2004
Let's see how this goes, shall we?
2004
Last year was pretty decent, though there weren’t any seriously huge singles. There were a few difficult choices: picking “Jesus Walks” over “Slow Jamz,” putting a Danger Mouse remix over a Black Album original, and “Dry Your Eyes” over “Fit But You Know It.” There are a few lesser known songs on here, most notably Mirah’s “Jerusalem” which displays the Indie rock/Folk crossover nicely, and Wiley’s “What You Call It,” which is a great track about the difficulty in naming Grime/Garage/Eskibeat/2-Step/Urban.
I originally had “Banquet” on here, since it was technically released in 2004 and was a huge hit in Britain, but I’m American so I’ll hold onto that track for this year.
Some other notable tracks I left off: Ghostface: Run, Fabolous: Breathe, Annie: Heartbeat, and Usher: Yeah! I hate that last song almost as much as I hate: J-Kwon: Tipsy.
The basic gist here is if you have suggestions or complaints, post them below. Be kind, as I am but one man, and I'm not pretending to have a final word on all music that is important.
1. Can't Stand Me Now - The Libertines - 3:23
2. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) - The Arcade Fire - 5:12
3. Jesus Walks - Kanye West - 3:13
4. Jerusalem - Mirah - 2:20
5. Dry Your Eyes - The Streets - 4:31
6. Oceania - Björk - 3:24
7. Mosh - Eminem - 5:17
8. Why (Remix) - Jadakiss feat. Styles P, Common, & Nas - 4:02
9. Boulevard Of Broken Dreams - Green Day - 4:20
10. Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand - 3:56
11. Ladyflash - The Go! Team - 4:09
12. Toxic - Britney Spears - 3:24
13. Galang - M.I.A. - 3:27
14. Float On - Modest Mouse - 3:29
15. Drop It Like It's Hot - Snoop Dogg - 4:26
16. Dirt Off Your Shoulder - DJ Danger Mouse - 3:59
17. All Caps - Madvillian - 2:10
18. What You Call It - Wiley - 3:17
19. The Rat - The Walkmen - 4:27
20. Your Cover's Blown - Belle & Sebastian - 6:03
UPDATE: Here is the Chris Martin version of "Dry Your Eyes" for replacement.
posted by bza @ 9/19/2005
25 Comments:
this is the project to end all other projects.
and the 2004 mix makes me feel pretty good about last year's music crop.
Did you include Mosh at all due to the awesomeness of its video? I think it's a good song, too, I'm just wondering.
I didn't include "Mosh" initially for two reasons. One, it was too emotional of a song for me to listen to at the time I made the mix, and two, the video so totally outshined the song.
However, I still think the song is both excellent, and extremely important. I think people have been complaining too much about the lack of politics in music. If you look at last year, it really was a very politically active year for musicians, it's just that that story was ignored by the media.
Eminem made a terrible album, but "Mosh" really is a worthwhile song, even aside from the fact that I think the video is probably the best music video ever.
The other comment I was going to make, relatedly, is that this mix does reflect a growing level of politicization of music last year (which has, fortunately, carried into this year, too).
yeah, i thought about podcasting, but it just seemed too difficult to set up, and I wanted people to be able to have each song anyway, so they could switch out ones they don't like and replace them, etc.
bza good to see the blog is back up and running, i had no idea about the YSI site, pretty amazing though.
so, any truth to the rumors about you taking a visit out here this fall?
we should talk, saw some good cmj shows this week - especially the gossip who totally caught me by suprise, and a late show with big boi, killer mike, sleepy brown, and some others of the atl scene.
So I am curious about leaving out the likes of Sufjan, Iron and Wine, Joanna Newsome. In the case of Iron and Wine there was mass appeal. I just wonder if this group is under represented. Would love to hear your thoughts.
Both Sufjan and Iron and Wine's albums came out in 2003. Iron and Wine will be on the next mix, but Sufjan will not be included until 2005. I originally had a Sufjan song on 2003, but his album wasn't big enough to merit pulling a track from it that wasn't really even a single. Illinois will be different. As for Joanna Newsome, I just really don't like her, but if I were to put her on here, I would replace Mirah with her. However, I think Mirah fits better with the political slant of the mix, and she doesn't sound like an elf being strangled by a kitten.
Davendra Banhart will also be on the 2005 mix.
Good question, though.
My mistake about the release dates. As per Joanna Newsome: I was going to forward this site to all my elvin friends but now I'm not so sure. I guess I associated that whole style with '04 but it started a few years before.
well, both sufjan and i&w had records in 2004 too, but they weren't as big (or as good, in my humble opinion) so you weren't totally wrong.
Elves are ok. I just wish they would work more and stop having so many babies. They are good at math though. Some of my best friends are elves.
yo bza. i'm psyched to see this all going down. this'll be fun.
did you consider using the chris-martin-on-the-hook version of dry your eyes? i know its not the official version but i like it infinitely more. thoughts? the real reason i bring this up is that I was hoping I would find that mp3 in the zip file and have it for meself.
did you have greenday on older version of this mix? for some reason my itunes has a weird version of 2004. I'm pretty sure Blvd of Broken Dreams wasn't on it at first, but it has sort of become 'the' song from that album, so I dig that. I dig you too.
That's actually a pretty good idea, but I could never find that version. Does anyone else have it? That's the one that was played on the radio more, I think.
Greenday was not originally on the mix, no. That song is a big song, and I personally really like it. I believe that song replaced Banquet, which will be on the 2005 mix. I made a couple of other changes from the one you have, too.
yea, that version is really hard to find. limewire has lots of stuff that says its the chris martin version, but it's really the other guy. it's gotta be out there somewhere. someone step up!
i found a version that actually has chris martin on it, but the quality is jacked and the curse words are scrambled. its probably taken off of the radio. i find it hard to believe that it's impossible to find. i'll go waste more time trying!
I dig this one. Nice mix of radio hits and underground jointz, and pretty diverse stylistically, too. I can't wait until '86, when Matt is forced to admit that he likes Slayer.
By the way, did you ever want to include something off of Smile? It'd be tough to argue for "Good Vibrations" of course, but what about any of the other tunes that didn't hit it big in the sixties? I don't even know if any of them were re-released as singles. Coulda been a situation similar to Bohemian Rhapsody, which hit #1 back when it was released in the 70s and again after Wayne's World came out.
i think heroes and villains would be more appropriate than good vibration, considering that good vibrations was released in it's "finished" form in the 60s, while heroes and villains was only 'complete' with the release of SMiLE. i think its like just over 4 minutes, so one or two songs would have to go. I know which ones I'd kill, but A. I don't know 2004 as well as Matt and B. its really just personal preference, so go with what you think. i'm sure the beach boys will be well represented in a number of other years, so it's not a crime.
I didn't include Smile because a. the only time I heard it on the radio was in its full form and b. it was important only in the context of itself. In other words, smile didn't affect the music around it. It was a story that only extended as far as the record extended. I have a few songs like that, but songs, not albums. To pull a non-single off an album, I think it has to be a really important album, something that was influential and the mix couldn't do without. I don't think smile is a necessity.
There will of course be lots of beach boys in the 60s, including good vibrations, which i would probably include in any top 5 or ten singles of all time list.
Just curious though, what are the songs you would pull?
as much as I've tried, I'm just not into the walkmen. the lead singer bugs me, and he is a perpatrator of "street clothes on stage". yes, I'm shallow like that. i know a lot of people dig them, so I wouldn't push for exclusion on the grounds that i just don't really like then. I also didn't really get into bjork's new album, although I have massive respect for the procedural aspect of it. So those would probably be my exclusions on personal preference, and for Bjorn, Medulla didn't seem to make that big of a splash. as opposed to the Walkmen, who at least had a indie crossover type story.
You addressed crunk in your bit about exclusions. Would 2003 would be a better year to represent how ubiquitous lil john is/was? i can't even remember what year it was when every song on the radio featured him, but whenever that was, I think it would be good to have one song that addressed the massive blowed-upness of southern rap in general. Juvenile's Slow Motion, or the dreaded Yeah!. Was Get Low 2003? I think it was.
Wow, I'm surprised by your exclusions. Well, The Rat was actually a pretty successful song, and Oceania was the official song of the olympics, so I think they are both legitimate inclusions. Plus, those might be my two favorite songs on this mix.
For me, the next two to go would be your cover's blown and ladyflash. But I don't see the need to quite yet.
As for crunk, that is something I am really struggling with. I really don't like it, I find "get low" to be a horrible song, and lil jon in general makes me want to shoot myself. I have one song on the bubble in 2003 that I might replace with a crunk song, but I haven't found one that I like enough yet.
Any suggestion other than the terrible three you mentioned?
yea, see, like i said, you know '04 better than me. i know that the rat was pretty successful and I respect that and all, though I didn't know that oceania was the olympics song. I don't watch olympics, so there you go.
your cover's blown might be my fav. on the mix, but not in my opinion the most culturally important song by far.
in the end, it's your mix and your choices, and I know that you have good reasons for all choices. that said, if your going for a musical portrait of a year, its hard to exclude the huge crossover phenomenon that is crunk. i guess there is pitbull too, but it would seem weird to include pitbull over the other songs that were way bigger. I don't actually know many crunk songs that don't feature lil john. i guess there is mystikal but he's been in jail for some time for gang raping a woman because she messed up his braids. so he'd be a weird choice too.
Get Low appears on a 2002 album, but it was a hit for like 2 years. That's probably why I thought about it for 03. I don't love crunk to the point where I can suggest any songs beyond the big hits, and my grounds for inclusion of Yeah or Get Low are solely because they were both huge hits that lowered the bar of what words/concepts you can play on top 40 radio.
Maybe the answer is that we've heard enough crunk in our lives and we can do without it on the mix. Does anyone else have an opinion on this?
yo bza - did you get the chris martin version? i want to update my 04 mix...
my littlest faggella how long its been since we made fist contact, and last btw, i finally updated my shizz and saw you comment, and i am glad you are doing it, dave was telling me something about this a while back, but anyway, i am coming to LA for a few days and by that i means 3, ill be there 19,20,21 of oct, give me a buzz, or apparently now there is no such thing as an email address so i guess you can just put it in my blog comments
im out
ps jesus does walk
I'm enjoying 2000 and 1999. Would love to get the ones I missed as well, 01 - 04.
01 and 02 are still available on the 2000s mixes repost. I just posted 03 and 04 last week, so I'm not going to do that again at the moment. But if you keep coming back, I'll be reposting mixes periodically. Sorry to make you wait, but I'm glad you enjoyed the ones you got!
Post a Comment
<< Home