Aural Intercourse: The year in song

By Mike Prevatt

Aural Intercourse signs off this week with a ready-made playlist for that iPod Grandma just gave you for Christmas (or Hanukkah, or whatever religious holiday Bill O'Reilly has personally approved). Here's my top 25 tunes of 2004:

1. "Take Me Out," Franz Ferdinand. No other song in 2004 was as compulsively listenable, singable and danceable as this Scottish art-rock quartet's breakout hit and dual-tempo rave-up.

2. "99 Problems," Jay-Z. The new president of Def Jam hires its founder (producer Rick Rubin) and rocks both the mic and the Marshall stack. Jay-Z's patience-trying tales never get old.

3. "Transatlanticism," Death Cab For Cutie. Walking across the Coachella polo field during sunset while Death Cab unfurls its "Hey Jude" equivalent--life doesn't get offer many moments more gorgeous than this.

4. "Float On," Modest Mouse. The most cheery song of the year, penned by one of alt-rock's most curmudgeonly figures.

5. "Step Into My Office, Baby," Belle & Sebastian. It starts off as a chamber pop version of Marilyn Manson's "The Beautiful People," galloping into a wry, tuneful exploration of interoffice relations.

6. "Day After Tomorrow," Tom Waits. The most moving of this year's anti-Toby Keith tunes, Waits evokes both hope and dread as a soldier longing for home.

7. "Take Your Mama," Scissor Sisters. What better way to come out to your mother than invite her to a night out with the boys? Sounds like something Elton John could have written 30 years ago. Oh, wait, he only came out 10 years ago.

8. "American Idiot," Green Day. The end may be nigh, but modern rock's comeback band sounds like it's having the time of its life. Best of all, unsuspecting red state youth bought it hook, line and sinker. Suckers!

9. "Jesus Walks," Kanye West. The Big JC, as seen through the eyes of an urban believer. Johnny Cash would be proud.

10. "Can't Stand Me Now," The Libertines. Band leaders Pete Doherty and Carl Barat wrote this brutally honest, often tender ode to their tempestuous friendship, just before junkie Doherty was booted from the band.

11. "Leaving New York," R.E.M.. A return to Automatic For the People-esque elegance, with post-9/11 poignancy. Too beautiful for radio, apparently.

12. "Maps," Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I don't care that Karen O deep-throats Corona bottles onstage. I just want her to keep singing, "They don't love you like I love you."

13. "Laura," Scissor Sisters. If "Mama" embodied old Elton, this ivory-funk ditty recalls Prince in his prime--playful, horny and irresistibly melodious.

14. "Somebody Told Me," The Killers. According to the crack-laced chorus, singer Brandon Flowers likes girls who want boys who like boys to be girls, or something like that.

15. "Watching Cars Go By," Felix Da Housecat. If this low-end, house-flavored aphrodisiac doesn't make your naughty bits leak, it's high time you lowered that Zoloft dose.

16. "Slow Hands," Interpol. The juxtaposition between singer Paul Bank's tense, monotone baritone and Carlos D's bass rolls force the last of the stiff hipster holdouts onto the dance floor.

17. "99 Problems," Dangermouse. Rocking almost as hard as the original is producer/DJ Dangermouse's devilish mash-up of Jay-Z's hit of the same name, and Beatles' thrashfest "Helter Skelter." Money shot: the Fab Four's wailing vocal harmony blanketing Hova's effortless rhymes.

18. "My Coco," Stellastarr. U2 with hips--and we're not talking "Discotheque."

19. "In a State," UNKLE. "Twin Peaks" meets Ibiza in this soulful progressive house favorite--and one of several electronic anthems where forlorn male singers replace the dog-deafening trance divas.

20. "Everybody's Changing," Keane. This album cut from England's de facto Maroon 5 is almost too note-for-note perfect.

21. "Why?" Jadakiss. Ruff Ryder founding member Jadakiss throws out more questions than a 5-year-old on a long car ride, or the White House press corps for that matter. Provocative.

22. "Girls," The Prodigy. This charged electro/hip-hop ditty sounds so New York, you'd think it came from some kid's iBook in Brooklyn. Sexy as hell--especially with female vocalists replacing Prod snarler Keith Flint.+++++

23. "Spiders (Kidsmoke)," Wilco. Jeff Tweedy, like Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong, proved this year that 10-minute songs can be just as compelling as four-minute ones, like this Krautrock jam.

24. "Mosh," Eminem. Shady rips the President a new one and delivers the most pleasantly unnerving song/video of his career. Too bad most of his devotees were under legal voting age.

25. "Bam Thwok," The Pixies. Take a barely-melodic chorus made up of just the title's words (think Thai food), delivered baby-talk style by bassist Kim Deal, and it never fails to stick with you for the rest of the day.

Honorable mentions: "Walk, Idiot, Walk," The Hives; "What You Waiting For?" Gwen Stefani; "Warbrain," Alkaline Trio; "One Big Holiday," My Morning Jacket; "Breakin'," The Music; "Steppin' Out," Kaskade.

Send love letters and hate mail to oughtabeinporn@yahoo.com.