Tracks Magazine Best of 2004

[Aggie87]

While this isn't a jazz magazine, it is one I have been picking up when I see it. It purports to care about "good" music, regardless of style. Granted, it's somewhat corporate, but what isn't these days. I think their intent is good (or they're fooling me, which ain't too hard to do). Anyway, I found a couple of interesting things on their year end best of lists.

Top 20 Albums of 2004:

1. U2 - How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb

2. Wilco - A Ghost is Born

3. Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose

4. Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous

5. Steve Earle - The Revolution Starts Now

6. Bjork - Medulla

7. Prince - Musicology

8. Norah Jones - Feels Like Home

9. Elvis Costello - The Delivery Man

10. R.E.M. - Around the Sun

11. Kanye West - The College Dropout

12. Tom Waits - Real Gone

13. Youssou N'Dour - Egypt

14. Patty Griffin - Impossible Dream

15. Don Byron - Ivey-Divey

16. Joss Stone - Mind, Body & Soul

17. Jesse Malin - The Heat

18. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand

19. Nellie McKay - Away From Me

20. J.J. Cale - To Tulsa and Back

Top 10 Reissues:

1. Bob Dylan - Live 64 Concert at Philharmonic Hall/Bootleg Vol. 6

2. John Lennon - Acoustic

3. Animals - Retrospective

4. Candi Staton - Candi Staton

5. Faces - Five Guys Walk Into A Bar

6. Talking Heads - The Name of this band is Talking Heads

7. Jerry Garcia - All Good Things Box

8. Miles Davis - Seven Steps Box

9. Brian Eno - assorted reissues

10. Rockpile - Seconds of Pleasure

Top 10 DVDs:

1. Beatles - First US Visit

2. MC5 - A True Testimonial

3. Rolling Stones - Rock and Roll Circus

4. Elliott Smith - Olympia, Washington

5. Elvis Presley - '68 Comeback Special

6. Hip Hop Time Capsule: Best of RETV 1992

7. Can - DVD

8. Howling Wolf - The Howlin Wolf Story

9. Sun Ra - Space is the Place

10. Tom Dowd & The Language of Music

...I was glad to see the Don Byron album up there! And how the new U2 album can be the best of 2004 when it hasn't even been released kind of confuses me, but oh well. And ya gotta like any list in 2004 that includes Sun Ra!!

[Aggie87]

Tracks related, so I thought I'd bump this one back up.

If anyone's interested, there is an article, amounting to 3/4 page or so, about Rudy Van Gelder in the current issue of Tracks (with Lennon on the cover). It also includes 8 pages of Francis Wolff photographs!

For a mainstream music mag, I like Tracks, and it's not expensive, $3.99, and includes a compilation CD of recently released artists. The current CD includes songs from North Mississippi Allstars, Aimee Mann, Jason Moran, & Camper Van Beethoven...

edit - the Moran track is "Jump Up" from his next album, "Same Mother"...

Edited January 9, 2005 by Aggie87

[wolff]

Very good magazine. Still waiting on the Lennon issue.

[GregK]

I've listened to that Wilco album-I fail to see what all the fuss is about. I like Wilco, liked them a lot earlier, not so much now but I have a great respect for them for changing so much, refusing to remake the same album, etc (they are a lot like Neil Young that way), but if that's the second best album of 2004, then it was a pretty dull year

[Soul Stream]

Joss Stone? She makes me want to throw up.

[Eric]

I've listened to that Wilco album-I fail to see what all the fuss is about. I like Wilco, liked them a lot earlier, not so much now but I have a great respect for them for changing so much, refusing to remake the same album, etc (they are a lot like Neil Young that way), but if that's the second best album of 2004, then it was a pretty dull year

Agree completely. The classic "semi-alternative media darlings that can do no wrong"

[J Larsen]

For a slightly different take on things, here is the Wire's top 50. (The Wire is sort of like the Avant-Garde equivilent to the Wire - if it's good and a little wierd it's in.) The typos aren't my fault, I copied this from another page. I made the correction of changing Ayers to Ayler, but left the rest as was. I've heard about one-third to half of these. Many are interesting but not quite "there", such as the Banhart (he's part of the burgeoning "free folk" movement), the Fennesz (he sounds too much like Markus Popp for my taste), and the Arthur Russell. I find Wolf Eyes unlistenable. Brian Wilson should have been higher up on the list, IMO (where is he on the Tracks list, BTW???).

As for the rap on the list, Dizzee Rascal is pretty cool, his delivery reminds me a little of Slick Rick (perhaps only because he's British), but he gets his producers to lay down very innovative tracks for him. I guess the Madvillian is cool, but MF Doom is getting a little repetitive for me. Kanye West is Kanye West - do you really need to buy an album when you hear it everywhere? It's pretty good, but...

I have to pick up Holy Ghost soon. I was dragging my feet on it for a while, as I kept asking myself "Do I really need another nine cds of Ayler?" Then, one morning, I woke up and said "What the hell was I thinking? Of COURSE I need another nine cds of Ayler!"

I've never checked out Keiji Haino. Any fans? How would you rate the signal-to-noise ratio?

albert ayler - holy ghost

sonic youth - sonic nurse

fennesz - venice

death prod - deathprod box

animal collective - sung tongs

devendra banhart - rejoice in the hands

wolf eyes - burned mind

wilco - a ghost is born

pg six - the well of memory

einsturzende neubauten - perpetuum mobile

arthur russel - calling out of context

ellen fullman & konrad sprenger - ort

brian wilson - smile

akira rabelais - spellewauernyg...

radian - juxaposition

bark psychosis - codename dustsucker

dizzee rascal - showtime

keiji haino - black blues

bjork - medulla

ghost - hypnotic underworld

zeena parkins & ikue mori - phamton orchard

cLOUDDEAD - ten

sunburned hand of man - rare wood

ramon sender - worldfood

alvin curran - lost marbles

madvillian - madvilliany

steve harris & zaum - above our heads the sky splits open

the hafler trio - how to slice a loaf of bread

electralane - the power out

deerhoof - milk man

antena - camino del sol

mv + ee - lunar blues

kazuo imai - far & wee

the streets - a grand dont come for free

kanye west - the college dropout

boredoms - seadrum/hosue of sun

sunn0))) - white 2

arcade fire - funeral

anthony braxton quartet - 23 standards

rammellzee -bi-conicals

jack rose - raag manifestos

stereolab - margerine

nick cave and the bad seeds - abbatoir blues

comets on fire - blue cathedral

keiji haino - next lets try changing the shape

niobe - voodooluba

soft pink truth - do you wnat the new...

thalia zedek - trust not those whom without some touch of madness

tucker martine - broken hearted dragonflies

black dice - creature comforts

[Soul Stream]

One list is just the obvious alt. media darlings, and the other is so extreme (I don't know 90% of the artists). I mean to start off with Albert Ayler as number one?!

I guess I'm so tired of paid music media and their opinions....

[chris olivarez]

Tracks related, so I thought I'd bump this one back up.

If anyone's interested, there is an article, amounting to 3/4 page or so, about Rudy Van Gelder in the current issue of Tracks (with Lennon on the cover). It also includes 8 pages of Francis Wolff photographs!

For a mainstream music mag, I like Tracks, and it's not expensive, $3.99, and includes a compilation CD of recently released artists. The current CD includes songs from North Mississippi Allstars, Aimee Mann, Jason Moran, & Camper Van Beethoven...

edit - the Moran track is "Jump Up" from his next album, "Same Mother"...

Just picked up the magazine and enjoyed seeing the Wolff photos. I'm sure these are not new for the majority of the posters but it was the first time I have seen these photos and I really enjoyed them.