Good Things from 2004 ... and also Liars

OK, here's the long awaited SD Top 10 Albums of 2004. We asked some frequent commentors to submit their picks, and we actually incorporated those picks into the final list. Wasn't that nice of us? That said, we did count our picks twice as much as everyone else. What, you got a problem with that? Who are the ones that provided you with minutes and minutes of priceless entertainment over the past few months? I think we can make it so the fucking Liars album doesn't make it into the top 5, thank you very much. Anyway, we used the good ol' MLB approved 14-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 scoring system. Except for DM and MZ, which was 28-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2, of course. Individual lists below, along with our takes.

1. The Ponys - Laced With Romance (41 points)
2. Camera Obscura - Underachievers Please Try Harder (40 points)
3. Graham Smith- Final Battle (37 points)
4T. Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days (26 points)
4T. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus (26 points)
6. A.C. Newman - The Slow Wonder (25 points)
7. Liars - They Were Wrong So We Drowned (18 points)
8T. The Legends - Up Against The Legends (16 points)
8T. Reigning Sound - Too Much Guitar (16 points)
10T. Holly Golightly - Slowly But Surely (14 points)
10T. Hot Snakes - Audit in Progress (14 points)
10T. Oneida - Secret Wars (14 points)
10T. The Go! Team - Too Lazy to Look For Album Title for a Band I Couldn't Care Less About, Yeah, That's Right Ben, Don't Bother Burning That One For Me, I Don't Care (14 points)
10T. Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans (14 points)

DM
1. The Ponys
2. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
3. A.C. Newman
4. Camera Obscura
5. Iron & Wine
6. The Walkmen - Bows + Arrows
7. Graham Smith
8. (The Sounds of) Kaleidoscope - Can and Do What They Will
9. The Concretes - s/t
10. Holly Golightly

DM says: That looks about right. I'm a little wary of putting The Walkmen so high, because I rarely listen to more than a handful of songs from the record, but I sure do love the ones I listen to. The Ponys are easily my band of the year in 2004. The fact that the lead singer wore one of those 3/4-sleeved baseball shirts when we saw them at the Black Cat was the clincher.

MZ says: You were right, putting the Walkmen above Graham does make me question your sanity. "The Rat" is good, the rest is boring, and I'm sorry, but you should be subtracting points for their appearance on "The O.C." If you doubt me I have one word for you, and that word is Rooney. Otherwise, I think you let me boss you into ranking several things you otherwise wouldn't have, and I feel good about that if it kept Wilco off the list.

MZ
1. Graham Smith
2. Camera Obscura
3. The Legends
4. Iron & Wine
5. Holly Golightly
6. A Cricket in Times Square - s/t
7. Reigning Sound
8. The Ponys
9. Frausdots - Couture, Couture, Couture
10. A.C. Newman

DM says: No real surprises here. I am puzzled that Reigning Sound beat out The Ponys, but whatever. That Frausdots album is extremely ridiculous, as well. It's good, but ridiculous. And I have no fucking clue who The Legends are.

MZ says: I am cooler than you.

ZR
1. Hot Snakes
2. Oneida
3. Nick Cave
4. The Ponys
5. Camera Obscura
6. Ted Leo - Shake the Sheets
7. Liars
8. McLusky - The Difference Between Blah Blah
9. Ghost - Hypnotic Underworld
10. A Cricket in Times Square

DM says: It's the guy from Rocket From the Crypt, right? I guess. The rest of this looks pretty good, save Liars of course.

MZ says: I just don't get the Oneida thing. I guess I'm just too attached to the idea of songs or something, but when Dave downloaded their album and their songs came up in shuffle, the first thought in my head was invariably, "What the fuck is this?" I no longer have that problem because it has been deleted.

PS
1. Liars
2. Annie - Anniemal
3. McLusky
4. A.C. Newman
5. Oneida - Nice./Splittin' Peaches
6. Oneida
7. The Thermals - Fuckin A
8. Animal Collective - Sung Tongs
9. Camera Obscura
10. Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse

DM says: OK, let's be honest, it was this list that made us count our picks as double. We love you, PS, but there was no fucking way were letting that Liars record place above Iron & Wine and A.C. Newman. Not that those records are even that fantastic, but they certainly aren't the Metal Machine Music of 2004.

MZ says: I guess Camera Obscura are officially everyone's token female artist this year. If you really liked them so much you should have come to the show, instead of seeing Oneida twelve times in eighteen cities.

BW
1. The Go! Team
2. Dillinger Escape Plan - Miss Machine
3. The Arcade Fire - Funeral
4. Ted Leo
5. Brian Wilson - Smile
6. Death From Above 1979 - You're a Woman, I'm a Machine
7. Kings of Convenience - Riot on an Empty Street
8. Magnetic Fields - I
9. Les Savy Fav - Inches
10. Black Keys - Rubber Factory

DM says: This is a weird one. There are a few metal-y things, but then KOC and Magnetic Fields. And I'm serious about The Go! Team. I might actually rather listen to the Liars.

No, I obviously wouldn't, but seriously, don't ever burn me that CD.

MZ says: It's obvious to me why BW has such odd juxtapostions. He's so tough, yet so sensitive... but where is A Cricket in Times Square?

DP
1. Sufjan Stevens
2. Clinic - Winchester Cathedral
3. Reigning Sound
4. Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Like Pudgy Possible But Probably Not Rapists
5. Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose
6. Welcome to the Plague Year - s/t
7. Wovenhand - Consider the Birds
8. Devendra Banhart
9. Joel R.L. Phelps - Customs
10. Graham Smith

DM says: I'll admit to not having heard the Clinic album. But they have gotten very decidedly progressively worse from album to album. So that one's just weird more than anything else. I do think "Float On" is a great song. But like with most MM, that album gets way old after exactly five songs. DP wins the prize for most obscure band on a list with his inclusion of Welcome to the Plague Year, which may or may not be a Krinkles side project.

MZ says: When I saw the name Welcome to the Plague Year I said to myself, there is a band with a self-titled album if ever I saw one. You can just tell that they came up with that, and then they were exhausted. DP also wins nonexistent prizes for most pious list and most singer-songwriters.

Coming soon: More Best of 2004 excitement, including best singles, best reissues, and MZ's songs from the 1980s that were much better than anything that came out this year list.

Comments

[BW]

i'll be sure to send out the go team album tomorrow.

[Tanya]

U suck wang too much