Mitch Jones's Best of 2003
WUOG music director, Athens, GA

10. Sufjan Stevens- Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lakes State [Asthmatic Kitty/Sounds Familyre]
I’ve never been to Michigan but it sounds kind of depressing. At least it does after listening to the opening track "Flint (For the Unemployed and Underpaid)." But then the warm guitars of "All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! or Forever Hold Your Peace" come on and it doesn't sound nearly as bad. That type of flip flopping happens a lot when I listen to Greetings from Michigan because Stevens so deftly switches from haunting and gloomy to warm and melodious. This is a hypnotic and entrancing emotional roller coaster and I understand those are the best types.
09. New Pornographers- Electric Version [Matador]
The New Pornographers's second album has everything that one can ask for in an indie pop album: unique arrangements, plenty of sunshine and energy, and lots of organ. Songs like "The Laws have Changed" and "Testament to Youth in Verse" are simply flawless pop songs. I'm writing this list sitting in my ice cold apartment because the heat got disconnected a few days ago but it doesn't seem nearly as cold while I've got Electric Version on, and that friends, is the power of pop.
08. Mojave 3- Spoon and Rafter [4AD]
I've always loved everything that Neil Halstead has put out, and the fourth Mojave 3 album is no exception. The arrangements on Spoon and Rafter, especially the epic opener "Bluebird of Happiness," are the best the band has come up with yet. The punchy production on songs like "Starlite #1" is fantastic as well. All of the songs here are simultaneously easily relaxed and hopelessly bittersweet and remorseful. It's a magic combination.
07. Four Tet- Rounds [Domino]
On Rounds, Kieran Hebden isn't content to simply kick out the jam. Instead he rips it apart, samples it, rips it apart again and makes a new, better jam. The new über grooves like "Spirit Fingers" work as trippy, surgically precise experimental tracks that can be endlessly dissected or you can just surrender yourself to the icy beat. No matter how you choose to listen to Rounds though, you can't deny the jam.
06. The Books- The Lemon of Pink [Tomlab]
Keeping in mind that I hadn't heard their '02 debut Thought for Food at the time, I wasn't sure what to think of The Books when I first heard them, I was even a little let down. I guess I thought it would be more glitch-y. But I kept coming back to it and realized that the best part of this album is that the Books don't indulge themselves in lots of glitches and electronic noise. Instead, they seamlessly create natural and fleshed out melodies that are understated and beautiful. That is much more impressive than lots of glitch and buzz.
05. Outkast- Speakerboxx/The Love Below [Arista]
What do I even have to say about these two records? You've heard them both and you know they're good so this seems like a silly little exercise in redundancy. Andre and Big Boi know all about the magic of the jam. Andre 3000 is simply out of control on The Love Below creating psycho-hop and basically doing whatever the hell he wants because he knows it's going to be good, and Big Boi wrote my jam of the year on Speakerboxxx with the song "Church."
04. Broadcast- Haha Sound [Warp]
I love songs that make me feel like I'm floating in space when I close my eyes, and there are a ton of them on Haha Sound. Songs like "Before We Begin" and "The Little Bell" shoot me into the stratosphere every time I hear them. If the whole record were just like that, it would still be an incredible achievement but the band also dives into space age pop and dissonant spookiness on tracks like "Valerie." The variety on this album is fantastic and there is so much going on in every song that it will continue to be an interesting and rewarding listen years from now.
03. Dengue Fever- s/t [Mimicry]
Dengue Fever's debut was one of the most unique records I heard all year, and though it only had two originals unless you're an old Phnom Phenh hipster you probably haven't heard any of the covers anyways. The hypnotic Khymer vocals of Cambodian émigré Chhom Nimol and the reverb drenched surf rock, with some farfisa thrown in for good measure, are an exotic mix that never fails to conjure scenes of Bangkok and Hong Kong and other alluring Asian locales. The thing I really love about this record though, besides the fact that they kick out the jam so thoroughly, is that it is a reminder in these troubling times of the universality of rock n roll... or something like that.
02. Madlib- Shades of Blue [Blue Note]
"You're checking out the beat conductor Madlib... keeping the funk alive" is how Melvin Sparks introduces the song "Mystic Bounce" on Shades of Blue. I'm at a loss as to how to capture the essence of this record after hearing that, because Sparks pretty much covers all the bases. Madlib strips each of these old jazz songs down to their very soul, wrings all the funk he can out of them and creates a new song by building around the only thing that matters, which is the jam. As Reuben Wilson says on the record, "Check out Madlib, he's the man... dig it."
01. Folksongs for the Afterlife- Put Danger Back in Your Life [Hidden Agenda]
I'm not sure I've ever come across a more appropriately named band. The ethereal vocals of Caroline Schutz on songs like "Summer Loop" and "Miles and Miles" seem to come from a phantasmal Siren inviting the world weary traveler to put an end to their searching and misery and step into the warm embrace of the light. Put Danger Back in Your Life recalls the best of the early '90s dream-pop bands while also sounding totally fresh, exciting, and new. Everything about this record, all the way down to pastoral and haunting cover art, seems to work perfectly. Seriously kids, this is only their first full length so there's still plenty of time to jump on this band wagon.

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2002 White Elephant Productions