The Internet continued to affect the music world in 2003, from declining sales to the proliferation of bonus DVDs to the rise of industry-sanctioned services selling downloads at 99 cents a song. Long-term side effects of this evolution could include more than just different means of acquiring music: If fans only buy music by the song, then what becomes of albums? But in the meantime, great long-form releases abounded in 2003, as evidenced by the amazing work celebrated by The Onion A.V. Club's six music writers. Several common critical favorites–The White Stripes, OutKast, Fountains Of Wayne, and more–landed on multiple lists, but a whopping 45 different albums made someone's Top 10 here, while the year's most notable songs and trends sparked a broad assortment of commentary.
Andy Battaglia
1. Basement Jaxx, Kish Kash (Astralwerks) (Buy It!)
Basement Jaxx's Kish Kash takes an overabundant assemblage of dance music and carves it into something unique: Think of it as a weird sort of "superpop," where every inkling of an idea gets blown out to an excessive degree. Or approach it as a mere collection of songs, where sonic excess carries out a deceptively simple mission. Either way, tracks like "Good Luck" and "Plug It In" serve up surplus and focus in equal measure while sounding snap-to-attention cool from top to bottom.
2. Matthew Dear, Leave Luck To Heaven (Spectral/Ghostly International) (Buy It!)
3. Ricardo Villalobos, In The Mix: Taka Taka (Cocoon)
A DJ mix with more peaks and valleys than rhythmic topography usually allows for, Ricardo Villalobos' In The Mix: Taka Taka spreads intricate microhouse skitter into patterns both cavernous and cramped. A Chilean now living in Germany, Villalobos lets geographical friction play out through hand-drum runs and mechanical flurries. The grooves burrow deep, but the surface tension goes even deeper.
4. Various Artists, Schaffelfieber 2 (Kompakt)
A compilation focused on the Kompakt label's singular "schaffel" sound, Schaffelfieber 2 showcases techno leaning back, stepping on, and nodding off. The waltzy shuffle draws in part from the glam-rock slink of T. Rex, but it also leaves room for all manner of texture-minded smears and slides. The mostly German cast of producers slows techno down to murky speed, but the druggy drag provides a rush that's no less enveloping.
5. Bubba Sparxxx, Deliverance (Beatclub/Interscope) (Buy It!)
6. The Fiery Furnaces, Gallowsbird's Bark (Rough Trade) (Buy It!)
The curious brother-sister duo behind The Fiery Furnaces knows and likes the blues, but it sounds just as influenced by sea chanteys, old drinking songs, and stately ragtime odes on a debut that gets called "psychedelic" for lack of a better word. Eleanor Friedberger's knotty word-strings cinch a surreal sort of travelogue, while Matthew Friedberger's musical backdrop skulks, saunters, and skips in kind.
7. The Rapture, Echoes (Strummer/Universal) (Buy It!)
8. Michael Mayer, Fabric 13 (Fabric) (Buy It!)
9. Dizzee Rascal, Boy In Da Corner (Beggars XL) (Buy It!)
10. El Guapo, Fake French (Dischord) (Buy It!)
An electronically inclined art-rock album on which accordions and barrelhouse pianos make perfectly good sense, Fake French suffuses timely electroclash and post-punk currents with a rarefied air. El Guapo unfurls weird vocal chants, moody music-school breakdowns, and intricate synth designs, but whimsy rarely weighs down songs too tightly constructed to spin out of control.
REISSUES RIFE WITH LIFE LESSONS
1. Various Artists, Stomp And Swerve: American Music Gets Hot: This companion disc to a book of the same name shines sharp light on so-called "coon music" and ragtime smolder from 1897 to 1925. 2. King Sunny Ade, The Best Of The Classic Years: An African star serving an internal and external muse through the '60s and '70s, King Sunny Ade played floaty guitar riffs and sang wondrous measures that were no more grounded. 3. Various Artists, Rough Trade Shops: Post Punk 01: Newbies The Rapture and Erase Errata share time with oldies The Slits and Delta 5 on two discs that trace punk's flirtation with the pop mind. 4. Silicon Soul, Pouti: A startling find from early-'80s New York, Pouti saunters over organic electro-pop that unrolls like an ancient scroll.
DANCEHALL DAZE
More than just a hip-hop flavoring agent, Jamaican dancehall spewed out a slew of highpoints this year. Elephant Man's Good 2 Go boasted whacked vocal flow, Sizzla's Rise To The Occasion engaged in rootsy coffeehouse conversation, and the Greensleeves label sampler The Biggest Ragga Dancehall Anthems 2003 showcased the genre in all its chintzy, chancy glory. For underground trickle effect, see The Bug's Pressure, which layered dancehall's limp-strut beats with clubby muscle and noisy grist.
SEE AND RAISE
One of the year's most fetching musical artifacts, The Work Of Director Michel Gondry granted DVD status to videos that raise the bar for songs that are hard to separate from their mini-movie treatments. From Kylie Minogue literally outgrowing her role in a ho-hum routine to Meg White replicating by way of her monotonous drum bash, Gondry's videos dig into music's metaphysical makeup–formalist structures, lyrical suggestions, and so on–and make its ethereal effects real. Gondry's range is impressive (from Björk and The White Stripes to Daft Punk and Foo Fighters), but he has a way of making songs his own while translating their sound to pictures.
Josh Modell
1. Death Cab For Cutie, Transatlanticism (Barsuk) (Buy It!)
Seattle underdog Death Cab For Cutie made three terrific albums before this one, but none captured the band's balance of vulnerability and potency the way Transatlanticism does. By turns enormously joyous and overwhelmingly sad, the disc explores human contact from varying proximities, measuring the effects of distance on love. The conclusion from singer-guitarist Ben Gibbard, as repeated in Transatlanticism's swelling, brilliant, eight-minute title track: "I need you so much closer."
2. The Decemberists, Her Majesty The Decemberists (Kill Rock Stars) (Buy It!)
Everything about The Decemberists might at first seem a bit showy, from its Edward Gorey-esque album artwork to singer Colin Meloy's affected delivery and tangy, packed-tight lyrics. But like timeless albums by the singular bands to which it's often compared–The Smiths, Belle And Sebastian, Neutral Milk Hotel–Her Majesty The Decemberists proves fantastic and welcoming once its outer hull is breached.
3. Cat Power, You Are Free (Matador) (Buy It!)
4. Crooked Fingers, Red Devil Dawn (Merge) (Buy It!)
Eric Bachmann's third album as Crooked Fingers doesn't stray far from the first two, though it does add lushness–more strings, some horns–to the formula. Bachmann's stark, dark tales don't require much adornment: Like the great, timeless singer-songwriter records that inspired it, Red Devil Dawn relies on powerful skeletons to keep it standing. Case in point: the nearly naked but intensely powerful "Boy With (100) Hands."
5. The Postal Service, Give Up (Sub Pop) (Buy It!)
6. Clem Snide, Soft Spot (spinART) (Buy It!)
7. The White Stripes, Elephant (V2) (Buy It!)
It didn't ignite the promised garage-rock revolution, and it didn't sell a gazillion copies, either, but The White Stripes' Elephant–its first album written and recorded with the whole world watching–still managed to shake and break in all the right places. The most commercial aspects of White Blood Cells disappeared, making way for a dirty, daring set that succeeds both when gentle ("I Want To Be The Boy To Warm Your Mother's Heart") and when caustic ("Ball And Biscuit").
8. Danko Jones, We Sweat Blood (Bad Taste) (Buy It!)
Finding the exact mixture of cheekiness and dedication necessary for successful Rock-with-a-capital-R in the 21st century is tricky business. It's all polarized for easier consumption, with the too-serious Linkin Parks at one end and the simply retarded Limp Bizkits at the other. Canadian band Danko Jones–huge in Sweden and its native Canada, relatively unknown elsewhere–hits the mark squarely with its second proper album, We Sweat Blood, proving that fans of Black Flag and Kiss aren't always different people.
9. Radiohead, Hail To The Thief (Capitol) (Buy It!)
10. Electric Six, Fire (Beggars XL) (Buy It!)
GREAT SONGS FROM ALBUMS THAT DIDN'T MAKE THE LIST
1. The New Pornographers, "All For Swinging You Around"; 2. Broken Social Scene, "Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl"; 3. Clearlake, "Almost The Same"; 4. Longwave, "Everywhere You Turn"; 5. Low, "Murderer"; 6. Jet, "Are You Gonna Be My Girl"; 7. Arab Strap, "The Shy Retirer"; 8. Xiu Xiu, "Fast Car"; 9. Grandaddy, "The Go In The Go-For-It"; 10. Iron And Wine, "Such Great Heights"; 11. Grand Buffet, "Matt And Nate"; 12. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, "Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone?"; 13. The Shins, "Young Pilgrims"
STOP SAYING IT AND MAYBE IT'LL GO AWAY
The voice: Alex Trebek's. The clue: "The three-letter word for the genre of confessional music that includes the likes of Dashboard Confessional and Bright Eyes." Correct response: "What is emo?" Finding a clear definition isn't that simple: Categorizations mostly sound as subjective as the Supreme Court's "I know it when I see it" stance on obscenity, and oftentimes, they're just as offensive. Even over the course of 300 pages, Andy Greenwald's entertaining book Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, And Emo can't crack it. The only surefire use for the word: If a band actually claims to be emo, its chance of suckiness skyrockets. What's next, inclusion in the Oxford English Dictionary?
ELLIOTT SMITH, 1969-2003
An alarming amount of chatter immediately following Elliott Smith's October suicide had the same strangely arrogant message: "Didn't you see it coming?" The answer: "Of course not." Smith's music connected not only because it was often immaculately despairing, but because of the between-the-lines message in its delivery. Songs of exceptional, harrowing beauty were born from his depression, but they served as therapy both for their writer and for his audience. Why not think that the music he created right up to the end–a double album he was finishing will likely come out in 2004–would continue to sustain him? Here's hoping that Smith will be remembered more for his stunning songs than for the horrific way he died.
Noel Murray
1. Constantines, Shine A Light (Sub Pop) (Buy It!)
Track for track, there were stronger records in 2003, like the record at #2 (a ceremonial slot for unassailable "new classics," equally belonging to The White Stripes and The New Pornographers). But Constantines gets the nod because, like list bookender The Fiery Furnaces, it did the most to move its chosen form beyond angular, skuzzy retro-punk. Both bands invented new ways to describe the decay of the modern world, and the joy that can be had in kicking around the rubble.
2. Fountains Of Wayne, Welcome Interstate Managers (S-Curve/Virgin) (Buy It!)
3. June Carter Cash, Wildwood Flower (Dualtone) (Buy It!)
More memento than music, Wildwood Flower provides a lovely sketch of June Carter Cash's final days, as she enjoyed a casual, quiet, warm recording session with Johnny Cash and hummed away at old standards steeped in the description of fading moments.
4. Josh Rouse, 1972 (Rykodisc) (Buy It!)
5. The Rosebuds, The Rosebuds Make Out (Merge) (Buy It!)
The Rosebuds' snappy debut album initially sounds like winning-but-slight guitar-pop, but on repeated listens, the clever arrangements, witty lyrics, and bright melodies settle around the brain like a fishnet. It's not easy to make music this close to flawless.
6. Cursive, The Ugly Organ (Saddle Creek) (Buy It!)
In 2003, outstanding records by Nada Surf, The Postal Service, and Death Cab For Cutie showed how the so-called "emo" genre has grown in expressiveness and ambition past the scope of insular indie-rock self-absorption. Cursive's daring Ugly Organ carries navel-gazing to compellingly bloody, winsomely sad, and even admirably pretentious extremes.
7. The Shins, Chutes Too Narrow (Sub Pop) (Buy It!)
Shins singer-songwriter James Mercer syncs '60s-style romantic melancholy with the room-filling resound of modern rock, pulling his audience through dreamily hooky abstraction. Chutes Too Narrow is a compendium of cool sounds, masquerading as mood-painting.
8. Sun Kil Moon, Ghosts Of The Great Highway (Jetset) (Buy It!)
9. Pernice Brothers, Yours, Mine & Ours (Ashmont) (Buy It!)
10. The Fiery Furnaces, Gallowsbird's Bark (Rough Trade) (Buy It!)
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Belle And Sebastian, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Caitlin Cary, The Clientele, Jay-Z, Kings Of Leon, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, The Long Winters, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, My Morning Jacket, Nada Surf, The New Pornographers, OutKast, The Postal Service, The Sea And Cake, Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros, Rufus Wainwright, M. Ward, The White Stripes, Zwan
THE IMPORT FLUX
Three of 2002's best albums (from The Notwist, The Libertines, and The Coral) didn't make it stateside until 2003. Two of 2003's best albums (from The Cardigans and The Coral again) won't be here until 2004. Thanks to Internet shopping, plugged-in rock fans no longer have to wait forever to get their hands on what their overseas counterparts are raving about, but it does complicate year-end list-making.
THE RETURN OF THE EP
Indie-rock has been keeping the art of the EP alive for a decade, and two of the year's best short-form records came from Yo La Tengo and +/- (both of whom released full-length 2003 discs that suffer in comparison to the EPs). But major labels and mainstream acts have been rediscovering the EP as a way of making introductions. Power-poppers Eisley and muscle-rockers The Sun have, between them, put out three well-regarded EPs without yet tracking a full-length, while Kings Of Leon teased its buzzy Youth & Young Manhood with the EP Holy Roller Novocaine, which featured some of the album's songs in different (and, in some cases, superior) versions. As for the best EP of 2003, TV On The Radio's Young Liars provides both a striking fragment of artful post-punk and a sneak peak at a full-length debut, due next year.
Keith Phipps
1. The New Pornographers, Electric Version (Matador) (Buy It!)
Undoubtedly, somebody spent the year making music that was more forward-looking and boundary-pushing than The New Pornographers' second album. But song for song, the band's Cars-by-way-of-Cheap Trick power-pop crushes most other contenders for this year's grabbiest music. Combining the talents of two gifted Vancouver songwriters, guest vocalist Neko Case, lyrics that kind of make sense, and a whole lot of energy, Electric Version is a classic of piercingly hooky songwriting played at the speed of sound.
2. The White Stripes, Elephant (V2) (Buy It!)
3. Josh Rouse, 1972 (Rykodisc) (Buy It!)
Everything from Philly soul to Carole King gets referenced on 1972, but Josh Rouse's latest is more than a retro stunt. As much 1972 in spirit as in sound, it borrows the variety-embracing spirit of early-'70s pop for an emotionally fragile set that swings from joyous soul to yearning pop to depressive funk.
4. Fountains Of Wayne, Welcome Interstate Managers (S-Curve/Virgin) (Buy It!)
5. Damien Jurado, Where Shall You Take Me? (Secretly Canadian) (Buy It!)
Another too-easy-to-overlook gem from one of the most winning singer-songwriters around, Where Shall You Take Me? captures a talent equally adept at conveying moments of soul-selling compromise and celebrating joyful afternoons at the movies.
6. Gillian Welch, Soul Journey (Acony) (Buy It!)
7. Radiohead, Hail To The Thief (Capitol) (Buy It!)
Shot through with the chill of impending chaos and a distrust for the powers that be, Radiohead's latest proved an all-too-appropriate soundtrack for the year that was. Filmmakers of the future: Set your weren't-the-early-'00s-messed-up? montage sequences to this.
8. OutKast, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (Arista) (Buy It!)
9. The Shins, Chutes Too Narrow (Sub Pop) (Buy It!)
10. Rufus Wainwright, Want One (Dreamworks) (Buy It!)
NEXT FIVE
Kings Of Leon, Youth & Young Manhood; The Black Keys, Thickfreakness; Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, Pig Lib; Cat Power, You Are Free; Steely Dan, Everything Must Go
TREND OF THE YEAR
The Continued Lack Of A Prevailing Trend
Though 2003 produced its share of great music, nothing comes to mind as a sound that characterized the year: It was a grab-bag of noise left over from the past couple of years. The Neptunes, Dr. Dre, garage-rock, angst-rock, teen-pop, New York post-punk fetishists: There was more of all of the above, but didn't it feel like there was less, too, as if music were waiting for something new that hadn't quite come along yet?
CUT DUE TO A TECHNICALITY
Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man, Out Of Season
A haunting song-set from the voice of Portishead and, uh, the bass player of Talk Talk, Out Of Season made its debut as an import last fall before receiving an unjustly ignored U.S. release this fall. As stunningly atmospheric as any album cut by Beth Gibbons' usual employer, Out Of Season deserves to be heard as more than a Portishead footnote.
Nathan Rabin
1. Little Brother, The Listening (ABB) (Buy It!)
Little Brother's The Listening boasts a timeless, classic sound rooted in the jazz-rap perfection of late-'80s/early-'90s East Coast hip-hop. Side projects and outside production work from throughout 2003 suggest that Little Brother's stellar debut is just the beginning for a crew overflowing with talent.
2. Madlib, Shades Of Blue (Blue Note) (Buy It!)
The best thing to happen to Blue Note since Norah Jones sold 80 gazillion albums, Madlib's Shades Of Blue found California's gift to modern music resurrecting the ghosts of jazz's past with remixes and covers drawn from Blue Note's deep catalog, as well as a new composition paying tribute to jazz's most legendary label.
3. Fountains Of Wayne, Welcome Interstate Managers (S-Curve/Virgin) (Buy It!)
4. Lifesavas, Spirit In Stone (Quannum) (Buy It!)
Though it was one of 2003's most ambitious and accomplished debuts, Lifesavas' Spirit In Stone didn't receive a fraction of the attention afforded to another Quannum album: Blackalicious' 2002 release, Blazing Arrow. Soulful and impassioned, Spirit In Stone stays rooted in a gospel-based sense of morality without sounding overtly preachy.
5. InI, Center Of Attention (BBE)
After hooking up with legendary producer Pete Rock for the Petestrumentals installment of its Beat Generation series, BBE unearthed a lost hip-hop classic with InI's Rock-produced Center Of Attention. Recorded in the mid-'90s but inexplicably rejected by InI's label, the album finds Rock working at the peak of his powers on a blissed-out classic.
6. OutKast, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (Arista) (Buy It!)
In a year dominated by the hype surrounding 50 Cent's first official album and Jay-Z's ostensible last album (yeah, right), OutKast placed the focus squarely on its rich, endlessly inventive music. On Speakerboxxx, Big Boi shows that he's much more than just Andre 3000's other half, while Andre 3000 evolves into a soulful space cadet who's part hip-hop Jimi Hendrix, part vintage Prince. The line "Shake it like a Polaroid picture," from the ubiquitous single "Hey Ya!," gave hip-hop its most infectious product placement since Run DMC rapped about its members' Adidas.
7. Viktor Vaughn, Vaudeville Villain (Sound-Ink) (Buy It!)
8. R. Kelly, Chocolate Factory (Jive) (Buy It!)
9. Bubba Sparxxx, Deliverance (Beatclub/Interscope) (Buy It!)
10. Diverse, One A.M. (Chocolate Industries) (Buy It!)
NUISANCE LAWSUIT OF THE YEAR
Rosa Parks vs. OutKast
When OutKast named a joyous, celebratory single "Rosa Parks," the duo probably felt good about paying tribute to an icon of the civil-rights movement. The move backfired, however, when Parks sued OutKast for allegedly defaming her and violating her trademark rights. The idea that one of the most popular acts in music would try to piggyback on Parks' fame is ridiculous, but that didn't prevent her case from making it all the way to the Supreme Court.
GRAMMY MATCH-UP OF THE YEAR
Fountains Of Wayne vs. 50 Cent
If an act consistently does great work over an extended period of time, it will eventually be rewarded with a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. That seems to be the lesson to be gleaned from Fountains Of Wayne's long-overdue but confounding Best New Artist nomination. The group certainly deserves that nod, but it should have happened back in 1996, when Fountains Of Wayne released its terrific debut. Of course, the smart power-pop band goes up against one-man industry 50 Cent, who's on track to go platinum for each time he's been stabbed or shot. (In his case, that's a substantial achievement.) That leaves Fountains Of Wayne looking a little like the plucky TV pilot that finally makes it on the air, only to be scheduled opposite the Super Bowl.
IRONY OF THE YEAR
C-Murder Pleading Not Guilty To Murder
For a gangsta rapper hailing from the mean streets of the Dirty South, "C-Murder" is a perfectly fine, commercially viable name. For a man trying to slip out of a murder charge, however, it's about the worst moniker a guy could possibly have. Master P sibling C-Murder learned that the hard way this year, when he was arrested for murder. He pleaded not guilty, of course: After all, why would a man named C-Murder commit murder? It just doesn't make sense.
Stephen Thompson
1. Fountains Of Wayne, Welcome Interstate Managers (S-Curve/Virgin) (Buy It!)
"Stacy's Mom" is a welcome smash single, but it's just another entry in Welcome Interstate Managers' remarkable run of brilliant would-be hits. Each combines timeless catchiness with empathetic character sketches that give life and breath to go-nowhere townies, alcoholic account executives, star quarterbacks, and bored teenagers. Best of all is "Hackensack," an achingly pretty, funny/sad song about a guy who stays in his hometown while his high-school crush becomes a faraway celebrity.
2. Death Cab For Cutie, Transatlanticism (Barsuk) (Buy It!)
3. Electric Six, Fire (Beggars XL) (Buy It!)
It's not the best album of 2003, but damned if it isn't the awesomest: Electric Six's auspicious debut pieces together a shockingly consistent disco-metal contraption that combines over-the-top punchlines with thrills and hooks that dole out smiles long after the jokes have worn off.
4. Clem Snide, Soft Spot (spinART) (Buy It!)
It's too easy to fixate on Eef Barzelay's sly wordplay and occasional pop-culture references, and even to affix the dreaded "clever" tag to everything bearing his band's name. To some extent, Soft Spot was designed to shed that stigma, and it does so beautifully: A collection of songs written for Barzelay's wife and infant son, the disc is unfailingly sincere and charming. Mature and compassionate but never ineffectual, Soft Spot moves beyond love to express full-blown commitment–the joy, doubt, and self-sacrifice which sometimes follow the initial burst of infatuation that music more commonly explores.
5. Damien Rice, O (Vector) (Buy It!)
At first, the whistles and bells adorning Damien Rice's debut are off-puttingly audacious: Gregorian chants? String sections? Opera? But all that is merely ornamentation on top of engaging songs that were pretty damned beautiful to begin with. With every listen to this rich, expressive collection, the window-dressing gets easier to ignore or appreciate.
6. Nada Surf, Let Go (Barsuk) (Buy It!)
7. Damien Jurado, Where Shall You Take Me? (Secretly Canadian) (Buy It!)
8. The New Pornographers, Electric Version (Matador) (Buy It!)
9. Josh Rouse, 1972 (Rykodisc) (Buy It!)
10. Andrew W.K., The Wolf (Island) (Buy It!)
With The Wolf, the less-heralded follow-up to last year's monumentally entertaining I Get Wet, Andrew W.K. didn't do much to emerge from the margins of popular culture: As his subject matter expanded beyond his fixation on partying, W.K. cemented his cult status while shedding his ubiquity. The Wolf disappointed a few fans who expected an I Get Wet rewrite, but it wisely expanded the showman's palette to include genuinely stirring motivational anthems and a newfound emphasis on endearingly grand rock majesty.
BEST SONGS
1. Fountains Of Wayne, "Hackensack"; 2. Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash, "As Long As The Grass Shall Grow"; 3. Death Cab For Cutie, "Transatlanticism"; 4. The Postal Service, "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight"; 5. Clem Snide, "Find Love"; 6. Drive-By Truckers, "Outfit"; 7. Electric Six, "Improper Dancing"; 8. Josh Rouse, "Rise"; 9. Stars, "Elevator Love Song"; 10. Junior Senior, "Move Your Feet"; 11. The New Pornographers, "The Laws Have Changed"; 12. The Notwist, "One With The Freaks"; 13. Pernice Brothers, "The Weakest Shade Of Blue"; 14. Andrew W.K., "Totally Stupid"; 15. Nada Surf, "Inside Of Love"; 16. Radiohead, "Myxomatosis"; 17. The Jayhawks, "Save It For A Rainy Day"; 18. Bonnie "Prince" Billy, "The Way"; 19. Sun Kil Moon, "Carry Me Ohio"; 20. The Shins, "Gone For Good"
BEST VAULT-DREDGING
Jeff Buckley, Live At Sin-é & Johnny Cash, Cash Unearthed (tie)
Every year brings numerous compilations raiding the tombs of dead musicians, from Tupac Shakur to Elvis Presley to Jimi Hendrix and beyond. But when done right–for example, when the discs aren't just rehashing previously released material–posthumous compilations can offer a profound connection to the dead. Covering opposite ends of their subjects' respective career spectrums, Live At Sin-é (which gathers more than two hours of Jeff Buckley's oft-transcendent and un-bootlegged early performances) and Cash Unearthed (a treasure trove with 64 unreleased late-period Johnny Cash outtakes) are essential additions to the artists' glorious catalogs. Whether it's Buckley conjuring verse after obscure verse of a Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan song or Cash performing a mesmerizing duet with his wife near the end of both their lives, each set doles out bittersweet joy and awe in equal measure.
WORST MUSICAL WAR PROFITEERING
Darryl Worley, "Have You Forgotten?"
The debate over war in the Middle East yielded abysmal songs on both sides of the issue's ideological divide, but no single track was worse than Darryl Worley's "Have You Forgotten?", which vaulted the opportunistic country-music obscurity from roadhouses to arenas virtually overnight. The song doesn't explicitly state that Saddam Hussein attempted to acquire uranium from Niger, but it's packed with distortions: It creates the false choice between going to war and "backing down," and it crafts arguments against positions no one has taken. "And you say we shouldn't worry 'bout bin Laden"–who ever said that? In 2003, mainstream country music's widespread rejection and blackballing of the Dixie Chicks illustrated one more factor contributing to the genre's creative bankruptcy: Where the greats once challenged authority, today's self-proclaimed "outlaws" (Toby Keith, et al) attack dissenters while defending the establishment with a maniacal, censorious fervor.