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The Best Albums of 2003

P. Avon

Super Furry Animals "Phantom Power" From the first listen it was clear that this was going to be right up at the top of this year's releases. There isn't a dull moment on this album, every nook and cranny packed with hooks, harmonies, perfect pop and moments of explosive rock genius. Where a lot of British groups can suffer from an inward-looking provincialism, the Super Furries are truly universal, the sound of a generation. (See Live Review)

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Clearlake "Cedars" Running the Super Furries close is this. Highly provincial British indie this may be but it is also a heart-warming, chilling and heart-rending dissection of the human condition. Jason Pegg's lyrics have an uncanny knack of setting down exactly what you are thinking before you even knew you were thinking it in a clear, direct manner bereft of Morrisey-esque pretension.

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Blur "Think Tank" Not much to say about this really. There are probably still people who think that without lunatic ex-guitarist Graham Coxon, Blur are nothing but these are people who think that the best thing about Blur was never their ability to write consistently brilliant songs which have soundtracked the last twelve years of our lives but rather their guitarist's ability to make screechy noises and sulk at the floor. This is a lovely album. (See Summer Sonic Day 1 Review)

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The Strokes "Room On Fire" An album that we've all just kept coming back to. Shorter, tighter, less immediate perhaps but is many ways more rewarding than "Is This It". Also "12:51" is the best pop song of the millennium so far. (See Album Review and "12:51" Single Review)

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The Shins "Chutes Too Narrow" Possibly the shortest album of the year but so tightly packed with pop thrills that you'll listen to it six times in a row and still keep coming back for more. (See Album Review)

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The New Pornographers "Electric Version" More consistent follow-up to 2001s "Mass Romantic", the Vancouver supergroup keeps casually tossing out classic pop nuggets with eerie ease, each song containing roughly five songs worth of ideas and invigoratingly nonsensical lyrics. It should be a matter of necessity that this band becomes massive.

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Black Rebel Motorcycle Club "Take Them On, On Your Own" Picking up where their eponymous debut left off TTO,OYO begins sounding like a tribute but quickly reveals a tighter sound, stronger musical focus and more lyrical edge, particularly in areas political. This is fierce, relentless, angry music made by men with big hair wearing black leather. It's perfect. (See Live Review)

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Jet "Get Born" Like Oasis, you know you aren't supposed to like this but like Oasis, you can't help yourself. This is pure garage rock shorn of all the unnecessary stuff about creativity, originality and political awareness, boiled down to the rock solid core of a bunch of guys from some far flung corner of the globe (Australia) trying to be Mick Jagger when he was still good. A guilty pleasure.

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Simian "We Are Your Friends" It's hard to pin down the charm of this record but, nevertheless, it's been bubbling under the surface for the best part of the year, jumping out at me at unexpected times and demanding cheerfully but menacingly that I listen to it. Start with The Beatles and plot a course through The Move, Brian Eno, New Order, Madchester, the Wu Tang Clan, DJ Shadow and Aphex Twin and you're getting somewhere. It succeeds by being an amazing if unnerving pop record.

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The Electric Soft Parade "The American Adventure" Yet another great second album, this time from a young British band who are going to break hearts and save lives like no band since The Smiths. This will be the soundtrack to many a miserable night alone as well as the memorial to many a first kiss and to top it off "Lose Yr Frown" is set to become a generation of pasty teenagers' torch song at least until the next album. Flag bearers of British indie for the new millennium, a powerful, ambitious, bedsit disco masterpiece. (See Album Review)

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