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1. Manitoba, Up in Flames (Leaf/Domino)
2003 has been a very fruitful year for great music, as many excellent albums have come out, but in my mind, nothing really stands out above all the rest, and it's a real toss-up among my top 10. In picking my favorite album of the year, I went to the one that resonated with me emotionally the most, that one being Manitoba's folktronica standout Up in Flames. Canadian laptop whiz Dan Snaith has crafted a deeply layered cut-and-paste collage that sounds equal parts Flaming Lips, Boards of Canada, and My Bloody Valentine, a euphoric, giddy, 39-minute experience that reveals something new every time you hear it. On this album, Snaith establishes himself as a singular talent; he makes Radiohead's clumsy Hail to the Thief sound pretentious and emotionally empty, and equals the Flaming Lips' ability to combine electronic beats with blissed-out pop in a way that would make Wayne Coyne wish he had collaborated with Manitoba instead of the Chemical Brothers. It might not be the most important album of 2003, but it is the most beautiful record I've heard this year. That's all the convincing I need.

2. The Strokes, Room on Fire (RCA)
It's not surprising that the critical reaction to the Strokes' second album was considerably more reserved than two years ago. What is surprising is how many people have shrugged off Room on Fire, saying it's "just like the other album", completely ignorant of the fact that the band has put out a tightly assembled, flawless sophomore effort. Yeah, they follow the same pattern as they did on Is This It, but they do everything better this time around. There's a different, harder sound to the album, as the band eschews the Velvet Underground sounds of the first album in favor of an '80s rock style, best epitomized in the insanely catchy, Cars-like single "12:51". "Reptilia" rocks harder than anything they're recorded before, "Under Control" is a very cool bit of '60s soul, and songs like "The End Has No End" and "I Can't Win" continue where "Hard to Explain" left off. With two albums both around a half hour long, the Strokes are not ones to overdo things, but the songs that do appear on their CDs are so good, it hardly matters.

3. Drive-By Truckers, Decoration Day (New West)
Following on the heels of their ambitious, brilliant double album Southern Rock Opera, the Drive-By Truckers' much-anticipated, often-delayed follow-up, Decoration Day finally surfaced this past summer. Much shorter, darker, and more focused, Patterson Hood and his band have put together an album that is every bit as good as their previous effort. The triumvirate of singer-songwriters Hood, Mike Cooley, and newest member Jason Isbell is the band's great strength, as they're blessed with a wealth of first-rate material from each person. Hood's "Sink Hole" rocks hard, while "Heathens" is tender; Cooley's jarring "When the Pin Hits the Shell" and "Loaded Gun in the Closet" are the work of a master country lyricist; and Isbell brings the two biggest surprises with the father-and-son tribute "Outfit", and the climactic title track. Nobody these days tells a story in a song like the Drive-By Truckers do, and with this record, they prove they're easily the best independent rock band in America today.

4. Dizzee Rascal, Boy in da Corner (XL)
A year after the Streets kicked down the door with Original Pirate Material, in burst Dylan Mills, aka Dizzee Rascal, to blow the entire freakin' house apart. This is the new UK punk sound: a new generation of young British artists, influenced by hip hop, garage, and punk rock, have come out with their own, homemade, bastardized music, completely original, fervent, and perceptive. And not since Tricky's Maxinquaye album in 1995 have we heard such a unique record. Hailing from London's East End, Dizzee Rascal paints a much more grim picture than the Streets' Mike Skinner does, his lyrics much more blunt, something echoed in the jarring, stuttering, intense rhythms of his beats. In his inimitable vocal style, he talks about street life, girl trouble ("I Luv U"), and his deteriorating neighborhood, but underneath all the anguish ("Its getting boring always being miserable"), there's an underlying positive attitude ("Do It"), love of life, and compassion for his subjects ("Jezebel"). All that, and a mighty catchy single in "Fix Up, Look Sharp", too.

5. The Constantines, Shine a Light (Sub Pop)
One of the most ferocious, passionate indie rock albums to come out in a while, Shine a Light has Guelph, Ontario's the Constantines emerging as one of Canada's very best bands. Much has been made about how they shamelessly lift their sound from Fugazi and the Afghan Whigs, and how singer Bryan Webb's gruff voice brings to mind the likes of Joe Strummer and a young Bruce Springsteen, but there's so much more going on beneath the obvious influences. "National Hum" and "Tank Commander" are brutally rough-edged, "Poison" broods intensely, "Young Lions" rejoices, and "Insectivora" combines Clash style bass with layers of grating guitars. Nothing can top the brilliant "Nighttime/Anytime (It's Alright)", a dark, fiery anthem during which Webb preaches, "It's hard not to surrender to the bold and comely words / What sway the bloody minded / What hang above the graceless herd / It's hard not to surrender, but I will dance down through the alleyways / With one foot in the gutter". Amen.

6. Grandaddy, Sumday (V2)
Following their much-lauded third album, The Sophtware Slump, Grandaddy decided to change things a little bit on their new one. The band still combines indie rock with electronic elements, but on Sumday the techno touches are more subtle, as singer/songwriter/producer Jason Lytle takes a more middle of the road approach, veering away from the artsy pretensions of the previous album. The result is a sumptuous pop rock album, blending relaxed, sunny West Coast rock ("El Caminos in the West", "Now It's On") with sly lyrical wit, best exemplified on tracks like "The Group Who Couldn't Say" and "The Go in the Go-For-It". People like to praise bands for producing obtuse, impenetrable art rock, but these days it's even more daring for a band to go the mainstream route and pull it off with as much skill as these five guys from Modesto, California have done.

7. The Notwist, Neon Golden (Domino)
The culmination of a decade-long evolution from a straight-ahead Dinosaur Jr. clone to one of the most original, inventive bands in music today, the Notwist's Neon Golden continues where 1998's Shrink left off, combining laptop samples, IDM beats, krautrock, live instrumentation, and, best of all, a real pop sensibility. Instead of taking the cold, emotionless, artsy route, the German quartet create a warm, inviting sound, something more rock bands should be doing. Songs like the tenderly sung "One Step Inside Doesn't Mean You Understand", the propulsive "Pilots", the hypnotic clicks and pops of "This Room", the New Order-like euphoria of "One With the Freaks", and the stunningly beautiful "Consequence" show the band is in peak form on this album. Daring, yet controlled and confident at the same time, Neon Golden is an understated gem.

8. Broken Social Scene, You Forgot It in People (Arts & Crafts)
The hype for Broken Social Scene's You Forgot It in People actually began north of the border in late 2002, as music critics in the band's hometown of Toronto salivated over it. However, the first pressing of the album sold out so quickly that it wasn't until early this year that curious Canadian listeners could get their hands on a copy. And for once, the hype is totally justified. This collective of musicians has come together with a charming mishmash of a second album (a total of eleven members contributed), one that effortlessly blends ambient pop, indie rock, folk, and many other touches, without flying out of control. The New Order-tinged "Stars and Sons" is one of the most uplifting songs of 2003, "Cause = Time" is roaring guitar rock, the breezy "Pacific Theme" echoes Brian Wilson and Burt Bacharach, while the disarming "Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl" is one of the sweetest evocations of teen love you'll ever come across.

9. Richard Hawley, Lowedges (XL/Beggars Group)
It's incredible how Hawley waited until his mid-30s to start a solo career. After standing in the wings, playing guitar for such bands as Longpigs and Pulp, he emerged from seemingly out of nowhere as a supremely talented, velvet-voiced crooner, his music a sumptuous blend of Leonard Cohen, Phil Spector, and Scott Walker, and this, his second album, is breathtaking. The opening trifecta of "Run For Me", "Darlin'", and "Oh My Love" pack an emotional wallop; the melodies will make you weep, the guitar work is sublime in its simplicity, and Hawley's smooth baritone voice (sometimes eerily similar to that of his friend Jarvis Cocker) is like a warm blanket on a freezing night. This is a masterful album, a true buried treasure, and it's a shame it hasn't caught on with more people.

10. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Fever to Tell (Interscope)
Brooklyn's Yeah Yeah Yeahs took their own sweet time putting together their debut album, but was it ever worth the wait. Released a year and a half after the release of their self-titled EP, Fever to Tell was a monstrous leap from their earlier material. Gone was the sloppy production, the pretentiousness; instead, we were treated to an energized, pummeling, raucous album that does the no-bass-guitar thing considerably better than the much-praised White Stripes. Karen O shows impressive vocal range, Nick Zinner emerges as a potential indie rock guitar god, and Brian Chase's powerful drumming is relentless. What's more impressive than such great rock songs as "Date With the Night" and "Pin" is more introspective fare like "Maps" and "Y Control", which proves this band is much, much more than a garage rock gimmick.

Honorable Mentions:

11. The Darkness, Permission to Land (Atlantic)

12. The Shins, Chutes Too Narrow (Sub Pop)

13. Goldfrapp, Black Cherry (Mute)

14. The New Pornographers, Electric Version (Matador)

15. Fischerspooner, #1 (Capitol)

16. Jesse Malin, The Fine Art of Self Destruction (Artemis)

17. Neil Young, Greendale (Reprise)

18. Super Furry Animals - Phantom Power (XL)

19. North Mississippi Allstars, Polaris (Tone Cool)

20. Turbonegro, Scandinavian Leather (Epitaph)

The Best of the Rest (live albums, reissues, compilations, music DVDs, etc.):

1. Turbonegro, Ass Cobra/Apocalypse Dudes (Epitaph)

2. Simply Saucer, Cyborgs Revisited (Sonic Unyon)

3. Rush, Rush in Rio (DVD) (Rounder)

4. Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan (Columbia)

5. Steve Earle, Just an American Boy: The Audio Documentary (Artemis)

6. Branches and Routes - a FatCat Records Compilation (FatCat)

7. Ladytron, Softcore Jukebox (Emperor Norton)

8. Sonic Youth, Dirty (Deluxe Edition) (DGC)

9. Koop, Waltz For Koop: Alternative Takes (Palm)

10. Iron Maiden, Visions of the Beast (DVD) (Columbia)

Top Five Songs of 2003:

1. Electric Six, "Danger! High Voltage" (XL)
Combining a supercool, slick guitar lick, a pulsating disco beat, and two of the greatest lines to be hollered in a song in 2003 ("Fire in the disco! Fire in the Taco Bell!"), this song might be a novelty, but it's also the most enjoyable, insane single of the year. Say what you will about the fickle taste of UK pop, seeing this two-year-old single from Detroit hit Number One over there was, well, the coolest thing these past 12 months.

2. Go Home Productions, "Sexual High"
Mash-ups are always kind of dicey, more often than not turning out to be mere novelties that you snigger at once and then forget. However, every once in a while, you get one that stops you dead in your tracks. Nobody creates bastard pop like Go Home Productions has done in the past year, and this stunning mix of Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" and Radiohead's "High and Dry" achieves a sublime balance of early '80s soul and mid-'90s alternative rock.

3. Goldfrapp, "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie" (Mute)
A B-side from the "Twist" CD single, Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory completely rework the cheesy '70s disco classic by Baccara, transforming it into a sinister, sultry piece of electropop that gradually envelops the listener with Gregory's superb production. A nasty, dark tune, it's as good as anything on the Black Cherry album.

4. Sugababes, "Hole in the Head" (Island)
No, it's not quite as ingenious as 2002's "Freak Like Me" was, but this highlight from the trio's third album boasts one of 2003's catchiest pop hooks, as well as more of the girls' trademark sass. Over a buoyant, thumping beat and an acoustic guitar sample, Keisha Buchanan sings, "Just because you made me go ooh / Doesn't mean I'm runnin' with you". How can you not like a line like that?