Post your final Favorite Albums of 2004 lists

[mvd]

My list is unique since I have such a widespread taste. I'm not only into pop music, and I'm certainly not into only lesser known/indie stuff.

I still might buy albums released in 2004 that could change the list. But I probably will not post another list here unless an album I've already bought really falls out of favor or grows on me a lot - both unlikely.

I'm not including compilations in this list. And I'm including only albums released in 2004.

My top 20 -

U2 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
Penelope Houston - Pale Green Girl
Bonnie McKee - Trouble
Patti Smith - Trampin'
Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
A.C. Newman - Slow Wonder
The Corrs - Borrowed Heaven
Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose
Green Day - American Idiot
Avril Lavigne - Under My Skin
Maria Mena - White Turns Blue
Butterfly Boucher - Flutterby
Vanessa Carlton - Harmonium
Elliott Smith - From a Basement on a Hill
Joseph Arthur - Our Shadows Will Remain
Megan Slankard - Freaky Little Story (she has the best parts of Ani DiFranco, Alanis, and Jewel)
Steve Earle - The Revolution Starts.. Now
Donnas - Gold Medal
Diana Anaid - Beautiful Obscene
Abra Moore - Everything Changed

Also highly recommended:

Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway (surprisingly good CD from an American Idol - listen for "Because Of You" and "Where Is Your Heart" if you're undecided)
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds -
Abattoir Blues / The Lyre Of Orpheus
Wilco - A Ghost Is Born
Collective Soul - Youth (Not quite up to the masterpiece Dosage, but an excellent CD that tops Blender)
R.E.M. - Around The Sun (Needs a little more upbeatness to match Automatic For The People)
Mindy Smith - One Moment More
Katy Rose - Because I Can
Indigo Girls - All That We Let In
Hanson - Underneath
Mary Lou Lord - Baby Blue
Finn Brothers - Everyone Is Here
Gwen Stefani - Love, Music, Angel, Baby
Gretchen Wilson - Here For The Party
Interpol - Antics
P.J. Harvey - Uh Huh Her
Holly Williams - The Ones We Never Knew

Guilty pleasure of the year: Lindsay Lohan - Speak (it has tons of energy and some sass - even though good ideas sometimes lead to generic arrangements in the choruses, and there's a need for direction)

Some other interesting albums that I haven't bought yet and can't rank:

Dogs Die in Hot Cars - Please Describe Yourself
Girl Called Eddy - self-titled
Drive By Truckers - Dirty South
Katrina Elam - self-titled
Trent Willmon - self-titled
Alan Jackson - What I Do (maybe not quite as good as Drive)
Blake Shelton - Blake Shelton's Barn And Grill
Ted Leo - Shake The Sheats
Switchfoot - The Beautiful Letdown
Iron And Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days (I find Damien Rice whiny, but Iron And Wine has subtle beauty)
Big & Rich - Horse Of A Different Color
Brandy - Afrodisiac
Usher - Confessions
The Paybacks - Harder And Harder (lead singer really wails like Janis Joplin)
American Music Club - Love Songs For Patriots

Looking forward to albums from these artists in 2005:

Anna Nalick - Wreck of the Day (She is amazing!)
Brie Larson (She's only 15, but a good pop song is a good pop song - and I'll buy the album if the others are as good as "She Said.")
Tori Amos - The Beekeeper
LeAnn Rimes - This Woman (will she finally make good on the promise shown on album Blue?)
Fiona Apple
Coldplay
Sleater-Kinney
Weezer

[darkstar]

1. Some I listend to quite a bit

don't mean they're the best, that's fer sure

Patti Smith, Trampin' (two votes now; kick ass show, too)
Bjork, Medulla
Todd Rundgren, Liars
Brian Wilson, Smile (but I only really geek on the middle 1/3 now...)
Neil Young, Greendale (it was an '04 release, right?)
Orb, Bicycles and Tricycles

Damn. That's a pretty unadventurous list. Even Bjork and the Orb have been around for the better part of 2 decades now. But it's what I recall being in the car....

[mvd]

3. I switched the title from "best" to "favorite"

I don't believe there is a "best," but sometimes I slip up there when making my lists.

[autorank]

2. It Still Moves -- My Morning Jacket

http://www.mymorningjacket.com/

[darkstar]

4. Hey auto

Don't know the band, but I've been tempted to say hello before b/c of yr nickname. Make me laugh and remember psychology class. What was Otto's specialty (like I'd remember all these years....)?

:hi:

[autorank]

9. "Birth trauma" and opening up creative expression for artists.

"The Myth of the Birth of the Hero" -- He looked at the ancient myths and found the same story over and over. Troubled birth, father jealous, hero seeks his own path reacting to abandoning parents. That guy Campbell ripped him off. He worked with a lot of artists and helped them unlock their creativity. Thanks for saying hello.:toast:
Like your username too...is "darkstar" one of those comets that's going to hit Crawford and and leave a big hole?

[Contrary1]

5. Words & Music

John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits is one great album.

[mvd]

6. I'm buying that one

Great choice if you include compilations. :hi:

[asthmaticeog]

7. I liked these:

The Liars - "They Were Wrong So We Drowned"

Oneida - "Secret Wars"

The Mountain Goats - "We Shall All Be Healed"

Aloha - "Here Comes Everyone"

Bjork - "Medulla"

This Moment in Black History - "Midwesterncuttalistic"

Dangermouse - "The Grey Album"

[Forkboy]

8. My best of the unknown,unwanted and unloved :-)

Neurosis - The Eye Of Every Storm
Isis - Panopticon
Cult Of Luna - Salvation
Pig Destroyer - Terrifyer
Jello Biafra w/The Melvins - Never Breathe What You Can't See
Old Man Gloom - Christmas
Keelhaul - Subject To Change Without Notice
Peccatum - Lost In Reverie
Ministry - Houses Of The Mole
Skinny Puppy - The Greater Wrong Of The Right

Bands that just missed the list

Bad Religion - The Empire Strikes First
Mastodon - Leviathan
Nasum - Humans 2.0
Anaal Nathrakh - Domine Non Es Dignus

Bands that might have made it had I heard thier new ones

Cake
Mike Watt
Nick cave
Tom Waits
The Ex
Beastie Boys
Lamb

Bands that might make next years list

Opeth (this is a can't miss for me)
Oxbow
Nile
The Red Chord
High On Fire
Agorophobic Nosebleed



A whole post full of good holiday music here :evilgrin:

[mvd]

10. I almost mentioned Bad Religion

The album starts out a bit slowly with songs blending in IMO..but it gets better starting with "Angeles Is Burning."

[jonnyblitz]

12. I love that Bad Religion album

lots. I like Gods Love from it. :thumbsup:

[Forkboy]

14. Thats the song I like best too

[jonnyblitz]

15. also from your list

Ministry! :thumbsup: I had NO IDEA about the Skinny Puppy one( I will now have to check that one out). I am so out of the music loop sometimes with all this politics stuff goin on and consuming me..

[asthmaticeog]

35. The Ex had a new one?

Damn, I've been out of touch. Off to the record store I go...

[Forkboy]

37. Yep,a double CD even

here's a quick review I found;

After a quarter-century of showing so-called punks what it really means to be radical, Dutch cult favorites the Ex still have a lot to say. Combining full-throttle aggression with well-crafted arrangements and brazen experimentalism, the group's latest two-CD set is variously witty and didactic, earnest and ironic, poetic, political, and so original that no genre can name its vision. From "Getatchew," a brooding instrumental homage to little-known Ethiopian free-jazz pioneer Getatchew Mekurya, to "Huriyet," an authentic-feeling update on a gorgeous Eritrean freedom song, the Ex's range is global -- and deeply musical. The band's mix of noisy electric guitars, melodic acoustic bass, martial drumbeats, and bullhorn vocals is one-of-a-kind agitpop. Lyrically, the Ex is also in a class of its own. Among the many memorable rants on Turn, "Listen to the Painters" is the best, as singer G.W. Sok inveighs against "The shrub who took himself for a park/ The squeak who took himself for a bark." This is rebel punk's finest hour.

-------------------------

It's tops on my list of CDs to hear right now.

[asthmaticeog]

42. "Starters Alternators" is still one of my fave albums.

I'm seriously going to head to the store to look for this new one when I get out of work. Thanks.

[ALago1]

11. Two that stick out in my mind the most...

Brian Wilson: Smile

Green Day: American Idiot

[Fenris]

13. I can't recall an album released this year that I was particularly fond of

:(

[Boswells_Johnson]

16. Elvis Costello--"The Delivery Man" was a really good record

[Kilkenny5]

17. Franz Ferdinand n/t

[donheld]

18. George & K D

[donheld]

19. Also Sarah

[mvd]

20. One kick for today's crowd

:kick:

[bobbobbins]

21. wow, your music taste is bad

never buy a cd again...ever...please

[mvd]

23. Your opinion only

I can say your taste is bad. :P

I'm pretty varied, so most people can find something they like in my lists.

[bobbobbins]

24. my expert opinion...just stay away from the music section all together

[mvd]

25. My expert opinion is that I don't need to

Geez. :eyes:

[Forkboy]

30. how can one be in expert in what constitutes good music?

I mean,if you're 17 I can understand your attitude.If not then you're just being an ass :shrug:

[Forkboy]

29. While I dont like most of the music he listed

mvd has shown himself to be a true open minded music fan.

I note you didn't list what YOU like.

[Beware the Beast Man]

22. Mark Lanegan Band - "Bubblegum"

[bobbobbins]

26. I didn't buy many albums this year...but the ones that stick out

Tom Waits - Real Gone
Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News
David Byrne - Grown Backwards

[Forkboy]

31. Modest Mouse sucks ass in my expert opnion

:silly:

[bobbobbins]

38. thats why you're not really an expert

[Forkboy]

43. Nor are you

[bobbobbins]

44. haha, shows what you know

[Forkboy]

45. yes...it does

[flvegan]

27. 2004 releases by Beastie Boys, Green Day and Eminem

Top my list.

[mark414]

28. check it

in no particular order

01. The Arcade Fire - Funeral
02. Mos Def - The New Danger
03. Tom Waits - Real Gone
04. Mastodon - Leviathan
05. Annie - Anniemal
06. Beastie Boys - To The 5 Boroughs
07. Dizzee Rascal - Showtime
08. Ghostface - The Pretty Toney Album
09. Madvillain - Madvillainy
10. The Go! Team - Thunder Lightning Strike
11. Kanye West - College Dropout
12. Brian Wilson - Smile
13. TV On The Radio - Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes
14. Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Like Bad News
15. The Walkmen - Bows and Arrows
16. Morrissey - You Are The Quarry
17. The Foreign Exchange - Connnected
18. Nas - Street's Disciple
19. Charizma and Peanut Butter Wolf - Big Shots
20. Devin The Dude - To Tha X-Treme
21. Inja - Suffering In Silence
22. The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat
23. Infinite Livez - Bush Meat
24. Interpol - Antics
25. Cee-Lo - Cee-Lo Green Is The Soul Machine

[Forkboy]

32. Interesting mix there

:thumbsup:

[WoodrowFan]

33. 10 favorite hita

1. thwack
2. thud
3. konk
4. bonk
5. dong
6. bing
7. bong
8. booooiinng
9. WACK
& 10. KABLAM

[tigerbeat]

34. 15. Misery is a Butterfly by Blonde Redhead

14. To the Five Boroughs by Beastie Boys
13. A Boot and a Shoe by Sam Phillips
12. The Delivery Man by Elvis Costello
11. Shake the Sheets by Ted Leo/Pharmacists
10. i by Magnetic Fields
9. Everybody Loves a Happy Ending by Tears for Fears
8. Now Here Is Nowhere by The Secret Machines
7. From a Basement on the Hill by Elliot Smith
6. You Are the Quarry by Morrissey
5. The Slow Wonder by A.C. Newman
4. Antics by Interpol
3. Good News for People Who Love Bad News by Modest Mouse
2. Smile by Brian Wilson
1. Franz Ferdinand by Franz Ferdinand

honorable mention must go to steve earle for content and attitude. but i just have never warmed up to country-fried stuff.

due to albums bought or given me recently, my list has changed somewhat drastically in the last few weeks. that von bondies album might grow on me and i hear the madvillian album is pretty great.

[RevolutionaryActs]

36. What about Franz Ferdinand and The Killers?

Those are two great CDs IMO. :)

[RandomKoolzip]

39. Not much happened this year that I was terribly excited about....

And apart from the Zutons, the new crop of young bands out there don't really have that much going for them. And hiphop? Pop? Uh....no. Nothing happening there, either. It was a fallow year for music. Politics was far more absorbing; I'm still waiting for more artists to inculcate the political environmment in their work like the hardcore/punk bands of the 80's did.


But here's the albums I liked:

Guided by Voices: Half-Smiles of the Decomposed
American Music Club: Love Songs for Patriots
Ted Leo: Shake the Sheets
Bobby Conn: The Homeland

And the songs I heard that I dug:

Wheat: I Met a Girl
The Zutons: You Will, You Won't
AC Newman: Miracle Drug (The rest of the album was mediocre, IMO)

And that one hiphop song that reused Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" was neat on the first listen, but then I started being able to make out the words and they were stupid, as is the norm for mainstream hiphop these days, and thus it was flung upon the "novelty" pile.

[LSdemocrat]

40. My favorite good (and occasionally cheesy) pop/rock albums of 2004

Favorite: Franz Ferdinand by Franz Ferdinand

Others:
Astronaut by Duran Duran
Hot Fuss by the Killers
Love, Angel, Music, Baby by Gwen Stefani

[tigerbeat]

41. for a good guilty pleasure....

check out the scissor sisters debut album. it's the best elton john album in 25 years.

[greendog]

46. Leonard Cohen ... "Dear Heather"

n/t

[warrens]

47. Slightly fudged

1. John Cale - HoboSapiens (came out in 2003, but not widely available until this year)

2. Arcade Fire - Funeral

3. The Fall - The Real New Fall Album

4. Por Vida - A Tribute to Alejandro Escoveda

5. The Mekons - Punk Rock

6. Secret Machines

7. Paul Westerburg - Folker

8. Califone - Heron King Blues

9. Kinks - Village Green Preservation Society w/The Great Lost Kinks Album bonus

10. Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat