Best songs of 2004; or, "Everybody's a Critic, pt. 1"

Over the past few days, I've seen a lot of lists of the best songs released in 2004. Lists are funny things-- we profess to hate them, yet we can't get enough of them. What a paradox. Anyway, here are my $0.02. These are the songs that I personally liked the best, or that touched me the most this year. Some of them are those songs that you don't want to like, but you can't get them out of your head. Feel free to comment or add your own. You can dis me, too, but be advised that I don't really care what you think. :) Just kidding, I do, but not that much.

THE CONTENDERS
A.C. Newman/"On the Table" - A.C., aka "Carl" from the New Pornographers, made a great solo debut this year. "On the Table" is catchy as hell, but the lyrics are great too. What a guy.

Ghostface (ft. Jadakiss)/"Run" - The best song about running from the cops produced this year. Great production and nice flow from both rappers. You also gotta love the sirens. But what's up with Jada's "I might got to take my shirt off" interlude in the middle? Ah well, still a great song.

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists/"Me and Mia" - Ted Leo is the shiznit.

The Killers/"Mr. Brightside" - The Killers are way overrated, and you've gotta hate a band whose singer has a fake British accent. This is a great song, though.

Kanye West (ft. Jamie Foxx, Twista)/"Slow Jamz" - Kanye's ode to the previous generation of soulsters from whom he gets so many of his samples. Jamie Foxx croons a hook worthy of Marvin, while Twista "spits it like it's R&B" (albeit, very, very fast R&B.) This is a song you can dance to and laugh at at the same time. In that sense, it reminds me of Beck's classic "Debra."

Snow Patrol/"Run" - Will satisfy your urge for some Britpop. Simple but good.

The Libertines/"Can't Stand Me Now" - Good song. I really wish someone hadn't lost my copy of Up the Bracket. Oh well.

Terror Squad/"Lean Back" - @America: Pull up your pants, lean back, and "do the Rockaway."

T.I./"Rubber Band Man" - I guess this album actually came out last year, but I didn't hear it until a couple weeks ago. It still counts 'cos the single is out in '04. Very addictive.

The Von Bondies/"C'mon C'mon" - I love this song, so it pained me to hear it in a car commercial. (For an SUV, no less.) That doesn't take away from its glory as the best "garage" song of the year.

Kanye West/"Through the Wire" - The bass line, organ and soul loop will get stuck in your head, even if you really can't identify with the lyrics-- but his little spoken things rock. "You know what I'm sayin', when the doctor told me I had a, um, I was gonna have to have a plate in my chin, I said, 'Dawg, don't you realize I'll never make it on the plane now? It's bad enough I got all this jewelry on.' She can't be serious, man." Genius.

Iron and Wine/"Sodom, South Georgia" - If you like downtempo acoustic stuff (and I do), you will love this song.

Britney Spears/"Toxic" - It pains me to put Britney on this list. But this is just such a killer song. I think anyone could have sung it and it still would have been huge-- in fact, it might have been better. Kudos to whoever actually wrote and produced it, may you have good fortune in the coming year.

The Black Keys/"The Lengths" - You wouldn't expect a hard-rocking blues band to be able to go acoustic, but "The Lengths" is a perfectly delicate, melancholy love song.

Wlico/"At Least That's What You Said" - No matter what you think of A Ghost is Born, we can all agree that this is a good song. It starts out gorgeously tentative, but then Mr. Tweedy starts (tastefully) shredding.

Elliott Smith/"Last Hour" - We miss you, Elliott! Gorgeous acoustic song. Takes listeners back to the halcyon days of Either/Or.

Modest Mouse/"Float On" - If only the album was this good. This is the song I listened to when I needed to feel hopeful. Things might not be great, but we'll all float on all right.

Kanye West/"We Don't Care" - Yet another great song from the Kan-man.

Jadakiss (ft. Styles P, Common, Nas, Anthony Hamilton)/"Why (Remix)" - "Why?" is a question that more people need to ask these days, and Jada takes it to 'em in this song. I like the original for the production, but the remix for the rhymes. "Why's Bush actin' like he tryin' to get Osama/Why don't we impeach him and elect Obama" will be my theme for 2005. And Nas, as usual, drops a killer verse.

The Arcade Fire/"Wake Up" - This band took the indie world by storm this year, and the accolades are well-deserved. Funeral is an amazing album, and "Wake Up" is its most accessible track. But the album needs to be listened to as a whole for its full impact.

Franz Ferdinand/"Take Me Out" - This song was everywhere in 2004. That's a good thing.

The Black Keys/"10 AM Automatic" - It's the Keys' hardest-rocking song to date, but the spirit of the blues is still there. This shoulda been a hit.

Interpol/"Evil" - My second-biggest disappointment of the year (after "The Re-Election") was that I didn't get to see the Interpol/Secret Machines show at First Ave because a) I'm not 21 and b) I can't pretend I am because I don't have a fake ID. Antics is a good album, but ultimately it falls short of Turn on the Bright Lights when taken as a whole. "Evil" is a standout track that showcases Interpol at its best.

Interpol/"Slow Hands" - Stands on its own better than any other song Interpol has done.

Muse/"Time is Running Out" - Not bad for a Radiohead ripoff.

Brian Wilson/"Good Vibrations" - Maybe Brian Wilson works better without the rest of the Beach Boys. His new cut of "Good Vibrations" really benefits the song. It sounds great cleaned up.

The Secret Machines/"Nowhere Again" - It's really hard to describe this band. Suffice it to say that Now Here is Nowhere was one of my favorite albums of the year. "Nowhere Again" is a catchy song, defintely worth a few listens. I especially like the opening line: "Cellophane flowers never happen for me."

THE BEST OF THE BEST OF THE BEST... sir!
Franz Ferdinand/"Darts of Pleasure" - I really, really like this song, and especially when it breaks down into its full glory at the end.

Bloc Party/"Banquet" - Danceable and political -- and eminently listenable.

Elliott Smith/"King's Crossing" - Ethereal piano and disjointed voices build into a deeply personal tale of Elliott's battle with drug addiction. This is the best song on the best album of the year, the posthumous From a Basement on the Hill.

Kanye West/"Jesus Walks" - Contrary to others who have spoken about this song, I'm really not surprised this became a hit. Kanye definitely earns a Grammy for this track. The beat is amazing, and the lyrics are great. Isn't it everyone's dream to walk into a club and find "everybody's screamin' out: JE! SUS! WALKS!"

Modest Mouse/"The World at Large" - Even better than "Float On," but in a different way. It's more introspective, less brash, and more beautiful.

THE SONG OF THE YEAR (drumroll...)



Eminem/"Mosh" - I discovered this video when it stormed the internet about a week before the election, and it ruled my world for those fateful last days. At first, I was entranced with the powerful imagery of the video. The vision of a black-hooded army rising up and striking a blow for democracy inspired me to work my ass off for UDFL-- and come back to watch the video again and again whenever I got a chance between school- and election-work. (Suffice it to say that schoolwork came in a distant second that week.) Unfortunately, as it turns out, even the most popular musician in America today was too little, too late. But now, coming back to it almost two months later, "Mosh" is still an extremely potent song. The angry, stomping beat propels some of Eminem's best-ever lyrics-- the favorite lines of mine are, "Look in his eyes, it's all lies/The Stars and Stripes, they've been swiped/Washed out and wiped/And replaced with his own face/ Mosh now or die." The entire last verse is a masterpiece.

This is Slim's most powerful song to date, and it shows what he can do when he puts his mind to it. Too often, Eminem's songs are narcissistic; while in Mosh he tells us, "Come with me, and I wont steer you wrong," there is more "WE" than "ME" in "Mosh." Which begs the question, Mr. Shady: why don't you do songs like "Mosh" more often? "The Real Slim Shady" and "My Name Is" are hilarious, but if you lost a little of the immaturity and started kicking more tracks like "Stan" and "Mosh," we'd all be a lot better off. These next four years, Bush will be trying to cement his "legacy"-- what will your legacy be? This time, it wasn't enough, but don't let that discourage you. We are listening.