ILM TOP ALBUMS OF 2004

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With Street's Disciple we bid final farewell to Nas the nihilist. Those who still think of Illmatic as his greatest hour may disagree, but as a lyricist the adult Nas has always sounded better when he gets affectionate than when he get thuggish. On God's Son, his previous LP, Nas might've portrayed his soul at its barest, but on Street's Disciple he finds a perfect blend of thought-out politics and mature (which doesn't equate with boring) emotional content. The album is rich with interesting, idiosyncratic details, such as Nas prentending to be a woman (as the "guest rapper" Scarlett), Nas bridiging the gap between blues and rap with his pa Olu Dara, Nas moving from detailed description of his past adventures with the ladies to an equally honest-sounding portrayal of his marriage with Kelis... Not all of it works, but even when Street's Disciple is not technically perfect - such as when Nas attempts to sing, with an ode to his daughter called "Me & You" - you gotta admire him for the try. Stripped down to a single disc, with a few of the lesser tracks dropped off, this might've been Nas' greatest album. Then again, Nasir Jones is nothing if not overwhelming, and that's what we love him for. -Tuomas A.

Other ILXors Say:

"Like most hip hop double albums, it has about a disc of solid material. I didn't expect much so it came out pretty well for me." -ROLLIE MOTHERFUCKING PEMBERTON

"Yeah I'm gonna reiterate that I think this album is fairly hot." -DJDee2005

"it's definitely better than I was expecting... the beats aren't as mediocre as I was thinking they'd be, and his lyrics are hitting pretty hard this time around..." -King Cobra

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Bjork - Medulla

Bjork’s first ever a capella album; full of mouth clicks and buzzing nosies and such. Good, but not as good as “Drop It Like It’s Hot� or “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?� -The Good Dr. Bill

Other ILXors Say:

"Medulla turned out exactly how I expected it to be- something I *like* but not put on very often at all. The concept/gimmick is interesting but a bit limiting for a full album." -Mike O.

"If you like your Bjork weird, chances are you'll find much to enjoy on it [...] even when you're not sure if it's 'working', it's still interesting." ---

Other ILXor Stats:

Listed by Salvador Saca as a Pleasant Surprise That Exceeded Expectations

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Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News

48. Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News

The biggest musical surprise for me this year was the platinum-level commercial success of the new Modest Mouse album. Listening to the disc it's certainly amongst their most challenging, veering from driving rock to Beatlesque pop to banjo-driven country and beyond--not something I thought the mainstream was looking for in their popular entertainment. Modest Mouse have done this before, and did it even better on The Lonesome Crowded West, but after the vanilla snooze-a-thon of The Moon and Antarctica, this dash of deft and confident tone changes is a welcome return to form. -Keith Sawyer

Other ILXors Say:

"modest mouse is white southern rap, paul wall is black, with i'd go so far as to say everlast?! they had an add with a cool (i was going to say awesome but refrained bcs this is a british message board, but now you know what i mean) clip video inbetween freek-a-leek and jadakiss. the lil flip video is on" -Peter $

Other ILXor Stats:

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Tom Waits released another album this year. Jim Jarmusch fans and MOJO readers rejoiced. -The Good Dr. Bill

Other ILXors Say:

"I think I'm going to really, really like this album. It's like the gutter Medulla." -Jordan

"I've been listening the FUCK out of this album. " -Nickalicious

" Lydia Lunch and the Dresden Dolls did better Tom Waits albums than he did this year."

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Mountain Goats - We Shall All Be Healed

During Mole, the first song The Mountain Goats played at the Paradiso in Amsterdam last year, I thought frontman John Darnielle was making these silly faces on purpose. When he kept it up during the following songs, I was really getting irritated until I realised he can't help himself. What a great performer he is, in fact: expressive voice, dynamic guitar playing (acoustic), smart songs, even the banter was entertaining. I don't usually have the patience for this type of (say it: FOLK!) music, but We Shall All Be Healed grabbed me right away.-JoB

Other ILXors Say:

"Only his second studio album, after years and years of home and live recordings, and it seems John Darnielle has run out of steam." -Salvador Saca

"The new record is excellent, as good or better than Tallahasse." -anthony kyle monday

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Wolf Eyes - Burned Mind

45. Wolf Eyes - Burned Mind

...worst atrocity mankind has ever produced.
It actually exceeds Freddy Got Fingered.
-- David Allen (Hippiedestroye...), October 18th, 2002.

WOLF EYES FUCKING RULES MAN
-- Be sure to Loop! Loop, Loop, Loop. (○☆♥♋∼◎↑Ω@♫♪), May 21st, 2004.

Chances are, 9 out of 10 ILMers are going to have an opinion (and a strong one) about Wolf Eyes that I'm not going to change with this blurb. You either already own this album and love it with all your little noise dude heart or you've shrugged it off as unlistenable rubbish. But for that 1 in 10 fence sitter: Burned Mind is Wolf Eyes's most varied, cohesive album to date and it's really a great place to start with them. Tracks like "Reaper's Gong", "Urine Burn", and "Ancient Delay" are eerie and vacant, slowly building sparse static laden textures while other songs like "Stabbed In The Face" and
"Village Oblivia" are relentlessly aggressive pieces of throat shredding vocals, bass stabs, and violently shifting noise. The songs weave in and out of one another and it all builds to the climax of "Black Vomit", a perfect, dubby collage of both the restrained and the
bludgeoning sides of Wolf Eyes. It's "Fischerspooner for daytime drinkers", it's pop music for the adderall generation, and it all begs for a house remix. -DOPESMOKER

Other ILXors Say:

What else is there to say?

rather

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The Killers - Hot Fuss

I knew what I was getting into with Hot Fuss. I’d heard multiple accounts of the album’s incredible inconsistency, and even as I tried desperately to disprove them with my first few listens, I more or less resigned myself to the fact that only half the album’s songs would be listenable. But all this did for me was beg that age-old question, is an album that constantly operates on a seven really better than one that constantly switches between operating on a ten and operating on a four? Does an album provide a richer experience when it overreaches its own grasp, or is it enough to find a comfort zone and stay there for the whole 45 minutes? Is it better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all? Whatever—point is, the first four songs on this album are really good. Like, Russell Crowe in Virtuosity good. –The Good Dr. Bill

Other ILXors Say:

"It's a hoot, lots of trashy hooks. Less sympathetic than Interpol but the drama's upped a notch." -CeCe Peniston

"ok I listened to the whole album now and LOTS of it reminds me of LOTS of the cure, about 1984-1992." -Teeny

"They have a good bass player." -Lukas

Other ILXor Stats:

Nominated by doc sketchy as The Most European-Sounding Record Made By Non-Europeans

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The Futureheads - The Futureheads

The Futureheads are one of the few bands with an overt XTC influence that actually gets it right. Too often I find that newer bands namedropping XTC lack the energy, enthusiasm and wit to pull off even a Muppetized version of their heroes. There's also some Wire and (drop in your favorite UK late 70's/early 80's band) in there as well, but the sound is more robust and the constant presence of jumpy interlocking backing vocals is a distinguishing feature. What’s more, their songwriting branches well beyond tales of love/troubles into jumbles of situations and emotions that reward your attention. Oh yeah, and their Kate Bush cover is completely kickass addictive. -Keith Sawyer

Other ILXors Say:

"short sharp and sweet. great!" -Mr Monket

"How they manage to sound like so many bands I just don't like and still be awesome is beyond me." -hmmm

"Album of the year so far by a pretty major distance." -William Bloody Swygart

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Trick Daddy - Thug Matrimony: Married to the Streets

Daddy Dollars must have been born with that gruff papa bear voice, but six albums deep now he’s got the status as an elder statesman of the new South to match it. But he doesn’t just sit back and collect features and ride the crunk wave. Well, he does that too, but he also sticks with his classic mix of gushy, juicy sex jams, Miami bass anthems, hostile synth brass riff outlaw shit, and beautiful sincere children singing chorus hood wisdom, all while weaving hits from Ozzy cackles and obscure Talking Heads hooks. -HotelOpera

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U.S.E. - United State of Electronica

Nate Patrin recently described U.S.E. as "the Ramones for Daft Punk fans," which I think gets right to the heart of the band's aesthetic: it's sweet and shiny vocoder disco but with a D.I.Y. party spirit, which means lots of feel-good shouting and ample fist-pumping. The key moment for me was seeing the band live in October at a gleaming white gallery space in Tribeca, NYC. Though I already liked the record, I was captivated by the sheer energy and commitment the septet displayed on stage -- especially the backup singer rocking huge hoop earrings and striped athletic socks in high heels! I joined in their series of
gleeful shout-outs to Seattle neighborhoods I've never visited --"Capitol Hill? We love it!" -- and by the end of the set had a big dumb grin smeared over my sweat-soaked face. -Jaymc

Other ILXors Say:

"The United State Of Electronica would demolish The Arcade Fire in an energy-off." -Matthew Perpetua

"It's basically Daft Punk/Komeda gone Disneyworld (or at least their music has the "Disney Sparkle"), or (as noted by Ned in another forum) an album where every song sounds like the end of movie "Xanadu"" -Donut Bitch

"I think U.S.E., Scissor Sisters and Big & Rich should go on a mammoth cross-country tour this summer, sponsored by Fluxblog ("now with 50% more joy!") and PBR. Life would become too grand for words." -Sean Thomas

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Teedra Moses - Complex Simplicity

A work of unbelievable clarity, sonic and emotional. It contains elements of both old-school early-90s R&B and today's futuristic equivalent, but fits too awkwardly into either category to be considered a middle ground: too sharp for the former, too slow for the latter. Initially it sounds sparse, but the production style of just pushing forward Teedra's voice, a beat and a sample while reducing everything else to detail magnifies the effect of everything which is happening: both the interesting ornamentation subtly buried in the production, and Teedra's own evocative, gorgeous lyrics. The title track, which alone is worth any price you might have to pay for this, is the most glorious paean to living in the moment, finding peace through partying since Mary J Blige's "Family Affair". -The Lex

Other ILXors Say:

"I'm incredibly pleased to find an R&B singer so determined to bring to light what I had assumed would remain the secret history of aquatic modern R&B." -Tim Finney

"This just topped the new Rahsaan Patterson as my favorite R&B record of the year." -Andy K.

Other ILXor Stats:

Made The Lex's Own Fucking Ten

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Stereolab - Margerine Eclipse

Another basic Stereolab release, except this one has less than seven words in the title. -The Good Dr. Bill

Other ILXors Say:

"instant easy listening classic with the original vu+neu! sound plus some added electronics" -Alex in Manhattan

"Basically, the deal is, I like this period of Stereolab, and this album is good even if I kind of already knew what I was in for." -dleone

"I think that Margarine Eclipse is okay, but it's not Stereolab's best work by any stretch." -Matthew Perpetua

Other ILXor Stats:

Listed my mike a as an Album That Renewed Your Faith in the Artist

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Nellie McKay - Get Away from Me

Everyone who hates Ms McKay, remember this: all the traits you can't stand in her (which probably remind you of ex-girlfriends, or maybe girls who wouldn't be your girlfriends in the first place) are traits she revels in, as much because they annoy the hell out of people like you as because they're part of who she is. Pretentiousness, preciousness, precocity; a tendency to be flippant about 'serious' subjects, and vice versa; a total lack of respect for the art forms she cribs off (oh, how easy it is to get a rise out of hip-hop heads!). What do you expect? Logic, accuracy and truth? Fuck that. Remember this, too: at college, the theatre girls, kooks and feminists may have been hell for you if you were trying to get in their knickers, but if you bothered to relate to them as people they were the wittiest, most fabulous, most loving people around. (Hey hey hey, that ain't nothin' to do with you - you're a sensitive Joe, I'm forgettin'!) -The Lex

Other ILXors Say:

"i can't stand this. it annoys every cell in my body. and then we got an interview disc and i could hear what an idiot she is on top of it all. utter crap." -Salvador Saca

"I heard this in the record store last weekend and I kept going between almost buying it and really wishing some one would turn it off." -Colin Beckett

"She may not rap as well as Eminem but she certainly sings better chorus hooks. She and Nelly need to hook up for some collabos." -Anthony Miccio

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Ada - Blondie

Sometimes Blondie is the cleanest, coolest and most central European of albums, all elegant line and dispassionate voice, with the right hint of desperation. Sometimes its like a small army of tiny electronic creatures arguing over making a disco record. Sometimes, as in 'the red shoes' it is both of these things. Sometimes it’s a bit embarrassing, as many of the best things are. Sometimes you might even be led to think that covering Everything But the Girl is a good idea. -Owen H.

Other ILXors Say:

"very yummy pop techno bliss" -Hector

"I've been listening to it almost every day for a few weeks, and I'm still not sure what to make of it. I guess I really like it, but after all of the singles it comes as something of a surprise. I guess it is more of an "album" than I expected." -Adam

Other ILXor Stats:

Listed by Stirmonster under 2004 Electro-House Classics ("that's right--a whole album of the stuff!")
Nominated by ken taylrr as techno/electronica/electro just plain good for sitting down or dancing.

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Stars - Set Yourself on Fire

For some reason, I didn't think that Stars could rise to the occasion for this album. When I saw the album title, I was ever warier. Could a statement like "Set Yourself On Fire" be done justice by a band with admittedly fey and delicate tendencies? Granted, "Heart" featured two incredible singles, plus a solid raft of album tracks, but this album really demanded an extra step. The first single matched my expectations; 'Ageless Beauty' is fey and delicate, but it's also insistent, driving, fuzzy, and HUGE. Arriving on the album after a marvellous 2-song, 10 min. introduction, this is the arrival of a band firing on all cylinders. -Derrick

Other ILXors Say:

"i think it's amazing. NO FILLER AT ALL. i thought the last one had two tracks I could have done without. but this one is near-perfect." -Cutty

"ALBUM OF THE YEAR. band of the decade, maybe" -Derrick

"I thought this was going to be some sort of new game show, for wannabe celebrities for whom merely being forced to live in the Australian outback and eat raw, maggot-infested koala abortions while suspended upside down by their heels from a helicopter above a slimy pit filled with crocodiles whilst rats gnaw at their genitals on national telly for a couple of weeks just isn't enough." -Stewart Osborne

That Teedra Moses cover and blurb has thrown it straight to the top of my list of albums to buy.

Stevem - do you not have the Ada album? You should!

I guess at this point there's no hope for The Alchemist to be on the list, but I hope Cee-Lo or Infinite Livez will still turn up, otherwise I'm gonna be quite disappointed.

I hope you like it N.

"It kinda seems um noncoreRnBaudience types getting into it don't notice it's THEM not the GENRE that's getting smarter, y'know?"

What are you referring to here Andrew?

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Morrissey - You are the Quarry

The title is a little surprising, as if anyone were in danger of being hounded into extinction in recent years, it was Morrissey. After the highpoint of Vauxhall and I, things went awry. Two dismal and dismally received albums, not least by his record company, dented his legend. Worse still, being branded “deviant, truculent and unreliable� by Judge Weeks and then forced to pay a million pounds to Mike Joyce must have been intolerable.
No wonder he decamped to LA to escape his many enemies, reflect on the past and listen to his Diana Dors albums. However, the 7 year sabbatical has worked wonders. The Morrissey on You are the Quarry is no crushed gladioli, he's a flower of much tougher stock, brimming with swagger and confidence. As ever, his muse is himself, and with the past 10 years of disappointments, he has plenty to work with, but it’s no monochrome mopefest. At turns disappointed, mournful and angry but always imbued with his characteristic wit. Essentially though, all he still wants is to be loved, and when he's in such powerful voice the very least you can do is surrender. -Billy Dods

Other ILXors Say:

"It's pretty damned great to my ears" -Ned Raggett

"I'm giving it a qualified thumbs up...." -Matt Helgeson

(can't find anything better, these Moz threads are fucking impenetrable)

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The Delgados - Universal Audio

Where did all the sound go? Upon initial listens, the lack of HUGEness (i.e. strings) made the songs sound bare and empty. But on the other hand, the more stripped-down approach is appropriate for an album which lightens the mood compared to the darker, more morbid “Hate�. Besides, the anthemic choruses of "Is This All That I Came For?" and "Get Action" are titanic enough -- let's face it, those songs don’t need extra embellishments. The strings may be gone (for now), but the fantastic tunes remain, and it's yet another great Delgados album. -MindInRewind

Other ILXors Say:

"It's very, very good. Not a great departure in songwriting terms, though not as gloomy as Hate, probably closest to Peloton, but there are lots of bits that sound like tips of the hats to POP in the production, rather than Hate's nods to INDIE WANNABE GRANDEUR." -Edward O.

"i think it's super solid. nowhere near the downtrodden(?) feel of Hate, and less emphasis on strings. the female singer's songs tend to be superior and more straightahead pop. sometimes i think the male singer forces those big choruses just a bit too much. if the single (Everbody Come Down) doesn't earn them some mainstream attention, ours is a crazy, mixed-up world." -Tobo

haha so THAT'S what Homer is saying in that bowling episode...

#33.

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Bark Psychosis - ///Codename: Dustsucker

On the first Bark Psychosis record in ten years, vocalist Graham Sutton and a dozen credited instrumentalists craft a denser sound than on the vaunted Hex but convey the same sort of beautiful desolation, filled with filtered, druggy guitars and off-kilter sighs. Much of the album's success can be owed to ex-Talk Talk drummer Lee Harris, whose steady ride cymbal is thrillingly trancelike. But Sutton's knack for
manipulating a wealth of sonic colors and textures also pays off: "Miss Abuse" builds into a slow and dirty grind, as a bass synth squirms over clanging train bells. And there's a point in "The Black Meat" where I'm suddenly reminded of the stylish Los-Angeles-at-night of Michael Mann's Collateral: the crisp trumpet and splashy drums would sound fantastic coming out of the limo stereo, as you gaze out the window to admire all the glass buildings. The perfect nexus between the heady post-rock I adored in college and the sad shoegazer I've only recently been discovering. -Jaymc

Other ILXors Say:

"The thing is it's not a comeback or a reformation or an attempt to recapture past glories. It's just a guy who loves music taking his time and enjoying making it; in this respect, of course it's good, because there's no pressure or expectation, just music." -Sick Mouthy

"Dude, it completely rules. Don't understand why the girl sings so many sings. But the beginning of the second one, about standing on a beach on some strange land. . .album of the year?" -Trevor Horn

"God this is so gorgeous, I can't believe it. It's spinning in my shitty kitchen Philips CD player for the second time now and I am already overwhelmed." -alex in manhattan

Everyone I show the Teedra cover to goes 'she's so hot!' at first, then they see a close-up and go 'actually she's much older than she looks on the cover'.

I mean, I sorta think it's the kinda R&B album that only really makes sense if you've internalised R&B.

this is otm, it's not the kind of R&B which appeals to the 'look, R&B's male producers take cues from IDM, we can like it now' brigade at all. Those people tend to think that R&B as a genre was shitty pre-Timbaland, and this is kind of a throwback to that era (except not, &c).

Complex Simplicity is actually a perfect title for it.

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The Hold Steady - Almost Killed Me

I'd love to be able to listen to the Hold Steady without thinking "I'm listening to the Hold Steady." (This is the risk you run when a band's got "personality," I guess.) Anyway last night I got close, and here's how: I thought about all the surprising ways they manage, on Almost Killed Me, to get from loud to louder. Listening that way made the whole mess transcendent. -DKrissoff

Other ILXors Say:

"ommfg--the Hold Steady are GRATE." -M Matos

"fave rock album of the year EASY" -Cinnblount

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Mylo - Destroy Rock and Roll

31. Mylo - Destroy Rock n Roll

Electroclash was fun and all, but rarely either bangin' or poppy enough, so thank heavens it turned out to be a transitional thing. Destroy Rock & Roll feels transitional too: this sort of sweet'n'soft electro house lends itself wonderfully to the album format, and I hope it's only the first of many. Mylo's only beginning to sharpen his skills and his best is yet to come - compared to, say, the sweeping muscular majesty of his remix of Kylie's "I Believe In You", this album already sounds sketchy. But that's just another part of its laidback charm. Destroy Rock & Roll is immediate in its warm embrace, and flawlessly sequenced - gearing up slowly, then diving headstraight into a seemingly endless wave of hook after sunny hook, and at the end slowing down again into Royksopp-y bliss. Roll on summer of 2005! -Mind Taker

Other ILXors Say:

"Hey, this is great! Okay, the album clearly doesn't have an original bone in its body but its still one of the most purely enjoyable records I've heard in a while..." -Matt DC

"I'm currently playing it to death and enjoying it immensely, whilst knowing full well that I'll be sick of it by the end of the summer." -mike t-diva

"Marianna and I discussed this in the pub. We concluded that it is a fantastic album and you are all ponces." -Gravel Puzzleworth

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30. Wiley - Treading on Thin Ice

There's no one quite like Wiley
I know you will agree
His tracks are always icy
From a cold mysterious place
And though he says he's froze at heart
He seems to be confused
The words of everyday feeling
Are the ones that he has used

Wiley we love you
Wiley we do
Though you may not have made the best album of 2004
You made the most important one. -Jacob W.

Other ILXors Say:

"It's really good. Not as abrasive as I'd expected... very poppy in places." -The Lex

"Really pretty great, although it doesn't have the immediate take-your-head-off power that Boy In Da Corner did the first couple of times you played it." -DJ Mencap

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Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse

29. Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse

Sometimes after just a few albums, bands begin to sour on me. I don't think Stereolab's new Margerine Eclipse is a particularly bad record; I probably just overdosed on them a while back and now everything they do just seems tired. So it's a surprise to me that the new album by Sonic Youth, whom I've loved now for over ten years, is my favorite of theirs since Washing Machine. That record's final track, "The Diamond Sea," launched the template for much of their recent output: a loose, hazy, jammy style that could achieve a certain dreamy transcendence but just as often seemed tepid or bloated. Sonic Nurse does absolutely nothing new but perfects that form in a way that sounds both spirited and effortless. Songs routinely exceed the six-minute mark but never feel excessive; even during long, mazy guitar solos shot through with noise, the band for the first time in a while sounds entirely at ease. -Jaymc

Other ILXors Say:

"It's a bit underwhelming. They seem to be cruising well within their comfort zone. It's solid, but unspectacular, save for a couple of songs." -Dave Segal

"This is probably their best album 'cause it's so MOR" -Mr Snrub

"this album is SO good. Murray Street was a step in the right direction; this takes the good things about that album (namely, the builds) and really uses them to their full advantage." -Kyle

Other ILXor Stats:

Nominated by toothy philanthropist as one of the Biggest Drops in Quality Ever

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Gretchen Wilson - Here for the Party

28. Gretchen Wilson - Here for the Party

To be completely honest, the is the only country album I've heard this year. Living in Croatia means this stuff feels refreshingly exotic to me, but sadly also means that I have no place to purchase it offline. Which is a shame! "Redneck Woman" and "When It Rains" rock so much they put most "proper" rock of today to shame. But, first and foremost, I enjoy this as a great SOUL record. Every one of its ballads is completely gorgeous. "Here For the Party" does all those things R&B forgot to do and nu-soul just can't do no matter how hard it tries: it's rich, soothing, tender, romantic, bittersweet, and... I don't know, it just makes me feel all warm inside. -Mind Taker

Other ILXors Say:

"Just finally heard the whole Gretchen Wilson album yesterday, and it is indeed quite great" -Chuck

Other ILXor Stats:

Jaymc's prediction for Sasha Frere-Jones' Next Article in the New Yorker

#27.

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Scissor Sisters – Scissor Sisters

I was listening to their “Comfortably Numb� cover at my parents’ friends house once. I can only imagine what they think of me as a result. -The Good Dr. Bill

Other ILXors Say:

"Scissor Sisters live - grebt.
Scissor Sisters on record - "meh", ranging to "argh what is this shit?"" -Matt DC

"Right!!!!! I've finally listened to this album!!!!! Ang again, it's been a bit of a surprise!!!! On the strength of the "Comfortably Numb" I was expecting a mildly annoyingly innoffensive House music flavoured record, and instead got for the most part a late 70s rock/pop record with solid, if slightly workmanlike, production, and reasonably decent tunes!!!!! In fact, at times it comes across almost like a Christopher Cross album with balls!!!!!!" -Old Fart!!!

"surely gay and camp are synonomous with good logic and reason?" -Stevem

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Ted Leo - Shake the Sheets

26. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Shake the Sheets

Leo’s previous record, “Hearts of Oak,� was so open to collaboration – sing along with the loopy falsetto, why don’t you, and while you’re at it, how about banging out that cowbell part on the steering wheel? “Shake the Sheets� offers no such invitation. It’s almost bullying: all precision and frank brutality. To my slack-conditioned ears, the exciting bits – the rhythmic tricks at the end of “Me and Mia,� say – seem manipulative. But you know, being manipulated by Ted Leo feels pretty fucking o-kay. -DKrissoff

Other ILXors Say:

"Yeah, Shake the Sheets just clicked big time for me." -Colin Beckett

"on the whole i must say i don't feel it as much as i did hearts... which i felt almost immediately. the playing is x10 better and the production is way better and there are some really nice instrumental parts. but it's lacking hooks, or something. also it seems to be far more "political", which i guess given tej's basic schtick is to be expected in this day and age." -Jess

This is not a complaint, but then I only know one song by Kingmaker.

Nice list making and the suspence is killing me.

-- Tuomas (tuomas.alh...), January 16th, 2005.

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What happened?
-- mohair (pdesign...), January 16th, 2005.

I think the plan is to finish on Monday

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Big and Rich - Horse of a Different Color

As Chuck Eddy points out, this has a bounce and a swagger and a brightness that is extremely rare these days - indeed, it's always been uncommon enough to be cherished when we do find it. It blends its multifarious styles beautifully, partly because it's so well produced, and partly because the voices, the lovely, tight and sophisticated harmonies, pull it together so well. I'm a big fan of Bubba Sparxxx's albums, but (and this may be because I have been so out of touch with country music over the last few years) I didn't see this blend of country and hip hop, plus disco and hard rock, coming at all. I love music that sounds wildly happy, ecstatic, exuberant, and to combine all that with a lot of the lyrical wit of country and rap AND include the glamour of disco and the punch of rock is a thrilling achievement. -Martin Skidmore

Other ILXors Say:

"their album could easily wind up being the first album by anybody that I give 30 points to on a Pazz and Jop ballot. Ever." -Chuck

"Nevertheless, I'm having trouble getting overly excited about this album as a whole. There are certainly some fine songs, and I understand the thought process behind it, but ... eh." -Mr. Deeds

"I am so scared to investigate this record." -Sick Mouthy

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Devin the Dude - To tha X-Treme

A record that makes you feel dumb just trying to pin it down. Devin's drawing from everywhere, but making a disc strongly held together by his overwhelming sense of self. Obviously he's high, but maybe he's just SO high, he's grounded. How else to explain a guy who has his shit so absurdly together. The humor is humane and humanity is
staggering. Musically solid but rooted in Devin's own absorbed style relying on elements of funk, reggae, rock, whatever... It doesn't matter. He incorporates contradictions like the everyday part of life they are: Invigorating bass lines on an otherwise laid back track,
crying/laughter to kick off a breakup song where he immediately cops to farting under the covers. It doesn't stop until Unity, where he spells it out for us clear as can be. The aural
equivalent of staring at the sun. -Dan H.

Other ILXors Say:

"I defy you to name a better hip hop album released this year." -Forksclovetofu

"Judging from most kid-targeted food packaging, I'd say that he should try selling his CD in a supermarket where children can guilt parents into impulse-buying it. mmm, X-Treme jello." -DJDee2005

"this
album
is
THE
SHIT" -JSK Baby

Can I say, it should be noted that's from 2002, and that I completely retract that and just saw Wolf Eyes on an EXTREMELY rare off night the first time I ever saw them, and subsequently want to cut myself open and have them spit in my wounds so they can be a part of me?

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Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand

As this was voted album of the year in more or less every poll here in the Netherlands, I almost put Franz Ferdinand at 9 in my Top Ten just as a "token indie" album. "Yeah, it's good, but not as good as these EIGHT other albums!" Really, I put it in because hardly any other band was more likeable than the Franz. Also: it's hits galore. Just don't play them anywhere near me for at least the next few years, because nothing has been played to death in 2004 as much as this one. -JoB

Other ILXors Say:

"They're fun for long drives or late night drinking/posting sessions and a soulseek copy of the self-titled kept me warm through the winter." -Slim Pickens

"STILL SUCKING

FAVORITE TSHIRT OF BORING WHITE KIDS AT FRAT PARTIES:

http://www.banchoryshop.net/images/franztour.jpg " -sometimes i like to pretend i am very small and warm

"I'm diggin'em." -Alex in NYC

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Fennesz - Venice

Endless Summer did a great job of uniting a few disparate camps. It was snoisy enough to keep the noise fans happy, while it’s melodic, chin-stroking moments pleased the folktronica fans (and the Beach Boys references certainly didn't hurt in that regard). In addition, there was even enough mayhem to keep the Tigerbeat 6 fans smiling. But the release of the Field Recordings 1995-2002 stopgap compilation ended up foreshadowing the new one – which was largely a dismissal of the pop and folk elements of Endless Summer and a return to dense, drifting, hazy music. Nonetheless, the blasts of guitar raining down on “Circassian� and “The Stone of Impermanence" are every bit as beautiful as anything on Venice’s more pastoral predecessor. And like all of Fennesz’s work, its zoned-out, catatonic form of nostalgia works best at high volume. -MindInRewind

Other ILXors Say:

"sonically beautifull, not as fun or playfull as endless summer (minus the sylvian track). kinda sad." -twelve

"Having heard it tonight, I proclaim it glitch-Vangelis..." -Ned Raggett

"quite heavy and wafting like the fog on a lake in the alps in autumn. that is not per se bad but a little bit frightening, i find." -alex in manhattan

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Xiu Xiu - Fabulous Muscles

More like “I Luv This Album (OH!)� -The Good Dr. Bill

Other ILXors Say:

"I've never heard more pretentious music than Xiu Xiu. Just listen to that one track on Fabulous Muscles about a "jock" who is now a soldier or whatever. How could you not want to kick their ass after that?" -Mickey

"I must make a point of ending mixes with Xiu Xiu's "Fabulous Muscles" from now on." -Barry Bruner

""Fabulous Muscles" is definitely their best album yet and the most compelling pop album I've heard this year." -Simon H.

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Felix da Housecat - Devin Dazzle and the Neon Fever

"I used to sing along to lyrics as dumb and simple as the ones on Van Halen's "1984" and didn't think twice about it. I never stopped to analyze them, but as time passed on, I gained a greater appreciation of how hard it could be to write a (apparently) simple song about ogling girls. This brings us to the genius of "Short Skirts", a clever masterwork of fuck-you attitude which might as well be the ultra-sassy response-song to "Drop Dead Legs". Elsewhere, "Everyone Is Someone In LA" makes me long to spend the rest of my days as a stand-in driver for one of those helicopter panorama shots of LA that opened the first sixty seconds of seemingly every episode of Knight Rider. Apologies to Kittenz and the Glitz, because the best glitz was saved for the follow-up -- this album is all about black eyeliner, striking a pose at your leisure at any time day or night, and shirking the responsibility of real life for the more pressing responsibility of looking fabulous."

Other ILXors Say:

"I like it. sounds very much like a parade of '80s styles, smart sonics, haven't gotten too deep into it lyrically but somehow doubt I'm missing too much there." -Matos K.

"devin dazzle is really great, even if the hardcore felix fans i know hate it." -Yanc3y

"This album is pretty great - but it can also be a cold, hard display of craft. FdH is like the Squarepusher of electro-pop: he's got mega-talent, but not necessarily the "human" touch." -dleone

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Animal Collective - Sung Tongs

19. Animal Collective - Sung Tongs

Noise-folk band releases “pop� album. Pitchfork readers and guys wearing long, flowing robes rejoice. -The Good Dr. Bill

Other ILXors Say:

"I like them and everything, it's nice, but I'm also thinking that this is kinda Phish for people who hate Phish." -Spittle

"sung tongs has a kinda nu-goofball vibe to it." -Scott Seward

"I've finally heard Sung Tongs, and while I find it pretty enjoyable, anybody who argues these guys are up for "world's greatest pop band" gets a gold plated CAUCASIAN PLEASE medallion for christmas."

#18.

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Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat

Every so often, a record comes along and I rate it so highly that it makes me question my own judgment. Maybe what Eleanor and Matt Friedberger do is just pull some trick that short circuits my critical faculties. I mean – this is just sublime, isn't it? Blueberry Boat manages to make just about every other modern rock group look short on ideas, flair and point. Every moment feels essential, like it's been mapped out, but in the most natural of ways, as though each note could be unpicked to reveal the DNA of the full 76 minutes hidden inside. You can sit there with your Inuit dictionary, your Hobson Jobson and your chord book and try to pin the whole thing down – some have, at length. I don't know if it's really a good idea, but I'm glad that it's an option. I'm happy just to immerse myself in it a looser way, the way I first heard it. As a giddily confident barrage, strewn with musical and lyrical phrases that made me grin from ear to ear, and which have been bouncing around my head ever since. The Fiery Furnaces somehow sound like they're casting an immortal story afresh for a modern audience. Some trick. God knows what they'll do next. -Alba

Other ILXors Say:

"The album feels a bit overwhelming at first, but once you get used to the rambling structures of the songs, it is just as tuneful and ingratiating as Gallowsbird's Bark." -Matthew Perpetua

"they're fucking great. My favorite 'new' band in a long, long while." -roger adultery

"i'm pretty sure it annoys the living shit out me now, but i'm gonna perservere for a couple more listens to see if it opens up to me." -

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Erlend Oye - DJ Kicks

Enough to make you wonder why all DJs don’t record themselves singing Smiths and Bananamrama covers over their sets. Or start their sets with Jurgen Paape’s “So Weit Wie Noch Nie,� for that matter. -The Good Dr. Bill

Other ILXors Say:

"THIS IS SO FUCKING GOOD. i listened to it three times before work today!!" -Vahid

"I think this album has every right to be good. But then I believe in freedom for all people everywhere." -Mark

"i love erlend. say what you will, but you can't fault him for lack of enthusiasm." -Lauren

PS have you heard the Justus version?

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The Go! Team - Thunder Lightning Strike

OK, bear with me here. Remember that old science experiment where an empty room would be filled with set mousetraps, each with a pair of ping-pong balls delicately balanced on it? And someone would drop a ball on one of the traps, setting the trap off, throwing the two balls into the air and setting off a chain reaction? And in a flash the room would be full of flying ping-pong balls ricocheting off each other?

Well, if you imagine each of those ping-pong balls as a different musical genre, and think of them all randomly flying about all over the shop and rebounding off each other... That's pretty much how this album sounds. A messy riot of crashing drum breaks, rapping, garage rock guitar, harmonica (!) and rope-skipping chants (!!), it is an unlikely yet perfect soundtrack for a hot summer day. -Haitch

Other ILXors Say:

"ALBUM OF THE YEAR" -Alex in Doncaster

"ALBUM OF THE YEAR" -Mike

"It's a bit relentlessly full-on, isn't it? Mostly instrumental, with Big Beat drums-of-death and insistent 60s-style melodies (cf. "Apache", stuff like that), plus shouting kids. I probably would have loved this when I was half my current age, but now it sounded to me like a recipe for a headache." -Jeff W.

PS have you heard the Justus version?

Obsession? I just really like the song.

and no.

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Girls Aloud - What Will the Neighbours Say?

"Since day one the pressure gauge on the Girls Aloud machine has been shivering in the red; at any given moment it could slip over into 'dangerous' and explode the whole group. But, 'The Show' erupts into the kind of epic orgasm you imagined was reserved for wildly breeding whales, possessing everything you could want in a Girls Aloud track. The signature Xenomania electro-pop sound, the last chorus that comes out of nowhere and drags you with it through a wormhole of euphoria, and a classic line - "shoulda hung around the kitchen in my underwear" (You won't read that gem in any self-help books). It's all there.
Amazingly, the entire record sustains this momentum for an entire 51 minutes (including the bonus material, which for once, is really "YES!"). One particular standout, “Graffiti My Soul,� is twisted through the Girls Aloud machine to sound like a 'Red Coat' take on The Prodigy, complete with liberal use of a stutter effect and a reference to 'fisting' (Zig-ah-zig-OUCH!).
Really, there was no better pop group 2004." -Hari Ashurst

Other ILXors Say:

"There isn't a bad moment on this." -Gravel Puzzleworth

"I'm growing to love the sequencing. It's like a carpet bombing with the four singles upfront, and then the group troups move in to shore everything up." -Dom Passantino

"Sound Of The Underground epitomised a certain type of small-town mindset: the teenage girl gang hanging around on street corners, bored out of their skulls with provincial life and provincial boys, longing to escape. And What Will The Neighbours Say? is the sound of those girls five years on, career girls in the big bad city and loving it, supremely confident and sassy but not yet world-weary." -The Lex

Fiery Furnaces on 2004 poll = Orbital on 1990's poll

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Cut Copy - Bright Like Neon Love

I heard a story about the making of this album; that Dan Whitford, the Cut Copy main-man, wasn't happy with the results of his recording efforts - the demos he'd recorded by himself with keyboards and drum machines didn't cut it, and the efforts at re-recording the same songs with a live band weren't right either. So he took the tapes to Paris, where Philippe Zdar from Cassius had "a bit of a fiddle" with them.

Some job he did. The songs are, for the most part, great hooky pop. But the production job is something else. The sound constantly shifts between the band tracks and the electronic stuff, often on the same track. They combine in unexpected ways, like when the bass drops out of the driving rock of "The Twilight" and reappears as a really acid-y synth line. And it's all coated in those sweeping Gallic filters, which lend a disco sheen but also just make a lot of the textures more interesting than they would otherwise be. It's as good on the headphones as it is on the dancefloor.

Will indie dudes with guitars who want to take a step towards the dancefloor find a bit of inspiration in this record? It doesn't sound very much like Gang Of Four, so probably not. Oh well. -Haitch

Other ILXors Say:

"Who knew the guy who made 'Hunder Twasser' would turn around and kick my ass so completely every time?" -R.I.M.A.

"My fave local album this year. "Going Nowhere" is the best New Order pastiche/parody ever!" -Hayden Nicholls

"This is just a damn magnificent album, like an extended meditation on the Aerodynamic/Digital Love segue in Discovery." -MC Transmaniacon

This is just wrong.

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Air - Talkie Walkie

Like Moon Safari, except with four or five real songs. -The Good Dr. Bill

Other ILXors Say:

"i love the record. really fantastic. "surfing on a rock" is my favorite" -Yanc3y

""Sexy Boy" = yer gliding along the autobahn
"Radio #1" = yer nodding your head as you do so
the new album = the car's broken down and while it's a pretty view and all there's nowhere to go!" -Ned Raggett

"I Think It's Their Best Album So Far.
......I Started This Thread By The Way.
Suprised to see it pop back" -Dude

This is just wrong.

What I meant was, with Orbital we had a few people praising them to the heavens, and when they finished lower those people expected, we were WTF'ing up and down the thread. That's the ILM equivalent of "Blueberry Boat" at #18. Some people on ILM adore them, but lots of others don't see what the fuss is about, so voila, "only" #18.

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Phoenix - Alphabetical

More French pop. This one’s got hooks, though. Like, major hooks. -The Good Dr. Bill

Other ILXors Say:

"i absolutely love the record. it wasn't what i'd call a grower. first listen i hated it, second listen, i loved it. not sure how that worked, there was nothing gradual about it." -pitwithspikes

"think it is a good record, almost too good - a lot of the songs seem like they were produced in some factory where pop melodies/arrangements are made to sound as if I've heard them a hundred times before." -dleone

"CLASSIC. I listen to it almost every day lately, and I never get sick of it." -Matthew Perpetua

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Madvillain - Madillainy

There's little left to say about the chemistry between producer Madlib's dense lo-fi collage of jazz club beats, forgotten movie dialogue, soul hooks, and comic book KA-POW when coupled with the hilarious, fantastic, vaguely psychedelic ramblings and raspy, cyclic delivery of chief rhymesayer MF Doom. It's all in a constant state of juxtaposition: Doom's knack for clever, comedic twists and his equal aptitude for flooring realism; Madlib's arrangements of jumpy horns and melting organs are combined with speaker panning detritus and daring mixing in a way that makes his tracks sound simultaneously familiar and alien. It's blunted hip hop that rewards the careful listener, cartoonish enough that we can keep our distance and human enough in its curiosity to pull us in and keep us there. -DOPESMOKER

Other ILXors Say:

"this is the weakest thing i have ever heard." -tOph

"I think it works in a totally different way than say Vik Vaughn or Doomsday. This is sort of like late night doom--it IS more mellow, less hyper, but the rhymes work surprising well in that conext, and some of the tracks are just brilliant, especially ALLCAPS and Raid." -Scott

"He is ridiculously clever, has a very unique personality, and sounds like no one else in hip-hop. Plus I just think he sounds good." -DJDee2005

Your flippant comment notwithstanding, I am surprised, considering how much love it's been getting on ILM threads.

I don't know if the people on those threads voted here, though. Perhaps not.

10. Dungen
9. Squarepusher
8. Mastodon
7. Tv on the Radio
6. Stina Nordenstam
5. Diplo
4. Beta Band
3. Isis
2. Annie
1. Junior Boys

1. Junior Boys, Last Exit
2. Kanye West, The College Dropout
3. Annie, Anniemal
4. The Streets, A Grand Don't Come for Free
5. M.I.A./Diplo, Piracy Funds Terrorism, Vol. 1
6. Dizzee Rascal, Showtime
7. Brian Wilson, Smile
8. Arcade Fire, Funeral
9. Joanna Newsom, The Milk-Eyed Mender
10. Ghostface, The Pretty Toney Album

For a multitude of reasons, that sentence is perhaps my favorite thing that I've ever read.

http://rateyourmusic.com/

I don't expect there to be the exact same references, however it is a useful comparative link for reference.

Will do, thanks.

Thanks.

On ILM? Are you joking?

Martian you are insane. If you seriously believe Squarepusher, Dungen and Isis will be in the Top 10 and not Dizzee, The Streets and Kanye then you clearly have not been reading ILM properly.

I'm going with A Grand Don't Come For Free at #1 though.

any more predictions?

SOMB TOP 40 ALBUMS OF 2004, Official List
http://www.soundopinions.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=5900

87 Lists Submitted
421 Albums Voted For
189 Albums Receiving More than One Vote

Wilco = dull, bland and boring - i never understood the appeal of this band
Interpol 2nd album = more trad songs approach that lacked substance

"Funeral is definitely best of the year. Not boring at all. It's energetic and emotional as hell. " -DrJimmy

"Arcade Fire's Funeral is the album of the year" -TJENZ

"It is a very easy album to sit through the whole way. That is what makes it so addictive. It is absinthe to Broken Social Scene's whiskey." -Mutant Disco

"when you come back to "Funeral"...by hearing those sounds, by feeling that great indie rock rush of awesomeness, you will be reminded that indie rock owns you. It's a part of your soul. " -
Pavement Ist Rad

Tee hee!

treating Arcade Fire as the second coming, when in reality they are just another epic rock with strings by numbers band. I agree with what Matos said about AF on his blog.

Isis and Neurosis were superior in 2004 !

and If they want epic rock direct them to ...The Chameleons !

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The Arcade Fire - Funeral

Perhaps it’s beneficial to look past the vocals. It helps if your skin has been thickened from listening to the intentionally off-key wailing on all those A Silver Mt. Zion albums (Arcade Fire have certainly heard them). Then, you can enjoy the tunes, taking in one mini-epic after another, shifting between pleading power ballad and motorik disco as if it's the most natural thing in the world. Meanwhile, the lyrics present recurring motifs
of snow and ice blanketing ye olde neighbourhood, while our protagonists sneak around behind their parents' backs in the name of love and lust. Funeral keeps up the fine tradition of Pulp's His N Hers and West Side Story in that it magnifies the seemingly trivial toils of young love to a point near myth. -MindInRewind

Other ILXors Say:

"I hardly ever post over here because you music pedants scare me but...I like these guys. I REALLY like them. " -Mouse

"I've listened to a couple times, and it just sounds average and normal to me. Maybe that's the appeal of it, I don't know." -Matthew Perpetua

"I love FUNERAL. It's my album of the year no question. " -poortheatre

Sorry.

TS: The Arcade Fire vs. The Fiery Furnaces

I just found that. They both still completely suck!

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The DFA - Compilation #2

Discopunk svengalis release second compilation, the kicker being that this one’s got some guys named Delia Gonzales and Gavin Russom on it. One of their songs is awesome. -The Good Dr. Bill

Other ILXors Say:

"The 3CD compilation is a ridiculously great value ($20 where I found it.) Easily one of the top ten releases of the year [...] I wish every dance comp was two CDs of full length tracks followed by a 3rd CD mixing the previous two." -Alex in SF

"i listened to this 10,000 times on weekend--i had the cds in my changer and over and over again.

eventually i went a little nutty. but it's really good and yeah what a steal!" -s1ocki

"I have been listening to it nonstop! At work and at the gym!" -adam...

I'm so glad we don't have avatars.

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(sorry, can't find bigger pic)

M.I.A. vs. Diplo - Piracy Funds Terrorism

Whether or not the debut M.I.A. album proper is the disappointment that a fairly alarming number of people are predicting it will be remains to be seen (RICHARD X IS ON IT IT WILL BE MAJESTY) but the sense of foreboding can probably be attributed to the fact that, on this showing, her stampy brisk digi-sharp thrillery is so perfectly suited to this here (supposedly throwaway) mixtape format that it's pretty hard to see how these tracks could be improved upon; this is pure summer heat haze, blazing midday July sunshine stomping and blungeoning the listener into lazy submission, delicious and effortless and the kind of fun that makes no demands on you at all - just lie back and bask as Missy and the Clipse crank up the glare and the Bangles and BoC provide bracing snatches of bright icey respite before hyperalert M.I.A. cues up Madonna and Prince and “Sweet Dreams� and “Push It� and hopscotches/ducks/bobs/weaves through the afternoon and into the dusk, dancefulness replaces stomp causing the record to become more invigorating and refreshing as it progresses, M.I.A.'n'guests coalescing into nothing more complex than the most effortlessly superbly exhilarating needlesharp electronical popstuffs of the year, and prospects for her forthcoming elpee suddenly looking supernova-bright. Little circle of blissfully fortifying unadulterated joy, this is. -Alex L

Other ILXors Say:

"this is really great - and it's a fantastic fit for M.I.A.'s stuff. (and I hope she gets heard by as many ppl as possible.)" -scott pl.

"drooooool." -Etc.

"OK I'm listening to this and its really good but what's everyone going apeshit about? Its almost exactly what I would have predicted it sound like. I was hoping to be shocked I guess." -DJDee2005

"I have heard the first four tracks and am now frantically scrambling to figure out which album in my top ten to sacrifice so I can make room for it." -MC Transmaniacon

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Ghostface - The Pretty Toney Album

If you can get past all the lame-ass hard-ass lines, Ghostface has himself his most tunefull record to date. A fast paced soul record that only stops moving long enough for Ghost to hop in the bath. He's on his feet running for almost an hour, being chased, chasing and trying to catch a breath when he can. The breaks come when he slows things down to plead with his women, which happens all too often when you're this emotional. On Pretty Toney, the velocity heightens this to some kind of hysteria. Ghostface is dropping to his knees, tearing up and calling out his girl one minute and leaving her the next. Jadakiss drops his shirt and joins in, while Ghostface busts a lung trying to prove himself, playing the tough guy. The clean soul samples give it a rounding, but a bass heavy beat is always around, carrying him to the next emotional level. -Dan H.

Other ILXors Say:

"This album is FUCKING AMAZING. Damn straight." -DJDee2005

"i like this more and more every time i listen to it. i think it reminds me of how i imagine all the early 90s new york hip-hop that i've never heard before. i think." -hh

"I honestly like EVERY SONG on this album. Drop the skits and this sounds like a greatest hits album of some sort.
Also Tush owns the world." -Forksclovetofu

I'm not convinced.

1. Junior Boys, Last Exit
2. Annie, Anniemal
3. The Streets, A Grand Don't Come for Free
4. Brian Wilson, Smile
5. Dizzee Rascal, Showtime
6. Kanye West, The College Dropout

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Dizzee Rascal - Showtime

If there was one single record in 2004 that, from the moment it came out, I took with me everywhere and played to everyone I knew, it was Showtime. If there was one single record with the capacity to put spring in your tendons and to carbonate your synapses it was Showtime. If there was one single record that made you take an artist to heart and feel his triumphs were also yours, it was Showtime.

Everything that should make us still care about albums and cds and physical music formats was summed up by Showtime this year. YES an artist can make a more important and complete statement and impact over the course of 79 minutes than with a single song. Because you need to have BOTH the pneumatic bungee energy of "Stand up tall" and teeth-grinding intensity of "Respect me" and you need that final summing up of all the cogent points with "Fickle" that gets the jury on its feet applauding and gets the case thrown out of court.

Dizzee achieved with Showtime what Jay Z never managed in a ten year career. He combined strutting confidence with vulnerable charm by getting at the truth that the reason everybody is down on the haters is that they just wanna be loved, man. -Jacob W.

Other ILXors Say:

"it really is the grime 'room on fire' huh" -prima fassy

"I like this album a lot more than Boy in Da Corner. That album announced itself at evry turn, this one's a lot denser, a lot creepier." -Matthew James

"GRAAAAH DIZZEE RASCLAAT HAVE 10,000 OF MY RETARDED BABIEZ I LUV U!!!!!!!!!!!!" -Jess

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Brian Wilson - SMiLE

I don't know if it would take a better or a worse man than me to write about this album without reference to all that baggage. I just can't do it.

If there was ever any idea that completing this project would close the book on it, it actually happening has blown that idea apart. It raises many more questions than it answers. I mean, what is this thing? Brian's aged voice apart, it's as close as anyone could reasonably have demanded to sounding as it would have done had it come out in 1967, but it's not a 1967 record. It's not a 2004 record either. I mean, if it were then it would be the best record of 2004, wouldn't it? After all, this is musically as near as dammit to being a complete version of the album people have spent close to 40 years raving about, myself maybe 14. Will I spend the next 37 years raving any more wildly about any of the other albums released this year? I doubt it, yet somehow it doesn't feel right calling this my favourite album of the year, nor putting somewhere down the list either.

I don't know even how to listen to it. I can hear the whole thing refracted through the lens those 37 years have built up, as an elegy for Brian Wilson's life, or for the myth of Smile. As many have remarked, opening words rarely come as poignant as "I've been in this town so long" now do. I can get excited about beautiful sections that it together in ways previously released material never achieved (the transition from 'long, long ago' into the xylophone at 1:48 in 'On A Holiday', say). But it's no good – I can't hear it as the classic Beach Boys album Smile. It's a curio, something to puzzle the sometimes cruel contingencies of artistic achievement over. For now, anyway. In 2041, ask me again. -Alba

Other ILXors Say:

"I still don't get what the whole Beach Boys fuss is about." -Rasputin Kitten

"ITS VERY GREAT.

VERY VERY GREAT. " -ddb

"Honestly, I really don't think this is nostalgia or a little piece of "what might have been"....I think it's just a really amazing piece of music...." -M@tt He1geson

...has got nothing on the proper MIA album. I don't quite understand all the love.

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Junior Boys - Last Exit

The lullabies Orchestral Manouevres in the Dark sing to their kids at night. Assuming they have kids. -The Good Dr. Bill

Other ILXors Say:

"this album is GAY and WONDERFUL" -Cutty

"Listening to this and that Justus Koehncke covers thing actually made me want to go and buy some New Order." -@d@ml

"I don't think any other band has ever made me miss basslines less." -Jordan

"admittedly i'm really late on this Last Exit album, but fuck i'm diggin' it hard now" -ken taylrr

I think I got taken in by all the Junior Boys with my No.1 prediction.

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Annie - Anniemal

ILM’s first official cheereleader. Or is it the other way around? -The Good Dr. Bill

Other ILXors Say:

"there isn't a bad track on it (although the 7 minute-long 'come together' is like a generic early 90's rave pop anthem from the title down) i managed to actually *dance at a party* to chewing gum on sunday!

gonna be mega." -piecesboy

"I love it when ILM gets all excited and behind something." -Alba

"I am incredibly impressed by the album as a whole. I need to spend more time with it, but my gut feeling is that this will be one of my top favorite albums for the year." -Matthew Perpetua

"I can't quite shake the impression that this is sort of the best album ever made, it feels like it is totally completely Up There with all my very very very favouritest records of all time and I can find absolutely nothing about it that is less than superbly perfect really. I do hope I maintain this level of enthusiasm, it is a tremendously excellent thing to have happened." -Alex in Doncaster

Please.

#2.

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The Streets - A Grand Don't Come for Free

My teens happened in the '70s, so I developed a big resistance to concept albums - they were usually really horrible, back then. Maybe it's because hip hop (go with me, I know this doesn't really qualify) is a storytelling form so much of the time, it seems to make more sense here. And of course this isn't some fantasy tosh or Henry VIII's SixWives On Ice or some such drivel, this is a day in the ordinary life, full of beautifully captured detail that anyone can connect with. What makes it my favourite record of the year is that honesty, that accuracy and incision, but it's the way he tells 'em too. Obviously I'm not going to go claiming that he has great flow, but he does deliver the lines well in his own fresh way, with feeling and truth, all underplayed, which is necessary for the low-key small-time story. I've always felt that hip hop (yes, yes) was more interesting musically than vocally most of the time, and I think this is where his great talent lies, even if some of the music is merely a frame for what he is saying - it's a beautifully made frame, music that is affecting in its own right, and magnificently matched to the song. -Martin Skidmore

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Kanye West - College Dropout

I feel a little corny putting this at the top of my list, because it's kind of become this year's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, the "laudibly gangsta free" token hip hop album that people who aren't really up on it can rally around, while a lot of people whose opinions I respect have hated on it, or have chosen to damn it with faint praise, slipping it in the lower half of their lists or not at all. But you know what? Fuck it, I'll still rep for the dude. In 2003 Kanye went from being one of my favorite producers to becoming one of my favorite MCs too. I collected every single mixtape he dropped, every track that leaked, following every release date delay, knowing that with Roc-A-Fella's release schedule it would probably be in limbo alongside M.O.P. and Rell for years. I figured that if it ever did drop, it would get some nice reviews and sell modestly, like all super producer pet projects. As much faith as I had in Kanye, I didn't expect multi-platinum sales and hit after hit single and Grammy nods in the double digits. It's not a perfect album (I tend to find reasons to leave the room during the block of three (three!) skits surrounding "School Spirit"), but there's far more good than bad or played out. Maybe a few years down the road we'll look at Kanye the way we look at Wyclef now, but you can't say this wasn't his year. -HotelOpera

Rest of the votes to come in another hour and a half.

Great work Dr. Bill!! Thanks!

i don't mind Kanye winning really - it seems a good list and again better than any magazine list i've seen

Crack'ead.

Re: no.15. Phew.

Nice blurb Al.

Two and a half mil, at least. The search function wasn't working at the moment, though, and I had to leave (and leaving with the top two still to go crosses the line from suspense into cruelty)

492 Wylde Bunch Wylde Times at Washington High 1 1
491 The Wowz Long Grain Rights 1 1
490 The Prefects Amateur Wankers 1 1
489 The Orb Bicycles and Tricycles 1 1
488 Rachel Goswell Waves are Universal 1 1
487 Q-Unique Vengeance is Mine 1 1
486 Pantha du Prince Diamond Daze 1 1
485 Mos Def The New Danger 1 1
484 Lydia Lunch Smoke in the Shadows 1 1
483 Les Savy Fav Inches 1 1
482 Language of Flowers Songs About You 1 1
481 Icarus I Tweet the Bird Electric 1 1
480 Hot Chip Coming on Strong 1 1
479 Fabienne Delsol No Time for Sorrows 1 1
478 Dogs Die in Hot Cars Please Describe Yourself 1 1
477 DJ Green Lantern New York State of Mind 1 1
476 Dawn Upshaw Voices of Light 1 1
475 Yoshida/Fugii Erans 2 1
474 Xzibit Weapons of Mass Destruction 2 1
473 TV on the Radio Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes 2 1
472 Tony Touch The Peacemaker II 2 1
471 The Paybacks Harder and Harder 2 1
470 The Knife The Knife 2 1
469 The Earlies Those Were the Earlies 2 1
468 Sunn0))) White2 2 1
467 Snow Patrol Final Straw 2 1
466 Samara Lubelski In the Valley 2 1
465 Remote Viewer You're Gonna Love Our Defeatist Attitude 2 1
464 Philip Jeck 7 2 1
463 Jamelia Thank You 2 1
462 Estelle The 18th Day 2 1
461 Doctor Mix and the Remix Wall of Noise 2 1
460 Diplomats Diplomatic Immunity 2 2 1
459 Deerhoof Milk Man 2 1
458 Decibully City of Festivals 2 1
457 Chromeo She's in Control 2 1
456 Chris Liebing Stigmata Vol. 1 2 1
455 Call and Response Winds Take No Shape 2 1
454 Blonde Redhead Misery is a Butterfly 2 1
453 Urlich Schnauss A Strangely Isolated Place 3 1
452 Revolutionary Ensemble And Now… 3 1
451 Prince Musicology 3 1
450 Memphis I Dreamed We Fell Apart 3 1
449 Mekons Punk Rock 3 1
448 Matthew Shipp The Trio Plays Ware 3 1
447 Massive Attack Danny the Dog OST 3 1
446 Malmo FF Galerie Ganz Oben 3 1
445 Joy Zipper American Whip 3 1
444 JC Chasez Schizophrenia 3 1
443 Francis Albert Machine Re-Unmelt My Heart 3 1
442 Felix Kubin Matki Wandalki 3 1
441 Diplo Favela on Blast 3 1
440 Daby Toure Diam 3 1
439 Carolyn Mark and the New Best Friends The Pros and Cons of Collaboration 3 1
438 Various Artists Mad Guitar [Greensleves Rhythm Album #86] 4 1
437 Trashcan Sinatras Weightlifting 4 1
436 Total Science Audioworks 4 1
435 The Drive-By Truckers The Dirty South 4 1
434 Slum Village Detroit Deli 4 1
433 Shystie Diamond in the Dirt 4 1
432 Rapoon / Birds of Tin Monomyth par Avion 4 1
431 Manual and Syntaks The Golden Sun 4 1
430 Liars They Were Wrong, So We Drowned 4 1
429 KD Lang Hymns of the 49th Parallel 4 1
428 Jans Friebe Vorher Nachler Bilder 4 1
427 Elf Power Walking with the Beggar Boys 4 1
426 DILL WYHIWYG 4 1
425 Ddamage Radio Ape 4 1
424 Various Artists Parkspliced 5 1
423 Two Lone Sowrdsmen The Double Gone Chapel 5 1
422 The Thermals Fuckin' A 5 1
421 The Legends Up Against the Legends 5 1
420 Ratatat Ratatat 5 1
419 R. Stevie Moore Conscientious Objector 5 1
418 Omara Portuondo Flor de Amor 5 1
417 Necks Drive By 5 1
416 Michell McAdorey and Eric Chenaux Love Don’t Change 5 1
415 Mastodon Leviathan 5 1
414 Little Tempo Fire Blender 5 1
413 Hiromi Brain 5 1
413 Jack Rose Raag Manifestos 5 1
411 Great Lake Swimmers Great Lake Swimmers 5 1
410 Gabriel Anada Tai Nasha No Karosha 5 1
409 Freeform Five Strangest Thigns 5 2
408 Eagles of Death Metal Peace Love Death Metal 5 1
407 DJ Dangermouse The Grey Album 5 1
406 David Murray and the Gwo-Ka Masters Gwotet 5 1
405 Cooper-Moore 5x7 Box 5 1
404 Blockhead Music by Cavelight 5 1
403 Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra Who is This America? 5 1
402 Van Hunt Van Hunt 6 1
401 Trembling Blue Stars The Seven Autumn Flowers 6 1
400 Tower Recordings The Galaxies' Incredible Sexual Transmission Field Of… 6 1
399 The Cure The Cure 6 1
398 The Boredoms Seadrum / House of Sun 6 2
397 The Black Keys Rubber Factory 6 1
396 Slum Dunk Presents Funk Carioca 6 1
395 Skygreen Leopards One Thousand Bird Ceremony 6 1
394 Radio Dept. Pulling Our Weight 6 1
393 Northern State All City 6 1
392 Les Georges Leningrad Sur Les Traces de Black Eskimo 6 1
391 Greensleeves Riddim Album Red Alert 6 1
390 Eminem Eminem is Back 6 1
389 Death From Above 1979 You're a Woman and I'm a Machine 6 1
388 Cowboy Junkies One Soul Now 6 1
387 Avril Lavigne Under My Skin 6 1
386 Ash Meltdown 6 1
385 Arthur Russell World of Echo 6 1
384 Various Artists Life Styles: Compiled By Coldcut 7 1
383 Up-Tight Five Psychedelic Pieces 7 1
382 Theodore Unit 718 7 1
381 The Good Life Album of the Year 7 1
380 The Eightes Matchbox B-Line Disaster The Royal Society 7 1
379 Teddybears Sthlm Fresh! 7 1
378 Oxia 24 Heures 7 1
377 Mei Lwun Presents Uno Records 7 1
376 Keren Ann Not Going Anywhere 7 1
375 Incredible String Band Nebulous Nearnesses 7 1
374 Fonda 500 The Spectrumatronicalogical Sound of… 7 1
373 Fancey Fancey 7 1
372 Elliot Smith From a Basement on the Hill 7 2
371 Charlie Robinson Good Times 7 1
370 Bertine Zetlitz Rollerskating 7 1
369 Various Artists Channel 3: A Collection of Output Recordings 8 1
368 The Emperor Machine Aimee Tallulah is Hypnotized 8 1
367 Sahara Hotnights Kiss and Tell 8 1
366 Owsley The Hard Way 8 1
365 Matthew Dear Backstroke 8 1
364 Le Futur Pompiste Your Stories and Your Thoughts 8 1
363 Lal Warm Belly High Power 8 1
362 Hank & the Hank Collective How to Prosper in the Coming Bad Years 8 1
361 Dominik Eulberg Flora and Fauna 8 1
360 Cobra Killer 76/77 8 1
359 Bumblebeez 81 Printz 8 1
358 Arovane Lillies 8 1
357 Antena Camino del Sol 8 1
356 Aluminum Group MoreHappyness 8 1
355 Vector Lovers Vector Lovers 9 1
354 The Roots The Tipping Point 9 1
353 The Hacker Reves Mecaniques 9 1
352 The Eternals Rawr Machine 9 1
351 The Earlies Here Come the Earlies 9 1
350 Taylor Deupree January 9 1
349 Stahls Bla Schlactplatte 9 1
348 Saturday Looks Good to Me Every Night 9 1
347 Ryan Adams Love is Hell 9 1
346 Petey Pablo Still Writing in My Diary: 2nd Entry 9 1
345 Ivan Smagghe Suck My Deck 9 1
344 Diplo Florida 9 1
343 Craig Taborn Junk Magic 9 1
342 Closer Musik After Love 9 1
341 Cesaria Evora Voz d'Amour 9 1
340 Candi Staton Candi Staton 9 1
339 Brandy Afrodisiac 9 2
338 Blomefontain The Longer Now 9 1
337 Arve Henriksen Chiaroscuro 9 1
336 Various Artists Ragga! Ragga! Ragga! 2004 10 1
335 Various Artists For Jumpers Only 10 1
334 U2 How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb 10 1
333 Tussle King Klang 10 1
332 The Soft Pink Truth Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want the Soft Pink Truth? 10 1
331 The Revolutionary Ensemble And Now… 10 1
330 The Beautiful South Golddiggas, Headnodders and Pholk Singers 10 1
329 Sons and Daughters Love the Cup 10 1
328 Sixtoo Chewing on Glass & Other Miracle Cures 10 2
327 Ratatat Remixes Mixtape Vol. 1 10 1
326 Mission of Burma OnOffOn 10 1
325 Linkin Park vs. Jay-Z Collision Course 10 1
324 Lambchop Aw C'mon / No You C'mon 10 1
323 Korekyojinn Arabesque 10 1
322 Klee Jelängerjelieber 10 1
321 July Skies The English Cold 10 1
320 Gypsy Kings Roots 10 1
319 Ely Guerra Hot & Sour, Sweet y Spicy 10 1
318 Dom & Roland Chronology 10 1
317 DJ Clever Troubled Waters 10 1
316 Badly Drawn Boy One Plus One is One 10 1
315 Azita Life on the Fly 10 1
314 Zeena Parkins & Ikue Mori Phantom Orchard 11 1
313 Various Artists Modern Wild Dub 11 1
312 Triola Im Funftonarum 11 1
311 Thomas Fehlmann Lowflow 11 1
310 The Ike Reilley Assassination Sparkle in the Finish 11 1
309 The Bees Free The Bees 11 2
308 Tatsuya Nakatani Green Report 12 11 1
307 Royce da 5'9" Death is Certain 11 1
306 Raphael Saadiq As Ray Ray 11 1
305 Radio Dept. Lesser Matters 11 1
304 Popium Camp 11 1
303 Organum Vacant Lights / Rara Avis 11 1
302 Nels Cline Singers The Giant Pin 11 1
301 Nancy Sinatra Nancy Sinatra 11 2
300 Lucien-n-Luciano Blind Behaviour 11 2
299 Le Dust Sucker Le Dust Sucker 11 1
298 Juliana Hatfield In Exile Deo 11 1
297 Drive-By Truckers Dirty South 11 1
296 Cristina Doll in the Box 11 1
295 Corduroy Utd Our Eira 11 1
294 Califone Heroin King Blues 11 1
293 Wadada Leo Smith Kabell Years 1971-1979 12 1
292 Various Artists Run the Road 12 1
291 Tinariwen Amassakoul 12 1
290 Sagan Unseen Fortune 12 1
289 Razorlight Up All Night 12 1
288 Noxagt The Iron Point 12 1
287 Non-Phixion The Green CD 12 1
286 Miss Kittin I Com 12 2
285 Marillion Marbles 12 1
284 Kylie Minogue Body Language 12 1
283 John Vanderslice Cellar Door 12 1
282 Der Zyklus Biometry 12 1
281 Dave Godin Deep Soul Treasures, Vol. 4 12 1
280 Auburn Lull Cast from the Fountain 12 1
279 Atreyu The Curse 12 1
278 Aroah The Last Laugh 12 1
277 50 Foot Wave 50 Foot Wave 12 1
276 Wasteland October 13 1
275 Usher Confessions 13 1
274 The Libertines The Libertines 13 1
273 The Dresden Dolls The Dresden Dolls 13 1
272 The Boats Songs By the Sea 13 1
271 Stern Leaving the Frantic 13 2
270 Sightings Arrived in Gold 13 1
269 R. Kelly Happy People 13 1
268 Magma K.A. 13 1
267 M83 Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts 13 1
266 Les Mouches You're Worth More to Me than 1000 Christians 13 1
265 Jake Fairley Touch Not the Cat 13 1
264 Islaja Meritie 13 1
263 Get Physical Second Anniversary Edition 13 1
262 Dead Texan Dead Texan 13 1
261 Chungking The Hungry Years 13 1
260 Christina Milian It's About Time 13 2
259 Alter Ego Transphormer 13 1
258 Various Artists Kistune Midnight 14 1
257 Toby Goodshank Safe Harbor 14 1
256 To Rocco Rot Hotel Morgen 14 1
255 The Organ Grab That Gun 14 1
254 The Intelligence Boredom and Terror 14 1
253 Plus/Minus You are Here 14 1
252 Mitch Akiyama If Night is a Weed and Day Grows Less 14 1
251 Matt Valentine + Erika Elder Ragas and Blues 14 1
250 LSD-March Kanashimino Bishouen 14 1
249 Kleptones A Night at the Hip-Hopera 14 1
248 Janet Jackson Damita Jo 14 1
247 Harper Lee All Things Can Be Mended 14 1
246 Giant Sand Is All Over the Map 14 1
245 DJ / Rupture vs. Mutamassik Shotgun Sessions 14 1
244 Broken Social Scene Beehives 14 2
243 Brainpool Junk - A Rock Opera 14 1
242 Beauty Pill The Unsustainable Lifestyle 14 1
241 Beastie Boys To the 5 Burroughs 14 1
240 Various Artists Italo Disco - A Secret History 15 1
239 Trembling Blue Stars Southern Skies Appear Brighter 15 1
238 Travis Morrison Travistan 15 1
237 Susie Ibarra Strange Liberaiton 15 1
236 Richard Bartz Midnight Man 15 2
235 Pan Sonic Kesto 15 2
234 Oneida Nice: Splitting Peaches 15 1
233 My Chemical Romance Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge 15 1
232 Misc Crunch Time 15 1
231 Luomo The Present Lover 15 1
230 Klashenkoff The Sagas Of… 15 1
229 King Cobb Steelie Destroy All Codes 15 1
228 Kevin Drumm Impish Tyrant 15 1
227 Jan-Mark Kaiser Bis Neunzhen 15 1
226 James Yorkston Just Beyond the River 15 1
225 Greg Davis Curling Pond Woods 15 1
224 Graham Coxon Happiness in Magazines 15 1
223 Death in Vegas Satan's Circus 15 1
222 Daniela Mercury Carnaval Electronico 15 1
221 Comets on Fire Blue Cathedral 15 2
220 Clouddead Ten 15 1
219 Camera Obscura Underachievers Please Try Harder 15 2
218 Weird War If You Can't Beat 'em, Bite 'em 16 1
217 Tilly and the Wall Wild Like Children 16 2
216 The Troggs 20th Century Masters 16 1
215 The Electric Tomato The Electric Tomato 16 1
214 The Decemberists The Tain 16 1
213 Spektrum Enter the Spektrum 16 1
212 R.E.M. Around the Sun 16 2
211 N.E.R.D. Fly or Die 16 2
210 Midwest Product World Series of Love 16 1
209 Kerrier District Kerrier District 16 1
208 Keane Hopes and Fears 16 1
207 Iron & Wine Our Endless Numbered Days 16 1
206 Gift of Gab Fourth Dimensional Rocket Ships Going Up 16 1
205 George Michael Patience 16 1
204 DJ / Rupture Special Gunpowder 16 1
203 Devandra Banhart Nino Rojo 16 1
202 Dead Prez RBG: Revolutionary But Gangsta 16 1
201 Chingo Bling The Tamale Kingpin 16 1
200 Bonnie Prince Billy Pebbles and Ripples Tour EP 16 1
199 Bettye Swan Bettye Swan 16 1
198 Alicia Keys Diary of Alicia Keys 16 1
197 Albert Ayler Holy Ghost 16 1
196 Youssou n'Dor Egypt 17 1
195 Various Artists Dreamweaver 17 1
194 The Polyphonic Spree Together We're Heavy 17 2
193 The Faint Wet from Birth 17 1
192 Steve Earle The Revolution Starts Now 17 1
191 Sondre Lerche Two-Way Monologue 17 1
190 Paulina Rubio Pau-latina 17 2
189 Mum Summer Make Good 17 1
188 Mephista Entomological Reflections 17 1
187 Mates of State All Day 17 1
186 Maria Schnieder Orchestra Concert in the Garden 17 1
185 Jon Brion I Heart Huckabees OST 17 1
184 DPM Presents Street Grime Vocal Mix 17 1
183 Beef Terminal The Isolationist 17 1
182 Arthur Russell The World of Arthur Russell 17 1
181 Apostle of Hustle Folkloric Feel 17 1
180 Allison Moorer The Duel 17 1
179 Tortoise It's All Around You 18 1
178 The Alchemist 1st Infantry 18 1
177 Talking Heads The Name of the Band is Talking Heads 18 1
176 T.I. Urban Legend 18 2
175 Sebastian Teller Politics 18 1
174 Scorn List of Takers 18 1
173 Matt Pond PA Emblems 18 1
172 LMP Century of Song 18 1
171 Jens Lenkman When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog 18 1
170 Fred Anderson / Hamid Drake Back Together Again 18 1
169 Finn Brothers Everyone is Here 18 1
168 Cristina Sleep it Off 18 1
167 The Divine Comedy Absent Friends 19 3
166 RJD2 Since We Last Spoke 19 3
165 Ricardo Villalobos The Au Harem d'Archimede 19 2
164 Interpol Antics 19 4
163 Yolanda Perez Aqua Me Tienes 20 1
162 Whitey The Light at the End of the Tunnel is a Train 20 1
161 TTC Batards Sensibles 20 1
160 Tiger Baby Lost in You 20 1
159 The Shins Chutes Too Narrow 20 1
158 The Projects Let's Get Static 20 1
157 Spymob Sitting Around Keeping Score 20 1
156 Lloyd Banks The Hunger for More 20 1
155 Laura Veirs Carbon Glacier 20 2
154 Julian Bezten Waffy Town 20 1
153 Holly Golightly Slowly But Surely 20 1
152 Gravenhurst Flashlight Seasons 20 1
151 Feist Let it Die 20 2
150 Excepter KA 20 2
149 Eminem Encore 20 2
148 Destroyer Your Blues 20 2
147 Bonnie Prince Billy Greatest Palace Music 20 1
146 Black Heart Procession and Solbakken In the Fishtank 20 1
145 All I See is Red Terrorists Have Cut the Power 20 1
144 Alice Coltrane Translinear Light 20 1
143 Trillville & Lil' Scrappy Kings of Crunk 21 2
142 The Hives Tyrannosaurus Hives 21 2
141 The Concretes The Concretes 21 2
140 John Langford All the Fame of Lofty Deeds 21 2
139 Infinite Lives Bush Meat 21 2
138 Hot Snakes Audit in Progress 21 2
137 Dani Siciliano Likes 21 2
136 Charalambides Joy Shapes 21 2
135 Lil' Jon & The Eastside Boys Crunk Juice 22 3
134 Jim Guthrie Now More Than Ever 22 2
133 Yellow Swans Bring the Neon War Home 23 2
132 Various Artists Kompakt 100 23 4
131 Tanya Stephens Gangsta Blues 23 2
130 Utada Exodus 24 2
129 The Walkmen Bows and Arrows 24 3
128 The Secret Machines Now Here is Nowhere 24 2
127 Surferrosa Shanghai My Heart 24 2
126 Richard X Back to Mine 24 2
125 Neko Case The Tigers Have Spoken 24 2
124 Todd Edwards New Trend Sounds 2004 25 1 1
123 The Brunettes Mars Loves Venus 25 1 1
122 The Beta Band Heroes to Zeroes 25 1 1
121 Sufjan Stevens Seven Swans 25 3
120 Shannon Wright Over the Sun 25 1 1
119 Raiders of the Lost Arp 4 25 1 1
118 Pinback Summer in Abandon 25 2
117 Patrick Wolf Lycanthropy 25 1 1
116 Oneida Secret Wars 25 1 1
115 Luna Rendezvous 25 1 1
114 Leak Bros Waterworld 25 1 1
113 High Contrast High Society 25 2
112 Graham Smith Final Battle 25 1 1
111 Explosions in the Sky The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place 25 1 1
110 Cam'Ron Purple Haze 25 3
109 Blood Brothers Crimes 25 1 1
108 Birchville Cat Motel Beautiful Spark Triumph 25 1 1
107 Bill Frisell Unspeakable 25 1 1
106 Bersuit Vergabarat La Argentinidad al Palo 25 1 1
105 Tiefeschwartz Misch Masch 26 2
104 Saint Etienne Presents Mario's Café 26 2
103 Loretta Lynn Van Lear Rose 26 2
102 Ghost Hypnotic Underworld 26 2
101 CocoRosie La Maison de Mon Reve 26 2
100 Akufen Fabric 17 26 2
99 William Shatner Has Been 27 1 1
98 PJ Harvey Uh Huh Her 27 4
97 Optimo How to Kill the DJ Pt. 2 27 3
96 Devandra Banhart Rejoicing in the Hands 27 3
95 Rilo Kiley More Adventurous 28 2
94 Max Richter The Blue Notebook 28 3
93 Orbital The Blue Album 29 4
92 New Buffalo The Last Beautiful Day 29 2
91 The Blood Brothers Crimes 30 2
90 Various Artists Volga Select Presents - So Young But So Cold: Underground French Music 1977-1983 31 3
89 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus 31 4
88 Mouse on Mars Radical Connector 31 2
87 American Music Club Love Songs for Patriots 31 2
86 Masta Ace A Long Hot Summer 32 2
85 Lali Puna Faking the Books 32 2
84 Ciara Goodies 32 2
83 RTX Transmaniacon 33 3
82 Dungen Ta Det Lungt 33 3
81 David Caretta Kill Your Radio 33 2
80 Superpitcher Here Comes Love 34 3
79 Marz Wir Sind Hier 38 3
79 Scarlet's Well Dream Spider of the Laughing Horse 34 2
78 Oren Ambarchi Grapes from the Estates 34 4
77 !!! Louden Up Now 34 3
76 Various Artists Rio Baile Funk: Favela Booty Beats 36 4
75 Adem Homesongs 36 2 1
74 Hidden Cameras Mississauga Goddam 37 3 1
73 Green Day American Idiot 37 2 1
72 Electrelane The Power Out 37 3
71 A Girl Called Eddy A Girl Called Eddy 37 2 1
69 Saint Etienne The Trip 40 3
68 De La Soul The Grind Date 41 3
67 Tim Hecker Mirage 42 3
66 Espers Espers 42 3
65 Cee-Lo Cee-Lo Green is the Soul Machine 42 2 1
64 A.C. Newman The Slow Wonder 42 3
63 Wilco A Ghost is Born 43 5
62 Panda Bear Yong Prayer 45 3
61 Arthur Russell Calling Out of Context 45 3 1
60 Emma Bunton Free Me 46 4
59 Courtney Love America's Sweetheart 47 4
58 The Knife Deep Cuts 48 5
57 Michael Mayer Touch 49 5
56 Joanna Newsom The Milk-Eyed Mender 51 4
55 Gwen Stefani Love, Angel, Music, Baby 51 5
54 Of Montreal Satanic Panic in the Attic 52 3
53 The Magnetic Fields "I" 53 5
52 Stina Nordenstorm The World is Saved 56 4
51 Morgan Geist Unclassics 56 4
50 Nas Street's Disciple 56 5
49 Bjork Medulla 59 5
48 Modest Mouse Good News for People Who Love Bad News 60 5
47 Tom Waits Real Gone 60 4
46 Mountain Goats We Shall All Be Healed 61 7
45 Wolf Eyes Burned Mind 63 5
44 The Killers Hot Fuss 65 6
43 The Futureheads The Futureheads 66 6
42 Trick Daddy Thug Matrimony 66 4 1
41 United State of Electronica United State of Electronica 68 6 1
40 Stereolab Margarine Eclipse 69 6 1
39 Teedra Moses Complex Simplicity 69 7
38 Nellie McKay Get Away from Me 70 6
37 Ada Blondie 71 6
36 Stars Set Yourself on Fire 71 4 2
35 Morrissey You Are the Quarry 73 7
34 The Delgadoes Universal Audio 74 5 1
33 Bark Psychosis Codename: Dustsucker 78 6
32 The Hold Steady Almost Killed Me 79 5 1
31 Mylo Destroy Rock n' Roll 81 7
30 Wiley Treading on Thin Ice 81 7 1
29 Sonic Youth Sonic Nurse 83 7
28 Gretchen Wilson Here for the Party 88 6
27 Scissor Sisters Scissor Sisters 95 10
26 Ted Leo and the Pharmacists Shake the Sheets 96 7
25 Big & Rich Horse of a Different Color 97 7
24 Devin the Dude To tha X-Treme 98 7
23 Franz Ferdinand Franz Ferdinand 99 12
22 Fennesz Venice 106 8 1
21 Xiu Xiu Fabulous Muscles 111 8 1
20 Felix da Housecat Devin Dazzle and the Neon Fever 114 10
19 Animal Collective Sung Tongs 116 10
18 Fiery Furnaces Blueberry Boat 118 9 2
17 Erlend Oye DJ Kicks 121 8
16 The Go! Team Thunder Lightning Strike 122 10
15 Girls Aloud What Will the Neighbours Say? 132 8 2
14 Cut Copy Bright Like Neon Love 136 10 3
13 Air Talkie Walkie 138 13 1
12 Phoenix Alphabetical 141 12
11 Madvillain Madvillainy 145 11
10 The Arcade Fire Funeral 146 13 1
9 Various Artists DFA Compilation #2 162 15
8 M.I.A. vs. Diplo Piracy Funds Terrorism 182 16
7 Ghostface Killah The Pretty Toney Album 188 15 1
6 Dizzee Rascal Showtime 230 18 1
5 Brian Wilson SMiLE 251 17 5
4 Junior Boys Last Exit 301 23 4
3 Annie Anniemal 312 21 2
2 The Streets A Grand Don't Come for Free 321 22 3
1 Kanye West College Dropout 342 23 5

At least a hundred more people should have voted in this poll than actually did.

I cast the only vote for about seven or eight albums (including the Cure, WTF???).

Nowhere: Squarepusher
Nowhere: Isis
473 TV on the Radio
415 Mastodon
344 Diplo - Florida
122 Beta Band
82 Dungen
52 Stina Nordenstam

The other poll I ran (on the Sound Opinions board) only has a fraction of the regular posters that this board has, but it had something like 25 more lists submitted than here.

How many people did vote, anyway?

Sure, give me a second.

I'm curious as to why that is.

I wonder if it's because so many of us are so invested in year-end stuff for blogs and print publications that the idea of an ILM poll seems like just another headache or obligation. (Of course, it need not be: I'd already determined my top 10s for Pazz & Jop, so I just quickly filled out the rest of the 20, and sent it off to Dr. Bill.) I mean, I don't really know what the demographic is at SOMB, but I'd wager that posters there may get more excited about sharing their best-of lists on the board, because they haven't already done it anywhere else.

The harpist got lots more press, but I don't find it inherently surprising that a fun, wildly catchy record beat out dungeons and dragons music.

That's the worst description of Joanna Newsom I've ever heard.

I have still yet to knowingly hear a single note of College Dropout. I pride myself on this fact.

I got no list from your e-mail address, for whatever reason.

blood brothers is in twice

seconded.

i didn't vote cos i was polled out.

erlend oye dj kicks is this year's token dance pick if such a thing exists.

junior boys winning would have been nice. next to talkie walkie it's the album i listened to most last year. they both pretty much soundtracked my summer. (along with 8 trillion house and techno tracks)

xpost, i recently bought that philip jeck album and it's great.

Annoyingly i only just got this, but love it and would certainly have put it pretty high up...

I would have voted for it, if I'd gotten my shit together in time to vote in this thing.

Was I really the only person who voted for Prince? Shit. And not one vote for Destiny's Child!

Here's my list:

Birchville Cat Motel – Beautiful Speck Triumph
Xiu Xiu – Fabulous Muscles
Tim Hecker – Mirages
Ghost – Hypnotic Underworld
Michael Mayer – Touch
Kevin Drumm – Impish Tyrant
Mitch Akiyama – If Night is a Weed and Day Grows Less
Wolf Eyes – Burned Mind
Sagan – Unseen Forces
Zeena Parkins & Ikue Mori – Phantom Orchard
Max Richter – The Blue Notebooks
Arve Henriksen - Chiaroscuro
Annie – Annimal
Oren Ambarchi – Grapes From the Estate
Skygreen Leopards – One Thousand Bird Ceremony
Fiery Furnaces – Blueberry Boat
Fennesz – Venice
Junior Boys – Last Exit
Animal Collective – Sung Tongs
Phoenix – Alphabetical

Maybe because, you know, there were great songs on the album too?