The first time I made a “Top Albums of the Year” list was in 2003. I was a Senior in High School and apart from a handful of little publications and some hip hop reviews, it was the first “long-form” writing piece I ever did about music. It mostly circulated around a handful of friends and some online message boards I posted on at the time, but it never got very much traction. I also submitted it to my Senior English teacher for some extra credit at the end of the semester, which is so incredibly nerdy in retrospect.
In the 21 years since, I’ve made and published similar lists of on websites, message boards, Twitter, Instagram or here on Substack probably 17 or 18 other times. I don’t remember the contents of most of them, though I can likely remember most of my #1 albums if I think hard enough.
Being 2024, I thought it would be fun to look back at my 2004 list 20 years later and listen to a bunch of albums I haven’t listened to much since then. My goal here is not to uphold the taste of an 18-year old wannabe hipster, nor is it to make fun of my tastes back then (honestly, I expect to like almost all of these). This is just a fun little exercise to listen to 50 (+3) records that I once held very dear. I’m going to do 5 at a time, and probably alternate posts between this and finishing the Kevin Hardcore 100. Since my brain seems wired to make lists, despite my better judgement - I’ll go ahead and rerank these records as well and see what has changed (if anything).
(The +3 is because in 2010 I made 10 lists ranking my 10 favorite albums of every year 2000-2009 and my top 2 of 2004 were not originally on this list, so I wanted to include them as well.)
I found my old list using the Wayback Machine to first find posts about it on a long defunct message board to try and find the URL where it was uploaded. Then I used Wayback Machine to once again search through that lil’ domain to piece together the list. FUN.
There are some amazing albums from 2004 that are not on this list and likely won’t be covered, but that’s not the goal (to make a new 2004 list). I will likely make a supplemental post about a FEW records that are deeply important to me that WOULD be on a new, from-scratch list, but not now.
Anyway, this list is probably very Pitchfork Media-centric, but it is what it is. For the young people who read this - this was before streaming media, finding new stuff wasn’t hard, but it definitely was different.
Hope you enjoy this project.
The Black Keys
Rubber Factory (Fat Possum)
Original Placement: 25th
The Black Keys are an interesting band to me. Beyond any controversy that surrounded one or both of them in semi-recent times, the fact that that this little two-piece of white dudes playing lo-fi sounding blues-rock briefly became one of the biggest bands in the world is one of the more confounding things in post-2000s music. I mean look, they’ve always written catchy songs since they came out, and that is on full display here - and was on even greater display in later records, but it is just funny that The Black Keys were one of the last genuine big-time ROCK N ROLL bands. Ignoring their recently cancelled arena tour (hey, they haven’t put out a good record in 15 years), they do to this day have a couple of records I really love. thickfreakness was the first of their records I ever heard back in 2003 and I loved it. It’s still my favorite record of theirs, partially due to nostalgia and partially because I find the grit in the recording more genuine. However, I do think Brothers is probably their BEST record, though admittedly it has been years since I’ve heard it. Rubber Factory was really their first big breakthrough, where you started to see them on MTV2 and in commercials and as an album, it is more exciting than their first two releases, I just don’t think it rocks as much. It has serious high points, though - the opening punch of “When the Lights Go Out” and “10 AM Automatic” are great. “The Lengths” may be their single greatest song and they do a good job mixing tempos, but it just feels like it drags on and on by the time you get to the end. It’s a good record, a good summer record, but unfortunately the ubiquity of the band and how omnipresent I felt like they became in my life (unwillingly) in the years after this album has soured me on even their good stuff. I have no real nostalgia for this record or this band anymore, even if I can recognize it as pretty good for what it is.
John Legend
Get Lifted (GOOD / Columbia)
Original Placement: 20th
This is a hard record to evaluate. I’ve long defended this record as a good John Legend record because it is basically a vintage Kanye record with a good singer rather than Kanye (and it is, Kanye has his hands on the majority of the songs), but it’s still a weird record to listen to. There are strings of songs here that put this into real high upper echelon category, with the more uplifting, soulful r&b numbers and the succession of slow jams on the backside, but there are enough sub-par tracks here that do even more to hold it back from being a GREAT album. It’s really funny that the first half of the record is basically John Legend doing “hey baby, I love you but I’m gonna sleep around” records and the second half are these amazingly romantic slow ballads, but hey - the dichotomy of man. I think the slow jams are better than upbeat ones generally (though “Refuge” is a really bad song), but the first single “Used to Love U” is still one of my favorite early 2000s Kanye production tracks. John Legend is one of those figures that is around TOO much in this day and age, but I distinctly remember my review for this record talking about how unjust it is that a male piano player and singer this good won’t get half the accolades or reach half the success of Alicia Keys - but keep in mind, “Ordinary People” didn’t come out as a single until May 2005. Anyway, huge MISS on my part. This is easily the best John Legend record I’ve heard, though it’s just a few shakes away from being great.
Animal Collective
Sung Tongs (FatCat)
Original Placement: 14
2010 Placement: 5
I’ve recently rediscovered my once very intense infatuation with Animal Collective. Due to a couple of great releases in a row from the crew and the very fun Bonefish podcast, it’s been a real treat to go back and listen to records I once loved but assumed I was over nowadays.
I’m not over them and I’m here to say that Animal Collective is truly one of my favorite bands ever.
Sung Tongs was not my first AnCo album, though it was the one that they “broke out” with for many me and many other people (thanks in large part to the video for “Who Could Win a Rabbit?”). I somehow owned a copy of Campfire Songs from 2003, though I don’t really think I liked it much at the time, and I also had downloaded Here comes the Indian Ark in 2003, which I believe was somewhere in the 40-50 range for my Top 50 albums of 2003. But with Sung Tongs - this is when Animal Collective became very important to me. They were writing pop songs (sort of?) and it was acoustic and they weren’t SCREAMING so much (just a little) and the album cover drew me in. I have a very distinct memory of buying this cd from Jackpot Records on SE Hawthorne in Portland with my then-girlfriend alongside Mission of Burma’s big comeback record OnOffOn and Mirah’s C’Mon Miracle. I was blown away immediately, though I let my love fade. It’s not a terribly EASY record to get through and even revisiting it here, I let the length of “Visiting Friends” get under my skin and dampen my appreciation for it the first listen back. I’ve listened to it a couple of more times since and now I can’t get enough, even with that track. I’m hooked. “Winter’s Love” has gone on to become one of the bands more enduring works and it really is such a beauty. “Sweet Road” and it’s jaunty sounds being in a Crayola commercial bring me joy, and “Mouth Wooed Her” somehow gets stuck in my head at the most random times. It’s an awesome record and kickstarted one of the most impressive runs of albums any modern band has had. I wouldn’t be surprised that revisiting this album once again years from now I might be a little disappointed in it once again, but I’m so happy to have fallen back in love with it right now.
Sufjan Stevens
Seven Swans (Asthmatic Kitty)
Original Placement: 43
When it comes to Sufjan, I’ve always been a Michigan truther. More than Illinois, more than Carrie & Lowell and definitely more than Seven Swans. If I had to guess, of the “classic” Sufjan albums, Seven Swans would be the one I would assume that I had listened to the least - and I certainly hadn’t heard it in the 20 years since it came out - yet somehow, listening back to it a few times for this project, I was struck with how much of it felt familiar, how many of the songs I knew and how comforted I was by it. I remember being disappointed that this was the follow-up to Michigan which was my #2 record of 2003, but I’m not really sure why. Yes, it’s more one-note and sad and quiet, but without actually acknowledging it back then - my guess is that I had an issue with this record because it was a much more overtly religious record and I had only recently stopped trying to be “religious” in 2003. I am SURE in hindsight that I had a negative reaction to anything extolling Christianity or God or the Bible - but here’s the thing - this record is great. I still think I would have it lower than a handful of his records (probably 5th or 6th overall?) but it is shockingly (not really, it’s Sufjan) beautiful. There is banjo throughout, his whispered vocals, the light keys, beautiful female backing vocals. It’s not a Sufjan album that I’ll want to listen to repeatedly, but it’s silly to think I liked it begrudgingly. Sufjan has made a LOT of mediocre and bad music all over the genre spectrum. This is one of his most simple records, and it’s far from bad.
De La Soul
The Grind Date (Sanctuary Urban)
Original Placement: 10
2010 Placement: 10
Here’s the thing with this record - other than 3 other MAJOR rap records we will cover in this project, this is likely my most listened to record of 2004. I’ve ALWAYS loved this record, but looking at the review I wrote for it in 2010 and my experience listening to it once again, it really falls off a cliff on the back end.
Hear me out: De La Soul has an argument alongside groups like The Roots, Outkast and others as having the best hip hop discography ever. Their first 4 records are certifiably, inarguably great. Their next two were commercial flops and are uneven, but a bit mis-maligned. And according to me: The Grind Date is one of the most underrated rap records of the entire 2000s. Sort of. You see, between the production of Supa Dave, J Dilla and Madlib - the first 7 tracks on this record rival just about any rap record of the era, maybe ever. I honestly feel that way. The Plugs are in fully realized form, they’re having fun, and the production is incredible. Track 8, “He Comes” with Ghostface (who was maybe the single most loved rapper of the time) is good, but a step down. “Days of Our Lives” with Common is ok, but really lacks the energy of the first 7 tracks. “Come on Down” with Flavor Flav has a fantastic Madlib beat but it unbelievably annoying, even if you love Public Enemy. “No” starts off hot but really just sounds like filler and the closer “Rock Co. Cane Flow” with MF DOOM is one of the best rap songs of the 2000s, so it at least closes strong. Streaming services finish the album with a song featuring Sean Paul and that is a track certainly worth ignoring.
BUT those first 7 tracks (yes, even the slow jam featuring Carl Thomas) are so unbelievably good they have always made this a personal favorite album of mine. Listening yesterday on the drive home, I thought to myself “shit, I might be able to give this 5 stars and call it the best De La album” - but I can’t do that and it isn’t the best. It’s still really good, it’s just…uneven. It’s going to fall out of the Top 10, where it has held steady for 20 years, but it’ll always hold an important place for me.
Revisiting “Top Albums of 2004” Rankings (in progress):
Animal Collective - Sung Tongs
De La Soul - The Grind Date
Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
The Black Keys - Rubber Factory
John Legend - Get Lifted
See you next time!