Tim’s 2003

Tim’s 2003

I’d be doing myself and my bandmates a disservice if I didn’t put our debut album at #1. What a weird year to be a recording artist – charts filled with the dregs of Britpop, fringe dance music, novelty indie, ghastly pop and a pervasive feeling of rudderlessness! A year later, things started to make sense, but 2003 is a lost year for music IMO.

Albums

1. Good Science/Friendly Gods (Donderevo) – highly acclaimed upon release and championed by no less than John Peel, Steve Lamacq and Tom Robinson, our debut disappeared before it achieved it’s purpose: to destroy the universe. For years I’ve worried that it’s too scattered and unfocussed, jap-pop, Ambient, Folk, Pavement, Weezer and Grandaddy, but it’s actually very much a product of it’s time – post-rock-post-modern toe-tapping space-pop for a schizophrenic and disillusioned era in British music. Turned out to be pretty influential on our hugely successful label mates The Killers, Franz Ferdinand and others.
2. The Lemon of Pink (The Books) – Perhaps the best album of the decade. Inspired, disquieting and beautiful from start to finish.
3. Dear Catastrophe Waitress (Belle and Sebastian) – this band of Scots have always appealed to me, but this was a complete departure from their previously lo-fi indie records. A muscular and dimensional pop album with astonishing production.
4. A Strangely Isolated Place (Ulrich Schnauss) – simply the perfect ambient album. Perhaps my #1 desert island disc.
5. Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts (M83) – the debut album from one of the most influential artist of the millennium. Every epic pop song you hear on the radio with a massive washy synth pad owes a debt to Anthony Gonzalez innovation to create My Bloody Valentine-esque soundscapes that would make Eno shudder.
6. Sumday (Grandaddy) – Jason Lytle is one of my favourite songwriters, and this is his most consistent work to date. Though his lyrics remains in the realms of bleak sci-fi and Ballardian dystopic modern life, Sumday is a joyful album, perfect for a summer drive through forests of discarded computers and broken down androids.
7. Apple O’ (Deerhoof) – Deerhoof seem almost normal now that every indie band in the world has embraced experimental instrumentation and recording techniques, but in 2003 this was a very shocking loud noise, still is.
8. Analord (Aphex Twin) – Aphex Twin’s music is uncategorizable, and this sprawling project covers everything from ambient and electro to drum & bass, though none of those genres can truly claim him as their own. A huge section of Analord is devoted to the infamous ‘Amen’ break, heavily used in early Jungle and Drum & Bass, and a direct ancestor of contemporary Dubstep. The album was released in installments over two years, its final form containing 62 tracks and running for four and a half hours. Aphex Twin is insane.
9. YosepH (Luke Vibert) – Equally genre-defying in the world of electronic music is Aphex Twin’s mate Luke Vibert aka Wagon Christ aka Amen Andrews. He’s among my favourite producers, and his ultra-tight beat making starts with Yoseph. Vibert pays tribute to the heyday of Acid House with this album, but tinged with his signature dischord of uneasy pads and super-tight beats.
10. Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place (Explosions In The Sky) – very special ambient music with heart.

Songs

1. Questions and Answers (Biffy Clyro) – Scottish 3-piece Biffy Clyro have never quite lived up to this, their Sebadoh-esque debut single. They are masterful arrangers, and this song contains some of my favourite backing vocals.
2. I Went To A Wedding (Half Man Half Biscuit) – Nigel Blackwell had been writing hilarious satirical songs for 20 years before this came out – he’s still writing, and still hilarious. This is a particularly pretty example.
3. Eple (Röyksopp) – an incredible piece of quirky electronic music that, at least in Europe, was the soundtrack to the optimistic futurism of the 2000s. If we could’ve gotten a penny out of our record company we’d have commissioned remixes from these Norwegian bleepers, with whom we shared a music lawyer.
4. Hysteria (Muse) – I remember seeing this song on Top Of The Pops and feeling my jaw dropping as I watched Christopher Wolstenholme hammer out that insane bassline. Stunning track from a great British band and one of the greatest basslines of all time.
5. Jessica (Adam Green) – I’d pretty much gotten over the novelty of The Moldy Peaches when I heard this album, and realized that Adam Green is a master songsmith. ‘Jessica’ still makes me laugh – so horribly disrespectful to poor Jessica Simpson!
6. Strict Machine (Goldfrapp) – innovative synth-glam – a huge shift for this strange band.
7. Danger! High Voltage! (Electric Six) – One-hit-wonder? Novelty-band? Yes – and so much more. Just watch the video!
8. I Believe In A Thing Called Love (The Darkness) – another flash-in-the-pan novelty act, but a great song! Check out other singles ‘Get Your Hands off My Woman’, and ‘Growing On Me’.
9. Oh God, Where Are You Now? (In Pickeral Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?) (Sufjan Stevens) – I feel as though I should hate Sufjan Stevens and all he stands for, but I can’t because he’s just fantastic. This self-recorded debut album, is a work of genius. Sadly, it ushered in an age of bland, uninspiring nu folk, but I think this track still stands up despite the twittering rabble of wannabe folkies.
10. זה רעיון טוב (The Apples) – Israeli car-chase funk with sweet cutting? Hell yeah!