Top 10 Albums of the Year 2008

Getting closer to the end. Let's just keep it moving.

10. The Tallest Man On Earth - Shallow Grave
(Gravitation)
Rank in 2008: 21-50

I have this weird love/hate relationship with Kristian Matsson, aka The Tallest Man On Earth. On one hand, I love that he is doing bare bones, heart on the sleeve folk music with his rasp and swedish accent and just fucking put himself out there, no frills, just hooks. On the other hand, I sometimes get pissed off or embarrassed that I even listen to him in the first place. Some of the lyrics are truly atrocious (not TOO BAD), and the general sound is something that I don't want people around me knowing I listen to...loudly. But there lies the conundrum. I've found that the best place to listen to TMOE's music is in my car, volume turned all the way up so that I can sing those very same lyrics at the top of my lung, pretend I'm a folksinger and tell the world my story. Do I do it with the windows up or down? He's fun - sort of. Take it in small doses and it's the best thing there is, in large doses - well...I probably don't want to know you.

9. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
(XL)
Rank in 2008: N/A

At this point it's probably ok to freely admit just how fucking fun this record is and always has been. Back when Ezra and co. jumped/splashed on the scene and were the biggest thing since the Arctic Monkeys, I was a bit hesitant to reveal how much I liked them, my mistake. Perfectly fun, capably, pop music. The whole thing about NPR saying it's world music is a joke, sure they have African rhythms, sure much of the albums sounds like it wants to be a "Graceland" b-side, but guess what? "Graceland" is one of the best albums ever - and this is just really fuckin fun. It's sunny, its hot, you're with people, put on Vampire Weekend, open some beers, stop being pretentious and just fucking move around, have a conversation, sing along. Good chillout music, good beach music, good driving music. A really fun band and here I'll say it: a landmark record.

8. Small Sur - We Live In Houses Made Of Wood
(Tender Loving Empire)
Rank in 2008: 8

Since I've ceased listening to music when going to bed, I've listened to Small Sur a whole lot less. Due to an obsession and almost a "need" to listen to this album before/while falling asleep, it became one of the most played albums in my entire collection. The lushness of it all, always close, but never quite bubbling up over the calm. It's eerie, it's pretty, it's dark. It's one of my very favorite folk records in a decade filled with weird, slow folk music. It's a shame this release didn't get more press or positive reactions, because just about everyone I've introduced it to has enjoyed it a great deal. It's not something to listen to during the day time, unless you find yourself constantly surrounded by overwhelming trees or perhaps intense desert, but it is a great nighttime record, perfect for the comedown, or relaxing, drinking, reading. One of those albums where you don't want to admit quite how much you truly love it, but know that it's going to stick around in your rotation for a very, very long time.

7. Juana Molina - Un Dia
(Domino)
Rank in 2008: N/A

One of the most overused words that amateur music critics like myself employ is "ethereal". Due to a lack of ability to accurately describe music that is so unlike anything else out there, yet gives the listener a sense of calm, we use this word. Other-worldly, beautiful, extravagant, dream-like. All of these things describe Juana Molina, an artist who should be among our most important and critically acclaimed, yet somehow remains the status of being looked over when all boils down. Her songs often revolve around her spanish-sung vocal loops, using her voice as percussion, filling the spectrum of sound with seemingly dozens of vocal tracks playing off of each other. There is always a groove, there is always hints of instruments that keep the music rooted in the real world. It doesn't sound bizarre or futuristic, it doesn't sound archaic either, despite the chanting. It seems to be the sound of now, a constant experiment in sound and a true joy to listen to.

6. Flying Lotus - Los Angeles
(Warp/Brainfeeder)
Rank in 2008: 21-50

In which, in 43 minutes Flying Lotus creates the most exciting subgenre currently in electronic music. Various dj's had been experimenting around LA for a couple years, mixing 70s funk and jazz with truly abstract rhythms, cranking up the drums, maxing out the synths, giving us a new wave of psychedelic music that we can groove to. But Flying Lotus is the master, a role he well deserves. It took me a while to get into this album when it first came out, due primarily to its density, just how hard it hits - but that's the greatness of it. It's far out, it's a trip and it's just terribly exciting. Upon first listen, many of the tracks can sound repetitive, but once you start to learn the album, learn what to look for - where the songs are going, where the interludes are - it really reveals itself as a complete work. Just a very exciting direction for electronic music that has since spawned dozens of other great dj's mixing techno, dubstep, broken beat, jazz, hip hop, trip hop, etc.

5. Fennesz - Black Sea
(Touch)
Rank in 2008: 3

There is something about much of the music that Christian Fennesz is a part of that really makes my ears prick up. "Endless Summer" was a legendary album, "Venice" was comforting, I just underplay it and "Black Sea", since it's release has become some sort of "safety blanket" record for me. I mean this in two ways: back when it came out, I foolishly, though truthfully claimed that the sounds on this album were some of the first that I truly felt a blanket effect with. It's droning ambient soundscapes, some cold, some warm - but somehow the compositions on this record just were so right for me, they just warmed me - they sounded like the best thing I could possibly hear. The other way this record effect me stems from this - it has slowly become a near comfort record. One that is almost always on my Ipod for those times when I need to drown out everything - work, the day, the hustle and bustle of people on a train, whatever and just zone out - listen to something I can compare with my breath. Somehow, one of Fennesz's darkest records has become a record that comforts me. I still love it.

4. Q-Tip - The Renaissance
(Universal Motown)
Rank in 2008: 2

The reason this record succeeds as one of my favorite hip hop records of the past decade is in fact due to it nearly reaching a plateau of too much of a feel good record. It sounds hopelessly out of place among hip hop music in the 2000s, both underground and mainstream - everything considered. It's jazzy, but not too much, it's smooth, but not too much. It's positive - it's not very political, it has r&b hooks. It's Q-Tip doing hip hop that could almost find its way to adult contemporary radio - and I say this all as praise. This is a hip hop record I can just throw on it's dope - but it doesn't require a lot. Obviously Tip's voice is one of a kind, so smooth (and funny), and the beats on this record are just smooth enough. Jack Johnson rap? I don't know - terrible description. The fact remains that this is a hip hop album that doesn't belong to 2008, it's just out of place. It also happens to be the best hip hop record of 2008 and one of the very best of the entire decade. Smooth.

3. Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Pt. 1 (4th World War)
(Universal Motown)
Rank in 2008: 10

I've said many times that just about everything Erykah Badu puts out is amazing. She is unquestionably one of the rawest, most inventive and most important female musicians of the last two decades, becoming someone who is looked at with an almost diety-like awe. She is a queen, the only true superstar in soul music since soul music was a real genre. And with only a few albums officially released, she has nevertheless remained important, untouchable and always pushed the envelope. "New Amerykah Pt. 1" definitely pushes the envelope, and the reason why this isn't an album I wouldn't immediatly consider among the very best of the entire past decade is because it often pushes it a little too far, veering into the same awkwardly abstract territories that make records by Georgia-Anne Muldrow "almost good". But let's be frank here: most of this album is on another plane. When New Amerykah was released, it was such a breath of fresh air into the whole "neo-soul" scene, sounding unlike anything else before it. It's out there, it's influenced by many of our best acts and its political. It's a daunting listen, and it's almost pure genius. But not quite.

2. Shed - Shedding The Past
(Ostgut Ton)
Rank in 2008: 6

When I try to review techno albums I really enjoy, I start to speak in a level of hyperbole that really only makes sense to me. Without the skills and knowledge to be able to describe the music accurately, I basically judge dance music on a scale of "I like it a lot" to "This sucks." "Shedding the Past" by Shed, for the most part happens to be the best full length techno album in my collection. Without an appreciation for the art of dancing in a club, not taking drugs, not being versed in even having many LPs, there is not really anything in my entire techno collection that has revealed itself time and time again like Shed has on this album. Mixing some far out dub and ambient techno with some hard hitting drums (I mean, the drums really hit) and just straight up coasting through what seems like all the essential techno albums that I have, Shed has created an album that works as just that. In a genre where it seems like LPs are often a collection of individual tracks or are so centered around a theme that the music gets lost, "Shedding the Past" works the same way that all great albums work. It has it's quiet moments, it has great tracks that built to epic tracks, it mixes a lot of different influences, resulting in tracks that sound unique from one another but the album is still held together. Every track is sequenced in its proper place. It's a masterful album, one that keeps growing on me.

1. Sam Amidon - All Is Well
(Bedroom Community)
Rank in 2008: 1

"All Is Well" might very well be the prettiest record I've ever heard. The songs aren't Sam Amidon's, the arrangements are only partially his, but his voice, his renditions of these classic American folk songs just take my breath away every single time. It's ridiculous, it's a ridiculous concept, but it is just so good. There is no doubt in my mind that "All is Well" is one of my favorite records of the past decade, one of the most personal records I have in my collection, it just conjures up images in my head - whether they are memories of mine or memories I wish were mine. Strikingly beautiful and heartbreaking. I've probably listened to "Saro" close to 200 times and "Wedding Dress" about the same. I've thought about playing his rendition of "O Death" at my fantasy funeral. I just love everything about this record and I don't see my opinion changing on that ever. It's one of those records where I just know it's mine. It may not be for you, but it's definitely for me.

Bonus Comparison For Laughs: Top 20 of 2008
1. Sam Amidon - All Is Well
2. Q-Tip - The Renaissance
3. Fennesz - The Black Sea
4. Ulaan Kohl - I and II
5. Cadence Weapon - Afterparty Babies
6. Shed - Shedding the Past
7. Raphael Saadiq - The Way I See It
8. Small Sur - We Live in Houses Made of Wood
9. Posessed By Paul James - Cold & Blind
10. Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Pt. 1
11. Esbjorn Svensson Trio - Leucocyte
12. Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna
13. Ellen Allien - Sool
14. The Dodos - Visiter
15. Charlie Haden - Family & Friends: Rambling Boy
16. Marilyn Mazur & Jan Garabek - Elixir
17. Nico Muhly - Mothertongue
18. Gentleman Jesse & His Men - Gentleman Jesse & His Men
19. Blueprint - Blueprint Vs. Funkadelic
20. Paavoharju - Laulu Laakson Kukista

Top 10 Albums of the Year 2007

Been busy, haven't wanted to do this. I like to finish things though. So here is 2007, about 3 weeks after the last one. My bad. Btw, if you want - you can go into my archives and look at the first posts ever made on this blogger account - they are my original 2007 list.

10. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
(Merge)
Rank in 2007: 22

According to Metacritic, Spoon is the best (or most consistent) band of the past decade. I certainly don't agree with that assessment, but there is definitely truth in there somewhere that Spoon is at least a notch above most of the indie rock crowd. Though many of their early albums blend together for me and don't remain very memorable, something about the songs on GaGa, etc. just stick out from their accomplished discography. For a band that already sounded like they knew what they were doing, everything seems event tighter on this one. Listening to hit single "The Underdog" is a revelation to me every time. Every intricacy, instrument, every piece of the song seems placed so perfectly, it just astounds me, and is a song I consider to be among the best of the entire decade. Elsewhere on the record, "Rhythm & Soul", "Eddie's Raga" and "Finer Feelings" have this great underlying funk groove behind them. This funk is accompanied forays into great powerpop, some more experimental, arty stuff and just great hooks throughout. For my money, it's the best Spoon record thus far.

9. Jay-Z - American Gangster
(Roc-A-Fella)
Rank in 2007: 12

I'll come out and say that I think "American Gangster" is an unfairly overlooked album by perhaps the best rapper to ever hold a microphone in his hand. After retiring, coming back, putting out a bullshit album, Jay then got inspired by the movie/story of the same name and released this album - a loose concept featuring some of the fiercest rhyming of his career. Filled to the brim with top-notch production and samples (the Little Beaver sample on "Party Life" is one of the smoothest fucking things in hip hop), Jay comes out the doors and just exudes why he is one of the best. Rapping about the streets, gloating, proving that he is more dynamic that he is sometimes given credit for, this is Jay-Z at his most confident, an album I can imagine that he is truly impressed with. Listen, the dude is one of the absolute biggest names in the history of music, let alone hip hop - a true mogul. But he has put out a lot of terrible things in his long career. "American Gangster" was the album where he says, "I still got this." Killer.

8. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
(DFA)
Rank in 2007: 13

A lot has been said about this record in the past few years. LCD Soundsystem is the ultimate critics band. James Murphy writes tongue-in-cheek, clever lyrics, produces songs that are incredibly danceable, references sounds from throughout the history of cutting edge pop music and ultimately creates music that only he can, stuff that is uniquely his. That being said, while I like every full-length LCD has put out, I've always preferred Murphy's lighter, slower songs rather than the really intense dance workouts that fill most of his records. "Sound of Silver" happens to have perhaps the two best songs of the entire decade stuck right in the middle of the record, surrounded by intense workout songs. I don't need to say anything other than if you haven't heard and fallen in love with the brilliance of "Someone Great" and "All My Friends" almost 4 years after they originally came out, then you have missed out entirely on two of the most essential tracks of the past 10 years. I'm barely being sarcastic when I say this record could be surrounded Toto and Styx covers, but still have these two tracks and remain one of the very best records of 2007. Anthems.

7. Uncle Earl - Waterloo, Tennessee
(Rounder)
Rank in 2007: 3

If my listening habits of 2007 could be categorized into any one overarching genre, it would've been what some call "Americana." I'd always been a big fan of the twangy country, lots of the modern folk coming about and was slowing developing an obsession with bluegrass, new-grass and old-time revival music. I made a really impressive 2-disc mix of the best of the stuff from 2007, a year that seem ripe with great bands in these various subgenres. One of my very favorite records from then (and still today) is the second album by accomplished solo folk musicians coming together as Uncle Earl. Banjo, guitar, fiddle, tapshoes, everything you want. The songs on here go all over the place, there is some Mandarin language song via Abigail Washburn, there are covers of classic old-timey songs, there are more modern sounding originals, instrumentals, the album is an exercise in everything that folk music has been and should be and it's a masterful record. It's one of my all-time most listened to albums and though I still appreciate it a great deal, much of the appeal it once had on me is slowly diminishing. Maybe I have to get out of the city and back to the rural counties, because musicians as good as these 4 lovely women deserve all the praise I can give.

6. A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Scribble Mural Comic Journal
(Notenuf)
Rank in 2007: 9

I've listened to A Sunny Day in Glasgow a lot since I first heard this album. Singles, videos, albums, remixes, live. My friend is in the band now, but I still don't understand how the sounds that come out on their records get to sound the way they do. How they can simultaneously make songs that sound some amazingly pretty and surreal also seem to paranoid and well...loud. Sure a lot of the best 80s and 90s bands did similar things, but A Sunny Day in Glasgow has a sound that is all their own. I want to dance to it. Strike that, I want to convulse to it. It's perfect convulsion music and I love it. One of the most creative and overall best bands in existence right now, I can't wait to see where A Sunny Day in Glasgow continues to grow, because with every single thing they are putting out (which isn't a whole lot), they improve greatly. Just a truly impressive band.

5. M.I.A. - Kala
(Interscope)
Rank in 2007: 19

Some records are just so much fun when played loud that you just can't help but love them. I've had this love/hate relationship with M.I.A. since she started hitting blogs back and her mixtape came out. The thought of "what the fuck is this" is usually the first thing that pops in my head, followed by the most ass-shaking this side of a 2 Live Crew track. MIA is fun, I don't pay attention to her lyrics, I pay attention to the bass, the beats, the chanting, the rhythm. I barely pay attention to her and the controversy and praise that surrounds her. I liked the debut, I love Kala. The production is kicked up a notch, everything is louder, hits harder, but still has this nice worldbeat groove to it. "Boyz" is a workout, "Jimmy" is a great comedown, "Paper Planes" deserves the anthem status it has achieved, "XR2" is one of the dopest dance tracks I've heard and even the ridiculously out of place Timbaland track is tight. She won't top this record, it pushed the limits of her musicianship to their brink without overdoing it and because of that she made a incredibly fun record.


4. Feist - The Reminder
(Cherrytree)
Rank in 2007: 23

We all have albums in our collections that we turn to when nothing else seems to sound good. When we have those days where we try to find the perfect record to put on, or something we should listen to - but everything just sounds grating and annoying. When this happens, I've put on "The Reminder" on a number of occasions and it has done the trick perfectly. The light, breezy sounds that Feist puts out on this album, without being cheesy is to me, truly transcendent. Big words, I know - but there are few pop vocal records that are executed as well as this. Catchy songs (you've obviously heard many of them on tv), mixed with slower ballads, all accompanied by Feist's breathy voice - it's just a great mix. I can't front - this album actually probably deserves to be higher than #4 on this list, but I somehow get slightly embarrassed expressing how much I enjoy this record. It does similar things to me that records like "Rumours" or "Abandoned Luncheonette" do - it's forward thinking pop music that doesn't stray too far from what is popular at the time, just expertly crafted and the perfect crossover.

3. The Avett Brothers - Emotionalism
(Ramseur)
Rank in 2007: 1

Considering the obsession I once had with this album, the fact that I haven't completely burnt out on it is a feat in and of itself. I know every word to every song on this album, I scream when the brothers scream, I sing along, I mock playing the banjo or stand-up bass, I love this record. That being said, I realize now that not all the songs are brilliant, some are just ok, some are actually sort of grating at this point. Still though, the opening 3 songs for my money, rival the opening of any record in history. So much fun. I like these guys, hell, I love these guys and even though they are pretty huge now, I'll continue to support them if they continue to make good music. I didn't enjoy their followup very much, but "Emotionalism" will always have a special place in my heart and list of formidable albums from my early days as an adult. Great playing, amazing singing, great songwriting. I think the Avett Brothers are going to continue to grow in popularity, and more power to them. They should be one of the biggest bands on the planet.

2. Kanye West - Graduation
(Roc-A-Fella)
Rank in 2007: 4

LIKE WE ALWAYS DO IT THIS TIME, I GO FOR MINE, I GOT TO SHINE, NOW THROW YOUR HANDS UP IN THE SKY. With "Graduation" Kanye officially made the transition from a dude trying to bridge the mainstream with the backpack and became a bonafide "turn that shit up" superstar. Kanye goes electro, creates hilarious party rap songs, samples Daft Punk and Michael Jackson, gets rid of all the skits, keeps the record short and includes guest appearances from some of the biggest country's biggest pop stars. Along with the upbeat stuff, Kanye also released tracks like "Everything I Am" and "Can't Tell Me Nothing" (which might be the very best Kanye song and one of the single best hip hop songs of the new decade), which go a little deeper like vintage Kanye. The album just slaps hard, it's a blast. Not everything is great and it doesn't really show the artistic vision of his first two albums, but this is Kanye saying, "Ok, I've made it, you haven't" - and it is a joyous listen.

1. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
(Domino)
Rank in 2007: 2

I'll admit right now that I'm in that ever increasing group of people around the world that consider just about everything that Animal Collective touches to be brilliant. I find myself undoubtedly considering them the best and most important band of the past decade and perhaps the only true innovator in music this entire decade. I like just about all shades of Animal Collective, but I really gravitate towards their more overtly pop records, which is why "Strawberry Jam" is one of my very favorites. Brilliantly catchy songs, audible lyrics, incredibly fun music. Many longtime fans scoffed at this record when it first came out because it was accessible, or not challenging enough. "Fireworks" is a legitimate pop song (one of the best of the past decade), but nothing that Animal Collective does here sounds like anything else around it. And even though their popularity towards the end of the decade resulted in hundreds of bands trying to incorporate their sound into their music, no one yet has been able to distill the pure joy and...brilliance with which Animal Collective has. I won't say they CAN'T do no wrong, some side projects have been terrible, but I'll go ahead and say that they are in fact the best band in the world right now - with no other band even in sight.

Bonus Comparison for Laughs: Top 20 of 2007 in 2007
1. The Avett Brothers - Emotionalism
2. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
3. Uncle Earl - Waterloo, Tennessee
4. Kanye West - Graduation
5. Miranda Lambert - Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
6. Lucky Soul - The Great Unwanted
7. Wolves in the Throne Room - Two Hunters
8. Six Organs of Admittance - Shelter From The Ash
9. A Sunny Day In Glasgow - Scribble Mural Comic Journal
10. The North Sea - Various releases
11. Dungen - Tio Bitar
12. Jay-Z - American Gangster
13. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
14. A Broken Consort - Box of Birch
15. Huckleberry Flint - Good Night Darling
16. The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters
17. Erik Friedlander - Block Ice And Propane
18. Rachel Unthank and the Winterset - The Bairns
19. MIA - Kala
20. Levon Helm - Dirt Farmer

Top 10 Albums of the Year 2006

Slogging through this at this point. Thanks Scott for being the only person reading/commenting as usual. 2006 was an interesting year. I remember my list heavily leaning on pop/indie pop. My top 2 records of that year aren't in this list, as you'll see. In fact, only 3 of my top 20 are going to be in this list and while I know that there are other records from this year that I deeply respect and enjoy, as with the other lists, this is based primarily on whether or not I've listened to these records a lot since they came out and how they have affected me in different ways. In retrospect, it was a decent year, not my favorite, not my least favorite.

10. Asobi Seksu - Citrus
(Friendly Fire)
Rank in 2006: 30

You can basically point to one thing and one thing only that makes "Citrus" an awesome album: the guitar. Sure Yuki's high-pitched, dreamily poppy, Japanese singing is a lot of fun, but the guitar sounds that James Hanna concocts on this album are incredible. Think of it as a sound that is about dense as your favorite shoegaze records, but twice as rooted in pop music. This is one of those albums where I remember the guitar crescendos more than the vocal hooks, anticipating the freakouts and washes with every listen. It's not overly complicated - but Hanna just does it RIGHT here. He makes me want to get a guitar, effects pedals and just bathe in distortion all afternoon. It's a very fun and accomplished record from a band that otherwise seems to never quite live up to their abilities. "Citrus" though may just go down in history as a landmark album in the all-time shoegaze list. Great stuff.

9. Spank Rock - YoYoYoYoYo
(Big Dada)
Rank in 2006: N/A

Back when Spank Rock was making waves in 2006, I had this tremendous love/hate relationship with them. I re-downloaded and re-deleted the album upwards of at least 6 separate times throughout the year, trying to figure out why I didn't figure out why the album wasn't as fun as my peers were claiming. Then I realized I went much of 2006 without a car stereo. Once that was remedied, my opinion on the album was remedied and now we have the album that is responsible blowing 3 of my 4 car speakers over the years and yet remains one of my very favorite records to listen to on blast in the car. The bass is about as heavy as you can get, the misogyny disallows the album from being playable in just about any sort of public setting, and overall the album just keeps you awake, keeps you dancing and is just one of those "holy shit" fun albums. Listen to loud with a big subwoofer, or you're not doing it justice.

8. J Dilla - Donuts
(Stones Throw)
Rank in 2006: N/A

I've had this weird relationship with "Donuts" since it's release in 2006. Surely the music world lost a true pioneer and legend when Dilla tragically passed away right before his true vision as an artist was evolving to even more radical extremes than the rest of his already fantastic career. "Donuts" was his send off, one of the most praised and namedropped albums of the past decade. "J Dilla saved my life"...yea yeah, I know. Here's how I truly see "Donuts": I don't love it. I think overall - that it is a bit overrated and has become the singlular album that people who "aren't into" hip hop can point to and say "I wish hip hop was more like this". That's great, you do that. My appreciation of it? It doesn't run deep. I think the beats are dope, I think as a beat tape made into a complete album, there are not really any other that can compete with it (though I wouldn't necessarily call it my favorite instrumental hip-hop album), but sometimes throughout the album I find myself looking at my watch and being like "ok only 15 more tracks until it's over." I know it has to be taken as a whole, that's how it works. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I honestly don't think I am. I think it's a dope album, it's definitely one of my very favorite albums of 2006, but in my endless crusade to tell everyone I know about the music they find, I have to admit that I do not think it quite as dope as the world has made it seem. But don't get me wrong, I still have a positive view on it. After all, J Dilla changed my life.

7. The Format - Dog Problems
(The Vanity Label)
Rank in 2006: 46

If you can get past the coy vocals, the visions of Laguna Beach or The Hills or any other teenage-based MTV or CW reality show, and the heart-on-the-sleeve nearly uncomfortable lyrics, "Dog Problems" by The Format reveals itself to be one of the best (and most polished) pure guitar-based pop albums in a very long time. This is just an album that I can't deny. I was into the band back before they had released a full length, following some singles here and there and seeing the duo grow as songwriters and producers, but when "Dog Problems" came out in 2006, I just could not stop playing it. Ultimately catchy, almost to the point of annoyance. I can't think of another band that was writing more memorable hooks, or more poignant one-liners. Listening to The Format is like letting it all go, freeing all your grown-uppedness and just remembering what it is like to be a teenager with ranging emotions again. Broken hearts, angry breakups, putting yourself out there and ultimately not accomplishing what you want. It all sounds melodramatic, ridiculous and can be arresting upon first listen - I mean this sounds like real fun, out of control pop music. But it's not dumbed down, it's brilliantly arranged, and masterly composed. Shame they broke up.

6. Band Of Horses - Everything All The Time
(Sub Pop)
Rank in 2006: N/A

It was no shock when "The Funeral" wound up in a car commercial. Listening to "Everything All The Time", you get this feeling at every song's climax that the entire album is one giant promotional tool for various different hip big-name products. It's cool music, with airy vocals and really loud guitars and quiet moments that build to huge choruses. Songs like "Part One" seem like they could accompany some scene in the early morning, "The Great Salt Lake" is played during some season finale of a teenage drama, one character happy and about to enjoy their sumer while the other is hopelessly miserable, wallowing alone in their bedroom. I enjoy Band Of Horses, I think that this is a very good album, it's inoffensive but not boring. Loud and quiet, it goes all over the place and tries to play at all our emotions without ever actually being emotional. Just something to enjoy, to accompany your life as you experience the scenes that we see so often in ads and television. Soundtrack to a generic life for the every person, and darn good.

5. Nicolas Makelberge - Dying In Africa
(Rico)
Rank in 2006: 13

It's a shame this album wasn't bigger. Even within the context of the huge Swedish pop revival of the mid-2000's, Nicolas Makelberge's debut was but a blip on the indie-landscape, when it should have been among the top-tier records. For my money, it might be my single favorite album from this new wave of amazing pop music. All amazing synthesizers and beats, hooks that go for days, three of the best songs of the entire decade "Too Young", "South America", and "Dying in Africa" and some good instrumental passages to connect them. It has this slight sleazy vibe as illustrated by the incredible (and c'mon this should be ICONIC) album cover. This album sounds like one of the best album that would've come from the whole new-romantic era of new wave when synth was taking over, and it would've been legendary then. It's an immensely enjoyable album where the charm of it only seems to grow on me.

4. Junior Boys - So This Is Goodbye
(Domino)
Rank in 2006: 4

For "So This Is Goodbye", the Junior Boys updated their sound, added more of an underlying dance groove to their tracks and while the tempo was still slow and screaming of night overall, tracks like "The Equalizer" and "In The Morning" were born to be dancefloor screamers. The album still sounds little like anything else that was out at the time, all sort of cold synths and distant drumbeats, Greenspan's vocals all forelorn and cute. Perhaps more than anything, the updated and slightly expanded sound really harkens back to more popular synth-pop bands of the past, songs like "Caught In A Wave" are utterly beautiful, but the vocal delivery reminds me of many songs I've heard over the years. While some people argue that "So This Is Goodbye" was the Junior Boys harnessing their artistic potential into something more neat than "Last Exit", I must say I disagree. It's a good, if not great, album but doesn't quite live up to the legendary status that "Last Exit" achieved.

3. Brand New - The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me
(Interscope)
Rank in 2006: Somewhere in the 30s

In high school, I had a couple of really good friends who obsessed over Brand New and were promptly made fun of by me. I thought it was a silly band name, I thought they were a silly band that didn't have anything new to offer that the hundreds of other pop-emo bands popping up at the beginning of the decade were already offering. I liked a couple songs here or there, but was nowhere near taking the band seriously. So imagine my surprise in 2006, when 2+ years after high school and conversations about this band I claimed to hate, they release an album that might very well be my very favorite record you can attach an "emo" tag to. The album shows a mastery of the genre by blending some traditional pop-emo lyrics and choruses with instrumental passages and song structures that allows the band to truly stick out from their peers. It's akin to what Radiohead did when they broke apart from the rest of the alternative rock crowd in the 90s, what Refused did by fusing nu-metal and pop-punk on "The Shape Of Punk to Come" and creating something better than anything else in those genres. Brand New just did something very correct with this album, it hits huge when it needs to, it has strings and quiet moments, it wears its heart on the outside, but god damn the album just WORKS. Maybe it requires repeat listenings, but it shouldn't - it's one of the best records of 2006 and one of the best of all-time for this "emo" based genre, and that should be apparent upon first listen.

2. The Radio Dept. - Pet Grief
(Labrador)
Rank in 2006: Somewhere in the 20s.

Some albums just know how to perfectly capture a mood. They present an album that sounds unique from everything else and so cohesive that this one particular album is associated with one particular emotion/memory/season/event. For it's 37 minute running time, The Radio Dept's "Pet Grief" is the only album I know of that is made almost exclusively for a rainy day, yet wouldn't be considered downtrodden or sad. In essence, it's a pop record, and a glorious one at that. But the haze and dream-laden sound that permeates in, around, and through each song on this record makes it work best on those overcast days. It's one of those few albums where with every listen, you just sit back and say "yeah, this is exactly what I need right now." You put it on and you know it's good, you know it's great and it just keeps getting better. Nothign is going to blow your mind, it's subtle for the most part, but it is just unbelievably perfect in the right setting. A truly masterful record and one of the finest pop records of the 2000s.

1. Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
(Star Trak)
Rank in 2006: 3

"Hell Hath No Fury" will go down in history as the 2nd best hip hop album of the 2000's. After a long hiatus with their label, a string of absurdly good mixtapes and guest spots, the brothers returned in 2006 with "Hell Hath No Fury", one of those rare albums that actually delivered on offering everything fans could have hoped for. Pharrell and the Neptunes are in top form here, with some of their best productions to date. I have this theory that while The Neptunes sound started to grow stale over time, they always saved their very best beats for Clipse, and this album proves that (c'mon - listen to "Trill" and tell me that isn't one of the most killer things you've ever heard). Minimal other than that, with hard pounding drums and synths, able guest spots, and the brothers spitting as good as they have ever spit. This is one of those albums that I can sing (rap) along to from front to back. One of the all time best car albums, the apex of the coke rap scene, everything in between. Just put simply: one of my very favorite hip hop albums ever. Period.

Bonus Comparison For Laughs: Top 20 Albums of 2006 in 2006:
1. Wolves In The Throne Room - Diadem Of 12 Stars
2. Math & Physics Club - Math & Physics Club
3. Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
4. Junior Boys - So This Is Goodbye
5. The Brother Kite - Waiting For The Time To Be Right
6. The Wailin' Jennys - Firecracker
7. William Elliott Whitmore - Song Of The Blackbird
8. Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
9. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - The Letting Go
10. Ghostface Killah - Fishscale
11. Ladyhawk - Ladyhawk
12. Chris Smither - Leave The Light On
13. Nicholas Makelberge - Dying In Africa
14. The Elected - Sun Sun Sun
15. Amel Larrieux - Morning
16. Yasushi Yoshida - Secret Figure
17. The Roots - Game Theory
18. Ramblin' Jack Elliot - I Stand Alone
19. Arborea - Wayfaring Summer
20. Comets on Fire - Avatar

Dang there are some really great albums in there I never listen to anymore.

Top 10 Albums of the Year 2005

I feel like 2005 might be the weakest year for new albums from 00-10. This is a working thesis, but right now I'm keen to believe it. Nothing in my top 10 is an album I'm obsessed with or would consider an all-time classic, though everything is good. This is the year where my number 1 album back in 2005 isn't even in the top 10 any longer. Either are #2, 3, 4 and 5. 2005 was also the year I created an mix cd at the conclusion of every month, highlighting new music. Many of the albums the songs on those mixes have come from have long since been removed from my music library and would be forgotten entirely if not for these mix files on my computer. Regardless, here's another Top 10. I'm burnt out doing this - I'm sure the reviews are unreadable at this point.

10. Lil' Wayne - Tha Carter II
(Cash Money Records)
Rank in 2005: 8

I was obsessed with Cash Money for awhile in middle school. I repped Juvenile lyrics on my binder, the beacon of everything a middle schooler stood for. On Wednesdays, I tried to organize "White Tee Wednesdays" where my friends and I would rock white tees before it was cool, though they never bought into it. I would rap along to every Big Tymers single, pretend to push a nice whip, all of that. Cash Money was my joint and back then - we never foresaw what Lil Wayne was going to become. Apart from the plethora of mixtapes leading up to it (and maybe 1 or 2 after it), "Tha Carter II" shows Wayne at the apex of his abilities. Before the autotune became a regular occurence, this album shows Wayne looser in his raps, but still understandable. He's not just spitting random shit on two bottle of purp like "Tha Carter III" or lots of his freestyles. This is a coherent album, the songs work - whether he's telling a story of (more likely) doing the braggadocio rap. It's hard to not be memorized by some of his verses, by his confidence on this recording. Before he went over the top, "Tha Carter II" may have just proven the point that Wayne and millions of others were claiming at the time, that he might very well be "The Best Rapper Alive".

9. Sam Prekop - Who's Your New Professor
(Thrill Jockey)
Rank in 2005: 20

Back in 2004 and 2005, all the money I earned, I spent on music. This was life before bills, before rent, before groceries. I'd head to whatever store I felt like hitting up on release day and pick up a cd or two. Every week I'd have a list of about 5, which I would somehow wittle down. I'd had some Sea and Cake albums on my computer at one particular time ("Oui", "Nassau" and "One Bedroom") and though I never really listened to them, I decided that Sam Prekop's solo album was one that I was going to buy on that trip. (I'm unsure, but the other might have been Fiery Furnace's "Blueberry Boat" which I proceeded to listen to like what...4 times?) "Who's Your New Professor" is the sound of a pleasant record. Perfect in the springtime, perfect during the summer mornings, summer picnics in the yard, fitting in the misty fall. Prekop's voice is so likable, the smoothness of his music so enjoyable, upon hearing this record for the first time, I immediately fell in love with it. It was around this time that my mom and I got close and I accompanied her on some of her sales trips for work. The cd that I brought along that we both enjoyed a lot was this. Fond memories of driving to the beach with "Who's Your New Professor" just capturing the serenity of the Oregon Coastal passages, of being the right amount of pleasant and intelligent and interesting to appeal to both of our wildly different tastes. It's not the best album ever, but it's one that I come back to every so often and always enjoy.

8. Edan - Beauty And The Beat
(Lewis)
Rank in 2005: 21

I view "Beauty And The Beat" in a unique light. On one hand, I recognize the album as an gigantic artistic triumph. Edan has taken all kind of obscure psychedelic and soul samples (and vocal snippets) and created tracks that hit hard. This doesn't sound much like any sort of hip hop that had existed prior. It's futuristic, rough and a huge mind-fuck. For that, this album is great. On the other hand, even though it's only 34 minutes, I usually get exhausted about halfway through the album and therefore can't quite consider it a masterpiece or an essential hip hop album or even my favorite hip hop album of 2005. Edan's rapping is good enough, his flow fast and sharp, his voice earnest and mean. Maybe it's just one of those albums where I have to be in the exact mood to listen to it. When that mood comes, this is one of the best albums of the past decade, that mood just comes rarely. When I listen to hip hop, my ignorant ass usually wants something it's familiar with. Something that will bump in my car or make me think back to the golden age, I don't want music that shreds my speakers like Hendrix. Whatever is the case, this is an album that should be in everyone's collection and deserves the recognition it gets as one of the best hip hop release of the 2000's.

7. Robyn - Robyn
(Konichiwa)
Rank in 2005: N/A

Robyn's big comeback album in 2005 has since seemingly been reissued countless times. Some indie publications recognized the brilliant pop music contained within during 2005, the UK started to pay attention in 2006 when she gave vocals to the huge Kleerup track "With Every Heartbeat", which led to a reissue in 2007 and then finally there were added tracks, reshuffling of tracks, and an finally an American tour and success (in small part due to helping out Snoop with a "Sexual Eruption" remix and a sketch on The Daily Show), but she still hasn't really broken through to the mainstream in the states. It's a crime really. Every song on this album should concievably be a smash single. Sung with attittude, with heart, with hurt, this might very well be the single best pure pop album of the past decade. Excellent production, just a load of fun. Robyn's come a long way, and with more and more releases being added to her repetoire - she might even finally break through (again) like she deserves.

6. Mountains - Mountains
(Apestaartje)
Rank in 2005: N/A

The music of the duo Mountains (Koen Holtkamp and Brendan Anderegg) always captivates me. Sometimes it puts in a rapturous state, I'm so smitten and in awe of the near-spiritual aura that their music can convey. Other times, it makes everything I'm doing better - from laundry to walking around to (and perhaps most often) going to bed. The samples they choose always seem to be just the right samples, the ambient, synth-based stuff they play is always reposeful, the guitar and strings are just so god damn pretty. And that is why they are good - they make really, truly pretty music - without being over the top on the emotional scale, trying to draw every aching filtered, twisted string. It's a music that speaks to your every day parade and it is really outstanding.

5. M. Ward - Transistor Radio
(Matador/Merge)
Rank in 2005: 16

I can say right now, in 2010 that I believe every M. Ward album to be good. Every M. Ward solo album that is. From his debut "Duet For Guitars #2" out through 2009's "Hold Time", Matt Ward has become one of the most consistently excellent musicians in music. While his side projects and general project seems to get more and more Starbucks-centric however, "Transistor Radio" his old-timey concept record from 2005 remains amazing. Opening with an acoustic, instrumental cover of The Beach Boys' "You Still Believe In Me" on through modern folk songs sounding like they are being filtered through a tin can during the dust bowl, "Transistor Radio" is a complete effort - one that stays strong throughout, holding with the theme, giving the listeners memorable folk songs, memorable guitar lines. It's mostly gentle, some songs have been recycled from past releases, but overall the album is a ridiculous success. "Here Comes The Sun Again" should be a folk classic, "Paul's Song" is a song that stays stuck in my head for days upon hearing, it's just a magical album that is truly hard to not enjoy.

4. Common - Be
(GOOD Music)
Rank in 2005: 11

"Be" will go down as the last good Common album. Released after the uneven (though oddly charming) mess "Electric Circus", this album was Common's most straight-forward release of his career. Eleven tracks, nine produced by Kanye, two produced by Dilla. His lyrics suffer on some songs, but on the whole, it's Common spitting decent enough rhymes over some of the best beats Kanye was offering at the time. The album-titled opening track is one of my favorite beats ever, was my cellphone ring for years and sets the stage. "The Corner", when it was released as a single announced Common back from the love ballads that had been dominating his rise to fame recently. From there, we get a mixture of uplifting (sometimes corny) rap, street-conscious stuff, fun stuff, whatever. It's a short album, it's sequenced properly and it's no frills. It's just solid hip hop through and through and in a genre that is often so bloated with bullshit recycled and terrible "new" ideas, "Be" was a breath of fresh air in 2005.

3. Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
(Arts & Crafts)
Rank in 2005: 6

If "You Forgot It In People" was an exercise in how to make a lot of musicians and a lot of noise sound coherent, even beautiful, then Broken Social Scene's self-titled followup is how to add even more musicians, making it's loud points way louder, making it sound less coherent and capturing the spirit of too many beers in the studio. "Broken Social Scene" is a glorious mess, mixing anthemic indie rock songs like "7/4 (Shoreline)" and "It's All Gonna Break" with somber, even depressing sounding numbers like "Bandwitch". Nothing sticks out quite like the previous album, but as a whole - it still sounds good. Turn up the speakers loud, rock out when you can, rest when you can, enjoy the sounds of this conglomeration of musicians. Some people slandered this album as garbage compared to the previous release and that could partially be true, but that's what makes it good. It just sounds like a good time, people wanting to get invovled, a million ideas bouncing off the wall and all being played at once. It works in its own right, which is remarkable in and of itself. But seriously, play it loud.

2. Richard Hawley - Coles Corner
(Mute)
Rank in 2005: N/A

For a long while I've considered this to be the best album of 2005 and one of the top 5 best albums of the entire decade. I cannot even count the number of late nights this album has kept me company since it's release. "Oh look, its midnight and I have to be up another hour or 2 - let's listen to Coles Corner"...and that would turn into 2 or 3 listens. The voice, it's so...alarming. So smooth, saturated with cheese, sleaze - the record doesn't really make sense if you have your lights on. The songwriting is top notch, the production is top notch, it's a great record that just doesn't hold my attention like it used to. "The Ocean" is likely one of the 10 best songs of the past decade, and there are a lot of other really strong tracks as well, but I find myself now not being quite as mesmerized by it as I used to be. A great album to listen to alone, not with people.

1. Eluvium - Talk Amongst The Trees
(Temporary Residence)
Rank in 2005: 17

I can't actually explain what it is about Matthew Robert Cooper's ambient albums that make me love them that much more than everyone not named Brian Eno. I've talked about his compositional skills, the humanity of his music, all of that - but let's be honest - this isn't truly that much different from the hundreds of other ambient artists out there, it is just somehow a lot better. I don't know how, I don't know why. He must have a really selective ear, he must have really specific visions that he has to conjure up when selecting music to put on an album, but the fact is that "Talk Amongst The Trees" might very well be my single favorite ambient album of all time. It just fucking gets me. And it does it every time. It could be the cover, it could be all the feedback, whatever. It's beautiful, haunting, and perfect. Is it actually more skilled or better than releases from the other masters of the genre? Probably not in any objective sense, and I can't really argue a subjective point either. This album was just made for me, that's all there is to it.

Bonus Comparison for Laughs: Top 20 Albums of 2005 in 2005:
1. Why? - Elephant Eyelash
2. Jesu - Jesu
3. Jack Rose - Kensington Blues
4. Sunn 0))) - Black One
5. Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Jacksonville City Nights
6. Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
7. Animal Collective - Feels
8. Lil' Wayne - Tha Carter 2
9. Slim Thug - Already Platinum
10. The Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree
11. Common - Be
12. XXL - Ciautastico
13. Sigur Ros - Takk...
14. Birchville Cat Motel - Chi Vampires
15. Dalek - Absence
16. M.Ward - Transistor Radio
17. Eluvium - Talk Amongst the Trees
18. Lightning Bolt - Hypermagic Mountain
19. Brazilian Girls - Brazilian Girls
20. Sam Prekop - Who's Your New Professor

Kraven's Last Hunt

6-issue Spider-Man series that is so unbelievably good (and fucked up), it will have you reevaluating all other comics you read. Scary, dark, twisted. I don't even care about Spider-Man - but with all the stuff that's happening in the current timeline with Kraven's family, you should read this whether or not you care about comics or Spider-Man or anything. Amazing series.

Wiki
Amazon

Download Here

While we wait

While we wait for more lists to be posted (oh boy!), and if you were curious as to what I think the best album of 2010 is so far: It's "Cosmogramma" by Flying Lotus.

Top 10 Albums of the Year 2004

Continuing on through the decade. 2004 was another exciting year, the year I can point to where the obsession with new music became overwhelming, where I was "acquiring" more albums than I could posisbly enjoy, where I took my knowledge and my foresight to mean something (it doesn't) and where I continued to write about and review music to my liking. I believe this was the year that I started my first music only blog as well - not with uploads (the occasional single song), but more of a "what I listened to today" blog with like 2 sentence reviews.

10. Annie - Anniemal
(679 Recordings)
Rank in 2004: 5

The single album that made me re-evaluate my take on pop music was "Anniemal". I was an angry teenager, pretending to be too cool for anything that would be considered pop - unless it was overly ironic or the occasional hip hop single. Something about the production, the almost-out-of-breath vocals, the hooks themselves just hooked me. There was no basis for why and in retrospect, much of my love for this album is probably due to praise from Pitchfork. Regardless, the first time I heard "Chewing Gum" I knew it should be a hit stateside. When I heard "Heartbeat" I knew I needed the album. And it was a bare to get. I ordered through some bizarre website from a record shop in the UK, but did so through an e-mail. I never got a response, and one day about 4 months later the cd arrived. (Of course I had downloaded it prior). I loved this record, and I still really enjoy it. I don't think it to be the apex of early 2000's female pop music as a whole album, but the highs of this record are the highs of the genre and remain so.

9. Cam'Ron - Purple Haze
(Roc-A-Fella)
Rank in 2004: 40

I tried to ignore the whole Dipset/Byrd Gang/dude dressed entirely in pink and purple era of Cam'Ron and crew for a few years. I didn't follow the slew of mixtapes they were selling out the back of vans that jumpstarted the now thriving mixtape culture. I didn't catch their videos or youtubes, I didn't get excited when I heard "Oh Boy" on the radio, I thought that Juelz Santana was the worst rapper of all time. This, despite the fact that I loved Cam's first album and various guest appearances in the 90s. The lazy flow, the nonsense rhymes. The whole "no homo" and rhyming a word with itself is what through me off. And then I heard "Purple Haze" and everything changed. My entire concept of hip hop at the time was flipped upside down. Now the mainstream, fun, heavy production was what I wanted to listen to. Fuck the underground, get me that piff. Of course, this whole movement has died down, my interest in the clique has faded, somehow Jim Jones has become the only bonafide superstar out of Dipset, and Juelz Santana is the only one I like. While I acquired just about every Dipset related album for a couple years there - none can hold a candle to "Purple Haze". Some of the best production of the decade throughout the album and just fucking fun. Throw out all pretensions, all conceptions and just feel the sound of it. The silliness of it. It's great.

8. De La Soul - The Grind Date
(Sanctuary)
Rank in 2004: 10

For awhile there I was considering "The Grind Date" to be one of the most underrated and overlooked albums of the past decade. I claimed it to be a near hip-hop classic, up there with De La's best. Truth be told, it's still overlooked - but my opinion on this record is not what it once was. Some really outstanding production, some of the best flows I've heard from from De La, but overall as an album it doesn't really have the consistency or feeling that their best records have. Regardless, De La Soul remains one of (if not THE) best hip hop groups in the history of the genre, evolving, changing their sound, staying relevant. I still love these guys and eagerly await something new.

7. Shuttle 358 - Chessa
(12K)
Rank in 2004: N/A

It is funny that we can consider a music with no specific form to adhere to but whatever one hears in their own head as "soulless", yet many releases within this genre are exactly that. Dan Abrams aka Shuttle358 is anything but soulless. All positive reviews of ambient music make reference that a particular release is good because of the "warmth" and "humanity" that the music brings up for the listener. Specific memories in time are recaptured, current moments in the present are captured for the first time. Chessa is warm, Chessa is human. Recorded and released during the apex of the click-and-beep madhouse of 2004, Shuttle358's third album on 12k has spoken to me for 5 years now. The fuzz, the chimes, the buzzing sounds, the looped guitar - these are all elements that can be found on releases by any ambient composer - and yet, this release sticks out from the others. I listened to this album four times this afternoon as I watched the rain come and go out my window. As night set in, earlier than it should have, the music continued to soundtrack my evening. Every track seems to find itself matching my breaths as it clicks along, every track placed perfectly in context with the exact emotion I encounter upon this experience.

6. Wilco - A Ghost Is Born
(Nonesuch)
Rank in 2004: 7

I have trouble determining which era of Wilco I like the best. Though I'm hesitant to admit it in this day and age, the fact is likely that Wilco has been and will remain one of my very favorite bands I've ever known. At one point or another I've loved every single thing they've put out and thought it to be their best (including the outtakes cd packaged with "The Wilco Book"). Part of me wants to consider the alt. country sound of "Being There" to be my favorite, with just a couple tracks of experimentation for good measure. The critic in me wants to quantify the Jay Bennett-era as the best for Wilco - the perfect blend of sonic experimentalism, pop, and a little country twang for good measure that we find in "Summer Teeth" and "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and though generally I tend to think they've been on a downward slope since those years, another part of me just fucking love and adores the Nels Cline era, loves the guitar freakouts, the "dad-rock" sound and the strength of the songwriting of the last 3 Wilco albums. "A Ghost Is Born" cannot be considered "dad-rock", but it can't quite be put in the same area of their career as YHF. Long songs with meandering guitar, full-on speaker blowing solos, short and soft songs, this album is all over the place. I don't know if I give it the due it deserves, I think it's time to fall in love with it again.

5. Animal Collective - Sung Tongs
(Paw Tracks)
Rank in 2004: 14

The thing about "Sung Tongs" in relation to other Animal Collective releases is that there a handful of tracks on here ("Who Could Win A Rabbit?", "Winters Love", "Sweet Road") that I would probably put in the top 10 AC songs of all, if not the top 5. There just also happens to be a few tracks on this album that over time I have felt are worth skipping over. Sonically, the album is beautiful. It introduced Animal Collective to the world, it was acoustic sounding in a sense (especially compared to the stuff they have done since), it was pastoral (oh that word), serene, and just weird. It still is all of those, but the effect this album has isn't the same as their other albums. If I ever wanted to put on an Animal Collective album for background music, "Sung Tongs" might be the one to do it. In 2004, there wasn't much like it. Nowadays, we've heard them, we like them, we can ignore them. I'm making this review sound negative. Listen, there are times when I think "Sung Tongs" is the absolute best Animal Collective release, that its among the finest albums of the entire decade, but those times are very few. It's a great album, but it doesn't blow my mind like it once did.

4. Drive-By Truckers - The Dirty South
(New West)
Rank in 2004: 11

If you've ever read any of my reviews other than this one, you would know that I am unforgivably hyperbolic in many of them. "This band is the best ever", "This is one of the best albums ever for this", "If you want to rock out like no one else..." Here's my hyperbolic statement for the Drive-By Truckers: Since 2000, they are the most consistent and best straight up rock n roll band in America. A string of critically acclaimed southern rock albums, awesomely written songs, bizarre concept albums, the DBT were doing it all. And then they dropped "The Dirty South" which stripped away some of the pretension, and just gave us a solid, unifying southern rock powerhouse that few other albums that sound anything remotely like it can even reach. Definitely one of my favorite rock records of the past 10 years, some of the most memorable songs, fun, depressing, great. My favorite Truckers album - and they've yet to put out a bad one.

3. Madvillain - Madvillainy
(Stones Throw)
Rank in 2004: 1

When MF Doom and Madlib teamed up for Madvillainy in 2004, there were no two bigger names in independent hip hop. Doom was back after years of silence, once again creating outstanding concept albums that made the underground (and some mainstream mags pay attention). Madlib was finally beginning to get the respect he deserved, fresh off Jaylib, known as the prime producer at Stones Throw and releasing a dope album of remixed Blue Note Records tracks. Madvillain changed the game. A loose concept album surrounding a bad guy from a comic book, the beats, the mood, the rapping, how fucking weird this album is...it all adds up to be one of the best rap albums of the entire decade. An instant classic in the eyes of many, Madvillain might very well be the last thing I remember hearing that I truly, deeply became obsessed with. Preorders, t-shirts, dvds, everything. Doom and Madlib reignited my love for hip hop like no other album could and though in the past couple years I've started to feel that the album isn't quite as special as I remembered...listening to it recently has revealed my initial reactions: this is a classic album, up there with the best of the entire genre.

2. Kanye West - The College Dropout
(Roc-A-Fella)
Rank in 2004: N/A

I burnt myself out on Kanye West back in 2004. There are 21 tracks, including skits and back when this album came out, it didn't long for me to be able to recite the entirety of the album front to back. Like much of the world, I loved "The College Dropout", I loved the anticipation of the album, I loved the rough versions of songs I'd had on my computer for a year, I loved the remixes that happened after the album came out, I sought out all the samples. With one album, Kanye West became THE premier recording artist in the world. And then I suddenly just got sick of him. Suffice to say, that didn't stay, I just needed to take a break. "The College Dropout" is a classic. That's all that needs to be said, really. You've heard it, you know the singles, you have a favorite track, but every moment on this album is a blast. Kanye when he was still establishing himself as a rapper, sounds exciting, refereshing, his beats before they were electro-ed out. A truly great album by a truly great artist.

1. Junior Boys - Last Exit
(Domino)
Rank in 2004: N/A

The smoothest, grooviest record. Equally great on a hot, summer day as a cold, winter night. Jeremy Greenspan is in top form here, singing over the icy, minimalistic beats that set Junior Boys apart from all the other electronic indie bands of the past 10 years. Instantly memorable. "High Come Down" sounds like the best new romantic song you've never heard. "Last Exit" is so smooth, you'll melt. "Birthday" gets stuck in my head for a week just about everytime I hear it, the perfect combination of hook and creepy beat. "Teach Me How To Fight" might very well be in my top 5 songs of the past decade. This is a masterful album, one that succeeded in sticking out from the rest of the vocal-based electronic music of the time. It still stands out now and though the Junior Boys have gone on to create two more albums of pop magic, nothing can top "Last Exit" - an album that should be regarded as a masterpiece in any age.

Bonus Comparison for Laughs: Top 20 Albums of 2004 in 2004:
1. Madvillain - Madvillainy
2. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Shake The Sheets
3. Max Richter - The Blue Notebooks
4. Elliott Smith - From A Basement on the Hill
5. Annie - Anniemal
6. Interpol - Antics
7. Wilco - A Ghost Is Born
8. Air - Talkie Walkie
9. TV On The Radio - Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes
10. De La Soul - The Grind Date
11. Drive-By Truckers - The Dirty South
12. Espers - Espers
13. Joanna Newsom - Milk-Eyed Mender
14. Animal Collective - Sung Tongs
15. Frausdots - Couture, Couture, Couture
16. Yesterday's New Quintent / Monk Hughes - A Tribute To Brother Weldon
17. Jason Forrest - The Unrelenting Songs Of A 1979 Post Disco Crash
18. Devendra Banhart - Rejoicing In The Hands / Nino Rojo
19. Ty - Upwards
20. John Legend - Get Lifted