Albums 25- 16
25. Devendra Banhart Rejoicing in the Hands (Young God)
Devendra Banhart is the rare singer-songwriter who sounds as if he�s singing and playing not just for but to himself. The first of his pair of 2004 albums, Rejoicing in the Hands is at turns charming, incisive, and perplexing, carefully written and arranged to illustrate its creator�s whimsicality. It�s no wonder Banhart has been so reluctant in accepting his title as the de facto leader of the �freak folk� movement: his music is so fiercely and unabashedly his own that he could only resent being aligned with anyone else. In a year of eccentric music, Rejoicing in the Hands may rank as the strangest.
24. PJ Harvey Uh Huh Her (Island)
In a year where U2, Morrissey and The Cure were all written about as if they were somehow still relevant and exciting acts, it was more than a little strange to read Uh Huh Her received as an unwelcome return from a mid-90�s has-been. Coming four years after what may be her single best record (2000�s Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea), the album sees her revisiting the rawness of her Steve Albini-produced masterpiece Rid of Me with surprising grace, infusing tracks like �Who the Fuck?� and �The Life and Death of Mr. Badmouth� with the vitriol of someone 10 years younger. While far from her best album, Uh Huh Her is a solid, forward-looking effort that finds Polly giving no credence to age or relevance and, as she always does, making the record she wants to make.
23. Junior Boys Last Exit (KIN/Domino)
Like a bleaker cousin to the Postal Service, Hamilton�s Junior Boys put a disconnected 21st century spin on early-eighties synth pop. And while they trade Gibbard�s earnestness for transience, and use starker, more minimal atmospheres, Last Exit is no less catchy and much more consistent than the work of its peers. If the album is occasionally too chilly for its own good, write it off as growing pains—besides, ambience is everything here, and Las Exit brings it in spades. I don�t remember the Eighties ever sounding this good.
22. Franz Ferdinand Franz Ferdinand (Rough Trade)
Consider this: the closest thing 2004 had to another �Hey Ya!� didn�t come from erstwhile No Doubt singers, stumpy rapper-producers with Napoleon-like egos or obnoxiously-dressed Prince wannabees, but instead from a foursome of thin, geeky Scottish guys who sound like Talking Heads doing a gig at a Cabaret club. �Take Me Out� is just as exciting the fourteen-thousandth time you hear it as it was the first, but the rest of their debut touches upon that tracks brilliance more regularly then you might expect. And with their �next big thing� title being so richly deserved, it may not be unfair to imagine that they may come to match their hype, and maybe even their influences, in the coming years.
21. Dungen Ta Det Lungt (Subliminal Sounds)
I�ve never been too taken by records in foreign languages. Beyond Sigur Ros, I�ve never fallen to hard for any non-English artists, which makes the fact that I dug Ta Det Lungt from the first time I heard it unusual. Gustav Ejstes� intuitive marriage of psychedelic muscle with sugary pop melodies makes for music foreign beyond just its tongue: forgetting its Swedish lyrics, Ta Det Lungt is still unlike anything North American ears have heard before. If Ejstes can match his songcraft with his instrumental virtuosity on his next album, we are in for quite a treat.
20. Loretta Lynn Van Lear Rose (Interscope)
�Comebacks� are usually just a convenient excuse for music journalists to write worshipful retrospectives on artists on the basis of above-average new material, a cog of the hype wheel that occasionally needs spinning whether its deserved or not. With the triumphant returns of Brian Wilson and Ms. Loretta Lynn in 2004, though, the cynicism towards such hyperbole may have to be reconsidered. Van Lear Rose finds Loretta at her most playful and inclusive, eagerly running through these 13 new songs with a joie de vivre that no seventy year-old should be expected to deliver. Jack White�s work on the album has been criminally under-appreciated; he gives Van Lear Rose the kind of unaffected spunk that his work with The White Stripes has only touched upon. It�s telling that the number of obligatory career retrospectives in glossy mags seemed smaller than usual—Van Lear Rose is more than strong enough to stand on its own.
19. Modest Mouse Good News for People Who Love Bad News (Epic)
Even 8 months on, it�s still beyond me exactly how Isaac Brock and co. came to dominate modern rock radio as completely as they did throughout 2004. And while Good News is significantly more polished and immediate than anything they�ve attempted before, they�re still the wackiest fucking band on the planet: Brock still waxes philosophical like scary, coked-out hillbilly, and his lispy growl is as abrasive as ever. Of course, a song like �Float On� is just begging to be embraced by everyone who hears it, and seemingly has. It�s hard not to cheer for a band like Modest Mouse in the first place, but seeing how well they stick to their guns on Good News while at the same time managing to sell over a million (a million!) records, it seems damn near impossible.
18. Bjork Medulla (Elektra)
Like most people, I didn�t think Bjork could get away with this: as much as she has succeeded in the past with inventive sonic palettes and all-encompassing quirkiness, a record featuring nothing more than vocals reeked of gimmickry, even from her. And yet, Medulla works brilliantly, retaining her unusual accessibility and almost never sounding forced. It takes guts to release an instrument-free album featuring both Rahzel and Inuit throat singers, but it takes something else altogether to make it remotely listenable. Whatever it is, I�m guessing Bjork�s the only one who knows.
17. Frog Eyes The Folded Palm (Absolutely Kosher)
My previous experience with Frog Eyes was bad enough that I didn�t go near The Folded Palm until about a month ago. I bought their sophomore record, The Golden River, after assurances left, right, and centre that the band was indeed the second coming of Neutral Milk Hotel and the album this decade�s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Upon hearing it, I was so appalled by Carey Mercer�s cracked out, Bowie-esque ravings and the band�s stomping rhythm section that it took me four tries just to get through the damn thing. The Folded Palm makes only subtle departures from The Golden River, but they prove to be crucial ones, as the band here takes its barking mad vocalist and singular arrangement style and make them into something just as unique but much more digestible, no longer simply bizarre for their own sake. Neutral Milk Hotel they ain�t, but call me converted anyway.
16. The Fiery Furnaces Blueberry Boat (Rough Trade)
I feel a little silly putting Blueberry Boat at a measly sixteenth on this list. A record as polarizing as this belongs either at the top or completely absent from most critic�s lists, and with good reason: the Friedburger�s make music very much of its own world, the kind that people are either immediately drawn to or completely repulsed by. It makes me feel a little inferior to be in the middle—while I can�t claim to love every minute of Blueberry Boat, it�s best moments are absolutely jaw-dropping, floating effortlessly from one ADD-inspired movement more gracefully than they have any right to. And even if the album spends too much time caught up in its own idiosyncrasies, at least give them credit for being this gutsy. Whether you love it or not, Blueberry Boat is completely peerless.
