h, the vagaries of running a website devoted to the newest of music. It leaves little room for error. As such, many discs that should be reviewed sometimes go unheralded and unreviewed on the first go around. As both guide to my editorial mistakes and some of the best music of the past few years, I hope that you both can laugh at me and get some new recommendations for music that you might’ve missed.

10. Coloma – Finery [Ware, 2003]

This, their second release for the Ware label, is quite a bit more understated than its predecessor, Silverware. Here there aren’t any of the obvious “singles” like “In a Snowstorm”. Singles needs the quotation marks, of course, because we are talking about a brand of pop music that owes a huge debt to late-era Japan and the Blue Nile.

09. Various Artists – Ragga Ragga Ragga 2003 [Greensleeves, 2003]

Reviewer: A music fan from USA
THIS IS A CD THAT ALL REGGAE " DANCE HALL" FANS SHOULD INVEST IN THIS IS FULL WITH HIT FROM START TO FINSH. WITH SOME OF THE BIGGEST NAME IN THE BUSSINESS, I CAN SAY MONEY WELL SPENT BENIE MAN IF YOU ARE READING THIS HOLLA BACK I MAKE MUSIK TOO CALL ME AT 212-555-5555. PEACE.

08. Sufjan Stevens - Greetings From Michigan! The Great Lakes State [Asthmatic Kitty, 2003]

You’ve heard this disc hyped to the high heavens. And, in conversations with other writers and friends, it seemed like we had reviewed the disc by the end of the year on the site. Much to my chagrin, all the discussions and IM discussions didn’t coalesce into a review.

07. TI – Trap Muzik [Atlantic, 2003]

As David Drake intimated in his first blog post for Stylus, this seemed to get lost in the plethora of crunk releases that were being released near the end of 2003. It’s too bad. It’s one of the finest single artists discs outside of David Banner’s two Mississippi CDs released thus far.

06. Kepler - Fuck Fight Fail [Troubleman Unlimited, 2000]

One of my favorite discs of all time, I felt that my critical faculties couldn’t be turned on long enough to find fault with this classic of the slo-core genre (not that it’s stopped me before, mind). Less country-ified than their follow-up, Missionless Days, FFF mines the depressive post-rock territory that struck an obvious chord with me during my first year of college.

05. Phantom/Ghost – To Damascus [Ladomat2000, 2003]

This one is another of my favorite list of 2003 that I didn’t have the time or knowledge to adequately write up for the site. While the album cover screams death metal, the music inside is more along the lines of a less depressing Coloma. Seek out St. Lawrence for the same sort of yearning if that’s your bag, however.

04. Borneo & Sporenburg - Remember Today [Italic, 2002]

I was far too focused on all things Kompakt to believe that anything outside of their label might actually be worth checking out at the time of this disc’s release to even hear about it immediately. Despite this, the relatively brief Remember Today serves as one of the finest single artist albums that the label never put out. It’s been my thesis for a short while that Kompakt has never put out a classic LP by a single artist and instead relies on other labels to do so (see: Luomo, Panytec).

03. Luomo – Vocalcity [Force Tracks, 2000]

Even though Stylus didn’t even exist in its current formation back then, it might’ve been nice to write up one of my favorite discs from the time period. Maybe it’s better that I didn’t. It might’ve looked a lot like entry #9.

02. Party Club - I Want To Party All The Time [Spectacle, 2002]

Stylus’ #21 record of 2002 just doesn’t get enough props. You know, despite it being released on my now-defunct CD-R label and it being Gavin Mueller’s solo project/tribute to Eddie Murphy’s classic track of the same name. I guess this gets as much props as it deserves, looking back on it.

01. Songs: Ohia - Magnolia Electric Co. [Secretly Canadian, 2003]

Our number one record of last year at Stylus. Oops.


Oh, and that top ten things we shouldn’t have reviewed? Please refer here for a comprehensive listing.