Revisiting my "Top Albums of 2004" 20 Years Later
Part 10 of 10: The Finale
Surprise! Let’s do this!
This has been a fun project but I’m happy to be done with it! Thanks for the restacks, the likes, the comments in Discord, etc.
We have our final 5 albums here, followed by a definitive Top 10 for the year, for me, followed by the overall rankings and re-rankings of these records.
There are a LOT of amazing records from 2004 that I didn’t talk about here, maybe I’ll address some of those in the new year or maybe not, regardless - it was a pretty great year in music, as most are.
Again, thanks for coming along for this journey - let’s reach the finish line.
Snoop Dogg
R&G: Rhythm & Gangsta - The Masterpiece (Geffen)
Original Placement: 40
I can sort of understand why this made the original list 20 years ago. Thanks to records like Cam’Ron’s Purple Haze, I was BACK into mainstream rap and Snoop’s recent work with The Neptunes had reinvigorated him, at least on tv.
But this record is like…just not good. It’s similar to other Snoop albums of the era in that his flow is super smooth (though, boring), the production is 00’s Neptunes and it focuses on women (pimpin’), money, etc. There is no fire here, and other than obvious huge cuts like “Drop It Like It’s Hot” there isn’t much to note here. Some subject mater is dated and in poor taste even for the time period (hey, sorry - I don’t like listening to a song about slapping a “ho”). I’m not condemning Snoop, his place as one of the most successful rap celebrities ever is well cemented and well-deserved (despite only actually having ONE classic album), but this is just like way too bloated (it’s 70 minutes long) and one-note. Boring record.
Masta Killa
No Said Date (Nature Sounds)
Original Placement: 50
The final debut album from an original member of Wu-Tang Clan, released 11 years after the group’s debut is probably the best Wu record of the era. Masta Killa was always the quiet one, the forgotten one. With only one verse on Enter the Wu-Tang and having that calm, verbose flow most similar to GZA, there was definitely times in my life where people claimed Cappadonna or even Killah Priest over Masta Killa as one of the core 9 members. This record is great, though. It is refreshing compared to something like the Snoop album posted above in that it sounds like a mid-90s Wu album. It features the whole crew, it’s mostly street/beef raps with an occasional love song thrown in and MK just kind of goes off. We had never really heard him rap to this level or this much prior and at a time when Wu was pretty weak (Pretty Toney is GOOD, but it’s not great), he came through with just an actual throwback rap album. “No Said Date” “Digi Warfare” “Old Man” and “School” are songs that I haven’t listened to a million times or anything but still have gotten stuck in my head here and there over the last 20 years. What’s to say? Hard to imagine liking Wu and not liking this - I’m super happy this holds up.
Loretta Lynn
Van Lear Rose (Interscope / Third Man)
Original Placement: 29
Despite this record being a big deal when it came out and featuring two all-time big deals in music (Loretta Lynn & Jack White), this album mysteriously got pulled from all streaming services in 2021 and has remained off since. I think, if memory serves - this is the only record on this whole list that is not on one of the major streamers? It is uploaded into a playlist on Youtube, which is how I listened to it again. As someone from the “Portland, Oregon” area - that song, really the standout song from the record, was a HUGE deal here and got radio play and everything. It’s a great duet that still holds up. The rest of the record is good too. My favorite has always been “Mrs. Leroy Brown” which still feels incredibly badass, but “Van Lear Rose” is excellent too. It was a cool story to bring Loretta back and get teamed with Jack White and his production, it is excellently produced, and she sounds good. A fun comeback record, but not an essential record in the country canon, in the 2004 canon and probably not in the Top 5 best of HER own records. It’s still good, though.
Arcade Fire
Funeral (Merge)
Original Placement: 26
I am actually a bit surprised at how high this placed originally. I really was a hater on this record when THAT Pitchfork review came out (9.7!?), but I wound up listening to it a lot through the autumn and winter of that year and learned to like it. In the 20 years since, Arcade Fire and Win became one of the biggest bands in the world, won Album of the Year and have released mostly subpar music - but I’ve always sort of defended this record. It’s never been a favorite, but it’s a classic of this TYPE of indie rock (I don’t really know what to call it) and certainly better than the hundreds of imitators that came in their wake.
I listened to this record pretty recently out of curiosity and another project I was thinking about doing for the Substack and thought it was good, but not really my thing. Listening to it again for this, I still stand by that - it’s certainly good and you can understand it’s importance in the indie & pop landscape, but it is really just not a sound that I care about. It isn’t going to stir a lot in me. What’s more - is that it sounds played out. I ALMOST didn’t make it through “Wake Up” on this playthrough, feeling like I’ve heard that song a bazillion times, and while I feel like “Rebellion (Lies)” is maybe even MORE omnipresent, at least it’s a more propulsive and fun listen. “Crown of Love” in all of it’s Oberst-isms is still my favorite song on this record and the easy highlight. The rest of it soars, it whines, it’s just there. It’s good (actually, i DO hate the last track), and I wouldn’t be mad at ANYONE calling this one of their favorite records ever. It’s just not something I want to listen to. It’s still their best record, though.
Madvillain
Madvillainy (Stones Throw)
Original Placement: 1
2010 Placement: 3
DOOM nominated for the best rolled Ls
And they wondered how he dealt with stress so well
Wild guess? You could say he stay sedated
Some say buddha'd, some say faded
What is there to say about one of the most talked about records of the last 20 years? As it stands right now, Madvillain is the #5 album OF ALL TIME on Rateyourmusic (not a conclusive ranking), is about to be re-released in a remastered audiophile boxset with behind the scenes stuff and 4k upscaled videos. It is a true, rare, cross-generational album. It was one of the first albums I ever pre-ordered (for extras). I also bought a second copy on release day at the long-defunct 360 Vinyl in Portland. From the moment I first heard this record, it was going to be my number 1 record of 2004. It’s one of my most listened to records of all time and one of the few records in ALL of music I typically listen to 5+ times a year, every year.
And yet I sometimes wonder if it’s perfect. The skits and instrumentals do sometimes get me down, where I just want to get to the rapping (see: MM…FOOD), BUT most listens, I find them being perfect. They certainly fit more thematically than that album and are done in between batches of great songs rather than an extended period through the middle of the album. It’s also perhaps the best production Madlib has ever done.
Fuck it, I don’t need to talk about this anymore. If you haven’t heard this record somehow, still, in 2024, I don’t really know what your excuse is. One of the most successful independent records of my life, one of the best hip hop records ever. A true classic and 5 stars.
And the final album for this project.
Final Top 10 Albums of 2004:
(Perhaps the best high-production, braggadocio, coke-rap record ever)
9.
(A somewhat-modern Southern Rock masterpiece, the best the band has done. Listen to the original not the re-release)
(One of the most important Hip Hop records of the last 25 years, if not ever. Not QUITE perfect but very close.)
(Pure, blistering, absurdly catchy rock-n-roll)
(The Wilco record that I am most excited about at this point. Perhaps the loudest, most experimental and yet still most fragile Jeff & co. ever got)
(Long, droning, depressive heavy metal soundscapes for a rainy day. Somehow kinda pretty too)
(Icy-cold synths, Timbaland-style drums and vocals somewhere between a whispered Daryl Hall & Bryan Ferry. Amazing, forgotten record).
(An absolute pop masterpiece. When in the right mood, the most life-affirming music there is.)
(What more can be said? It’s one of the best hip hop albums of all time.)
(I did not go into this project thinking this album had a chance at the top spot, but over the course of it, it has not only become clear that it’s my favorite album of those I covered, but genuinely one of my favorite albums of all time. For what it’s worth, I have no listened to the recently remastered 2024 version (which is the dominant one on streaming now) and it is quite a bit worse than the original. They smoothed out some of the vocals and punched up instruments in ways that are detrimental to the fragileness of the record. Search the album TITLE in your streamer of choice and you should be able to find the original 2004 version, if you just search for Elliott Smith and view his artist page on Spotify, Apple, TIDAL or Qobuz, it will likely only show you the remaster.)
Revisiting “Top Albums of 2004” Rankings (final):
Elliott Smith - From a Basement on the Hill (4)
Madvillain - Madvillainy (1)
Brian Wilson - SMiLE (23)
Junior Boys - Last Exit (N/A)
Jesu - Jesu (N/A)
Wilco - A Ghost Is Born (7)
Ted Leo + Pharmacists - Shake The Sheets (2)
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)
Feist - Let It Die (27)
Shuttle358 - Chessa (N/A)
Espers - Espers (12)
Van Hunt - Van Hunt (24)
De La Soul - The Grind Date (10)
Monk Hughes & The Outer Realm - Tribute To Brother Weldon (16)
Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans (43)
MF DOOM - MM…FOOD (34)
Masta Killa - No Said Date (50)
Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Mender (13)
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)
Beep Beep - Business Casual (42)
TV on the Radio - Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes (9)
Talib Kweli - The Beautiful Struggle (37)
Interpol - Antics (6)
Max Richter - The Blue Notebooks (3)
Annie - Anniemal (5)
Morrissey - You Are The Quarry (45)
Jason Forrest - The Unrelenting Songs of a 1979 Post Disco Crash (17)
Arcade Fire - Funeral (26)
The Hives - Tyrannosaurus Hives (41)
Jens Lekman - When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog (35)
Ty - Upwards (19)
Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose (29)
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)
Death From Above 1979 - You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine (32)
Delays - Faded Seaside Glamour (48)
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)
Snoop Dogg - R&G: Rhythm & Gangsta - The Masterpiece (40)
Ike Reilly Assassination - Sparkle in the Finish (39)
See you next month as we wrap up 2024.