Top 20 Favorite Albums of 2004
Happy Holidays, blah blah blah.
Once again, I'm not considering this as a "Best Of"-it's my favorite releases.
So, here we go...
20. The Purple Confusion - The Sound of the Atom Splitting
This release, a project consisting of the members of M83 and some other French electronic musicians, captured my amusement pretty well. If the whole album were up to par with the second track, "Return to Nassau", it would have appeared a lot lower on this list (the rest of the album isn't quite as good). A formidable release, nonetheless.
19. The Blow - Poor Aim: Love Songs [EP]
Without a doubt the "poppiest" release I got into all year--in the sense of sound anyway, not popularity. What can I say--Khaela's voice is amazing on this album, and I had "The Sky Opened Wide Like The Tide" stuck in my head for a week. It was unfortunately only an EP, however. I would have liked to hear a full album. I made an exception for it to be displayed on this list regardless, though.
18. Madvillain - Madvillainy
I listened to some new hip-hop releases here and there this year, but few impressed me. MF DOOM is awesome here, and Madlib's beats are so fucking good. His efforts are what put this album on this list, and it stands out in quality against a lot of shit (ex: Kayne West. god the College Dropout sucks. yeah, I said it.) this year in terms of hip-hop for me
17. Mountain Men Anonymous - Krkonose
Another oddball post-rock release this year. Quite unexpected. Not any big name post-rock gigs (Godspeed, Mogwai, Tristeza, etc) had anything interesting this year. This one caught me by surprise, its drum-loops are powerful and kick you in the face, but the pianos and synths are simultaneously beautiful and bleak. Some tracks are a little sub par, but for the most part this was a very solid release.
16. Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Mender
"Oh my love, oh it was a funny little thing": an opening line that echoed through my and many other listeners' minds for days. It took me a few listens to start getting into her voice, and with a particular output, can still annoy me. It's certainly distinct and peculiar, though. I got into her through knowledge of her playing with Devendra Banhart and being compared with him, and that comparison is well earned. Folk harp playing is a sort of awkward rarity that Joanna plays with a charm that no one can explain.
15. The Mountain Goats - We Shall All Be Healed
John Darnielle, you funny man, you. I saw him live twice this year, and I can't believe that this is the man whose lyrics emit from this album. He's such a goofball, able to cover disco songs and joke around with the audience, but this album weighs pretty heavy emotionally. I still prefer some of his earlier lo-fi releases, but this was still a great listen for me. "Home Again, Garden Grove" is sort of an anthem for me every time I come back to Clermont.
14. Landing - Sphere
This album makes me dizzy, in a good way. It gives a sort of anti-gravity feeling, but not like you're floating out in space. More like your mind is floating free outside of your body, entranced in repetitive sounds and colors. But at this same time, this isn't exactly a 'psychedelic' experience. Ethereal vocals swirl around you in "Filament", one of the loveliest tracks on a mostly instrumental album. The other vocals that really hit me were on "Feel, and the Seas Fill", which actually come in somewhat clear for once. no_pussyfooting saw them live recently, and I am very jealous of her. I imagine it was an amazing experience.
13. The Sunburned Hand of the Man - Rare Wood
Jackie-O Motherfucker didn't release an album (that I know of) this year, and this can't quite make up for it completely, but it was thing to fall back on. They are certainly more rock-oriented and more structured than J-OMF, but to me they have a similar feeling--that feeling being completely fucking weird and strange and absurd and holyshitwtfomgawesome. But this album was quite more than absurdity; points of it were very nice and melodic, which made it an increasingly interesting journey to listen through. It's definitely not something to sit down and listen to for a couple minutes for me, I really have to sit down and digest this in large chunks for it to be rewarding.
12. Danger Mouse - The Grey Album
Yeah, whatever. I normally can't stand Jay-Z. His lyrics are horrible, and he's an elitist bastard who thinks he's the best rapper alive or some bullshit. But wow the mixing on this album is good. Jay-Z did have some slight feel for rhythm and melody, but I've listened to Jay-Z's The Black Album, and it's not even fucking close to being as awesome as Danger Mouse's version. The guys who mixed Jay-Z's songs can take a hike; this is where it's at. The Beatles beat cuts bring a feeling to the White Album that no one would have ever predicted. I liked the Grey Album better than the Slack Album and any of these other novelty Black Album mixes that came after it. Oh, and "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" mixed with The Beatles' Julia was the winner for the song that was got stuck in my head the longest this year. Fuck. I have to listen to it now.
11. Kings of Convenience - Riot on an Empty Street
A couple years after Versus was released, I was starting to worry that KoC had broken up or something. I couldn't find much news. I stopped paying attention to the band, so when I heard about this album's release, I was surprised. I was not let down, either. I was 100% sure this album was going to become super popular and everyone one on the street was going to be talking about it, but for some reason, that didn't happen. This album is near perfect, there's some great production at work. Everything sounds great, but it also doesn't sound like over-produced bullshit served to you McDonalds style. Lovely songs, voices, lyrics. I would have never expected them following up with a release this fantastic. I think it's a great album to be listening to now especially--it sort of keeps you warm.
10. Acid Mothers Temple - Mantra of Love
This album filled my head to almost bursting. A genius, mind-blowing psychedelic masterpiece that ejects you off of the goddamn planet. I don't know what more can be said.
9. Animal Collective - Sung Tongs
I wasn't sure if Campfire Songs was a one-time deal for that sort of style, but they sort of crossbred it with Here Comes the Indian and a whole bunch of surreal insanity and tied it all together with slight pop music sensibilities. The first two songs, which are probably the most popular, got stuck in my head and entranced me, but the rest of this album is hypnotic and impressive. Really looking forward to more from AC.
8. Devendra Banhart - Rejoicing in the Hands/Niño Rojo
Two albums, but it's really hard to pick between the two. They were both recording in the same session, I believe, so they're sort of hard to separate anyway. I was definitely skeptical over him having better production when Rejoicing in the Hands was released, but I've gotten used to it. It's a different experience than Oh Me Oh My (...) and Black Babies, which is not necessarily good or bad. I love the lyrics on both albums, from the heart crunching "Insect Eyes" to the whimsical "Little Yellow Spider." Please come play in Florida, Devendra.
7. Deathprod - Morals and Dogma
This is the scariest ambient album I've ever heard, next to Ulver's "Silence Teaches You How To Sing". It's done so much better than that album, though. Not only the textures are eerie, the layering of them is genius. It all fits together and isn't cheaply done like a lot of ambient bands do. This is an unsettling album that I have to force myself to listen to. Not because it's bad, but because it transforms your mood to fit to it without control. Once you start listening to it, it's hard to break away from it. It's not just a dreadful album, though--simultaneously, it's beautiful. The two things seem to go together sometimes, and in this album they are blended in a way that it becomes nearly impossible to separate the two. It's a paradoxical feeling that sweeps you away into a different mindset for hours.
6. The Wind-Up Bird - Whips
This highest-ranked post-rock album on my list is a side-project by Joe Grimm of the (post-rock) band 33.3. It's an album of sheer beauty that can only be listened to through beginning to end with your eyes closed in order to get the best experience out of. It's a cohesive instrumental project with the theme of the break-up of a long-term relationship. There are no words, but you can gather bits and pieces of feeling and emotion from connecting the track names to events in the song. It's a program music concept that is rarely executed in vernacular music as well as it is in classical music. The track titles in order are as followed: "Sorry," "That I've," "Become," "This," "Monster," "I Love," "You," "A Lot." Doing that with tracks isn't an original concept, but it worked so well in this album, more than any other I've encountered using the strategy. The violins kill me over and over every time I listen. The guitars are layered in wonderful, and blend in with the electronics. Speaking of those electronics, I'm not sure if there has ever been a noise song as emotional as "This". It's my favorite piece on the album, and it's nothing but piercing distortions mixed with a desperate audio message left on someone's answering machine or something, which I assume is real. It makes the album so real. I feel so much empathy with this album now more than ever, but it's so difficult to listen to. "This" was also the only song this year to make me cry--but you can't give the particular piece all the credit, it was building up through the entire listen, and crashed at its climax. "A Lot" was possibly the most calming song I heard all year, it was a lovely, consoling way to end the album, and bred hope.
5. Entrance - Wandering Stranger
I bought this album on the street from him, after seeing him (Guy Blakeslee) live... it was an awkward transaction, heh. He hadn't brought any albums to sell with him inside, so he had to go out to his car for me. It was toward the end of his tour and his voice was getting pretty shot, but it was a great show nonetheless (that about no one in Orlando showed up for, but I made a whole LJ post about this so go read that.) Anyway, Wow, his voice is so goddamn great on this album, you can tell he's been practicing. There are some lovely folk melodies on "Rex's Blues", and some great crazed electric blues songs like "Train is Leaving" and "Please Be Careful In New Orleans". I like The Kingdom of Heaven Must Be Taken By Storm better, but this was another incredible release by one of my favorite vocalists and guitar players.
4. Xiu Xiu - Fabulous Muscles
While slightly less dissonant and experimental than 2003's A Promise (which was my #1 for the year), Fabulous Muscles continues Jamie Stewart's trend of incalculable melodrama. It's so far off the edge of what we normally consider "depressing" music that it's almost ridiculous. But I think that's part of the appeal. Xiu Xiu makes "confessional" music look like a silly puppet show of feigned emotion. The confessions on Fabulous Muscles are more than depressing. They are morbid, disgusting, harrowing, terrible things. And yet, through all the darkness and the dissonance, there is some beauty here. Perhaps with its completely nihilistic outlook, it comes full circle somehow. I'm not sure what the appeal is exactly, but I know that it is appealing. Very appealing. This could easily be #1 if it weren't for some other similarly amazing albums this year...
3. Panda Bear - Young Prayer
It was a great coincidence by my luck that I was starting to get into some medieval Gregorian chant through my Enjoyment of Music class when I started listening to this album. Wow. I had a greater appreciation for both by the end of the album. Panda Bear is a member of Animal Collective, and you can easily sense his influence on that band from this. The album, for the most part, is minimalist in instrumentation, and mainly focuses on his voice. I'm not a religious person, but through this I can sense a sort of beauty that comes from that insane institution that I once before was never able to. The album was recorded after Panda Bear's father died, and is apparently some sort of dedication to him. It's emotionally intense, to say the least. The instrumentation is sprinkled so wonderfully throughout this album. Most importantly, his voice is mysteriously lovely, enchanting, and surreal. In Gregorian chant, it wasn't important that the people listening to it understood what the words meant, or even the people singing it. It was an art dedicated to God, human coherence was not relevant. The same I think applies for this album, but I see it as a message to his passed away father, not God. I could be completely wrong with this interpretation, perhaps it has nothing to do with his father at all, but that's how I feel when I listen to it. With this interpretation, though, it becomes an incoherent, ethereal experience that leads you to places in your mind you never knew were there.
2. Arcade Fire - Funeral
There's no question this is the "best" album of 2004. Funeral is the pinnacle of not only today's indie but also modern rock of post-2000 so far. The layering is immaculate. The songwriting is epic, passionate, and moving. It's one of those albums that will stand the test of time more so than anything on this list. It lands not only on many "Best of 04" lists but will also land its way on many "Best of the 00s" and so forth. Sometimes a spike of critical success for a band feels arbitrary and lucky. But I don't think that can be the case here. This is truly an amazing album and the synonymous rave reviews of every critic are justified and honest reflections of this masterpiece. But, to be true to a "favorites" list, I have to go with the album that compelled me to listen, listen, listen and connected with me uniquely. Which leads me to...
1. Ben Chasny (of Six Organs of Admittance) - Untitled CD-R
This is sort of cheating. This release was not an official one at all. It was a leaked bedroom recording by Ben Chasny of the psychedelic-folk band Six Organs of Admittance that surfaced sometime in May of this year--what a great birthday present for me it was by discovering it by accident. I haven't been able to find much else on it other than the notes that came with it when I downloaded it. Apparently in 2005 he will have an official solo release, but I'm not sure if it's this particular CD or something completely different. Anyway, it's got some of the best John Fahey-esque guitar playing I've ever heard. No song on here is less than fucking awesome. It's just lo-fi recordings of his voice, his guitar and some tambourines here and there, and it's all I really needed to hear through the year. This album has impressed me more than Devendra Banhart and Entrance, and I really hope his solo career takes off. I want to hear much more work from this fellow. It might be kind of hard to find, so if you want to listen to it, hit me up on AIM and I'll upload it to you. His voice is outstanding, but it's his guitar playing that really fucking destroys. His lyrics aren't genius poetics, but they're perfectly fitting to the music and tie your heart and mind up with more musical shackles than I have ever heard. I can't stop listening to this album. These songs don't get old. That's why it's #1 for me.
Once again, I'm not considering this as a "Best Of"-it's my favorite releases.
So, here we go...
20. The Purple Confusion - The Sound of the Atom Splitting
This release, a project consisting of the members of M83 and some other French electronic musicians, captured my amusement pretty well. If the whole album were up to par with the second track, "Return to Nassau", it would have appeared a lot lower on this list (the rest of the album isn't quite as good). A formidable release, nonetheless.
19. The Blow - Poor Aim: Love Songs [EP]
Without a doubt the "poppiest" release I got into all year--in the sense of sound anyway, not popularity. What can I say--Khaela's voice is amazing on this album, and I had "The Sky Opened Wide Like The Tide" stuck in my head for a week. It was unfortunately only an EP, however. I would have liked to hear a full album. I made an exception for it to be displayed on this list regardless, though.
18. Madvillain - Madvillainy
I listened to some new hip-hop releases here and there this year, but few impressed me. MF DOOM is awesome here, and Madlib's beats are so fucking good. His efforts are what put this album on this list, and it stands out in quality against a lot of shit (ex: Kayne West. god the College Dropout sucks. yeah, I said it.) this year in terms of hip-hop for me
17. Mountain Men Anonymous - Krkonose
Another oddball post-rock release this year. Quite unexpected. Not any big name post-rock gigs (Godspeed, Mogwai, Tristeza, etc) had anything interesting this year. This one caught me by surprise, its drum-loops are powerful and kick you in the face, but the pianos and synths are simultaneously beautiful and bleak. Some tracks are a little sub par, but for the most part this was a very solid release.
16. Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Mender
"Oh my love, oh it was a funny little thing": an opening line that echoed through my and many other listeners' minds for days. It took me a few listens to start getting into her voice, and with a particular output, can still annoy me. It's certainly distinct and peculiar, though. I got into her through knowledge of her playing with Devendra Banhart and being compared with him, and that comparison is well earned. Folk harp playing is a sort of awkward rarity that Joanna plays with a charm that no one can explain.
15. The Mountain Goats - We Shall All Be Healed
John Darnielle, you funny man, you. I saw him live twice this year, and I can't believe that this is the man whose lyrics emit from this album. He's such a goofball, able to cover disco songs and joke around with the audience, but this album weighs pretty heavy emotionally. I still prefer some of his earlier lo-fi releases, but this was still a great listen for me. "Home Again, Garden Grove" is sort of an anthem for me every time I come back to Clermont.
14. Landing - Sphere
This album makes me dizzy, in a good way. It gives a sort of anti-gravity feeling, but not like you're floating out in space. More like your mind is floating free outside of your body, entranced in repetitive sounds and colors. But at this same time, this isn't exactly a 'psychedelic' experience. Ethereal vocals swirl around you in "Filament", one of the loveliest tracks on a mostly instrumental album. The other vocals that really hit me were on "Feel, and the Seas Fill", which actually come in somewhat clear for once. no_pussyfooting saw them live recently, and I am very jealous of her. I imagine it was an amazing experience.
13. The Sunburned Hand of the Man - Rare Wood
Jackie-O Motherfucker didn't release an album (that I know of) this year, and this can't quite make up for it completely, but it was thing to fall back on. They are certainly more rock-oriented and more structured than J-OMF, but to me they have a similar feeling--that feeling being completely fucking weird and strange and absurd and holyshitwtfomgawesome. But this album was quite more than absurdity; points of it were very nice and melodic, which made it an increasingly interesting journey to listen through. It's definitely not something to sit down and listen to for a couple minutes for me, I really have to sit down and digest this in large chunks for it to be rewarding.
12. Danger Mouse - The Grey Album
Yeah, whatever. I normally can't stand Jay-Z. His lyrics are horrible, and he's an elitist bastard who thinks he's the best rapper alive or some bullshit. But wow the mixing on this album is good. Jay-Z did have some slight feel for rhythm and melody, but I've listened to Jay-Z's The Black Album, and it's not even fucking close to being as awesome as Danger Mouse's version. The guys who mixed Jay-Z's songs can take a hike; this is where it's at. The Beatles beat cuts bring a feeling to the White Album that no one would have ever predicted. I liked the Grey Album better than the Slack Album and any of these other novelty Black Album mixes that came after it. Oh, and "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" mixed with The Beatles' Julia was the winner for the song that was got stuck in my head the longest this year. Fuck. I have to listen to it now.
11. Kings of Convenience - Riot on an Empty Street
A couple years after Versus was released, I was starting to worry that KoC had broken up or something. I couldn't find much news. I stopped paying attention to the band, so when I heard about this album's release, I was surprised. I was not let down, either. I was 100% sure this album was going to become super popular and everyone one on the street was going to be talking about it, but for some reason, that didn't happen. This album is near perfect, there's some great production at work. Everything sounds great, but it also doesn't sound like over-produced bullshit served to you McDonalds style. Lovely songs, voices, lyrics. I would have never expected them following up with a release this fantastic. I think it's a great album to be listening to now especially--it sort of keeps you warm.
10. Acid Mothers Temple - Mantra of Love
This album filled my head to almost bursting. A genius, mind-blowing psychedelic masterpiece that ejects you off of the goddamn planet. I don't know what more can be said.
9. Animal Collective - Sung Tongs
I wasn't sure if Campfire Songs was a one-time deal for that sort of style, but they sort of crossbred it with Here Comes the Indian and a whole bunch of surreal insanity and tied it all together with slight pop music sensibilities. The first two songs, which are probably the most popular, got stuck in my head and entranced me, but the rest of this album is hypnotic and impressive. Really looking forward to more from AC.
8. Devendra Banhart - Rejoicing in the Hands/Niño Rojo
Two albums, but it's really hard to pick between the two. They were both recording in the same session, I believe, so they're sort of hard to separate anyway. I was definitely skeptical over him having better production when Rejoicing in the Hands was released, but I've gotten used to it. It's a different experience than Oh Me Oh My (...) and Black Babies, which is not necessarily good or bad. I love the lyrics on both albums, from the heart crunching "Insect Eyes" to the whimsical "Little Yellow Spider." Please come play in Florida, Devendra.
7. Deathprod - Morals and Dogma
This is the scariest ambient album I've ever heard, next to Ulver's "Silence Teaches You How To Sing". It's done so much better than that album, though. Not only the textures are eerie, the layering of them is genius. It all fits together and isn't cheaply done like a lot of ambient bands do. This is an unsettling album that I have to force myself to listen to. Not because it's bad, but because it transforms your mood to fit to it without control. Once you start listening to it, it's hard to break away from it. It's not just a dreadful album, though--simultaneously, it's beautiful. The two things seem to go together sometimes, and in this album they are blended in a way that it becomes nearly impossible to separate the two. It's a paradoxical feeling that sweeps you away into a different mindset for hours.
6. The Wind-Up Bird - Whips
This highest-ranked post-rock album on my list is a side-project by Joe Grimm of the (post-rock) band 33.3. It's an album of sheer beauty that can only be listened to through beginning to end with your eyes closed in order to get the best experience out of. It's a cohesive instrumental project with the theme of the break-up of a long-term relationship. There are no words, but you can gather bits and pieces of feeling and emotion from connecting the track names to events in the song. It's a program music concept that is rarely executed in vernacular music as well as it is in classical music. The track titles in order are as followed: "Sorry," "That I've," "Become," "This," "Monster," "I Love," "You," "A Lot." Doing that with tracks isn't an original concept, but it worked so well in this album, more than any other I've encountered using the strategy. The violins kill me over and over every time I listen. The guitars are layered in wonderful, and blend in with the electronics. Speaking of those electronics, I'm not sure if there has ever been a noise song as emotional as "This". It's my favorite piece on the album, and it's nothing but piercing distortions mixed with a desperate audio message left on someone's answering machine or something, which I assume is real. It makes the album so real. I feel so much empathy with this album now more than ever, but it's so difficult to listen to. "This" was also the only song this year to make me cry--but you can't give the particular piece all the credit, it was building up through the entire listen, and crashed at its climax. "A Lot" was possibly the most calming song I heard all year, it was a lovely, consoling way to end the album, and bred hope.
5. Entrance - Wandering Stranger
I bought this album on the street from him, after seeing him (Guy Blakeslee) live... it was an awkward transaction, heh. He hadn't brought any albums to sell with him inside, so he had to go out to his car for me. It was toward the end of his tour and his voice was getting pretty shot, but it was a great show nonetheless (that about no one in Orlando showed up for, but I made a whole LJ post about this so go read that.) Anyway, Wow, his voice is so goddamn great on this album, you can tell he's been practicing. There are some lovely folk melodies on "Rex's Blues", and some great crazed electric blues songs like "Train is Leaving" and "Please Be Careful In New Orleans". I like The Kingdom of Heaven Must Be Taken By Storm better, but this was another incredible release by one of my favorite vocalists and guitar players.
4. Xiu Xiu - Fabulous Muscles
While slightly less dissonant and experimental than 2003's A Promise (which was my #1 for the year), Fabulous Muscles continues Jamie Stewart's trend of incalculable melodrama. It's so far off the edge of what we normally consider "depressing" music that it's almost ridiculous. But I think that's part of the appeal. Xiu Xiu makes "confessional" music look like a silly puppet show of feigned emotion. The confessions on Fabulous Muscles are more than depressing. They are morbid, disgusting, harrowing, terrible things. And yet, through all the darkness and the dissonance, there is some beauty here. Perhaps with its completely nihilistic outlook, it comes full circle somehow. I'm not sure what the appeal is exactly, but I know that it is appealing. Very appealing. This could easily be #1 if it weren't for some other similarly amazing albums this year...
3. Panda Bear - Young Prayer
It was a great coincidence by my luck that I was starting to get into some medieval Gregorian chant through my Enjoyment of Music class when I started listening to this album. Wow. I had a greater appreciation for both by the end of the album. Panda Bear is a member of Animal Collective, and you can easily sense his influence on that band from this. The album, for the most part, is minimalist in instrumentation, and mainly focuses on his voice. I'm not a religious person, but through this I can sense a sort of beauty that comes from that insane institution that I once before was never able to. The album was recorded after Panda Bear's father died, and is apparently some sort of dedication to him. It's emotionally intense, to say the least. The instrumentation is sprinkled so wonderfully throughout this album. Most importantly, his voice is mysteriously lovely, enchanting, and surreal. In Gregorian chant, it wasn't important that the people listening to it understood what the words meant, or even the people singing it. It was an art dedicated to God, human coherence was not relevant. The same I think applies for this album, but I see it as a message to his passed away father, not God. I could be completely wrong with this interpretation, perhaps it has nothing to do with his father at all, but that's how I feel when I listen to it. With this interpretation, though, it becomes an incoherent, ethereal experience that leads you to places in your mind you never knew were there.
2. Arcade Fire - Funeral
There's no question this is the "best" album of 2004. Funeral is the pinnacle of not only today's indie but also modern rock of post-2000 so far. The layering is immaculate. The songwriting is epic, passionate, and moving. It's one of those albums that will stand the test of time more so than anything on this list. It lands not only on many "Best of 04" lists but will also land its way on many "Best of the 00s" and so forth. Sometimes a spike of critical success for a band feels arbitrary and lucky. But I don't think that can be the case here. This is truly an amazing album and the synonymous rave reviews of every critic are justified and honest reflections of this masterpiece. But, to be true to a "favorites" list, I have to go with the album that compelled me to listen, listen, listen and connected with me uniquely. Which leads me to...
1. Ben Chasny (of Six Organs of Admittance) - Untitled CD-R
This is sort of cheating. This release was not an official one at all. It was a leaked bedroom recording by Ben Chasny of the psychedelic-folk band Six Organs of Admittance that surfaced sometime in May of this year--what a great birthday present for me it was by discovering it by accident. I haven't been able to find much else on it other than the notes that came with it when I downloaded it. Apparently in 2005 he will have an official solo release, but I'm not sure if it's this particular CD or something completely different. Anyway, it's got some of the best John Fahey-esque guitar playing I've ever heard. No song on here is less than fucking awesome. It's just lo-fi recordings of his voice, his guitar and some tambourines here and there, and it's all I really needed to hear through the year. This album has impressed me more than Devendra Banhart and Entrance, and I really hope his solo career takes off. I want to hear much more work from this fellow. It might be kind of hard to find, so if you want to listen to it, hit me up on AIM and I'll upload it to you. His voice is outstanding, but it's his guitar playing that really fucking destroys. His lyrics aren't genius poetics, but they're perfectly fitting to the music and tie your heart and mind up with more musical shackles than I have ever heard. I can't stop listening to this album. These songs don't get old. That's why it's #1 for me.