2003 in music. • Page 5

Forgot about that Armor For Sleep album too.

 

what the absolute hell

 

What was the album that got you into Thrice? I could see in hindsight, if you knew anything Vheissu or later FIRST, that TAITA would sound a bit too straightforward in comparison.

The first Thrice song I ever heard was "All That's Left", so this album made me fall in love with them and will always be important for that reason. It kinda hits a sweet spot of melodic hardcore/emo/mainstream rock that they never really completely revisited either.

 

it was artist actually. i liked it fine when it was the only one of theirs i knew but pretty much every record that followed it is better with maybe one or two exceptions. definitely bottom half of their discography

 

Every week the last few years I remain a bit shocked at some of the albums that show up on your targets for listening - not in a bad way by any means. But moreso some of the very prominent and well-known albums that are also sonically adjacent to some of the ones on your list.

Meteora in particular - half of the album is rock and alternative radio staples - does this just mean you haven't heard the WHOLE thing all the way through, I assume?

 

That's a fair enough assessment for sure - there's prob enough catalog ranking that happens in the Thrice thread, but I'd say it's prob middle or bottom half for me too, which is more a testament to the insane quality that followed.

I think we also established that some of us (me included) value the nostalgia aspect of these albums a bit more than you lol

 

unranked

cursive - the ugly organ
blood brothers - burn piano burn
postal service - give up
yeah yeah yeahs - fever to tell
rx bandits - the resignation
thrice - the artist and in the ambulance
yellowcard- ocean avenue
the bled - pass the flask
thursday - war all the time
casiotone for the painfully alone - twinkle echo
outkast - speakerboxxx / the love below
death cab for cutie - transatlantacism
the early november - the rooms too cold
the unicorns - who will cut our hair when we're gone?
the strokes - room on fire
explosions in the sky - the world is not a cold dead place
park - it wont snow where you're going
blink 182 - blink 182

 

I should probably revisit it, but it just floated right past me the one time I listened without making much impression at all. I know people love him though, so it's probably worth another go.

I knew you'd have a few I had to put on my targets list.

Oh yeah I definitely know half that record, but I'm very rigid about whether I've listened to something front-to-back or not.

And we all have gaps in our knowledge. I got into 00s indie rock after the fact. I actually got into most emo pre-'05 or so after the fact as well, so there are some significant catalog misses.

But I kinda feel that way about people who have only heard one Stevie Wonder record or have never listened to a full album from the Commodores or Sammy Davis, Jr. or Harry Belafonte.

 

I was surprised scrolling through my iTunes 1) how many 2003 albums I really love and had to mention, and 2) how many of those albums have basically been forgotten. Then again, I guess 2003 is the start of "The Deleted Years," as coined by this great Esquire article.

Let me know if you end up checking any of these out!

 

short list of songs more important to me than farewell transmission

 

Very good point man - as always, agreed on the gaps. And yeah - I think you had me big time when we were in the 70s, I had wayyyyyyyy more gaps thank you.

 

I'd never heard Artist until last year and now it's definitely my second favourite Thrice album after Vheissu. I really love their sound on that album.

 

I didn't even know who Thrice was until I joined AP.net and @alexampersander was like "you neeeddd to listen to this band."

I need to go back and listen to this album immediately.

 

Red Sky will always, hands down, be my absolute favorite Thrice song.

 

Literally (imo) the greatest song/recording/album opener in music history

"'Farewell Transmission' must be one of the most heroic recording moments of all time, because I called in people that were not already scheduled to be in the band and I was like, “Oh, now we’re going to have a violin player, and we’re going to have an extra singer.” I called out all of these things, much like a conductor does — and trust me, I’m not a conductor. I’m the break man. I will not fuck you up if I am the break man, I just don’t want to move anymore.
We put, I think, about 12 people in a room and recorded that song live, completely live, and unrehearsed. I showed ‘em the chord progression, they had no idea when it would end, and we just cut it."

mama, here comes midnight with the dead moon in its jaws
must be the big star about to fall

 

We'll raise an empire from the bottom of the seaaaaaaaa

 

Totally completely genuine question here for you and for Pat - and I recognized that second paragraph as well from the Genius page for this song, I listened this morning and read the lyrics along with it.

The question is - how many listens did it take for this song to totally 'click' with you? Was it instant, or repeated listens revealed the beauty/brilliance? Because after one listen I would have to agree with Chris' post earlier that this was pleasant and all but did not stand out as earth-shattering or any of the other superlatives y'all have attached to it.

I'm all for songs growing on me, but just curious on this one. Because if I heard this once and without any of the accolades tied to it in this thread, I may have never ever revisited it.

 

Now talk about all-timers and important songs, THIS is one for me personally. I will never stop marveling at how subjective all of this is. Truly remarkable - I can hear "Red Sky" millions of times and never get sick of it.

As we've mentioned in previous years' threads, many of us are all chasing down that feeling of truly connecting and being blown away by a song we haven't heard before, which is why I'm curious about the Songs:Ohia one.

 

I've very rarely been blown away by a song I've never heard before. It's almost always trying to gauge potential for me. It takes me a while to really fall in love with any song/album which is why it takes me so long to explore stuff.

 

I cannot tell you how often I talk about that article with people. It's so prescient. There's a song I LOVED by a local band back in, like 2002 or 2003 that I had on a mix CD I've since lost. I've never been able to find ANYTHING on line that even mentions the band's existence, let alone the song. It's not a lost Rembrandt or anything, but it's a song that made me feel things and it's irreparably lost.

 

One benefit to being absolutely obsessive in this era about 1) getting everything I found and liked into iTunes, and then 2) backing up and moving my collection to every new computer I’ve had since, is that I don’t think I’ve lost anything in that way. But there are definitely songs I downloaded from iTunes or ripped from satellite radio sessions or things like that where I doubt I could find them online again now.

 

It's a fair question and I don't totally remember. I first heard it around 2009/10 in college on recommendation from someone who had very similar tastes to me on another board. I remember pretty early on thinking that wow, this song is something else, because I know I bought the album excited about that song alone and it definitely took me longer to appreciate the other songs as much. (Fwiw, while there's only one other all-timer contender, it's a fantastic album beginning to end.)

It's in the last 5 years or so that I've started to call it my favorite song of all time - I think I had it 2 or 3 when my friends and I did a top 100 in 2018. But realistically I think I considered it amazing in the first handful of times I heard it.

 

Interesting to think about songs that I heard and immediately knew were all timers for me. In recent years, I think it was within the first 3 listens for In Undertow by Alvvays, Spud Infinity from Big Thief, How Simple by Hop Along, and 4Runner by Rostam. If I were to attempt a top 100 today at least a couple of those are on it and I loved them all almost right away.

 

1. Blink 182- Blink 182
2. Linkin Park- Meteora
3. Billy Talent- Billy Talent

 

1. Rufus Wainwright - Want One
2. Biffy Clyro - The Vertigo of Bliss
3. Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism

Want One is this massive ornate pop album, where Wainwright builds these songs up with layers and layers of strings and horns. It's a massive big statement and these songs absolutely soar. It's half of a double album (Want Two would be released next year), but this is by far the strongest half.

The Vertigo of Bliss is basically the opposite, with it apocryphally recorded in its entirety in 24 hours, it's Biffy Clyro at their rawest, a notably more aggressive and challenging listen than their first record, but as always, some absolute winners here.

Transatlanticism is the middle album in Death Cab's little hot streak, a beautiful indie rock album, and possibly the strongest collection of songs in their career, wearing it's heart on it's sleeve.

Honourable Mentions;

Funeral for a Friend - Casually Dressed and Deep in Conversation: This was unlucky not to make the top three, a massive album for me at this time, and maybe the band I've seen live the most (it helps that they used to play Cardiff seemingly every month). Loads of memories associated with this. Listening to it right now actually, having a great time with it.

Muse - Absolution: Another big album for me at the time, and like Death Cab, the middle album in their hot streak. A great proggy pop album that sounds absolutely massive. The riff of Stockholm Syndrome is to die for.

King Geedorah - Take Me to your Leader: Probably my favourite of MF Doom's projects, this is a dense, sample heavy hip-hop record.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell: A great record, and "Maps" is one of my absolute all-time favourite tracks, one of those universally brilliant songs that every cover of it always sounds brilliant.

The Blood Brothers - Burn, Piano Island, Burn: A ludicrous bit of experimental screamo / post hardcore. A great litmus test band, you need to listen to them to about ~5 seconds to know if they're for you or not. I love them.

Explosions in the Sky - The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place: I find that for the most part, EITS' stuff all sounds pretty much the same, but of that "generic" post-rock sound, I think this is them at their best.

Envy - A Dead Sinking Story: A fantastic album, blending post-rock and post-hardcore into one heavy bundle.

Thursday - War all the Time: Sometimes my favourite Thursday album, a pretty direct and blunt post-hardcore record, capturing a band in a bit of transition.

The National - Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers: Not quite as good as what would follow it, but this is a big jump from the first album, and has a couple of all-time great National songs.

Blink 182 - Blink 182: I got this for Christmas 2003, so again like FFAF, loads of memories associated with it. It's "mature", but also full of fun catchy pop-punk moments.

NOFX - War on Errorism: Another album that I enjoyed a lot around this time, and from a song-by-song basis this may be one of NOFX's best. Political lyrics so simple that even 13 year old me thought it was a bit dumb, but some good, fun punk.