BG's Top Ten Albums of 2004 Recap

Here's my list of the best albums of the year, all together with links to my personal commentary on it. Enjoy and make some comments.

1. The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike
2. Madvillain - Madvillainy
3. Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News
4. Rjd2 - Since We Last Spoke
5. A.C. Newman - The Slow Wonder
6. TV on the Radio - Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes
7. Jason Forrest - The Unrelenting Songs of the 1979 Post Disco Crash
8. Rogue Wave - Out of the Shadow
9. The Walkmen - Bows + Arrows
10. Kanye West - The College Dropout

Honorable Mentions

Something I didn't talk about before is how this year was a slow one as far as music is concerned. There just weren't as many truly amazing, blow-you-away albums this year. Think about some of the records to come out last year: The Wrens – Meadowlands, Viktor Vaughn – Vaudeville Villain, The Shins – Chutes Too Narrow, Four Tet – Rounds, Broken Social Scene – You Forget it in People, Prefuse 73 – One Word Extinguisher & Extinguished Outtakes, all albums that will stand the test of time. 2004 was a different story. I love all the albums in my top ten. I think they’re all fantastic. But, to be honest, I can really only see myself picking up three or four of them five years down the road and them still sounding just as good as they do today. This shortage of amazing records isn’t because nobody tried. A lot of big names put out albums this year: REM, Bjork, Beastie Boys, Prince, The Roots. But they all sort of came up short or, even worse, appeared to be better than they were because we were so starved for quality music. There is nothing I wanted more than to love the new Bjork album, but in the end, while it’s interesting as a concept, it’s nothing I really want to listen to. The same thing goes for the new Beastie Boys. I had myself convinced that it was a really good album for a while, until I heard Madvillainy and it reminded me of what a great hip hop album really sounds like. I think this year was more about promising debuts that will pay dividends in the future. Kanye West, Rogue Wave, The Legends, The Arcade Fire (sorry, guys, still not sold on it yet); all gave us a lot of hope for the future. Anyway, all of this talk is kind of ridiculous. Let’s just enjoy the great music we have now and not worry about whether we’re still listening to Since We Last Spoke in 2009. We could all be hit by buses tomorrow and make that question moot.

BG's Top Ten Albums of 2004 - Number One

The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike

I've got to be honest here. This has been my choice for best album of the year from the moment I heard it in early August. Nobody else even had a chance. The Go! Team are truly one of a kind, cranking out dense, Avalanches-esque songs but with real live instruments, not just samples. Musically they mix together so many different genres, from lo-fi surf rock ("Panther Dash") to Jackson 5 bubble gum pop ("Ladyflash") to Charlie Brown-type piano tunes ("Feel Good by Numbers"), that as a band they are unclassifiable. The biggest reason to love this album, though, is because it is just so much goddamn fun. It just makes you want to get up and move. Maybe not dance as much as chase criminals through the streets of Honolulu or pilot a helicopter on an against-all-odds mission to "go get our boy back". But where all these elements really come together is with "The Power Is On", the crowning moment of the album. I don’t know how many times I’ve listened to this incredible song, but every time I hear it, it never fails to get me fired up. It’s like a block party, a spy adventure and a pep rally all rolled into one. Words don’t really do this album justice, though. Let’s just say that this is, hands down, the feel awesome album of the year and leave it at that.

BG's Top Ten Albums of 2004 - Number Two

Madvillain - Madvillainy

Did you purchase the new Jay-Z/R Kelly album hoping for greatness only to get more songs about cheddar rapped/sung over wack-ass beats? Are you wondering what a successful collaboration between two men at the top of their respective games might look like? If so, you need look no further than right here as Madlib and MF Doom have come together to give us an instant hip hop classic. Madvillainy is successful for many reasons, but the biggest is the unbelievable chemistry between the two participants. Madlib's jazzy beats of yesteryear are the perfect compliment to Metal Face's gravely, unpredictable flow. This record is also as innovative as it is entertaining. Songs drop out at unexpected times, creating an air of spontaneity. And unlike most hip hop albums these days, Madvillainy almost feels like it's over too quickly, even with 22 songs in 46 minutes. Only the sample heavy "America's Most Blunted" and "Rhinestone Cowboy" clock in at over 3 ½ minutes. The average track comes in at about 2. This, coupled with the elimination of deadweight like R&B choruses from the songs and tired, unfunny skits, are what ensure that things never have a chance to get stale. By most accounts, this was a slow year for hip hop, but any year that gives us as amazing an album as Madvillainy leaves us little to complain about.

BG's Top Ten Albums of 2004 - Number Three

Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News

We live in troubling times, my friends, and never has the world needed Modest Mouse’s brand of melancholic cynicism than it does right now. Thankfully, they have delivered. And how. While I can’t really say that Good News is their best album, I would have to think long and hard to come up with how they could’ve made a better one. By finding the perfect combination of elements from their last two albums, Issac Brock and the boys have produced some of the best songs of their career. "Bury Me With It" is classic Modest Mouse a la Lonesome Crowded West, while "Blame It On the Tetons" and "One Chance" both show the depth and maturity that they hinted at on The Moon and Antarctica. And then there's "Float On", a song so strong it doesn’t matter how many times it=s used as background music on Monday Night Football or played on the local alternative radio station in between Linkin Park and Evenscense, it's still amazing. To think that a song which is the embodiment of cautious optimism came from the same guy who not too long ago was singing about how he was "trying to drink away the part of the day that [he] cannot sleep away" is as unbelievable as, well, that same band being nominated for two Grammys. But, believe it or not, that's what’s happened and we are all the luckier for it.

BG's Top Ten Albums of 2004 - Number Four

Rjd2 - Since We Last Spoke

No matter what he does, Rjd2 (R.J. Krohn to his momma) just can't seem to escape the shadow of his contemporary, DJ Shadow. Like Guy Ritchie with Madonna, almost every introduction of Mr. Krohn is going to also mention Shadow. But there are valid reasons for these comparisons, beyond the fact that they both make the same type of music. Both released their first album to critical acclaim and, now, both released sophomore efforts that didn't meet expectations. But like The Private Press, Since We Last Spoke is a much stronger release than it first seems. Rj isn't just content to stay in the world of instrumental hip hop. Instead he tries his hand at a slew of other genres, like AM soul ("Clean Living") and retro house ("Iced Lightning"). And even though he mostly forgoes the use of scratching or other hip hop signifiers, he's still able to turn out tunes that are distinctly his own. The title track and "1979" are two of the best songs he's ever done, right up there with "Ghostwriter" and "Chicken Bone Circuit" off of Deadringer. Of course, the cohesiveness of the album does suffer with all the genre hopping, and he would do well in the future to refrain from lending his own vocals to tracks, but in the end, just like it was with Shadow, it's encouraging to see an artist trying new things and moving forward instead of being complacently stuck in neutral.

BG's Top Ten Albums of 2004 - Number Five

A.C. Newman - The Slow Wonder

In a perfect world, right now President-elect Kerry would be announcing his cabinet appointments, the Georgia Bulldogs would be getting ready to play for a national championship and The New Pornographers would release an album every year. This isn't a perfect world, however (not that I need to tell any of you that), so we just have to settle with what life hands us. A.C. Newman's solo outing, The Slow Wonder, is the kind of settling I could get accustomed to. If this man's status as a power pop genius was still in question even after his work on the New Pornographers' Mass Romantic and Electric Version, this album should put that to rest. Newman works more hooks into one song than most bands can get into three, yet they never feel forced or cluttered. "On the Table" and "The Town Halo" don't just rank among the best power pop tunes of the year, but among the best songs of the year, period. And while parts of the album could have been made even better with an appearance by fellow Pornographer Neko Case, her absence is a small price to pay to not have to put up with buzz kill Daniel Bejar. In a perfect world, the Pornographers would give that guy the boot. But we've been down this road already.

BG's Top Ten Albums of 2004 - Number Six

TV on the Radio - Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes

These days, with every other band trying to do there best Wire/Gang of Four impersonation, it's always refreshing to encounter someone doing something different, or at the very least cribbing from a different cheat sheet. TV on the Radio is such a group, serving up their post-punk with a side order of doo-wop, among other things. Lead vocalist Tunde Adibumpe continues his one man mission to remind the indie rock world that a strong voice is nothing to be ashamed of. His urgent, bluesy vocals are the pillar the dense instrumentation is built around. And throughout the album, especially with songs like "The Wrong Way" and "Dreams", the band shows that their lyrics can stand toe to toe with the soundscapes they’ve created. Some critics have said that this album isn’t as focused as their debut release, Young Liars, and while this is true to a certain extent, whatever lack of focus there may be can be attributed to the fact that this is a full length and Young Liars was an EP. Either way, TV on the Radio has delivered a fantastic record full of interesting ideas and great songs.

BG's Top Ten Albums of 2004 - Number Seven

Jason Forrest - The Unrelenting Songs of the 1979 Post Disco Crash

The easiest way I've found to describe this album to others is to drop an analogy on `em, SAT style. It goes like this: Jason Forrest IS TO cock rock & disco AS Prefuse 73 IS TO hip hop. A little simplistic, to be sure, but it gets the point across. And so does Mr. Forrest, who operates on the premise of taking the best part of your favorite songs and cramming them into one unbeatable creation. He wastes no time bringing in the disco hooks and guitar solos, giving them their moment in the sun and then moving on to something else, leaving the listener wanting more of what they just heard but interested in the new shiny object being waved in front of them. "A Spectacle to Refute All Judgments", with it's amazing use of samples from Jefferson Starship's "Jane", opens the album and sets the pace: frantic. Forrest only lets up every now and then, like with the "Benny and the Jets" infused track "Big Obnoxious Sound Club", to give you just enough time to catch your breath before pushing you into something just else just as intense, like the closing track "10 Amazing Years", where Forrest’s use of The Who’s "Who Are you" should almost make you forget any lame CSI associations you may have previously had with the song. This album is loud, ADD, noisy, brash, hectic and totally amazing. It’s sure to knock your socks on you ass.

BG's Top Ten Albums of 2004 - Number Eight

Rouge Wave - Out of the Shadow

With the Shins too busy making appearances on the "Gilmore Girls" and contributing to the Spongebob Squarepants soundtrack, someone had to step up and fill the quality indie pop void they left. Luckily Rouge Wave answered the call. Out of the Shadow is a little gem, packed with catchy, beautiful melodies and subtle details that reward multiple listens. This is no easy feat. In spite of what most people might tell you, putting out quality indie pop takes some skill, walking that fine line between being teeth-rottingly twee or just flat out annoying (ie The Unicorns). Rouge Wave manage this through deceptively simple, yet highly effective, song writing. The gorgeous opener "Every Moment" lets you know that, though you may not be hearing anything revolutionary, what you will hear is quality tunes. And let me go ahead and save you the trouble of searching for the years best indie pop tune. You'll find it right here with the folksy "Be Kind + Rewind" Though not as solid, Out of the Shadow is certainly the best indie pop debut to come along since Oh, Inverted World. And that should tell you all you need to know.

BG's Top Ten Albums of 2004 - Number Nine

The Walkmen – Bow + Arrows

Let’s get one thing straight: "The Rat" is the best song of the year (not my favorite, but the best). The Walkmen managed to fill this one song with more energy and intensity than some bands can put into an entire album. Because of this, it’s no wonder that a lot of people overlook just how good the rest of Bows + Arrows really is. These guys have put together one of the strongest, most confident indie rock records of the year. The jangly guitar work and carnival-like organs give many of the songs a grandiose feel, yet the band still sounds amazingly tight, if anything they’ve gotten tighter since they debut, Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone. But The Walkmen bring more to the table than just a mastery of their craft; something that is sorely lacking from the music world in general and the indie scene in particular: passion. This is easy to spot on tracks like "The Rat" and the almost-as-good "Little House of Savages", but even on the less forceful songs, like "The North Pole" or "New Year’s Eve", lead singer Hamilton Leithauser gives it everything he’s got without taking away from the rest of the band. Bows + Arrows doesn’t call a lot of attention to itself. It probably won’t stay in your CD player for months on end. But every time you do decide to give it a spin, you’ll be rewarded with a great album and probably ask yourself why you don’t listen to it more often.

BG's Top Ten Albums of 2004 - Number Ten

Kanye West – The College Dropout

As hard as it may be to believe, this album came out officially in February, which means I’ve had a lot of time with it and it’s flaws. Make no mistake, this is a flawed album. It’s overloaded with skits, the juvenile antics of "The New Workout Plan" weren’t all that funny the first time I heard and have only gotten more annoying, many of the guest spots leave much to be desired and Kanye’s constant "you don’t need college" advice is somewhat irresponsible. However, in spite of all these problems, The College Dropout is one of the best hip hop debuts to come out in a long time. Though he’ll never make it onto a list of the top ten MCs of all time, West’s use of cleaver wordplay and humor help to smooth over whatever weakness there might be with his flow. It also goes without saying that his beats are in a class by themselves. But what really makes this album shine is the subject matter of his songs. Kanye talks about issues no one else is concerned with, like religion and self consciousness (not self hatred like Eminem). And even though it has been completely run into the ground thanks to commercial radio, the unrestrained joy of being alive found in "Through the Wire" is unlike anything I’ve ever heard in all my years of listening to hip hop. Chi-town’s finest has certainly raised the bar for any other producer looking to crossover to the other side of the boards.

BG's Top Ten Albums of 2004 - Honorable Mentions

Apostle of Hustle - Folkloric Feel
The Arcade Fire - Funeral
Cee-Lo Green - Is the Soul Machine
Danger Mouse - The Grey Album
Dizzee Rascal - Showtime
Franz Ferdinand - S/T
The Legends - Up Against the Legends
MF Doom - MM. . . Food?
Prince Po - The Slickness
The Shocking Pinks - Dance the Dance Electric
Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse

Let me know if I've left any out.

A list of one's own

Well, it's that time of the year again. I'll be putting up my Top Ten Albums of 2004 list tonight. I'm posting each album on it's own so you can make comments specifically about it. I'll start with the honorable mentions and count down from ten. Let me know what you think.

McSweeney's Roundup

Grant was kind enough to point me in the direction of these interviews of people with weird or interesting jobs over at McSweeney's. I've seen this section on the site before, I don't know why I never checked it out. For the most part, they're all pretty good reads and at the very least, as Grant pointed out, reading them will waste precious time while at work.

Also, here is another collection of lists. The first two are probably the funniest I've ever read on the site:

Cancelled Regional Morning Shows

Infrequently Asked Questions

Actual Answers to Questions from a Reading Comprehension Booklet

Less Popular Board Games

Good Names for Vicious Dogs

Reasons You're No Longer Fit to be an Architect

A change of heart after a change of location

I went to see Patterson Hood, lead singer of the Drive By Truckers, do a solo show last night. Even though he was coming down with Laryngitis it was still pretty good. He played some of the hits and told stories about some of the songs. It’s been a while since I’ve heard somebody describe someone else as being “meaner than shit.” Now, I’ll be the first to admit that when I lived in Athens I wasn’t a fan of the Truckers. I thought they were kind of boring and I, wrongly, associated them with the more negative aspects of bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and that whole “Southern Thang” attitude (in my defense they do have a song called “The Southern Thing” so you can see how I might have made such an assumption). But after I had been up here for a couple of months I saw that they had put out a new album and I decided to give them another shot. It was only after being out of the South that I really began to appreciated them as songwriters. They have an amazing way of examining life in the South, and more importantly the people who live it, without playing up or totally ignoring the stereotypes that are so commonly associated with the region. They present characters that might seem like clichés to others with the dignity that they deserve. I also think “Outfit” off of Decoration Day is one of the best songs I’ve ever heard. Anyway, all of this is to say that Chicago has turned me into a Truckers fan and last night was a great show. DBT!

Russell Jones 1969 - 2004

Well, it finally happened. ODB departed to that big Shaolin Slum in the sky this weekend at the age of 35. Tragic, to be sure, but not unexpected. The man had the body of a seventy year old after all that crack smoking. Still, it is a damn shame. He was a funny motherfucker and his first album is nothing sort of genius. They called him Ol' Dirty Bastard "cause there ain't no father to his style" and, despite leaving behind enough kids to start a football team, there will probably never be another like him. He is missed already.

Heart of Dixie

Thursday night I went out to have drinks with Dutch and some of her friends from work. It was a good time as they are all really cool, fun people. All except for this one girl, who we’ll call Ellie May. I had never met Ellie May before but I knew about her since she’s from Savannah, like Dutch. When she asked me where I was from I told her I was for Birmingham, Alabama, which is unusual for me. Most of the time I lie and say I’m from Atlanta or only give half the story and say I moved up from Athens. But for whatever the reason, maybe it’s because I just saw my dad this weekend or because I’ve been listening to a lot of Drive-By Truckers recently, I told the truth about where I’m from. She then preceded to got this look on her face and said something to the effect of "I would never step foot in Alabama".

Now this is the exact reason I usually don’t fess up about my real hometown. People are quick enough to judge you when they find out you’re from the South, but when they find out you’re from Alabama, it’s even worse. Alabama sucks, I know this better than almost anybody and I’ll be the first to admit it. But that night, her attitude really got to me. It’s sort of like how you can talk shit about your siblings but as soon as anyone else does, you get all defensive. I expect Yankees and Midwestern to judge who I am or run down my home when they find out it’s Alabama. I mean, most of their knowledge of the South comes from Deliverance and Jeff Foxworthy comedy specials. But I won’t by looked down on by somebody whose from a state that elected a governor because he promised to put the Confederate Battle Emblem back on the state flag. And let’s be honest, Ellie May, if an outsider observer had to guess which one of us was from Alabama, they probably wouldn’t pick me, since I’m not the one who sounds like a goddamn cracker when they talk. Try and keep that in mind, Hot Shot.

(Incidently, don’t take all of this to mean that I’m now on some "The South Will Rise Again" kick. There are a lot of things I still don’t like about the South, in general, and Alabama, in particular. I’m just not going to be ashamed of where I’m from, that’s all)

List Roundup

For my money, McSweeney's puts out the best "lists" you can find. Better than VH1, even. Here's a collection of some of the funniest offerings from the past few months:

Unfortunate Piñata Fillings

E-mail Addresses It Would Be Really Annoying to Give Out Over the Phone

Sexual Euphemisms That Won't Catch On

Things I'd Rather Do Than Go See Catwoman

Good Names for Vicious Dogs

A New Day Has Dawned

Well, It's finally happened. I've gone and started a blog. See this is what happens when you're sequestered deep in the woods of Alabama. You resort to this kind of stuff to occupy your day. To anyone who might read this in the next few days, give me some time to gussy the place up a little and make it look like a home.