Jim's Gems: Best albums of 2003, including Amy Winehouse and The Thrills
Amy Winehouse and David Bowie are some of Jim's Gems of 2003.
While the millennium didn’t exactly stop the earth from rotating on its axis, the turn of the century brought some real and lasting changes to the way the music industry worked.
The advent of online streaming, which arrived with iTunes in 2002, signalled the start of the slow demise of the traditional record store.
Reality TV, specifically , meant that anyone who thought they sounded like Mariah Carey now had the opportunity to become a real pop star. Tragically that often happened.
Still, there was music. Harder to find but it was there. Here are my best 10 of 2003.
Born and bred in North London into a household where there was always music Amy Winehouse developed a passion and talent for singing at a very young age.
Jazz was her thing. Particularly Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington and Ol’ Blue Eyes himself who lends his name to the title of her debut album.
While it didn’t have the initial impact of its darker successor, is a musical joy.
The self-penned songs and their often-subtle arrangements give us the first glimpse of a hugely emerging talent.
The themes, though at times a little bitter and cynical show a young girl going through all the usual peaks and troughs of making one's way in the world, with occasional sparks of wisdom and weariness that belied her age.
Her phrasing and delivery were up there with the jazz greats she adored.
Amy sang like no other. Unfortunately, the curtain came down too early and there was no encore. She deserved better.
Following up the critically acclaimed masterpiece that’s largely credited with getting your career back on track was always going to be a tough ask, but Bowie had a more than decent stab at it with .
While it may have been tempting to make part two, Bowie instead went for a much heavier album with a very live feel.
He used his touring band, which he rarely does, with a view to touring the record immediately afterwards.
I was fortunate enough the witness that tour which would turn out to be his last.
Musically it harks back more to particularly the title track which recalls an infamous incident between him and Gary Numan in 1980.
As well as 9 originals it features two covers including an excellent version of George Harrison's 'Try Some Buy Some'.
The great forgotten Bowie record which I would encourage you to revisit.
Quality over quantity is a phrase that one could certainly apply to these lads.
While they don’t exactly bang the albums out, when they do get around to it the meticulousness and attention to detail are always worth the wait.
Tempting as it may have been to follow their best-selling record with more of the same, instead takes us on a bleaker darker journey largely inspired by the events of 9/11.
Gone are the trademark jazz and soul references so prevalent on the other records to be replaced by a bleaker more electronic dub-influenced sound.
Gone also are Mushroom and Daddy G, leaving 3D to steer the ship alone.
He’s helped along the way by Damon Albarn and Sinéad O'Connor who really suits the direction they take on this album. Long-time collaborator Horace Andy also remains.
Calexico’s music takes you on a journey, usually to the infamous Mexican border.
The often-tragic tales of unfortunates trying in vain to seek a better life, smugglers and bandits doing what they do best are chronicled musically and lyrically in this, the third in a series of three albums.
Tales of attempted border crossings, dodging the patrols (and the cartels), death, dehydration and many other unsavoury aspects of border life are set to a background of rock, folk, jazz, cumbia and mariachi with titles like 'Across The Wire' and 'Whipping The Horse's Eyes' evoking the stifling and unforgiving desert heat.
Think merged with a spaghetti western soundtrack and you’ll get the idea.
While it was always considered the runt of the litter, I genuinely believe everyone who saw Peter Jackson's excellent documentary re-evaluated and fell in love with all over again.
I watched it and I felt like I had spent the weekend in my house with The Beatles. This, however, is the version of the album Paul McCartney would prefer us to fall in love with.
He was so unhappy with the original Spector production that he decided to remix it so it would sound like he originally intended.
Gone are a lot of the Spectorisms, in particular the strings on 'The Long And Winding Road', which he hated.
'Dig It' and 'Maggie Mae' are also nowhere to be seen while 'Don’t Let Me Down' makes the cut.
While the songs undoubtedly sound better it's hard to get your head around it when you’ve grown up with the original warts and all. Sometimes imperfection is OK.
The older one gets the more cynical one becomes about new music. It’s quite a natural thing to happen.
You hear a new band and you immediately compare them unfavourably to a band you may have liked years ago while convincing yourself that you don’t sound like your parents.
That happened when I first listened to The Shins' excellent second album. There I was ticking off all the boxes in my head when suddenly the songs started to creep in.
Not only are these guys clever songwriters but it sounds like they have a pretty decent record collection too.
I’ll reluctantly forgive them for being younger than me. They definitely have and some Electric Prunes in their record collection, but they also seem to have a copy of The Zombies' classic which is all over the record.
Reference points don’t come any better.
M83 rode in on the coattails of that huge wave of French electronica that ushered in the likes of Air, St. Germain and Daft Punk in the mid-90s.
However, while their fellow countrymen had their ears firmly tuned in to the dancefloor, M83 stubbornly stayed at home listening to .
While the My Bloody Valentine influence is obvious on this record they’re not complete copyists.
You can also hear JM Jarre, Tangerine Dream and in particular Francis Lai and his highly influential but rather cold soundtrack.
And it’s a cold and sometimes disjointed electronic journey they take us on to soundtrack their apocalyptic and sometimes bleak look at where the planet is heading.
The Raveonettes are unashamedly retro with a capital R.
On this, their debut, the Danish duo wear their influences on their sleeves and make no bones about it.
They obviously grew up on a diet of Velvets, Suicide, Jesus & Mary Chain with a bit of Phil Spector, Shangri Las (as well as every other act on the Red Bird label).
While there isn’t an original idea on the record it’s actually quite catchy and doesn’t take itself too seriously.
This writer, who takes himself way too seriously at times, found himself singing along to some of the songs after the second listen.
Kieran Mac Feely was originally in (the band not the TV show) who I have to admit never registered on my radar at the time.
However, when the band split he started to make his own music in his bedroom in true DIY spirit.
This is the first and the best of three albums he’s made over the years.
It’s a sort of Rodriguez-meets-Beck-meets-electronic folk-meets-third Velvets album, and that nonsensical description doesn’t even do it justice.
What I will say, hand on heart, is it is the best solo album I’ve ever heard from a Leeside artist.
The Thrills were a group of friends from Foxrock in Dublin who loved American music.
They had a particular penchant for the sounds that emanated from the California coast in the 60s and 70s.
They also had an uncanny ability to write songs that sounded like they were from that era.
It was these very songs that made up their excellent debut album.
Songs like 'Big Sur' and 'One Horse Town' seemed to be on the radio all the time and they really got into your head. Morrissey was also a fan.
However, this all attracted derision from certain people in the Irish singer/songwriter fraternity who felt their success was undeserved as they hadn’t paid their dues by playing in Whelans a thousand times.
They were also savaged by the press. On top of all of this, a disastrous second album put paid to what was a very brief tenure in the limelight.
A concept album based on the writings of Edgar Allen Poe might look great on paper, but it sounded awful on record.
While I’m a huge fan, Cave sounds like he phoned this one in. The big shake-up which would happen shortly was long overdue.
Front 242: Up Evil, Off. These 2 LPs were published in the same year, as they connected in a lot of ways. I'd read a recension about them back in those years in a fanzine, which I don't remember, unfortunately.
Anyway, it told it all, said something like: it would be very hard to surpass, and there's no point in falling short.
1993 was a sweet spot year for music, with shoegazing (Slowdive - Souvlaki, The Boo Radleys - Giant Steps), indie rock, particularly female-led (The Breeders - The Last Splash, PJ Harvey - Rid of Me, Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream) and something which occupied the space between (Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See) all converging... the final year before Britpop ruined everything.
Speaking of which, there were great "pre" Britpop albums that year (Paul Weller - Wild Wood, Blur - Modern Life is Rubbish) and of course Suede (covered by Jim) and the emergence of Elastica.
A little band called Radiohead released their debut, Pablo Honey. A BIG band called U2 released the technicoloured Zooropa. Manchester band James showcased a different direction (hint: U2/Simple Minds) with their epic album, Laid.
A troubled New Order released Republic before taking a five-year hiatus, and reviews of this album were mixed.
I attended my first gigs - The Frank and Walters in City Hall, U2 in Páirc Ui Chaoimh... only now do I appreciate what a remarkable year it was for our ears. A superb climax to a phenomenal run ('89 to '93).
