List-making season is nearing its end, with just about every
music publication having weighed in now with its year-end best-of
picks. (The major exception being the Pazz & Jop critic’s
poll by the Village Voice, which never seems able to tabulate its
votes until spring.) But despite this flood of information,
it’s difficult to get an actual idea of which albums were
heralded by critics as the Class of ’04.
Music publications vary wildly in their tastes, often leaning
heavily in one direction or another, and for the most part
don’t lend themselves to a consensus opinion. This is a far
cry from year-end cinema lists, where, for example, you could say
pretty definitively that six films seemed to form the mainstream
critical consensus for last year: “Sideways,”
“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “The
Aviator,” “Before Sunset,” “The
Incredibles,” and “Million Dollar Baby.” (Make
sure not to name any of these as your favorite of the year when
talking to film students.)
So what can we learn from these catalogues of meticulously
ranked albums? Well, I find they say more about each specific
publication than anything else, and turn out to be a kind of annual
State of the Union of the music pub world.
For instance, mainstream American magazines proved further just
how laughably out of touch they continue to be with the music
scene. Spin gets some credit for trying, but it misguidedly placed
three albums in its top five that aren’t much more than
decent-““ those by Green Day, Modest Mouse and Danger
Mouse.
Rolling Stone released an unranked top 50, which included
several albums that would be lucky to be called decent by any
stretch, and two in particular that would be best filed under the
interesting-but-bad category: Mos Def’s “The New
Danger” and Eminem’s “Encore.”
Entertainment Weekly didn’t fare much better, releasing lists
by two of their critics: One put Danger Mouse at the top of his
list, and the other N.E.R.D.’s disastrous “Fly or
Die.”
As for British publications, they didn’t do much to hide
their agenda of shamelessly plugging homeland artists. NME’s
top five were all from the UK, as were five of Q’s top
six-““ the sixth being U2, who hail from Ireland, which is
about 10 feet away. The lesson: If you have to read one, read
Mojo.
Online magazines with indie slants showed a lot of consistency
from one to the next ““ there’s a lot of them, but their
tastes run so similar you only need to follow a handful.
Pitchfork’s list is always a big deal, but it proved
anticlimactic, looking a lot like the list of one of its many
imitators. And their No. 1 ““ which always sounds like the
result of internal politics and lobbying ““ is starting to
become a running joke, with The Rapture and Interpol laying claim
to the title the two years prior. On the other hand, by the time
Stylus released their list, it was a refreshing changeup, and it
may be my favorite of the bunch. And, in true All Music Guide
fashion, the All Music Guide released a list of 80-plus albums, box
sets, and reissues ranging from Lil Jon & The Eastside
Boyz’s “Crunk Juice” to David Breitman’s
“Mozart: Complete Sonatas for Fortepiano and Violin, Vol. 1;
Mannheim Sonata.” Definitely worth checking out.
Finally, here are my 10 favorite albums of 2004, more or less in
order: Brian Wilson’s “SMiLE,” Madvillain’s
“Madvillainy,” Animal Collective’s “Sung
Tongs,” The Fiery Furnaces’, “Blueberry
Boat,” Junior Boys’, “Last Exit,” Kanye
West’s “The College Dropout,” Devendra
Banhart’s “Rejoicing in the Hands,” Wilco’s
“A Ghost Is Born,” Arcade Fire’s
“Funeral,” and De La Soul’s “The Grind
Date.” Does it give an overview of the year in music?
Probably not, but it says a lot about me ““ a pretty generic
indie aesthetic with an agenda for pushing hip-hop. Also, Beach
Boys harmonies make me happy.
E-mail Lee at alee2@media.ucla.edu