Jeff Tweedy's great gift is abstraction, and while in the past that's sometimes seemed like a convenient excuse for not finishing songs (see the wildly overpraised Yankee Hotel Foxtrot), this time he sets a mood and keeps to it. No point looking for meaning in a line like "I'm a cherry ghost," just lay back and enjoy the fog.
Best Tracks: Hummingbird, Handshake Drugs, Theologians
Come fly with us, and Leo, through the best (and worst) of 2004. Tops in the cinema this year include Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator. Elsewhere, Deadwood was good TV, and a Strange tale fascinated readers.