ILM TOP ALBUMS OF 2004

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The Arcade Fire - Funeral

Perhaps it’s beneficial to look past the vocals. It helps if your skin has been thickened from listening to the intentionally off-key wailing on all those A Silver Mt. Zion albums (Arcade Fire have certainly heard them). Then, you can enjoy the tunes, taking in one mini-epic after another, shifting between pleading power ballad and motorik disco as if it's the most natural thing in the world. Meanwhile, the lyrics present recurring motifs
of snow and ice blanketing ye olde neighbourhood, while our protagonists sneak around behind their parents' backs in the name of love and lust. Funeral keeps up the fine tradition of Pulp's His N Hers and West Side Story in that it magnifies the seemingly trivial toils of young love to a point near myth. -MindInRewind

Other ILXors Say:

"I hardly ever post over here because you music pedants scare me but...I like these guys. I REALLY like them. " -Mouse

"I've listened to a couple times, and it just sounds average and normal to me. Maybe that's the appeal of it, I don't know." -Matthew Perpetua

"I love FUNERAL. It's my album of the year no question. " -poortheatre

Sorry.

TS: The Arcade Fire vs. The Fiery Furnaces

I just found that. They both still completely suck!

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The DFA - Compilation #2

Discopunk svengalis release second compilation, the kicker being that this one’s got some guys named Delia Gonzales and Gavin Russom on it. One of their songs is awesome. -The Good Dr. Bill

Other ILXors Say:

"The 3CD compilation is a ridiculously great value ($20 where I found it.) Easily one of the top ten releases of the year [...] I wish every dance comp was two CDs of full length tracks followed by a 3rd CD mixing the previous two." -Alex in SF

"i listened to this 10,000 times on weekend--i had the cds in my changer and over and over again.

eventually i went a little nutty. but it's really good and yeah what a steal!" -s1ocki

"I have been listening to it nonstop! At work and at the gym!" -adam...

I'm so glad we don't have avatars.

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M.I.A. vs. Diplo - Piracy Funds Terrorism

Whether or not the debut M.I.A. album proper is the disappointment that a fairly alarming number of people are predicting it will be remains to be seen (RICHARD X IS ON IT IT WILL BE MAJESTY) but the sense of foreboding can probably be attributed to the fact that, on this showing, her stampy brisk digi-sharp thrillery is so perfectly suited to this here (supposedly throwaway) mixtape format that it's pretty hard to see how these tracks could be improved upon; this is pure summer heat haze, blazing midday July sunshine stomping and blungeoning the listener into lazy submission, delicious and effortless and the kind of fun that makes no demands on you at all - just lie back and bask as Missy and the Clipse crank up the glare and the Bangles and BoC provide bracing snatches of bright icey respite before hyperalert M.I.A. cues up Madonna and Prince and “Sweet Dreams� and “Push It� and hopscotches/ducks/bobs/weaves through the afternoon and into the dusk, dancefulness replaces stomp causing the record to become more invigorating and refreshing as it progresses, M.I.A.'n'guests coalescing into nothing more complex than the most effortlessly superbly exhilarating needlesharp electronical popstuffs of the year, and prospects for her forthcoming elpee suddenly looking supernova-bright. Little circle of blissfully fortifying unadulterated joy, this is. -Alex L

Other ILXors Say:

"this is really great - and it's a fantastic fit for M.I.A.'s stuff. (and I hope she gets heard by as many ppl as possible.)" -scott pl.

"drooooool." -Etc.

"OK I'm listening to this and its really good but what's everyone going apeshit about? Its almost exactly what I would have predicted it sound like. I was hoping to be shocked I guess." -DJDee2005

"I have heard the first four tracks and am now frantically scrambling to figure out which album in my top ten to sacrifice so I can make room for it." -MC Transmaniacon

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Ghostface - The Pretty Toney Album

If you can get past all the lame-ass hard-ass lines, Ghostface has himself his most tunefull record to date. A fast paced soul record that only stops moving long enough for Ghost to hop in the bath. He's on his feet running for almost an hour, being chased, chasing and trying to catch a breath when he can. The breaks come when he slows things down to plead with his women, which happens all too often when you're this emotional. On Pretty Toney, the velocity heightens this to some kind of hysteria. Ghostface is dropping to his knees, tearing up and calling out his girl one minute and leaving her the next. Jadakiss drops his shirt and joins in, while Ghostface busts a lung trying to prove himself, playing the tough guy. The clean soul samples give it a rounding, but a bass heavy beat is always around, carrying him to the next emotional level. -Dan H.

Other ILXors Say:

"This album is FUCKING AMAZING. Damn straight." -DJDee2005

"i like this more and more every time i listen to it. i think it reminds me of how i imagine all the early 90s new york hip-hop that i've never heard before. i think." -hh

"I honestly like EVERY SONG on this album. Drop the skits and this sounds like a greatest hits album of some sort.
Also Tush owns the world." -Forksclovetofu

I'm not convinced.

1. Junior Boys, Last Exit
2. Annie, Anniemal
3. The Streets, A Grand Don't Come for Free
4. Brian Wilson, Smile
5. Dizzee Rascal, Showtime
6. Kanye West, The College Dropout

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Dizzee Rascal - Showtime

If there was one single record in 2004 that, from the moment it came out, I took with me everywhere and played to everyone I knew, it was Showtime. If there was one single record with the capacity to put spring in your tendons and to carbonate your synapses it was Showtime. If there was one single record that made you take an artist to heart and feel his triumphs were also yours, it was Showtime.

Everything that should make us still care about albums and cds and physical music formats was summed up by Showtime this year. YES an artist can make a more important and complete statement and impact over the course of 79 minutes than with a single song. Because you need to have BOTH the pneumatic bungee energy of "Stand up tall" and teeth-grinding intensity of "Respect me" and you need that final summing up of all the cogent points with "Fickle" that gets the jury on its feet applauding and gets the case thrown out of court.

Dizzee achieved with Showtime what Jay Z never managed in a ten year career. He combined strutting confidence with vulnerable charm by getting at the truth that the reason everybody is down on the haters is that they just wanna be loved, man. -Jacob W.

Other ILXors Say:

"it really is the grime 'room on fire' huh" -prima fassy

"I like this album a lot more than Boy in Da Corner. That album announced itself at evry turn, this one's a lot denser, a lot creepier." -Matthew James

"GRAAAAH DIZZEE RASCLAAT HAVE 10,000 OF MY RETARDED BABIEZ I LUV U!!!!!!!!!!!!" -Jess

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Brian Wilson - SMiLE

I don't know if it would take a better or a worse man than me to write about this album without reference to all that baggage. I just can't do it.

If there was ever any idea that completing this project would close the book on it, it actually happening has blown that idea apart. It raises many more questions than it answers. I mean, what is this thing? Brian's aged voice apart, it's as close as anyone could reasonably have demanded to sounding as it would have done had it come out in 1967, but it's not a 1967 record. It's not a 2004 record either. I mean, if it were then it would be the best record of 2004, wouldn't it? After all, this is musically as near as dammit to being a complete version of the album people have spent close to 40 years raving about, myself maybe 14. Will I spend the next 37 years raving any more wildly about any of the other albums released this year? I doubt it, yet somehow it doesn't feel right calling this my favourite album of the year, nor putting somewhere down the list either.

I don't know even how to listen to it. I can hear the whole thing refracted through the lens those 37 years have built up, as an elegy for Brian Wilson's life, or for the myth of Smile. As many have remarked, opening words rarely come as poignant as "I've been in this town so long" now do. I can get excited about beautiful sections that it together in ways previously released material never achieved (the transition from 'long, long ago' into the xylophone at 1:48 in 'On A Holiday', say). But it's no good – I can't hear it as the classic Beach Boys album Smile. It's a curio, something to puzzle the sometimes cruel contingencies of artistic achievement over. For now, anyway. In 2041, ask me again. -Alba

Other ILXors Say:

"I still don't get what the whole Beach Boys fuss is about." -Rasputin Kitten

"ITS VERY GREAT.

VERY VERY GREAT. " -ddb

"Honestly, I really don't think this is nostalgia or a little piece of "what might have been"....I think it's just a really amazing piece of music...." -M@tt He1geson

...has got nothing on the proper MIA album. I don't quite understand all the love.

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Junior Boys - Last Exit

The lullabies Orchestral Manouevres in the Dark sing to their kids at night. Assuming they have kids. -The Good Dr. Bill

Other ILXors Say:

"this album is GAY and WONDERFUL" -Cutty

"Listening to this and that Justus Koehncke covers thing actually made me want to go and buy some New Order." -@d@ml

"I don't think any other band has ever made me miss basslines less." -Jordan

"admittedly i'm really late on this Last Exit album, but fuck i'm diggin' it hard now" -ken taylrr

I think I got taken in by all the Junior Boys with my No.1 prediction.

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Annie - Anniemal

ILM’s first official cheereleader. Or is it the other way around? -The Good Dr. Bill

Other ILXors Say:

"there isn't a bad track on it (although the 7 minute-long 'come together' is like a generic early 90's rave pop anthem from the title down) i managed to actually *dance at a party* to chewing gum on sunday!

gonna be mega." -piecesboy

"I love it when ILM gets all excited and behind something." -Alba

"I am incredibly impressed by the album as a whole. I need to spend more time with it, but my gut feeling is that this will be one of my top favorite albums for the year." -Matthew Perpetua

"I can't quite shake the impression that this is sort of the best album ever made, it feels like it is totally completely Up There with all my very very very favouritest records of all time and I can find absolutely nothing about it that is less than superbly perfect really. I do hope I maintain this level of enthusiasm, it is a tremendously excellent thing to have happened." -Alex in Doncaster

Please.