best albums this year?

Cafe Society
1

i apologize if this thread has already come up, but i haven’t seen it.

hmmm, 2004 wasn’t the best music year, but there were a couple decent records released.

i can’t really list a top ten, off the top of my head. here’s what i remember being good:

**twilight singers “she loves you.” **

interesting cover project by greg dulli, ex frontman for the criminally overlooked afghan whigs. hearing greg’s cigarette and liquor soaked voice cover mary j blige’s “real love” is strangely moving.

pavement “crooked rain crooked rain: la’s desert origins” (reissue)

come on, it was a classic in what, 1992, and it’s a classic now. plus you get soem cool b-sides and demo versions of almost all the songs on the original. i hope they keep going and rerelease all of pavement’s catalog.

carl ac newman "slow wonder"

i don’t like using the term “guilty pleasure”, but maybe the new pornographers are one for me. not that i don’t admit i’m a fan or anything. maybe because they’re all-out pop, with no remorse. anyway, ac newman is the mastermind behind the canadian supergroup, and his solo joint is a little slowerand less frenetic than the pornographer’s stuff, but along the same lines. pure, unadulterated pop hedonism.

de la soul "the grind date"

i’ve been a fan of the de la crew since the days of dayglo and daisies. and after the last couple albums, i wasn’t too enthused about this one. but i guess breaking away from the major labels gave them some breathing room on this one. it’s no “buhloone mindstate”, but it’s damn good.

morrissey "you are the quarry"

i just love morrissey. i always read that you’re supposed to grow out of moz and the smiths, but it just never happened for me.

that’s all i can really think of so far.

2

Ayreon - The Human Equation

A two disc metal opera about a man in a coma reliving his life. Tons of guest musicians. A really kick ass album.

3

Hmm, I’m sure I’ll think of more later, but Kanye West’s The College Dropout comes immediately to mind.

4

The best album released in 2004 was Zero 7’s When It Falls. Absolutley great album.

5

I’d have to go with Pitchforkmedia’s top 50 of 2004…

My fav is Arcade Fire with Funeral

on my list as well are;
Elliott Smith - From a basement on the Hill
Bjork - Medulla
Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat

6

Here’s ones I enjoyed this year:

The Futureheads—The Futureheads. Nothing exactly groundbreaking here, but great pop-rock songwriting in the tradition of XTC. The lead singer even sounds a little bit like Andy Partridge.

Franz Ferdinand—Franz Ferdinand

Scissor Sisters—Scissor Sisters (lots of self-titled albums on this year’s list).

These three, for me comprise the most FUN rock albums of 2004
American Idiot—Green Day. I’m not a huge Green Day fan, but I somewhat surprisingly really enjoy this album. Supposedly, there’s talk of it being made into a rock opera a la Tommy.

Medulla—Bjork. This is an album you’ll either love or hate. Not like Bjork’s other albums as it’s pretty much all vocals (including percussion sounds.) Very ethereal and haunting.

Now Here is Nowhere—Secret Machines.

Rubber Factory—The Black Keys. Dirty garage blues-rock from a Midwest guitar-drum duo that’s not the White Stripes. I love these gritty recordings—they sound straight out of the 60s.

7

DoctorJ’s: Best Albums of 2004

8

Franz Ferdinand, “Franz Ferdinand”
Andy Smith, “The Document II” (compilation, may have been 2003)
The Go! Team, “Thunder Lightning Strike”