From: owner-headline-girl-digest@smoe.org (headline-girl-digest) To: headline-girl-digest@smoe.org Subject: headline-girl-digest V7 #75 Reply-To: headline-girl@smoe.org Sender: owner-headline-girl-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-headline-girl-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk headline-girl-digest Wednesday, December 22 2004 Volume 07 : Number 075 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Top 10 of 2004 [Hanson Ho ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 00:40:03 -0800 From: Hanson Ho Subject: Re: Top 10 of 2004 Ten albums. Wow. I've been working at my yearly top 37 list for a couple weeks now, and it was just a couple days ago that I nailed down my top 10. Here they are (at least for right now :-) First, honourable mentions go out to Feist, The Organ, Patty Griffin, The Fiery Furnaces, and John Vanderslice. And while I'm at it, Mindy Smith, The Elected, Joanna Newsom, Loretta Lynn, and Iron and Wine. Next, the list: 01. Elliott Smith - From A Basement on the Hill So good, so sad. For my money, this was Elliott best "big" sounding record, which is saying something considering how good XO was. A bittersweet "Fond Farewell" I suppose. 02. Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous Jenny, Blake, and company really stepped up their game. Polished indie pop packed with their their trademark twang-light and earnestness. I love that stuff! This and Elliott's record kept flip-flopping on my list for #1. 03. Tilly and the Wall - Wild Like Children This was my surprise of the year. Wonderful pop with simple instrumentation, packed with melodies sweeter than double-chocolate brownies and more contagious than Ebola. Their live show is not to be missed. 04. Sarah Slean - Day One A lot of people didn't like this, but I for one disagree. This is her trying to do something different, and she succeeds more than she fails. I'd rather her try something different every time rather than churn out Blue Parade after Blue Parade. Besides, "The Score" rules the school. 05. Stars - Set Yourself on Fire I still like Heart better, but this is another wonderful album from a wonderful band. Standouts for me include "Celebration Guns," "What I'm Trying to Say," and "Your Ex-Lover is Dead." 06. Sarah Harmer - All of Our Names What more I can say about her that hasn't been said already? Her songs are great. Her delivery is great. She's just so friggin' great! It's a pretty "safe" record, I must say, but it doesn't make it any less good. 07. Annie - Anniemal Catchy lap-pop that works as well on mainstream radio as it does coming from the speakers at an indie record store. "Heartbeat" would rule the airwaves and make her a huge star if it were given a push over here. 08. Laura Veirs - Carbon Glacier No one I know have heard of this record. It's shame, cos it's got some of the best mellow-folky-rock I've heard this year. She does a lot more things with her guitar than her peers, and the results are quite astounding. This is one of those records that you could put on repeat and still be discovering things after a whole day of listening to it. 09. Melissa McClelland - Stranded in Suburbia I didn't think I'd like this as much as I do when I first bought it. Lately, the female singer-songwriter shtick doesn't work for me as well as before, but Melissa does everything right. "Picture Postcard" is just so freakin' great. 10. The Arcade Fire - Funeral It actually shocked me that this slipped so low on my top 10. I mean, you'd be hard-pressed to find better rock songs this year than "Rebellion (Lies)" and "Neighbourhood #2 (Laika)." Broken Social Scene - -- you've been challenged. Oh, and their live show, fucking brilliant. Hanson - -- "Oi with the poodles already!" Synapse to Synapse 2.0: http://www.sfu.ca/~hwho/ My Indie World: http://myindieworld.blogspot.com ------------------------------ End of headline-girl-digest V7 #75 **********************************