Drumroll.....The albums of the year so far are...

In no particular order -

Murs - 3:16
Secret Machines - Now Here Is Nowhere
Interpol - Antics
Elliott Smith - From A Basement On The Hill
Wilco - A Ghost Is Born
The Roots - The Tipping Point
Mylo - Destroy Rock & Roll
Bjork - Medulla
The Dears - No Cities Left
De La Soul - The Grind Date
Madvillain - Madvillainy
The Go Team - Thunder, Lightning , Strike
Nick Cave - Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre Of The Orpheus
Kanye West - The College Dropout
John Legend -Lifted
Tom Waits - Real Gone
The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free
Morrissey - You Are The Quarry
Air - Talkie Walkie
PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her

No re-issues on this list. That's for another day... (probably Tuesday)

So, what does this say about music in 2004? Well, for one, there's been very few dance albums that have really grabbed me. Probably the best of them was Mylo's effort, and even then he seemed to pull the wool over everyone's eyes by disguising his theft of riffs from Kim Carnes and Prince with infectious basslines and retro squishy bleeps. There have been a lot of good soul albums out, however as like last year most get slept on (eg. Anthony Hamilton last year, Van Hunt this year). Heaps of great undergound hip hop, especially from the Lex and Def Jux camps. As for good old 'indie rock 'n' roll' (to quote 2004's most over-rated band, The Killers) there's been no real must have records. A bit sick of Franz Ferdinand now, but I'm glad that it's them winning Mercury prizes and not bands like Keane. Care to comment?