2004. Weak year for music?

[YI]

The more I think about it, the more and more it seems that this year has been very weak for albums and bands so far. We have countless shitty indy bands, jumping on the Franz Ferdinand bandwagon, who are getting played all the time, and there's pretty much nothing else. So far this past 10 months, the only solid overall album i've heard is The Libertines (Possibly, The Killers album but that had a couple of weak songs). Now it's been a pretty shitty year for punk (If you're looking for a link, there is none. This is just the genre I listen too the most). No major breakout bands yet. New Sum 41 and Green Day albums, both of which IMO are weak (Sum 41's has a few good songs actually, but is overshadowed by the mediocreness of the rest). So i've ben forced to delve into the underground, but still I can't find anything that can satisfy my needs. Well that was until yesterday. On order from HMV (Ordered in from America) a small package came, inside "Siren Song of the Counter Culture", Rise Against's new album. I don't want to turn this thread into a shilling or advertising thread. But boy, was this refreshing. A lot more melodic than their previous stuff. It's got an original sound, just pure easy listening (One downside, not as much solo's as in previous stuff. I think there's only 1, and it isn't really that emphatic).

Okay, so this thread serves two purposes, well three.

First of all, do you feel like this year has been weak for good albums, great bands etc.?

Who do you feel has been the real breakout band, or what's your favourite album?

Plus recommend me some good punk bands if you wish :thumbsup:

This is not a end of year awards thingy or whatever (Sure i'd get a response like that). I just want peoples oppinions, it'll be interesting to see from other peoples eyes (Like those who like all these indy bands, who've found popularity).

[Enter Blue Guy]

What type of punk are you into? Just to narrow it down, because I have a few but they're not hardcore thrash punk or whatever.

[Ananas]

I think it depends at what genre you look at. It's been an extremely shitty year in hip-hop if you consider only the American scene. The only album I can remember enjoying that much is the Kanye West album, and to a lesser extent Talib Kweli (which was extremely disappointing). However, if you include European stuff, The Streets, Goldie Lookin Chain and Dizzee Rascal all released bad ass albums this year. There have been plenty of good albums this year: Bjork's "Medulla", Tom Waits "Real Gone", The Winks "Slippers and Parasol", Green Day's "American Idiot", The Killers "Hot Fuss" etc... And that's not even including the stuff that came out of the Brit Rock scene this year. I mean, it's had no definitive album like The Shins last year or Coldplay before it, but there have been plenty of rock solid CD's this year. The breakout band this year has got to be The Killers, in Canada at least. My favorite album would still be Bjork's "Medulla".

[Guest Bluesman]

'It's not confidential

that I have potential'

No, that's not some shit line written by a 10 year old girl dreaming of a pop career (although it sure sounds like it), it's a line from one of the 'breakout' bands of 2004, the Killers. It used to be when music 'critics' would take a cd like this and give it its ideal treatment...life as a frisbee. Now though, they too have seemingly become cogs in the music industries trend whore plan for global dominance. Over the summer I lived in a place that had more than just top 40, oldies, and 508 country music stations. I did a great deal of listening to an 'alternative' station until I got the cd player in the car (thank god for that), and whenever I'd hear some shitty song, it was about a 90% rate that it was a 'breakout' band like The Killers. It seems now as if the music industry fuckheads think they can take any musical genre and completely whore it out until it's utter shit that is bought up by a bunch of MTV tools. That they now do this with the garage/indy band makes you wonder what they could be coming for next. Could they get frisky and by this time next year we'll have John Bach, a great singer and shitty classical pianist who is just to adorable with his big dimples and brown eyes? I know for sure that if they come anywhere close to the blues genre, someone is going to get fucked up. Bad.

[Fitzy]

Break out bands of 2004 are Crossfade and Breaking Benjamin. Both hae gotten major attention, especially Breaking Benjamin thanks to the awesome song, "So Cold." Crossfade has found a lot of success with "Cold."

[Jook]

I dunno..... I think it's been alright. Kasabian, Hope Of The States, The Killers, Razorlight, Graham Coxon, Franz Ferdinand, Bjork etc have all released great albums. But that's about it really. Apart from that we've had weak releases from The Libertines and Ash, although we still have the new Kings Of Leon album out. Meh, it's not been amazing, last year was much better.

[Whoo]

Break out bands of 2004 are Crossfade and Breaking Benjamin. Both hae gotten major attention, especially Breaking Benjamin thanks to the awesome song, "So Cold."

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[K]

Ohmygoodgods it's Whoo *Teenage girl scream*

[Fitzy]

Break out bands of 2004 are Crossfade and Breaking Benjamin. Both hae gotten major attention, especially Breaking Benjamin thanks to the awesome song, "So Cold."

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At least some people are giving it up for Breaking Ben. :thumbsup:

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Edited October 17, 2004 by Fitzy

[Whoo]

Most people I know love the band. (Perhaps because they're from my hometown ) I figured the internet was just too elite for them. Especially since their newest release has gotten so much attention.

OMGZ IT'S IWC.

[tristy]

It's been a sad year for metal, I think.

Shadows Fall's new CD, The War Within, was a dissappointment, from what I heard. Lamb Of God's major label, Ashes Of The Wake, debut hasn't been talked about much recently.

We were promised a new Nine Inch Nails CD this year, but we're getting a re-release of The Downward Spiral, and the long-awaited Closure DVD.

The only highlight of music this year was Skinny Puppy's The Greater Wrong Of The Right, which blew me away. An album hasn't blown me away like that since Tool's Lateralus in 2001.

As for non-metal music, another highlight has to be the release of Gwen Stefani's solo debut, Love, Angel, Music, Baby on Nov. 23rd. The single is fucking awesome too.

Hopefully 2005 is a better year for metal fans, and all music fans worldwide.

[Enter Blue Guy]

Break out bands of 2004 are Crossfade and Breaking Benjamin. Both hae gotten major attention, especially Breaking Benjamin thanks to the awesome song, "So Cold." Crossfade has found a lot of success with "Cold."

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[Whoo]

Was Three Days Grace's CD released in 04?

This year has gona by so fast I haven't been able to keep up.

Edited October 17, 2004 by Whoo

[Enter Blue Guy]

It might have been late 2003, but either way their success has come in 2004.

[tristy]

Breaking Benjamin? I don't like them. The vocals are a nice change from the mainstream crap, but the music is just...eh. The lyrics are average. They get bonus points for Billy Corgan appearing on their latest CD, though.

I still think Saturate was better, though.

As for Crossfade, well, they just sound like another carbon copy rock band. Not my cup of tea.

[Fitzy]

Breaking Benjamin? I don't like them. The vocals are a nice change from the mainstream crap, but the music is just...eh. The lyrics are average. They get bonus points for Billy Corgan appearing on their latest CD, though.

I still think Saturate was better, though.

As for Crossfade, well, they just sound like another carbon copy rock band. Not my cup of tea.

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[Whoo]

Hmmm. Now that I think about it, 2004 wasn't all that bad for music. For me, anyway. :\

[Guest bukkake bandit]

Breaking Benjamin? I don't like them. The vocals are a nice change from the mainstream crap, but the music is just...eh. The lyrics are average. They get bonus points for Billy Corgan appearing on their latest CD, though.

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Edited October 17, 2004 by bukkake bandit

[IAceI]

I blame rap.

Breaking Benjamin's "We Are Not Alone" was released this year i do believe. I have absolutely no problems with that CD, not one bad song.

Crossfade are good but have some weak songs on their albums and i'm loving Earshot. They just seem very original and their "Two" album seems pretty good, i may think of picking it up sometime.

[Fitzy]

Breaking Benjamin? I don't like them. The vocals are a nice change from the mainstream crap, but the music is just...eh. The lyrics are average. They get bonus points for Billy Corgan appearing on their latest CD, though.

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Don't be so kind. They're very bland. And they should never try to cover Tool live again.

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[YI]

I love Crossfade and Breaking Benjamin aren't too bad, but they're not great either, quite average IMO. All in all it hasn't been a bad year in general (Except the outbreak of indy bands), but there isn't really a band that makes me go "wow" which has happened other years . With some great new British bands, Bloc Party and Kazabian (I would say Bloc Party are the best new British band this year, but they get very little recognition).

But for punk it's been quite a bad year. (Specifics of punk, I dunno. I'm pretty much open minded about all music. I normally go for harder stuff, but quite melodic. I'm also into technical punk (It's what they use to describe themselves), with bands like "pmx" and "Skyline Collapse". Also i'm into bands like Anti-Flag, Screeching Weasel, 88 Fingers Louie (1 or 2 of whom are in Rise Against, how I found out about Rise Against), Strike Anywhere etc. I don't know the exact name for them, but they've got amore unpolished sound to other bands, if you understand what i'm saying)

I'm not saying there hasn't been good bands this year, but there was only 2/3 albums I loved all the way through and they are, The Libertines album, The Killers album and Rise Against's album. Kasabian's album is good, but there's some weak songs (The 2 new singles have been a bit meh). I haven't been able to find a copy of Bloc Party's album, but i've got around 6/7 songs by them (Or head 6/7 songs) and they're all very good.

Strung Out's new album is out in about a month, so maybe that'll help get some good punk (Maybe it'l mean a good year for 2005). I've heard 2 songs off the album, 1 is average, the other is good, abou a 7/10. But nothing to get you realy excited about.

Edited October 17, 2004 by YI

[tristy]

Suggest punk bands?..

Have you tried Dead Kennedys, YI?

[Lord Nibbler]

I enjoyed the following albums:

Kanye West - College Dropout

Snow Patrol - Final Straw

Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News

Hope of the States - The Lost Riots

Masta Killa - No Said Date

Melissa Auf Der Maur - Melissa Auf Der Maur

Alanis Morisette - So-Called Chaos

Jedi Mind Tricks - Legacy of Blood

PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her

The Roots - Tipping Point

Interpol - Antics

Green Day - American Idiot

And that's only the albums I've heard, I don't have The Killers' album, or Real Gone or Kasabian's album.

Plus the following, expected later this year, could be good:

Rammstein - Reise, Reise

Jimmy Eat World - Futures

Eminem - Encore

U2 - How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb

Lauryn Hill - Khulami Phase

I got nothing against 2004.

[Emperor Fuckshit]

This has been an 'eh' kind of year.

As for the UK chart, Franz's debut album was pretty solid, although it did suffer from too much dross filler. You tend to get that on most indie albums, though. That was pretty much made up for by the greatness of the singles Take Me Out, Matinee and Michael.

The Killers really have not done it for me. They're a mediocre, boring indie band that I couldn't care less about.

Kasabian may be ultra-twats, but they're album has a few really nice songs on it (Club Foot, Processed Beats, Reason is Reason). To be honest, I've never really been into the whole dance-indie thing - at least not in the way it's done by the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays or Big Audio Dynamite. However, they are at least more interesting and can take their sound more places than The Killers, who will be stuck making indie shite for the forseeable future.

Razorlight seem to be moving up to the Franz sort of level - but, well...I really, really hate them. I have to wonder if they've ever had an original idea in their whole time making music. That just about does it for the British mainstream.

On the bright side, Dogs Die in Hot Cars produced a smashingly retro debut album.

Look for big things from Bloc Party and The Futureheads next year, methinks. Both great bands from whaty I've heard (although that is, admittedly, little).

The big album of the year in 2004 was seemingly 'American Idiot'. Green Day should've quit a long time ago. Dookie was pretty much their zenith, and anything beyond that has been...lame. They are not the Who, and this is not a rock opera. The titular single is a disgustingly light-weight song with awful lyrics, which is only redeemed somewhat by its catchy riff.

Before 2004 I'd never heard of Snow Patrol, but Final Straw kicked ass in a whole bunch of ways. Definately one of the albums of the year.

Interpol's second album was pretty frustrating. Their lyrics are horrible, and they come off like a poor man's Joy Division most of the time. 'Slow Hands' is a pretty solid single, though, I guess.

I can't claim to have heard either Crossfade or Breaking Benjamin. I guess I might check them out if I can be arsed.

The Constantines' debut album rocked.

'SMiLE' or however the fuck it's capitalized looks pretty decent from what I've heard.

[TAFKA Castroneves]

It hasn't been a bad year but it could have been better. The only album I really have listened to a lot which was released this year would be Slipknot's Vol.3 (The Subliminal Verses), Green Day's album had too much hype to live up to despite "American Idiot" being in my view the best single released this year. Goldie Lookin' Chain have also caught my attention but apart from that I can't see much else which I really enjoyed. Albums from Seether and Papa Roach were meh while Saliva's "Survival of the Sickest" was enough to make anyone sick literally. If System of a Down get round to releasing their new album this year I might have to reconsider but it has been put back and put back so who knows when it will surface?