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Reviewer - James Berry
 1.
Elbow – Cast Of Thousands (18 August, 2003) V2
Like a pigeon, you wonder how such a heavy mass can
possibly fly so. But against the advice of physics it
does. Elbow really left the ground this year. A staggering
and graceful achievement.
 2.
British Sea Power – The Decline Of… (2 June,
2003) Rough Trade
More adventure in 47 minutes than a trilogy of big-screen
J R R Tolkien adaptations. And with significantly less
cash too. Proof positive they can survive with not a
sprout of foliage in sight.
 3.
Stellastarr* – Stellastarr* (13 October, 2003)
Bmg
NY kids with even more musical debt than their peers,
still seeming like the first band to step on a fuzz
pedal and make your head throb. Scientifically there’s
not a thing awry with this record.
 4.
Radiohead – Hail To The Thief (9 June, 2003)
Parlophone
This was the full service, ensuring everything’s still
in its right place. More of a demonstration piece than
a functional forward step, still nobody does it better.
As organic as it is academic.
 5.
Mogwai – Happy Songs For Happy People (9 June,
2003) Pias
Remaining brutal gate-keeping ogres of the post-rock
genre, they have finally at least dispelled the quiet/loud/quiet/louder
myth. A multi-faceted example of certain emotional depth.
 6.
Hidden Cameras – The Smell Of Our Own (7 April,
2003) Rough Trade
A giddy celebration of harmonies and sexuality, this
was like going around to Belle & Sebastian’s house with
REM to get your Christmas pressie 6 months early. Vivacious
gold-top songwriting.
 7.
Evan Dando – Baby I’m Bored (24 March, 2003) Setanta
Back from the brink, ambling in on a cloud with a tale
or two to tell this, like the last 3 Lemonheads albums,
is full of hazy tunes juggling jugged clarity and dreamy
ambiguity flawlessly.
 8.
Hot Hot Heat – Make Up The Breakdown (31 March)
B-Unique
Aside from the fact they brought the celebration and
a crate of F.U.N to new-wave revival’s party, Hot Hot
Heat, like Stellastarr*, arrived utterly perfectly formed.
A sunburst of irresistibility.
 9.
Four Tet – Rounds (5 May, 2003) Domino
A true bonsai sound architect – moulding, crafting and
etching landscapes, textures and shapes with whatever
materials come to his disposal. An elegant, if bumpy,
electronic magic carpet ride.
 10.
Mars Volta – Deloused In the Comatorium (23 June,
2003) Universal
Like being trapped in Bowie’s Labyrinth on the wrong
speed at twice the volume with solos beamed in from
another dimension. Or a double-shot of napalm in both
ears on apocalypse-eve.
Reviewer - Natasha House
1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Fever To Tell
(28 April, 2003) Polydor
Karen O leads the art-punk assault on garage rock with
an army of neon-fishnet and plastic-earring clad troops,
successfully claiming the zeitgeist in the name of NYC
without so much as a Blighty counterpart to challenge
her. Long live Karen O, says I…
 2.
The White Stripes, Elephant (31 March, 2003)
Xl
Primitive, gut-shredding, bittersweet blues featuring
the kind of quaint, self-disciplined values which should
render Meg and Jack the ultimate geeks, but actually
propelled them to rock superstardom. Respect.
3.
The Mars Volta, Deloused in the Comatorium (23
June, 2003) Universal
This is the future of rock; so ridiculously diverse
and ear-crushingly loud, only the dead could fail to
be blown away by it.
4. Goldfrapp, Black Cherry (28 April, 2003) Mute
 From
coffee-table chillout compilation obscurity to style
icon and sexiest live performer ever, Alison and co
redefine disco for the Naughties.
5. Evan Dando, Baby, I’m Bored (24 March, 2003)
Setanta
Life after Lemonheads results in an awe-inspiring alt-country
album of songwriting genius.
6.
Hot Hot Heat, Make Up The Breakdown (31 March)
B-Unique
Canadian dandies take pop-punk to a New Wave level,
with a lot of yelping for good measure.
7. Bell X1, Music In Mouth (21 July, 2003) Island
 Sublime,
hope-inspiring, melt-in-the-mouth folk-rock to make
you weak at the knees.
8. The Coral, Magic and Medicine (28 July, 2003)
Deltasonic
Drugged the masses into recognising the superior talents
of  what
should, by rights, be a bunch of Liverpudlian weirdos
making big band and skiffle-inspired love songs in a
garret, and making them into populace-conquering heroes
of alternative music.
9. Adam Green, Friends of Mine (23 June, 2003)
Rough Trade
 21-year-old
New Yorker defies the garage-rock fraternity with a
surreal album of Scott Walker (at his most pompous)
proportions.
10. Medium 21, Killings from the Dial (10 March,
2003) Island
Biased I may be, but the boys from the Shire pulled
out all the  stops
and stand up amongst their contemporaries for satisfyingly
introspective, shambolic Indie grandeur with a mean
streak to boot.
Reviewer - Alan Sargeant (Editor)
1.
British Sea Power - Decline Of.....(2 June, 2003)
Rough Trade
Pure disorientation: crank up the guitars, trashcan
the drums and leave the audience in such an awkward
state of uncertainty that all preconceptions about the
music just soften and dissolve. Beautiful, radical and
British.
 2.
Garlic - Jam Sabbatical (8 September, 2003) Bella
Union
Those pesky, shambolic, bastard creations, Garlic. With
its alt-country flavourings and its pedantic attention
to naught, ‘Jam Sabbatical’ packs and pops some breezy
off-kilter pop nuggets. Almost gets the top slot in
my book.
3.
Stellastarr* - Stellastarr* (13 October, 2003)
Bmg
Ecstatic, uplifting and moulded from the tacky, wet
clay of English eccentricity. They might not know it
themselves, but everyone from The Cure, XTC, Duran Duran,
Joy Division, U2 guests on this NYC approved debut.
 4.
Broadcast - Ha Ha Sound (11 August, 2003) Warp
Surreal, somnolent and fleshed out with the prettiest
of melodies, those wacky West Midlanders compete head-on
with Stereolab for the key territories of the delightful
and the absurd.
 5.
Tel Leo and The Pharmacists - Hearts of Oak (24
March, 2003) Look Out
Leo lifts licks and pulls punches from such peculiarly
English icons as Dexys Midnight Runners, Elvis Costello,
Billy Bragg, The Specials and Thin Lizzy - the working-class
cream of the 80s plus the tart, beery phlegm of the
70s.
 6.
Large Number - Spray On Sound (20 October, 2003)
White Label Online
Moogs, theremins, harpsichords, wax cylinders, humming,
belching, dogs, chickens and things that go bloop in
the night.. Challenges authority on every level. How
rock and roll can you get?
 7.
The Walkmen - Everyone Who........ (3 November,
2003) Talitres
Soaring and stumbling like a drunken Jeff Buckley, uncompromising
but ‘friendly’ New Yorker Paul Maroon bleeds into the
microphone and an emphatically new sound is born. For
one moment in your life at least, go against the grain.
 8.
T. Raumschmiere - Radio Blackout (22 September,
2003) Novamute
T.Raumschmiere peddles some absurdly addictive electronica
with some delightfully punk and glam excesses. ‘Dirty
funk’ - ‘shuffle techno’ – ‘noisy trash disco’? Call
it what you will. It's all rock n roll to me.
 9.
Grandaddy - Sumday (10 November, 2003) V2
Grandaddy choose to hone and perfect the indisputably
perfect pop of ‘Hewlett’s Daughter’ and ‘The Crystal
Lake’. Worthy of a place in anybody's top ten if only
for the utterly charming but bizarre trick on the stray
dog story. Stray what story? Don't ask...
 10.
Mull Historical Society - Us (3 March, 2003)
Blanco Y Negro
Colin McKintyre may not be the coolest or edgiest man
in rock. He may not be the coolest or edgiest man on
Mull, but if Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips and Jason
Lyttle of Grandaddy can eulogise his expert brand of
candypop weirdness, so can we. Don't overlook them for
fear of sounding silly in front of your mates.
Crud Magazine 2003©
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