The Best Albums Of 2003

Yes, it's time to break out the awards folks - here's "The Vault's definitive list of exactly which LP's did it for us in 2003.

The Top 20

1. THE WILDHEARTS - "The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed"
   Top stuff from Ginger and co which sees them back to their "Phuq"-era best.

2. JANE'S ADDICTION - "Strays"
   The coolest band in the world return with the album which finally nuked nu-metal. Thank God for that.

3. THE DARKNESS - "Permission To Land"
   Sod it, it just makes you happy, doesn't it?

4. MUSE - "Absolution"
   Brilliantly overblown rock operetta frolics from Plymouth's finest.

5. METALLICA - "St Anger"
   In which they re-discover THE RIFFS. 'Baht bloody time too.

6. THE DONNAS - "Spend The Night"
   Totally brilliant scuzzed-up girlpunk.Think the Ramones re-incarnated as four carefree SoCal lasses and you wouldn't be far off.

7. KILLING JOKE - "Killing Joke"
   The grumpy old buggers return with an absolute cracker. One of the few albums of recent years to make a serious political point and STILL rock like a bastard.

8. SUPER FURRY ANIMALS - "Phantom Power"
   The Furries back to their sublime psychedelic best. Go take a look.

9. THE DISTILLERS - "Coral Fang"
   A fantastic slice of feral riffarama from Brody and co. and one of the best US punk albums in years. Courtney who?

10. THE WHITE STRIPES - "Elephant"
    True princes among much of the dross which constitutes US garage rock. Blooz metal so raw that eating it would probably give you salmonella. Or summat.

11. ELECTRIC SIX - "Fire"
    Yeah yeah snigger all you want but this "Tom Jones gets a series of lightning riffs inserted up his backside" collection of dizzgo-metal was superb. So bow down, haters.

12. ELBOW - "Cast Of Thousands"
    Finally, a group who can do the whole "sensitive indie" thing without sounding shite! Come in Coldplay, your number is up.

13. THE COOPER TEMPLE CLAUSE - "Kick Up The Fire And Let The Flames Break Loose"
    In which Reading's techno-rock terrorists finally realise their full potential. Scary, ferocious and just a little bit special.

14. BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB - "Take Them On On Your Own"
    Slammed by some in the press, this set of snarling post-Mary Chain riffola was actually rather good. Or so I thought anyway.

15. ANTIPRODUCT - "Made In USA"
    Three Amazonian rock goddesses, a bloke who looks like a cross between Krusty the Clown and Rob Zombie and a drummer. With an album full of songs including one called "If I Was Orson Welles". C'mon, how could anyone not like this?

16. RICHARD HAWLEY - "Lowedges"
    Lovely motorbikin' blues album from one of the best singer/songwriters around in Britain today. Seriously, check this out.

17. CHRIS T-T - "London Is Sinking"
    An absolutely cracking collection of songs from this London punk poet guy. The spirit of Tom Robinson and Carter USM lives on. He was great live as well.

18. THERAPY? - "High Anxiety"
    They get older but they sure as hell don't get any mellower and thank God for that. Excellent album from Ulster's noisiest.

19. THE STAR SPANGLES - "Ba-Zooka!"
    In an age where US nu-garage seems to be less about memorable tunes and more about getting the smackhead chic just right, it's a pleasure to see that at least some people are keeping the New York Dolls flame alive and burning.

20. COSMIC ROUGH RIDERS - "Too Close To See Far"
    Which saw Glasgow's finest go from sub-Teenage Fan Club hopefuls to brilliant summery indie-jangle songsmiths in their own right. Top live band as well.

    Honourable Mentions

21. BEACHBUGGY - "Killer B"

22. DANDY WARHOLS - "Welcome To The Monkey House"

23. SLUDGEFEAST - "Noise Action Noise"

24. BRITISH SEA POWER - "The Decline Of British Sea Power"

25. ELECTRIC SOFT PARADE - "The American Adventure"

26. HELL IS FOR HEROES - "The Neon Handshake"

27. ANDREW WK - "The Wolf"

28. VARIOUS ARTISTS - "Desert Sessions 9 & 10"

29. EELS - "Shootenanny"

30. THE BELLRAYS - "The Red, The White And The Black"

31. TIM BURGESS - "I Believe"

32. KINESIS - "Handshakes For Bullets"

33. CLEARLAKE - "Cedars"

34. FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND - "Casually Dressed And Deep In Conversation"

35. SERAFIN - "No Push Collide"

36. THE CORAL - "Magic And Medicine"

37. SHACK - "Here's Tom With The Weather"

38. THE RAIN BAND - "The Rain Band"

39. THE RAVEONETTES - "Chain Gang Of Love"

40. FUN LOVIN' CRIMINALS - "Welcome To Poppy's"

41. ALKALINE TRIO - "Good Mourning"

42. STATIC X - "Shadow Zone"

43. BLUR - "Think Tank"

44. SIMPLE KID - "Simple Kid 1"

45. I AM KLOOT - "I Am Kloot"

46. LESS THAN JAKE - "Anthem"

47. RANCID - "Indestructible"

48. FUTURE KINGS OF SPAIN - "Future Kings Of Spain"

49. GORKY'S ZYGOTIC MYNCI - "Sleep/Holiday"

50. GIRLS ALOUD - "Girls Aloud"

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