E-mail me at Michael@MichaelPatrickHarrington.com if you have any suggestions or comments.

Dateline: 1-28-05

The Top 20 of 2004 (sort of)

1. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb by U2
   Why (in three sentences or less): Because rock'n'roll still matters, or at least U2 still believes it does.



2. More Adventurous by Rilo Kiley
   Jenny Lewis & the boys rock country music. In a better world, you'd be able to hear Shania Twain scrambling for her cowboy boots under the bed.



3. Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
   Nick & the Seeds drop two smart bombs, the first, Abattoir, a gospel drenched shit-kicker and its half-sister, Lyre, a much quieter, much more disturbing creature.



4. Real Gone by Tom Waits
   Tom tackles the state of the nation and finds it wanting. He responds, naturally, by shouting into a bullhorn and dancing on the skeleton of the blues.



5. The Dirty South by Drive-By Truckers
   Three songwriters. Lots of swamps and trucker hats. The past isn't past with these guys (and gal); it haunts every bathroom stall in every roadside bar.



6. i by Magnetic Fields
   Stephin Merritt sings of love lost (or stolen), love found (or ignored), and the love bizarre. Song of the year: "I Thought You Were My Boyfriend."



7. Good News For People Who Love Bad News by Modest Mouse
   Sell outs! Right. The band comes this much closer to bridging the gap between how weird they truly are and how universal.



8. soundtrack to Garden State
   Iron and Wine covering the Postal Service. Men at Work's Colin Hay (yeah, that guy) stuck in a moment he can't get out of. And, oh yeah: the Shins.



9. The Revolution Starts Now by Steve Earle
   From the headlines to your front seat. Now that Dick and Bush won a second term, one can imagine Steve sitting at home, whittling his knife. Wait: Steve Earle sitting at home?



10. Trampin' by Patti Smith
    Patti and her band warp their way through a rootsy manifesto, tackling an improv on Gandhi and a warm elegy for Patti's mother. Nobody does it better.



11. Futures by Jimmy Eat World
    Easy to slag, but increasingly hard to ignore. The chiming guitars and wrenching harmonies are back, but Jimmy's world is no longer the high school turf of "The Middle."



12. The Libertines by The Libertines
    Not nearly as naff as their debut, this is the sound of band falling apart. You can't dare look away.



13. Uh Huh Her by PJ Harvey
    After dressing up for Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, Peej peels back and rolls in the mud. You're gonna get dirty too.



14. Van Lear Rose by Loretta Lynn
    Producer Jack White (White Stripes) helps realize Loretta Lynn in the new millennium the same way Rick Rubin did for the late Johnny Cash: a little shepherding (in Lynn's case, back to songwriting) and then get out of the way.



15. Contraband by Velvet Revolver
    Guns & Roses with a better singer. That STP guy with a way better band. And Slash still has the hat.



16. A Ghost is Born by Wilco
    This followup to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is a more organic but equally disquieting foray into the folds of Jeff Tweedy's fragile, eggshell mind. You still sort of whistle to some of the tunes too.



17. Fortune by the Mendoza Line
    America's best kept secret. This Athens, GA combo knocks another one out of the park with gut wrenching songwriting and ramshackle playing, as if they stumbled into the songs.

The Best of 2003 (that I didn't get into until 2004)

18. Chutes Too Narrow by The Shins
    Equal parts Reckoning and Rubber Soul (read: solid songwriter, stellar performing; remember those?), the Shins prepare the world for their eventual ascendance and world domination. Plus: the girls like 'em.



19. Speakerboxx/The Love Below by Outkast
    You know by now: two solo albums packaged together. Andre 3000 got all the press for the retro-cool of The Love Below, but Big Boi's Speakerboxx is the platter that matters: a funhouse collision of rap, funk, and anything else he could think of.



20. soundtrack to Lost in Translation
    Kevin Shields contributes four new songs alongside My Bloody Valentine's "Sometimes." Death in Vegas, Air, and the Jesus & Mary Chain (among others) check in. Bill Murray captures the tension within the ennui with a karaoke rendition of Roxy Music's "More Than This."