The Boneman

Nice list - but I can only imagine your exclusion of Augie March is due to poverty of pocket and not poverty of perspective.

t-diddy

damn son that is a good list

Jeff Hubbard

Actually, it's not really either - I just haven't been able to find the AM record anywhere, and I've yet to get off my ass and order it on-line (a contradiction in terms there, I know). I guess I want to make sure it's just that good. I'll probably go ahead and pick it up, based on your raves, Kevin.

Jeff Hubbard

Well, damn, I know when I'm beat; I'm going to have to amend this mutha, thanks to Kevin's constant hounding about checking out Augie March, and Ryan and Kyle's quite accurately calling me on my release date bullshit (though, with some justification on my part - when you can't trust the dates in liner art, what can you trust?). So without further ado, please add Augie March's excellent "Strange Bird" to my list at number, oh, let's say "9," Oneida's "Secret Wars" at "7," and push everything else down one. As such, both Clinic and Elliott Smith bite the dust, I'm afraid. Adios, my friends!

Jeff Hubbard

Dammit, you're right on the Dizzee Rascall, too! All I can say there is, fuck those Village Voice pundits that included the import version on their 2003 ballots (although I guess I'm guilty of the same thing by choosing the Bees record, so, fuck me, too!). I still don't like "Showtime" enough to put it in my top 25, though. It's interesting, to a point, but also fairly difficult to take in one sitting, if you ask me.

Just so you established critic types here know, I have to buy all my shit (I don't have the luxury of working at a CD store, or of getting promo copies), so consider my list a true labor of love, and of devotion to the shit I actually bought this year!

Ryan Slack's

Interesting list to say the least. Probably one of the only "Best of" lists this year to feature not 1, but 2 metal releases. I checked out Ariel Pink because I saw that he was signed to the same label as Animal Collective. Intriguing stuff, but most of the tracks still sound like mediocre b-sides.

Honorable mentions: Brian Wilson, Madvillain, The Arcade Fire and The Futureheads.

Questionable mentions: TV On The Radio (really? #2?), Norah Jones, Mastodon, Isis, and Air.

George Blanda

There's nothing worse than music critics genuflecting to each other. You're assholes by definition...now you've become fawning assholes. Be men! Or at least be ballsy women. If you haven't heard an Augie March album that came out 2 years ago don't kiss ass...kick ass. You should be humiliating that lard ass for liking it.

In times of weakness ask yourself what Lester Bangs or Chuck Eddy would do. Then excoriate yourself for asking yourself what other critics would do. Then, secretly, do what they would have done. That should be your credo. Instead, this titmouse cares what the Dave Barry of Utah thinks!?! Dare not to care.

Bone

Blanda - where the hell you been man? You've been missed. I feel phantom pains when you're away - little fleeting twinges where my pain in the ass used to be. Welcome home!

Jeff Hubbard

Wow, I just came on here to say that Joanna Newsom's latest piece of shit is POINTEDLY not on my list for a reason (boring, pretentious, and, OH MY GOD!, that 12 year old voice!), and here I find a bunch of shit that I want, no, need, to respond to.

First off, to Ryan Slacker - GODDAMN, yes, TV on the Radio at number 2! I make no apologies of any kind for loving a record that is as radical a re-invention of rock methodology as anything in the last five years. Besides that, "The Wrong Way," "Staring at the Sun," and "Dreams" are simply amazing, insidiously catchy tunes. What, if I'd put it at number eight, you'd find that acceptable? Fuck that. I LOVE that record, and I make no excuses for such.

And the Norah Jones belongs in any top ten of this year's music, unless your such a hipster wannabee that you can't hear terrific music due to the screaming of a few critics that tell us that "Feels Like Home" is perfect yuppie music for the Lexus drive to work. Absolute bullshit! Norah Jones is seriously talented, and "FLH" is her best work yet. 'Nuff said.

Ariel Pink's album sounded like b-sides? Did you know that both "Penny Lane" and "Maggie May" were originally b-sides? Who cares? "The Doldrums" is an immensely engrossing record, one that keeps me coming back, trying to unlock its secrets. I didn't like "Bee Thousand" on the first few listens, either. Give it more than one run through via some "All Music" clips, and it will register.

Now, on to my old, dear friend George Blanda. If I were seriously genuflecting, would I have ranked the above as I did (see Slack's criticism). Frankly, in what I deem a so-so year for music, at best, these represented the albums that I came back to most often, nothing more or less. Yes, Kevin's "Augie March" rec did inspire me to investigate (as did David Fricke and "All Music"), but they did not ensure the album's inclusion. It's simply a really, really good record (by the way, you're constant harping on its release date is tiresome, and beside the point; it was released in 2004 in the US). 99.9% of critics placed the Franz Ferdinand record in their top ten, and I fucking DESPISE that record. Make assumptions, as you will, but these records represent nothing so much as my own twisted predilections. If you're so fucking brave as to criticize other's picks - anonymously, I might add - why don't you post your own top twenty, so that we can have a real dialogue here. Otherwise, my good, good friend, shut the fuck up.

Jeff Hubbard

In addition, let me say that my only REAL apology resulting from my top 25 list goes out to Tom Waits. Due to the plethora of middling reviews, I didn't check out "Real Gone" at any length until this last week, and that record is fantastic, worthy of at least a four star review, and would probably ousted something else from my list, had I lived with it a while. I really don't understand those that say it's more challenging than, say, "Bone Machine" (which I also love). Turntables are fucking his shit up, you say? You've got to be kidding - they only appear on a few tunes, and where they do, they work perfectly. "Hoist that Rag" is one of his best tunes ever, and I've yet to find "Sins of the Father" undeserving of its eleven minute running time.

This album belongs on the short list of best Waits records, up there with "Rain Dogs." Or maybe I've just been listening to too much Beefheart.

Jeff Hubbard

By the way, I lied: I should also apologize to both Sufjan Stevens, who's "Seven Swans" is really every bit as good as the Iron & Wine record, or at least damn close. And, while I'm at it, the Ponys' new record is terrific, too. This top 25 shit is tough - I should've at least gone to 30!

George Blanda

Three responses in a row! That's approaching masturbatory levels. I'm beginning to think you're insecure about your opinions. You shouldn't get so upset with me...I'm merely the lance aiming for the boils of ego on this web-mess. My top 25 will stay safely locked in my mind--that way I won't risk boring anyone with my useless opinions. What's your excuse?

Carolyn

I enjoyed your list the most, becuase you wrote about each and explained you position. You should write more often. YOur Brian Wilson review is the best thing Ive read on this website

Doug H

Jeff,

Great stuff!!!! I bought Smile-Brian Wilson after I got back from Orlando. Thanks for the heads up on the music and this great site.

PS -Nice Fall in Orlando :)

Tim

yours is the most spot on list in this batch - you should write more often, I could only find a handful of yours. Your Brain Wilson bit was brilliant great analagy at the end. Cheers

Christine

Well done Jeff - your fan in San Francisco

Nino Brown

You're Good Jeff. Your reviews are EXCELLENT. Finito.