Ah, my end-of-the-year music list. Who doesn't like those? Well, my mom doesn't, but that's understandable. She's not a big fan of the rock n' roll.

I'm having a tough time with this list this year. Here is a short list of the reasons why:
1) I liked a lot of music this year.
2) I will assign value to someone's hard work, which I never find easy.
3) I could write a completely different list in four months.
4) I have not heard everything from 2003 that I wanted to.
Most notably missed:
a) OutKast
b) Soviettes
c) Grandaddy
d) Owsley

OK, I'm warmed up now. Here are my favorite releases of 2003, in approximate order:

1) The Decemberists - Her Majesty the Decemberists
2) The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
3) The New Pornographers - Electric Version
4) Belle & Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress
5) Kathleen Edwards - Failer
6) The Honeydogs - 10,000 Years *
7) The Mood Elevator - Married Alive
8) The Pernice Brothers - Yours, Mine & Ours
9) Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism
10) Eleni Mandell - Country for True Lovers
11) The Aislers Set - How I Learned to Write Backwards
12) The Jayhawks - Rainy Day Music
13) Johnny Marr + the Healers - Boomslang
14) The Rapture - Echoes
15) The Black Eyed Peas - Elephunk

Also worth mentioning:

Band From Earth - s/t
My old University of Sioux Falls College and Leif Ericson Day Camp comrade Eric Miller, his brother Aaron and some guy named Mike will rock your world, if you let them. Though my taste in music doesn't usually go down this road, I can tell that this is solid stuff and my friends who do like this sort of thing dig it.

Mark Wagner - Pages **
You know, Mark- the guy who rents me living space. When I moved in here, he was just finishing this up. I really like it, even though he sort of tries to talk me out of liking it.

I was only disappointed by a few CDs this year:

Scott Laurent - The Truth is Lies
Scott's an old friend of mine and he's written a lot of great songs. Even though he really stepped it up in the production department, I just don't think this is as good as some of his other records. However, the song "What You See" might be my favorite song of the year.

Jupiter Affect - The Restoration of Culture After Genghis Khan
Michael Quercio has been one of my favorite songwriters over the years. But I just can't get into this record. It rocks and don't think I like his voice on top of this style of harder music.

Lucinda Williams - World Without Tears
Oh, boy. I listened to this one once. I remember a lot of screeching and wailing. It's been all downhill since the most-excellent Car Wheels on a Gravel Road for Lucinda. I'm hoping for a rebound.

* this might technically be a 2004 release
** this might technically be a 2002 release