Editor’s Note:
Compiling the top 15 albums of the year was a greater challenge than anyone on the Entertainment staff probably imagined. We dissected the year’s best music — everything from modern country to bubblegum pop. As a staff, we implemented a selection process that included personal taste, album sales, number of singles produced, innovation and value of the album as a whole. Some made the cut, while others fell to the wayside. We were ruthless in our selections, although as a staff, we realize that this list should not be regarded as definitive.
When there is such a narrow window in choosing the best of any form, certain entities are deemed expendable and given honorable mention nods. This list is intended for The Reveille’s direct readership, the students, and we sincerely hope this list serves you as a stepping-stone toward the best music of 2004.- Mark F. Bonner
 
1. Kanye West, The College Dropout
Kanye West is the future of rap music, and with a single album, has changed the game forever.
Rarely has a producer-turned-rapper been so successful on an album, much less a debut.
After slowly making his name known as a producer with obvious skill (he has produced songs for Jay-Z and Alicia Keyes), West explodes with his first foray into rapping himself.
The smooth blending of blazing snare taps and samples of everyone from Chaka Khan to Luther Vandross revisits the style that worked so well with other artists. Each track on “The College Dropout” is better than the one before.
If Kanye West had only produced this album, it would still be among the best of the year.
But what really enhances his talent is the masterful blending of prolific lyrics.
“Now hear ye hear ye want to see Thee more clearly. I know he hear me when my feet get weary cuz we’re the almost nearly extinct. We rappers are role models we rap we don’t think,” West raps in “Jesus Walks.”
Tracks such as “The New Workout Plan” provide the obligatory club rhymes, but with West, there always seems to be more.
The impact of this album is more than the rhythms and lyrics found on the surface.
Instead of the typical tracks about blunts and platinum chains, West fills his album with troubles faced in day-to-day life and focuses on singing about more important matters.
The underlying tone for the whole album is one of faith in God and West’s belief in his higher purpose.
He talks of the struggles of college and never fitting in school in “We Don’t Dare,” and the frustrations of working a part-time job in “Spaceship.”
West is easy to identify with; the things he faces and has faced could easily happen to anyone.
West recorded a track shortly after surviving a car wreck and having his jaw wired shut (“Through the Wire”), and throughout, never ceases to give thanks for the second chance he has been given.
Importantly, West never comes off as preachy, only grateful.
Several tracks have background choirs that could easily be angels in heaven, which lends to the underlying theme of spirituality on the album.
He is reproachful of the culture of materialism that surrounds rap music, but he pokes fun at himself and admits that he is not above it.
“The College Dropout” perfectly weaves the lyrics into the beats and uses each to enhance the other.
The feeling of his album is influenced by several different sounds, yet it remains something completely new. The album is at the same time familiar and revolutionary.
“Keep your face to the rising sun,” West preaches on his record.
Whether he knows it or not, Kanye West is that rising sun.
This album is the truth to which all rappers and producers should look for guidance. Z. BROUSSARD
2. Garden State soundtrack
  In a time when most soundtracks are nothing more than commercial opportunities for film companies to make a profit, rarely is an album crafted to convey the greater scope of a film and harken listeners to the emotional mindset evoked by the movie’s greater purpose.
As the movie “Garden State” launches its creator and star Zach Braff on a soul-searching journey through his drug-drenched lifestyle, the accompanying soundtrack not only catapults its listeners into the trance of a modern antidepressant-induced existence, but also sends them on a journey through some of the most underrated artists of contemporary music.
Just as Natalie Portman extended her headphones to Zach Braff in the film and opened his mind to a higher state of perception, so does this album give the larger listening population a chance to peer into the world of deeply emotional songwriting. His meticulously-compiled collection takes listeners through the twangy progression of The Shins’ “New Slang” and the remake of Postal Service hit “Such Great Heights” by Iron & Wine to the electronic overtones of “Let Go” by Frou Frou and “In the Waiting Line” by Zero 7. His personal mix mesmerizes listeners into a spine-tingling state of euphoria.
The compiled soundtrack is so melancholic and breathtaking it is astounding to think that each song was not originally crafted to be part of the whole. It only further points to the mastery of each track to remain current decades later (Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Only Living Boy in New York”).
If for nothing else, the album receives applause for opening the backdoor to talented bands such as The Shins and Iron & Wine and allowing such underground artists an attempt at sneaking onto the iPods of unwitting college students everywhere. K.MOREAU
3. Usher, Confessions
Try channel surfing the radio at any given time of day, and an Usher song will likely be dominating pop and hip-hop stations. With a total of 28 weeks in the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart in 2004 alone, becoming the only artist ever to top the list for more than half a year, his infiltration of the airwaves is not surprising.
The young R&B singer is no stranger to the top position with previous chart-topping singles from his debut, “My Way.” But in 2004, Usher’s spark became an explosion with hit after hit released off “Confessions,” including a special edition release of the album that contained the number one single “My Boo” featuring Alicia Keys.
“Confessions” is an account of a man pleading a guilty case and coming clean about his infidelities and emotional disloyalty, but also dips into sexuality and appreciating the people around us. These themes allow Usher to slide away from his previous teen appeal and lands him into a new sensual adult crowd.
The characteristically slow R&B tunes flow like oozing caramel from a bitten-into candy bar on tracks such as “Burn” and “That’s What It’s Made For.” Other songs with faster tempos, such as “Caught Up” and “Bad Girl,” keep shoulders popping and hips swaying, but not quite like the crunkfest “Yeah” featuring Ludacris and Lil’ Jon that invaded car stereos and clubs for months.
Soulful, fun and sexy, “Confessions” is Usher’s most intimate and appealing album to date. Not only does he have staying power on the charts, but he has also solidified his presence as one of R&B’s most talented musicians. C.JOHNS
4. DJ Danger Mouse, The Grey Album
The tale of “The Grey Album” is the DJ’s equivalent of an urban legend.
What if contemporary hip-hop’s most pompous wordsmith had a dinner party with the greatest song-writing duo of all time, and they decided to make a baby after a few too many glasses of wine?
“The Grey Album” is the bastard child of an a cappella version of Jay-Z’s “Black Album” and the Beatles’ legendary “White Album.” Danger Mouse laboriously cuts-and-pastes two masterpieces together like an obsessive scrapbook, capturing the culture of modern hip-hop and making it seem more timeless than any average club joint. As the tightly-laced rhymes of Jay-Z’s grand finale are injected with the pulsating guitar of George Harrison, Danger Mouse takes the remix beyond mere dance club fodder to a higher level of artistry.
More than just a novelty record, “The Grey Album” is a movement — living proof that real hip-hop has less do to with mechanical beats and more to do with shotgun-speed lyrical prowess. The album further exemplifies what an intricate background of well-produced musicianship can do for gritty rhymes.
If Hova was at the top of his game with the electric guitar-infused “99 Problems,” “The Grey Album” makes the Rick Rubin-produced track sound like a teenage garage band. The album has a heated urgency best exemplified by Jay-Z’s “What More Can I Say?” intertwining with “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” Both Jay-Z’s vocals and the Beatles’ instrumentation sound more emotionally-desperate than ever before, as though the passion of their respective talents has driven them together. Listeners will go back for a second listen to the originals, but they will ultimately crave the mutated hybrid of the two. K.M.
5. Green Day, American Idiot
As bands prove again and again, growing up is hard to do. It is not easy to grow as a band (especially a pop-punk one) without being branded as a sellout. Green Day, as they went through their own growing pains, has more than matured in its career; it has exploded.
As the band almost single-handedly responsible for bringing punk into the mainstream, it is alienated by former fans for popularizing a genre of music and a youth culture that prided itself on being unpopular.
But, for all the nay-saying, each album produced still finds fans, maintaining a healthy balance between the old and new. This album is radically different from any they have produced, yet paradoxically, it is also the most like the early works of Green Day.
In their early days, the band wrote songs about the problems and experiences with which they had to deal every day — authority, rules, conformity and masturbation.
In “American Idiot,” though masturbation is missing, all the other problems that affected Green Day as children now effect them as parents.
With remarkable musical stylings and an opera format, the appeal of this album goes much deeper than the usual rapidly-moving pop-punk format.
It has taken its youthful rage and disillusionment and brought it into the greater scheme of things. Moving from parents and principals to presidents and corporations, the anger and cynicism through which Green Day made a name for themselves is still there — but now, it has found a more menacing target. Z.B.
6. The Killers – Hot Fuss
Sin City may be known for drive-through weddings and corrupt casinos, but through the chaos, The Killers emerged this year to make all other rock groups bow like wheat before the sickle.
To put it succinctly, it’s all killer with no filler.
The infectious sing-a-long single “Somebody Told Me,” may have mind-boggling lyrics, but regardless of what message lead vocalist Brandon Flowers is trying to convey, it sounds pretty spiffy. The following is an amusing example of the catchy, yet complex lyrics of the track: “Somebody told me you had a boyfriend, who looks like a girlfriend that I had in February of last year.” Despite the androgynous lyrical tendencies, the track and the album as a whole have a dingy sex appeal.
All 11 songs invoke musical euphoria, but “Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine” shows the darker side of The Killers as they tell the tale of her murder, but never lose their trademark sound in the process. Though Flowers has homicidal-maniac moments on this track, the album still retains its upbeat dance groove.
“Mr. Brightside,” is among the tracks that includes lyrics for lovers. “Now they’re going to bed and my stomach is sick, and it’s all in my head, but she’s touching his chest. Now, he takes off her dress.” Flowers’ bleak and come-hither lyrics epitomize the sultry sound that causes young girls hearts’ to flutter.
The Killers debut album perfectly mixes the feel of the dark and melancholy 80s bands with the modern indie-pop “The” bands. Of all the albums of 2004, “Hot Fuss” delivers a unique twist on contemporary indie-rock that has put the spotlight on this Las Vegas quartet that is destined for stardom. R.HANEY
7. Fraz Ferdinand
The fluorescent guitar chords paired with indie-disco beats puts Franz Ferdinand in a category all its own. The album is stuffed with the post-punk pattern, building on itself in several songs that beat out the popular single, “Take me out.”
Ferdinand’s agitated guitars never give up, creating a funk beat that is impossible not to dance to.
The lyrics are completely sensible, yet they reject the cliché. In “Matinee,” lead vocalist Alexander Kapranos sings, “Oh how you’d have a happy life, if you did the things you like.”
But Ferdinand’s way with words is incomparable to the seductive pauses hidden between the sheen of the guitar and drum solos.
In “Darts of Pleasure,” he whispers, “You can’t feel my lips undress your eyes,” introducing one of his several voices that are littered throughout the album.
Kapranos has a straight-forward rock voice, but sometimes breaks into a raspy whisper or a high-pitched, excited roar. Playing off a form of trickery, “Jacqueline” starts the album off soft, but not for long. The gentle guitar quickly warps into the danceable funk, an introduction to the jam-packed tracks ahead. Franz sounds familiar, but they are completely original. It is convincing; Ferdinand needs no concept or reason. H.PHILLIPS
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