2004

                A curiously backward-looking year this year, in a couple different ways.  In genre terms, there’s both a surprising resurgence of both folk-rock (soon to become as hip as it’s been since 1970) and (even more surprisingly, given how unhip it had become) real, old-school 70s style prog-rock (mostly of the Jethro Tull school).  Another thing that I’m really struck by in 2004 is how many albums there are from old friends I haven’t heard from in awhile (i.e since 2000 or earlier).  These are predictably enough a mixed bag, but overall pretty solid.  Some of these, of course, aren’t particularly surprising in that they never really changed their sound that much. 

Social Distortion, for instance, who we haven’t heard from since 2006, haven’t changed their sound much at all, still mining the same roots-punk sound that one can easily imagine them continuing with well into old age.  Fortunately it’s the kind of sound you can as play as credibly as old men play as you can as young punks.  A punk band changing their approach dramatically, though, is Green Day (who haven’t put out an album since 2000, but haven’t put out an album I own since 1994).  They haven’t really changed their sound substantially, but are a refreshing reminder of how good pop-punk can sound done right (and possibly just because after being driven into the ground by the inferior likes of Blink-182 et al, it’s a sound that vanished from the mainstream around the millennium).  Green Day haven’t changed their sound much, but their approach is substantially different, making an honest-to-goodness rock opera, complete with a pair of 9-minute song-suites.  The overall effect is more Tommy than The Wall, consisting of a bunch of basically conventional songs strung together with a common through-line, rather than a single broader composition.  Still, 1) who’d have thought you’d hear a 9-minute song suite on modern rock radio in 2004, and 2) that it’d be by Green Day, of all bands.  Also points for joining Pearl Jam and Radiohead as one of the few politically-minded rock bands of the ‘00s.

                Despite having been gone far longer (since 1982), Mission of Burma change their sound hardly at all; unsurprisingly, since half the songs on their reunion album are re-recordings of old songs that previously had only seen release on their various outtakes comps.  In this they parallel the Mekons, who this year re-record a bunch of their old punk songs in their new(er) country-roots style.  Of course, the other obvious active post-punk band to compare them to is Wire, another band of similar vintage and sonic approach whose own highly unlikely comeback started only 2 years prior.  Wire blow Burma out of the water on the comeback trail, though.  Wire’s second reunion has a lot more to say than Burma’s first, which doesn’t really update their sonic template.  Good timing, though, just as the indie kids rediscover 80s post-punk.  Elsewhere in punk rock, the Dropkicks record their soundtrack to the Red Sox’ curse-breaking World Series run, a revival of the old Sox anthem “Tessie,” while Lars Frederiksen shows that, while he can bring the intensity on his own, Tim Armstrong was the great songwriter in Rancid. 

                The other clutch of bands making their long-absent return are various 90s alt-rock and indie acts.  Cornershop, Stereolab, Modest Mouse, and Elliott Smith all put out material for the first time since at least the turn of the century (Smith sadly posthumously), but the longest-gone of these (and after Mission of Burma, the most unexpected reunion) are the Pixies, following on a Breeders reunion from two years prior.  They mostly just reunite to tour, though do have a lone just-ok single.  Almost as long gone, at least as a group, are the non-Axl part of Guns ‘n Roses, who follow the pattern of Audioslave, keeping the rest of the band together and picking up the lead singer of another recently-collapsed 90s rock band.  Velvet Revolver probably make more sense on paper than Audioslave, as Guns ‘n Roses and Stone Temple Pilots were probably closer sonically than Rage and Soundgarden, and as with Audioslave, the results are more or less what you’d expect.  Better than late GnR (when they were basically reduced to being Axl’s backing band), but not as good as either the glammy, colorful late STP or the live-wire energy of early GnR.  Somewhat surprisingly, what they most recall are early STP, and less surprisingly, like late STP they're seeped in ‘70s classic rock swaggger.  A throwback, to be sure, but it's a backward-looking kind of year.

                On the hip-hop side of things, Mos Def is also back after a long (since 1999) absence in which he focused much more on being an actor.  But five years later, he’s back to music, with a fairly radically revamped sound.  A couple of tracks on Black on Both Sides, esp. “Rock ‘n Roll,” hinted at his interest in reclaiming rock & roll as a black musical form, but doesn’t really prepare you for how guitar-heavy this album is.  Mos Def has a new band, consisting of Bernie Worrell, Dr. Know (of Bad Brains), and the rhythm section of Living Color, so members of probably the three biggest or most important black rock bands of the last 35 years.  Understandably those bands shape his sound, though he’s leaning much more heavily on the early, moody Funkadelic than anything resembling the later Parliament sounds.  At times, though, the biggest influence on his sound seems to be the thrash-metal of Rage Against the Machine. 

                Also foregrounding the guitar in their sound this year are the Roots, on what’s both their shortest album to date (even including the hidden tracks), and also probably the closest to a party record in their catalogue.  Except for the closer, they’re all more-or-less upbeat bangers, covering a range of sounds, generally with an electro-funk production sheen.  Not their best work, probably, but possibly their tightest, without the sprawl that’s made earlier albums both impressive and at times intimidating.  Also tightening up from the sprawl of his earlier albums (with Blackalicious), is Chief Xcel, partnering with fellow-Quanuum member (& former Latyrx member) Lateef the Truthspeaker for Maroons, whose lone album, Ambush, may just be the finest album from the whole Solesides/Quanuum collective (Endtroducing… excepted).  Like the Roots, Maroons (or possibly the Maroons) put out a tight album, mostly focused on more upbeat tracks.  Unsurprisingly, it sounds a lot like the melodic, 70s-soul-inflected sound Chief Xcel produced with Blackalicious.  Not groundbreaking, but definitely the sound of pros in a sound they excel at, and driven primarily by a politically-aware sentiment.

                Speaking of old pros, Cee-Lo is back with his second solo album, showing again that Outkast don’t have the monopoly on arty variants on the Atlanta hip-hop sound.  Despite the sonic similarities with Outkast, though, Cee-Lo is still lacking the breakout mainstream hit to get more widespread appeal.  Increasingly, Cee-Lo is a soul singer who will occasionally rap, rather than a rapper who dabbles in singing.  Not that that’s a bad thing, esp. given how innovative the songs and productions are (and how excellent he is as a singer and just-ok he is as a rapper).  It may have limited his commercial appeal, I suppose, since he’s neither a rapper anymore nor does he fit comfortably alongside the much more trad-minded neo-soul scene (and radio programmers generally don’t like artists they can’t slot easily).

                Neo-soul, as I alluded to, is getting increasingly trad-minded.  Jill Scott somewhat embodies this, sounding much more conventional and less arty in a beat-poet kind of way on her second album, though in this case  I prefer the shift, as she’s an excellent singer and spoken work has an extremely high threshold for me to care about it.  Here she sounds at times like she’s making the sequel to Things Fall Apart the Roots opted to pass on.  Much more trad, though, is John Legend, who may be making his debut here, but whose sound is entirely borrowed from Marvin Gaye c. 1970.  It’s a great sound, Legend has a great voice, and his songs are generally pretty good (though not jaw-droppingly great or anything).  But it’s just revivalism, and Legend probably only got the attention he did by being a project of his producer, genius voice of a generation/gay fish Kanye West.

                West himself, who’s been behind the scenes as a mainstream producer for awhile, also steps out for his solo debut here.  I’ve hated Kanye West for a long time now, so I’m pleasantly surprised to find how little I dislike his debut album.  He hasn’t gotten as lazy in his production as he will later on, and a lot of this album is pretty good, if (like Legend) not blowing me away.  Still, West is pretty much the Coldplay of hip-hop: sonically a bit progressive, but not enough to scare off commercial radio, and with a social consciousness that bleeds quickly into messianic tendencies.  The latter is the big reason I loathe the man: boasting is both fun and an august hip-hop tradition, but whining about how you’re persecuted for your greatness gets old really quickly.  So the seeds of his obnoxiousness are all right there on his first big single, “Jesus Walks,” which does at least have a pretty good beat.  But like a lot of other American Christians, he somehow convinces himself he’s being persecuted because people don’t like it when you’re an in-your-face asshole about your religion.  Also, he’s way too defensive about having dropped out of college; if you tell me 50 times in an hour about how you totally don’t regret dropping out, I’ll begin to suspect that’s a lie you’re telling yourself.

                2004 is also the debut of another of the bigger producers of the next decade, with DJ Dangermouse’s White Album-based remix of Jay-Z.  It’s an acknowledged gap in my collection that the only Jay-Z albums I have are The Blueprint 3 and (with a big asterisk) The Grey Album.  But Dangermouse really does a phenomenal job here, on a project that could easily have just been a gimmick (like virtually every other example of the thankfully short-lived “mash-up” fad).  Some of these tracks do approach gimmickry, but others meet or surpass the Black Album originals (esp. “Public Service Announcement,” “December 4^th,” and even “99 Problems”). 

                Elsewhere in producer’s records, Madvillain (who I remember being a big name, but who vanishes from my collection after this year) collaborates with MF Doom, an unsurprisingly successful pairing of two of the decade’s most prominent (and best) purveyors of abstract hazy hip-hop.  Having a great rapper instead of a parade of mediocrities makes this quite a bit better than last year’s Madlib.  Doom also has a solo album this year, showing that he’s as distinctive a producer as he is a rapper (and very indebted to DJ Shadow’s early work). 

                This is also a big year for hip-hopera, a form that seems like a natural fit for as story-based and conceptually-minded a genre as hip-hop.  Still, I can think of only a surprisingly small number of examples, and they’re somewhat uneven.  Prince Paul’s A Prince Among Thieves from back in 1999 is an acknowledged classic, but Masta Ace’s A Long Hot Summer from this year is just ok, without the variety or outstanding beats to carry it.  On the other hand, over in the UK, the Streets’ A Grand Don’t Come For Free is pretty excellent.  “Fit But You Know It” excepted, the individual songs aren’t as outstanding as on the debut, but the successful integration of solid songs into a real story (which is both clear & grounded) makes up for a lot.  Plus, Clue-style, there are two endings to chose from.  So an excellent way to follow up an outstanding debut: keeping the basic sound intact, but pressing forward conceptually.  And by basic style, of course, I mean that the beats are still much more dance-based than hip-hop based.

                So the Streets are (is) as much a peer of UK dance-rockers as they (he) as much a peer of US hip-hop acts.  And in the UK this year, chief among the UK dance-rockers are Kasabian.  They’re massively derivative of the last two Primal Scream records’ techno-punk, albeit with some elements recalling the early-90s rave-rock sound (so like Primal Scream’s third record) and just a dash of 90s Radiohead.  Derivative, but a lot of fun.  Also, Kasabian yet again show how the UK version of dance-rock is much more interested in contemporary sounds than its US equivalent.  LCD Soundsystem, for instance, return with another single, the excellent “Yeah,” which is a lot of fun, but extremely derivative of Remain in Light-era Talking Heads and NYC disco of similar vintage.  Similarly, !!!’s album is quite good, but heavily indebted to Afrika Bambaata-style old school hip-hop beats.  Thankfully they’re singing/chanting rather than rapping, at least.  In neither case, though, should the retro-ness be taken as a diss, as both are a lot of fun this year (I’m more just commenting on the differences between the US & UK, rather than making a normative judgment).  I will say, however, as a normative judgment, that the US dance-punk roster has much less depth than I remember.  LCD Soundsystem, though they have yet to put out an album, are one of the great bands of their era, and !!! have at least one really solid album in them (this year’s), but after that, there’s a big drop-off in quality to the rest.  The Rapture and Juan MacLean had a couple of decent singles, but otherwise?  meh.

                One of the better bands on the dance-punk scene is the oft-reviled Franz Ferdinand, whose shtick is simple but effective.  Basically, they take Stokes-style garage-rock songs, and add dance beats, the overall effect recalling the early post-New Wave 80s British pop of the Duran Duran/Depeche Mode school.  Another band debuting this year that both recalls 80s synth-pop and is oddly intensely hated are the Killers.  I, for one, think they're just pretty good, sounding a lot like an inferior version of last year's Dandy Warhols; trashy and artificial, but probably by design.  It's when they start faking sincerity as the weakest of the late 00s Springsteen wannabes that'll soon crop up that they start to lose me.  Faking artificiality is what you're supposed to do, after all; faking sincertity is another matter.

Elsewhere on more straightahead rock, the Hives and Libertines are both back, the Hives, like the Strokes, repeating themselves to diminishing returns.  The Libertines don't repeat themselvs, but are starting to sound even more like a band constantly on the verge of falling apart, albeit in the best possible way.  Certainly sounding more live-wire than any of the garage rock revivalists, White Stripes included.  The Libertines are also part of a mini Brit-pop revival, driven largely by veterans.  Graham Coxon, now officially post-Blur, returns to conventional pop-rock, leaving the experimentation now to Albarn and Gorillaz.  This is probably as trad-rock as Coxon has been since Modern Life is Rubbish; even his more experimental moments lean heavily on past innovaters the Who and the Fall.  Still, better than good songs, and excellent guitar, even if Coxon is not exactly the strongest singer.  Morrisey is also back this year, with probably his most memorable single since his solo debut, "First of the Gang to Die."  The Super Furry Animals, meanwhile, have a remix album that, like all such creatures, is a mix of song inessential and inessential but leaving little trace of the original.

Among the other big UK acts, the Beta Band are back after a long absence with their final album, which is very much in the art-pop vein of their last one.  Maybe a bit more radio-ready, with, among others, the best U2 song U2 never wrote.  Also among the old turn of the century art-poppers, Cornershop have a last bouncy Punjabi aingle, which'll be the last we hear from them for awhile.  These two, apart from Gorillaz, are probably the end of the line for that colorful post-Beck art rock in the UK.  Meanwhile, Radiohead continue their album-then-ep pattern with ComLag, a mix of unnecessary remixes, mostly  deserved outtakes, and "I Am A Wicked Child," an entirely successful and spooky attempt by Radiohead at bluesy roots- decidedly an anomaly in their catalogue, but well worth tracking down.

                Over in the States, we're finally hearing a band influenced by Radiohead's new electronica sound (as opposed to the morass of Bends-aping groups in the UK).  TV on the Radio are more original in their homage than the UK groups, although not as tight in putting their ideas together than they'll be soon.  Still, a band with a lot of promise.  Another band making their LP debut is the Arcade Fire, in what is easily the best debut record of the year.  They'll get Springsteen comparisons I don't hear at all, escept insofar as they also sound like a Phil Spector Wall of Sound, albeit applied to songs that owe more to Modest Mouse (in jagged melodic approach) and the Flaming Lips (in weighty lyrical themes and big, group-sung moments - see especially album highlight "Wake Up").  So made up of recognizable parts, but fitted together in a new whole.

                Modest Mouse is yet another band back after a lengthy absence.  They haven't changed their core progressive-grunge sound at all, though they've started packaging it in pop-song length constructions.  They're rewarded for their troubles with surprising radio success, with the kind of skronky, lyrically obtuse stuff that hasn't gotten much radioplay since the grunge era itself.  Also among the 90s veterans back this year are Wilco, showing love for both grungy Neil Young roots-rock and Radiohead-recalling art-rock.  A Ghost is Born is very close sonically to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but while that one was conventional songs gussied up with electronic production, on Ghost, Wilco are getting bolder compositionally as well.  This is most successful on their Neil Young-goes-krautrock "Spiders (Kidsmoke)," but everything wrong with art-rock on the deliberately unlistenable 15 minute drone "Less Than You Think." I know of no one who's listened to it in it's entirety more than once.

                On the more singer-songwriter side of folk-rock, the long shadow of Elliott Smith is starting to recede, even as his last, tragically posthumous album comes out, showing a somewhat scruffier take on the band-based style of his previous two.  In place of Smith, Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Magnum is emerging as a big influence.  I mentioned in discussing In an Aeroplane, Over the Sea, that it sounded like demos; specifically, it sounded like Decemberists demos.  The Decemberists have been doing the literate folk-rock thing for a couple of years now, but first really get my attention as they start showing their old-school progressive rock leanings.  They not only owe a lot soncially to Jethro Tull, but compositionally as well, releasing a 20 minute medival epic constructed Thick As A Brick-style by stringing more conventional songs together into a single suite.  Between The Tain and American Idiot, a surprising resurgence of a song form that's been decidedly unfashionable since 1977.

                Also borrowing heavily from Neutral Milk Hotel, esp. in the shouty vocals and crummy production is Conner Oberst, aka Bright Eyes.  He also has obvious debts to Ryan Adams and (especially) Bob Dylan.  Like so many other "new Dylans," though he mislearns Dylan's stylistic approach, reducing the equation to excellent lyrics trump terrible singing.  Yes, Dylan never had a "good" singing voice, but in another sense has always been an excellent singer.  Like Sinatra or Elvis (Presley, but Costello as well), Dylan excels as an interpreter, at putting the right kind of snarl or sigh or other kind of inflection on the right words.  The likes of Oberst or Magnum, though, just shout-sing, substituting yelly intensity for the subtlty needed to really lift a song.  (On the subject of Dylan, though, due to the unamused Seuss estate, the Dylan Hears A Who project was pulled almost as it went up.  It's well worth tracking down if you can, though: I don't know who's singing, but he does a dead-on electric 60s Dylan impression, both vocally and musically, singing some Dr. Seuss classics.)

                More conventionally good-voiced is Sam Beam, aka Iron & Wine, one of the first of a new wave of sensitive and musically-conventional bearded roots-hipsters.  This wave also includes the excellent and bluegrassy Avett Brothers, who make their first appearance in my collection this year.  Both are quite good, putting out solid stuff, if not breaking new ground.  They sound pretty good next to the old masters, at least, like Jerry Garcia & David Grisman, who release an archival release of some of their excellent bluegrass duets.  Also fitting the sensitive bearded roots hipster tag, albeit with a more experimental streak, are My Morning Jacket, who re-release some of tbeir old ephemera this year.

                Related to roots, but much more rocking are the Black Keys.  Due to itunes screwing up the dating, I failed to discuss their Thickfreakness last year, but it's a lot like their debut, more a higher-energy version of Mississippi hill blues than, say, the White Stripes' Zeppelin fetish.  It's this year's Rubber Factory, though, that's their big leap forward, sounding more beat-heavy, more stripped, and more confident than ever before.  It's also the best collection of guitar riffs I've heard on a single record since the likes of Zeppelin and Sabbath stalked the Earth.

                Speaking of Sabbath, they're a big influence on Atlanta's Mastodon, one of the biggest metal bands of the new century to date.  They're very much a mix of a Sabbbath's grime and progressive inclinations with the intensity of death metal.  Since 1) I appreciate metal chiefly for its almost physical intesity through technical mastery and 2) I regard Sabbath as probably still the pinnacle of the genre, I'm willing to overlook the terrible and cartoonish cookie monster vocals to get to the best band of its type since Judas Priest.

                This has been a year where old-school prog has stared to resurface in all sorts of places both expected (metal) and unexpected (punk(!) and folk-rock).  So it's probably fitting to close with one of the greats of classic prog, looking back at their roots.  Rush's 60s covers EP is a massive amount of fun, and a typically grounded way for the band to celebrate their 30th anniversary by looking back at their own influences.  None of these better the originals (an amped-up “For What It’s Worth” probably comes closest), but it's a fantastic good time.

Song of the Year:  Usher feat. Lil John and Ludacris - "Yeah"  Obviously the summer jam, but also just an excellent mainstream hip-hop track, that you can (and did, at the time) hear over and over again without minding too much.  Also, this has a year with a bunch of solid albums, but not a lot of great singles.

Album of the Year:  Lateef & the Chief - Maroons: Ambush.  Just a really solid piece of melodic, soul-funking, lyrically substantial hip-hop.  I may be mistaken, but I don't think I've heard a straight hip-hop album I love more than this one since.

Artist Most Benefiting from Reevaluation:  The Arcade Fire.  I liked them fine at the time, but they were so praised that I smelled over-hype.  This sense would be confirmed by their genuinely overhyped second album, but upon revisiting it, Funeral really is an excellent debut from a band showing worlds of promise.

Artist Most Diminished in Reevaluation:  Kanye West.  I was all set to give him Most Benefitting, as on first listen (having obtained it for this project), I was surprisingly fine with his debut.  But the longer I lived with it, the more Kanye's smugness and self-rghteousness/self-pity started to grate.  Smugness, I freely concede, can be difficult to separate from arrogance, which can be a lot of fun in music: see Jay-Z or Oasis.  But like pornography, I know it when I see it, and Kanye, like Billy Joel, is just an overwhelmingly smug little bastard.  Though also apparently a bit insecure, so if he reads this on the internet, I hope he doesn't take it too badly...

Album List

!!! - Louden Up Now

Andrew Mitchell - Andrew & Dad

Arcade Fire - Funeral

Brian Wilson - SMiLE

Bright Eyes - Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground

Cee-Lo Green - Closet Freak: The Best Of Cee-Lo Green The Soul Machine

Cornershop - Singles 1997-2006

Dangermouse & Jay-Z - The Grey Album

Dilated Peoples - Neighborhood Watch

Dropkick Murphys - Misc.

Dropkick Murphys - The Singles Collection, Vol. 2

DylanHearsAWho.com - Dylan Hears a Who

Elliott Smith - From A Basement On The Hill

Elliott Smith - Misc.

Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand

Graham Coxon - Happiness In Magazines [Bonus Track]

Green Day - American Idiot

Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days

Jerry Garcia And David Grisman - Been All Around This World

Jill Scott - Beautifully Human: Words And Sounds Vol. 2

John Legend - Get Lifted

Kanye West - The College Dropout

Kasabian - Kasabian

Lateef & The Chief - Maroons: Ambush

LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem

Madvillain - Madvillainy

Masta Ace - A Long Hot Summer

Mastodon - Leviathan

Mclusky - Mcluskyism

Merle Haggard - HAG: The Best Of Merle Haggard

MF Doom - MM...Food

Mission Of Burma - ONoffON

Mitch Hedberg - Strategic Grill Locations

Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News

Morrissey - Misc.

Mos Def - The New Danger

My Morning Jacket - Chapter 1: The Sandworm Cometh: Early Recordings

Patti Smith - Outside Society

Pearl Jam - Christmas Singles

R.E.M. - Misc.

Radiohead - COM LAG (2plus2isfive)

Richard Thompson - Misc.

Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers - Liz's Best of Compliation for Her Wonderful Husband

Rush - Feedback

Social Distortion - Misc.

Social Distortion - Sex, Love And Rock N' Roll

Stereolab - Serene Velocity - A Stereolab Anthology

Super Furry Animals - Phantom Phorce

Super Furry Animals - Phantom Power

The Avett Brothers - Mignonette

The Beta Band - Heroes To Zeros

The Beta Band - Live At The Shepherd's Bush Empire

The Black Keys - Rubber Factory

The Decemberists - Misc.

The Decemberists - The Tain (EP)

The Hives - Tyrannosaurus Hives

The Killers - Hot Fuss

The Libertines - Time For Heroes - The Best Of The Libertines

The Mekons - Misc.

The Mountain Goats - Misc.

The Pixies - Misc.

The Pixies - no title

The Roots - The Tipping Point

The Roots - Wedding Songs

The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free

TV On The Radio - Deperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes

V/A - 2008 Pitchfork Music Festival Sampler

Velvet Revolver - Contraband

Velvet Revolver - Misc.

Wilco - A Ghost is Born

Wire - Misc.