Year in Review - Top Tens in Music
Top Twenty-Five albums:
- Low - The Great Destroyer
- LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem #1
- Daft Punk - Human After All
- The Wedding Present - Take Fountain
- Lou Barlow - Emoh
- Stars - Set Yourself on Fire
- Goldfrapp - Supernature
- Broadcast - Tender Buttons
- Damon and Naomi - The Earth is Blue
- Brian Eno - Another Day on Earth
- Ladytron - Witching Hour
- British Sea Power - Open Season
- Smog - A River Ain't Too Much to Love
- White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
- Antony and the Johnsons - I am a Bird Now
- The Clientele - Strange Geometry
- Mark Gardener - These Beautiful Ghosts
- Bob Mould - Body of Song
- Mary Timony - Ex Hex
- Tom Vek - We have Sound
- New Order - Waiting for the Siren's Call
- Xiu Xiu - La Forêt
- Amber Headlights
- Beck - Guero
- Cardiagns - Super Extra Gravity
Ten disappointing albums (ie good but should have been better, ranked in order of disappointment):
- New Order - Waiting for the Siren's Call
- Super Furry Animals - Love Kraft
- Doves - Some Cities
- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Howl
- Sigur Ros - Takk
- St Etienne - Tales from the Turnpike House
- Kate Bush - Ariel
- Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have it...
- Deathcab for Cutie - Plans
- Royksopp - The Understanding
Should be on the list because 2005 was their year but were not technically released in 2005:
- Mogwai - Mr Beast
- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus
- The Arcade Fire - Funeral
- Annie - Anniemal
- Brightblack - Ala.Cali.Tucky
- The Futureheads - S/T
- Green Day - American Idiot
- Mercury Rev - The Secret Migration
- The One AM Radio - A Name Writ in water
- Pinback - Summer in Abaddon
Best Box Sets, Resissues, Compilations, Outtakes, Live, Etc:
- Mogwai - Government Commissions
- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - B Sides Box Set
- Wilco - Kicking Chicago
- The Auteurs - Luke Haines is Dead
- The Arcade Fire & David Bowie - Live @ Fashion Rocks EP
- Bonnie Prince Billy - Summer in the Southeast
- Galaxie 500 - Peel Sessions
- Weird Sisters - Harry Potter Songs
- Kraftwerk - Minimum-Maximum
- Smashing Orange - 1991
Best Local:
- Damon and Naomi - The Earth is Blue
- Mary Timony - Ex Hex
- Lou Barlow - Emoh
- Chop Chop
- Ad Frank - World's Best Ex-Boyfriend
- Freezepop - Maxi Ultra Fresh
- Boy in Static - Newborn
- Karacter
- Don Lennon - Routine
- Cyanide Valentine - Let it Rot
Ten albums definitely NOT in the top ten (or, "what's the deal with people liking these so much?"):
- Steven Malkmus - Face the Truth/Strange
- The 2 Bright Eyes Albums
- Spoon - Gimme Fiction
- Coldplay - X&Y
- Madonna - Confessions...
- MIA - Arular
- Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
- Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger
- Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary
Top Eleven Shows:
- Mogwai - All Tomorrow's Parties, Camber Sands, UK. I'll be shocked if there's a year they play where they don't get top spot, and there's a new album for 2006. I cannot wait for those shows.
- The Arcade Fire - Coachella, Indio, CA - There were a lot of amazing performances @ Coachella (British Sea Power, Bauhaus, etc), but this was magic. I've never seen a band connect so perfectly with an audience that big. You could see the band was even freaking out about how perfect it all was.
- Wilco - Coachella, Indio, CA - sunset in the desert with "Spiders" playing. Perfect.
- New Order - Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, NY - unmarred by the audio problems on the big stage @ coachella, and it was a longer set, with more oldies (Love Vigilantes!). This would have been ranked higher if Anna Matronic hadn't marred it.
- Pop Will Eat Itself - Shepherd's Bush Empire, London, UK
- The Wedding Present - Middle East, Cambridge, CA - I want to say the brighton UK show @ Concorde 2 so I can be all cool, but the ME show was definitely better
- Yo La Tengo - Tonic, New York, NY
- Calla - Tonic, New York, NY
- Royksopp - Paradise, Boston, MA
- Angels of Light/Akron Family - Great Scott's, Allston, MA
- Acid Mothers Temple - Middle East, Cambridge, MA
All Shows:150 bands or so. 365 days. Almost a band every other day? Good god. Of course, a couple festivals definitely skewed the numbers higher. There are a couple bands I don't remember - mainly support for certain shows. And there are a few I geniunely can't remember if I saw this year or last year - Psychadelic Furs, BRMC, Stills, Sun City Girls, etc. - but I think this is more or less complete:
27
13 & God
Acid Mothers Temple
Ad Frank
Akron Family
Album Leaf
Ambulance LTD
American Analog Set
Amusement Parks on Fire
Angels of Light
Animal Collective
Annie
Asobe Seksu
The Arcade Fire
Lou Barlow
Bad Wizard
Bauhaus
Black Star
Lewis Black
Bloc Party
Bon Savants
Boy in Static
The Bravery
Brian Jonestown Massacre
Bright Eyes
Brightblack
British Sea Power
Chris Brokaw
Buffalo Tom
Calla
Casiotone for the Painfully alone
Caspain
Cassette
Certainly Sir
Charlene
The Cignal
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Clientele
Cloud Room
Coldplay
Commodore Vic
Cyanide Valentine
Dame Darcy
Death in June
The December Sound
Decembrists
Deerhoof
Do Make Say Think
Doves
The Dudley Corporation
Early Man
Earth
Earth Defense Force
Endless Bookie
Entrance
The Faint
Leslie Feist
Fragile
Freezepop
Futureheads
Gang of Four
Mark Gardener
Goblincock
The Good North
Neil Hamburger
Headphones
Hood
Hopewell
The Information
Ivy
Garvy J
Juliette and the Licks
Junior Senior
Karacter
Kasabian
Keane
Paula Kelly
The Kills
King Kong
Kraftwerk
LCD Soundystem
Don Lennon
Lifestyle
Love as Laughter
The Lovemakers
Low
Lucksmiths
Lungfish
M83
Magik Markers
Major Stars
Matmos
Medicine Line
Melvins
Mercury Rev
MIA
Mighty Flashlight
Eugene Mirman
Mission of Burma
Mobius Band
Mogwai
Mommy & Daddy
Montain Goats
Mattley Mountain
Mum
New Order
Nine Inch Nails
Noisettes
Ok Go!
Parker & Lilly
Passenger
Pelt
Pigface
Pinback
Pop Will Eat Itself
The Polyphonic Spree
Prefuse 73
Sam Prekop
Prids
Ratatat
Raveonettes
Gruff Rhys
Jonathan Richmond
Mark Robinson
Rogue Wave
Roh Delikat
Royksopp
Latetia Sadier
The Sanguine
Ulrich Schnauss
Scissor Sisters
Silverspun Pickups
The Skating Club
Slint
Snow Patrol
Soft Explosions
Sons and Daughters
Stars
Stereo Total
Sterophonics
Suckdog
Sunburned Hand of the Man
Tegan and Sara
The Texas Governor
Turin Breaks
UV Protection
VHS or Beta
Westward Trail
The Wedding Present
Weezer
White Magic
White Stripes
Wilco
The Willard Grant Conspiracy
Yo La Tengo
Thalia Zydek