the best music of 2003

the lists are out!

PopMatters.com ranks The Shins 'Chutes too narrow' at #3 of the year. I'm not that high on the album (it's a 'grower') but i'm fascinated by the liner notes that include a thank you to my auto mechanic, the great Ken Van Damme's Automotive.

"Instead of retreating from the successful glare of debut album Oh, Inverted World, newly Portland-relocated New Mexicans the Shins took all those warnings of running with scissors and ignored them, doing so at top speed. Where their debut album might have been filled with slight endearing quirks and resources of somber hurt, this new release amplifies all those qualities and seems downright ecstatic in the process. In fact, early on in the album's running order you're met with a happily yelping "Whoo!". Altogether bigger, better, cleaner, and that much more significant than its predecessor, Chutes Too Narrow is simply great.
— Sal Ciolfi :. original PopMatters review"