THE TOP 40 ALBUMS OF 2004
40. The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike (Memphis Industries)
This album calls to mind Junior Senior, but is much more interesting, sounding like 70s and 80s TV theme shows filtered through part Jackson 5 and part old school funk - the vocals don't quite do it for me, but the sheer joyfulness and horn blasting make up for it.
39. Fennesz - Venice (Touch)
It's easy to see Christian Fennesz's obsession with My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields, but the Fennesz style and texture is all his own, with reverberating guitar chords that melt into space and mutate, backed with subdued electronica...experimental yet listenable if you don't fall asleep.
38. Blockhead - Music By Cavelight (Ninja Tune)
A mix of Ninja Tune jazztronica and hip hop with clever sampling throughout, but lacking in variety and punch to many of the songs.
37. Friends of Dean Martinez - Random Harvest (Narnack)
Like Tucson rockers Calexico, Friends of the Dean capture the ambience of the Southwest and transport it to your car stereo - nice music for driving down the open, windy, dust-blown road.
36. Tin Hat Trio - Book of Silk (Ropeadope)
Violinist Carla Kihlstedt (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Two Foot Yard) and group draw their musical inspiration from a variety of sources from gypsy to folk to bluegrass, even sometimes sounding like the accordion cinematic soundscapes of the French musician Yann Tiersen - this album is good, but very mellow and doesn't quite hold my interest throughout its 50 minutes.
35. Calamalka - Shredders Dub (Plug Research)
Vancouver's Calamalka bring Lee 'Scratch' Perry and King Tubby's dub style back to life - nice background music, but not totally engaging.
34. Sixtoo - Chewing Glass and Other Miracle Cures (Ninja Tune)
Drawing from the Massive Attack school of dark trip hop and using instrumentation from real instruments, this album is worthy of the excellent Ninja Tune label, but the occasional rapping and filler tracks bring down what could have been a great album.
33. The Futureheads - s/t (StarTime/Sire)
The Futureheads bring back the past late 70s-early 80s sounds of The Jam, The Clash, Gang of Four, Wire, and others, but don't exactly propel post-punk into the future even though this is a fun and technically well performed album.
32. Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News (Epic)
The good news is that thanks to Modest Mouse and some other groups, the line between indie and commercial rock has been somewhat blurred (this year especially). The bad is that while MM is a great indie rock band, the filler tracks lose the cohesiveness of what could have been a superb album.
31. Skalpel - s/t (Ninja Tune)
This group apparently gets their sound from sampling 50s and 60s Polish jazz records - dramatic and skillfully constructed even though a lot of the songs sound the same.
30. When - Whenever (Jester)
Another album from the Norwegian tricksters falls a little short this time compared to their normal brilliance, but this album still has its moments of psychedelic Beach Boys-esque pop, Middle Eastern wanderings, crazy collages, and experimental noise.
29. Homelife - Guru Man Hubcap Lady (Ninja Tune)
One of the better releases on Ninja Tune as of recent (next to anything by Amon Tobin), Homelife is more than just the normal jazztronica of this label...like a friend's eclectic mix tape shuffling between goofy IDM and psychedelic jazz, but sometimes the vocals are a bit obnoxious.
28. !!! (Chk Chk Chk) - Louden Up Now (Touch and Go)
One of the better bands of the dance punk craze, !!! (pronounced Chk Chk Chk) make punked-out, trancey disco with a knack for no-wave groups, but the ideas in this album could have been condensed into half as many songs.
27. Woven Hand - Consider the Birds (Sounds Familyre)
The "side project" of David Eugene Edwards (16 Horsepower) is a whole lot more interesting than his normal band would probably like him to be, but this third album of dark, eclectic, hardcore religious folk seems nearly as good as the first two.
26. Deerhoof - Milk Man (Kill Rock Stars)
The front cover of this album almost describes the music of this San Francisco quartet, where the milk body represents perfect pop music, and jagged, radioactive fruit is thrown into disrupt the lactose-coated formula to sound closer to Japanese noise-mongers Melt Banana or Blonde Redhead.
25. Kaada-Patton - Romances (Ipecac)
This is the musical romance between Mike Patton (Mr. Bungle, Fantomas, 800 others) and Norway's super sampler John Kaada (check out 'Thank You For Giving Me Your Valuable Time'), and while an interesting merging of their musical personalities, somehow there's no emergent properties that transcend either of these fabulous musicians.
24. Magnetic Fields - I (Nonesuch)
Stephin Merritt and group's cabaret pop stylings are made slicker on this album, away from their usual lo-fi sound, but it doesn't take away from the quality of the songs.
23. Rogue Wave - Out of the Shadow (Sub Pop)
Nothing completely original, but definitely nice-on-the-ears and well crafted indie rock, like updated Simon and Garfunkel or the Byrds.
22. Faun Fables - Family Album (Drag City)
The unusual partnership of Dawn McCarthy and Nils Frykdahl (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Idiot Flesh) make up Faun Fables, the Bay Area based eclectic folk duo, stunning audiences with Dawn's operatic vocals and Nils' unusual jagged-edged instrumentation.
21. Dungen - Ta Det Lungt (Subliminal Sounds)
Swedish retro psychedelic pop that has hints of jazz and Mexico's Cafe Tacuba in their sound - one of the best unexpected releases of the year.
20. Tussle - Kling Klang (Troubleman Unlimited)
San Francisco Bay Area's Tussle mix together krautrock, dub, and electronica to make tight groove music.
19. The Decemberists - The Tain (Acuarela)
Not really a full length album, but this twenty minute-ish piece is the Decemberists playing off their Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Iron Butterfly influences, like a 15th century Ozzy going out to sea with a bottle of Captain Morgan.
18. Franz Ferdinand - s/t (Domino)
Like post-punk meets Duran Duran and Blur, almost a little too catchy, but fun as hell to listen to and better than most of that dance punk crap.
17. RJD2 - Since We Last Spoke (Def Jux)
RJD2 is not the robot from Star Wars, but rather is a hip-hop guy who tries to get inside the heads of bands from the 70s, and even plays his own guitar riffs among extensive sampling.
16. A.C. Newman - The Slow Wonder (Matador)
Debut solo album from one of the many talents behind the Vancouver superpop group The New Pornographers, this album shows how much of this talent belongs to him.
15. Goudron - Raw Voltage (Ersatz Audio)
Raw Voltage, indeed, coming directly from the sounds of rewired analog synths - great, frantic stuff.
14. Lars Horntveth - Pooka (Smalltown Supersound)
Debut solo effort of one of the lead members of the Norway jazztronica outfit Jaga Jazzist. While it's not too different in style than JJ, this I dare to say is even better, more unique, and adventurous than any JJ album.
13. End - The Sounds of Disaster (Ipecac)
This wins the 'completely bonkers' album of the year award, hands down...spy music, theremins, bustling breakbeats, cop show riffs, surf guitar, sound effects galore, jazzy bits, moogs, and more, all thrown together in a blender and set on mashup.
12. Interpol - Antics (Matador)
Sophomore release from these NY post-punkers is not as immediately catchy as Turn on the Bright Lights, but shows a real progression, one of a great band reacting to the unexpected hype of their debut.
11. End - Percussions (Tigerbeat6)
The only artist to have two albums in the top 40, but well deserved - similar in style to 'The Sounds of Disaster' album, but more listenable.
10. Mountain Goats - We Shall All Be Healed (4AD)
John Darnielle makes catchy hyper-aggressive folk, like the second coming of Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum, with his manic and off-kilter voice telling strange stories that are difficult to fully comprehend.
9. Bogus Blimp - Rdtr (Jester)
Norway's Bogus Blimp third album in the "trilogy" will be their last, but not before blowing minds with their brand of minimalist/maximalist sci-fi electronica and jazzy soundscapes.
8. Crime In Choir - The Hoop (Frenetic)
San Francisco Bay Area's Crime In Choir, consisting of members from Hella and the Fucking Champs, make complex and stop-on-a-dime progish rock, with jazz and new wave influences.
7. Of Montreal - Satanic Panic In the Attic (Polyvinyl)
Of Montreal finally hits their stride with this gorgeous, bizarre, and near-perfect indie psychedelic pop album.
6. Flat Earth Society - Isms (Ipecac)
This album is a collection of tracks from this excellent Belgian group's four albums with some unreleased tracks, compiled by Mike Patton for his Ipecac label, an unusual jazz outfit who filters diverse influences from John Zorn to Henry Mancini into their music.
5. Squarepusher - Ultravisitor (Warp)
This album sums up brilliant multi-instrumentalist and electronic programmer Squarepusher's talents to date, with a mix of studio and live tracks that update his warped and schizo jazzy drums 'n' bass sound.
4. Magyar Posse - Kings of Time (Verdura)
The stunning second album from this Finnish group feels like a more intense and focused version of the post-rockers Godspeed You! Black Emperor, but there's also hints of prog-rock and Morricone thrown in along the way, set to the mood of a David Lynch film.
3. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - Natural History (Web of Mimicry)
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum is a super group of sorts, rising from the ashes of performance art rockers Idiot Flesh, as their second album displays their true mastery of avant-garde multi-genre music.
2. Jason Forrest - The Unrelenting Songs of the 1979 Post Disco Crash (Sonig)
Jason Forrest (aka Donna Summer) makes the mashup album of the year, slicing up disco, metal, prog/classic rock, drill 'n' bass, and other styles (from the Talking Heads to ELO to Elton John) in a head spinning breakcore masterpiece.
1. Secret Chiefs 3 - Book of Horizons (Web of Mimicry)
The Secret Chiefs 3 magnum opus, over three years in the making, is a grand synopsis of the SC3 sound up until this point, where we hear traditional Middle Eastern rock-outs, ferocious surf guitar, demonic black/death metal, experimental wanderings, and superbly updated Morricone-esque cinematic themes.