Planetarium - politics/music/culture/smarts

If you have a free moment, we guarantee you will be entertained by the blogorific stylings of Mr. Dave Gatchell, current resident of Tokyo, Japan, over at ShallWeDave. We are particularly enjoying yesterday's posting on the importance of eyebrows.

In the meantime, we thought as an antidote to our best-of list, we'd post a few of the WORST albums of 2004 for some nice counter-balance. Ah, counter-balance.....

1. Franz Ferdinand - st

Apparently, wack is the new gay. Boys, it's time to stop trying to be "saucy" and "exuberant"- you're causing scabies in uninformed American teens. Being arch beyond belief does not equal cleverness.

2. Arcade Fire - Funeral

Listening to this album is like listening to the sound of joyless masturbation. Boys so in love with the sound of their own "uniqueness" that they forgot to actually, you know, write songs.

3. Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News

It's possible that Modest Mouse have hearts of gold. It's possible that they shit gold bricks, and spend their time in-between gigs helping little old ladies across the street and curing cancer. None of this should prevent their being first up against the wall when the revolution comes. It was impossible to escape the whining, nasally nightmare that was "Float On" this year, and was only matched in sheer fucking annoying-ness by the level of here-we-go-feel-good pomposity exuded by the music. God, do we hate this band. They win the shitty award.

The "Didn't suck as much as everyone said it did" award goes to Le Tigre for their major label debut This Island. These American critics baffle the fuck out of us. Folks, their last album was the one that sucked! They wisely ditched the "DIY lo-fi sounding" (read: crappy sounding) guitars and tinny, tired drum loops for some decent production and better songs. Yay selling out!

Disagree? We'd love to hear why you're wrong.