Looking Back: 2003

As previously acknowledged by a.m.p.m., this the season for kicking off free-time afforded by Christmas holidays by dedicating it to rifling through all the best music of the past year. Here at BTA (and with many others), it's a tradition to create year-end "best of" compilations and trade them around with each other and our friends. These compilations serve as a time-capsule for the soundtrack that lead our lives in previous years, and thus are always interesting to revisit.

With that, here's my own "best of" mix from the calendar year 2003, posted below. As I listened to it today for the first time since soon after it was created, I was at once nostalgic, entertained, embarrassed, and intrigued by the selections of my then 21-year-old self. Some of these songs truly stand the test of (four years) time and have become representative of some great moments in the not-so distant past, whilst others are, well... not going to resemble much on my upcoming 07 mix. I'll leave it to you to guess which are which.

The whole mix is available as a .zip file here. Single tracks are below.

Cursive - The Ugly Organist/Some Red-Handed Slight of Hand (from the Ugly Organ)
the Strokes - Reptilia (from Room on Fire)
Motion City Soundtrack - Don't Call it a Comeback (from I am the Movie)
Ryan Adams - This is it (from Rock n' Roll)
the Dandy Warhols - the Dandy Warhols Love Almost Everyone (from Welcome to the Monkey House)
the Postal Service - Sleeping In (from Give Up)
A Perfect Circle - the Nurse who Loved Me (from Thirteenth Step)
Matthew Good - 21st Century Living (from Avalanche)
Hey Mercedes - We Had a Blast! (from Loses Control)
the Stills - Still in Love Song (from Logic Will Break Your Heart)
Junior Senior - Move Your Feet (from D-D-Don't Stop the Beat)
Brand New - the Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot (from Deja Entendu)
Coheed and Cambria - A Favour House Atlantic (from In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth III)
Moneen - To Say Something that Means Nothing to Anyone at All (from Are We Really Happy With Who We Are Right Now?)
White Stripes - Its True That We Love One Another (from Elephant)
Alkaline Trio - Blue in the Face (from Good Mourning)
the Weakerthans - Reconstruction Site (from Reconstruction Site)
Buck 65 - Roses and Bluejays (from Talkin' Honky Blues)
Lucinda Williams - Righteously (from World Without Tears)
Mars Volta - Son et Lumiere (from De Loused in the Comatorium)

In general, revisiting this mix is a lot like flipping through the scrapbook that your mother has been keeping of you since kindergarten; equal parts bad haircuts and great memories. As much as you don't want your new girlfriend to see it, you still take great joy in flipping through it yourself.

- bbbykmbrly.