The top 1% of the songs on my weekly mixes of 2004 total 11 songs. Here's a countdown of them to my favorite of the year.
11. "Run Into Flowers" by M83
I fell in love with this then-new song early in 2004. It's so rich and emotional and ethereal and dramatic. The vocals are ghostly under this mix but work just right. It doesn't sound like anything I've ever heard, maybe a little like My Bloody Valentine mixed with classical music.
10. "Millionaire" by Kelis featuring Andre 300
"Milkshake" was her big single from this album and as great as that is, I can't believe it didn't make one of these "best ofs". But this was my favorite song from her album, if for Andre 3000's cameo alone. The production, like a vintage arcade game, bubbles up under her cooing. And his lyrics are so witty and wise.
9. "Let's Stay Together" by Cee-lo featuring Pharrell
Way before Gnarls Barkley, I was a fan of the eccentric Southern gentleman known as Cee-Lo. This is from his album of 2004, with great production and back-up singing by producer du jour Pharrell and a great modern-day soul man performance by Cee Lo. Funny, uplifting and warm. I never got tired of hearing this.
8. "One" by Ghostface Killah
The centerpiece of what I consider the greatest rap album ever, Ghostface Killah's 2000 release Supreme Clientele. The production, with the hiccuping female vocal repeating "One" against Ghostface's brilliant and nonsensical lyrics, carries a certain hypnotic appeal I can't describe except that I couldn't get enough of it.
7. "Children's Story" by Slick Rick
The perversity and wit of Slick Rick's proto-gangsta anthem ever being intended for children is almost lost in the incredible beat, horns and killer piano hook. This is some of the first hip hop I had ever heard and I loved rediscovering it in 2004. His delivery is like none other, a weird blend of menace and goofiness.
6. "Maps" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
So this was one of the big ballads of the year in 2004 and deservedly so. It seemed even then that this would be timeless, with such simple lyrics and beautiful singing against that tense percussion and brittle guitar. One of the songs on here that will remind me a lot of 2004 and also stay with me a lot longer than that.
5. "Unsatisfied" by The Replacements
A half a lifetime ago, this would have been undoubtedly my number one in any year. The most searing of all Replacements songs, I love the soaring guitar and of course the sentiment. I must not have outgrown all my teen angst to find it so resonant so many years later, in 2004 or today, and I'm grateful for that.
4. "Try A Little Tenderness (live)" by Otis Redding
The definitive reading of his most classic ballad. The piece of evidence which suggests that he was about the most exciting performer ever. The whole second half of the song is a frantic fade out, and will give you goosebumps.
3. "B.O.B." by Outkast
They released this around 1999, so it was eerily prescient as 2004 was much more the year of " bombs over Baghdad". It seems to straddle more genres than any other song, hip hop or otherwise, has ever done successfully. I love the energy and wit and the genius in the sound.
2. "I'm Not The Man I Used To Be" by Fine Young Cannibals
I first heard this when I was half as old as I am now, around the time it came out. These guys had bigger hits, but this is the one that stuck with me. Roland Gift's falsetto, the percussion and horns all lend a melancholy to getting older that I always knew would be there, even when I was a young man. A melancholy but a beauty, too.
1. "Love My Way" by The Psychedelic Furs
I sometimes decide, with all my omnivorous and carefully curated music taste, that this is my favorite song ever. I was thrilled to rediscver it in 2004. Despite my interest in lyrics, I always love the sound of a record more than anything. And the sound on here is so dreamy and mysterious, conjuring so many feelings. Then there is Richard's Butler's singing, full of heartache and longing without ever losing his cool.
