Best Songs of 2003

I have two simple rules when making my "Best of" song lists. First, an artist can't appear more than once. Second, I will not rank my lists. The first rule makes the list-making harder, and the second makes it easier. This paradox creates a happy medium.

For all of 2013, I have been working on lists representing 30, 20, and 10 years ago, along with a list for this year. The weird thing about making these lists after the fact is the use of hindsight, for I have discovered new artists and new songs in the interim years and, in some cases, during this process of trying to fill out a 100-song list.

Even more interesting to me, an perhaps best evidenced in this particular list, is the commingling of pop songs that I'd eschew on a similar list today, alongside obscure tracks—ones I might not never even have heard of back in the day—that have only emerged through time.

Still, what you see below is an honest attempt to assess a year in time, merging the idealistic nature of a list made 10 years after the fact with the idea of what I actually loved and was into at the time. Given that it was only 10 years ago, this list probably doesn't differ too much from what I might have made then, but it definitely has more breadth than even my all-consuming musical tastes of the time would have allowed.

For these year-end lists, I like to undertake the seemingly impossibly task of creating an hours-long mix. The order you see below represents that effort, which you can listen to via Spotify. Sadly all 100 tracks aren't available, but you get the general idea. Track notes to come eventually or maybe never.

Show Grid

Teenage Wristband

The Twilight Singers

Blackberry Belle

Navarre

Notes
Maps

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Fever to Tell

Interscope

Notes
Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl

Broken Social Scene

You Forgot It In People

Arts and Crafts

Notes
Twenty Cell Revolt

Menomena

I Am the Fun Blame Monster!

self-released

Notes
Scared Straight

The Long Winters

When I Pretend to Fall

Barsuk

Notes
In Between Days

Ben Folds

Speed Graphic

Attacked By Plastic

Notes
Homecoming King

Guster

Keep It Together

Palm Pictures

Notes
Save It for a Rainy Day

The Jayhawks

Rainy Day Music

American

Notes
I Am Not the Only Cowboy

Josh Joplin Group

The Future That Was

Artemis

Notes
True Reflections

Boyd Tinsley

True Reflections

RCA

Notes
Ossining

Mike Doughty

Rockity Roll

self-released

Notes
You Can’t Hide

Maktub

Khronos

Velour

Notes
Ignition (Remix)

R. Kelly

Chocolate Factory

Jive

Notes
Callin’ Out

Lyrics Born

Later That Day

Quannum Projects

Notes
Hey Ya!

Outkast

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

La Face

Notes
Move Your Feet

Junior Senior

D-D-Don't Stop the Beat

Crunchy Frog

Notes
Bad Day

R.E.M.

In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988–2003

Warner Bros.

Notes
Jerk It Out

Caesars

39 Minutes of Bliss (In an Otherwise Meaningless World)

Astralwerks

Notes
Vampire Racecourse

The Sleepy Jackson

Lovers

Capitol

Notes
Fortune Faded

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Greatest Hits

Warner Bros.

Notes
It’s My Life

No Doubt

The Singles 1992–2003

Interscope

Notes
I Miss You

Blink-182

Blink-182

Geffen

Notes
We Drink on the Job

Earlimart

Everyone Down Here

Palm Pictures

Notes
One Horse Town

The Thrills

So Much for the City

Virgin

Notes
Not Even Stevie Nicks

Calexico

Feast of Wire

Quarterstick Records

Notes
Breaking Your Fall

Chris Whitley

Hotel Vast Horizon

Messenger

Notes
Look at Miss Ohio

Gillian Welch

Soul Journey

Acony

Notes
Hockey Skates

Kathleen Edwards

Failer

Socan

Notes
Everyday Dream of the West

Downpilot

Leaving Not Arriving

Blue Disguise

Notes
Carry Me Ohio

Sun Kil Moon

Ghosts of the Great Highway

Jetset

Notes
Tidal Wave

Longwave

The Strangest Things

RCA

Notes
Man of the Hour

Pearl Jam

Man of the Hour

Pearl Jam

Notes
Pedestal

Beth Orton

Pass in Time

Heavenly

Notes
Picture Perfect

Nelly Furtado

Folklore

Dreamworks

Notes
Staring at the Sun

TV on the Radio

Young Liars

Touch and Go

Notes
Freetime

Kenna

New Sacred Cow

Columbia

Notes
Fix Up, Look Sharp

Dizzee Rascal

Boy in Da Corner

XL Recordings

Notes
Stand Up

Ludacris

Chicken - N - Beer

Def Jam

Notes
Milkshake

Kelis

Tasty

Arista

Notes
Train

Goldfrapp

Black Cherry

Mute

Notes
The Golden Path

The Chemical Brothers featuring Wayne Coyne

The Golden Path

Astralwerks

Notes
Such Great Heights

The Postal Service

Give Up

Sub Pop

Notes
Country Robot/A Letter to Dorothy

The Incredible Moses Leroy

Become the Soft.Lightes

Ultimatum

Notes
Lying

Martina Topley-Bird

Quixotic

Independiente

Notes
No Letting Go

Wayne Wonder

No Holding Back

Atlantic

Notes
Unhappy

Outkast

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

La Face

Notes
Frontin’

Pharrell

The Neptunes Present… Clones

Star Trak

Notes
Crazy in Love

Beyoncé

Dangerously in Love

Sony

Notes
99 Problems

Jay-Z

The Black Album

Roc-A-Fella

Notes
I Believe in a Thing Called Love

The Darkness

Permission to Land

Atlantic

Notes
It’s on the Rocks

The Donnas

Spend the Night

Atlantic

Notes
Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists

Hearts of Oak

Lookout

Notes
We Used to Be Friends

The Dandy Warhols

Welcome to the Monkey House

Capitol

Notes
Toxic

Britney Spears

In the Zone

Jive

Notes
Danger! High Voltage

Electric Six featuring Jack White

Fire

XL Recordings

Notes
United States of Whatever

Liam Lynch

Fake Songs

Global Warming

Notes
Thickfreakness

The Black Keys

Thickfreakness

Fat Possum

Notes
Golden

Radio Nationals

Place You Call Home

Roam

Notes
No Better Place

Fountains of Wayne

Welcome Interstate Managers

S-Curve

Notes
He War

Cat Power

You Are Free

Matador

Notes
The Laws Have Changed

The New Pornographers

Electric Version

Matador

Notes
The Way You Wear Your Head

Nada Surf

Let Go

Barsuk

Notes
California Waiting

Kings of Leon

Youth & Young Manhood

RCA

Notes
One Big Holiday

My Morning Jacket

It Still Moves

ATO

Notes
Rear Window

Michael

The Day After My Confidence

Be Your Demon

Notes
No Cars Go

Arcade Fire

Arcade Fire

self-released

Notes
There There

Radiohead

Hail to the Thief

Capitol

Notes
It’s Over

The Fire Theft

The Fire Theft

Rykodisc

Notes
Kissing the Lipless

The Shins

Chutes Too Narrow

Sub Pop

Notes
Beautiful

Clem Snide

A Beautiful EP

spinART

Notes
Snow Is Gone

Josh Ritter

Hello Starling

Signature Sounds

Notes
Farewell Transmission

Songs: Ohia

The Magnolia Electric Co.

Secretly Canadian

Notes
Slipping Through the Sensors

Fruit Bats

Mouthfuls

Sub Pop

Notes
Jenny Place Your Bets

Dolorean

Not Exotic

Yep Roc

Notes
City Song

Po’ Girl

Po’ Girl

Hightone

Notes
Handshake Drugs

Wilco

More Like the Moon

Nonesuch

Notes
I Want to Be the Boy to Warm Your Mother’s Heart

The White Stripes

Elephant

V2

Notes
Off the Top (The Gravity Wheel)

Bela Fleck & The Flecktones

Little Worlds

Columbia

Notes
Wasting Time

Jack Johnson

On and On

Universal

Notes
The Sea and the Rhythm

Iron & Wine

The Sea & The Rhythm

Sub Pop

Notes
Let’s Dance

M. Ward

Transfiguration of Vincent

Merge

Notes
Red Right Ankle

The Decemberists

Her Majesty The Decemberists

Kill Rock Stars

Notes
Hard Drive

Evan Dando

Baby I'm Bored

Bar/None

Notes
Love Vibration

Josh Rouse

1972

Rykodisc

Notes
Everyone Deserves Music

Michael Franti & Spearhead

Everyone Deserves Music

Parlophone

Notes
Maybe Tomorrow

Stereophonics

You Gotta Go There to Come Back

V2

Notes
The Family Gardener

The Minus 5 featuring Jeff Tweedy

Down With Wilco

Yep Roc

Notes
All at Once

Pete Yorn

Day I Forgot

Columbia

Notes
Some Devil

Dave Matthews

Some Devil

RCA

Notes
I See Monsters

Ryan Adams

Love Is Hell Pt. 2

Lost Highway

Notes
Romulus

Sufjan Stevens

Michigan

Asthmatic Kitty

Notes
Working Too Hard

Lyle Lovett

My Baby Don't Tolerate

Lost Highway

Notes
Volcano

Damien Rice

O

Vector

Notes
Amen Omen

Ben Harper

Diamonds on the Inside

Virgin

Notes
Keep Me in Your Heart

Warren Zevon

The Wind

Artemis

Notes
Beautiful Child

Rufus Wainwright

Want One

Dreamworks

Notes
Princess

Mint Royale

Dancehall Places

Faith & Hope Records

Notes
The Lemon of Pink

The Books

The Lemon of Pink

Tomlab

Notes
Slow Jam

Four Tet

Rounds

Domino

Notes
Transatlanticism

Death Cab for Cutie

Transatlanticism

Barsuk

Notes