I thought it might be useful to have a thread with links to assorted Best of 2003 lists. As someone who buys maybe 20 albums a year, I often wait for these lists to come out to help me select the albums I don't get immediately upon release. (Now that I'm at the stage of my life where few of my friends at all approximate my musical tastes, this forum, critical "consensus," and my Amazon "recommendations" guide my buying and borrowing.)

A few suggested guidelines:
1. Post links, not the entire list (I'm envisioning this more as a reference thread).
2. I'm thinking this of this as an albums thread, but singles lists are OK, too.
3. Provide the top 3-5 picks so readers can decide whether they want to explore further.
4. Readers' lists are OK, as long as they required actual thought (in other words, Amazon's list of customer favorites is not acceptable because it's just based on sales figures).
5. Only link lists that reflect a group, not individuals. Exceptions can be made for prominent critics (e.g., Greil Marcus) or your own lists on other websites.
6. Please, please, please -- and this is the only guideline I really care about -- don't poll-crap just because your favorite album or your favorite band isn't listed where you think it should be (or because you think the #1 album is a worthless pile of dung). If you want to poll-crap, start your own thread.

To get things started, here's Amazon's editors' top 100 picks. Their reviews of individual albums are dicey (they're not in the business of trashing their product), but on something like this those conflicts don't really come into play.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...106079-9871141
Top albums: 1) OutKast - Speakerboxxx/Love Below, 2) Shins - Chutes Too Narrow, 3) Elephant - White Stripes, 4) Give Up - Postal Service, 5) Electric Version - New Pornographers

This might be stretching rule #5 a bit, but a guy I talk to on another message board posted his Top 25 not too long ago. My own list (that will run closer to the new year) will look quite different, but I really enjoyed the read.

He also has one song per album available for streaming just below his comments.

didn't cody chesnutt come out last year? that's when I bought it.

Depending on the time of year, they may spill into the following one because it doesn't really have time to "break" before the year-end lists come out.

The Onion AV Club just posted one of my favorite year-end lists...The Least Essential Albums of 2003. As a bonus feature, this year, they also did The Least Essential Reality TV Offshoots. While these lists won't help anyone decide what to buy, they're certainly an entertaining read...

The online mag everyone loves to hate, Pitchfork, has posted their Top 50 list here -- http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/top/2003/

Top 5...
5. Manitoba: Up In Flames
4. Radiohead: Hail To The Thief
3. Sufjan Stevens: Greetings From Michigan
2. The Books: The Lemon of Pink
1. The Rapture: Echoes

Most surprising part of the poll -- the omission of the White Stripes' Elephant entirely. [Note: not slagging the list -- just very surprised since the album seems to be appearing very high in a lot of other year-end lists I've seen.]

Wow. That's really amazing. I haven't looked at the list yet, though I'm about to read it now. I did rather like their singles feature.

I never expected The Rapture to take #1. I thought it might make the top 20, but jeez. I figured Radiohead would be in the top 5 but The Books, Sufjan Stevens and Manitoba? Here's to PFM for being unpredictable!

My insider info (a newswriter buddy) had told me that the top 50 was "really weird." I'm thinking that the ballots were so spread out that those albums may have cleared the way w/ a minimum number of votes (kinda like the way the California recall worked, aaaaahahaha I crack myself up).

Here's another one to 2k3 for being a year that didn't allow any ONE disc to shine (like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot) over the others (but I suppose you could make a case for Elephant & Speakerboxxx/The Love Below).

As for The White Stripes, I believe that Brent D. lampooned it.

And another one, this time from Spin: http://www.spin.com/modules.php?op=m...rticle&sid=243

5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Fever To Tell
4. 50 Cent: Get Rich or Die Tryin'
3. Strokes: Room On Fire
2. Outkast: Speakerboxx/Room Below
1. White Stripes: Elephant

Blender's list has been out a while but here's a link to it:

http://www.blender.com/articles/article_563.html (It doesn't include the whole list though, they want to make you actually PAY for the magazine, the nerve)

Where is Yancey's list? I assume you have a top 30 done for Neumu and/or Pazz 'n' Jop by now?

I think this page will continuously take you to the Neumu DailyReport page, but at any rate, Ben Gook posted his top 12 records. I'm kinda bewildered that he called Broken Social Scene "pretty obscure" since it, well, isn't. At all. But okay.

Man. I need to listen to this Prefuse album again because I'm just not "getting it" or something. It is completely lost on me. I feel like the only person that can barely sit through it.

i didn't submit a top 30 to neumu this year, fallow. rather do it somewhere that i get paid for it. i've been at work on a rambling, long-ass year-end essay, location tba, though there are several possibilities.

pazz & jop runs in february.

be on the lookout for flak's year-end mix (a nice feature) that should be up mid january.

mtv 2's most played rock videos
5. swing swing all american rejects
4. faint linkin park
3. stacey's mom fountains of wayne
2. the scientist coldplay
1. bring me to life evanesance

Tiny Mix Tapes posts their top 25.

Year-end crown for Best Writing of a uuuh year-end album list goes to the ever-friendly TMT Staff. Excellent job, Penny Lane! I contend some of yr choices but the blurbs are top notch.

Great band, but their previous 2 albums were quite a bit better than this one.

hfs top 99.1 (voted by listeners) of 2003 (the top 10)
10. staind so far away
9. evanesance bring me to life (only thing good that came out of dardevil was this song, and jennifer garner in tight leather according to the dj)
8. queens of the stone age no one knows
7. coldplay clocks
6. red hot chili peppers can't stop
5. white stripes seven nation army
4. trapt headstrong
3. outkast/andre 3000 hey ya!
2. linkin park faint
1. audioslave like a stone

Thanks so much! We usually work pretty hard on the blurbs. You contend my choices personally or the overall choices? I didn't even hear most of the records that made our best-of list!

And I never did get ahold of Fennesz's Live from Japan.

Great list of metal albums at metal-rules.com best of 2003

Their top five overall were:

1. Iron Maiden - Dance of Death
2. Kind Diamond - The Puppet Master
3. Helloween - Rabbits Don't Come Easy
4. Grave Digger - Reinhold
5. Black Label Society - The Blessed Hellride.

Lots of interesting choices in the individual staff member lists.

Here's my list from the paper I work for and do occasional critiquing at:

http://www.newsreview.info/apps/pbcs...TAIN/112310036

I just meant the list in general. Like I've said in the past, The Wrens disc doesn't do anything for me. Neither do those put out by Radiohead, The White Stripes, The Books and Manitoba. I was very excited to see Lightning Bolt put up so high, as well as the mere mention of [[[[VVRSSNN]]]].

And Live From Japan roXors my soXors; I highly recommend it.

Well where the hell did you get it? I want to hear it but haven't been able to find it anywhere.

I haven't heard The Books or Manitoba. Neither have I heard Lightning Bolt or [[[[VVRSSNN]]]]. I HATE the name of that second band and probably won't listen to them just on principle.

www.AltCountryTab.com posts the results of its year-end poll:

5. Gillian Welch - Soul Journey
4. Ryan Adams - Rock 'N' Roll
3. Drive By Truckers - Decoration Day
2. Ryan Adams - Love Is Hell
1. Jayhawks - Rainy Day Music

http://www.altcountrytab.com/year_2003_poll/

All you middle-aged NPR listeners, you'll love this! (And I mean that in a nice way, as somebody who fairly close matches that demographic, and whose favorites align with theirs -- 'cept for the continued Ryan Adams love.)

from www.anyoneseenthebridge.com (largest Dave Matthews Band community on the net)

http://ucsub.colorado.edu/~mullism/top25/page1.html

I got it as a gift, so I'm not so sure. I just searched around on the inner-net and didn't come up with anything either...at Insound OR his official website. I'm on an unfortunately slow modem so it takes ridiculously long to load sites, though I can keep looking once I get back to school. I emailed the friend that gave it to me to see how he snagged a copy (that is a better friend than I realized...).

http://www.metacritic.com/music/bests/2003.shtml

This is kinda odd, since it's based on reviews done throughout the year, rather than somebody (or somebodies) looking back at the year. So it will tend to over-include albums that don't hold up to reflection and undercount albums people warm up to over time. The page also has lists of some other sites' and magazines' "best of" lists.

Plus, the #1 album is music that is, what, 25-30 years old?

1. Led Zeppelin - How the West Was Won
2. John Cale - HoboSapiens
3. The Notwist - Neon Golden
4. Lucinda Williams - World Without Tears
5. White Stripes - Elephant