beulahbondo's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Greyhound's humble opinion While I wait for the better mousetrap to do its thing (peanut butter, hinged door), I would like to introduce my good friend the Greyhound, who is here with his legendary best-of playlist. And here to introduce the list, in his own words: The Greyhound. What's that sound? why, it's the sound of 2003... Here is a list of what I consider to be the best records of this past year, and I ought to know, because I bought EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM... so, read and enjoy...let me know if you concur...don't be shy about sending me a "now wait just a minute" message if I'm off-base... 50. June And The Exit Wounds - Color Harmony Jewels Actually came out in 2001, but I could only dig it up this year, on Japanese import. Demo-quality piano ballads and disposable rockers. 49. Various Artists - The Neptunes Present...Clones Patchy and underwhelming, but worth it for "Frontin'" alone (only Pharrell can get away with crooning, "tear ya ass up"). 48. !!! Me And Guiliani - Down By The Schoolyard EP Hooray for art school! 47. Virginia Astley From Gardens - Where We Feel Secure Originally released in 1985. Sonic attempt to articulate a bucolic summer's day, stop rolling your eyes. 46. Various Artists - Zig Zag Compilation of obscure soft rock tunes (primarily British) from the early 70's. Bonus points for use of the word "wherewithal". 45. Various Artists - Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before Rough Trade artists cover themselves. 44. Masha Qrella - Luck German chanteuse plays all her own instruments. Moody and elegant. 43. Britta Phillips and Dean Wareham - Sonic Souvenirs EP Luna couple get remixed by Sonic "Spaceman 3" Boom. Indie heaven. 42. Pulseprogramming - Tulsa For One Second Ambient glitchy stuff. Not much happens in the middle, but who cares? 41. James Kirk - You Can Make It If You Boogie Out-of-the-blue release by the former guitarist for Orange Juice (influential 80's Scots who nobody remembers.) 40. Audio Bullys - Ego War Similar to The Streets, but more beat-driven and less lyrically interesting. They call this stuff "hooligan house", and that's good enough for me (and you, too). 39. Josh Rouse - 1972 Somewhat earnest homage to the year the artist was born. 1972 also had the coolest baseball cards ever. 38. Various Artists Life:Styles compiled by 4 Hero Great collection of lost R & B tracks. 37. Richard Hawley - Lowedges Loose concept album about motorcycles, from a former Pulp guitarist clearly smitten with Lee Hazlewood. 36. Glass Candy And The Shattered Theater - Love Love Love Love love love child of Blondie and T Rex. 35. Yeah Yeah Yeah's - Fever To Tell Surprisingly tender slow numbers. 34. Cat Power - You Are Free Chan Marshall is worthy of schoolboy crushes, and did you see that picture of her in The New Yorker? 33. The Tyde - Twice The Smiths meet the Strokes. 32. Manitoba - Up In Flames If Mercury Rev had not gone all Disney and shit. 31. The Rapture - Echoes They will probably have a date with PiL in small-claims court. 30. The Sea And Cake - One Bedroom The CSN & Y of post-rock. 29. LFO - Sheath This. Is. Going. To. Make. You. Freak. 28. Spiritualized - Complete Works, Vol. 1 Narcotic classics. I wanna be a junkie! No, I don�t. Yes, I do. 27. FannyPack - So Stylistic So disposable, and so fun. Aren�t I too old for stuff like this? 26. John Cale - HoboSapiens Original VU member hooks up with Lemon Jelly (kind of a poor man's Boards Of Canada). Atmospheric, jaunty at times. 25. Linda Perhacs - Parallelograms Re-issue of lost hippychick classic from late 60's. Lots of weird atonal vocal stuff. 24. The Hidden Cameras - The Smell Of Our Own Polyphonic Spree with half the members and twice the cynicism. 23. Electric Six - Fire Alternately embraces and sends up the "electroclash" scene. 22. Data 80 - Data 80 French DJ guy, who sounds like he's made out of plastic. 21. Adam Green - Friends Of Mine Third solo effort from Moldy Peach. Heavily orchestrated, in a Glen Campbell meets Jonathon Richman sort of way. 20. The Russian Futurists - Let's Get Ready To Crumble Synthetic Beach Boys redux from Canadian bedroom boffin. Do I sound like a rock critic or what? 19. Basement Jaxx - Kish Kash Messy, exhilarating dance fare, with the usual cool collaborators. 18. The Books - The Lemon Of Pink Genre of the year: laptop bluegrass. 17. Bubba Sparxxx - Deliverance Twangy, slippery hip (hick) hop. 16. Ulrich Schnauss - A Strangely Isolated Place My Bloody Valentine with beats (rapidly becoming a genre onto itself.) 15. Junior Boys - Birthday EP Heartbreaking techno fare that will make you feel as if YOUR birthday had been forgotten. 14. Paddy McAloon - i Trawl The Megahertz Oddball solo release from Prefab Sprout guy. Based on snippets of radio call-in shows he listened to while recovering from eye surgery. 13. MoodyMann - Silence In The Secret Garden Minimal, elusive tech-house from spiteful Detroiter. 12. Tahiti 80 - Wallpaper For The Soul Best pure pop album of the year. Worst album title of the year. 11. Cafe Tacuba - Cuatro Caminos NOT the "Mexican Radiohead", but wouldn't it be cool if they were? 10. Dizzee Rascal - Boy In Da Corner Probably doomed by recent NYTimes build-up, but this is innovative hip hop. Has great flow, whatever that means. 9. The Clientele - The Violet Hour Spectral, shimmery pop. The aural equivalent of dappled sunlight. 8. Richard X - Richard X Presents His X Factor, Vol.1 Intelligent mash-up, on an 80�s tip. 7. Matthew Dear - Leave Luck To Heaven Sleazy, funky, brutal, melodic and creepy, all at once. 6. Junior Senior - D-D-Don't Stop The Beat Party album of the year. The B-52's of the 0's. 5. Various Artists - Velvet Tinmine Grand collection of obscure glam singles. Why can't all music sound like this? 4. Plush Fed Whacked-out singer-songerwriter. Had a brief role in High Fidelity, if that helps. 3. Belle And Sebastian- Dear Catastrophe Waitress Holy crap! Never thought I�d ever come around to these guys. 2. The Fiery Furnaces - Gallowsbird's Bark Garage-y brother/sister combo who sound nothing like The White Stripes. Touches on every style of music except rap and barbershop. drumroll, please��� 1. Sufjan Stevens - Greetings from Michigan the Great Lake State Avant-folk homage to the wolverine state. Elegiac (always wanted to use that word). Would be a number 1 even if it were about Connecticut. Nice artwork, too. *** There you have it, kids. Good thing I have cool friends, or I'd be listening to nothing but the Beatles and various ladies of the Grand Ole Opry. 11:05 p.m. - 2003-12-17 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
||||||