That meme put me in a list-making mood, and the year will be over sooner than any of us would think. Every slot on this list is up for grabs, considering the number of releases coming this fall. (More on that later.) The Favorite Albums of 2004 thus far:

  1. Sasagawa Miwa, Jijitsu
  2. Art-School, Love/Hate
  3. Mindy Smith, One Moment More
  4. Supercar, Answer
  5. Quruli, Antenna
  6. Kicell, Mado ni Chikyuu
  7. Kanye West, The College Dropoutd
  8. Zazen Boys, Zazen Boys II
  9. Björk, Medulla
  10. Loretta Lynn, Van Lear Rose

Honorable mention:

  • Straightener, Lost World’s Anthology
  • The Butchies, Make Yr Life
  • Higurashi Aiha, Born Beautiful
  • m-flo, Astromantic

A few notes:

  • This list includes releases from late 2003. In fact, the first two slots are occupied by December 2003 releases. (Well, Jijitsu was released on Nov. 29, so I’m rounding up a bit.)
  • Pretty much every slot on this list is up for grabs with new albums coming from U2, Hem, Duran Duran, Tokyo Jihen, Port of Notes, Zoobombs and Mikami Chisako (fra-foa) in the next few months.