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In November, the Washington City Paper asked its music writers to compile lists of their 10 favorite releases of the past year. Critics were required to divide a total of 100 points among their selections, awarding each no more than 20 points and no fewer than 1. Any single, EP, album, or box set of old or new music released in any quantity anywhere in the world in 2004 was eligible. Five weeks and 2,500 points later, the City Paper record nerds reveal their fondness for druggy hiphop, proggy postpunk, and high-minded metal monoliths.
For individual ballots, visit www.washingtoncitypaper.com/special/2004top20.html. CP
1
Madvillainy
Madvillain
Stones Throw
1: MADVILLAINY
How many eccentric, cannabis- and comics- obsessed hiphop auteurs does it take to make a modern rap masterpiece? Not counting multiple personas, just a couple. By combining one guy’s semi-improvised flow with another’s jazzbo samples and idiosyncratic beats, MF Doom and Madlib have done more than sum their parts: They’ve created a soundscape in which Fever Tree, the Fat Boys, the Firesign Theatre, the Dramatics, and Steve Reich can all coexist—in a song about weed.
—David Dunlap Jr.
2
Blueberry Boat
The Fiery Furnaces
Rough Trade
3
Cough
Black Eyes
Dischord
4
Reunion of Island Goose
International Airport
Geographic
4: REUNION OF ISLAND GOOSE
Intellectually, improv and indie pop couldn’t be more different. But this Glaswegian trio’s free-flowing, open-ended, and completely catchy little songs prove both genres share a gut feeling: that if you play them exactly right, the same old notes might just sound new again. Mind-blowing, huh?
—Leonard Roberge
5
Blue Cathedral
Comets on Fire
Sub Pop
6
Funeral
The Arcade Fire
Merge
Heron King Blues
Califone
Thrill Jockey
6: HERON KING BLUES
Partly based on a Druid legend about a bird/man creature, this is, naturally, a tougher listen than 2003’s Quicksand and Cradlesnakes. But if frontman Tim Rutili goes long on ideas, he stops short on lyrics: His lines are few, cutting, and repetitive. They pile onto these bluesy tracks like so many ratty blankets, adding a distinctly unsettling warmth.
—Anne Marson
7
Misery Is a Butterfly
Blonde Redhead
4AD/Beggars Group
Sung Tongs
Animal Collective
Fat Cat
7: SUNG TONGS
The cream of the hipster-folk revival (sorry, Devendra), Sung Tongs foregrounds this mysterious New York act’s knack for wistful, autumnal hooks. But that doesn’t mean Tongs is psych-free: For every tight melody, every “oh-whoa-whoa” and “dee-de-de-dee,” there’s some ramshackle percussion or field-recording trickery—beatnik excess for sunshine popsters.
—Brent Burton
8
Medúlla
Björk
Elektra
White2
Sunn 0)))
Southern Lord
8: WHITE2
Brown-sound torchbearer Sunn 0))) follows up last year’s experi-metal White1 with—surprise!—White2, a three-song album that, like every good sequel, offers more of what we heart from the original. In ’2’s case, that means super-slow guitar drone unfettered by a rhythm section, discernible lyrics, or even a recognizable genre.
—Brent Burton
9
“Oh Honey, We’re Ridiculous”
Pas/Cal
Le Grand Magistery
10
A Grand Don’t Come for Free
The Streets
Vice
10: A GRAND DON’T COME FOR FREE
As a slacker novella, the Streets’ latest has literary aspirations well beyond the usual chart-hop hook-crafting. No American could’ve kicked it like this: Mike Skinner’s evocative laptop beats perfect an aesthetic that’s unapologetically Anglo and of unexpected emotional sweep, full of piss and brandy and better than anything in your suburb.
—Joe Warminsky
We can't make City Paper without you
11
HITS
HITS
self-released
11: HITS
Short-lived even by D.C. standards, this recorder-and-drums trio needed only a few months to rewrite—or at least dust off—the book on avant minimalism. Sounding more like a medieval progenitor of the late-’70s postpunk that inspired them than an imitation, HITS parade through these six posthumously released songs like charmingly drunken pipers at the world’s coolest Celtic festival.
—Matthew Borlik
Your Blues
Destroyer
Merge
12
Leviathan
Mastodon
Relapse
13
A Ghost Is Born
Wilco
Nonesuch
13: A GHOST IS BORN
The backlash was inevitable—but thoroughly undeserved. Wilco’s greatest record rolled straight past the cognoscenti who were conspiring to retire Jeff Tweedy as rock-crit flavor of the moment. Too bad: The lost-boy sweetness, cooled-out melodies, and absolutely confident craftsmanship could have been theirs to love forever.
—Joe Warminsky
Egypt
Youssou N’Dour
Nonesuch
14
Homesongs
Adem
Domino
15
From a Basement on the Hill
Elliott Smith
Anti-/Epitaph
16
Amassakoul
Tinariwen
World Village
16: AMASSAKOUL
Sure, it was made by displaced tribespeople from the southern Sahara, but Amassakoul offers more than folkloric exotica and NPR ambience. With guitar work as potent as the rawest Delta blues or New York noise, these Malian survivors of war and exile prove that music’s sustaining power isn’t just romantic myth.
—Steve Kiviat
Bamnan and Slivercork
Midlake
Bella Union
16: BAMNAN AND SLIVERCORK
If Midlake doesn’t take the psych-rock road less traveled, the Denton, Texas, quintet is at least in the carpool lane, and Grandaddy, Radiohead, and pre-elevator-music Flaming Lips are some fellow travelers. In a year lacking in truly lysergicized listens, not donning pirate costumes or contributing to aural pollution is a commendable alternative.
—Chris Hagan
Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2
Jill Scott
Sony
“Everything Is Gay”
Andy Milonakis
www.funnyjunk.com
Let the Buyer Beware
Lenny Bruce
Shout! Factory
Taste Like Daughter
S PRCSS
My Pal God
The Grind Date
De La Soul
Sanctuary
The Libertines
The Libertines
Rough Trade
Turn
The Ex
Touch and Go
16: TURN
This double-disc nonreissue finds the Dutch Crass-punk lifers at their swaggering, skronking best. You’ll wonder why dudes half their age don’t discover global politics, let their dye jobs grow out, and learn how to put some free-jazz squeals into the bridge. Get through half of this and you’ll want to make them.
—Jason Cherkis
We Shall All Be Healed
The Mountain Goats
4AD/Beggars Group
Wild Like Children
Tilly and the Wall
Team Love
You Fail Me
Converge
Epitaph
17
I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
Richard and Linda Thompson
Island UK
Witchcraft
Witchcraft
Rise Above/The Music Cartel
18
Power
Q and Not U
Dischord
The Doldrums
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti
Paw Tracks
The Homosexuals’ CD
The Homosexuals
ReR/Morphius Archives
19
Panopticon
Isis
Ipecac
Sonic Nurse
Sonic Youth
Geffen
The Third Unheard: Connecticut Hip Hop 1979–1983
Various Artists
Stones Throw
20
i
Magnetic Fields
Nonesuch
Mother •Teacher •Destroyer
The Hidden Hand
Southern Lord
The Dirty South
Drive By Truckers
New West
20: THE DIRTY SOUTH
Alt-country is usually blue-state porn—a fantasy world where all the folks at the feed co-op are waiting for some Canadian in a cowboy hat to lead them to workers’ paradise. Georgia’s Drive By Truckers represent their fellow Southerners better: They like myth and quirk, too, but they make them rock.
—Andrew Beaujon
Want Two
Rufus Wainwright
Geffen