WSJ's Jim Fusilli's Top-10 of 2003 For The Over 40 Crowd

[JDaniel]

There's a pretty good article in today's Wall Street Journal by Jim Fusilli (good writer BTW). It is his Top 10 best releases from 2003 for the 40 and over group - which I'm not a part of (but I know many/most of you are!!!), but am quickly approaching. I can't link to the online story because it is a pay/subscription service. But if you get the paper, you should check it out, maybe even make a copy to carry with you to the record store.

His top 10 of 2003:

A Perfect Circle "Thirteenth Step"

The Allman Brothers Band "Hittin' the Note"

The Be Good Tanyas "Chinatown"

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club "Take Them On, On Your Own"

Elvis Costello "North"

Dixie Hummingbirds "Diamond Jubilation"

Eels "Shootenanny"

The Soul of John Black "The Soul of John Black"

Sun Kil Moon "Ghosts of the Great Highway"

Various Artists "Torch: A Six Degrees Collection" (with artists such as Cassandra Wilson, Elvis Costello, Cyrus Chestnut).

Looks like a pretty solid list to me.

Hey Tug, if you read this, I know you are high on the new Allman Bros. album. Fusilli says "Oddly enough, the album works better when you play it last cut to first." Interesting.

JD

[tugmcmartin]

Last cut to first, huh? I'll have to check that out. I wonder what a list for the "Over 30" crowd would look like.

T-

[Jim Clark]

I wonder what a list for the "Over 30" crowd would look like.

T-

Like mine!

Or at least it should!!!


jc

[nobody]

I actually like the second BRMC disc better than their first. It's similar, but they pick up the pace a bit, more rockin'. If you liked the first one, I doubt you'd be disappointed.

The Eels first one is really good. I still haven't picked up any of their more recent stuff, so I don't wanna comment on that.

The Be Good Tanya's disc is really good. Female group with nice voices, playing country/americana influenced stuff. Kinda folky.

Don't really know anything about any of the rest.

[DarrenH]

I've been meaning to pick up that new BRMC cd. I really liked their first. Anybody out there that can tell me what it's like?

A Perfect Circle's Thirteenth Step has piqued my interest but I'm not sure I want to take the plunge. I listened to short samples of each song at the local Barnes & Noble and my first impressions weren't that great. It was just so-so. Not worth plunking down the $18 they were asking for it. I know, I can get it cheaper somewhere else.

Allman Bro's Hittin' The Note is very good. I really like it. I'll play it back in reverse order too.

Sun Kil Moon, huh, I've read some discussion about this band. In fact, I think there's a post about them down below somewhere. I'll go read it again. Sounds interesting.

Eels - Never heard of them. Are they electric? :rolleyes: Or just plain fishy. :D

Be Good Tanyas - Heard of them by name only. What do they sound like?

Never liked Elvis Costello. I don't know why, he's just not my thing.

I don't think that Torch various artists thing would be to my liking either.

The Soul Of John Black? Interesting. Anybody around here know of this and what it sounds like.

Dixie Hummingbirds? Anything like the Dixie Chicks? If it's alt country I'm not interested.

Not on the list was My Morning Jacket which I also heard snippets of at Barnes & Noble. I kinda liked this and was thinking about picking it up.

Darren

[Javier]

I just picked up this cd last week intigued by some of the songs titles ( particullarly Salvador Sanchez or pancho Villa), is a "suave" country rock album seems in some way like Neil Young's harvest, i think is pretty good.

[Dave_G]

Buncha junk on that list.

You old Geezers like me need to jump on the PROG wagon!

Long live Prog!

Long live New Wave!

Long live Led Zepplin!

Long live Reggae!

Dave

[Mike]

Sad to say I'm in the 40 region....

Sun Kil Moon is a great album one of the best from last year.

Eels - forgot they had a new album out I have most of their other stuff have to check that one out. Just checked Secondspin and they have 9 copies at $8.99.

The Soul of John Black - never heard of them before but I've just read some good reviews on Amazon and they sound interesting, sort of blues/soul rock fusion. They have 3 tracks on MP3 for downloading from the album so I'll check them out.

13th Circle - I didn't care for it much when I first bought it but I've grown to like it, I don't think it merits special mention though.

Elvis Costello - no no no, EC had his day long ago

Cheers
Mike

[jack70]

I've been off-line for nearly a week, but I read that list in the WSJ on Friday too Jeff. Here's his full online list (http://www.jimfusilli.com/content/music.asp), which is actually 4 times longer. He has his desert islands discs and desert island singles there too, which give you an idea of his personal tastes... something that's of prime importance to judge where a reviewer's coming from. Unfortunately, only the WSJ article has the full in-depth comments for each of those top-10 discs he lists.

His list is targeted at older rockers, so it's more intriguing to me. Too many no-talent re-hashers in too many of the '03 lists I've seen. He has some nice jazz discs listed on his full listing that sound worth investigating.The only thing on there I've even heard is Ether Song by Turin Brakes.

As for my own "2003 best of list"... I just don't understand how some people get the time to listen to that much new music. I'm just getting my '99 list pretty well squared away... It'll be another 4-5 years before I've heard enough '03 discs to venture an opinion. I feel uncomfortable making such lists without listening to at least 100, and generally 150-300 releases... and that's not easy to do in a single year. There's probably that many discs reviewed every month in The Big Takeover alone!

At least Jim's list has a bit more mainstream (classic rock sounding) discs than the ones I've seen in the more poppy publications. Too many jazz, prog, and quieter classic rock songwriters just get ignored by the music publications. There's usually one "new" artist that makes such a big splash they get included (Norah Jones), but 99% of the interesting new talents are overlooked.

The only disc I've heard myself from 2003 that might make my own '03 list is Tiny Volcano's self-titled album. Very soft sounding pop that's a lot like Wondermints. It has slight echoes of Beach Boys, Badfinger, Beatles, XTC, Neil Finn, and Jellyfish in it. I'll have to listen to a whole lot of CDs to move this down past my eventual top-10. Not groundbreaking or anything, but very nicely done if you like this style of pop-rock. (you listening Rick?)