It’s that time of the year again. The time when music magazines like Q and Rolling Stone are listing their Top albums of 2004. And me being a music fan myself, I want to contribute and give a list of my own. It probably be more or less the same as Q as my music taste doesn’t differ much, but at least these are my own words about the music I like in 2004.

So the best 10 albums of 2004 (in alphabetical order because I just cannot rank it) are:

American Idiot – Green Day

Ten years ago Green Day was just another punk band. Three guys who play punk and do stupid pranks like any other punk. Billie Joe Armstrong was more famous for
getting naked on stage than for being a smart man. But apparently time has
changed these three men and they have grown-up from being punk boys to men. The result is American Idiot, an album that cannot be defined as punk anymore. It’s
a political statement. It’s a rock opera. It’s a concept album. It’s the real
Billie Joe Armstrong. Turns out that these three punks are more than that, they
are three able musicians with something they believe in.

Armed Love – The (International) Noise Conspiracy

This album mixes ideology and pure rock & roll. They are surely leftists and
they do sound leftist but the music will make everyone dance and rock, whether
left or right. I love the sound and the feeling it makes and these Swedes are
sure a good thing. If only more bands were like them.

Destroy Rock & Roll – Mylo

Every now and then there is a dance album that changes the dance/clubbing
scenery. You had The Chemical Brothers mixing big beats up with Dig Your Own
Hole. Then there was Fat Boy Slim. And now there is Mylo. A Scottish DJ whose
album contains the example of what you will be hearing in clubs for the next two
years. Definitely a must if you like dance music.

Final Straw – Snow Patrol

In the year when Coldplay didn’t do anything, somebody has to ‘fill up the
vacancy’. While Chris Martin was busy making Apple with Gwynnie, Gary Lightbody and friends stepped forward. It’s actually Snow Patrol’s third album but this
time they definitely learned how to do it. It’s filled with songs about
relationships, songs that make you sing-along and songs that make you feel.

A Grand Don’t Come For Free – The Streets

Mike Skinner has gotten better second time around. He still sounds high and
smells like kebab and he is still a geezer but this time the geezer has a story
to tell. It involves a thousand quids and his TV, surrounded by his mates, a
relationship, gambling, holidays, break-up, and everything else in a life of a
geezer. It’s almost impossible to listen to just one song of it, you have to
listen to the whole album but Dry Your Eyes definitely stands out.

Greatest Hits – Goldie Lookin’ Chain

They are doing to rap and chav what The Darkness did last year to 80s hair
metal. These Cardiff boys are definitely taking the mickey but it is funny as
hell. How can you go wrong with a song entitled “Your Mother’s Got a Penis”? I
still laugh every time I listen to it and Roller Disco reminds me of my youth.
And better, I’m good friends with someone who used to go to school with Adam
Hussein (and most of GLC actually).

Hopes and Fears – Keane

Tim Rice-Oxley, the pianist and songwriter of Keane, is buddies with Coldplay.
He went to UCL in the same year and at one point was offered to play piano in
Coldplay. He didn’t take it and for a couple of years had to see his buddies
rise to fame. He made his own band, forgot about a guitarist, and now he has
made it big. The songs are lovely and beautiful and Tom Chaplin’s chubby face
adds effect. Good thing Tim didn’t join Coldplay otherwise we would have never
heard Keane.

Hot Fuss – The Killers

I’m really into 80s music. The new wave sound. And last year the new new wave
has started and everyone is trying to sound 80s. Well, these boys from Las Vegas
have showed how to sound 80s. Put this album next to Duran Duran’s Rio and you
will not hear a 20 year gap in it.

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb – U2

I wrote about this album already on my blog. Just go down a couple of entries
and you will see what I have written about this album. No need to write it
twice.

Scissor Sisters – Scissor Sisters / Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand

I couldn’t decide on the tenth album so both these albums are there on the 10th
spot. Both have made a huge impact, one by going out camp with MOR pop songs and one by being art school rejects doing new wave. And both were wearing tight
pants, albeit for different reasons. Franz Ferdinand made an album where you can
dance to (“rock music should make you dance” – Alex Kapranos) and
Scissor Sisters covered Pink Floyd as if they were Frankie Goes To Hollywood.
Not sure what can top that.

So there it is. Ten – actually eleven – of the best albums of 2004 in my HUMBLE opinion. Go out and get them!