POP'S A MESS. A mess that happens to include some great pop. But a mess, nonetheless. If 2004's music has stood for anything, then it's stood for an accurate reflection of bewildering times times when hugely unpopular leaders win elections, hugely unpopular wars continue to be fought, and hugely unpopular culture clogs up the TV and radio. In keeping with these times, pop is all over the place, making disparate noises in search of a unifying scene or theme or idea, becoming ever more difficult for the casual music lover to get a handle on, to filter, to access at all.
The music industry, in turn, sends out a series of mixed messages. On the one hand, downloading is so rife that no one's buying music any more and the industry is dying and we music lovers are all criminals who will be sued or shot. On the other, the big corporate acts preen themselves in videos designed to make them look obscenely rich.
No surprise, then, that the music generating ground-level excitement has been from two home-grown scenes - 'grimy' garage and new punk, both based mainly in east London, both rooted firmly in non-bling bling realities, represented respectively by Dizzee Rascal and the Libertines.
Add the Streets, Franz Ferdinand, Wiley, the Futureheads, Estelle and Razorlight, and 2004 begins to look like the year in which the street struck back.
So, why doesn't it feel like a big new wave of something? Perhaps because there is a slippery quality to these acts that prevents them being put into a convenient box - prevents them being labelled the leaders of a new movement. Nevertheless, for this writer, singles such as 'Take Me Out' by Franz Ferdinand and 'Wot Do U Call It?' by Wiley are proof that this is British pop's most creative and uncompromis ing period since the early Eighties. These are not just great records, but great records that tell you what it's like to be young and British in 2004. Producer-driven records from America - no mat ter how accomplished and clever - have sounded fake and empty in comparison, with only Kelis and the Scissor Sisters challenging our homegrown stars.
In a year when everyone has been falling over themselves to pronounce The Death Of The Album, because of downloading, the irony is that it's been an LP - a concept album! - that has defined the past 12 months. Pop's a mess, but OMM's album of the year - revealed on the next pages - strives to make sense of our messy lives... And that's great pop, just doing its job. OMM
The 20 best albums of 2004 overleaf
omm's singles * of 2004:
1 milkshake by kelis
'Thanks!' says Kelis when OMM tells her that her fantastically suggestive record is our Single of the Year. But on the question of what her 'milkshake' might actually be, she is less effusive. 'It means whatever people want it to it was just a word we came up with on a whim, but then the song took on a life of its own.' That it certainly did, her frothy vocal the cherry on top of that outstandingly strange and catchy Neptunes production.
2 'TAKE YOUR MAMA', SCISSOR SISTERS
Where the party really started...
3'DRY YOUR EYES', THE STREETS
In one single... your life changes
4'FUCK IT', EAMON
Worthy biggest-seller of 2004
5'TAKE ME OUT', FRANZ FERDINAND
Snappy dressers snappy song
6'FU RIGHT BACK', FRANKEE Hell hath no fury etc
7'TOXIC', BRITNEY SPEARS Suddenly, we fell in love again
8'THE SHOW', GIRLS ALOUD
Brassy pop with staying-power
9'EVERYBODY'S CHANGING', KEANE Their one truly great song
10'1980', ESTELLE
So fresh it made us all feel old
