Let me start by explaining my strategy in bringing you, loyal reader, my selections for the top 10 albums that you didn’t hear in 2003.
Firstly, I would like to detach this particular list from any presumptions of musical snobbery. This is not a grocery bag of flavor of the months that can easily be discarded by next year, nor is it a hollow indier-than-thou-art boast from a bloated elitist setting out to prove how cool he is. In fact, the foundation of this list is the egalitarian ideal that every one of The Massachusetts Daily Collegian’s readers should have access to each one of these stellar records. Let me also point out that the title of this list should not be taken literally. There are most likely at least a handful of you who have heard of more than one of these titles. In fact, I will be the first to admit that there is plenty of stuff both mainstream and underground that I have yet to pick up (I hear the new Jay-Z is fantastic). I apologize for any glaring omissions. However, I firmly believe that these 10 (or 12) albums stand as the pinnacle of musicianship in 2003.
I decided to focus on the broad range of tones that the majority of people on campus may not have been exposed to rather than simply picking anything non-mainstream. For instance, while MTV and radio have still not caught on to the Postal Service’s “Give Up” (which may be the best album of 2003), there are enough heads bobbing up and down to it daily to eliminate the need for it on a list such as this. Similarly, Broken Social Scene’s “You Forgot It In People” was disqualified after I noticed that more than a few people were sharing it on canofsleep.com.
Lastly, let it be said that I tried my very best not to cheat. You see, like most music geeks, I have a fondness for making lists. This fondness is only overshadowed by my inability to be exclusive when I feel very strongly about an album. Bear this in mind when you discover the “tie” for the number two position. I can only really justify making a top 10 list with eleven albums by stating that the M83 is currently available as a European import and will likely not see a stateside release until at least Spring 2004. Coupled with the M83 album is a similarly minded album from Canada’s Manitoba, which is readily available from your local music dealer, for those who do not want to deal with those stiff tariffs on French electronica.
Alright, ’nuff said. Here they are.
1) Various Artists- “Lost In Translation Soundtrack”
The soundtrack to the best film of the 21st century so far should not be casually ignored. Sofia Coppolla’s fantastic tailor-made mix-tape is like super eight footage of that hyperkinetic feeling of being young and alive in a world of possibilities. The digital high never outsteps its boundaries and remains as subtle and engaging as the film itself. A soundtrack that features the triumphant return of My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields, back in perfect pop form with Beach Boys-esque “City Girl,” is certainly not one to be taken lightly. His influence can easily be felt in several of the other items in this top 10 and throughout the broader musical landscape.
The highlight of the album is … well, My Bloody Valentine’s “Sometimes,” placed gorgeously after the delicate Shields original “Ikebana.” But since that song is 12 years old, the next best thing is Death In Vegas’ “Girls,” which sounds like it could have been culled off from the “Loveless” sessions. “Girls,” which also appears on DIV’s otherwise lackluster 2003 album “Scorpio Rising” is pure texture and shimmer, big drums and sweet coos, and pure blissful reverb. The only downside to the album is the exclusion of a proper version of Roxy Music’s “More than This,” which makes a particularly moving appearance in the film. Perhaps next year, a “karaoke” second edition of the soundtrack will find its way onto wish lists of starry-eyed shoegazers everywhere.
2) M83- “Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts”
Manitoba- “Up in Flames”
Both of these albums hooked me nearly instantly. The M83 album is still relatively new to me, but I remain certain that it will soon find its way into the pop music vernacular. Imagine if you will, a cross between the string sections of “Sigur Ros,” the ethereal warmth of “Boards of Canada,” the blistering intensity of the final two tracks on “Dark Side of the Moon” and the prettiness of the best tracks off of “Selected Ambient Works II.”
Add an immensely rich choir of analogue synths, and you’re almost ready to experience “Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts.” It is albums as beautiful as this one that make the hopelessly idealistic belief in a utopian world without wars. Perhaps the album’s closest sonic equivalent is the Western Hemisphere’s “Up in Flames” by Canada’s Manitoba (man, Canadians do treat their electronic music good).
In the span of two albums, Manitoba has gone from crafting sweetly pleasing but overall unremarkable glitchery to the most organic laptop album ever made. Sure, there are plenty of “real” instruments (voice, recorders, flutes, sax, drums, drums, drums) featured on this album for all the technophobic naysayers, but it’s the studio wizardry that really shines.
The band’s 1960s fetish (“Hendrix with KO,” “Everytime She Turns Around It’s Her Birthday”) aptly emphasizes the exciting feeling of psychedelic experimentation on this holistically appealing sensory experience. Their live show is also not to be missed.
3) Ellen Allien- “Berlinette”
Continuing on our trip around the globe is Germany’s Ellen Allien, the founder of the Thom Yorke approved BPitch Control records. Although most of BPitch’s catalogue still has not found its way to the States, those lucky enough to be in the know were treated with a neo-electro’s shining moment when Allien dropped “Berlinette” this summer.
This meticulous bleep-tweaking temptress can use a vocoder like no others before her, and she drops as many jaws on the dance floor as she shakes asses. Electronic music has always prided itself on its ability to change rapidly to meet the demands of the technology of the hour. More often than not, it is not the music but the technology that suffers from the inability of artists to rigorously explore the space they are given with their new tools.
“Berlinette” is filled with hi-fi gadgetry and expert knob-twiddling, but the talented Ms. Allien has used taken her time to fashion aural soundscapes that sound like no other in the history of music.
4) The Bug- “Pressure”
After raising eyebrows with a string of high-profile singles and a masterful accompanying piece to Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation,” Kevin Martin (aka Techno Animal, Ice, God, the Bug) received the blessing of the two patron saints of IDM to release this explosive and fierce reggae dancehall jam record: Aphex Twin’s “Rephlex” released it overseas and Kid606’s Tigerbeat6 was the American distributor. Never one to confine himself to a genre nor constrain himself from redefining one he feels has grown stale, Martin’s The Bug project has sent waves through the hip-hop, reggae, and electronic undergrounds. Don’t worry. The white Englishman never attempts to cop a Jamaican accent and bust out his best UB40 impression. Instead, he employs the manic energy of a myriad of worthy collaborators including Daddy Fresh, the Rootsman and Roger Robinson. The second track entitled “Beats, Bombs, Bass and Weapons” sums it up the best. This album sets out to do the same thing that Techno Animal’s DHR did, to beat the hell out of you with noise.
5) Tok Tok Vs. Soffy O- “Tok Tok Vs. Soffy O”
Perhaps the biggest discontent for the current Electroclash movement stems from the way that it often sounds exactly like pop music, only boring. Though Soffy O has been bumping out of the same speakers as Miss Kitten and Felix lately, she hardly sounds like she’s been having too many dull moments in the past few years. That is, she actually vocalizes on this album.
So before you rush out to the store, make no mistake that this is pop music that would sit well alongside the likes of Kylie Minogue or, gasp, even Britney. Where Soffy O avoids the pitfalls, and subsequently the popularity, of her product-moving superiors is in her choice of Neptunes, so to speak. Coming hot off a string of releases on Ellen Allien’s Bpitch Control records, Tok Tok have harnessed their inner Depeche Mode for some surprisingly immediate and glossy synthpop that doesn’t suck.
6) Lightning Bolt- “Wonderful Rainbow”
Forget the White Stripes. This Providence twosome’s new album is the real music to rock out to. For the kids, it’s instrumental hardcore music with bite and vigor without resorting to forced growls and hollow chants. For old-timers, it’s Borbetomagus by way of The Boredoms with specific focus on melody. Luckily for us, that focus never compromises the massive wall-of-sound that one bass and one drumkit can deliver. It is truly a wonderful rainbow, though you’re never quite certain whether it will start raining blood at any moment.
7) Erase Errata- “At Crystal Palace”
The owls on the album’s cover are not what they seem. Don’t bother trying to figure out the twisted carnival of broken, wrangled melodies and dada lyrics on this little slice of San Fransiscan No Wave revival zen. Just be satisfied that lead Cheshire cat Jenny Hoyston’s twitch is most likely bigger than her bite. After all, if it weren’t, why would this frantic and wiry artpunk album be so damned danceable?
8) Sweet Trip- “Velocity: Design: Comfort”
Speaking of broken records, what were Sweet Trip on when they made this overwhelmingly complex and intricate album and how can we can get the government to issue a mandate requiring every man, woman and child to take some? Sounding like The Notwist if they took 24 years to finish every album or Four Tet if he swapped a breakbeat for a Ride album, not a second passes on this buzzing and heavily modulated album where something new and unexpected does not strike the ear. The strangest aspect of this album then is how utterly accessible it sounds and how even the most dizzying, breakneck-speed RPMs work better to relax you than any chill out album ever made.
9) Broadcast- “Haha Sound”
People squint their eyes and contort their faces when I describe Broadcast as a mix of the Beach Boys, West Side Story and Portishead. It’s only a matter of a single spindle drop onto one of Trish Keenan’s moog-backed “ooohs” and “aaaahs” before they are the unlikely converts to this unique and wonderful band. “Haha Sound’s” lush productions pull off what was once thought impossible by this critic. They actually improve upon 2000’s “The Noise Made by People.”
10) Read Yellow- “Read Yellow EP”
So maybe this album is even more well-known on campus than many of the other albums excluded from this collection, but much of the country has yet to catch on to the Read Yellow phenomenon. UMass’ darlings spiced up their Sharks demo tape with a fine toothpick to show limitless potential on their debut. Taking their cues from that brief period of time between MC5 and “And You Will Know Us by the Trail of the Dead” called punk rock, these four tracks are everything that rock ‘n’ roll should be; raw, dirty, sexy, and sincere.
Timothy Gabriele is a Collegian music critic.
