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Song of the Day #5,226: ‘Gay Messiah’ – Rufus Wainwright

Continuing my look at 2004, first by counting down my own top ten albums of that year.

#4 – Rufus Wainwright – Want Two

Rufus Wainwright’s fourth album was the second part of a project introduced a year earlier with, appropriately, Want One. The first part is an all-timer for me, not just my favorite Wainwright album but possibly cracking my top ten albums by anybody.

Want Two can’t help but pale a bit in comparison, but only a bit. It’s a lush, yearning collection that takes even more chances than its predecessor.

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Song of the Day #5,225: ‘Story of My Life’ – Loretta Lynn

Continuing my look at 2004, first by counting down my own top ten albums of that year.

#5 – Loretta Lynn – Van Lear Rose

Today’s selection is appropriately timed, given the passing of country legend Loretta Lynn just three weeks ago at the age of 90.

I know very little about Lynn’s career or her music, and I don’t see a deep dive of her 61 studio albums in my future, but I do own one of her albums, and it’s a beauty.

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Song of the Day #5,224: ‘Blackout’ – David Bowie

‘Blackout’ is the last song on the first side of David Bowie’s 1977 album Heroes, the second album in his Berlin trilogy and the only one recorded entirely in Berlin.

Those Berlin albums (the others are 1977’s Low and 1979’s Lodger) are well regarded by critics and serious Bowie fans, but I found them a bit of a slog. The records blend electronica songs and ambient soundscapes — two things for which I don’t have a lot of patience.

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Song of the Day #5,223: ‘It’s a Sad World After All’ – Elvis Perkins

My favorite kind of Random Weekend selections are the ones that are a complete mystery to me, despite the fact that I once bought or otherwise acquired the album years ago.

It’s both a chance to (re)discover new music, and a reminder of the fickle nature of memory. How is it that I once spent the time and attention required to add an album called Ash Wednesday by an artist called Elvis Perkins to my iTunes library, but my brain has completely erased any record of such a thing ever happening?

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Song of the Day #5,222: ‘A Man and a Woman’ – U2

Continuing my look at 2004, first by counting down my own top ten albums of that year.

#6 – U2 – How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb

U2’s eleventh studio album is the last great thing they ever did.

In the 18 years following How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, the band released three albums of diminishing quality and commercial appeal. The world’s greatest rock band became an afterthought.

But in 2004, they were still kicking ass. This album sold more than 10 million copies worldwide and won nine Grammys, including Album and Song of the Year.

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