Albums of the Year 2004

Todd Rundgren - Liars
Velvet Revolver - Contraband
Steve Earle - Revolution Starts Now
Brian Wilson - Smile
The Ordinary Boys - Over the Counter Culture
Morrissey - You are the Quarry
Kings of Convenience - Riot on a Quiet Street
REM - Around the Sun
Jesse Malin - The Heat
Sarah McLachlan - Afterglow

Todd Latest

• MARTY HUGHLEY of The Oregonian (19 December) has Liars as on of his albums of the year: - "Todd Rundgren, "Liars" (Sanctuary): "The truth is like chasing a phantom," Rundgren sings in the opening of this thematic song cycle. But with the veteran pop visionary delivering his most tuneful and cohesive album in years, even phantoms might find themselves drawn to this. Dishonesty -- emotional, political, intellectual, theological -- is his subject here, and he is by turns idealistic, righteously indignant and ruminative. The tracks update his Beatles- esque sound with techno, drum 'n' bass and R&B elements. But he's at his most affecting when he keeps the melodies at the fore and his judgmental eye turned inward".
  
• Thad Brown has written a very useful article in Electronic Musician (Volume 20; Number 13) on how to use the internet to promote your music. the article concentrates on telling the reader "how audio is compressed, how to choose an appropriate compression format, and how to write the basic HTML code for adding audio to your Web page". Well worth a read and mentions Todd too.