March 1st, 2012 1:00am
FLUXBLOG 2003 SURVEY MIX
The celebration of the 10th anniversary of this site continues on with this collection of the best and most notable music of 2003. As I've said before, I think 2003 ranks among the very best years for popular music, and is almost certainly the best year for music of the past decade. The sheer number of all-time classic songs from across a variety of genres is astounding, and if you look over the track listing, you'll note that a majority of the finest artists of the 00s either came on the scene or reached some kind of artistic peak at this time. The first few years of the decade yielded some great music, but this is when the character of the 00s really kicks in.
Here's a
Spotify playlist featuring most of the set, courtesy of Sarah Peters. The survey mixes for
2002,
2010 and
2011 are still up. Check in on April 2nd for a look back on 2004.
The Knife "Heartbeats" / Kylie Minogue "Sweet Music" / The New Pornographers "The Laws Have Changed" / R. Kelly "Ignition (Remix)" / Britney Spears "Toxic" / Fox N Wolf "Youth Alcoholic" / Ce'cile "Hot Like We" / Panjabi MC featuring Jay-Z "Beware of the Boys" / McLusky "There Ain't No Fool in Ferguson" / Andrew W.K. "Free Jumps" / The Exploding Hearts "Throwaway Style" / Rachel Stevens "Sweet Dreams My L.A. Ex" / Scissor Sisters "Backwoods Discotheque Part 1" / Alicia Keys "If I Ain't Got You" / Cat Power "He War" / Electrelane "Enter Laughing" / Belle & Sebastian "I'm A Cuckoo" / The Twilight Singers "Teenage Wristband" / Rufus Wainwright "Go Or Go Ahead"
Beyoncé featuring Jay-Z "Crazy In Love" / Outkast (Big Boi) "The Rooster" / Justice Vs. Simian "Never Be Alone" / Girls Aloud "Jump" / Metric "Wet Blanket" / Chicks On Speed "We Don't Play Guitar" / LCD Soundsystem "Yeah" / Dizzee Rascal "Fix Up, Look Sharp" / Kanye West "Through the Wire" / Electric Six "Danger! High Voltage" / Yellow Note Vs. Pukka "Naked, Drunk and Horny" / Pleasure featuring Justine Frischmann "Don't Look the Other Way" / Radiohead "Backdrifts" / The Dandy Warhols "We Used to Be Friends" / The Books "The Future, Wouldn't That Be Nice" / Lumidee "Never Leave You (Uh Ooh, Uh Oooh!)" / Birdman aka Baby featuring Clipse "What Happened to That Boy" / Animal Collective "Slippi"
The White Stripes "Seven Nation Army" / The Fall "Theme From Sparta FC" / Ted Leo and the Pharmacists "Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?" / M.I.A. "Galang" / Kelis "Milkshake" / Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz "Get Low" / Raekwon "Ice Cream Part 2" / Missy Elliott "Pass That Dutch" / TV on the Radio "Young Liars" / The Aislers Set "Emotional Levy" / Cass McCombs "AIDS in Africa" / Broken Social Scene "Cause = Time" / The Blood Brothers "Fucking's Greatest Hits" / The Mars Volta "This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed" / Deftones "Minerva" / Death Cab for Cutie "Transatlanticism"
The Fiery Furnaces "South Is Only A Home" / Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks "(Do Not Feed the) Oyster" / Outkast (Andre 3000) "Hey Ya!" / Killer Mike and Big Boi "A.D.I.D.A.S." / 50 Cent "In Da Club" / Nivea featuring R. Kelly "Laundromat" / Enon "Daughter in the House of Fools" / Dog Ruff "Jon E Storm" / Junior Senior "Chicks and Dicks" / Fountains of Wayne "Stacy's Mom" / Liz Phair "Rock Me" / R.E.M. "Bad Day" / No Doubt "It's My Life" / Jamelia "Superstar" / Wayne Wonder "No Letting Go" / Pharrell featuring Jay-Z "Frontin'" / The Diplomats "Dipset Anthem" / Memphis Bleek featuring Freeway "Just Blaze, Blee and Free" / Cee Lo Green "I'll Be Around" / Matthew Shipp "Cohesion"
The Silures "21 Ghosts" / Basement Jaxx "Cish Cash" / Relaxed Muscle "Sexualized" / Ludacris "P-Poppin'" / Freeform Five "Electromagnetic" / Marit Bergman "Adios Amigos" / Zwan "Baby, Let's Rock!" / Peaches "Shake Yer Dix" / Bubba Sparxxx "Jimmy Mathis" / Three 6 Mafia "Ridin' Spinners" / Sophie Ellis-Bextor "Mixed Up World" / Mu "Let's Get Sick" / The Raveonettes "The Great Love Sound" / M83 "Run Into Flowers" / Black Dice "Cone Toaster" / Sufjan Stevens "They Also Mourn Who Do Not Wear Black"
Jay-Z "99 Problems" / The Rapture "I Need Your Love" / Liars "There's Always Room on the Broom" / The Postal Service "We Will Become Silhouettes" / Black Box Record "The School Song" / The Concretes "You Can't Hurry Love" / Guided By Voices "The Best of Jill Hives" / The Wrens "This Boy Is Exhausted" / The Kills "Kissy Kissy" / The Constantines "Shine A Light" / David Banner "Cadillacs on 22s" / Lil Wayne "Dat Boy Weezy" / Lil Kim "The Jump Off" / Spiritualized "She Kissed Me (It Felt Like A Hit)" / Blink 182 "I Miss You" / The Unicorns "I Was Born (A Unicorn)" / Ellen Allien "Trash Scapes" / Alan Braxe and Fred Falke "Love Lost"
Broadcast "Colour Me In" / Prefuse 73 "Why I Love You" / The Notwist "One With the Freaks" / Boris "Ibitsu" / The Fever "Bridge & Tunnel" / The Strokes "12:51" / Richard X featuring Jarvis Cocker "Into U" / Nelly featuring Diddy and Murphy Lee "Shake Ya Tailfeather" / Jaylib "The Red" / Freeway featuring Jay-Z and Beanie Sigel "What We Do" / Viktor Vaughan "Saliva" / Heiko Voss "Think About You" / The Darkness "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" / The Libertines "Don't Look Back Into the Sun" / Arcade Fire "No Cars Go" / My Morning Jacket "I Will Sing You Songs" / The Hidden Cameras "Boys of Melody"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Maps" / Goldfrapp "Strict Machine" / Blur "Me White Noise (Albarn Version) / Stereolab "...Sudden Stars" / Four Tet "As Serious As Your Life" / The Gossip "Lessons Learned" / Manitoba "Hendrix with Ko" / Dexy's Midnight Runners "Manhood" / The Shins "So Says I" / Beulah "Landslide Baby" / The Decemberists "Los Angeles, I'm Yours" / Azure Ray "These White Lights Will Bend to Make Blue" / Lucinda Williams "Real Live Bleeding Fingers and Broken Guitar Strings" / Michael Mayer "Unter Null" / Explosions in the Sky "Your Hand In Mine" / Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man "Candy Says"
3/1/12 2:29 am
amazing, again. Thanks so much for this “refresher”.
3/1/12 8:37 am
I might have been wrong to consider 2003 the weak link of the early 2000s. Especially since some of the biggest points in 2004’s favor came out the previous year (”99 Problems,” “Toxic,” “Galang”).
3/1/12 8:58 am
I’ve always considered 2007 to be the musical high point of the past decade, and probably won’t sway from that opinion, but I have to admit just looking at those track listings makes my heart ache to go back to 2003 again. Can’t wait to listen to this later in the day. Thanks so much!
3/1/12 10:32 am
WHERE IS “WHERE IS THE LOVE”? JK ILU
3/1/12 11:03 am
Thanks for your generosity!
3/1/12 11:41 am
@Bob K — I like to think of 2007 as the big-budget sequel to 2003.
3/1/12 11:50 am
Yeah, I agree with Chris on that — it’s like everyone coming back bigger and better. But it all really starts here.
3/1/12 11:57 am
Matt, this is AWESOME. Thank you. I am having the greatest time listening to these.
3/1/12 12:17 pm
Incredible.
Now are any Spotify nerds going to turn this into a playlist before I do?
3/1/12 1:28 pm
2003/2004 was the absolute top of my friends and I watching MTV Hits for hours at a time — much of this stuff (especially Kylie) was on repeat then. It was great!
ALSO, I technically Fischerspooner’s “Emerge” was re-released by Capitol in 2003, so, I’d say it’s worth inclusion here.
3/1/12 1:45 pm
Yeah, I guess you’re right about Fischerspooner but I bought that CD in 2001 and it’s so it’s closely connected with that year for me. I don’t think I really listened to it in 2003.
3/2/12 12:49 pm
[...] more var addthis_product = ‘wpp-255′; var addthis_config = {”data_track_clickback”:true};* Matthew Perpetua has posted his 2003 Survey Mix as part of his Fluxblog 10th Anniversary celebration, and this one’s an absolute beast. Hey [...]
3/3/12 2:23 am
Just another chance to thank you for this blog, Matthew. I’ve found so many great things through you over the last however many years.
3/3/12 6:01 pm
Good call on Backdrifts. I’ve always thought that one was underrated.
The only omission I see is something from Natural History’s “Beat Beat Heartbeat” album, which is pretty good mod pop. If you never investigated them, it might help to know that they wrote “Don’t You Evah” and Spoon covered it.
3/3/12 8:29 pm
Can anyone recommend some straightforward software to make these files into CDs I can play in the car…?
3/3/12 9:35 pm
@dhs You can download these into itunes and then burn the mp3s into cds. Maybe you need to get an un-zip program to open the zip files to get the mp3s?
3/3/12 10:31 pm
Um, iTunes? Like, just burn them to CD, each disc will fit on a CD.
3/3/12 10:32 pm
I went with my gut instinct on choosing “Backdrifts” — it was either that or “Myxomatosis,” but I closely associated “Backdrifts” with feelings of horror about the political vibe at the time. It’s very much the mood of the time.
3/4/12 9:09 pm
Cool. I would have personally gone with There, There, but Backdrifts is a good choice too.
Just curious, did you ever listen to Natural History at all? I’m not upset about the omission nor will I continue to ask about it, but I’d like to know your take on them if you have one.
3/4/12 9:51 pm
I am aware of Natural History but honestly, I never listened to it then or now, and it’s just extremely obscure. The Spoon version of “Don’t You Evah” is almost certain for 07, so they’ll get their moment then.
3/4/12 11:43 pm
Ah cool. Yeah as a comprehensive overview of what was what in 2003 I would agree with you on that. They are a very good band that I think you’d like, but not like Spoon good or anything, and the Spoon cover is definitely the better version of that song, but I would definitely seek out their 2 album, one ep discography if I were you (especially 2007’s People That I Meet) cause it’s up your alley. And no, I swear they’re not paying me or anything.
3/6/12 11:33 am
I like the “being in white noise” metaphor that’s back-to-back in #8. Blur and Goldfrapp have such polar-opposite takes on what it’s a metaphor for. Did you put them together on purpose?
Brilliant compilation. Just a small typo to fix for the dearly departed Black Box Recorder, RIP.
3/6/12 10:22 pm
That Blur/Goldfrapp thing is actually a total coincidence!