Best of 2004: Music

1. Scissor Sisters, Scissor Sisters This NYC-bred queer band made a huge splash in the U.K. with their platinum self-titled debut, and its been selling like gangbusters back on the home turf, too, gaining momentum all year as their 70s-tinged glam/disco/funk hybrid rocked gay and straight dance floors alike. (Universal) 2. Le Tigre, This IslandThis Island is the fifth release (and the first on a major label) by the feminist, queer, electro-punk band and offers plenty of their signature politically motivated music that you can dance to. (Strummer/Universal) 3. Morel, Lucky Strike Fusing house and punk, openly gay Washington, D.C.based producer Richard Morel and his band have put out a second critically acclaimed disc mixing poignant lyricism with hypnotic, club-friendly grooves. (Yoshitoshi) 4. The Hidden Cameras, Mississauga, Goddam As the brainchild of Toronto queer boy Joel Gibb, the Hidden Cameras dont shy away from lusty man-on-man lyrics mixed with the mirthfully poppy sounds of tambourines and harps. We called it music for prancing. Prance on! (Rough Trade) 5. Tegan & Sara, So Jealous These Canadian lesbian twins are really, really, really cute. But theres nothing pre-fab about them. These sisters cranked out some serious power-pop tunes on their third album. And they wrote the whole damn thing themselves. (Vapor/Sanctuary) 6. George Michael, Patience Though it was his first album of new material in eight years, Patience includes some of George Michaels best songwriting on delicate ballads like My Mother Had a Brother, about a gay uncle who killed himself, and American Angel, a sweet paean to his longtime Texan boyfriend, Kenny Goss. (Sony) 7. Tori Fixx, Black.Out The gay rapper who was once Princes personal DJ is now a producer and emcee in his own right, and hes got the verbal skills to outclass most of his peers. Our reviewer said this disc does what gay hip-hop should do: make it bump like the nastiest, funkiest club youve ever been to. (Us2Records) 8. Magnetic Fields, i The bite-size songs on i by gay songwriting whiz Stephin Merritt all begin with the titular letter and are arranged alphabetically in the track listingbut the gimmick aint all hes got: hes also got his dry, deadpan voice and wry double-entendre take on musical styles from the 80s New Romantic phase to Gilbert and Sullivan, and all tracks feature lyrics honed to razor sharpness. (Nonesuch) 9. Melissa Etheridge, Lucky Etheridge has found love and happiness, and it shows on her playful album. Kiss Me is a libidinous plea to let off some steam, and Giant is a pride rallying cry. Tuesday Morning is the real heartbreaker, about the injustice of being gay in the U.S.A., with Mark Bingham, the 9/11 gay hero of United Flight 93, at its core. (Island) 10. Deep Dickollective, The Famous Outlaw League of Proto-Negroes Using clever rhymes and an elaborate blend of spoken word samples (from Bayard Rustin, Bill Cosby, Utah Phillips, and others) and break beats, this group of gay hip-hop MCs examines what it means to be black and gayespecially where issues of identity are most unstable. (Sugar Truck)