You Make the McCall

It is that time of year – not graduation, not basketball season, not the holidays, but rather the time of the year when anyone who writes about music compiles a list of what they thought rocked the hardest the previous year. Because this is the last Pulse of the semester (boy did it fly by) I present to our dear Pulse readers the first annual “McCallies.” Drum-roll please.

Break-through of the year

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The humble varmints from Modest Mouse went from Indie rock superstars to having their single “Float On” on every car stereo dialed into an alternative station this summer and fall. If you heard it, you sang along and it probably put a little hop in your step.

Runner-up:Tim McGraw’s duet of sorts with sup-dirty Nelly also played on the radio “Over and Over Again.”

I’m 70, but I still rock award

Cute ol’ Loretta Lynn teamed up with Indie poster-boy Jack White on “Van Lear Rose.” The strange combination united Lynn’s sweetly aged voice with the intense music of the Stripes. The result is the best “I’m on the second half of a century” music since Johnnie Cash recorded “Hurt.” But does Lynn really need to kiss White on the lips at the end of their video for “Portland Oregon”?

Runner-up:On “It Always Will Be,” Willie Nelson shows that he has certainly not forgot how to make a great album during his golden years even after all that time he spent puffing the magic dragon.

Biggest let-down of the year

Hi kids! Like rappers who don’t try hard anymore and have only a few good songs on a record that goes on to sell millions? Well Eminem is back with more of what made him rich; a few sizzling beats by Dr. Dre, lots of help from his crew and a marketing giant that sells albums like crack.

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Runner-up:Aside from one good track, “Leaving New York,” R.E.M’s snooze-fest “Around the Sun” lacks any kind of heat.

Best rap album of the year

I’ve only had a few days with Nas’ “Street Disciple,” but what I have heard is better than anything the rap game had to offer in 2004. Still the same fast-paced lyricist, Nas layers unprecedented rhymes over booty shaking beats. The guns and streets have been traded in for a social conscience, SUVs and the ladies.

Runner-up:The Streets’ “A Grand Don’t Come for Nothin'” shows the rappers across the pond (England) can also lay it down even if listeners have no idea what British slang terms refer to. Get out your Ali-G dictionary.

Best country album of the year

Dierks Bentley wins here by default partially due to his super cool name and the fact that his self-titled first album was the only country album I listened to from start to finish. Dierks is cute. Dierks is a cowboy. Dierks is a cool name.

Runner-up:That song about riding a cowboy in order to save a horse is a hoot.

Best single of the year

If you don’t know every word to Hoobastank’s “The Reason” you have been hiding under a rock, or you haven’t watched the O.C. for the last year.

“And the reason is Youuuuuuu…”

Oh man, the song is so emotional tears build up in my eyes and I feel like hugging somebody.

Runner-up:Franz Ferdinand’s “Take Me Out” would have been number one, but my roommate played it over and over again for two months.

Best album of the year

When I first heard The Arcade Fire I didn’t really care for it. “Funeral” was moody and dark, and seemed only good for rainy days. Then I fell in love with the mystery of the Montreal band because its original sound kept growing on me with every listen.

What is most amazing was this was the first album from the vulnerable, youthful Indie rock sweethearts lead by Win Butler, the destructive and rage-filled lead singer, his wife and his little brother, Will, who looks exactly the title character from Napoleon Dynamite. “Gossssssh.”

Runner-up:Wilco had an off year at the “McCallies,” but “A Ghost is Born” was good enough to take home the much coveted second most played spot on my iPod.

I’ll see all 12 of my readers in January. Happy holidays.