Amazon.com's list of Editor's Picks for Best Albums of 2004 makes for interesting reading. It goes to show how deliciously fucked-up good music has become... and how little of it you'll hear on your average radio station.

A list including Lynn, Air, Brian Wilson, Tom Waits, Madvillain, Paul Westerberg, Björk and Kanye West is certainly a list spanning every mood-swing possible. Buy all twenty, lock yourself in your flat with them this weekend, then record the results.

My highlight has to be their pick for number 1. Picture the White Stripes getting free licence to mess with Loretta Lynn. Ah the sweet heresy! I'm off to the stores...

Read Amazon's words here, then click below for their top 20.

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1. Van Lear Rose by Loretta Lynn

"Garage-rock hero Jack White producing honky-tonk legend Loretta Lynn? And Lynn comparing him to renowned Nashville producer Owen Bradley? Yes, we all know the world is rapidly shrinking, but now we've seen everything. Most stunning of all - they nailed it."

2. Good News For People Who Love Bad News by Modest Mouse

3. A Ghost Is Born by Wilco

4. Franz Ferdinand by Franz Ferdinand

5. Final Straw by Snow Patrol

6. Antics by Interpol

7. SMiLE by Brian Wilson

8. The Dirty South by Drive-By Truckers, Drive By Truckers

9. The College Dropout by Kanye West

10. Our Endless Numbered Days by Iron & Wine

11. Real Gone by Tom Waits

12. Abattoir Blues / Lyre of Orpheus by Nick Cave, et al

13. Medúlla by Björk

14. From a basement on the hill by Elliott Smith

15. i by Magnetic Fields

16. Talkie Walkie by Air

17. Folker by Paul Westerberg

18. Madvillainy by Madvillain

19. Trouble by Ray LaMontagne

20. Bastards of the Beat by Damnwells