Critics gang up on the world of music
By Edna Gundersen, Steve Jones, Elysa Gardner, Brian Mansfield and Ken Barnes, USA TODAY
Previously at year's end, you'd have read five separate best and worst lists from USA TODAY's critics.

Usher has been taking home armloads of trophies this year. But what do USA TODAY's music critics think of him?
By Frank Micelotta, Getty Images

This year, we decided to try for a consensus. Well, getting to agree on anything made threading that proverbial camel through the eye of a needle seem like a breeze in comparison. But the result, we think, provides a varied, intriguing and occasionally provocative look at the past year.

USA TODAY album of the year

U2, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Gundersen labeled it U2's best album; others on the panel weren't quite as laudatory, but it did garner the most mentions. Also rock album of the year.

The rest of the top 10

2. Alison Krauss & Union Station, Lonely Runs Both Ways (best country album)

3. Loretta Lynn, Van Lear Rose

4. Green Day, American Idiot

5. Kanye West, The College Dropout (best rap album)

6. Brian Wilson, Smile

7. Prince, Musicology (best R&B album)
8. Elvis Costello & The Attractions, The Delivery Man (best singer/songwriter album)

9. Patty Griffin, The Impossible Dream

10. Usher, Confessions

Other outstanding rock albums

Franz Ferdinand, Franz Ferdinand

Arcade Fire, Funeral

Velvet Revolver, Contraband

Other outstanding pop albums

Barbara Cook, Barbara Cook's Broadway

Shane Nicholson, It's a Movie

k.d. lang, Hymns of the 49th Parallel

Other outstanding R&B/hip-hop albums

Jill Scott, Beautifully Human

The Roots, The Tipping Point

Teena Marie, La Dona

Other outstanding country albums

Gretchen Wilson, Here for the Party

Big & Rich, Horse of a Different Color

Tim McGraw, Live Like You Were Dying

Most disappointing albums

Janet Jackson, Damita Jo, a musical malfunction.

Jay-Z & Linkin Park, Collision Course, a marriage made in marketing.

Best live performer

Prince, who sold the most concert tickets in 2004. Madonna's higher prices earned her the top concert gross (not to be confused with top gross concert, which was — at least according to the FCC — Janet at the Super Bowl).

Best dead performer

Jerry Garcia. The Grateful Dead guitarist hasn't been alive since 1995 but managed to release three major live collections of solo work this year.

Best duets

Loretta Lynn and Jack White, Portland, Oregon; Seether and Amy Lee, Broken. The country/punk odd couple sparkled, while the inspired goth pairing proves that misery loves company.

Best tribute album

Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster. Lovely set honoring America's first professional songwriter.

Best comeback

Brian Wilson.Smile, which might have been the best pop album of 1967, is many people's choice for best pop album of 2004.

Lowering of standards

Rod Stewart. One album sleepwalking through the Great American Songbook is a misdemeanor; three is approaching capital-crime territory.

Best reissue

The Clash, London Calling. Classic 1980 album now fleshed out with DVD and demos.

Worst reissue

The Beatles, The Capitol Albums, Vol. 1. Cheap and flimsy replica of the inferior, truncated and sonically doctored albums delivered to U.S. fans in the mid-'60s who weren't aware they were being shortchanged.

Most inescapable song

Usher, Yeah!

Followed closely by Hoobastank's The Reason.

Best song title

You Are the Generation That Bought More Shoes and You Get What You Deserved, by British band Johnny Boy. Bonus: The song (which actually incorporates the title) is every bit as good.

Best single

Green Day, American Idiot. And next year's follow-up, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, is even better.

Best teen-pop single

JoJo, Leave (Get Out).

A treat; too bad about the otherwise-useless album.

Worst teen-pop single

Britney Spears, My Prerogative. A tedious exercise in rote pointlessness.

Loose lip-sync slip

Ashlee Simpson

Best Internet label

Clubbo (www.clubbo.com). A half-century of the secret history of popular music unfolds before your ears.

Best cult band

Fiery Furnaces. Sibling duo creates songs of dizzying musical and lyrical complexity without sacrificing tunefulness.

Most overhyped cult band

The Walkmen. The O.C.'s indie-savvy Seth Cohen usually has better taste than to go for these mysteriously hip squawkers.

Gangsta of the year

Clive Davis. The venerable BMG Records chief was so designated by Fantasia in the dedications for her first album.

meltwithu
'Best live performer

Prince, who sold the most concert tickets in 2004. Madonna's higher prices earned her the top concert gross (not to be confused with top gross concert, which was — at least according to the FCC — Janet at the Super Bowl).'