I have the Nora Jones disc, which I actually like better than her first disc, so right away you know I'm an AC heretic!
I also have the Evanessence CD, I like the music, or at least half of it, but agree the recording is too bright and brittle sounding overall. Evanessence made a splash of a different kind though, a disc of a string quartet playing virtually all the music on their disc was released this year, and pathetic me, i bought it too. Actually, it isn't bad as such discs tend to go, and it does sound better than the original as far as a recording goes.
There was actually some very good music released this year, Ray Charles' "Genius...", Wilco's disc, the Crosby/Nash double disc, Brian Wilson's "Smile" and some nice releases on SACD, which by en large don't count as 2004 releases i guess because they're re-releases.
BTW, I also agree that Nora's best work is on the "New York" disc, but it was actually released in 2003 wasn't it?
