My Top 10 Albums of 2004:

10 // The Polyphonic Spree - Together We're Heavy
30 some band members worshiping the Sun

09 // M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
Don't listen to this album, live inside of it

08 // Murs - Murs 3:16 the 9th Edition
9th wonder lays great beats for Murs to lyrically dance upon

07 // Futureheads - S/T
The second coming of the Clash

06 // Mavillain - Madvillainy
The first, and hopefully not the last, LP from DOOM and Madlib

05 // Wilco - A Ghost is Born
Jeff Tweedy has more emotion in his guitar then (place obscure analogy here).

04 // Air - Talkie Walkie
Try to listen to Alpha Beta Gaga without smiling

03 // The Arcade Fire – Funeral
The quintessential sound of 2004

02 // Elliott Smith - From a Basement on the Hill
Touching posthumous release from my favorite singer-song writer

01 // Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News
Finally broke them into the mainstream

Honorable mentions (in no particular order):
Scissor Sisters - S/T; Faithless - No Roots; Franz Ferdinand - S/T; TV on the Radio - Desperate Youth Blood Thirsty Babes; The Streets – A Grand Don’t Come for Free; Loretta Lynn – Van Lear Rose; Iron & Wine – Our Endless Numbered Days; Talib Kweli - The Beautiful Struggle; Gift of Gab - Fourth Dimensional Rocket Ships Going Up; RJD2 - Since We Last Spoke; UNKLE - Never, Never Land

Most Disappointing:
Mos Def - The New Danger; A Perfect Circle - eMOTIVe