Kristin Hersh opened 2003 with a double-barrelled salvo. Not content with enticing David Narcizo and Bernard Georges back into the studio to make the first Throwing Muses album since Limbo was released in 1996, she also made one of her most intimate solo records at the same time. And if the simply-titled Throwing Muses (CAD 2301) was a full-throttle blast as direct and exhilarating as anything in their catalogue, The Grotto (CAD 2302) was a complete contrast - spare, melancholy, hushed and still. Taken together, the two albums say as much about Kristin's unique creative gifts as anything else she has recorded.
The Mountain Goats followed "See America Right" with its parent album Tallahassee (CAD 2215). The songs on the album documented the tortured, alcoholic lives of an imaginary couple permanently on the cusp of divorce - but did so with such radiant lyricism that the end result is genuinely uplifting. These characters had appeared on various previous Mountain Goats releases - they are referred to as "the Alpha couple" because the word "Alpha" appears in the titles of most of the songs about them - but never before had John detailed their lives with such vivid imaginative tenacity. The album is littered with dark humour, and illuminated by some of the best lyrics you'll ever hear.
Dead Can Dance released Wake (DAD 2303), a hand-picked, two disc summary of their career which provided an ideal point of entry for the legions of new listeners discovering Brendan and Lisa's music for the first time.
Lisa Gerrard spent much of the new millenium forging a career in Hollywood as a soundtrack composer - her music had featured in films such as Ali, The Insider, Mission Impossible and - most notably - the Ridley Scott epic Gladiator. When she was asked to score the soundtrack to the film Whale Rider - an independent film made in New Zealand - she was delighted, and suggested that 4AD might like to release a CD of the music (CAD 2304). The film went to to garner accolades galore and an impressive international audience, and the soundtrack CD was received equally well.
Vinny Miller had been signed by Ivo, on the strength of an intriguing cassette demo, back in 1997. But although he contributed a track (under the name Starry Smooth Hound - Ivo's suggestion) to the Anakin compilation released at the beginning of 1998, no other recordings had surfaced since then. Behind the scenes, however, there had been a succession of abortive attempts to complete an album, and it was not until 2003 that Vinny had a clutch of songs that he was happy with. The first of these - "Pigpen" (TAD 2305) - appeared as a hand-numbered, limited edition 7" single, and it was worth the wait - a dense, grindingly rhythmic explosion whose stark emotional force was quite devastating.
Mojave 3 returned with Spoon And Rafter (CAD 2309), their most ambitious and wide-ranging album to date. The sublime opening track "Bluebird Of Happiness" - fully nine minutes long - set the tone for the rest of the record, which saw acoustic guitars, analogue synths and pedal steel overlapping in warm, affirmative layers.
The Not The Way EP (BAD 2308) by new signing Cass McCombs brought the year to a close. The six woozy, weary and poignant songs - the products of the first trip to a studio the youthful McCombs had ever made - hinted at a maverick songwriting talent, which would be explored more fully in his debut album the following year.