Favorite Albums 2004
I was going to try to do a full-on end-of-the-year music wrap-up like I did for movies last week, but a) I don’t have a list of everything I bought this year with me right now, and b) I haven’t gotten around to buying a lot of CDs that I really should have. So I’ll be hyper-informal and just list a few that I have enjoyed in the past 12 months.
Franz Ferdinand I don’t know anyone who doesn’t dig this record. It makes me want to dance like the white boy that I am (read: badly), and who am I to resist its calls? The pop hooks are so sharp, it’s like the boys from across the Atlantic cut their tracks with an Xacto knife. (Special thanks to Adam Goldberg from MTV.com for that last line.)
Green Day - American Idiot I borrowed Amy’s copy of this CD, so I haven’t officially bought it—yet. Since 1994, I’ve only ever been peripherally aware of Green Day, but I am loving this record. Rah, angry at the establishment!
DJ Danger Mouse - The Grey Album I still find it hard to believe that you can’t legally buy one of the best albums of the year.
Interpol - Antics Interpol is probably my favorite band right now.
The Killers - Hot Fuss Possibly more fun to listen to than Franz Ferdinand. These guys are awesome.
The Magnetic Fields - i My favorite album of the year. I fully expect to still be listening to this twenty or thirty years from now.
I also have to mention my least favorite album of the year, Wilco’s A Ghost Is Born. Maybe I’ll change my mind on this someday (and I hope I do, because Yankee Hotel Foxtrot still rocks my world), but I found this whole CD mind-numbingly boring. And I have no idea what the people who put this on their top-5 or top-10 list are talking about.
December 30, 2004 - 12:12 PM