Well, Derek (the bastard) has scooped me on the Vanderslice disk, so I'll just add a couple of points. I agree with most of what DM said, and the after hours (OK, 7:14 pm) quasi-poetic tone which he used to describe the disk is very appropriate. Vanderslice is working in an ambitious and earnest - at times pretentious, at times melodramatic - voice, but while some of it feels unconvincing, the good stuff is very good. And it would likely be a different batch of songs for each listener - personally I think "They Won't Let Me Run", "Promising Actress" and "Lunar Landscapes" are the highlights.

My other notable 2004 record for this week is a Charles Ives collection featuring a selection of his songs performed by Susan Graham, and more importantly (for me), a superb rendition of his Second Piano Concerto (the Concord) by Pierre Laurent Aimard. This is a magnificent piece of work, which kept me stuck to a listening post for thirty minutes when I came across it in the summer. Very twentieth century, with all of the good and bad things thereby connoted, but with a central beauty (amid the chaos) that enthralled me. The performance is equal parts dreamy and high octane. Quite a revelation, and precipitated a headlong plunge into learning more about Ives and his contemporaries (primarily Elliott Carter).

I will be purchasing the Iron and Wine disk, owing to its universal belovedness. I downloaded "Naked as We Came" in the summer and am a fan.

Am I allowed to rant and rave about Nico as a 2004 experience? Though it's from the late sixties early seventies, it's my numero uno discovery of the year, but outside the bounds of these list. Damned unfair. Maybe I'll do a "best re-issue" list (though actually her music wasn't even re-issued in '04, goddamn it).