Marc. Sorry man.

Like you, an annual top ten is often a little daunting for me these days, as I rarely buy enough music released in the year in question, but for 2004 I think I can muster up a few options.

For albums, I'll start with......American Music Club's "Love Songs for Patriots". Great to see these guys back at it, and depressing as hell to think that it's been ten years since their last record. Frig, I say. This one is consistently good - their songs are so intelligent and emotionally complex (I hesitate to curse any band by labelling it "mature", but...), and musically rich as well. The sense of the dramatic reminds me that AMC started out in the eighties and worked through the grunge years, but it still sounds contemporary to me, and satisfyingly, uniquely them as well. The album opener "Ladies and Gentlemen" is an absolute stunner - but wait! I'm not choosing songs of the year yet, and will not be so gauche as to double dip (at least until I begin to run out of ideas next Friday).

Second album, released in 2002 but fuck off, is John Cunningham's "Happy-Go Unlucky", a gorgeous update on Beatle-esque songwriting (meets Elliott Smith, but more on him later), without a weak track on the record. At times it can be too reverntial, but mostly it is beautiful beautiful beautiful. Chamber Pop at its absolute best. I particularly love "Invisible Lines", "It Isn't Easy" and "Here it is" . Highly recommended and available only at Soundscapes I believe.

Now for a song. Since we're splitting songs from albums, which is fine, I'm more tempted to choose tunes I like to play in the car, quick hitters as it were. At least that's what my first choice is - it's Ben Kweller's "I Need You Back". I blew my brains out on this one all summer - light as candy floss, and in a way it's very cheesey (hmmm, two food metaphors, OK snack break) with BK's pretensions of naivete, but ultimately it works great because of its energy and angst, and his great singing. I remember driving back from my CFA exam in June, convinced I'd failed, and screaming this one at the top of my lungs (look out ma, I'm turning forty!).

Kyle, thanks for the metacritic site - it rocks.