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.
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Monday, December 13, 2004
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.
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.
Sunday, December 12, 2004
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.
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.
Friday, December 10, 2004
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.
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.
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.
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