OK, my top ten list has slowed to a crawl. Truth is, I think I've only really liked about seven records released in 2004. But I've probably only bought 15 or so, so percentage-wise it doesn't suck. Nevertheless, a very mediocre (at best) year, I think.

My number one favourite at this point is definitely the final (?) Elliott Smith record. See my earlier outpouring for details on why.

The Panda Bear record continues to grow on me and gets honourable mention, as does the Sonic Youth (but I'm a total sucker for them). And GBV's Earthquake Glue (2003) is magnificent (whereas this years' s "Half Smiles" is much less so) but I've decided to take the high ground and stop breaking the non-rules re choosing previous year's stuff.

A few songs that I liked and haven't mentioned:
The Black Keys - 10 a.m. automatic. Great retro sixties sounds on this tune, but the album sounds too much like coherent Jon Spencer (blues riffs...yippeee) meets White Stripes. Solid enough but ultimately unoriginal.

Death Cab for Cutie - A Lack of Colour. I know Derek likes Passenger Seat from this record, which is a goody (in the same vein), but for me Colour's clean bittersweet melody and simple folky arrangement caught my ear first. Unfortunately the album is spotty - often these guys are embarrasingly commercial sounding (in an eighties/early nineties indy rock way, sounding like Guadalcanal Diary meets The Odds), sometimes the songs are good enough to work in spite of that.

Camper Van Beethoven - The Gum You Like is Back in Style. Great to hear one of my fave late eighties' bands playing again, and this song is vintage sarcastic, intelligent, rhythmic CVB. Their new record has four or five equally memorable tracks/perfomances, but overall was disappointing. Since when did CVB play minute-and-a-half prog-rock guitar solos - I thought I'd bought a King Crimson reunion record after the first couple of tunes.

I scooped up a bunch of records at Soundscapes sale the other day (the ones Derek rejected, presumably); ended up with a lot of re-issues - the Kinks "Village Green", the Pretty Things "Emotions" and The United States of America eponymous and only record, all from '68, being the highlights. The fact that I spent a lot of the year looking back in history for pop gems (and finding some.....hmmm, can I mention Nico again) is a good indication that this wasn't a stellar year for me and pop music.

Happy New Year y'all.