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Song of the Day #5,228: ‘Late Night Pilgrim’ – Tift Merritt

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

#2 – Tift Merritt – Tambourine

Gateway albums — your first exposure to an artist — usually take on special meaning. It’s hard to shake the warm feelings you have toward a record for introducing you to a new favorite.

Tambourine was my introduction to the brilliant and sadly unheralded singer-songwriter Tift Merritt. And while it isn’t my top-ranked album of hers, it is a fantastic recording that lands just shy of my top spot for 2004.

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Song of the Day #5,227: ‘Worn Me Down’ – Rachael Yamagata

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

#3 – Rachael Yamagata – Happenstance

An idea I’ve had on the back burner for awhile is a theme week (or two) on my favorite debut albums. Lots of rich material to mine there.

An album that will no doubt make the cut is Happenstance, the first full-length effort by singer-songwriter Rachael Yamagata. This is the only album I own by Yamagata, who has released four more since, and one that continues to impress me nearly 20 years later.

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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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