The Arcade Fire: Funeral
Mix Death Cab For Cutie's tendency for melodrama with Modest Mouse's sensibilities, stir, enjoy.
TV On The Radio: Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes
Imagine several Genesis-era Peter Gabriels fronting the Talking Heads circa 1980.
Best "almost could have been great" albums:
Finn Brothers: Everyone Is Here
Oh, what this could have been . . . and yet it's still a pleasing piece of work. My hopes were high when it was announced that the Finn brothers Neil and Tim (both ex- of Crowded House and Split Enz) new album would come out, so I was a little disappointed when it didn't quite live up to the expectations I had. Someone once said "expectations are a prison" and so I did my best to put aside the expectations I had and found that the album as a whole has a loose, melodic warmth that is quite pleasing to the ear. While some songs are almost embarassingly simple, as is the case with "Disembodied Voices," or overly syrupy feel-good pap like "Nothing Wrong With You," there's nothing particularly offensive about the album. There's nothing particularly surprising, either, unfortunately, and the album finds itself ranked in the middle of the associated Crowded House releases.
Mike Keneally Band: Dog
What works on this album works great - it's a good fun guitar-rock album, more straight-ahead than pretty much anything bearing his name, and were it not marred by a 20+ minute wasteland of irritation and noise in the second half it would have been in my tops o' year list. It still comes recommended, just with a disclaimer.
Disappointments of the year:
Helmet: Size Matters
Helmet returns after a long time away, during which a buttload of bands have nicked their sound but haven't been able to match the sheer power of the band. Unfortunately, the rage in Helmet has apparently evaporated with age, and Size Matters sounds weak and anemic as a result.
Beastie Boys: To The Five Burroughs
I am not a fan of rap, per se, but the Beasties have managed to keep their music so varied that it's hard to identify them purely as rap. They've also kept a good deal of humor in their music, making each album enjoyable on a second level apart from the musical aspect. This time around, however, the aging Beasties are showing their age and a surprisingly juvenile sense of humor, even for them, as they flounder at attempts to make political jokes. The other problem is the music - they've done all this before and a lot better with Paul's Boutique, and I see no reason to waste any time on this flaccid excuse of an album.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
wildly interesting and informative list Tom, thanks! Ihad no idea the Trash Cans were still around and I had almost completely forgotten Grant Lee
2 - DJRadiohead
Tom,
Interesting list- particularly Helmet. I expected so much less and was pleasantly surprised. I can't say I like the album as a whole, but there are a couple of very good songs ("Throwing Punches" has been a favorite of mine since I heard it on the 'Underworld' soundtrack).
3 - Tom
Eric: do check out both the Sinatras as well as the Grant Lee Phillips album - if you liked what they did in the past, you'll like what they're doing now, and probably more, from my perspective. They're that good.
DJRadiohead: I went into the Helmet album with low expectations, too, and still found it to be a disappointment. I'd much rather listen to pretty much anything than this, sadly. I really thought I might like it, as I even like Aftertaste, which I think is unfairly slagged by fans who might have been expecting Betty II.
4 - Henry Porter
I must say you do check out the hard, cold, strange and unusual shit. No Dick Dale and the Deltones for your funky ass. I find your tastes peculiar but your means of expression are immaculate, and I don't think I've had as much fun with a single post since I went skinnydipping with the Bundchen sisters.
5 - Bill Lamb
Fascinating list...I didn't know Einsturzende Neubauten were still around either. I'll have to look that up.
Keep listening to Arcade Fire. It is a truly beautiful album and they are starting to build a buzz.
6 - Mark Saleski
as usual, tom provides a varied list, almost none of which is on mine.
...which is a good thing because now there's more stuff to check out.
particularly that intrumental Mike Keneally cd. yummy.
i do have the Wilco cd and it's pretty cool. is is alt.country? it is music concrete? uhm, yes.
7 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
tom, excellent stuff. i never thought i'd enjoy reading about Marillion, but there you go, suprised am i, as yoda would say, if he too were reading about marillion.
I somehow managed to miss the whole Modest Mouse thing, and it was only after my own list was up that someone reccomended it. It blew me away, is what. Fantastic.
I would add the libertines, of course, to any list of best records of 2004, but thats why we all got our own, i guess.
Brilliant stuff, and whilst i'm wary of instrumental rock opera shindigs, you write about it brilliantly.
8 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
and as a fairly long-time fan of nick cave, having enjoyed pretty much all of his back catalogue, i gotta say the new record (s) is the best thing i've ever heard from the dour sonabitch.
9 - Tom Johnson
Good sir Duke, never fear, the Libertines released a much-enjoyed album, but I had to make a cut-off point somewhere. As I mentioned, it was a really tough job just picking these, and the Libs weren't the only thing I had to sadly leave out of this meandering list.
I may have a "honorable mention" list for those things that just didn't quite make the cut. I realized in retrospect there were a number of things that I really enjoyed that, for whatever reason, the listening tapered off toward the end of the year and they plum got forgotten. ANd there are things like the new U2, which came out so late in the year that I have a hard time calling it a "2004 album," as the majority of it's first full year of life will be spent not in 2004 but in 2004. Anything released in the last couple months of the year is pretty hard to list as a best-of for the entire year, I think. I know my tastes change pretty quickly, and what I favor immediately after buying may well disappear from my listening queue by year's end.
10 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Anything released in the last couple months of the year is pretty hard to list as a best-of for the entire year
I totally agree. I left Eminem's Encore off my list, but i've been listening to it constantly for the last month. It's hard to get a handle on things overnight.