Glad to be a part of 2005
The end of 2005. It's coming. So here's what I listened to and loved this year. I hope you found something you enjoyed as much. Happy soon-to-be-'06, everyone.
I limited the Songs section to only 2 per artist, otherwise it would have gotten pretty ridiculous.
Songs (in the order I think of them):
1. Imogen Heap - "Hide and Seek"
2. Snowden - "Black Eyes"
3. Snowden - "Time of the Season"
3. Sufjan Stevens - "John Wayne Gacy Jr."
4. Sufjan Stevens - "Come on Feel the Illinoise"
5. Bloc Party - "Positive Tension"
6. Bloc Party - "She's Hearing Voices"
7. Bright Eyes - "Landlocked Blues"
8. Bright Eyes - "At the Bottom of Everything"
9. Kanye West - "Addiction"
10. Kanye West - "Diamonds from Sierra Leone"
11. Common - "Chi City"
12. Broken Social Scene - "7/4 Shoreline"
13. Broken Social Scene - "Fire Eye'd Boy"
14. Okkervil River - "For Real"
15. Patrick Wolf - "The Libertine"
16. Patrick Wolf - "Wind in the Wires"
17. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - "In This Home on Ice"
18. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - "Details of the War"
19. Death From Above 1979 - "Romantic Rights"
20. Deerhoof - "Odyssey"
21. Deerhoof - "Wrong Time Capsule"
22. The Game - "Hate it or Love it"
23. The Spinto Band - "Oh Mandy"
24. Grizzly Bear - "Deep Sea Diver"
25. We Are Scientists - "Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt"
26. Wilderness - "End of Freedom"
27. Wilderness - "Marginal Over"
28. Interpol - "Public Pervert"
29. Interpol - "A Time to Be So Small"
30. The Killers - "All These Things That I've Done"
31. Sigur Ros - "Glosoli"
32. The Mae Shi - "Born for a Short Time"
33. mewithoutYou - "January 1979"
34. Wolf Parade - "You Are a Runner And I Am My Father's Son"
35. Wolf Parade - "Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts"
36. Youth Group - "Baby Body"
37. William Shatner - "It Hasn't Happened Yet"
38. William Shatner - "I Can't Get Behind That"
39. OK Go - "A Million Ways"
40. Of Montreal - "So Begins Our Alabee"
41. My Morning Jacket - "Wordless Chorus"
42. My Morning Jacket - "Anytime"
Albums (in the order of how much I obsessed over them):
1. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
I thought about putting CYHSY as number 1. That would have been silly. This album is unbeatable. Go ahead and try. It's impossible. It's not even fair.
2. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Sufjan's glory may be incomprehensible, but this is probably the album I listened to the most this year. I couldn't stop. It bit me with its crooked teeth and wouldn't let go. Something like that.
3. Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary
Sweet holy god. What a debut. Almost every song is stunning and the album is cohesive even with two very different songwriters within the four piece. And they don't even have a bass player. Talk about ingenuity.
4. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
An album of singles, basically. But it holds up pretty well and I played the hell out of it over the summer.
5. My Morning Jacket - Z
Probably the best of MMJ's releases - it's a tough call, though. Without a doubt, it's their most easily-listened-to record. Maybe that's unfair. Anyway, it's crazy good.
6. Kanye West - Late Registration
It'll be on everyone else's lists too. I guarantee it. I wish there were less skits and even more real tracks (such is my greed) but whatcha gonna do? You can't stop Kanye. He's a business, man.
7. The Decemberists - Picaresque
I almost forgot that this album was released in 2005. It feels like I've owned it since like 8th grade. Definitely the band's best. The Decemberists are in a world all their own.
8. Snowden - Snowden EP
Not a full-length but I played it like one. When these guys get a record deal, I will buy every album. Every copy. If it takes that, I will do it. There's no reason they should be as unknown as they are.
9. Patrick Wolf - Wind in the Wires
Nothing else sounds like this. And I don't know what else to say about it. I like it pretty good.
10. Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
Way over-hyped, but still a very solid record. I'd buy it for "For Real" alone. Actually, that's what I did.
Okay, I think that's enough until tomorrow when I likely remember the dozens of songs and albums I've forgotten.
I limited the Songs section to only 2 per artist, otherwise it would have gotten pretty ridiculous.
Songs (in the order I think of them):
1. Imogen Heap - "Hide and Seek"
2. Snowden - "Black Eyes"
3. Snowden - "Time of the Season"
3. Sufjan Stevens - "John Wayne Gacy Jr."
4. Sufjan Stevens - "Come on Feel the Illinoise"
5. Bloc Party - "Positive Tension"
6. Bloc Party - "She's Hearing Voices"
7. Bright Eyes - "Landlocked Blues"
8. Bright Eyes - "At the Bottom of Everything"
9. Kanye West - "Addiction"
10. Kanye West - "Diamonds from Sierra Leone"
11. Common - "Chi City"
12. Broken Social Scene - "7/4 Shoreline"
13. Broken Social Scene - "Fire Eye'd Boy"
14. Okkervil River - "For Real"
15. Patrick Wolf - "The Libertine"
16. Patrick Wolf - "Wind in the Wires"
17. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - "In This Home on Ice"
18. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - "Details of the War"
19. Death From Above 1979 - "Romantic Rights"
20. Deerhoof - "Odyssey"
21. Deerhoof - "Wrong Time Capsule"
22. The Game - "Hate it or Love it"
23. The Spinto Band - "Oh Mandy"
24. Grizzly Bear - "Deep Sea Diver"
25. We Are Scientists - "Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt"
26. Wilderness - "End of Freedom"
27. Wilderness - "Marginal Over"
28. Interpol - "Public Pervert"
29. Interpol - "A Time to Be So Small"
30. The Killers - "All These Things That I've Done"
31. Sigur Ros - "Glosoli"
32. The Mae Shi - "Born for a Short Time"
33. mewithoutYou - "January 1979"
34. Wolf Parade - "You Are a Runner And I Am My Father's Son"
35. Wolf Parade - "Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts"
36. Youth Group - "Baby Body"
37. William Shatner - "It Hasn't Happened Yet"
38. William Shatner - "I Can't Get Behind That"
39. OK Go - "A Million Ways"
40. Of Montreal - "So Begins Our Alabee"
41. My Morning Jacket - "Wordless Chorus"
42. My Morning Jacket - "Anytime"
Albums (in the order of how much I obsessed over them):
1. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
I thought about putting CYHSY as number 1. That would have been silly. This album is unbeatable. Go ahead and try. It's impossible. It's not even fair.
2. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Sufjan's glory may be incomprehensible, but this is probably the album I listened to the most this year. I couldn't stop. It bit me with its crooked teeth and wouldn't let go. Something like that.
3. Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary
Sweet holy god. What a debut. Almost every song is stunning and the album is cohesive even with two very different songwriters within the four piece. And they don't even have a bass player. Talk about ingenuity.
4. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
An album of singles, basically. But it holds up pretty well and I played the hell out of it over the summer.
5. My Morning Jacket - Z
Probably the best of MMJ's releases - it's a tough call, though. Without a doubt, it's their most easily-listened-to record. Maybe that's unfair. Anyway, it's crazy good.
6. Kanye West - Late Registration
It'll be on everyone else's lists too. I guarantee it. I wish there were less skits and even more real tracks (such is my greed) but whatcha gonna do? You can't stop Kanye. He's a business, man.
7. The Decemberists - Picaresque
I almost forgot that this album was released in 2005. It feels like I've owned it since like 8th grade. Definitely the band's best. The Decemberists are in a world all their own.
8. Snowden - Snowden EP
Not a full-length but I played it like one. When these guys get a record deal, I will buy every album. Every copy. If it takes that, I will do it. There's no reason they should be as unknown as they are.
9. Patrick Wolf - Wind in the Wires
Nothing else sounds like this. And I don't know what else to say about it. I like it pretty good.
10. Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
Way over-hyped, but still a very solid record. I'd buy it for "For Real" alone. Actually, that's what I did.
Okay, I think that's enough until tomorrow when I likely remember the dozens of songs and albums I've forgotten.