Album of the Year

Scott Hardie | December 16, 2004
As 2004 draws to a close, I wonder what is some of the best new music you heard this year, if any. The general consensus around here is that popular music is terrible artifice these days, but surely there must have been one or two really good albums you heard?

I've mentioned it once or twice here on TC, but "Coral Fang" by the Distillers (link) is easily my own favorite music of the year, and one of my favorite CDs ever by now. I bought it in January and I've listened through it what feels like a hundred times, and I have yet to tire of a moment of it. It's not rich enough to keep discovering new things with each listen (the discoveries come but they're infrequent) — it's just such a great emotional thrill each time through, one that doesn't wear out. If you listen to rock 'n roll because it makes you feel alive, and if you like to empathize with a singer who has an incredible voice presence, this is music worth investigating.

Erik Bates | December 16, 2004
[hidden by request]

Jackie Mason | December 30, 2004
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Anna Gregoline | December 30, 2004
I'll nominate P.J. Harvey's Uh Huh Her.

Kris Weberg | December 31, 2004
I've been grooving to Franz Ferdinand's eponynmous album for a while now.

Amy Austin | December 31, 2004
Didn't REM do an album by that name?

Amy Austin | December 31, 2004
Or were you just describing it as such?

Kris Weberg | January 2, 2005
Just describing it as such. REM actually titled an album eponymous, tho' it was a sort of B-sides collection as much as anything.

Kris Weberg | January 3, 2005
Oh, and is it just me, or have the last few REM albums been truly sucktacular?

Scott Hardie | January 14, 2005
I don't listen to much heavy metal any more, and the many, many CDs of it that I bought back in high school and college are getting quite annoying by coming up so frequently in my CD changer. But I did take a chance on Megadeth's late 2004 album, and it's great stuff if you're a fan. They came out of retirement and they sound like they're fresh out of the garage again, raw and angry, but not in a put-on way like Metallica was a year ago. Speaking of which, they also make several slams at Dave's old bandmates in the lyrics, including a theft of Cliff Burton's poetry. I read that Dave has admitted publicly that he'll forever exist in Metallica's shadow, and I'm glad that the acceptance of this fact has improved his music, because lyrically that was the usually-ignored 800 pound gorilla in the room. Anyway, other than Mike I think I'm the only Megadeth & Metallica fan on the site, so I probably typed all of this for nothing, but I wanted to mention a great 2004 album while I was on the subject.

(My favorite CD of the moment, albeit not from 2004, is Shivaree's "I Oughtta Give You a Shot in the Head for Making Me Live in This Dump." Fascinating stuff, if you haven't heard it.)