Best of 2004

Interpol - Antics
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Miss Machine
Lostprophets - Start Something
Head Automatica - Decadence
The Arcade Fire - Funeral
Death From Above 1979 - You're A Woman, I'm A Machine
The Blood Brothers - Crimes
Green Day - American Idiot
Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat
The Von Bondies - Pawn Shoppe Heart
TV On The Radio - Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes
The Killers - Hot Fuss
Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News
Sparta - Porcelain
The Rise - Reclamation Process
Rise Against - Siren Song Of The Counter Culture
Converge - You Fail Me
Senses Fail - Let It Enfold You
!!! - Louden Up Now
Alexisonfire - "Watch Out!"
Underoath - (They're Only Chasing Safety)
Chevelle - This Type Of Thinking (Could Do Us In)
Your Enemies Friends - You Are Being Videotaped
William Shatner - Has Been
Jimmy Eat World - Futures
Eighteen Visions - Obsession
Taking Back Sunday - Where You Want To Be

I originally had it in a Top 20 thing, but I found a few new CDs since I posted this and couldn't fit them in numbers and blahdy blahdy blah, so I just have it as a listing of the best CDs of 2004 without exact rankings. Towards the top is generally better than towards the bottom and the listing at this point isn't bad, but it's not set in stone.

The list seems a bit weird since there's a lot of stuff I've gotten into this year that came out in 2003, 2002, or earlier, and therefore couldn't be listed, but there's still some good stuff up there.

Most Craptacular:
Orgy - Punk Statik Paranoia
A Perfect Circle - eMOTIVe
The Used - In Love And Death
U2 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb

And that's not even to speak of albums I haven't digested fully yet (Q And Not U, Morrissey, The Walkmen) and ones that've come highly recommended and I haven't even gotten my hands on yet (Sonic Youth's new one, 65daysofstatic, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, etc.)

2005 should be good. Confirmed new Mars Volta, CKY, Hell Is For Heroes, Nine Inch Nails, Queens of the Stone Age, Funeral For A Friend, Electric Six, Trail of Dead, Foo Fighters, Snake River Conspiracy, Franz Ferdinand, Comeback Kid, and Every Time I Die. Also, a good chance of new Thrice, Weezer, Muse, Brand New, From Autumn To Ashes, and probably others I've forgotten, plus some surprise new bands no one expected. Hell, maybe even Guns N' Roses...

I hope to eventually get to typing up at least mini-blurbs on each of the top 20 and then the honorable mention and fuck categories, but who knows if I will. I just wanted to get this up before I forget.