Best Music of 2004
 

we've had earlier debates on the album of the year, but now the year is pretty much over. however, instead of arging over a single album, i am going to list a few favorites. feel free to submit your own selections/categories.


best newly discovered band
m83 - dead cities...

best newly discovered genre
library music

best product of nafta
arcade fire - funeral

best french band singing in english
air - talkie walkie

best band from los angeles
autolux - future perfect

best band from brighton
the go! team - thunder lightning strike

best reissue
pavement - crooked rain, crooked rain

best band i can't understand
dungen - ta det lugnt

best subdued indie rock
(tie) camera obscura - underachievers please try harder
the concretes - the concretes


and here are some other year-end lists:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...854056-7377659
http://www.popmatters.com/music/feat...004lundy.shtml
http://www.theonionavclub.com/featur...php?issue=4049
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=4236175
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/top/2004/index5.shtml
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/flash...373540,00.html

heard of ratatatat?

i can never get the right number of tat's, but anyway quite good. Though they might not be new 04, i just don't know

Albums I loved this year:

Reverend Horton Heat: Revival
Secret Machines: Now Here is Nowhere
Polyphonic Spree: Together We're Heavy

Damn, I'm sure there are more. (Muse: Absolution came out in 2003 but I just bought it, same with a few others)

So many great albums.

I kind of like Pitchfork's list. Some notable omissions but overall pretty good. Blueberry Boat, A Grand Don't Come for Free and Funeral all in the top 5 is pleasing.

I'll have to give this a little thought.

!!! - Louden Up Now.
The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free
Rush - Feedback (It was only an EP, but it's the first time in 5 years that I've cared that much about Rush)
The Walkmen - Bows & Arrows
Sparta - Porcelain

Two other albums that I really liked were actually released in 2003, but I didn't find them until this year.
The Fitness - Call me for Together
Metric - Old World Underground, Where are you Now?

HIM - Greatest Hits Album was great : P
The Streets - A grand don't come for free
and
Gwar- War Party :o

Best album: Green Day - American Idiot

Chevelle - This Type of Thinking (Could Do Us In)
The Music - Welcome to the North

My top five albums of the year:
Franz Ferdinand--Franz Ferdinand
The Killers--Hot Fuss
U2--How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
Keane--Hopes and Fears
Air--Talkie Walkie
:)
Honorable Mention goes to Muse--Absolution (this would be a best of 2004, but it was originally released in the UK in 2003)

Gavin Degraw - Chariot/Chariot Stripped (Quite possibly the best songwriter I've heard in years..not sure though)
Los Lonely Boys (These guys just kick serious ass)
Keane - Hopes & Fears (Somewhere Only We Know...WOW just great fuckin song)
Ben Jelen - Give It All Away (I dunno if I really think it's one of THE best but I have to give it to him for writing "Come On" it really is a great song..the rest of the album isn't as good by comparison but still not bad. )

Hmm I'll have to get back to this in a bit.

Asta!!

Best Album of 2004:

The Cure - The Cure

best new albums

grinspoon - thrills, kills and sunday pills
the hives - tyransoushives (sp)
bjork - medulia - she is also best newly discovered music for this year
the killers - hot fuss
franz ferdinand - franz ferdinand
modest mousee - good news for people who like bad news
after the fall - after the fall
gyroscope - gyroscope
the music - welcome to the north

best newly discovered music
bjork
the birthday party
bauhaus
the buzzcocks
radiohead

interpol: antics

Top album I bought in the last year:
Cake - Pressure Chief (only album I bought new last year)

Top album from last year that I plan to buy:
Tom Waits - Real Gone

Top 3 Bands I discovered in the last year:
1) CKY
2) Spock's Beard
3) Coheed and Cambria

Most promising album of 2004 that I probably won't buy new:
Green Day - American Idiot

As I have noted before, I think most current music is crap (Kids today and the NOISE they listen to), so I am pressed to come up with anything. These, to me, are the bright spots.

John Vanderslice's new album, Cellar Door, is a stunning accomplishment. Other albums that I loved from this year (that haven't been mentioned yet) are:

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus
Four Tet - Rounds
The Icarus Line - Penance Soiree
The Stills - Logic Will Break Your Heart
Elf Power - Walking With the Beggar Boys

My favorites:
Unearth - The Oncoming Storm
Isis - Panopticon
With Honor - Heart Means Everything
Shadows Fall - The War Within
Mastodon - Leviathan

Of the eight 2004 CDs I've bought this year:

1. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Shake the Sheets
2. Rogue Wave - Out of the Shadow
3. Mason Jennings - Use Your Voice
4. Sondre Lerche - Two Way Monologue
5. The Zutons - Who Killed the Zutons?
6. Velvet Revolver - Contraband
7. Ari Hest - Someone To Tell
8. Travis Morrison - Travistan

Most of my 2004 CD purchases were not 2004 CDs.

Dillinger Escape Plan - Miss Machine

Mastodon - Leviathan
Dillinger Escape Plan - Miss Machine
Clutch - Blast Tyrant
All That Remains - This Darkened Heart
God Forbid - Gone Forever
Pig Destroyer - Terrifyer
Dizzee Rascal - Boy In Da Corner
Haste The Day - Burning Bridges


There are more, but that's a good representation of what I've listened to the most out of what came out this past year.

Tom Waits Real Gone

Best of 2004

Killswitch Engage =The End Of Heartache (that was 2004 right?) and yeah I know flame all you want but Howard Jones fuckin rocks :thumbsup:

I have to add Catch 22 Live CD/DVD to the list cuz it was such a great value for such great quality. I love it.

When is somoene going to add the one, the only, the fabolous. Michael Bublé! His smooth suave voice combined with his jazz/classical style. Winner in my opinion.

u2s vertigo. Man and a Women. U2 in general

Best album of the year Madvillain (MF DOOM and Madlib) - Madvillainy

Interpol - Antics
The Walkmen - Bows and Arrows
Arcade Fire - Funeral
Elefant - Sunlight Makes me Paranoid

Those albums get my vote.

Orbital - Blue Album
Air - Talkie Walkie
The Haunted - rEVOLVEr
Zero 7 - When it falls

--jaded

two more to add

blues explosion - damage
sarah blasko - overture and the underscore

Some of my favs:

Megadeth - The System Has Failed
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell
Beastie Boys - To the Five Boroughs
Skindred - Babylon
Killswitch Engage - End of Heartache

albums I proudly own !
 

Thus, they are my albums of the year [most of these were not originally released in 2004]

badly drawn boy - hour of the bewilderbeast
3rd degree - radio 7
course of nature - superkala
the postal service - give up
nellie mckay - get away from me
black keys - rubber factory
switchfoot - learning to breathe

Hip-hop nominations:
kanye west - college dropout
madvillian - madvilliany
jedi mind tricks - legacy of blood
k-os - joyful rebellion

gonna definitely check out madvillian


best music by an old guy
brian wilson - smile
tom waits - real gone

best new producer
diplo

Green Day - American Idiot
one of the only CDs in recent history that i can listen to all the way through and it actually has cohesion.

And even though it got piss poor reviews when it came out, I thought Encore by Eminem was a good album as well. To me it was kinda like the Godfather Part 2 in a way. Telling his life story and then flipping us to the present and following his decent to madness.

And since I haven't seen it yet on this list, I have to be the first to mention The Grey Album. I think Danger Mouse took the mash up thing to a whole new level and it's going to ignite a new generation of remixers.

Pain of Salvation-Be. This CD is truly a masterpiece, and I do not know if it will ever be topped musically or conceptually

Linkin Park/Jay-Z-Collision Course. Not really musically difficult or anything, but damn catchy. I can't take this CD out of my player.

Those are my years best

My top is (not surprisingly):

Nightwish-Once

I can't get enough of that CD. Did worlds to expand their sound on it. Orchestration is GOOD!

My favourites from 2004 are:

The Arcade Fire - Funeral
The Go Team - Thunder Lightening Strike
The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat
Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
Devendra Banhart - Rejoicing the Hands
Animal Collective - Sung Tongs
The Good Life - Album OF The Year
Inteprol - Antics
Wilco - Ghost is Born
AC Newman - SLow
Castanets - Cathedral
The Liars - They were wrong so they drowned
Secret Machines - Now Here is Nowhere
The Walkmen - Bows and Arrows
Architecture in Helsinki - fingers crossed (yay, they're Australian as well :D)

hmmm...

Pig Destroyer - Terrifyer
Cattle Decapitation - Humanure
Mastodon - Leviathan
Arsis - A Celebration of Guilt
Exhumed - Platters Of Splatter (I doubt this counts as a 2004 release)
Bloodbath - Nightmares Made Flesh
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Miss Machine
Deicide - Scars Of The Crucifix
Today Is The Day - Kiss The Pig
Necrophagist - Epitaph
Jehst - Falling Down
Dizzie Rascal - Shotime
Borknagar - Epic

I'm sure Anaal Nathrakh and Amon Amarth would've been way up there if I heard the albums.

It smells pretty strongly of pitchfork in here! :) Considering that the alternatives are Rolling Stone or Clear Channel, I'm not really complaining.

My favorite CD of the year was probably the Blackstar EP I made by taking the few good songs off of the the new Mos Def and Talib Kweli CDs.

I really liked the new Woven Hand, Sufjan Stevens, Aesop Rock, Madvilliany and RJD2 .

It was good to hear from Tom Waits and Nick Cave again, both with solid if not groundbreaking releases.

And of course the ones I wouldn't have found without pitchfork - Castanets, Air, Arcade Fire, M83, Max Richter, Four Tet and probably a few others.