Best Music 2004 - Jeremy Zitter

So, here goes:
My list (in no particular order, actually):

1. Iron and Wine: Our Endless Numbered Days: A typical pick for me, of course, but, god, these are some gorgeous, heartbreaking songs.
(Didn't I say the exact same thing last year?) Best tracks (sorry
Bryan): "Naked as We Came" and then "Sodom, South Georgia" and THEN "Love and Some Verses." Actually....(and excuse me for being a vulgarian, China): fuck it: they're all good.

2. Joanna Newsom: The Milk-Eyed Mender. Perhaps my most-listened-to song of 2004 is the impossibly addictive "Sadie," and I'm still not even close to being done with it. The highlight was when my mp3 player fell into the tub (at Rebecca's mom's house in D.C.), as I was bathing while simultaneously trying to hit the replay button to hear the song, yet again. Thanks, Bryan, for imploring me to give this album another try. Initially unsettling (it might take a few listens, as I've found), Newsom's voice grows and grows and grows on you. (And the mp3 player is back up and running).

3. The Walkmen: Bows and Arrows: I know, I know. They were on an episode of the O.C., music's new-millennium version of now-defunct Sassy magazine's "cute band alert," but, oh well. Languid and almost sensual at times, howling/screaming/growling at others.

4. Mirah: C'mon Miracle: I saw her play in a tiny club in Long Beach last year, and she was as sweet and engaging and accessible as each of the songs on this lovely album. She actually had everyone lie on the floor for one song, which wasn't nearly as annoying as it sounds.

5. Electrelane: The Power Out: Just listen to it. I can't believe I missed them play in L.A. twice and even once in Long Beach. For shame!
The first time I heard this album, it reminded me of why I first fell in love with Stereolab back in, like, 1991, before they decided to innovate.

6. The One A.M. Radio: A Name Writ on Water: Another typical pick for me, this album is quiet, quiet, quiet. Shhhh! Any band with a guy named Hrishikesh Hirway calling the shots gets an a-OK on my list.

7. Sufjan Stevens: Seven Swans: I have Bryan to thank (again!) for foisting this annoyingly good (sigh) Christian music on me (sorry for being reductive, but it's true!). Alas, I'm hooked. If an album can overcome the dreadful repetition of the title-track chorus, "and He is the lllllooorrrrrdddd!" it has to be considered, really and truly, a work of implausible genius. P.S.: I agree that Greetings from Michigan is a better album, and if it hadn't been released the year prior, that would be listed here as well.

8. The Fiery Furnaces: Blueberry Boat: One of the more challenging and often frustrating albums for me this year, but one that keeps giving.
Having said that, the guilty-pleasure, "Chris Michaels," will always remind me of my trip to visit Farrell, Rebecca, and Bryan this summer (more specific memories: devouring Philly Vietnamese (followed by gelato), debating the supposed earnestness or irony of the Polyphonic Spree, watching Bryan channel Bill Clinton, strolling through the Hirshorn with Farrell, and marveling at Rebecca carrying the yet-to-be born Baby Max). Music should always come attached to such splendid memories. P.S.: However, Gallowsbird's Bark is still the better album.

9. Rogue Wave: Out of the Shadow: Just typically fun, hook-laden, guilty-pleasure, retro-indie rock.

10(a). The Magnetic Fields: I: I was skeptical at first, since I've always been attracted to Merritt's lo-fi, low-budget charm, and the reviews lamented his abandonment of these very roots, but the album still has the cynicism and humor (the real draw), as well as the requisite hooks.

10(b). Cat Power: Willie Deadwilder: This is not an album; in fact, really, it's just one 18-minute song with Chan singing and M. Ward accompanying on guitar. And it's just this wonderfully rambling song.
Try downloading it, though. Don't buy that horrible DVD that comes packaged with it. Unless you want to see Chan doing her usual incompetent-shy-girl thing in one looooong, 2-hour shot.


'04 honorable mentions AND albums not released in '04 (but still new to me this year):

--Hawksley Workman: For Him and the Girls (thanks, Tim) (2001)

--Blonde Redhead: Misery is a Butterfly (2004)

--(the aforementioned) Sufjan Stevens: Greetings from Michigan (2003)

--The Cardigans: Long Gone Before Daylight (2004)

--Lali Puna: Faking the Books (2004)

--Kings of Convenience: Riot on a Quiet Street (2004)

--Adem: Homesongs (thanks, Farrell) (2004)

--The Innnocence Mission: Befriended (2003)

--The Album Leaf: In a Safe Place (2004)

--Broken Social Scene: You Forgot it in People (2002)


I'm pretty sure I'm missing something....