Revisiting my "Top Albums of 2004" 20 Years Later
Part 7 of 10
Hey, wow, I’m back!
No new updates besides it officially storming here in Portland. Shit is WET.
Two quick things I wanted to mention:
My current #1 album on this list, From A Basement On The Hill, was recently reissued in and remastered on streaming and vinyl. I haven’t listened yet, but I’ve heard mix things. I’ll get to it as soon as I can.
Back a handful of posts ago, I referred to K-Os as the rapper who made “Wavin’ Flag” - but that was another similarly named Canadian rapper: K’Naan. WHOOPS. Thanks to one of my online homies for pointing it out, embarrassing. I edited that post with the correction.
Anyway, the 5 albums I’m covering here fared much better than the last post, hope you enjoy!
Wilco
A Ghost Is Born (Nonesuch)
Original Placement: 7
2010 Placement: 6
If you would’ve asked me in 2010 who my favorite band is - I might very well say Wilco. They have fallen out of favor a bit since then, what with some actual lackluster or just mediocre releases, but for a period of time (Legitimately an 8 album run + 1 of my favorite live recordings ever) they were unbelievably good. When Random Number Generator gave me this album for this set of reviews, my excitement went through the roof. An album I love, that I know every beat of, yet haven’t listened to in years. This was a record I was ready to give 5 stars.
Only I’m not going. I WANT to and I think through much of this album, you can consider it to be the single best document of Tweedy and Co. and what makes him/them so special, but there is just a LITTLE bit too much of …uh…radio static. I shouldn’t really put parameters on a record rating or what constitutes something being “perfect” and just let myself live and focus on what I enjoy, but I am here. This is the most JUST BELOW perfect record on this list, probably - even more so than The College Dropout. It’s noisy, it’s soft, it has long, unexpected, unpredictable solos, it goes into soundscapes and has a weird, traditional guitar-pop song toward the end (“I’m A Wheel”). It’s also unlike any other Wilco album and that’s because it’s very much ALMOST just a Jeff Tweedy album and it’s a fantastic document of something GOING THROUGH IT. People much smarter than me have waxed poetic on it this year. And look, now that I’m a dad - I can tell you, this is probably the least “dad rock-y” of their classic albums.
I’ll say it here: I may revisit this album again before I finalize this project and I reserve the right to adjust my rating and ranking any way I see fit.
Jens Lekman
When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog (Secretly Canadian)
Original Placement: 35
There is a real possibility that the joy I found in this album 20 years ago came from just two songs: “You are the Light (By Which I Travel Into This and That)” and “A Higher Power” - two songs that are so good, I would instantly consider them for a best songs of the 2000s list. I genuinely had no memory of the rest of this album, despite it being a “classic” referenced by friends of my musical leanings and around my age (though Jens’ follow-up Night Falls Over Kortedala seems to be preferred). I have no memory if I was ever truly into this album, or just the idea of it. When it comes to Indie Pop, there are times where I would consider it my favorite genre and I have had whole year-end lists in the 2000s where the genre can make up to about half of the entries, but I can’t fully explain what aspects of the wide-ranging genre I like. The more classical-sounding chamber-pop sound that people like Jens or Stephen Merritt or Owen Pallett or Andrew Bird or whoever produce has always been something I’m interested in but can never fully get behind. Most indie pop I love is super catchy, maybe leaning a bit punk, but who knows really. Anyway, that’s a long way of saying this album is cool and has some amazing production, but it’s not something that I can get SUPER into on the whole and never really have been able to and it’s very possible it is the voice and delivery. It’s pretty and I can imagine it as an amazing soundtrack for many people to stroll along a creek on a warm Spring Day or something, but it fails to hold my attention in a lot of different places and sounds annoying try-hard in others. The highlight songs from above are STILL the highlight songs 20 years later.
Interpol
Antics (Matador)
Original Placement: 6
I have loved this album since the first time I heard it, the day it was released and I rushed to buy the cd. I have also known that it was a terribly divisive album since that day with equal reviews claiming Interpol’s turn toward pop was a natural direction for them (my feelings) to “Holy shit, this is so average”. I’ve been a long defender of this album, not to the point of thinking it is a masterpiece, but DEFINITELY to the point that without actually listening to them back-to-back, I would tell people I preferred Antics over Turn on the Bright Lights, which I now see as foolish. To be clear, I don’t think TOTBL is some all-time classic, either - though I think it’s great. Listening to this record for the first time in awhile has opened my eyes to the point that I can’t help but see both sides of the argument. The HIGH points on this record, some of those soaring choruses and their sing-alongability are really among some of my favorite moments in both “Post-Punk Revival” and the original sound it’s aping. However, closer listens to this record really do reveal it to be uninteresting and pedestrian often, to the point where many of the songs are totally forgettable and entire verse segments of songs sounding like Garage Band rough drafts. I still think it’s a good record and something that I place fond nostalgia on, but it certainly lacks the aura and cohesiveness of the debut in lieu of sounding like a slightly darker Killers record.
Espers
Espers (Locust)
Original Placement: 12
Now here is a record I HAVE listened to in the last 20 years, but unlike Wilco or Inteprol, it’s only been a handful of times. Sad fact, that, because this record is super listenable and really such a forgotten great record. Meg Baird basically never does wrong and paired with Greg Weeks here, they crafted perhaps the best album of the initial “freak-folk”/ “psych-folk” revival that kicked off around this time. Another Golden Apples of the Sun band, Espers took what I loved about the weird-folk revival and brought the more drawn out psych-edge from the late 60s and 70s without becoming TOO cutesy, weird or referential. This is a record a band could make this year and get praise for and is a bit mind-blowing that it came out 20 years ago. It’s not that it’s entirely unique (it’s definitely not), it’s just executed at a super high level. This is my reminder to play this record (and Meg Baird in general) more - it’s life affirming stuff.
Van Hunt
Van Hunt (Capitol)
Original Placement: 24
Van Hunt should’ve been bigger. This record should’ve been massive, he should’ve gotten to produce superstars, write for people of different genres and tour the world. He put out AT LEAST three really good albums and is never talked about. This record is great and holds up tremendously. Genre-wise, it’s hard to classify, though conventional wisdom would put it alongside “Neo-Soul” - but in the way that Maxwell is Neo-soul, while also veering into more conventional modern r&b. This record has both of those, but also moves toward latter period D’Angelo, Shuggie Otis and more. It’s smooth throughout, but that is mostly in delivery and content moreso than production and instrumentation, which wears it’s retro inspiration as well as any record of the era. It’s a headphone record to be clear, but songs like “Dust” and “Down Here in Hell (With You)” sound like and SHOULD HAVE been hits. I remember in June of 2004, on whatever blog I had at the time, I did a top 10 singles of the year and “Dust” was number three, behind “Leave (Get Out)”by Jojo & “Crazy” by eventual The Voice Season 1 winner: Javier. Anyway, all of that is besides the point. If you have an affinity for good soul or r&b music, we should try and get momentum behind this record, because it rules.
So, there it is. A second post in a couple of days. If you’re reading, interacting, etc - thanks, as always.
Revisiting “Top Albums of 2004” Rankings (in progress):
Elliott Smith - From a Basement on the Hill (4)
Junior Boys - Last Exit (N/A)
Wilco - A Ghost Is Born (7)
Kanye West - The College Dropout (N/A)
Drive-By Truckers - The Dirty South (11)
Cam’Ron - Purple Haze (44)
Animal Collective - Sung Tongs (14)
AIR - Talkie Walkie (8)
Shuttle358 - Chessa (N/A)
Espers - Espers (12)
Van Hunt - Van Hunt (24)
De La Soul - The Grind Date (10)
Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans (43)
Trick Daddy - Thug Matrimony: Married to the Streets (36)
The Futureheads - The Futureheads (22)
Devendra Banhart - Rejoicing in the Hands (18)
The Black Keys - Rubber Factory (25)
Talib Kweli - The Beautiful Struggle (37)
Interpol - Antics (6)
Max Richter - The Blue Notebooks (3)
Annie - Anniemal (5)
Jason Forrest - The Unrelenting Songs of a 1979 Post Disco Crash (17)
The Hives - Tyrannosaurus Hives (41)
Jens Lekman - When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog (35)
Ty - Upwards (19)
John Legend - Get Lifted (20)
RJD2 - Since We Last Spoke (28)
Oh No - The Disrupt (31)
k-os - Joyful Rebellion (46)
The Libertines - The Libertines (21)
Frausdots - Couture, Couture, Couture (15)
The Gift Of Gab - 4th Dimensional Rocketships Going Up! (47)
The Good Life - Album of the Year (38)
Nas - Street’s Disciple (33)
Gary Wilson - Mary Had Brown Hair (49)
Handsome Boy Modeling School - White People (30)
Ike Reilly Assassination - Sparkle in the Finish (39)