Yeah that happened with me too, not TOO many BLOW AWAY albums but I bought and fell in LOVE with a lot of OLDER albums by artist:

ex.
tackey & tsubasa - Hatachi
onitsuka.chihiro - This Armor
onitsuka.chihiro - Sugar High
w-inds. - Prime Of Life
kou.shibasaki - Mitsu
tsukiko.amano - Tenryu

Sorry for the double post ^^;; but overall I think, now that I look at it, wasn't THAT much better than 2003 but since I discovered tackey & tsubasa it just made the year of music SO MUCH BETTER for me anyways. Their songs are just special to me ^_^ even though most are just poppy songs, but that's what I love! Pop music.

and I'm INCREDIBLY surprised how many people enjoyed ASTROMANTIC and thought it was brilliant! In MY OPINION I thought it was pretty bad ^^;; besides the singles anyways... everything else was like blah... I kind of lost faith in m-flo after that album but after year m-flo Loves YOSHIKA, I think they have a lot of more hits on the way. I'm still waiting for m-flo Loves Emi Hinouchi and m-flo Loves SUITE CHIC. I loved SUITE CHIC to come back for a single or two BUT NOT AN ALBUM, cause I LOVE Namie to much haha.

J-Pop:
Mika Nakashima - FAKE
Onitsuka Chihiro - Sodatsu Zasso
Ai Otsuka - Daisuki da yo
Mika Nakashima - Oborodukiyo Inori
Namie Amuro - the SPEED STAR
Koda Kumi - Selfish
m-flo loves Yoshika - Let Go
Heartsdales - LOVE & JOY
BoA - QUINCY
Do As Infinity - Rakuen

K-Pop:
Whee Sung - Incurable Disease
Taebin - Reason I Close My Eyes
Eugene - Stormy Hill

English/American:
Gwen Stefani - What You Waiting For?
Destiny's Child - Lose My Breath
Ashlee Simpson - Pieces of Me
McFly - That Girl
Keane - Bedshaped
Joss Stone - You Had Me

Top singles

Kagrra, - Urei
Kagrra, - Rin
Kagrra, - Omou
Miyavi - Ashita genki ni narre
Ayu - CAROLS
Dir en grey - saku
gazette - ザクロ型の憂鬱
gazette - 舐～zetsu～
36481 - ♪の手紙"ONPU-NO-TEGAMI
nightmare - varuna
nightmare - sian

Top album
Ayu - My story
Kagrra - Miyako

Singles:
Ayumi Hamasaki - Moments

Albums:
BoA - My Name

singles :
- Ayumi Hamasaki - Moments
- Ayumi Hamasaki - CAROLS
- Mika Nakashima - LEGEND
- Ai Otsuka - Kingyo Hanabi
- Namie Amuro - GIRL TALK/the SPEED STAR
- Koda Kumi - girls~Selfish~

albums:
- Ai Otsuka - LOVE JAM!
- Ayumi Hamasaki - MY STORY [ tho. it isn't for this year ]
- Mika Nakashima - Oborozukiyo~Inori

miscellaneous:
- Gwen Stefani - L.A.M.B.
- The Killers - Hot Fuss

1. Kawaguchi Kyougo - Sakura
2. Hirai Ken - Omoigakasanarusonomaeni
3. Kobukuro - Eiennitomoni
4. Hirai Ken - Hitomiwotojite
5. Sasuke - Aoibenchi
6. Orange Range - Hana
7. Otsuka Ai - KingyoHanabi
8. Otsuka Ai - Daisukidayo
9. ELT - Koibumi
10. Ayaka Hirahara - Jupiter

I really think Ayumi has gone downhill ever since her 'Rainbow' album, and I don't think any of her music this year deserves a place in the top 10 of my favourite singles

I really enjoyed ASTROMANTIC too, especially the one leaf-kun corrected light_hikari on earlier (can't remember the song title), as well as 'life is beautiful' feat. DOUBLE, those two were as good as 'miss you' feat. melody. & Yamamoto Ryohei IMO.

Anyway, having read other people's list, I think these:
- Bonnie Pink - Even so
- LOVE PSYCHEDELICO - LOVE PSYCHEDELICO III
- Every Little Thing - commonplace

Belong in my empty Best of 04 album list. :)

Completely forgot about LOVE PSYCHEDELICO III, that had to have my fave song of the year on it, neverland.

x_x I always forget my fave people, and its always annoying when I remember and feel bad for them.

Singles:

1.Kingyo Hanabi-Ai Otsuka
2.Mika Nakashima-LEGEND
3.Ayumi Hamasaki-Moments
4.Ayumi Hamasaki-CAROLS
5.Shimatani Hitomi-ANGELUS
6.Every Little Thing-koibumi/good night
7.Chihiro Onitsuka-Sodatsu Zasso
8.Mika Nakashima-Hi no Tori
9.Ai Otsuka-Daisukidayo
10.Yaida Hitomi-Monochrome Letter

Albums:
1.Ai Otsuka-LOVE JAM
2.Ai Otsuka-LOVE PUNCH
3.Chihiro Onitsuka-the Ultimate Collection
(Chihiro's Best Album might rank higher, but I've only heard infection)

No other 2004 albums have caught my attention...
Edit:Added #3, thanks for the reminder DoCoMo! :D

----- Albums -----

1. SENTIMENTALovers - Hirai Ken
2. MusiQ - Orange Range
3. the ultimate collection - Onitsuka Chihiro
4. LOVE JAM - Otsuka Ai

That's all i can think of that was good for now

I personally thought LOVE PSYCHEDELICO III was a rather annoying album heheheheheh -_-;;;; I only liked 2 songs. Her voice is pretty good but I don't like how she talks instead of singing. And the tone of her voice sounds like "bah I could care less for you who are listening to me" hahaha :laugh I was able to convice someone from not downloading it from me on Soulseek but then regret it and asked the person to DL the 2 tracks I enjoyed track 03 and 10, so that they could decide into getting interested on listening to the rest of the stuff or not :laugh

I thought the singles rocked this year but the album were like meh so I'm only going to ranked the singles:

10. Nami Tamaki - Reason
9. ORANGE RANGE - Hana
8. Ayumi Hamasaki - INSPIRE
7. Kobukuro - Towa ni tomoni
6. GLAY - Toki no Shizuku
5. Ken Hirai - Hitomi wo tojite
4. Ketsumeishi - Namida
3. Ken Hirai - Omoi ga kasa naru sono mae ni
2. Ayumi Hamasaki - CAROLS
1. Hitoto You - Hanamizuki