What Do Our Old End-of-Year Lists Say About Us?
Screw the zeitgeist, let's cast our minds back to the simpler days of 2004...
2004 seems like a simpler time.
Arsenal won the Premier League, the New England Patriots triumphed in the Superbowl, and the winning U.S. election ticket didn’t even feature Joe Biden or Donald Trump. Madness.
The biggest prize of the year, however, went to a plucky young band from Montreal, Canada called Arcade Fire, who scooped No Ripcord’s coveted Best Album of the Year award for their spellbinding debut, Funeral. Writing in our end-of-year feature, our Canadian correspondent Cam Lindsay eloquently summarised the record’s charms:
Though the mood of the music flirts with mortality and melancholic stoicism, the overwhelming element is an uplifting, sensational ray of hope. Whether it’s the well-placed accordion, the call and response chants, the husband and wife vocalists or the skittish disco drumbeats that appear out of thin air, the Arcade Fire battled their emotions for our enjoyment and gave indie rock its exclamation point on another great year for the underground’s rise to the top.
Cam was right, of course — 2004 was a great year for new music. Sadly, this fact was only partially reflected in No Ripcord’s Top 50 list, which reads like a celebration of men, guitars, and especially men with guitars. Here’s the list in full:
No Ripcord’s Top 50 Albums of 2004:
50. Comets on Fire - “Blue Cathedral” (Sub Pop)
49. Scissor Sisters - “Scissor Sisters” (Polydor)
48. The Earlies - “These Were the Earlies” (WEA)
47. The Beta Band - “Heroes To Zeroes”
(Regal)
46. Lali Puna - “Faking the Books” (Morr Music)
45. Múm - “Summer Make Good” (Fat Cat)
44. MF DOOM - “MM FOOD” (Rhymesayers)
43. Of Montreal - “Satanic Panic in the Attic” (Polyvinyl)
42. The Killers - “Hot Fuss” (Island)
41. Loretta Lynn - “Van Lear Rose” (Interscope)
. . .
40. Max Richter - “The Blue Notebooks” (Fat Cat)
39. The Liars - “They Were Wrong So We Drowned” (Mute)
38. Clinic - “Winchester Cathedral” (Domino)
37. Hope of the States - “The Lost Riots” (Sony)
36. Dizzee Rascal - “Showtime” (XL)
35. Squarepusher - “Ultravisitor” (Warp)
34. Mark Lanegan Band - “Bubblegum” (Beggars Banquet)
33. The Secret Machines - “Now Here Is Nowhere” (Warner Bros.)
32. Bjork - “Medulla” (One Little Indian)
31. Tom Waits - “Real Gone” (Anti)
. . .
30. Blood Brothers - “Crimes” (V2)
29. Morrissey - “You Are The Quarry” (Attack!)
28. Xiu Xiu - “Fabulous Muscles” (5RC)
27. Deerhoof - “Milk Man” (5RC)
26. The Go! Team - “Thunder Lightening Strike” (Memphis Industries)
25. Dungen - “Ta Det Lungt” (Subliminal Sounds)
24. Adem - “Homesongs” (Domino)
23. Death From Above 1979 - “You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine” (679)
22. The Streets - “A Grand Don't Come For Free” (679)
21. Joanna Newsom - “The Milk-Eyed Mender” (Drag City)
. . .
20. The Fiery Furnaces - “Blueberry Boat” (Rough Trade)
19. Elliott Smith - “From a Basement on The Hill” (Domino)
18. Mission of Burma - “ONoffON” (Matador)
17. Sufjan Stevens - “Seven Swans” (Rough Trade)
16. Fennesz - “Venice” (Touch)
15. Iron & Wine - “Our Endless Numbered Days” (Sup Pop)
14. Brian Wilson - “Smile” (Nonesuch)
13. Wilco - “A Ghost Is Born” (Nonesuch)
12. TV on the Radio - “Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes” (Touch & Go)
11. Modest Mouse - “Good News For People Who Like Bad News” (Epic)
. . .
10. Junior Boys - “Last Exit” (Kin)
9. Madvillain - “Madvillainy” (Stones Throw)
8. Air - “Talkie Walkie” (Source / Virgin)
7. Franz Ferdinand - “Franz Ferdinand” (Domino)
6. The Futureheads - “The Futureheads” (679)
5. Animal Collective - “Sung Tongs” (Fat Cat)
4. Sonic Youth - “Sonic Nurse” (Geffen)
3. Interpol - “Antics” (Matador)
2. The Walkmen - “Bows + Arrows” (Record Collection)
1. The Arcade Fire - “Funeral” (Merge)
This got me thinking about end-of-year lists and how they merely reflect the author’s — or publication’s — tastes, preferences, and prejudices. They are our favourite records, rather than the objective best works of the year, even if these articles tend to be titled in a manner that suggests otherwise.
In 2004, No Ripcord skewed heavily towards indie rock music, so it’s hardly surprising that a predominantly male staff (12 men, 1 woman) arrived at the top 20 you see above, with the big hitters rising to the top because everyone has made the time to check those records out.
Most writers will have submitted an individual list featuring a few more diverse choices — sometimes our lists hint at how we want to be perceived, usually a combination of edgy, open-minded, and cerebral — but the lack of consensus over these fringe picks is why superb records like MF DOOM’s MM..FOOD and Múm’s Summer Make Good are languishing in the mid-40s.
I used to take these lists very seriously. Too seriously. Giant, colour-coded, elaborate formula-containing spreadsheet seriously. Everything was strictly democratic and I can assure you there was absolutely no editorial curation — the scoring system was set in advance and the Top 50 you can see reproduced below is simply a list of albums ranked by score. My steadfast commitment to fairness is the only reason The Killers made the cut. I can still remember my raging internal conflict over that pick — and they only placed at #42. Yes, that is a window into the mind of 22-year-old me.
It is pretty wild that Arcade Fire topped the poll because their album hadn’t even been released in the UK at the time. Given around half of our writers were British, they must have done exceptionally well with the North American contingent. I don’t think I had even heard Funeral at the time of voting.
What would I like to see reflected here from 2004 instead? Here are five non-indie rock records that could have featured:
Annie - “Anniemal”
ISIS - “Panopticon”
Ghostface - “The Pretty Toney Album”
De La Soul - “The Grind Date”
Mastodon - “Leviathan”
The College Dropout is another odd omission, but I didn’t really rate Kanye at the time so I’m hardly going to include him now.
If it’s obvious that No Ripcord’s Top 50 Albums of 2004 is the work of a group of indie rock nerds, the quality of picks emphasises just how great a time it was to be an indie rock nerd. The year produced some truly seminal records. Listen to The Walkmen’s Bows + Arrows, for example — The Rat is a bonafide classic, but everything else sounds urgent and remarkably fresh. Interpol’s Antics is amazing. Funeral remains a phenomenally powerful album, even though allegations against Win Butler will have tainted it for many.
The lower reaches of these lists often contain the real gems, and the final album I’d like to highlight is Lali Puna’s excellent Faking the Books. The German electronic band aren’t as well known as they should be and this is their finest hour. Give it a listen if it passed you by the first time around.
I take my end-of-year lists a little less seriously these days, but I still rank my picks and try to represent the full range of music I enjoy. I’ll be publishing my 2024 picks soon, over a series of posts. Meanwhile, the No Ripcord team will be sharing our annual collaborative list in mid-December, so keep an eye out for that.
No Ripcord Top 50 Albums of 2004: The Playlist
Sadly, the Loretta Lynn and Joanna Newsom albums aren’t available on Spotify. Let me know in the comments if you discover anything new.