“Crimes” and “Fabulous Muscles” are definitely up there, but can you defend “Funeral?” When I listen to it, I hear nothing but uninspired aping of the most superficial aspects of the sound popularized by the Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev.
Camper Van Beethoven, New Roman Times
The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone
(This was released around March right?)
Everyone has already said a bunch of stuff, but I’ll add a couple:
The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?
The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
Blonde Redhead - Misery is a Butterfly
Animal Collective - Sung Tongs
Cake - Pressure Chief
Deerhoof - Milk Man
Possibly not the best albums of the year, but they’re some of the best I’ve heard.
I guess I’ll be the pariah here:
Modest Mouse sucks ass.
I tried. I really did. But I find them grating and annoying. I’d rather pound my nuts flat with a wooden hammer than listen to them again.
I can’t stand this band. And I’ve never come across anyone more overrated.
YM, of course, MV.
Glad to see my little thread resurrected.
Definitely one of the best albums of 2003.
I’ve never been one to dismiss one band just because they sound something like another band. If the worst thing you can say about an album is that it reminds you a bit of the Flaming Lips, how bad can it be?
That said, I think Funeral is fantastic, and I really don’t consider it very derivative of anything. I can’t say it ever reminded me of the Flaming Lips, aside from the fact that I really like them, too. (I’m not a big enough Mercury Rev fan to comment.)
I can understand why it might not grab someone–music like this tends to either hit me or miss me. This one hit me.
I have not heard either of the others. That’s why I love these year-end lists–they let me go back and listen to what I missed.
By the way, the Onion AV Club’s Best Albums of 2004 list is out:
http://www.theonionavclub.com/feature/index.php?issue=4049
Is it just me, or was 2004 a much weaker year for music than 2002 and 2003? I look back to the music from last year and the year before…
2003
Outkast - Speaker Boxxx/The Love Below
The White Stripes - Elephant
Warren Zevon - The Wind
Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers
Ryan Adams - Rock N’ Roll
50 Cent - Get Rich or Die Tryin’
Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
The Cold Mountain Soundtrack
2002
Eminem - The Eminem Show
Beck - Sea Change
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Bruce Springsteen - The Rising
The Dixie Chicks - Home
Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head
Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
Nora Jones - Come Away with Me
The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
It just doesn’t seem like 2004 had anywhere near the quality of the previous two years.
I mean, aside from a handful of great albums like Van Lear Rose and Smile, both of which were instant classics. But the depth of great music wasn’t there this year.
Or maybe I’m just getting older.
Fennesz - Venice
Tortoise - Its All Around You
Sam, I agree with you. I’d said it in Post 4 and still feel that way. Especially now that I’ve seen your lists of albums. As much as I enjoyed the albums that I bought this year, I don’t really feel like any of them were classics. Or even in the same league as Hail to the Thief or White Blood Cells, to pick two off your list,
I haven’t heard as much music this year as I usually do, but these are some of my favorites.
Top 3:
Nick Cave - Abattoir Blues / Lyre of Orpheus
Animal Collective - Sung Tongs
Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Mender
No particular order:
Tom Waits - Real Gone
PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her
Stereolab - Margarine Eclipse
Mouse on Mars - Radical Connector
Deerhoof - Milk Man
Brian Wilson - Smile
Secret Machines - Now Here is Nowhere
Caetano Veloso - A Foreign Sound
Blue Nile - High
Mike Keneally: The Universe Will Provide
My vote for the Talking Heads reissue double-live LP The Name of This Band is Talking Heads has nothing whatever to do with my having created a Doper thread announcing its release. 
I’m a confirmed used-bin rummager and don’t buy much new music at full retail, but I can add a few new entries:
Candidate: Under the Skylon
Keren Ann: Not Going Anywhere
Jon Brion: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind O.S.T.
Tanya Donelly: Whiskey Tango Ghosts
Another vote for Mark Lanegan’s Bubblegum, too.
More famous…
Van Lear Rose - Loretta Lynn
Cemetery Shoes - Johnny Dowd
Peace, Love and Death Metal - The Eagles of Death Metal
Blanche - If We Can’t Trust The Doctors
Grab That Gun - The Organ
Less famous…
Pier-ic Victory - Ford Pier
The Pro’s and Con’s of Collaboration - Carolyn Mark
The Road To New Orleans (Pts. 1 and 2) - Hank Pine & Lily Fawn
The Pink Mountaintops - The Pink Mountaintops
Ready, Set… Do! - The Doers
Oh, I have plenty more problems with the record, that’s just a sort of gestalt under which I can throw them all. I was also put off by the terrible production, boring and nonthreatening songwriting, and the frankly fraudulent, unconvincing “emotion.”
Loved the lyrics, though.
Man, that Onion AV Club list…it’s like they don’t even listen to music!
I haven’t gotten all that many 2004 releases yet, since most of it is on my Christmas list. However, I have heard Endangered Species by eX-Girl, and it’s excellent – spastic space rock that manages to be quite sincere and never contrived.
Not yet mentioned, but this is the album that I have listened to most that was released in 2004:
Grant Lee Phillips - Virginia Creeper
I can’t say enough about this record. I love the mood of the entire album. I’d recommend it to any fan of Grant Lee Buffalo’s Mighty Joe Moon (especially if you like songs like “Mockingbirds”, “Happiness”, and “Honey Don’t Think”).
The folks at Pitchfork Media have their top 50 lists up. They have a tendency to be rather hipper-than-thou, but their top 50 CDs list seems pretty cool.
One CD I loved that I haven’t heard mentioned in anyone’s list–Ben Kweller’s On My Way.
After perusing many lists here and elsewhere, I picked up CDs by Kanye West, The Walkmen, and The Fiery Furnaces today. I can’t find a copy of that Animal Collective album anywhere in town, though.
Ben Kweller didn’t make it on my list for the reason that it didn’t make others - it took itself way too seriously. Kweller was great, well, perfect, on his debut but his sophmore release just didn’t do much for many.
Maybe I’m alone on this one.
[hijak]
Oh, and Doctor J, have you checked Best Buy on Wendover or the various places downtown like the shop on Tate or the one on Spring Garden? I serioulsy doubt Best Buy would have it but I want to say I saw it - call I suppose.
[/hijak]