2004: The Year in Music

Well, with The Onion coming out with its Year-End Wrap-Up Top Ten Albums of the Year feature, I suppose it's offically list season. I know a lot of people complain that all their favorite TV shows, magazines and, yes, blogs are clogged with endless cataloguing, summarizing-the-year features like this, but I personally enjoy list time. There's always a few random albums or movies that I missed in the previous year, despite my best efforts, and it's a good chance to play a little catch-up on stuff I overlooked in the past 12 months. I doubt I'd have bothered to check out Turn on the Bright Lights if Pitchfork and a few other sites hadn't picked it as Album of the Year 2 years ago, and now I'm a sizable Interpol fan.

First, some honorary awards:

Abum of the Year With a Ton of Great Reviews That I Don't Get:

AIR, Walkie Talkie

I like AIR. I saw them at Coachella AND the Hollywood Bowl this year, and both shows were a lot of fun. Plus, I think Moon Safari is about as entertaining as their brand of ambient pop gets. I'd consider myself a fan of that album. This one, not as much. Many of the songs are overly simplistic, lacking the more subtle grooves on Safari. And some of them are downright boring, including disc opening "Venus," which feels like a half-completed song. Handclaps alone do not an exciting track make.

I mean, AIR is not exactly getting her done in the deep insight department (unless you consider the phrase "sexy boy" to be a penetrating insight). I listen for the falsetto French singing and trippy beats, man! And this album kind of let me down. Not horrible, but not worthy of Top Ten inclusion.

The guy on The Onion praises it, saying "the studied glow proved all the more alluring for its simplicity." So, we basically agree that the album is simple and straight-forward. I saw this as a disadvange; for him, not so much.

Official Hipster Choice for Best Album of the Year

Loretta Lynn, Van Lear Rose

I think it's clear that this year, the hipsters will be backing Loretta Lynn. I listened to this album, produced as it was by Jack White, and hailed as it was by every critic on Earth (including the Grammy panel, whic had nominated it for 5 awards), and it's quite good. Not exactly my cup of tea, but it's definitely a sincere effort to cross this kind of music over, instead of a crass marketing ploy to sell a new generation on an old artist (Santana, I'm looking in your direction). It's got the right mix of elements to be the #1 hipster selection of Best Album of 2004. Well done, guys.

Awesome Comedy Albums

David Cross: It's Not Funny
Patton Oswalt: Feelin' Kind of Patton

Both of these albums are hilarious. Not much else to say...If you like really good stand-up comedy, I cannot recommend David Cross or Patton Oswalt enough. They're at the top of their game these days.

Albums I Really Liked for a Little While But Am Already Getting Sick Of

MF Doom: Mm.. Food?

Doom makes the Top Ten this year with "Madvilliany," but this slapdash follow-up doesn't really work as an album. There are individual portions that are utter genius - the odd mix-up of the closing credits theme song from "Sesame Street" for example, is a brilliant touch. But to call this album scattered is an understatement. Doom's alter-ego Metal Fingers takes over at the boards for, I'd say, about six tracks in a row, taking us on a comic, though repetitive journey through the woods with an odd survivalist character. It's far too long before we return to the studio with Doom for some more rhymes, which, to be honest, is what I enjoy about the man's albums in the first place.

Morrissey: You Are the Quarry

I know! Blasphemy! I've been a fan of The Mozzer for a while now, and still listen to early compilation "Bona Drag" with a fair degree of frequency. But this new record is rather flat, rather predictable. It's clever, certainly, as all Morrissey songs tend to be, but without the same caustic wit to back it up. Sure, he still proclaims to be the same effete snob of yesterday, but on limp athems like "America is not the World," he doesn't seem quite the cocksure anti-statesman as in his past political work. Remember, this is a guy who won't play in any stadium where meat is being advertised. I want that Morrissey back! And, I have to say, I've never noticed the absence of Smith-mate Johnny Marr as on this new record, where the music sounds painfully generic and tepid. When will these two have their long-awaited reuinion?

The Hives: Tyrannosaurus Hives

I liked the first Hives single a few years ago, "Hate to Say I Told You So." Just a real straight-forward garage rocker, but they had that odd kind of brash sound you only get from European bands imitating retro American style (the band is Swedish), and I'd been a fan ever since.

But, I don't know, the new album just doesn't work as well for me. The music's much of the same...I just kind of felt like the joke has run its course. I can't bring myself to find it amusing any more to see these guys playing spastic pop-punk in white suits any more. It feels silly. In some ways, it's how I feel about Tenacious D now. I loved them back in the day, and I sitll think Jables and KG are hilarious guys, but it's just not the same as it once was. The joke's kind of over now that everybody gets it...To bad...

Songs I Really Dug on Not so Hot Albums

Ashlee Simpson: Pieces of Me

Oh, ha ha, laugh all you want. Ashlee deserves a spot here for obvious reasons. She got absolutely no recognition for starring what can inarguably called the Greatest Reality Show of All Time, MTV's lamentably short-lived "The Ashlee Simpson Show." Plus, she provided quite possibly the most hilarious moment of live television of 2004 by revealing to the crowd that she lip-synchs when the wrong song was cued. For these achievements alone, it's the least I can do.

Jay-Z: 99 Problems

I have very little patience when it comes to entire hip hop albums. I feel that it's much more of a singles genre - individual songs connect with me, and I want to hear them over and over again, but listening to an entire album feels like overkill. So I really only made it through Jigga's latest sporadically, over time. This is the only track that sticks on in my mind, and not only because of its stylish, lamentably banned-from-MTV video. Rick Rubin's sparse industrial beat perfectly offsets HOVA's stacatto lyrical fireworks, and the whole thing's tied together by one of those rare perfect hooks: "If you're havin' girls problems/I feel bad for you, son/I got 99 problems/But a bitch ain't one."

The Black Keys: 10 AM Automatic

Really cool, sleazy rock number where this two-man outfit perfectly replicates a bar bound sound. Perfect for all of you Jeff Healey fans.

Of Montreal: Know Your Onion

Solid cover of a terrific Shins song from this cutesy Athens, George band. Montreal's music is a bit too precious EVEN FOR ME, though they do have another great tune called "Fun Loving Nun." I defy you to not love a song called "Fun Loving Nun"?

Fiona Apple: Extraordinary Machine

What, you're saying you yourself? There's a new Fiona Apple song? Yes, my pretties, there is, though it may not ever see the light of day, thanks to evil record executives. You see, right now, Sony has in its possession the new Fiona Apple album, complete, ready for release. It's called "Extraordinary Machine," and it's produced by mastermind Jon Brion, who produced her previous album "When the Pawn..." as well as the scores for great movies like Punch-Drunk Love and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Sony at this time feels that it is not worth releasing the new Fiona album at all, surprising considering that both of her previous two albums have gone platinum. As a Fiona fan, this makes me sad, but what's even more bizarre is that the first song from the album that leaked, the title track, is frigging great. Sure, it's not a traditional song - it sounds more like a showtune than "Shadowboxer" or "Criminal," but it's light, effevescent, catchy and gives Fiona a real vocal workout. Brion is a great producer, and I'm thinking, from the basis of this early track, that the whole album will be filled with other good songs. So, come on, Sony! At least give us the option to pay for a download of the album or something!

If you'd like to hear "Extraordinary Machine," just do a quick search for it on line. MP3's are everywhere. If you'd like more information about silly, probably non-effective ways you can try to influence Sony's decision to release the album, why not check out FreeFiona.com?

Honorable Mention

Obviously not every album could make it all the way to the conveted Top Ten. Here are a few near-misses:

Stereolab: Magerine Eclipse

These guys are still totally going strong. It's kind of amazing. This album is great, thoroughly enjoyable for any fan of Stereolab's work. Obviously, the convetional wisdom is that they haven't radically altered their sound since "Emperor Tomato Ketchup" in 1996, and this criticism is fair enough, I suppose. But when an album is as much fun as "Eclipse," with its potent mix of lounge music and psychedelia, you forgive such quibbles. Plus, some of the songs are in French, which is kind of hot.

Elliott Smith: From a Basement on the Hill

It kills me not to include the late Elliott in this year's top ten. Especially considering that the new album is really strong, if overproduced. Really, it only didn't make the list because it isn't as good as "XO" and "Either/Or." I know that's not fair, but what can I say? I'm a bastard.

Sonic Youth: Sonic Nurse

My favorite Sonic Youth album since "Dirty" in 1992. There are several really strong songs here, particularly "Pattern Recognition" and "Paper Cup Exit." The band just sounds so good these days, so tight, you can tell they've been together for about 20 years. It doesn't make the list only becaues there were so many newer bands I wanted to highlight. And I thought putting the new Sonic Youth on there would make me kind of a poser, considering I haven't listened to it as much as a bunch of other albums this year.

Grand Jury Award: Best EP of the Year

The Decemberists: The Tain

They said it's inspired by an old Celtic fable, but I think it's simply a hard rock/folk suite put together by the most original, literary and prolific indie band of the moment, the Decemberists. The music here is striking, surprising coming from a band that prefers sea shanties and waltzes to power ballads, and the EP definitely rewards repeat listens. There wasn't a better short musical masterpiece this year.

The Grand Prize - Ten Best Albums of 2004

10

Eagles of Death Metal - Peace Love Death Metal

This band totally rawks. Don't be fooled - it isn't death metal. It's basically classic rock, reminiding me the most of 70's Rolling Stones (This is a good thing). John Homme, formerly of Queens of the Stone Age, started this band out of musicians he regularly played with during his annual Desert Sessions concerns in Joshua Tree. The songs are quick, hyperkinetic, riff and hook-heavy straight ahead rockers. This strikes me as one of those albums it would be extremely hard to hate.

9

Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News

They came, they saw, they conquered, and then Isaac got sick all over some groupie's brand new culottes in the alley behind the Black Cat.

No, seriously, this was the year of The Mouse. I've been a faithful listener since their stellar "Moon and Anarctica" album a few years ago, which already makes me a total latecomer by fan standards, but this was really the breakthrough that introduced them to Team Tween, arbiters of all that is good and popular in our society.

So, now you hear "Float On" in every MTV documentary, "Gravity Rides Everything" on all the mini-van commercials, and see the band doing a guest stint on "The OC." This may be dismaying to the many fans who have followed the Northwest crew low this past decade.

But there is no need for despair, at least after listening to their new release. It's a wonderful Modest Mouse album, replete with all the spasmoidic rockers ("Bury Me With It"), delicate ballads ("Blame it on the Tetons") and up-tempo math rock ("The View") their fans have come to expect. There's also some more reaching material, like the Tom Waits homage "The Devil's Workday."

Mainstream audiences, thankfully, are occasionally capable of latching on to a solid, interesting band with musical talent and some innovations to bring to popular music, and this certainly seems to be a case where massive commercial attention may not completely overwhelm a small band and their unique style. Hopefully, The Mouse will continue to straddle the line between the mainstream and the oddball on upcoming selections.

8

The Sunshine Fix - Green Imagination

After the breakup of Olivia Tremor Control, all of the amazing musicians from that band went off to form their own groups. William Cullen Hart and Neutral Milk Hotel super-genius Jeff Magnum joined to form the dark, Tremor-like Circulatory System, while Bill Doss started out in his own new band, The Sunshine Fix.

It seemed at first like Circulatory System was the way to go. Their first self-titled album fit neatly in with the other Tremor Control albums, albeit with fewer extended experimental sequences and home-recording tricks. The Sunshine Fix, however, debuted with "Age of the Sun," an overbearing, dare I say it, McCartney-esque collection of sunny pop songs so saccharine that, exactly 7 days after listening to the record, you develop Type 2 diabetes.

But this year, Sunshine Fix released their unheralded triumph, "Green Imagination," as tight and enjoyable a collection of pop songs as has been released this past year. Very few songwriters can muster the sheer amount of bubbly, upbeat hooks and melodies that pervade "Imagination." Opener "Statues and Glue" tells you just about all you need to know about the album: It's a chugging Beatles-esque pop juggernaut, teaming vocal harmonies with hard-hitting percussion. The goofball antics of "Ordinary/Extraordinary" also help to offset a regrettably sluggish finale, including the final track, the ridiculous "Runaway Run," which would probably be more at home in an Andrew Lloyd Webster musical than an indie pop album. And not a good one, like Cats. Try Starlight Express.

7

Architecture in Helsinki - Fingers Crossed

Just look at the post earlier today for more detail. I'll confess that this kind of fragile, twee rock is right up my personal alley. And the girl who sings with the band sounds super-cute too, and I can't resist an adorable indie rock gal (see #1).

6

Wilco - A Ghost is Born

Talk about warming up to an album. Didn't like this one at all on my first listen. I've always enjoyed 3 minute pop song Wilco. The Wilco of "Shot in the Arm" and "Jesus Etc." And it sounded to me like that Wilco was dead, and had been replaced by a whiny ex-junkie with a penchant for old Crazy Horse albums.

But how wrong I was! There are definitely old fashioned Tweedy-isms here and there around "Ghost" (the undeniably catch of the sing-songy "Company at my Back," the pained "Handshake Drugs" and the bluesy "Theologians" come immeidately to mind). And, yeah, some of the extended "jams" like "Kidsmoke" or "Hell is Chrome" kind of go on for a while, but they build a ferocious momentum, leading to some of the most exciting, blazing guitar work in Wilco history.

And the lyrics, while occasionally cloying or maudlin ("I was welcomed with open arms/I was helped in every way"), are a bit too on the nose, Tweedy's more fiery, more alive, than we've seen him in the past. The album is a total triumph, and I'm sorry for doubting them.

5

Madvillain - Madvillainy

You may have noticed, there isn't a lot of hip hop on the ol' blog here. I'll be honest - that's because I don't listen to much, because I think most of it is unbelievably lame and ridiculous.

But it's not that I don't like the music. I'm every bit as capable of enjoying a hip hop album to the same extent as a rock one. I just feel like very few hip hop artists communicate to me personally in any meaningful way, what with my not being a balla or owning fancy rims.

Even when I enjoy some of the music for what it is (say, a good beat, or a cleverly-turned phrase), there's a distance: there isn't that extra ingredient that makes it come alive for me, that makes me feel it deep down, on an emotional level and not a critical one.

Except for MF Doom. I don't know why, but the guy and his work feel relatable to me, like I can understand what he's doing and why so many people (myself included) appreciate it. As I indicated above in my "Mm... Food?" comments, I like him best when he works with a great producer on a solid beat, and then spits out some of the most hilarious, bizarre and, I'll admit it, dorky rhymes imaginable.

And that's "Madvillainy" in its entirely. A pseudo-concept album pitting Doom (a stand-in for Fantastic Four villain Dr. Doom) against other rappers of all kinds, trying in vain to thwart his plans for world dominance. But it isn't the thematic ideas that really make the album soar - it's the remarkable production work by Madlib, who mixes up some incredible, intricate beats (including the all-accordian sample on the aptly-titled "Accordian"), and Doom's often brilliant repartee; the most astute, funny rhymes on any album this year. One of the increasingly rare hip hop albums which I will frequently listen to all the way through, and then hit repeat. Brilliant.

4

TV on the Radio - Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes

Okay, I just talked about these guys yesterday, so I won't belabor the point. They're making some of the most interesting music in rock right now, bringing in soul and gospel in ways I've never heard before. Plus, it's just cool, dark, New York-y sounding music that can really set a mood properly. And it's got a great sense of humor while also being really creepy; how do you follow up the lyric "Cover your Balls/Cause we swing Kung Fu." If I was making a movie about horny vampires living day-to-day in some major urban center, this would be the soundtrack.

3

The Arcade Fire - Funeral

Wow. This is one of those albums that totally hit me out of nowhere. There's gotta be something in the water up there in the Great White North. Over the last few years, we've gotten The New Pornographers, Broken Social Scene, the Unicorns and now The Arcade Fire, producers of what can only be called the finest debut CD of the year, and in my opinion, the third overall best CD. It's a very complicated concept album; a nieghborhood of people and their various entanglements, sorrows and deaths. To me, it sounds like just a sad meditation on inevitability, and about how places carry with them the weight and tragedy of the lives spent there.

But none of that matters nearly as much as the glorious music. This is arena, epic music with a bravado that reminds me of nothing so much as the early days of U2. They've somehow managed to channel this passion with New Wave stylings of bands like the Talking Heads or Joy Divison, mixed in with post-punk intensity of contemporary indie rock, and set it off with lead singer Win Butler's plaintive, Bowie-esque wails. It's not only listenable, but stirring, emotional and unforgettable. The result is a truly groundbreaking album that makes me giddy with anticipation for a follow-up.

2

The Walkmen - Bows + Arrows

The first time I ever heard The Walkmen, I remembering thinking that (1) thery were terrific and (2) that people were not going to appreciate them. Seriously, I am befuddled by the mainstream success of The Walkmen far more than like-minded bands like The Strokes. They both write catchy, loose garage pop, and both of their singers employ the lazy, monotone drawl of Lou Reed. But The Walkmen don't just write 3 minute samples of pop bliss like Casablancas and crew. They write pained, aching, off-tempo melodies, sometimes elucidaded by no more than a few tinks of a piano and a scream from lead singler Hamilton Leithauser.

There's a sense of dire urgency, of a kind of psycho-sexual desperation, behind The Walkmen recordings that raises them to that next level - they're not just a talented group of musicians adopting an ironic pose. There's real emotional resonance going on here. When Leithauser screams "Can't you hear me/I'm knocking at your door" on the album highlight "The Rat," he's not adopting the yell as a trademark or gesture - he really wants to get in that fucking door.

1

The Fiery Furances - Blueberry Boat

I hadn't heard either of the two Furnaces albums at this time last year, so I don't know if their previous "Gallowbird's Bark" would have overtaken the top spot from Radiohead's "Hail to the Thief," but I'm tempted to say it might. Anyway, this year, the decision was not even that difficult (much though I dug The Arcade Fire). As much as I loved "Bark," the Furnaces new effort far exceeds it. It may be the best album of the new millenium thus far, an immense work so dense with nuance and meaning, even 10 or 15 don't begin to scratch the surface.

The concept of making an entire album of sing-song mini-operettas is a strange one, and probably would have been enough of an inspiration for a good album. But the Furnaces take the concept further, piling each one of the 4-9 minutes together with a string of beautiful, tight melodic choruses, making each song not just a meandering jam session, but a fast-paced guide throughout an entire universe of sound. Single songs like "Chief Inspector Blancheflower" and "Chris Michaels" contain enough solid hooks for an entire album worth of songs.

The Who is always cited as the inspiration in reviews of the album, as their suites like "A Quick One, While He's Away" crafted a story out of several song snippets put together. But the Furnaces kind of beat them at their own game, swirling around different sections of songs at a pace that's both exhilirating and disorienting.

And this is without mentioning any of the delightful lyrics, which unfold like an extremely dark children's adventure book. The Siblings Friedberger (Eleanor and Matthew, the former who sings and the latter who composes the music) have a remarkable sense of setting and tone, and have turned "Blueberry Boat" from simply a sprawling musical masterpiece into a world of its own, with pirate ships, high seas adventure, kidnappings and several romantic entanglements. This is why All Music Guide has called it "an album of children's songs for adults," and I'm inclined to agree (although I think there's a decent chance kids would like some of the songs found here, if some of them weren't so dark or disturbing.)