Although some folks couldn't rank their lists {igChar}... which is fine... you know... if you just can't bear to proclaim to the world, "THIS WAS THE BEST FUCKING ALBUM OF THE YEAR!!!" but some of us could. And albums that have such an exclamation bestowed on them deserve a special note. So here they are... the albums that our voters deemed "THE BEST FUCKING ALBUM OF THE YEAR!"

These albums all received at least one #1 vote:

• Outkast, "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" *
• The Postal Service, "Give Up" *
• Radiohead, "Hail To The Thief" *
• The Strokes, "Room On Fire" *
• The White Stripes, "Elephant" *
• Wonderful, "God Bless Our Pad" *
• Audioslave, "Audioslave"
• The Bad Plus "These are the Vistas"
• Belle & Sebastian, "Dear Catastrophe Waitress"
• British Sea Power, "Decline of British Sea Power"
• Broadcast "Haha Sound"
• Cat Power, "You Are Free
• Coil, "The Key to Joy is Disobedience (limited box set)"
• Crooked Fingers, "Red Devil Dawn"
• Dead Meadow, "Shivering King and Others"
• The Dears, "No Cities Left"
• The Decemberists, "Castaways and Cutouts"
• The Delgados, "Hate"
• The Divorce, "There Will Be Blood Tonight"
• The Drive-By Truckers, "Decoration Day"
• Eddie Izzard, "Circle (live)"
• The Flaming Lips, "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots"
• Four Tet, "Rounds"
• Holopaw, "Holopaw"
• Idlewild, "The Remote Part"
• Kaito, "Band-Red"
• Led Zeppelin, DVD {This voter explains, "No album release came close to the monumental Zeppelin DVD package"}
• The Long Winters, "When I Pretend To Fall"
• The Malinks, "Can't Shake Last Night"
• The Mars Volta, "De-Loused in the Comatorium"
• Martina Topley-Bird, Quixotic"
• Mogwai, "Happy Songs for Happy People"
• Mojave 3, "Spoon & Rafter"
• Nada Surf , "Let Go"
• Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, "Nocturama"
• The Primate Five, "1234567APE"
• The Rapture, "Echoes"
• The Shins, "Chutes Too Narrow"
• Sleepy Jackson, "Lovers"
• Sloan, "Action Pact"
• Smog, "Supper"
• Ted Leo and The Pharmacists, "Hearts of Oak"
• The Thermals, "More Parts Per Million"
• Triple R, "Friends"
• Twilight Singers, "Blackberry Belle"
• Visqueen, "King Me"
• The Wrens, "The Meadowlands"

* Denotes more than one #1 rating received.

return to the full 2003 recap