Albums 10-1
10. Interpol Antics (Matador)
Sometimes the lyrics are silly and overwrought. Sometimes the mood�s a pose. Sometimes the hooks are a little weak and toothless. Sometimes Antics feels like a tame disappointment from a band with a great debut, but most of the time it feels like one hell of a cool bastard, its affected vocals and scalpel guitars and defibrillator bass and totally righteous drums all decked out in uniform around listeners, whom Interpol operate upon with a surgical precision that manipulates the response of bodies to music.
9. Califone King Heron Blues (Thrilljockey)
Along with Sin Ropas (fellow Red Red Meat progeny), Califone are making some of the most interesting yet listenable deconstructive reconstructions of rustic music right now. Churning blues and sludgy folk around with loopy post-rock aesthetics, Califone bent genres into avant-Americana butter and created Quicksand/Cradlesnakes, one of 2003�s finest and a fitting sign of the new musical millennium. Califone jams a bit looser and more improvisational on Heron King Blues, failing to produce anything as indelible as �Michigan Girls� or �Vampiring Again� off Quicksand, but their newest still glows as an enthralling transmutation of past music traditions. �2 Sisters Drunk on Each Other� also might win for Song Title of the Year.
8. Subtle A New White (Lex)
While Califone use their technology to salvage scraps and mine about in the roots, Subtle build art-deco skyscrapers on mountains and attempt to accelerate the passing of the present into the future. A New White blazes trails through boundaries of hip-hop, electronica and rock with hyper-modern fervor, successfully managing to take a small step forward for what these deck cats no doubt deem to be the all-important good of Progress. More importantly, though, Dose, Jel and band make their strides with a batch of tracks that are consistently engaging and endlessly rewarding when listened to closely. The music on A New White doesn�t exactly have a ton of immediacy, but then again, the band�s name is Subtle.
7. Arcade Fire Funeral (Merge)
On the other end of the spectrum, 2004 erects the subtlety-impaired, irresistibly immediate indie rock Ebenezer of Arcade Fire�s Funeral. Incorporating just a couple shy of every sweet alternative music influence known to man, from Talking Heads to Bowie to The Smiths to Bjork to The Pixies to, um, The Joshua Tree, Arcade Fire somehow emerge from the name-dropping parade, bringing with them a heartfelt album that�s almost overloaded with melodies and moments to love. Goosebumps will turn men into porcupines over the quickening conclusion of �Une Annee Sans Lumiere� or the ringing chorus guitar of �In the Back Seat� or the entirety of the bombastic �Wake Up.� Funeral is a grand affair, both unabashedly dramatic and obscenely enjoyable.
6. Time Machine Slow Your Roll (Glow in the Dark)
The sub-cultural connotation of �to sleep on� should soon enough be appropriated by the masses to the point where the following statement will be understood by the millions and millions of readers that CMG will undoubtedly one day have: Don�t sleep on Slow Your Roll. For the four or five of you reading this now (hi, Mom), I�m sure you know what I mean. Time Machine bring back the golden hip-hop age with simple beats made of beautiful drum breaks and fantastic sample choices while emcees Comel and Jaysonic simultaneously smirk, laugh, cry, smoke, dance, sigh, and fold their arms. Their debut�s an amazingly solid album from start to finish with several tracks that might eventually erode to nothing under the ceaseless application of laser or needle.
5. Madvillain Madvillainy (Stones Throw)
Okay, so, by this point in the game, I�m getting pretty tired of writing blurbs, especially for albums that are going to be fairly ubiquitous. I think my leg�s cramping up, too. This is that dangerous time when the writer begins to get really lazy just when he�s getting to the highest ranked albums on his list. I probably should have worked my way down from top to bottom, right? Damn. I keep looking at CMG�s review of Madvillainy because there�s this part where Peter writes that what MF Doom and Madlib have put together is the hip-hop equivalent of a good Guided by Voices album, �more Bee Thousand than Do the Collapse.� As far as I�m concerned, that�s pretty much the best way to look at Madvillainy, and my head�s spinning just trying to think of something to add to it. What�s really sad is that I�m having a similar problem with my next blurb and will decide to make the majority of it a direct quote from fucking All Music Guide.
4. Mission of Burma ONoffON (Matador)
�Though ONoffON doesn’t quite top Burma’s 1982 masterpiece, Vs. (remarkably, until now the band’s only full-length studio album), it manages to sound like the more than worthy follow-up they could have cut a couple years later � only with two decades of experience and musical detours informing its nooks and crannies. ONoffON is an album that neither embraces the past as empty nostalgia nor ignores the events of the past two decades � it presents Mission of Burma reborn into the 21st century, as original and relevant as they’ve ever been, and their return is as welcome a surprise as anyone could hope for.� Yeah, that�s an excerpt from Mark Deming�s AMG piece, one of the most on-point reviews of a newer album that I�ve ever seen on that site� so on-point that I couldn�t have said it any better myself. Believe me, I�ve tried. Betz needs a break.
3. A.C. Newman The Slow Wonder (Blue Curtain/Matador)
Well, several beers, a snakebite shot and half a Milton paper later, and I feel about ready to tackle Carl Newman�s latest opus of retro pop bliss. So I tackle away and find myself hugging a warm blanket and pillow, Carl�s words slurring through my waking head: �He was tied to the bed with the miracle drug in one hand.� I stumble onto my feet and raise an imaginary glass to the almost Jackson Browne sound of �Drink To Me, Babe, Then.� With �On The Table� I�m awake and happy, ready for my breakfast of track after track of absolutely delicious song-cooking. This, ladies and gentlemen, is Belgian waffles with raspberry syrup, a meaty omelet and a fine mug of coffee. The cello riff on �The Town Halo� is the morning snakebite shot. If any album could be called this year�s Chutes Too Narrow, The Slow Wonder would have to receive the honors.
2. Brian Wilson SMiLE (Nonesuch)
It�s not everyday that an all-time classic pop masterpiece gets released. Recognizing Brian Wilson�s Smile as such and yet attempting to evaluate the newly recorded 2004 incarnation of that masterpiece makes for a critical challenge, especially when the said masterpiece never really existed before as an intentional, distributed whole. What kind of advantage can be afforded to Smile when its core songs have already been loved and adored for years and years? Is the reviewer resigned to judging the album in comparison to the collectors� item tracks from the original recording sessions? If the reviewer simply takes Smile for what it is, must then he or she not consider how judgment may inevitably be colored in favor of the pre-existing status and �myth� of the album? Thankfully, these are questions that a blurb may pose without the obligation to answer. Let it suffice that when one strips away all the ponderous angles and journalistic self-blandishment, the crux of what one has left to say comes down to this: Brian Wilson�s Smile is great music.
1. Illogic Celestial Clockwork (Weightless)
I revert back to the first person; this is a very personal choice for a number one pick. Nonetheless, it is one that I make with no doubts. I have faith in this album, for it is a true album, a careful work of music where each song fits together to make a sum far greater than the parts. Albums of this purer breed have become a rarity these days; in the genre of hip-hop, such work is almost never even attempted. I have heard better lyrics and flows and beats than what Celestial Clockwork contains, but the albums are few that feature each element of hip-hop in such fine form and fusing together with such clear purpose. Certainly, Celestial Clockwork has its flaws. Illogic spits a clich�d line or two, and, while I think that the samples work well, some may question the prudence of Blueprint�s lifting fat chunks of sound from sources as popularized as The Who or The Beatles. But these points of critique seem rather inconsequential in the light of a true album that�s diverse and cohesive, intelligent and passionate, crafted and inspired. Illogic�s poetry and Blueprint�s utterly apt accompaniment fill each song with its own unique worth, and those songs reside in a sequence that builds Illogic�s self-reflection up to the resonant confession of �I Wish He Would Make Me.� Paul Schrader once wrote that drama consists in documenting the incremental movement of the human soul. If I ever meet Paul, I think I�ll buy him a copy of Celestial Clockwork. I�m a stupendously dedicated disciple of the albums that I believe in.
