The SWSL Top 10 Albums Of 2003

Perhaps it’s not been quite such a good year for albums as it has for singles, but there’s still been plenty of LPs that have elated and excited these ears.

First of all, an admission – all the albums I haven’t heard but which might have made it if I had (a shamefully long list):

ARAB STRAP – Monday At The Hug & Pint
BARDO POND – On The Ellipse
THE BLACK KEYS – Thickfreakness
DAVID BOWIE – Reality
THE BUFF MEDWAYS – 1914
COLDER – Again
THE COOPER TEMPLE CLAUSE – Kick Up The Fire, And Let The Flames Break Loose
THE DARKNESS – Permission To Land
THE DISTILLERS – Coral Fang
DIZZEE RASCAL – Boy In Da Corner
ELBOW – Cast Of Thousands
THE FIERY FURNACES – Gallowsbird’s Bark
FOUR TET – Rounds
GOLDFRAPP – Black Cherry
GRANDADDY – Sumday
JETPLANE LANDING – Once Like A Spark
M83 – Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
STEPHEN MALKMUS AND THE JICKS – Pig Lib
MEW – Frengers
MUSE – Absolution
OUTKAST – Speakerboxxx / The Love Below
PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES – The New Romance
THE RAPTURE – Echoes
SOLEDAD BROTHERS – Voice Of Treason
STELLASTARR* - Stellastarr*
THE WARLOCKS – Phoenix
ZWAN – Mary Star Of The Sea

Next, the honourable mentions – what floated the SWSL boat but didn’t quite make the Top 10:

A SILVER MT ZION – “This Is Our Punk-Rock”, Thee Rusted Satellites Gather + Sing
BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB – Take Them On, On Your Own
CANYON – Empty Rooms
JOHNNY CASH – American IV: The Man Comes Around
NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS - Nocturama
THE CORAL – Magic And Medicine
DEFTONES – Deftones
DO MAKE SAY THINK – Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn
ELECTRIC SIX - Fire
JANE’S ADDICTION – Strays
THE KILLS – Keep On Your Mean Side
MY MORNING JACKET – It Still Moves
QHIXLDEKX – Welcome To Qhixldekx
SPIRITUALIZED – Amazing Grace
THE WHITE STRIPES - Elephant

It’s worth saying that, of these, Canyon’s Empty Rooms probably came closest to scraping in, and also that Nick Cave’s Nocturama was up against it for me right from the start, simply by virtue of its being the full-length follow-up to No More Shall We Part, the 2001 SWSL Album Of The Year by a country mile. As for Elephant, like the other White Stripes albums I find it overrated – it follows the pattern of what’s gone before by starting off in blazing form and then becoming much less consistent in terms of quality, plus there’s only so much of Jack White’s little-boy-lost faux-naivety I can stand (see songs like ‘I Want To Be The Boy To Warm Your Mother’s Heart’ for particularly damning evidence). Plus, ‘Well It’s True That We Love One Another’ is a piece of shit.