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Albums of 2004?

12:09 / 13.12.04

What albums have rocked your world this year- I know there's another 3 weeks left of the year but this is a list in time for Christmas- what should Copey be adding to santas list of this years Vital prezzies?

my top 5 (i think) are In no particular order

The Go! Team- Thunder Lightening strike
(as recommended by Barbelith- I haven't stopped playing it yet- reminded me of the Avalanches but with yelpy untranslatable motowny vocals )

Morrissey- You Are The Quarry
(In my opinion Morrisey has delivered his best album since the Smiths- who I loved but never really was bothered about mozzers solo stuff- I only bought it cos i was in a record shop who were playing it - and it sounded damn fine!)

The Futureheads
(Like Franz ferdinand, wire and the buzzcocks melted together in a spikey harmonious lovely way! Probably my most played and maybe favourite of 2004.)

Franz Ferdinand
(yes i'm quite sick of it too- but i still know its a great record and 2004 wouldn't have been the same without it...)

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds- abbatoir Blues/ Lyre of the Orpheus
(Nick Cave with a double album, a gospel choir and loud guitars the likes of which we haven't heard since let love in. Bliza's gone but The Bad Seeds are on top form- producing their best album in years)

over to you barbeloids...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:26 / 13.12.04

Firewater- Songs We Should Have Written
Tod A and his posse of hard-drinking miscreants are let loose on a selection of covers, from "Folsom Prison Blues" to "Some Velvet Morning". It'd be nice to have heard some more Tod A lyrics this year, but in the meantime, this'll do, being as it is the finest covers album since Mr Cave's "Kicking Against The Pricks".

Brian Wilson- Smile
If this doesn't just fill you with oozy niceness, you have no soul. The aural equivalent on the psyche of an episode of Bagpuss. If Bagpuss was surfing.

Tom Waits- Real Gone
He's back. Everyone's favourite gravel-voiced seventy-quid-a-fucking-ticket troubadour some how manages to get weirder, and yet more moving, as time goes by.

Skinny Puppy- The Greater Wrong of the Right
On the first few listens, I was a little disappointed. It sounded like Download fronted by Ogre, rather than Skinny Puppy. After a while, though, I came to realise just what a fantastic proposition Download fronted by Ogre actually is.

Throbbing Gristle- TG NOW
Technically probably an EP, but it goes on for about an hour and has very long tracks, much like a TG album. An album that manages to combine the very different sounds of Coil, Psychic TV and Chris and Cosey, while still remaining rooted in the monstrous beast from which they were all spawned.

(I had to take Cave out to keep to 5, but I doubt that particular album is wanting for champions.)

15:03 / 13.12.04

Liars
They were wrong, so we drowned
Rock and Roll black mass.

Growing
The Soul of the Rainbow and the Harmony of Light
It really does sound like stuff growing.

Simon Finn
Pass the Distance (re issue from 1970)
the blueprint for the apocolyptic folk movement, I missed this when it came out 2 years before I was born, re-issued by durtro this year.

Tussle
KLING KLANG
I used to buy records at the same store as one of these guys, he moved to San Francisco and the rest is history. One of my friends says it bridges the gap from beyond the infinite beat to what is going on today, not sure if I agree, but I would say its a great record.

Excepter
Ka
Not sure if this is really on my top five, but nothing else is coming to mind, and I have listened to it a bunch of times since I picked it up. Bizarre noise/dub goonish goodness.

Stoatie, got TG NOW about a month ago. To be honest, just not feeling it. It is ok, but if you put it up against, say, heathen earth, or 2nd annual report, do you feel it even compares? Every time I listen to it, all I can think is boy, I wish Gen could just shut up for a bit.

15:27 / 13.12.04

The Polyphonic Spree - Together We're Heavy: They take everything that was great about the already amazing first album and turn it up a notch, to create a pop-symphony of joy. And seeing them live was probably the best concert I've been to.

Handsome Boy Modeling School - White People: Really eclectic album, but it all holds together. A lot of my favorite artists are on here (Julee Cruise, Mike Patton, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Cat Power), and it's got some of Dan the Automator's best production.

Air - Talkie Walkie: They have such a unique ethereal sound, I just love to listen to what they put out, and Talkie Walkie has some of their best tracks.

Phoenix - Alphabetical: Really infectious blend of genres, and just catchy songs. If it's Not With You is perfect.

U2 - How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb: It's their best since Zooropa. There's no one outstanding track, like Beautiful Day, but each of the songs is really strong, and interesting to listen to. I really like the way this album seems to be a combination of the style of their early stuff and later stuff, in a way that feels neither retro nor gimmicky.

15:44 / 13.12.04

The Polyphonic Spree - Together We're Heavy
PatrickMM summed it up nicely. Hey! They're the Spree! And they make me smile. All the time....

Tom Waits - Real Gone
Everything he does is superb and this is no exception. A cracking return from the Waits, who somehow makes so much noise just beautiful.

The Cure - The Cure
Another magnificent return to form. It's the same but completely different. All the best albums get better each time you listen to them with some new nuance to notice and this is one of them.

Bjork - Medulla
Not normally a big fan of Bjork and to be honest don't listen to this album much cos I can only hear it when I'm in the right mood. It's so different and so original and it's pretty hard work at first too but I had to include it here.

Lamb - Best Kept Secrets
Ok, a bit of a cheat including a Best of album but Lamb were, and remain in my eyes, completely special. Tracks from all 4 albums varying from the ridiculous to the sublime. Always eclectic, always original and the difference in styles between music and vocals is one of the most interesting pairings I've ever come across.

17:38 / 13.12.04

I'll agree with Nick Cave, Futureheads, Tom Waits, Brian Wilson (natch) and Franz Ferdinand (even if it suffers from being released so early in the year and subsequently overexposed), and add my own:

PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her: Because, well, it's Peej. She never disappoints, and once again she performs the usual puzzling Harvey trick of making an album that sounds different from all her other albums while still sounding exactly like her. "The Letter", "Pocket Knife", "Who The Fuck?" and especially "Shame" are all tremendous.

Black Dice - Creature Comforts: I've never been terribly interested in other Black Dice releases, but for some reason this one really grabbed me. Speaker-shredding noise, throbbing ambient washes, weird filtered guitar, distorted vocal cut-ups; strangely chaotic and calming at the same time.

Isis - Panopticon: Can I say "the metal Mogwai" without sounding like a twat? No, I didn't think so. Anyway, it's metal, a genre of which I am mostly ignorant, but I know disciplined and monolithic riffing when I hear it, and this is good stuff. And Barbelith theorybitch-friendly, too: it's apparently a concept album based on Foucault's Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison.

Gwen Stefani - Love Angel Music Baby: I've already expounded at probably rather too much length on the almost-greatness of this album in its own thread. So I'll just say that it's great, and y'all better recognise.

Graham Coxon - Happiness in Magazines: Never been a huge Blur fan, but I am a fan of nonchalant indie-pop gems slathered in offhandedly genius guitar. And this has quite a few of 'em.

Bubbling under: John Frusciante's Shadows Collide with People, Kanye West's The College Dropout , Wilco's A Ghost is Born... Maybe I should go away and rethink my list. I could be here all night if I keep going.

Actually, can I nominate Roxy Music's Stranded, Country Life and Siren as the best albums of the year? Admittedly, they were released between 1973 and 1975, but I, shamefully, only discovered them this year. Gosh, they really were good, weren't they?

Haus of Mystery

20:44 / 13.12.04

Oooooookay then... (no particular order):

1)Madvillain - MF Doom/Madlib
Of the 3,458 Doom releases this year this was the best, a stellar combination of funny, original rhymes over genuinely far-out production, with no track breaking the three minute mark. Essential.

2)TV On the Radio - Desperate Youth & Bloodthirsty Babes
Genuinely strange rock outfit from Chicago(?) who combine soul, punk disco, close harmonies, jazz and barbershop singing to extremely fresh effect. 'Staring at the Sun' is particularly gob-smacking.

3)Micah P Hinson - The Gospel of Progress
From Texas comes this heartbreaking album of croakily sung ballads, with production by the Earlies that outshines their own debut. Swelling, repetitive mantras of lost love sung by a 22 year old with the voice of a 50 year old

4)Ghostface - The Pretty Toney Album
Ghostface for president. Just go and buy it.

5)Kanye West - The College Dropout
Ovelong, self-satisfied and skit heavy it is, but there's no denying the cocksure freshness off this amazing album. Kanye's album is a variable beast containing a unique mix of backpack & bling, and some of the richest hip-hop production of the year. The boy's rhymes are pretty tight too...

I'd also like to make a claim for The Mountain Goats, Jeffrey Lewis, The Magnetic Fields, Adam Green, Pink Grease (live) Sage Francis, Hymie's Basement, The Smiths, De La Soul & the entire damn Wu-Tang Clan for making my musical year a treat.

ODB RIP.

01:20 / 14.12.04

Hmm, this is hard, but maybe, just maybe (and in no particular order):

The Go! Team - Thunder Lightning Strike
Now, I've not listened to this for ages, but it's probably my most played album of 2004 and along with all the top pop product (Annie, Rachel Stevens etc) gave me the most instant joy this year.

Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Mender
Sing, harpy! Intoxicating - live and on record - and just really, really lovely.

The Futureheads
Overtaking Franz Ferdinand in the that-sort-of-thing category, for me a much better album (FF kinda loses it after half way) and singing in North East accents is always a good thing and reminds me of home.

cLOUDDED - Ten
The Subtle album is still too new to decide if it's better, but there are enough cool sounds and lyrics (as well as some personal reasons) for this to remain a favourite.

Khonnor - Handwriting
My current best music to sleep to and this year's favourite a-bit-like-Dntel nice electronica album. He's only 17! Bastard.

Contenders: Deerhoof, George, Les Georges Leningrad, Electrelane, Juana Molina, The Fall, Lali Puna, Fiery Furnaces, Sons and Daughters, !!!

13:04 / 15.12.04

Damn. I've bought almost no new albums this year!
The two I love, though are:
The Go! Team: Thunder, Lightning, Strike
Those who may be bemused and have not heard the greatness of The Go! Team should pop along to their recently updated site and check out the Ladyflash Video which is everything the record suggests it should be. When I first heard it I thought "there must be some Double Dutch" connection and, well.....

Trashcan Sinatras: Weightlifting
Kind of like Keane/Travis. Without the being shit problem. Lovely. Dark. Soothing.

17:13 / 15.12.04

I've just downloaded a sixth of The Magentic Fields' 69 Love Songs. It is fucking good. It could be one of my albums of the year.

I'll get back to you.

01:30 / 16.12.04

Wow. Didn't 69 Love Songs come out years ago?

Did the humour of your post lie in that fact?

Am I your straightman?

Harrison Ford, in a battle suit, wheels for feet, knives and guns

06:28 / 16.12.04

The ONLY album i liked this year was the collaborative genius that was Jules Holland & Tom Jones. It is brilliant, i can't stop playing it. Just got a new ford mondeo ghia & it's always in my multi-changer. Great for a cruise down the fast lane.

Oh yeah & i also really liked the Daniel Beddingfield Album, he's a real talent. Good to see that pop music is taking a turn for the better, you know focussing on talent as opposed to manafactured shite.

Go on the Beddingfield.

08:21 / 16.12.04

[Ahem]
Where did my urine sample go? Someone seems to have taken it. It was you wasn't it?

foot long subbacultcha

08:28 / 16.12.04

I'm gonna mention these three, partly because I don't think they've been mentioned in this forum at all, and also because I heart them:

Kaito - Band Red
Ash - Meltdown
Elliot Smith - From a Basement on a Hill
I've only just managed to wean myself off Elliot after obsessing unhealthily over the album during a difficult time.

09:02 / 16.12.04

wasn't the kaito album last year?

(still good though)

foot long subbacultcha

09:20 / 16.12.04

You're right. I'll own that mistake, then.

10:25 / 16.12.04

Yes, 69 Love Songs came out in '99. Unfortunately I managed to miss that little fact.

Still bloody good though. I'm encouraged to check out this year's offering from .

10:28 / 16.12.04

Eh, what the fuck happened to the other half of my post.

Post continued below...

... from The Magnetic Fields

18:36 / 16.12.04

I second the TV on the Radio mention above - they are great, my favourite's of 2004.

Apart from that I haven't bought much, but would recommend the Incredibles soundtrack to anyone who loved the film and likes 60's style big cinema soundtracks.

Regrettable Juvenilia

18:57 / 16.12.04

I wrote a really long article on this very subject. Here's the short version of the list I came up with (follow the link for what pass for reasons)...

12. The Fiery Furnaces – Blueberry Boat
11. Electrelane – The Power Out
10. Courtney Love – America’s Sweetheart
9. !!! – Louden Up Now
8. The Twilight Singers – She Loves You
7. Ghostface – The Pretty Toney Album
6. Felix Da Housecat – Devin Dazzle & The Neon Fever
5. Annie - Anniemal
4. Scissor Sisters – Scissor Sisters
3. Dizzee Rascal - Showtime
2. Kanye West – The College Dropout
1. M.I.A./Diplo – Piracy Funds Terrorism Vol. 1

I talk a little in the piece about how difficult, maybe even absurd, I find the process of comparatively evaluating albums at the end of the year, but it’s a point that bears repeating. Especially at the end of a year in which I bought more albums than any in memory (I guess in that respect, the "drink less booze" plan has been a real success). Already I’m feeling pretty guilty/foolish about leaving out Miss Kittin’s I Com, and also wondering whether the Kanye West album really does deserve to be higher than the Dizzee or the Felix (I always use the "rough order only" disclaimer when I compose these lists, but I still find myself lying awake at night worrying about these things). Maybe it should have been 13 albums, with Miss Kittin getting the unlucky number: I can certainly come up with thought-out explanations as to why The Go! Team and Pink Grease didn't make the list (more on that soon, and see the post about Mos Def below). I Com just isn't in the top dozen because I can't quite bring myself to knock anything else out, but it's still an album that defined a little part of 2004 as far as I'm concerned.

23:04 / 16.12.04

The Scissor Sisters and Moz albums were probably my 2004 soundtrack - although Gwen Stefani's is a late contender.

12:21 / 18.12.04

Funny. Christmas/New Year rolls around, and all I want to go is resurrect the Greatest Albums of 2003 thread. Simply because I'm still living with albums by the Postal Service, Melt Banana and Lightning Bolt, two of which I didn't hear in the year they were released. I've not had nearly such great heights this year, so I'm thinking there's a lot of classic 2004 records that I might not hear until 2005.

Murray Hamhandler

14:55 / 18.12.04

My favorite movies this year were Christmas Or The Kranks, Grafield, and The Princess Dairies 2. Plus anything with Hillery Doff.

Err...oooooops. Sorry. I mean: my favorite music of the year includes ablums by the Fiery Furnaces, the Go! Team (w00t), Bumblebeez (81, if you must), Courtney Love, Gven Shtefani, and others.

If you've any interest, I shall be posting MP3s of my favorite songs of the year (and a better list of my albums) over here over the next few days.

Regrettable Juvenilia

01:06 / 19.12.04

That's interesting, Seth, 'cos I was just talking elsewhere about the fact that maybe at the end of each year you should also look back at the list you made at the end of the year before (or if you don't make lists, just try to remember what came out and what you bought that year), and reassess in light of what has stuck with you. In retrospect, my favourite album of 2003 might well be Birth Of A Prince by The RZA, which a year ago I think I thought was overshadowed by Jay-Z and Outkast and Basement Jaxxx... Then again, it could be that those artists have had a lot of exposure still in 2004, whereas the RZA album has felt like something that's just mine, and that's always a powerful if questionable feeling...

09:12 / 19.12.04

Go Team Thunder Lightning Strike,
Unrelenting in its uber joycore sugared up fun.

Hot Snakes Audit In Progress
Takes the drive and loudness of the first album and combines it with the song writing of the second, but somehow alot more accesible.

Hella Devil Isn't Red
Like devo with a very bad case of A.D.D. Instrumental Turretts syndrome like nothing else!

Joy Zipper american whip
Kevin Shields hugging Brian Wilson under a duvet thinking about shooting up a hit 'o' smack

Studio Apartment Worldline
Bit of a guilty pleasure this... inhumanly slick jazz/house with japlish lyrics

UH!

12:49 / 05.01.05

That Studio Apartment one sounds right up my street! Do you know if there's anywhere you can buy it in the UK or online? I did Google, but it didn't come up with much...

09:10 / 11.01.05

Mylo
Go! Team
Streets
Kanye
Futureheads/Franz/TV on the Radio

16:03 / 13.01.05

My Top 13 records of the year is currently on my weblog with painstaking music-geek detail but no solid order.

You know the address.

16:11 / 13.01.05

i don't....

16:16 / 13.01.05

And there's me trying to be cool and stuff.

OK, it's - http://www.stereosanctity.blogspot.com

Sorry for the lack of linkage.