seen online, with the most notable exception being Outkast who produced two of the best singles of the year.

Toss up between Evan Dando, Belle & Sebastian, the Postal Service and Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs for me. Loved both the Belle & Sebastian album and the Postal Service one, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs had the best song of the year for me (Maps), but Evan Dando takes it for sheer lyrical brillance. Dando just pips Jarvis Cocker to the best wordsmith of the 90s for me, and this album really showcases his fantastic ability to turn a simple day to day occurance into a life changing lyric

Ive gone for Muse ‘Absolution’, great album, narrowly pipping ‘Elephant’. ‘Phantom Power’ by Super Furry Animals worth a mention, as are Funeral for a Friend’s cracking debut ‘Casually Dressed and Deep In Convesrsation’ and ‘Hail To The Thief’ by Radiohead although not their best by a long shot. Kings of Leon's debut too. ‘Maps’, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, love that song.

Close the polls now! What I suspect to be Grandaddy's best album has raced into an unexpected, though I fear short lived, lead.

Some great tracks on that album: The Group Who Couldn't Say has a delicious reverse to The Sophware Slump's The Crystal Lake, and "Yeah" Is What We Had is possibly the best song, and video about a break-up between lovers.

Went for Room on Fire
honourable mentions to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs , Kings of Leon , The Darkness and White Stripes

Voted for Sumday by Grandaddy. A very, very fine record.

I know it gets kicked around a lot but Metallicas St. Anger was a standout moment of the year for me too. Two fantastic singles -which I acknowledge do not a fine album make - and invisible kid was pretty good as well. but I thought they took some chances with it and deserve credit for that.

Also Zwans Mary Star of The Sea which for me trumps a couple of Smashing Pumpkins albums.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lionel Ritchie

Voted for Sumday by Grandaddy. A very, very fine record.

I know it gets kicked around a lot but Metallicas St. Anger was a standout moment of the year for me too. Two fantastic singles -which I acknowledge do not a fine album make - and invisible kid was pretty good as well. but I thought they took some chances with it and deserve credit for that.

Also Zwans Mary Star of The Sea which for me trumps a couple of Smashing Pumpkins albums.

---

Forgot about Zwan, some fine moments on that album. Apart from the stupid cover and some daft song titles... St. Anger does get slated a lot, but there were some great songs on it too if you ignore the lack of axe solos.

Other. Streetcore - Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros.

This year there was another strikingly fresh and different album out, and that's my vote - Other: Dizzee Rascal - Boy In Da Corner.

Don't let the subsequent ridiculous uses of the word 'Da' put you off! :D

Other notables not already mentioned:
Adam Freeland - Now And Them
Goldfrapp - Black Cherry
Basement Jaxx - Kish Kash
Audio Bullys - Ego War

Not sure of the order but that's certainly the top 5. Next year's best is all dance stuff too. ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by stann

This year there was another strikingly fresh and different album out, and that's my vote - Other: Dizzee Rascal - Boy In Da Corner.

Don't let the subsequent ridiculous uses of the word 'Da' put you off! :D

Other notables not already mentioned:
Adam Freeland - Now And Them
Goldfrapp - Black Cherry
Basement Jaxx - Kish Kash
Audio Bullys - Ego War

Not sure of the order but that's certainly the top 5. Next year's best is all dance stuff too. ;)

---

I've a feeling dance is gonna start coming to the front of the list as the years creep towards this horrible Year of Our Lord, 2008 :)

Snow Patrol for me.. O mighty music God ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pike B

Snow Patrol for me..

---

better put on your helmet...incoming..:D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Billsthoughts

better put on your helmet...incoming..:D

---

I likes a bit of danger me!! :D

Angie Stone's Stone Love for me. It's a brilliant album. A lot more soulful than what passes for "R'n'B" these days.

I Wanna Thank Ya


OutKast, Nappy Roots and Basement Jaxx all get mentions as well. The OutKast album is pretty good but because of it being a double album, there's inevitably a bit of filler in there which drags it down.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pike B

Snow Patrol for me.. O mighty music God ;)

---

Pike ol' buddy, yourself and your fellow brother in whinge can vote for whatever bland, music by numbers album you want. It's just when ye start crying about said bland album not being included in the main poll that we have issues :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jebus

Pike ol' buddy, yourself and your fellow brother in whinge can vote for whatever bland, music by numbers album you want. It's just when ye start crying about said bland album not being included in the main poll that we have issues :)

---

Brother in whinge? Who dat?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pike B

Brother in whinge? Who dat?

---

Who's the only other person who wasn't able to grasp the concept of the Other vote? Find that person and you'll find your answer

Kings Of Leon's Youth & Young Manhood gets an honourable mention, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's Take Them On, On Your Own also a decent offering. The Strokes Room On Fire gets the vote.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jebus

Who's the only other person who wasn't able to grasp the concept of the Other vote? Find that person and you'll find your answer

---

gone fishing...........got that sign up on my door.... :)

Other:

Mogwai - Happy Songs for Happy People.

This is a track from the album called 'Hunted by a Freak'.

Notable absentees from the list:
50 Cent - Get Rich of Die Tryin'
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Nocturama
The Ataris - So Long, Astoria
Evanescence - Fallen
Everclear - Slow Motion Daydream
Placebo - Sleeping With Ghosts
Madonna - American Life (although this was probably one album too many for Madonna)
The Dandy Warhols - Welcome To The Monkey House
Therapy? - High Anxiety
Fall Out Boy - Take This To Your Grave
Yellowcard - Ocean Avenue
Thrice - The Artist In The Ambulance
Jet - Get Born
Blink-182 - Blink-182
Hoobastank - The Reason

and I voted for Other with the nod going to Linkin Park - Meteora

went for other - kings of leon. I have started to notice over the last polls that my musical tastes differ greatly from the masses on here!

Some of the bands I've seen mentioned would not be my cup of tea at all. Then again I was the only one who went for Gold in the last poll.

Went for The White Stripes, but should have put other Jack Johnson - on and on. Spent a lot of 2003 swinging in a hammock on Ko Pha Ngang, chilling out to it, great album.
Not sure if I can change my vote now though:o

Other Kings of Leon.

Seize The Day - Damien Dempsey

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jebus

I've a feeling dance is gonna start coming to the front of the list as the years creep towards this horrible Year of Our Lord, 2008 :)

---

Ah I don't know. Next year definitely, but then with the likes of Franz Ferdinand, Futureheads and Kaiser Chiefs the following year you also have the start of a bit of a 6-string resurgence with the new 'New Guitar Air'. Not to mention your Arcade Fires, Bloc Partys and Interpols.
Anyone remember the old 'New Guitar Air'? Or am I just showing my age now? :D

Just on next year though, if you don't include Mylo in the poll I can see Kingdom Hoop, Sideshow Bob-like, feverishly writing out his fiendish revenge. "Disembowel him... no, I don't like that bowel there... GUT him!!!"

Surely Arcade Fire will win 2004. I'll be a bit bold here and predict it will be close in the overall running for the award.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by superfrank

Surely Arcade Fire will win 2004. I'll be a bit bold here and predict it will be close in the overall running for the award.

---

Funeral was released September 2004 in Canada but February 2005 in UK and Ireland so does that make it a 2004 or 2005 album?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by holidaysong

Funeral was released September 2004 in Canada but February 2005 in UK and Ireland so does that make it a 2004 or 2005 album?

---

tricky but id say 2005. That said not many classic 2004 albums I can think of. Interpol 'Antics' and Kings of Leon 'Aha Shake Heartbreak' only ones that spring to mind...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by holidaysong

Funeral was released September 2004 in Canada but February 2005 in UK and Ireland so does that make it a 2004 or 2005 album?

---

2004 if it was originally released in that year, just as well you told us cause I would have put it as a 2005 album :)

I would say 2005 is a better shout as we couldn't have got it over here before then anyway, and with the best will in the world a Canada-only release is relatively obscure. But then it's your poll, as has been pointed out somewhere before. :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by stann

I would say 2005 is a better shout as we couldn't have got it over here before then anyway, and with the best will in the world a Canada-only release is relatively obscure. But then it's your poll, as has been pointed out somewhere before. :D

---

Don't you start :p

Nah, I set a rule back in the first poll when some people disputed that the Pogue's album was brought out in 1988 and not 1987 that whenever an album first saw the light of day in this world that that's what it would count as, so if 2004 is when it was released than 2004 it is. Just looked it up and verified that it was released in Canada in September 2004 so it will be included in next year's poll

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pauro 76

Forgot about Zwan, some fine moments on that album. Apart from the stupid cover and some daft song titles... St. Anger does get slated a lot, but there were some great songs on it too if you ignore the lack of axe solos.

---

I think that's one of the reasons I could never get into the Smashing Pumpkins. Somebody gave me Siamese Dream a while back and I think I was automatically put off by song names like Geek USA, Spaceboy and Silverf uck:rolleyes:

In the poll I had to go for other, Hail to the Thief by Radiohead or Think Tank by Blur for me, but granted, I havent been exposed to most of the options.

Other: Mull Historical Society - Us

*checks poll* Damn, didn't win.

Other:

Diamonds on the inside - Ben Harper

Could just as easily gone for "Hail to the thief" - Radiohead

Outkast. Just for hey yeah. 3 minutes better than anything else on the poll

A quick tot shows Kings of Leon with three votes. This is the longest 'Other' has stayed in the running. I thought everyone loved KoL, and it would run a way with it. Seems not.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by noby

A quick tot shows Kings of Leon with three votes. This is the longest 'Other' has stayed in the running. I thought everyone loved KoL, and it would run a way with it. Seems not.

---

I predict KoL's two subsequent albums will win their prospective years. Not sure about the new album just yet though. it's a bit too polished.