2004's Best of the Rest

With the top ten list for the year set to pop up here on Friday, here are some other categories designed to honor music that didn't quite make the top ten (except in one case) or missed it by a mile. Paul Allen picks his winners in these same categories at his site, Pop Life--check it out!

Guilty Pleasure: I’m not prone to guilt, but there is something almost sinful about the second album from The Thrills, Let’s Bottle Bohemia. It’s self-centered bombast set to a jangly beat—and every time I put it in the player I can’t help singing along at the top of my lungs.

Soundtrack/Compilation: Garden State. Even without seeing the movie--I'll see it on DVD the day it comes out, I promise--the soundtrack is like some magical mix tape that Zach Braff plucked from musical heaven.

Disappointment: I have to pick just one? In that case, Matthew Sweet, Living Things. I shouldn’t have been stunned by how much I wasn’t captivated by this album—I didn’t enjoy The Thorns last year, either—but it really never clicked for me; the lyrics didn’t grab me, the hooks weren’t there, the music was bubbly but fell flat when it hit my ears. Also disappointing was the new Wilco album. I know, I know: It’s experimental and edgy and I just need to work harder to love it. Maybe one day it’ll click and I’ll be obsessed with the whole thing, even the twelve minutes of white noise, instead of always wanting to listen to “Kidsmoke” and “Late Greats” and maybe “Hummingbird” and call it a day. I guess I’m getting old; maybe if I heard Kid A for the first time today I wouldn’t give Radiohead the benefit of 80 spins like I did in college.

Cover Art: Most people would use this award to honor a great image, but all the bands with really great cover art this year are in my top ten. (Number one, eight, and ten are particularly good.) For me, this award is about a little band running along the back of an album, the one that said “CD Audio/SACD Stereo/SACD Surround” on the back of Elton John’s Peachtree Road. The multichannel layer of the album allows me to experience Elton’s latest work in a whole new way, as if the raindrops on the opening track are falling all around me and, later, as if I’m within the music rather than simply listening to it. It makes for an enveloping experience, enhancing a set of songs that, while not quite top-ten material, are definitely a welcome addition to my burgeoning Elton John collection. Elton has six other albums, including Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, on SACD, yet another reason to consider a super audio CD player as a last minute gift idea. Here’s hoping this is the start of a trend of releasing albums in SACD format the same day the regular release hits stores.

Greatest Hits: The new Seal compilation renders his catalog almost unnecessary, at least for a very casual fan like me; with all the hits from the early ‘90s and the new songs you’ve heard on the radio in one place, it’s a pleasant listen from start to finish, front-loaded with all the stuff you really want in case you just want a 20-minute dose. If nothing else, it fills the void in a collection that not owning “Crazy” creates; the CD also features “Waiting for You,” “Don’t Cry,” “Kiss From a Rose,” “Prayer for the Dying,” and “Human Being.”

Album Title: The Sound of Splitting Atoms, a seven-song EP by a band called Radiant*, which I bought at Waterloo Records in Austin, Texas for $1.00 the same day I found the first Shins album in a used bin. They were selling the CDs cheap to promote the band’s appearance at or around the South by Southwest festival, I think. The album itself is a sort of Coldplay/Radiohead clone that Brad and I really enjoy. It’s also almost impossible to find, at least in Illinois, making my $1.00 purchase feel like a steal!

Reissue: Technically not a “reissue,” but not really a proper 2004 release, either, Brian Wilson’s Smile is something special all its own. I can’t explain why I love it, but I do.

Surprise: I know it shouldn’t be that stunning, since I cheered her on from day one, but the fact that Fantasia’s debut album, Free Yourself, is actually good is just amazing to me.

Live: Classic show versus contemporary genius—how do I choose? Aimee Mann’s live album this year is a nice sampler of her solo career and shows off the fact that she has actual talent, even without the trappings of the studio. It’s well worth buying, and the tracklist on the DVD is even better than that on the CD. But Bob Dylan’s Live 1964, the 6th volume of the Bootleg Series, is a portrait of one of rock’s great artists at a pivotal moment in his career, making the change from folk to rock, and beyond its historic value it’s one of his most mesmerizing live shows. But why choose? Buy them both.

Cover Version: Almost by default, this goes to “Comfortably Numb,” the Scissor Sisters cover of the Pink Floyd song from The Wall. I say default because there weren’t many cover songs this year that came to my attention, but this would probably have taken the cake anyway—it reimagines the song almost completely, turning it into dance pop that’s nearly irresistible.