Best of 2004

Judging by some of the artists that released records this year (and good records at that), it could be 1991, not 2004. Jeez, let’s take a look: The Muffs, Green Day, Social Distortion, Bad Religion, The Descendents (ok,I know technically they were exclusively using the name ALL back in ’91, but you know what I mean), oh the list goes on.

This list is admittedly a little white bread, but ever since I discovered the cheap bin at Sonic Boom, I’ve been stocking up on CDs that came out ages ago, but couldn’t afford to get when they were new. Like those old Spitboy and Rattled Roosters CDs, for example. And it's not like my mail box is overflowing with stuff to review anyway, so this is me breaking the journalistic rule of not reviewing stuff you pay for, but whatever, this ain't Rolling Stone.

The following are a few records that caught my ears this past year:

Record of the Year: The Empire Strikes First – Bad Religion (Epitaph)
In the bunch mentioned above, Bad Religion probably made the biggest impact of them all. As I noted in a Top 5 earlier this year, I was less than impressed with their 2002 release The Process of Belief. It seemed to me that they were taking a step back. I realize that I’m in the minority, but I thought that the release immediately previous, A New America, was a new beginning for the band after a couple of weak records. They seemed re-invigorated, maybe a little older, with songs that had the energy and passion of the louder-faster-shorter records they made in the late ‘80s – early ‘90s with the longer, more complete material they were fumbling with in the late ‘90s. But The Process of Belief felt like a cop out, a return to two-minute hardcore blasts that they seemed to have outgrown. It felt awkward in places, like they were doing something that was way too easy.

By contrast, they seem to have taken a few things from that experience and directed it in a positive new direction. The Empire Strikes First is a stunning rebuke of the Bush administration and the regressive policies that has resulted in an unjust war, environmental rollbacks, and the encroachment of religion into American life by its government in a way that hasn’t been seen in this lifetime. “Let Them Eat War” is probably the angriest song Bad Religion has laid down since the early ‘90s, raging against the exploitation of the poor to fight a rich man’s war; “Beyond Electric Dreams” shows the band yearning for a simpler life “on a mountain” and “Live Again” questions a God that promises a better existence that you can only have once you die.

The Empire Strikes First takes the best of what makes Bad Religion one of their generation’s great bands: their musicality and angry, yet articulate lyrics, aiming it against the great leap backward they see their society taking, making the record that will likely stand as the centerpiece of their career.

Sex Love and Rock n Roll - Social Distortion (Time Bomb)
You know what I like most about this record? How positive and life affirming it is. Mike Ness seems to have found contentment after the years and years of the bad decisions, drug and alcohol abuse and other heartaches that would beat lesser men down that have been more than adequately chronicled in the band’s previous records. “Don’t Take More For Granted” is a touching tribute to Dennis Danell, a childhood friend of Ness’ and guitarist for Social Distortion from the band’s beginning in 1978 until his death in 2000, and “Angel Wings’’, the CD’s concluding track, has Ness riding off into the sunset, leaving the darkness of his former life behind.

The Tigers Have Spoken – Neko Case (Mint)
I wasn’t expecting to like this as much as I do. I was at one of the shows where this live album was recorded this past spring and at times I felt like I was watching a band record in a studio. Lots of starts and stops, playing the same song twice in a row, etc, but the thing is that, man, I could listen to Neko Case sing all day long, and in fact I have. When I first got this CD I put it on loop at work one day and must have played it six or seven times back to back. I won’t go into a big thing about how this release is a mixture of covers and originals, with only a couple of songs from her previous records, because you’ve probably heard it all before.

What I will go into is how I was struck by the contrast between the almost artful poeticism of her original material and the more traditional material she covers. Like how she sings sadly in one song about a dream where she gets blood on her dress from a deer she hit with her car (“Favorite”), then immediately takes a 180 degree turn to belt out a song about getting a kind of scarlet letter if a woman goes looking for love too earnestly after a divorce (Loretta Lynn’s “Rated X”). Other tracks that I really liked are her cover of the Nervous Eaters’ “Loretta”, “Train From Kansas City” originally recorded by the Shangri-Las, and “Hex” by Catherine Irwin.

You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine – Death From Above 1979 (Vice)
I really hope the name of this CD is not from a bad pick-up line (which would be second to that terrible line about asking to take her to the “gun show”). Their thundering bass and drums show that not every band has to be noodle and be all jazzy and stuff when you have only a bass and drums. But following Canadian bass/drum duos like Duotang and The Inbreds, they prove that you can play that sparingly and not miss the guitar; in fact, this CD is a lot fuller sounding than you would expect, which may by a cop out, with overdubs and all, but the band can carry this sound off live, too. Probably the best local release this year. Now if they would shave those moustaches they would be set.

Honourable Mentions: The Arcade Fire, Tangiers, Green Day, Carolyn Mark, Alanis Morissette, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

-- Keith Powell

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