“Welcome to Sidney,” a friend said to me the other day, and it couldn’t be more true, or more wonderful. Our week-old daughter, Sidney Claya Perry-Joyce, is the most beautiful creature we’ve ever seen…and she demands (and deserves) all of the time we’re spending at her grandparents’ house these next few days. No cell-phone reception, no TV, no internet except in Sidney’s grandfather’s blacksmith shop, where I sit now and give you my favorite album of 2003.
2003: Yeah Yeah Yeahs Fever to Tell (Interscope)
The label that gave us Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson in the 90’s went on to expose the masses to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, a volatile New York City art-rock trio who exploded into the mainstream with Fever to Tell in 2003. “Maps,” propulsive singer Karen O’s romantic plea to her indie rock-star lover to stay home, became an MTV hit; however, the real story here was that raucous alt-punk tracks like “Black Tongue” and “Rich” strikingly turned up-front sexuality upside down, finally giving the music world a female Iggy Pop.
Honorable mention: The White Stripes Elephant (V2)
Adam Perry 