Best Music of 2005: Part The Fourth
10. North American Halloween Prevention Initiative - Do They Know It's Halloween?
An all-star benefit single featuring a who's who of cool people including the guys from Arcade Fire, the girls from Smoosh, Karen O from The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beck from Beck, David Cross, Peaches... basically everyone except for Danger Mouse.
It's basically a rip on all those dreadful, patronizing benefit singles from the 80s such as Band Aid's 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' which boldly stood up and asked if poor starving Muslims knew whether or not it was Christmas time.
The video is even better than the song. Check it out:
http://www.vice-recordings.com/halloween/halloween_big.mov
9. John Williams - Battle Of The Heroes
So many things didn't go right with the Star Wars prequels but the soundtrack certainly wasn't one of them. Revenge Of The Sith might be the most musically rich of the Star Wars films as John Williams had all his previous themes to work with as well as a strong scenario to create this new one, Battle Of The Heroes. Lucas needed a battle song that was as strong as Duel Of The Fates from The Phantom Menace but it had to be tragic this time. This time its a fight between two friends. Works for me.
8. Bright Eyes - When The President Talks To God
A protest song that immediately grabs your attention with spiteful lines that sound like they should rhyme but don't. Watching this performed on the Jay Leno show was therapeutic.
7. Sleater-Kinney - What's Mine Is Yours
From the Sleater-Kinney bio on the website: They came from the Pacific Northwest, from the land of hemp and used bookstores, and they conquered the world.
That's about all I know. That and they rock.
6. Clutch - 10001110101
Clutch is a stand out band that straddles that rarified ground between Faith No More and classic blues rock like Led Zeppelin. You'd think that a hard working band like Clutch would have broken into the mainstream after 10 years in the game, serving up fun, fresh, solid, reliable hard rock but these aren't exactly heavy metal's salad days. Even Mike Patton would probably be a has-been by now if it wasn't for the fact that he starts a new band approximately nine times a day.
This track has a great vibe and a great hook. It's like the best Deep Purple song that Deep Purple never wrote.