Singles going steady 2003 singles BY JIM MACNIE

It was a perfect year for those 99-cent downloads to debut. From " Crazy Right Now " to " Stacy’s Mom, " 2003 was all about singles. Though I only chose 10, I could have picked 20 more more. Get yr song list on.

1) TRIBALISTAS (BLUE NOTE)

" We sing, we dance, we don’t get tired of being children, " explain Brazilian bigwigs Marisa Monte, Carlinhos Brown, and Arnaldo Antunes in " Velha Infáncia, " and while it takes a mature mastery of form to concoct such sturdy tunes, it’s a blithe spirit that defines this gem. Tribalistas is the music of a shared vision: gentle, knowing, and openhearted. Most of the songs are modern variants of samba and bossa motifs, a pithy series of miniatures that move to their own inner rhythms. It’s a disc that lobbies for the clarity of innocence and drifts along knowing it’s found the spot where, to respin one of the album’s lyrics, all the beauty of the world is hiding. I can imagine steadily playing this record for the rest of my life.

2) RUFUS WAINWRIGHT, WANT ONE (DREAMWORKS)

Milking opera for its grandeur and clutching melody as if it was pop’s only valuable building block, the willfully precious pianist-singer was the odd man out in a musical year fascinated with stripped-down guitar rock. But otherness isn’t what makes the first half of this fascinating song cycle stand out — it’s drama. Poor, poor pitiful Rufus is his own greatest subject, abandoned in a world that has no conception of true love or deep romance. But rolling from murmur to flourish, he backs up his woe-is-me stance with a dizzying blend of theatricality, tunefulness, and cabaret craft. A must for Pet Sounds fans.

3) LUCINDA WILLIAMS, WORLD WITHOUT TEARS (LOST HIGHWAY)

" Baby, see how I’ve been livin’, " she sighs at the get-go. Right now, Williams’s incisive investigations of self are the most eloquent in pop. As usual, her candor is chilling. Using that obsessive voice of hers to tout the truth as her only savior, she dredges up pornographic moments, constant fears, and fleeting joys, ultimately earning our respect by giving us too much info. And in a year that gave us My Morning Jacket and the Thrills, " Real Live Bleeding Fingers and Broken Guitar Strings " gets the nod for best Crazy Horse homage.

4) LISA GERMANO, LULLABY FOR LIQUID PIG (INEFFABLE)

Waxing poetic about the slow descent into alcohol addiction, these 12 tunes achieve the almost impossible goal of being both jarring and comfy. Ultimately, they burrow into the ache that invariably accompanies unwanted solitude. Using whispers as warnings, Germano’s real triumph is the architecting of minutia; she uses tiny bits of dissonance to double the music’s emotional level, and as this nocturnal suite unfolds, it proves just how evocative modern pop can be.

5) ROBERT RANDOLPH, UNCLASSIFIED (WARNER BROS.)

The shining star of the sacred steel movement turns jam band " it boy " by banking on the vehemence, optimism, and elation that form gospel music’s contextual bedrock. The disc is loaded with classic rock allusions — the Allmans, Doobies, and Poco all fly by at one time or another — but Randolph’s Family Band is ridiculously tight and plenty hot, and their rambunctious boogie reaches out to everyone with ears, especially those who might light up a smoke in a saloon instead of lighting a candle in a church.

6) Missy Elliott, This Is Not a Test! (Elektra)

She does it again, with politics (how many anti-bling, anti-gear MCs can claim her SoundScan numbers?), with pure sound (take a bow, Tim, take a bow), and with sex (good wood is better than bad wood, and bring dem toyz back!). Making legal money and wearing them same ol’ jeans again? It takes guts to spread that message in 2003.

7) THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS, ELECTRIC VERSION (MATADOR)

Like Fountains of Wayne’s Welcome Interstate Managers and Grandaddy’s Sumday, Electric Version is a disc that wows you with a puzzled-up take on previous pop designs. My boomer sensibility swoons to the Hullabaloo rhythms of " All For Swinging You Around " and the Betty and Veronica harmonies of " Miss Teen Wordpower. " Factor in the mildly mechanical feel that conjures a meeting between ELO and XTC and you have one sweet disc. Kurt Newman is a phraseologist who digs oddball links, triple entendres, and covert meanings. Each helps drive his lucid and literate spiel.

8) WHITE STRIPES, ELEPHANT (V2)

Refine a genuinely radical concept enough to woo a million record buyers and you deserve some kind of year-end acknowledgement. Jack and Meg’s most enjoyable disc yet is sugar-shit sharp, an opus of willful primitivism that refracts everything from Robert Nighthawk on Maxwell Street to Houses of the Holy and gets under your skin the way pop should: by feeding you a steady stream of irresistible hooks.

9) OUTKAST, SPEAKERBOXXX/THE LOVE BELOW (ARISTA)

Trust yr kraziness, y’all. Big Boi and Dre do — it takes them to places that hip-hop’s other forward thinkers can’t find on their maps. Leaving the Kevlar to the up-north wankstas, the stankonia boyz look for the poetry in pussy and uncover the grit in goofiness. Two solo albums of runaway ideas that legitimize the concept of excess? Lifted by a couple of powerhouse tracks, the glut sustained its groove. The dirty South is sounding like Haight-Asbury of the ’60s, and why not?

10) VARIOUS ARTISTS, VERVE REMIXED (VERVE)

It’s part two of a DJ session that uses the famed jazz label’s prized possessions as sonic fodder, and it’s even hipper than its predecessor. The Funky Lowlives chop Diz while respecting his dance side. Dan the Automator puts a border perspective on Willie Bobo’s " Snapped Neckbones and Some Homefries. " The disc’s derring-do trumped Mad Lib’s parallel assault on the Blue Note catalog, and brought a bit of swinging downtempo to the clubs.

JAZZ

1) KEITH JARRETT, UP WITH IT (ECM)

The maestro’s trio has been messing with repertory for a long time now. But of late they’ve also been messing with abstraction. This live date is a canny blend of both, illustrating the depth of their musicianship. Hearing bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette lift the leader on " Butch & Butch " was one of the year’s true pleasures.

2) THE BAD PLUS, HERE ARE THE VISTAS (COLUMBIA)

Kick a little concept, back it with chops, go heavy on both wit and whimsy, and the world will beat a path to your door. This New York piano trio was exalted because they took the time to have a full presentation — pop songbook ideas, jazz musicianship, humorous stage presence, cool photography, and a fashion sense. The haters should hush. Playing-wise, you’ll find very few contemporary trios as agile and animated as this one.

3) GREG OSBY, ST. LOUIS SHOES (BLUE NOTE)

The lithe lines of Osby’s alto, the vision of the arrangements, and the ensemble’s cohesion and courage make a pretty sweet package. Osby prioritizes interplay, and his wily music — especially this rethinking of " standards " — always sounds daring because of it.

4) DAVE DOUGLAS, FREAK IN (RCA)

The go-anywhere, do-anything bandleader mixes acoustic instruments with samplers, computers, and electronics for this terrific program of inverted funk and distended swing. When blended with the trad horns, the tech-derived dissonance gives his music a rich range of contrasts. And let there be no doubt: the trumpeter is fascinated by the friction that’s created when allegedly disparate sounds rub up against each other

5) MILES DAVIS, THE COMPLETE JACK JOHNSON SESSIONS (COLUMBIA/ LEGACY)

The jazz trumpeter throws jabs at punching bags in the liner photos, names a handful of these tunes after boxers such as Roberto Duran and Archie Moore, and at the end of one take admits that he and his psychedelic playmates are concocting some " raunchy shit. " This extreme funk was pointedly aggressive, and it perplexed jazz fans of the era (the music on these five discs was made in a four-month stretch in 1970). But it tickled the audience the trumpeter was trying to woo: rockers.

6) WAYNE SHORTER, ALEGRIA (VERVE)

Jazz’s greatest living composer is also one it’s most inscrutable thinkers. For all its gorgeous design, this mid-sized ensemble music — cellos and woodwinds augment Shorter’s superb quartet work — boasts some of his most unusual pieces ever. Light years from any " norm, " they’re as refreshing as they are singular.

7) JASON MORAN & THE BANDWAGON (BLUE NOTE)

The pianist’s third impressive disc in a row proves he can make sparks fly on stage. Like the music itself, the set list is configured to highlight all the stylistic shifts, rhythmic change-ups, and unusual allusions his trio’s programs are known for. This string of tunes is a well-conceived presentation, thorough and entertaining.

8) TED NASH, STILL EVOLVED (PALMETTO)

Freebop is a quarter-century old, but its dreams are still being fulfilled and, with dudes like Nash, refined into some of the shrewdest music around. On paper it looks like another templated tenor-trumpet front line date; in action it sounds like a fully enterprising ensemble that’s tied to the blues but dancing on the moon.

9) JEAN-MICHEL PILC, CARDINAL POINTS (DREYFUS)

The Brooklyn pianist has worked a trio for the past few years, so this shift to quartet was an ear-opener. The personalities driving the new material — soprano saxophonist Sam Newsome, bassist James Genus, and drummer Ari Hoenig — are all about thrust and dynamics. The result is a music thick with activity, ridiculously well-balanced, and trading in the kind of grace that still has the power to shake a room.

10) KURT ROSENWINKEL, HEARTCORE (VERVE)

These kinds of crazy-quilt discs aren’t supposed to work. At some point they usually crumble into pastiche — momentarily amusing, nothing more. But the arrangements feed the flow and the musicianship keeps your ears open. Evidently the guitarist is also a poetic arranger who sees juxtaposition as a chance to express his ever-widening scope.

SINGLES

1) 50 Cent, " In the Club "

2) Junior Senior, " Move Your Feet! "

3) Missy Elliott, " Wake Up "

4) Jet, " Do You Wanna Be My Girl "

5) OutKast, " The Way You Move "

6) The Darkness, " I Believe In a Thing Called Love "

7) Kelis, " Milkshake "

8) Fannypack, " Cameltoe "

9) Joe Budden, " Pump It Up "

10) OutKast, " Hey Ya! "

REISSUES

Judee Sill, Heart Food (Rhino Handmade)

Doug Sahm, A Genuine Texas Groover (Rhino Handmade)

Miles Davis, In Person Friday & Saturday Blackhawk (Columbia/Legacy)

Jefferson Airplane, After Bathing at Baxters (BMG)

The Lovin’ Spoonful, Hums of the Lovin’ Spoonful (Buddha)

Television, Marquee Moon (Elektra/Rhino)

Four Women: The Nina Simone Phillips Recordings (Verve)

Dan Hicks, It Happened One Bite (Rhino Handmade)