Revisiting my "Top Albums of 2004" 20 Years Later
Part 6 of 10: Meh
Well, I told you I would keep this going and here I am! More than a month later but if you haven’t noticed *gestures around* - things are grim.
My world, luckily, is pretty good. My family is healthy and happy and awesome. Halloween was a blast and the weather has been pretty nice. The home market is in shambles, the country is even worse and hey - let’s sink deep into some nostalgic music.
As we sit here in November, I am getting close to being done with 2024 music. Once again, I listened to entirely too much, even though with this Substack and my own head cannon I was going to drastically decrease the amount I consumed, I didn’t. And it was a killer year. I do plan on doing a Best of the Year series of posts next month, I just don’t know the form or format yet. Stay tuned.
I WOULD however, like to finish this series before January 1. The Kevin Hardcore 100 will be revisited in the new year.
Six albums this go around, which will bring us to 32. With 22 left to go after that! As the subtitle for this piece says - this week wasn’t very exciting (and was actually a bit disappointing) - hope it makes for some enthralling reading.
RJD2
Since We Last Spoke (Definitive Jux)
Original Placement: 28
I was excited to listen to this for the first time in awhile because it is a record that is so ingrained in my head and was a major record for me from it’s release to 2006. I probably would tell you it was better than Deadringer, though I don’t know if that’s really true, but honestly I just looked to it as this inventive instrumental hip-hop record at a time when I was pretty heavy into that genre. Unfortunately, a lot of that genre doesn’t hold up from a “full album” standpoint, but still sounds pretty great on shuffle or in playlists. That’s the case here. It’s a super uneven record and the more chill, pop-oriented songs don’t really compare to the heavier, seen-in-sports-commercials tracks like “Since We Last Spoke” and “1976”. It’s fine, not a bad experience, but not wholly good enough to warrant anything beyond “good” status.
Talib Kweli
The Beautiful Struggle (Rawkus)
Original Placement: 37
This record was a surprise in how much I enjoyed it on this listen. I had this pegged as a record that wasn’t good as I’ve really fallen out with a lot of Talib’s music in the last 20 years, but I actually enjoyed this quite a bit. I don’t think it’s good enough that it would make a Top 50 records of the year list in like any year if I were to do things all over again, but it’s a quality record. Is it Black Star? No. Is it Reflection Eternal? No. It’s probably on par with Quality, but lacks a little of the variety in that record. It sounds VERY 2004 and is Kanye and his most Kanye, with just the twinkling piano keys. You have the Neptunes, Supa Dave, Mary J. Blige, Anthony Hamilton, Common. This list of collaborators was crack for me in 2004 and they all help to make a pretty cohesive, solid, yet boring album. Kweli is the king of saying a lot without really saying much and this is a record where that’s evident - and unlike something like the Trick Daddy record from a previous entry, I find the slower, more “thoughtful” songs to be the lesser tracks on this. Happily surprised to find this as good as I did.
The Gift of Gab
4th Dimensional Rocketships Going Up (Quannum)
Original Placement: 47
This is a funny record to reflect on, because I do have a distinct memory of creating this list 20 years ago and forcing myself to put this record on despite never really loving it. Gift of Gab / Blackalicious / Quannum was a big deal in my small group of friends and despite me not really caring much about them other than DJ Shadow and Solesides Greatest Bumps, I had to show that I f’ed with this. It’s not BAD, but I do find it pretty boring. There is no doubt that Gab was one of the more skilled emcees ever when it came to breath control and every hip hop fan has had a moment when they first head one of his alphabetical raps but this is just too one note. It’s not experimental or varied enough to carry it as a full album nor is the production even GOOD through most of it. His rapping is stellar, though probably too one-note all things considered - but it’s good enough to carry the record above “average” status. Mid-tier record hovering around that 2.5-3 star range. Check out Solesides Greatest Bumps though, that’s a classic mixtape.
Annie
Anniemal (679)
Original Placement: 9
2010 Placement: 10
It’s sort of hard to overstate how major this record was for me and probably other people like me in 2004. Similar to the way that Purple Haze by Cam’Ron twisted my entire opinion on mainstream rap, Anniemal, more than any other record opened my eyes into the world of “Poptimism” “Chewing Gum” felt like a major hit, “My Heartbeat” was Pitchfork’s song of the year (and still one of my favorite songs of the 2000s). I was so into this record, I imported it through some British record store through e-mail with my mom’s credit card, only to receive it in mid-2005. It was a massive record for me at the time, but in reality - a massive half record. Half of this record is some of the best pop music of the last 25 years, but a lot of it is lacking. It’s not even Annie’s best album at this point in my opinion (I loved 2020’s Dark Hearts which is an entirely different sound). It’s absurd I had this as the 5th best record of the year, though I did love it. Placing it at 10th in 2010 makes a bit of sense, but it’s really carried by the strong songs - which again, are REALLY strong. Regardless, it helped paved the way alongside people like Kylie, Robyn, Jessie Ware, Carly Rae etc for making amazing, forward-thinking, female-fronted dance music a regular thing.
The Hives
Tyrannosaurus Hives (Polydor)
Original Placement: 41
I like The Hives. Or rather, I like when The Hives are good. They are a riotous live show and their best songs are some of the absolute best “Garage Rock Revival” type songs around. They blended pop and snot as well as any of the “The” bands and had a frontman that actually FELT like a real rock star. The problem with The Hives is that all of their albums are like half amazing and half middling. That’s the case with Tyrannosaurus Hives, their best album, despite it only being 30 minutes long. Luckily, it’s almost evenly split where the front half is a really good time and the back half is just like half-cocked, ok rock music. The opening punch of “Abra Cadaver” to “Two-Timing…” to “Walk Idiot Walk” is about as good as a sing-alongable 3-song sequence as their is. It’s a fun record, but like just about everything talked about here today - it’s uneven and somehow wears out its welcome, despite its brevity.
Frausdots
Couture, Couture, Couture (Sub Pop)
Original Placement: 15
When I first found my list at the beginning of this project and saw this record, it was literally the first time I had thought about the record in 2024. It was completely gone from my memory, and if you had asked me to recreate from memory the 50 albums that would’ve been on a 2004 list, this would’ve been the last one to be named, if named at all. And yet, 20 years ago, I LOVED this record. In 2004, I had only recently gotten into Brent Rademaker and his bands Beachwood Sparks & The Tyde, but this one REALLY resonated with me. A dark, 80s-inpsired synthpop record that just sounded like late-night Los Angeles. Listening now, I don’t get it. I must’ve been really into the sound at the time, though, because this sounds very pedestrian and mediocre even for the style nowadays. I tried it a couple of times to write this and it really strikes no chord with me. It’s FINE, but it’s not memorable, as was evidenced by me completely forgetting it existed. You might like it, and you probably haven’t heard it- so give it a shot, I won’t be.
Thanks for reading as usual! Hope to see you soon.
Revisiting “Top Albums of 2004” Rankings (in progress):
Elliott Smith - From a Basement on the Hill (4)
Junior Boys - Last Exit (N/A)
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)
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)
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)
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)