NPR: All Songs Considered: The Best Music of 2003

	Who's Who Bob Boilen hosts All Songs Considered and is the director of All Things Considered. Robin Hilton is the producer for All Songs Considered. Mikel Jollett is the Managing Editor of Filter Music Magazine and a reviewer for NPR's All Things Considered. Will Hermes is a contributing editor to Spin magazine and a music critic for NPR's All Things Considered. Meredith Ochs is a music writer based in New York and critic for NPR's All Things Considered. Tom Moon is a music writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer and a music critic for NPR's All Things Considered. John Richards is the morning music host for NPR member station KEXP in Seattle. Nic Harcourt is host for Morning Becomes Eclectic on NPR member station KCRW in Santa Monica. He's also their music director. David Dye is host of World Cafe from NPR member station WXPN in Philadelphia. Jim Fusilli is a music writer for The Wall Street Journal and a music critic for NPR's All Things Considered. Banning Eyre Senior editor for Afropop.org and a music critic for NPR's All Things Considered. Fred Child is the host of NPR's Performance Today. Tom Manoff is a classical music critic for NPR's All Things Considered known for his theories on pancultural music.

From December 22, 2003:

The Best CDs of 2003

Listen to the entire show:
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One thing about lists, everyone loves them, and in the end, no one's happy!

Well, Robin Hilton and I put our thoughts to paper and then called many of the folks we respect most in public radio. We asked them to come up with their favorite CD's. We figured this would make a great show and if you didn't like something, we could always blame them! Look to the left for the list of listmakers, and below for the Best CD's of 2003!

Where's your favorite? Well maybe its one of the listener picks. Or maybe it's a best song of 2003.

-- Bob Boilen, host All Songs Considered.

"This is their fourth album, but the first time Jack White has included guitar solos on his recordings. Hear him rage and you wonder why he ever made us wait."

-- ASC producer Robin Hilton

The White Stripes

CD: Elephant
Label: V2
Released: April 01, 2003

Listen to "There's No Home For You Here"

"I've lived with this CD for all of 2003. It is brilliantly played, full of imagination and soul. It's all soaked in a smoky sound from a time that never really was."

-- ASC host Bob Boilen

Ry Cooder and Manuel Galbán

CD: Mambo Sinuendo
Label: Nonesuch
Released: January 28, 2003

Listen to "Bodas de Oro"

"It's hard to pick a favorite song. When you put this Irish songwriters album into your cd player you'll take a journey through a collection of beautiful songs. Here's a couple of picks: 'Amie,' 'I Remember,' 'Cold Water,' 'Cannonball' and (the cut featured here) 'Volcano.'"

-- Morning Becomes Eclectic host Nic Harcourt

"For all the reasons to pick an album in the age of the downloaded song. It's coherent, has amazing emotional depth in every breath and when you are finished listening you immediately want to hear it again, but not too soon because you don't want to wear it out."

-- World Cafe host David Dye

Damien Rice

CD: O
Label: Vector
Released: June 10, 2003 (US Release)

Listen to "Volcano"

"Being from Seattle, you don't get a lot of great pop records coming out every year, but THIS record proves Seattle has it in her. Deep, thoughtful and brilliant, Death Cab For Cutie is the best independent band in the country and this is one of the finest releases to ever come from the Pacific Northwest."

-- KEXP morning music host John Richards

Death Cab for Cutie

CD: Transatlanticism
Label: Barsuk
Released: October 07, 2003

Listen to "The Sound of Settling"

You Are Free "is a beautifully sad recording about lost souls and soul loss that somehow wrestles itself into optimism, making the latter sentiment seem very earned. And I love the song 'Free,' because 1) it sort of sounds like something from Nirvana Unplugged, and 2) it tells us (I think) that the emotions triggered in us by art are ultimately more important than the artist or even the art - a radical and refreshing thought in these celebrity-obsessed days." "

-- NPR reviewer Will Hermes

Cat Power

CD: You Are Free
Label: Matador
Released: February 18, 2003

Listen to "Free"

"If ever there was a song that implored you to turn off your tv, get off the couch, and get the hell out of the house, this is it. It's all guitar loops and synths and Jason Lytle's wavering alto suggesting a future caught in the past - like the confusion of modernity is nothing more than a rusting appliance out somewhere in a field of wheat."

-- NPR reviewer Mikel Jollett

Grandaddy

CD: Sumday
Label: V2
Released: June 10, 2003

Listen to "Now It's On"

"I didn't pay much attention to their first album, so this one really hit me. It has such a gentle sound that it's actually jarring. And without getting grossly new age about it, it's an organic-sounding record. It really feels homegrown, like the music is just sort of naturally springing from of these amazing women.".

-- NPR reviewer Meredith Ochs

Be Good Tanyas

CD: Chinatown
Label: Nettwerk Records
Released: March 11, 2003

Listen to "Ship on the Sea"

"An achingly beautiful album, a wonderful marriage of intellect and emotion. Deliberate, sensitive, stately and quietly passionate. A stunning debut from a gifted pianist and promising composer from Oslo, Norway."

-- NPR reviewer Jim Fusilli

Tord Gustavsen Trio

CD: Changing Places
Label: ECM Records
Released: April 08, 2003

Listen to "Song of Yearning"

"This 3-day music extravaganza in the dunes north of Timbuktu was extraordinary in every way, but the music on this CD alone conveys the most essential element-the grandeur and elegance of desert music. There are wailing voices, deeply sensual grooves, hypnotic string music (including lots of guitar), and palpable echoes of ancient blues history. The sampling here includes some international names, but mostly, the focus stays on the music of Mali's desert north, often neglected in all the buzz over Malian music."

-- NPR reviewer Banning Eyre

Various Artists

CD: Festival in the Desert
Label: MG
Released: October 28, 2003

Listen to "Buri Baalal" from Afel Bocoum

Pick from NPR's Performance Today host, Fred Child

Gaby Kerpel

CD: Carnabailito
Label: Nonesuch
Released: August 26, 2003

Listen to "Se Que No Vas A Volver"

"Recorded late at night, in Juana Molina's home studio, Segundo represents a major step for Latin electronica -- it strikes an arresting balance between incessant chugging rhythm and languid, inward-looking vocals. This year it seemed many records, even the good ones, revealed their gifts within the first few spins; Segundo kept getting better and weirder each time I went back to it."

-- NPR reviewer Tom Moon

Juana Molina

CD: Segunda
Label: Domino
Released: July 01, 2003

Listen to "Mantra Del Bicho Feo"

"Rachel Podger is dancing this year with that light-stepping Italian Antonio Vivaldi. Vivaldi has always gotten a bad rap from the musical establishment for being a lightweight.' Well, Vivaldi's music may at times seem light, but that's the point. He was Italian, after all. And these spirited tracks from Ms. Podger and her Polish friends 'Arte Dei Suonatori' (yes, they play like Italians, but come from Poland!) makes for my favorite CD of the year. The key to Podger's Vivaldi isn't in her fingers (though she's nimble as ever with those magic digits!) but in her feet! Even the slow movements sound like she's stepping to the Baroque dance rhythms on which so much of the music from that era (1600-1750) is based. Podger dancing again beyond time and ego. Thank you, Rachel."

-- NPR reviewer Tom Manoff

Rachel Podger

CD: Vivaldi: La Stravaganza
Label: Chanel Classics
Released: May 13, 2003

Listen to "Concerto in E Minor, Opus 4 No. 2, Allegro"

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