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2004

December 31, 2004

My top ten favorite albums of 2004 (in order of my completely subjective scoring system)
  • Newman, A.C. - The Slow Wonder - 9.8
  • Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days - 9.7
  • Wilco - A Ghost Is Born - 9.4
  • Buckner, Richard - Dents and Shells - 9.2
  • Interpol - Antics - 9.0
  • Arcade Fire - Funeral - 8.9
  • West, Kanye - College Dropout - 8.5
  • Harvey, PJ - Uh Huh Her - 8.4
  • De La Soul - The Grind Date - 8.2
  • Brando - 943 Recluse - 8.2
 Best reissues of 2004:
  • Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain - 9.5
  • Wilson, Brian - SMiLE - 9.0 (Technically not a reissue, but I think we all know better)
 The rest of my 2004 acquisitions:
  • Kings of Convenience - Riot On An Empty Street - 8.1
  • Magnetic Fields, The - i - 8.0
  • Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand - 8.0
  • Kweli, Talib - The Beautiful Struggle - 8.0
  • Stevens, Sufjan - Seven Swans - 7.9
  • Mission of Burma - OnOffOn - 7.8
  • Lynn, Loretta - Van Lear Rose - 7.7
  • Air - Talkie Walkie - 7.7
  • Jones, Norah - Feels Like Home - 7.7
  • Satellite 66 - Grasshopper - 7.5
  • Gibbs, Otis - One Day Our Whispers - 7.4
  • Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News - 7.3
  • Badly Drawn Boy - One Plus One is One - 7.1
  • Múm - Summer Make Good - 7.0
  • Kweller, Ben - On My Way - 7.0
  • Clem Snide - Soft Shell - 6.6
  • Clinic - Winchester Cathedral - 5.9
  • Beastie Boys - To The 5 Boroughs - 5.6
  • Eminem - Encore - 2.0
 Happy New Year all. Here's looking to 2005. Cheers!
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Comments:

Happy New Year, my love!

So sayeth Sarah at January 1, 2005 8:40 AM

It is somewhat amusing that your scoring system goes out to tenths of a point! Thanks for the recommendations, though; I'm going to check some of these out.

Here's hoping 2005 is a better year.

So sayeth B at January 1, 2005 9:34 PM

Yeah, B, it's modeled after http://www.pitchforkmedia.com and the Olympic scoring system. Instead of Athens 2004, it's Huffman 2004.

I felt too constrained with just 1-10 as options, so...

I'm listening to a couple things right now - acquired in the past few weeks - that the jury is still out on. John Cale, Sondre Lerche, DJ Dangermouse (The Grey Album) and Lambchop (both releases). I'll update after a few more listens.

p.s. You can download The Grey Album at http://www.illegal-art.org/audio/grey.html

So sayeth Chris at January 2, 2005 7:55 AM

I think you're being a little hard on mnm. Encore is more of the same formula that's worked for him in the past, but I think some of the beats are pretty clever. Anway, I should have stopped reading when I saw Iron and Wine (aka James Taylor wrist-slitting music) was #2. HA HA! Props to my hommie Kanye, Best New Artist baby!!! Buh-lee dat!!!

So sayeth dan at January 2, 2005 9:58 AM

"Encore is more of the same formula that's worked for him in the past" - and that is exactly the problem. He needs to innovate and stop talking about his ex-wife and his bad relationship with his mommy - I'm sick of hearing about it. And those clever beats are created by Dre, other studio engineers and wannabe's who hang around Emimen looking for exposure (by creating beats for artists a la Timbaland) - so I'm not giving him credit for that.

The guy can rap. And sometimes he's pretty damn funny, but this album has few new highlights. Every time a song starts to sound good he overdoes it or brings up his dirty laundry - which I don't care to hear about. With his millions of $'s he can hire Dr. Phil for therapy, I'm not buying it. If I want to hear the same old shit, I'll just listen to an earlier (see: better) album rather than Encore.

DOYNG!

So sayeth Chris at January 2, 2005 10:24 AM

I like Eminem's album (well, about 40% of it anyway) and the Beastie Boy's album too.

So sayeth Sonya at January 2, 2005 3:40 PM

Sonya, there's stuff on the Beastie Boys album that I liked, but not a lot. If there is an album on this list that I really wanted to like, it's the Beastie Boys album.

But, man, was I disappointed! The sound of this one is far too 1985 - and not in a good way. Like Eminem, if I wanted to hear the same old shit again and again, why wouldn't I just get out the old records?

Again, these scores are how I reacted to these records - not some empirical grade. Other people might hate something that I really liked. For instance, Pitchfork gave the Wilco album a 6.6 score but I loved it, save the 14 minute headache simulation that Tweedy added to Less Than You Think.

So, don't feel offended or anything. Rather, tell us what your favorite records were.

So sayeth Chris at January 2, 2005 9:18 PM

pretty lame post, compared to your other annual efforts.

So sayeth Jibber at January 10, 2005 11:58 AM
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