I Think It's Time Now - Name Your 03 Musical Bests

[nancyb]

For CDs, the Libertines, Up the Bracket, wins hands down. Thanks for the tip, Footix.

For live shows, I'll take Fountains of Wayne at the 9:30 club.

I couldn't give Welcome Interstate Managers from FOW the best cd award because there's a few songs on there that I really don't care for. While none of the Libertines' song may individually hold up to those tightly crafted FOW tunes, their cd had a consistent sound, tight sound. Everything sounded like it belonged and I never feel the urge to skip the next track when I'm listening to it.

[SABuffalo786]

Best Video- Hey Ya

Best Song- Hey Ya

[afgrijselijkheid]

best song - seed 2.0 by the roots w/ cody chestnutt

honorable mention:

the scientist - coldplay
in the name of the streets - WC w/ snoop dogg
times like these - foo fighters
business - eminem
frontin' - neptunes w/ jayZ
jason mraz - the remedy

i feel like i'm forgetting something...

[CHICO13]

I saw two great shows at the 9:30 this year. George Clinton and The Jayhawks. Both shows were amazing. His Royal Funkness can still tear the roof off the sucka. The Jayhawks were every bit as good as I hoped they would be live.

[Real Ray]

Best Music DVD: Old Grey Whistle Test Vol. 1 It was released in the US in September.

Just look at the performances:
Alice Cooper-Under My Wheels
Elton John-Tiny Dancer (solo)
Curtis Mayfield- We Gotta Have Peace
Randy Newman - Political Science
Bill Whithers - Ain't No Sunshine
Rory Gallagher - Hands Off
Bob Marley & the Wailers - Stir It Up
Roxy Music - Do The Strand (with Eno but lipsynched)
The Edgar Winter Group - Frankenstein
Captain Beefheart-Upon the My O My
Little Feat- Rock 'n' Roll Doctor
John Lennon - Stand By Me
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Freebird
Emmylou Harris - Amarillo
Bonnie Raitt - Too Long At The Fair
Tom Waits - Tom Traubert's Blues
Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
XTC - Statue of Liberty
Blondie - I'm Always Troubled By Your Presence Dear
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - American Girl
The Police - Can't Stand Losing You
Bruce Springsteen - Rosalita (filmed concert performance)
Iggy Pop - I'm Bored
The Specials - Message to Rudi
The Damned - Smash It Up/I Just Can't Be Happy Today
The Ramones - Rock 'n' Roll High School
U2 - I Will Follow
REM - Moon River/Pretty Persuasion

If you are a fan of pop music, I can't see how you can go without this. The BBC will release future volumes later next spring. There were some other notable dvd-the Led Zeppelin one was good; the restoration of the "Kids Are Alright." But I can't tell you how many times I've watched this-I even burned an audio cd. Great stuff.

[JayJay]

They don't exactly seem to have an audience here but Linkin Park's Meteora is the best cd I bought this year. I can't stop listening to it. Best to listen to them with headphones on to really get a feel for the background music.

[nancyb]

Originally posted by nancyb
For CDs, the Libertines, Up the Bracket, wins hands down. Thanks for the tip, Footix.

For live shows, I'll take Fountains of Wayne at the 9:30 club.

I couldn't give Welcome Interstate Managers from FOW the best cd award because there's a few songs on there that I really don't care for. While none of the Libertines' song may individually hold up to those tightly crafted FOW tunes, their cd had a consistent sound, tight sound. Everything sounded like it belonged and I never feel the urge to skip the next track when I'm listening to it.

Sir, I'd like to change my best show award. I totally forgot about the X show, which was miles above FOW for this long time X fan who'd never seen the band play as a group before.

[BlueMeanie]

Everyone's mileage varies. I enjoy these threads because I've checked out the stuff fans of other genres have posted about, and often really liked what I heard.

I usually listen to harder stuff, and I buy a lot of CDs, so I'll only consider ones I own (and runners up are in no particular order):

Best CD of 2003
Opeth -- Damnation. Swedish death metal merchants, who always had a penchant on past albums for melancholy, acoustic moments, release a full disc of haunting acoustic tunes. People who have only heard old Opeth, with Mikael Akerfeld primarily doing Cookie Monster vocals, will crap their pants at this one. Check it out if you like Tool, mellow goth, Pink Floyd. (Runners up: AFI -- Sing the Sorrow; Chimaira -- The Impossibility of Reason; Dream Theater -- Train of Thought; Type O Negative -- Life is Killing Me)

Best Live CD of 2003
Life of Agony -- River Runs Again: Live 2003. Fun career showcase (six songs from each studio album) by band who definitely broke up just when things were getting going. In these two shows from NYC in early '03, they sound like they're having a lot more fun than in the past. I'd rate the Zeppelin one higher, but it's from really old shows. (Runners up: Sepultura -- Under a Pale Grey Sky; Led Zeppelin -- How the West Was Won; Machine Head -- Hellalive; Rush -- Rush in Rio)

Best Debut CD
Avenged Sevenfold -- Waking the Fallen. Goes from metal to thrash to melodies to punk back to metal. The trade-offs from screaming/growling to harmonizing are excellent, and the music runs the gamut from Misfits to the Cure to Iron Maiden. Well worth forking over. (Runners up: Echo7 -- One Step Away; The Darkness -- Permission to Land; OSI -- Office of Strategic Influence; Ten Benson -- Benson Burner)

Best Gig I Attended
Porcupine Tree & Opeth, the Fillmore, SF, 7/31/03. Whoever had the brilliant idea to pack a legendary club with a combination of death metalers and prog heads surely possesses a bizarre sense of humor. Seeing Opeth, one of my favorite all time heavy bands, play acoustic and with a keyboardist was sweet, and the hardcore death metalers in the crowd became increasingly impatient as the 90 min set wore on with no growly vocals. Opeth played all of Damnation, every mellow song from all their previous albums and threw in a really old Deep Purple cover (Soldier of Fortune). But no Cookie Monster vox. After that brilliant opening set, Porcupine Tree came out and absolutely blew Opeth away. PT is one of the most underrated heavy prog bands around, and probably the best in the world at going from sublime ambience to crunching aggression at the drop of a dime. Great mix of songs from throughout their career. (Runners up: Live 105 BFD with Foo Fighters/Deftones/AFI/White Stripes/The Donnas/etc., Shoreline, Mtn. View, CA; The Dead, Shoreline [better than probably the last 10 times I saw them with Jerry]; Queensryche/Dream Theater/Fate's Warning, Chronicle Pavilion, Concord, CA)

Best Comeback
Dream Theater -- Train of Thought. WTF? These guys descended into major wussness several years ago, including releasing a CD with a Journey cover on it. This new album is the one that I think a lot of Metallica fans wanted St. Anger to be, vocals and keys aside. Heavy all over the place, and only one ballad. Mike Portnoy is the best drummer in current hard rock, period. If it wasn't for the high-pitched vocals, these guys might be a lot more popular with the metal/hard rock crowd. But even the vocals aren't out of hand on this one.


I would list "worsts," but I presume that will be a separate thread.

[BadReligion]

Don't be so quick to walk away, dance with me...

[Aimer, Northend Diva]

cds:
Daniel Bedingfield "Gotta Get Thru This"
Christina Aguilera "Stripped"
Sting "Sacred Love"

shows:
Duran Duran reunion show, Orange County (July)
various Common Rotation shows

[obie]

Best album: Dear Catastrophe Waitress by Belle and Sebastian. The only album that made it into my daily listening and really stuck there. Many B&S fans think that it's a step down in quality from them, but I believe that it's just a great pop record.

Runner-up: Welcome Interstate Managers by Fountains Of Wayne.

Concert: Radiohead, Madison Square Garden, October 10. I'd be happier saying that I had something wildly obscure to put in here ("British Sea Power at Maxwell's!") but much to the chagrin of those leading the Radiohead backlash, they are the greatest live band in the world. I went with three other people, and all of them, varying degrees of Radiohead fans, said that it was the greatest show they had seen in years.

Song: "Stacy's Mom", Fountains of Wayne. Resistance is futile.

[afgrijselijkheid]

i notice a lot of BS'ers love fountains of wayne, but the appeal is basically lost on me - i find them overly mediocre and 'stacy's mom' to be uninteresting musically

[afgrijselijkheid]

remembered another honorable mention song

why does it rain on me - travis

[The Double]

Originally posted by bluedaddy19
remembered another honorable mention song

why does it rain on me - travis


That didn't come out this year, did it?

[Scoey]

Originally posted by bluedaddy19
i notice a lot of BS'ers love fountains of wayne, but the appeal is basically lost on me - i find them overly mediocre and 'stacy's mom' to be uninteresting musically

I, too, am perplexed by the Foutains of Wayne lovefest. Stacy's Mom is a servicable remake of Jessie's Girl by Rick Springfield, and the rest of the album is mediocrity defined. I'm not sure I've heard a more boring album all year. Totally perplexing.


For me, the Best Album goes to....
The Decline of British Sea Power -- British Sea Power

[nancyb]

No, no. Stacy's Mom is a remake of My Best Friend's Girlfriend by the Cars.

[Unorthodox Yank]

The reissue of The Violent Femmes' self titled release. :)

but seriously..

Although it may be the "pop" choice around here, "Elephant" by the White Stripes is a great album, pure and simple.

SO is "Phrenology" by The Roots, but im not sure that that was released this year.

"Yoko" by Beulah deserves mention. As with most every otehr Beulah album, It took me a while to get into it, but now, i cant get it out of my rotation.

The same pretty much goes for "THe Ugly Organ" by Cursive.

[bojendyk]

I don't buy nearly as many cds as I once did, which is a shame. That said, the best cd I bought this year was a used copy of Elastica's first album. But that's, what, eight years old at this point?

Best show this year: The Fall in Chicago. My friends and I all expected it to suck. It was fantastic.

[hangthadj]

Delgado's - Hate (us release this year, uk last)
My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves
Pernice Brothers - The World Won't End
Explosions in the Sky - the Earth is not a cold dead place
Rufus Wainwright - Want One

[fatboy slim-fast]

Originally posted by BadReligion
Don't be so quick to walk away, dance with me...


As much as I don't want to admit it, I love that song.