Best Album of 2004?

[Hawk269]

I like R.E.M. a lot but Around the Sun is not in the same stratosphere as HTDAAB. There is not one uptempo song on the REM album. I like a few tracks (Leaving NY, Electron Blue, Final Straw), but as an album it does not measure up.

 

[U2Nut95]

SMiLE is one of the greatest works in pop history. The complexity of that record - the use of inversions, counterpoint, and harmony - is amazing and well beyond anything U2 and most other rock/pop bands have ever done.

I think HTDAAB is at present U2's worst record. That said, most of the other stuff out of late stinks to high heaven, so even as an okay record it would rank as one of the better records of the year. Maybe time will make me respect and like it more.

 

[U2Nut95]

Re: One of the best of the decade

Those Rolling Stone bastards are trying to come out with a tour to take the limelight from U2, but do they have an album from even their hay days that compares to U2's best? No. Of course not.

Are you kidding me? Beggar's Banquet, Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main Street can compare easily with U2's best. The amazing thing is that the Stones pulled all four of those albums out in a four year period.

I'm a huge U2 fan, but I try to temper my opinions a bit and I listen to quite a bit else, especially from the past. U2's done some spectacular stuff, for sure, but to say that the Stones have never done anything close to what U2 has done is ridiculous. You're entitled to your opinion, but the Stones are legendary for a reason.

 

[riteshbhatt1]

SMiLE is one of the greatest works in pop history. The complexity of that record - the use of inversions, counterpoint, and harmony - is amazing and well beyond anything U2 and most other rock/pop bands have ever done.

I would hope so, he only had like, 30 years to work on it.

 

[U2Nut95]

I would hope so, he only had like, 30 years to work on it.

True, though most all of it was finished in 1967. I've had the bootlegs for years. Wilson never put all the finishing touches on it, but it was 90-95% complete when it was shelved due to tremendous pressure from all the Beach Boys (except Dennis Wilson). Some of the lyrics weren't there, but the music was. The masterpiece of the album, Surf's Up, and the suite that it fits into were all finished. Wilson did seperate things out a bit more, but he hadn't worked on it since 1967. It took only a few days for he and Van Dyke Parks to finish it up and get ready for rehearsals.

 

[If you shout...]

I think that this is a really great album by a really great band, but at the same time there's just no way that I could possibly say that How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb is the album of the year. It is, for me, ONE of the best albums of the year, but it cannot hold a candle to either A Grand Don't Come For Free by The Streets or Blueberry Boat by The Fiery Furnaces.

And, for the record, I loathed SMiLE . I really wanted to love that record the same way that I love Pet Sounds and such, but it just didn't happen. I grow more and more disenchanted with the record every time I listen to it and as the tracks march on to the final culmination of wretchedness and sinfulness: the re-recording of "Good Vibrations." I shudder even to think...

...So...anyway...at least U2's got a leg up on Wilson, right?

 

[Sleep Over Jack]

Blueberry Boat is bloated.

 

[If you shout...]

Blueberry Boat is bloated.

You really think so...? I guess you'd be with the majority on that one--most every person I've spoken to about it or every review that I've read has said something not at all unlike that; even so, I just gots to disagree. I LOVE IT! I really enjoyed the challenge, so to speak, of coming to know, to understand, and to map out the album's scatterbrained trajectory. I wish that U2 would do something as out-there as this album, again. Maybe The Passengers Strike Back ....?

 

[Daveone]

2nd Best. Killers 'Hot Fuss' is still the album of the year.

 

[Sleep Over Jack]

You really think so...? I guess you'd be with the majority on that one--most every person I've spoken to about it or every review that I've read has said something not at all unlike that; even so, I just gots to disagree. I LOVE IT! I really enjoyed the challenge, so to speak, of coming to know, to understand, and to map out the album's scatterbrained trajectory. I wish that U2 would do something as out-there as this album, again. Maybe The Passengers Strike Back ....?

I do like the album, the melodies are winding and ingenious, it just seems to be a little over-stuffed thats all. I agree though, that I'd like U2 to make some sort of sonic shift again..perhaps a monstrous rock album to close out their career, as its about the only thing they haven't tried..

 

[trashdaveed]

Still a HTDAAB virgin here...but despite the fact that I'm sure I'll adore it (I'm saving it room at #2), I doubt it can top my fave for this year -- The Arcade Fire - Funeral. Honestly, check this one out...it will likely knock your socks off as it did mine (I should start listening to it in bare feet actually)...truly an experience to listen to from beginning to end. Others are Franz Ferd, Interpol, controller.controller, Hives, Killers, Modest Mouse, Streets, Ambulance.

So for me, I think it's going to be a title bout sometime after Nov 23rd between the mighty U2 & the indie darling Arcade Fire.

 

[If you shout...]

Still a HTDAAB virgin here...but despite the fact that I'm sure I'll adore it (I'm saving it room at #2), I doubt it can top my fave for this year -- The Arcade Fire - Funeral. Honestly, check this one out...it will likely knock your socks off as it did mine (I should start listening to it in bare feet actually)...truly an experience to listen to from beginning to end. Others are Franz Ferd, Interpol, controller.controller, Hives, Killers, Modest Mouse, Streets, Ambulance.

So for me, I think it's going to be a title bout sometime after Nov 23rd between the mighty U2 & the indie darling Arcade Fire.

Funeral is the shit, my friend--OUTSTANDING ALBUM.

 

[cybersyd]

Interpol's Antics has thus far been my favorite album this year, second place would be Brian Wilson's Smile. I guess I'll have to listen to this new U2 for a while and sit with it and digest it, and see how it sounds after a month, when the newness of it has worn off.

I think that SMILE is in another category: it's a masterpiece but it's not a real new album. I mean: Good vibration, Surf's up, Vegatable, Wonderful ecc. are incredible songs but they aren't NEW at all

but i love Brian's work oh dumb angel!!!

 

[Macfistowannabe]

I also agree with you on that second point. There are some great songs on the new album: Miracle Drug is awsome.

How have you heard it already?

 

[ponkine]

It seems most of critics will say the best album of 2004 is The Cure

 

[teebee]

Franz Ferdinand locked up my top spot about a month after I first heard the album, but the new U2 album is jockeying for second with the new Interpol album. Where it ends up probably depends on the rest of Interpol's career.

Whoever said the Arcade Fire new album is great wasn't lying.

 

[imstaringatthesun]

the only cd's this year which were completely (mostly) positive reviews were franz, modest mouse and brian wilson...that's u2's competition. i agree htdaab is better than atyclb, but it's not as lyrically brilliant as pop, and that will hurt it. i'd say this and franz's debut will vie for the top album on most lists....and whoever said around the sun is a good album is kidding themselves, r.e.m's lost much of the respect i've given to them quite recently

 

[grbounds]

the only cd's this year which were completely (mostly) positive reviews were franz, modest mouse and brian wilson...that's u2's competition. i agree htdaab is better than atyclb, but it's not as lyrically brilliant as pop, and that will hurt it. i'd say this and franz's debut will vie for the top album on most lists....and whoever said around the sun is a good album is kidding themselves, r.e.m's lost much of the respect i've given to them quite recently

i give REM more respect now, because they could care less what the mainstream thinks.

 

[learn2kneel]

My favorites this year so far are: the killers, snow patrol, modest mouse, kings of convenience, rilo kiley, and the good life.

Nothing touches HTDAAB tho