2004

Here's a real treat.  This may have been the best year of new music I have really lived through.  I was pretty much on it with most of these releases at the time and they have all stood up.  So many great albums, just look at the ones that don't make it - Talkie Walkie, Milk Man, Sonic Nurse and you will see that 2004 was one for the ages.  This makes the rankings almost irrelevant here.  It was definitely the best year for psychedelia since the sixties, and for that, I will always love it.  I even know people who claim to not listen to anything, or at least rock, made after this year.  If there is going to be such a year this is not a bad choice.

10.  Guided By Voices - Half Smiles of the Decomposed
It was really tough putting this ahead of the ones that don't make it, especially Milk Man, but I am C-Mac, this is the Monument, and I am not about to leave out the final (as it appeared for seven years) album by GbV.  It is one of their better professional era records and takes their sound to new places like never before, preparing one for Pollard's subsequent career with songs like "Asia Minor" and "Gonna Never Have to Die."  As a conclusion to a long and beautiful career, its more ballady songs are some of the best with "Window of My World" a real standout along with the Bergman/Swedish beauty tribute "Girls of Wild Strawberries."  On a personal level, "The Closets of Henry" always spoke to me, and does more than ever in the past few months, even if that is more for the title than the lyrics.  Great music too.  However, it is in the band's usual style to end on one of the highest notes of all.  With its guitar structure and seemingly odd title (actually one of their most straightforward lyrically), "Huffman Prairie Flying Field" is truly the ultimate Guided by Voices song and enough to place this album with the others.

9.  Of Montreal - Satanic Panic in the Attic
As the transition between the whimsical early era and the full-blown Prince and Sparks influence Kevin Barnes would embrace soon after, this might my Of Montreal's best album.  The electronics do move the sound into dancier territory, but more importantly make their fey psychedelia much more pleasant heard immediately with "Disconnect the Dots" and naturally, "Lysergic Bliss."  Barnes' bright and dense vision is perfectly realized without too much cuteness as on the previous releases, though the heartbreak that dominates the darker  later work is foreshadowed with "Eros Entropic Tundra."  The most-modern fairy take landscape is still the setting with "Climb the Ladder" and the twisted "Chrissy Kiss The Corpse," and with outside lyrics on "City Bird," Of Montreal gets their greatest ballad.  Overlooked now, but in my opinion the perfect Of Montreal album, and certainly the starting place.

8.  Liars - They Were Wrong, So We Drowned
Now it is hard to believe how poorly this album went down with the critics on its release.  With the popularity of dance punk many had put the Brooklyn band into a very conforming little trench and buried them on top.  Turns out this is the real Liars and always had been and they distinguish themselves with more than just quality on this full-blown concept album recorded in rural New Jersey (yes, that is a real thing and it is very scary).  Based on German witch trials, it is the perfect album for Halloween especially on the chilling opener "Broken Witch."  As nightmarish as the album is the band's humor still prevails, especially in the long titles like "They Don't Want Your Corn, They Want Your Kids" and "If You're Wizard Then Why Do You Wear Glasses?" showing that yes, this is the same band from two years ago.  The Liars really came into themselves on this album and it's hellish atmosphere best heard on the heavy drone of "We Fenced Other Gardens With the Bones of Our Won" made it a classic no matter where they went afterwards.  Thank God I could tell that right away.

7.  Wilco - A Ghost Is Born
Clearly no longer a bunch of haggard dad rockers (for the time being) the Wilco collaborates again with Jim O'Rourke with a stunning follow-up to their masterpiece.  It was good enough to tragically make many forget all about the late Jay Bennett, and was perfect for its summer release on cutting out a lot of the darkness and having a song like "Hummingbird" stand out.  The influence of their home city also rubs off on the extended tracks like the drone jam "Less Than You Think" and the NEU! tribute "Spiders (Kidsmoke)."  Wilco also demonstrates an advanced understanding of tension with "At Least That's What You Said," which manages to be the peak of their long history of excellent opening tracks.    Throughout this album full of diverse musical adventures, sometimes criticized as indulgent or excessive, or less cohesive, they close it just as well with the old fashioned "The Late Greats," a song that balances its slight taste of corn by its sentiment:  One great musician gives the public THE TRUTH about the highest form of art.  I would say that his failure to follow it up is forgivable for that.

6.  Blonde Redhead - Misery Is a Butterfly
Another great New York No-Wave inspired band goes into concept album territory on this masterpiece.  It is a dark and unsettling listen with all its baroque flavor making it a very metal and spiritual experience and best capturing the band's shaking intensity of all.  It is a far cry from no wave, though, as the band's careful compositions are limitless in their approach and the album has a very unified sound throughout, often in moody midtempo driving drones full of keyboards, though upping the tempo on the fantastic "Maddening Cloud."  It ends as well as it begins with "Equus" and considering the brother's Italian roots, has an operatic element to the whole thing, with its level of drama and dizzying psuedo-plot.  This album's cover almost says it all, but still it is inexplicable and proves how ambitious many of America's artists were in this year.

5.  Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. - Mantra of Love
The loudest band I have ever seen makes one of their best albums by embracing tradition, both of their native Japan and oddly enough with an Occitanian traditional.  It only took two songs, but their dense and noisy style of heavy psych gets even more layers.  "La Le Lo" is 30 minutes of swirling, hypnotic psychedelia led by vocalist Cotton Casino's chanting of the title.  It would be one  of her last albums with the band and her contribution is perhaps its best in competing with the other four's endless depths of samurai rock.  The other track, "L'Ambition dans le Miroir" is more in their usual style, but is almost a cool-down after from the peaks reached earlier.  This was my first real exposure to the band and is still my favorite recording of theirs.  Essential heavy jam psych, taking what Les Raillizes Dénudés had done even further for the new millenium.

4.  Animal Collective - Sung Tongs
Proving just how much of a collective they are, AC is down to just Avey and Panda on their breakthrough.  For many it was an instant life-changer with "Leaf House" sounding like nothing one could imagine, and to think that most of these songs are based around little more than acoustic guitar and vocals.  The new sounds on the rest of the album may go even further.  As most of their peers were getting into darker territory, the Brooklyn-based Marylanders created an album bursting with childlike joy like "Who Could Win A Rabbit?," "We Tigers," and obviously "Kids On Holiday."  Then there are the moments of quiet beauty on which the band had built their reputation like "The Softest Voice" and "Mouth Wooed Her."  They even manage both on "Winters Love," one of the most gorgeous songs of their whole career, pointing the way to their unparalleled ability to mix every style of music you could imagine with many you can't.  A huge step up for one of the best bands of the decade, and one that they would use to shoot off to even further territory.

3.  Dungen - Ta Det Lugnt
Sweden's first appearance on these lists is also one of the country's few international releases in its native tongue.  Gustav Ejstes did not need English to connect with lovers of heavy psych all around with this album made with the kind of perfection the Swedes for which the Swedes are best-known.  What is most amazing is that Ejstes played nearly all the instruments on this thick album rooted in classic psych, hard rock, and jazz.  He proves himself a virtuoso at all the key elements of rock from the rocking rhythm of opener "Panda" to his wailing lead on "Gjort bort sig."  Live, he typically sticks to keyboards and acoustic guitar, and "Det du tänker idag är du i morgan" and "Festival" prove that is as noble a choice as any other.  The musicianship and songwriting on this album are simply stunning,  and the unrelenting energy propels it to an instant classic, with a one-man band not having this same energy probably ever.  It will shake you hard, but the title is translated to "Take It Easy," so do that, after all it is very stoney.

2.  Ghost - Hypnotic Underworld
Even More heavy psych and again, from Japan.  Ghost has a long history of incorporating Japanese folk into their sound and this is implied, along with its spiritual psychedelia from the album art.  Still a very worldly group, they sing mostly in English and with the presence of certain harps and woodwinds also have a large Celtic influence as heard on "Piper," one of the songs that has their many influences brought to the front.  The four part opener is the strongest, though as it slowly builds from noise into psychedelic drone to part three, one of the heaviest psychedelic rock songs ever under three minutes and finally part four, a 22-second blast of unbelievable energy.  Then it kicks into their cover of Dutch group Earth and Fire's "Hazy Paradise" having full stated its purpose for the nearly 70 minute masterpiece.  From there on out is is one great song after another full of ancient Japanese mysticism, classic psychedelic rock, international folk, and of course a bit of Syd Barrett.  This album was pushed harder than most on its release, and considering its excellence, I am amazed so few, even fans of heavy psych are unaware if its existence.

1.  Jens Lekman - When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog
This Swedish genius fooled many into thinking he was a good old fashioned singer-songwriter with this his sample music debut.  He did this with tasteful use of these samples, never making the sound too dense or erratic and building his original arrangements off of them, not to mention is wry and sincere lyrics.  Every song on here is a timeless pop gem from the dense energetic tracks like "Maple Leaves" to the quiet "Cold Swedish Winter" to the minimal "Do You Remember The Riots?"  Lekman is the perfect romantic as he can master any kind of love song, ranging from the hilarious folly of "You Are The Light (By Which I Travel into This And That)" to the sincere folk of "Julie" and even make light of traumatic missteps on "Psychogirl."  Though some of these songs had appeared elsewhere, the artist, who would never reach the same heights but wisely put everything he had into making a perfect and enduring album on his full-length debut.  A quiet and friendly man and early proponent of Arthur Russell he clearly believes  in the transcendental powers of music with his book-ending tracks "Tran #7 To Heaven" and "A Higher Power," winning this album many repeated listens, all full of both laughs and tears.  If there is an album so heartfelt without any of the usual trappings that would would imply I have never heard it.

That's that.  No more years this good, but keep reading anyway!