The Year in Review

April 21—Discrimination Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) says of the Texas sodomy case, “If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything.” A White House spokesman says the president thinks Santorum is “doing a good job as senator” and “is an inclusive man.”

Aug. 19—Detonation A suicide truck bomber demolishes U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, killing 20 and wounding over 100—the deadliest attack on the organization in its history. Six days later, two car bombs explode minutes apart, killing 50 people in the heart of Bombay.

Sept. 10—Reincarnation Two years after 9/11, a newly released videotape features Osama bin Laden and one of his lieutenants calling on like-minded obsessives to “devour the Americans” and “bury them in the Iraqi graveyard.” Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reassures us that the tape is merely part of an “information operations campaign” intended to “terrorize people and frighten them.”

Sept. 26—Deprivation New Census Bureau figures show 1.7 million more Americans living in poverty in 2002 compared to 2001, bringing the total to 34.6 million. The number of people without health insurance rose by 2.4 million to 43.6 million total. Is this a great country, or what?

Oct. 7—Infatuation California voters take leave of their senses, installing an actor, former bodybuilder and serial groper with no experience or relevant qualifications as their governor. Res ipsa loquitur.

Oct. 28—Investigation The first civil suits are filed in a widening scandal on corruption in the mutual fund industry. One official describes the industry’s widespread trading abuses as “outrageous and deceitful.” The Securities and Exchange Commission turns out once again to have been asleep at the switch.

Nov. 25—Dissimulation Congress gives final approval to a controversial Medicare reform bill, including a prescription drug benefit. President Bush says, “For the sake of our seniors, we got something done.” He neglects to mention the drug and insurance companies whose future profits the measure is tailor-made to protect.

Dec. 5—Revelation Scientists announce the discovery of a 425-million-year-old fossilized penis—the oldest penis in the fossil record —belonging to a tiny animal like a water-flea whose penis can be as much as a third of the size of its entire body. There’s a clear opening here for a Dick Cheney quip, but I’ll leave that one be.

Noel Murray

1. Constantines, Shine a Light (Sub Pop) Track for track, there were better and more enduring rock records released in 2003 (see No. 2), but Constantines and Fiery Furnaces (see No. 10) did the most with the form, moving beyond angular, scuzzy retro-punk and inventing new ways to describe the decay of the modern world and the joy that can be had in kicking around the rubble.

2. Fountains of Wayne, Welcome Interstate Managers (S-Curve/Virgin)/The New Pornographers, Electric Version (Matador)/The White Stripes, Elephant (V2) The unassailables: albums that’ll be making lists and winning new fans for decades to come.

3. June Carter Cash, Wildwood Flower (Dualtone) More memento than music, Wildwood Flower is a lovely sketch of June Carter Cash’s final days, as she enjoyed a casual, quiet, warm recording session with Johnny and hummed away at old standards steeped in the description of fading moments.

4. Josh Rouse, 1972 (Rykodisc) 1972 seemed a shoo-in to be Josh Rouse’s commercial breakthrough, given its bright, accessible throwback sound and catchy choruses, but it’s been a slow builder. If Rouse could get these songs into a car commercial or something, maybe people would come around to his affecting vision of a world where perfect music redeems clumsy relationships.

5. The Rosebuds, TheRosebudsMakeOut (Merge) The Rosebuds’ snappy debut album initially sounds like winning but slight guitar-pop, but on repeated spins, the clever arrangements, witty lyrics and bright melodies begin to settle around the brain like a fishnet. It’s not easy to make music this close to flawless.

6. Cursive, The Ugly Organ (Saddle Creek)/Nada Surf, Let Go (Barsuk)/The Postal Service, Give Up (Sub Pop) All either tangentially or directly associated with the “emo” movement, these three bands demonstrate how the genre has grown—in expressiveness and ambition—beyond the scope of insular indie rock and modern-rock self-absorption. Cursive especially have carried navel-gazing to compellingly bloody, winsomely sad, admirably pretentious extremes. It dares greatness and hits the mark.