2. A Month Late: The List.
That's right, 35, my biggest "Best of the Year" list ever. Why 35? Not because 2005 was a substantially great year for music -- in fact it was almost the exact opposite. Just because there was a lot of great music this year, but very little of it was housed within a small series of albums; albums as a whole were incredibly inconsistent, dissapointing, etc. 2005, thus, goes down as the year of one great album and a whole bunch of pretenders. So why make a list? Because you can, and it is fun.
Also, note that songs under "Key Tracks" denoted with two bolded asterisks (**) denote the year's best tracks, according to me.
* * * * * *
35. Eluvium - Talk Amongst the Trees
The first of a series of "utilitarian" releases that I used as background music during studying, etc. Really, there's not too much to this ambient headphone-drone album worth really noting with the exception of the incredible, 10-minute opener "New Animals from the Air."
Key Tracks: "New Animals from the Air."
34. Common - Be
Talk about an overcooked turkey. I don't think Common is really all that great; his raps always seem a bit forced. But this album has some real great songs on it.
Key Tracks: "Go," "Be," "Faithful."
33. Serena-Maneesh - Serena-Maneesh
This album had an uncomfortably close connection to Isn't Anything by My Bloody Valentine and in general reminded me of grey, overcast late-Autumn, early-nineties afternoon in Michigan "blah" that I've tried so hard to forget about. But, as always, I've got a soft spot for anything MBV-esque, which this one undoubtedly is, and there is some really great stuff on this album.
Key Tracks: "Drain Cosmetics," "Candlelighted."
32. Ada - Blondie
Great dance album. More "doing homework" dance than "having a party" dance, but this is definetly awesome, NYC-sounding, non-dirty, non-grimey listenable pop/dance music.
Key Tracks: "Cool My Fire," "The Red Shoes."
31. Silver Jews - Tanglewood Numbers
At first I thought I had found something really peculiar about this album that was really great and really made me enjoy it a lot. Then I just realized it was an averagely decent, boring at points and great others, weird album with weird lyrics.
Key Tracks: "How Can I Love You (If You Won't Lie Down," "Sometimes a Pony Gets Depressed."
30. Antony and the Johnsons - I Am a Bird Now
I never really found myself sitting down and listening to this album and being like "Oh wow, this is totally great or anything." I think a lot of people like this because it's so bizzare and almost macabre; dude's androgynous, sings about breast cancer, 'O, I am so fey and tragic!' But I came back to bits and pieces of this album throughout the year, and as a whole, I think I've liked every song on this album as an individual unit at some point over the year. I just don't think I'd ever sit down and listen to it as a whole work. I'm just not that screwed up.
Key Tracks: "Fistful of Love," "Hope There's Someone."
29. LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
This has to go on the list because I did really, really love a lot of this album when it first came out. That said, no other album from this year has dropped so much in my eyes or seems as a dreadful of a re-listen as this one does. I almost just feel embarassed for him now.
Key Tracks: "Tribulations," "Movement."
28. South San Gabriel - The Carlton Chronicles
A hidden gem from Austin, this acoustic outfit played the role for me that Sun Kil Moon's Ghosts of the Great Highway did in the past: boring yet probing. There's something somewhat hypnotic about this generally lackluster and meandering release from a band clearly still in its formative stages; it has that quiet majesty that at points shuts out the outside world. They didn't make a mark on the music scene this year, most likely due to the fact that their album doesn't even get going until the second half. But, oh, what a second half it is at points - "I am Six Pounds of Dynamite" is one of my favorite tracks of the year.
Key Tracks: "The Dark of the Garage," "I am Six Pounds of Dynamite**," "Feel Too Young to Die."
27. Spoon - Gimmee Fiction
Gosh, when did Spoon get boring? Well written, yeah. Really awesome at points, sure. I'll give them that. Britt Daniel is still one of the best songwriters in indie rock, no one can deny. But this album was incredibly dissapointing to me -- it got a lot of love and I don't think that love was warranted.
Key Tracks: "The Beast and Dragon Adorned," "Sister Jack**."
26. Sam Prekop - Who's Your New Professor?
Sam Prekop's got a great, lounge-y voice, and this album is quite good. Yet still, it is quite boring too as a whole, and I don't really have much more to say.
Key Tracks: "Something," "Chicago People."
25. The Spinto Band - Nice and Nicely Done
Here's a band I know absolutely nothing about, but a band that wrote a great great pop album. Nothing really spectacular, but this one has great hooks and just solid power-pop guitar songs. Feel good album of the year.... maybe? I don't know.
Key Tracks: "Late," "Crack the Whip."
24. Out Hud - Let Us Never Speak of it Again
I hated this band so much after seeing their shlockfest at Intonation, but this album was pretty solid all the way through. It was nice and dance-y, somewhat dirty, but generally listenable under all situations and accesible to all. I've liked both their releases, and this one is definetly a lot more focused and had two of the greatest hooks this year (see key tracks).
Key Tracks: "How Long**" (track of the year?), "Old Nude."
23. The Clientele - Strange Geometry
This band has a really great, out-to-sea, hazy sound to them, and their singer reminds me of Phil Collins! Some people say they're a bit shoegazer, I think they're just gloomy britpop, kinda like the early 90's stuff sans the psychidelics. This is a much more polished and glossy release from them, but it's still great -- but all their music sounds the same.
Key Tracks: "Since K Got Over Me," "My Own Face Inside the Trees."
22. Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock and Roll
Tons of fun! This album sounds like the Clash with a singer that overdoes trying to be clever and corny and funny all at once. I'm just glad it doesn't take itself too seriously. So many stupidly awesome tracks on here; I take back what I said about Spinto Band, this is the feel good album of the year.
Key Tracks: "Emily Kane," "Good Weekend," "My Little Brother."
21. My Morning Jacket - Z
After two behemoths, I don't know if this is what we should've expected or if this is sort of a surprise. MMJ continue to use their best asset -- their vocalist's haunting voice -- to find moments some incredibly crucial moments of brilliance. "Off the Record" is a ridiculous reggae-fied country jam that, like the rest of the album, shows the creative potential of the band, but in the end sputters on a bit too long.
Key Tracks: "Gideon," "Off the Record," "Anytime."
20. M83 - Before the Dawn Heals Us
What a bizzare, bizzare album. The M83 duo became a single, and it became clear that Gonzales (the remaining half of the whole) is pretty pre-occuiped with things pretty, sugar-glossed, stadium drum-ified and atmospheric. In turn, Before the Dawn Heals Us lacks the edgy, mechanized feel of its predecesor. It almost becomes too big-budget, too cheesy, too big for its own good; thus it is hard to avoid the trap of lumping the whole album as a "failure" or a "not as good as _____." But if you can, you'll discover that Gonzales, while maybe not the noise-lover his former partner was, knows a thing or two about making pretty decent shoegazer tunes on laptops and famously awful songs about car crashes.
Key Tracks: "Teen Angst**," "In the Cold I'm Standing."
19. Doves - Some Cities
Like Z, I approach this album wondering if this is what I should have expected or not. A weird directional shift for a band that, after creating a pop gem in 2002, seems to have headed back into the woods of the UK and gotten all weird again. Half of the album has sadly gone underappreciated this year; the over half is just plain undercooked. Perhaps Doves should have kept one foot in the backwoods cabin, another in the glimmering spotlight next to Coldplay.
Key Tracks: "Black and White Town," "Snowden**."
18. Archer Prewitt - Wilderness
I really only really dug the first half of this album, but I enjoyed that so much -- and found the other half satisfactory enough -- for this album to place in the Top 20. Archer Prewitt makes a great, sleepy, somewhat atmospheric acoustic late-night driving album. Very beautiful, lush and vibrant at times and Archer's voice is incredibly soothing.
Key Tracks: "Go Away," "O, Ky," "Way of the Sun."
17. The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
I'm pretty convinced everybody in the world liked this album a whole lot more than I did. It just seems to perfect, too crisp, too clean -- sorta like AC Newman's The Slow Wonder, I feel like this is "New P's brand" pop music made in a sterilized, clean room at the musical equivalent of the Center for Disease Control. That said, at points, this album just kills. It's clear that Newman is running out of ideas, which is a bit sad, and while Dan Bejar's contributions are obviously the pick of the litter on the whole, it doesn't just seem like the New P's without AC Newman overcoming his lisp and zits via bone crushing, "disjointed verse + smooth sailing chorus", Neko Case-accentuated power pop.
Key Tracks: "Twin Cinema," "Use It**", "Bleeding Heart Show."
16. Boards of Canada - The Campfire Headphase
If you don't really love the ideas of Boards of Canada's sound, you'll probably find this album incredibly boring. Like "Talkie Walkie" was to Air, this album has BOC getting a lot more fundamental, simple and easily-digestable. Which, regrettably means, this album gets pretty boring. A fantastic reading album, but a bit too meandering, a bit too unexciting to capture the attention of non-ardent BOC fans.
Key Tracks: "Oscar See Through the Red Eye," "Davyan Cowboy."
15. The Decemberists - Picaresque
Another perhaps overlooked release, it seems that a lot of people have gotten a bit too comfortable with this band. Colin Meloy and Co. always have seemed to walk the line between acoustic gold and Barenaked Ladies with Homestarr Runner on lead vox, and perhaps their maritime schtick is wearing thin -- at least to some. If you failed to give Picaresque a chance this year, you missed an album no less solid than Her Majesty, but not as brilliant as Castaways and Cutouts. Still, give it a listen if you brushed past it -- some of the stuff on here is among Meloy's finest.
Key Tracks: "The Sporting Life," "On the Bus Mall**," "Sixteen Military Wives."
14. Andrew Bird - The Mysterious Production of Eggs
This is an album that is probably than I feel it is. It is tied to certain eras of my life that I have trouble re-living, and thus this album inevitably slips due to personal circumstances. Sorry, Andrew. It is good; I mean, it's seriously good at points. Yet it gets a bit too folky/artsy/something for me sometimes, and the overall "hippies and hipsters alike" concept of the album sometimes brushes a little too close to the fomer for me to feel comfortable. Again, personal attachment is at fault here--I really sorta hate those days when I told everyone I was so in love with Ben Harper.
Key Tracks: "Sovay," "Skin is, My," "Fake Palindromes."
13. Deerhoof - The Runner's Four
Talk about hating a band and coming back around. I guess this Deerhoof's stab at conventionality, and I'm not exactly sure what it is. And I know I hate the Japanese, "oh I'm so cute!" sound of the beeping and bleeping lead singer. But my gosh, the guitar work/hooks on this album are ridiculous. It's not often I sit down and listen to an album and go, "No way, I could never do this." When I listen to parts of this album -- sadly, mostly found in the first half -- I know it's beyond my ability to understand.
Key Tracks: "Wrong Time Capsule**," "Spirit Ditties of No Tone," "Running Thoughts."
12. Death Cab for Cutie - Plans
No, your eyes do not deceive you: I'd like to hate this album, but I cannot. This album is incredible mediocre, by-the-numbers and unoriginal. But I find it coming back on a consistent basis, often for utilitarian purposes; its so unoffensive, so easily listened-to, that it's quintessential background tunes doing something else. That said, I did a lot of stuff this year and needed such background noise. To be fair, I will give credit where credit is due: the lyrics of "What Sara Said" are pretty excellent, and "Crooked Teeth" is an excellent, excellent pop song.
Key Tracks: "Marching Bands of Manhattan**," "Crooked Teeth," "What Sara Said."
11. The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday
I've found myself returning to this album again and again -- my excitement for it hasn't faded. Yet, I've found it never really getting its claws in, save for a few absolutely outstanding tracks. Lyrical redundancies (I mean, how many times can we get "born again" or "high as hell" with "our little hoodrat friend" in "Penetration Park"?) while perhaps part of a grander theme, seem to be a bit too ridiculous. Sometimes dude tries to be a bit too much of an urban poet (see the embarassing "Charlamange in Sweatpants") but sometimes he and his band are just overwhelmingly brilliant. The frontman is luckily only part of a grander story of riff rock, stop and go hooks and incredibly catchy power rock.
Key Tracks: "Your Little Hoodrat Friend," "Stevie Nix."
10. Rogue Wave - Descended Like Vultures
I read it somewhere; maybe in Andy's "list" or something. This guy had all his life to write the first album, and never was there pressure. Now he had to deliver on the follow-up, and in general, he does. This album is a lot less intimate than the first one, but I feel it's a lot more cohesive. One can only wonder where Rogue Wave will stack up next to recent noteables like the Shins if they continue down this path not as one man's fleshed-out hobby, but as a great band. And, I won't hide, it, I was really rooting for these guys this year.
Key Tracks: "Salesman at the Day of the Parade**," "California," "Are You On My Side?"
9. The National - Alligator
Where did this one come from? I have a hard time always listening to it -- it's a bit to brutally harsh, sad, whatever for me at times, but I'll be damned if it isn't a fantastic, fantastic album. Like a straightened-out Modest Mouse, the National relies on ugly-yet-perfect vocals and pretty standard songwriting. I've found this album to always be a bit oppresive, but the pressue seems to instantaneously lift when "All the Wine" kicks in; in my opinion, you've got to be a great band doing great things to write tracks like these. If anything, these guys make the list for coming out of nowhere and surprising a lot of people.
Key Tracks: "All the Wine**," "Lit Up," "Secret Meeting."
8. M.I.A. - Arular
This was pretty unpopular with a lot of people, but I really really enjoyed it. In fact, this was one of the most consistently enjoyable albums of the year, even though my listens really tapered off. There quite a number of outstanding hooks here -- lyrical and musical -- that I feel get lost in the shuffle of the "OMG, she's a Sri Lankan rapper with a story" political/diversity quotient-friendly major-label A&R hype. I don't care that her dad was a Tamil tiger, even though it is said, I just want to have a good time. This album made me laugh out loud, but in a good way.
Key Tracks: "Bucky Done Gone**, "Ten Dollar," "Galang**."
7. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
Yeah, shelf life is debatable, but I very rarely this year got as immersed in one single album as I did Silent Alarm. It's very cold, very un-inviting, yet incredibly listenable. Maybe the best straight up guitar album since Turn on the Bright Lights. Nothing new. Nothing amazing. Precise, musical, well written. Generally consistent. And again, the diversity quotient!
Key Tracks: "Like Eating Glass**," "Pioneers," "Helicopter."
6. Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
Way, way, way a late-pusher here, which makes me worry if it really deserves this high of a spot. I listened to and sat on this one for months, slotting it mentally much much lower on my list, perhaps around fifteen or sixteen. But there's something in this album that tells me this is probably one of the best written "albums" of the year; as I stated in the opening, very few things "Wow-ed" me on a album-wide level. This did. Really hard to listen to due to its pretty depressing conceptual message, but great nonetheless.
Key Tracks: "For Real**," "A Stone," "Black."
5. The Complete 2005 Works of Iron & Wine
Yes, yes I know. This isn't legitimate. I know. You can't do this. But I am. The fact is that it would be a crime to avoid the brilliance Sam Beam put out this year just due to the fact that it was represented on EP's and movie soundtracks. To be clear, this is to mean The Woman King EP, the In the Reins EP with Calexico, "The Trapeze Swinger" (In Good Company OST), and darnit, a fantastic live recording of a show with Calexico I downloaded from NPR. Dude was on fire this year and I have no doubt that, had he put out an LP this year, it would've been magnificent. This isn't the Iron & Wine of 2002, though; Brian Deck "decked out" his sound from Woman and Sam hasn't looked back. Maybe it kills the mystique, maybe it drains the nostalgia factor, but it shows that this dude can write.
Key Tracks: "Jezebel," "The Trapeze Swinger**," "In the Reins."
4. Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary
This was a grower for me, which is probably beneficial; I know the shine wore off early for a lot of folks. This album is excellent in a bunch of different ways: it's original; it's interesting; it's complex; it's well-written; it's entertaining; it's fun. In short, if Montreal is going to keep pumping out winners, I'd take a million more Wolf Parade's than Arcade Fire's anyday. Telephone keyboards! Bruce Springsteen-esque vocals! Great drumming and guitar chops! This one's got it all. The type of indie rock album I'd love Karenin's Smile to make... but we will never will.
Key Tracks: "I'll Believe in Anything**," "Shine a Light**," "Grounds for Divorce**."
3. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Another one that got hated it on by quite a few, I found this to be one of the most across-the-board enjoyable album of the year. Yeah, it wears just about every great indie band's sound on it's sleeve. And yeah, the whole circus bit, and the awful name thing... but this album is pretty much amazing. Just about every song is awesome (with the notable exceptions of the final two tracks) and well written. And they're from Brooklyn, not Sweden.
Key Tracks: "Heavy Metal**," "In this Home on Ice**," "The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth."
2. Sigur Ros - Takk
Again, this is a "me" thing, but this album pretty much blew me away for a good two months straight. I've got a thing for lush, noisy, atmospheric albums, yeah. Somehow, though, Sigur Ros shed the "glacial" tag with this one. Yeah, it's the same concept -- a great progression, the dude's alien voice, an incredibly poignant strings section. It's just so good. This album was a defining point of the year for me; no album captured my attention for a 2-3 month solid block like Takk.
Key Tracks: "Glosoli**," "Meo Blodnasir**," "Saeglopur**."
1. Sufjan Stevens - Come on Feel the Illinoise!
What did you expect? PFMS stole my thunder! Actually a lot of sites did, and for good reason. No album is more unbelievably unbelievable than this album. That immaculate progressions, the articulate arrangements, the layers upon layers of arpeggiated keys and vibes and trumpets and oohs and ahhs that somehow sounds like an orchestra and not a mess. Musically, this album is about as stunning as you can get with the whimsical nature of Sufjan, but then he adds -- yeah, I'll say it -- sheer poetry on top of it. Where does he go now? He followed up a pop behemoth with a giant of an even grander scale, one that is admirable in its scope and ambition, and one that is remarkable in its success. I'm no apologist. This album is absolutely amazing.
Key Tracks: "The Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders**," "The Predatory Wasp of Palisades is Out to Get Us!**," "Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, IL**," "Chicago**," "John Wayne Gacy, Jr.**," "The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts," "Come on! Feel the Illinoise."
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And there you have it. Until next year!
- mv
Caution, somewhat graphic intensive.