The Best of 2005: Music
Well, its that time of the year where record critics try to outdo themselves in fits of pomp by listening the exact same fucking albums in varying orders to come up with the best albums of the year. Never one to be outdone by other pretentious fucks, I figured I could throw my two cents into the ring and see what sticks to the wall. And hell, since I didn't bother with a top 10 list last year I'll split the difference and do my top 15.
The Top 15 (well 16) albums of 2005:
(16) Yeltsin - We Will Become A Factory - This album is fucking brilliant. Of course very few of you will have heard it because as far as I can tell the album is stocked exclusively at “House Of Records” here in Eugene… which goes to figure as Yeltsin are a local band. However, they're live sets are amazing and the album is really raw and inventive. And no, I’m not just biased because the singer/guitarist happens to be my jazz guitar teacher. The album is unbelievably good. It gives me a lot of hope for the future. So… its not widely available, but I had to include it anyways.
(15) Kate Bush - Aerial - I’m still not exactly sure why I like this album, but the more I’ve listened to it, the more I’ve started to understand what it is about Kate Bush that seems to garner inexplicable fanaticism on the part of the British. And yeah, the album definitely has its problems, but many of those problems are also its strongest parts. Just listening to the album, one can see the influence Bush has had over the years on everyone from Bjork to Fiona Apple and how listening to those people in return has changed her music.
(14) Beck - Guero - Beck’s much heralded return to form was surprisingly good. The added maturity certainly flew quite well. It was actually nice to hear this album for the first time and it not sounding like the total rehash of Odelay it was being heralded as. Stand out tracks include “Go It Alone”, “Girl” and the title track.
(13) Bruce Springsteen - Devil’s And Dust - Who would have thought that after the train wreck that was “The Rising” Bruce Springsteen would ever make one of these lists again. Except he managed to produce one of the most thoughtful looks at American society during the Bush years. The Rolling Stones should have taken head of what Bruce was doing. The title track especially represents Bruce’s best work since “Nebraska”.
(12) M83 - Before the Dawn Heals Us - This has to be the weirdest concept album ever made, the soundtrack to an imaginary science fiction movie full of emo angst and about a Moon Child… or something like that, I’m still not really sure. Despite this, Before the Dawn Heals us remains one of the most dreamy and compelling albums of the year. It’s just so weird and wonderful that you can’t help but love it.
(11) Sleater-Kinney - The Woods - Listening to this album reminded me of the first time I ever listened to the Dead Kennedys: at first I thought it was a god-awful bunch of noise but future listens revealed how clever and listenable an album this really is. Arya (http://www.livejournal.com/users/kingofamerica) will tell you about how critic Greil Marcus think they are the second coming of Jesus, Muhammad, Moses, John Lennon and Kurt Cobain all rolled into one. The bottom line is the album is noisy as hell, and the sort of album that makes you want to kick ass and take the names of all of those bastards that told you over and over again that rock and roll was dead as a medium (alright… so I’m kicking my own ass here, fuck off.)
(10) Jason Forrest - Shamelessly Exciting - This is one hell of an album. It’s a whole mess of samples and Forrest has that sort of rare genius that allows him to actually this kind of album off. “Combat Photographer” has to have been my favorite single of the year; (check out the video featuring animated Vikings rocking each other out in combat, until they transform into giant robots and go at it. The secret weapon: the horn section.) The whole album, holds together incredibly well thematically despite how varied the different cuts are. Forrest never reaches for the obvious with these samples either, instead he always goes for the interesting and compelling.
(9) Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine - What makes this album wonderful is that it’s so damn earnest. I have to admit, I came late to Fiona Apple, until earlier this year I had never actually listened to one of her albums. It was quite a coincidence that she elected to make her big come back shortly after my being introduced to her music. The album is great, and having recently absorbed the bulk of her albums I would argue possibly her best. Its brutally honest yet wonderfully melodic at the same time.
(8) Bob Dylan - No Direction Home Soundtrack - An archival find that typifies everything that’s great about the Dylan. Most of the alternate takes of the songs are actually worth hearing - some even doing their originals one better. The first disc contains a lot of alternate versions of Dylan’s early acoustic work, but the second disc is where things really start to heat up, including brilliant alternate takes on such Dylan war horses as “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” (with much more prominent piano and organ tracks) and a scorching “Maggie’s Farm” from the infamous Newport Folk Festival (backed by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band). Dylan tears into Maggie’s Farm with such reckless abandon, you can tell why it shocked the shit out of the folkies... Dylan sounded like he was actually calling for their blood.
(7) The Go! Team - Thunder Lighting Strike - So… um since the US version came out this year, I feel like I can safely get away with including this on my list. I’ve been crazy about the Go! Team ever since I first heard them over 2 and a half years ago and spent a fortune importing the Junior Kickstart EP. You all laughed at me at the time, and now while the lot of you have finally actually bothered to listen to the Go! Team and are going on and on about how great this new band you just discovered is, I can smugly sit back and laugh. And yeah, I agree Bottle Rocket is brilliant.
(6) Blackilicious - The Craft - This album typifies everything that’s great about Blackilicious and why they are way ahead of everyone else who's putting out hip-hop albums today. From the single “Powers” which gives “Hey Ya” a run for its money in terms of pure unrestrained joy to the all out Philly soul of “Black Diamonds and Pearls” this album demonstrates why Blackilicious, along with Outkast, The Roots and the J5 remain the most creative of the current hip hop bands. Between their musical innovation (thanks in no small part to working with a live band) and the uplifting lyrics, listening to Blackilicious is always a positive experience, guaranteed to get you out of the dumps.
(5) Sigur Ros - Takk… - Sigur Ros are brilliant I don’t care what you people say. Of course Sigur Ros are never going to top Agaetis Byrjun (or however the fuck you spell it), it was probably the most innovative album to come out in the last 10 years, however that doesn’t mean that they aren’t still producing music of value. What’s amazing about Sigur Ros is that they are capable of always doing something different without changing their core sound too much. Where () was minimalist affair, Takk… is the closest Sigur Ros will likely ever get to producing a pop album. The album opens on a strong note with the building anthemic Glosoli and moves into perfect dream pop with Hoppipola. Ignore the critics who go on and on about how pretentious the band is and how they never change their sound, just enjoy the album for what it is. Its both glacial and beautiful.
(4) The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan - You know what? I’m going to come out and say it: this is easily the White Stripes best album. It’s raw and ramshackle and a bit of a mess, but the songs are all solid, the instrumentation varies from tune to tune enough to keep things exciting and it is light on Jack White’s slop guitar freak outs. It’s like Exile On Main Street flash-forward 30 years and even weirder. From the butt rock of the album opener of Blue Orchird, to the marimba driven insanity of the nurse and the enormous hooks of the piano and drum driven My Doorbell, this album remains captivating. And that’s only the first three tracks. The album then veers off into the land of blue grass sing-alongs (Little Ghost), celebrity stalker anthems (the brilliant Take, Take, Take) and piano balladry (I’m Londely (But I Ain’t That Lonely Yet).
(3) Konono No. 1 - Congotronics - Despite its catching on in hipster circles there is no denying that this is an absolutely brilliant record. It sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before. It’s three thumb pianos amplified through home DIY systems made out of old car radios and backed by absolutely savage drumming. The end result is walls of distortion that would make My Bloody Valentine jealous while maintaining a certain degree of instrumental virtuosity and a beat that just won’t quit.
(2) Jamie Lidell - Multiply - No other album got spun in my CD player this year as much as this one did. Jamie Lidell’s great talent seems to have been breathing life back into the genre of soul music after years of it simply pulling out the same old tricks. He manages to sound like a combination of Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, James Brown and early Michael Jackson (think Off The Wall era). Lidell backs up his spectacular voice with some of the catchiest tunes, sounding as though they came out of a more up to date, contemporary version of the Stax and Motown studios. It sounds both familiar and fresh at the same time… meaning that it does exactly what good pop music is supposed to.
(1) Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane - At Carnegie Hall - Yeah, its another archival find and it was recorded almost 50 years ago, but what an album. Monk is in top form and really pushes Coltrane to play well outside of his comfort zone, forcing Trane to adapt a more melodic technique that is dramatically different from the sort of “sheets of sound” that he was playing on his own albums at the time. I used to think that Sonny Rollins, Charlie Rouse and Johnny Griffin were the only tenor players that could play sympathetically enough to what Monk was doing to really “get” Monk. What really is most amazing about this album is that it demonstrates a whole other side to Coltrane’s playing. It in effect proves he was even better than we already thought he was. And the rhythm section are fantastic as they add even more guts to the recording and take what already sounds great in interplay between Monk and Coltrane to a whole other level. The mastering on the album is fantastic, making it sound better than most live albums cut today, let alone something that was cut in the 50’s. The end result is not simply the best album of the year, but an outright jazz masterpiece in its own right.
Honorable Mentions:
Black Mountain - Self Titled
M. Ward - Transistor Radio
Common - B
Broken Social Scene - Self Titled
And what the hell, just because its fun...
The Five most disappointing and horridly over hyped albums of 2005:
(1) Bright Eyes - I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning - Goddamn it! Who told this shrill fucker that he should write songs about all of his white boy pain. He can barely play the guitar let alone carry a song (something he couldn’t do even with a bucket). How the normally impeachable Emmylou Harris got roped into appearing on this monstrosity is beyond me. Goddamn all of those vulgar record critics who convinced me to give this one a listen. Damn you Pitchforkmedia, ye shall rue the day when your hipster writers are fat, forty and only have this tuneless shit to remind them of their youth.
(2) The Rolling Stones - A Bigger Bang - While it started off promisingly with the savage and brutal “Rough Justice” this album immediately went straight to hell, with the possible exception of “Back of My Hand”. What the hell are the Stones doing? Why do people keep trying to claim this is anything other than the washed up mockery of what the Stones used to be. “Sweet Neo Con” is supposed to be edgy and political and instead comes off as a juvenile and well, kind of sad really. It’s like Jagger is trying really hard to sound edgy and hip and instead comes off as completely missing the point. The album boasts some of the worst lyrics of the year, such as the brilliant couplet from the afformentioned "Sweet Neo Con": “You call yourself a Christian/ I think that you're a hypocrite/ You say you are a patriot/ I think that you're a crock of shit.” If the Stones had wanted to write a political song, they should have listenened to the Clash first to see how it should be done, and done with style. If you don’t understand what I’m getting at, try listening to this back to back with “Sticky Fingers” or “Beggar’s Banquet”, then you’ll understand.
(3) Kanye West - Late Registration - Why does everybody love this guy so much? I don’t get it. His beats are dull, and the album a mess of unfunny jokes and songs that go nowhere. What I don’t understand is why Kanye gets all the buzz while groups like Blackilicious continue to linger in relative obscurity. And no, Rolling Stone, he's nowhere near as good as he says he is.
(4) Sufjan Stevens - Illinois - It’s kind of… well… dull. It’s not bad or anything. Relatively pleasant really... just well… dull. There I said it. Now fuck off.
(5) Coldplay - X & Y - How does Coldplay follow up having one of the catchiest singles to chart in the last couple of years, by making an album in which every something calculatedly sound exactly like that song with lyrics ambiguous enough to appeal to anyone… except they took it a step to far, the songs are bland and boring and the lyrics just kind of drift. And “Fix You” is in the running for worst song ever written.
And of course a special shout out goes to Daddy Yankee for the hell that is “Gasolina”. It’s a dreadful, head slappingly stupid song about "bling" with absolutely nothing going for it... but damn if I can’t get it out of my head. There is a special place in hell waiting for you Daddy Yankee, oh yes.
Next up: Top movies of 2005.
Coming soon: 2005: year end wrap up.
The Top 15 (well 16) albums of 2005:
(16) Yeltsin - We Will Become A Factory - This album is fucking brilliant. Of course very few of you will have heard it because as far as I can tell the album is stocked exclusively at “House Of Records” here in Eugene… which goes to figure as Yeltsin are a local band. However, they're live sets are amazing and the album is really raw and inventive. And no, I’m not just biased because the singer/guitarist happens to be my jazz guitar teacher. The album is unbelievably good. It gives me a lot of hope for the future. So… its not widely available, but I had to include it anyways.
(15) Kate Bush - Aerial - I’m still not exactly sure why I like this album, but the more I’ve listened to it, the more I’ve started to understand what it is about Kate Bush that seems to garner inexplicable fanaticism on the part of the British. And yeah, the album definitely has its problems, but many of those problems are also its strongest parts. Just listening to the album, one can see the influence Bush has had over the years on everyone from Bjork to Fiona Apple and how listening to those people in return has changed her music.
(14) Beck - Guero - Beck’s much heralded return to form was surprisingly good. The added maturity certainly flew quite well. It was actually nice to hear this album for the first time and it not sounding like the total rehash of Odelay it was being heralded as. Stand out tracks include “Go It Alone”, “Girl” and the title track.
(13) Bruce Springsteen - Devil’s And Dust - Who would have thought that after the train wreck that was “The Rising” Bruce Springsteen would ever make one of these lists again. Except he managed to produce one of the most thoughtful looks at American society during the Bush years. The Rolling Stones should have taken head of what Bruce was doing. The title track especially represents Bruce’s best work since “Nebraska”.
(12) M83 - Before the Dawn Heals Us - This has to be the weirdest concept album ever made, the soundtrack to an imaginary science fiction movie full of emo angst and about a Moon Child… or something like that, I’m still not really sure. Despite this, Before the Dawn Heals us remains one of the most dreamy and compelling albums of the year. It’s just so weird and wonderful that you can’t help but love it.
(11) Sleater-Kinney - The Woods - Listening to this album reminded me of the first time I ever listened to the Dead Kennedys: at first I thought it was a god-awful bunch of noise but future listens revealed how clever and listenable an album this really is. Arya (http://www.livejournal.com/users/kingofamerica) will tell you about how critic Greil Marcus think they are the second coming of Jesus, Muhammad, Moses, John Lennon and Kurt Cobain all rolled into one. The bottom line is the album is noisy as hell, and the sort of album that makes you want to kick ass and take the names of all of those bastards that told you over and over again that rock and roll was dead as a medium (alright… so I’m kicking my own ass here, fuck off.)
(10) Jason Forrest - Shamelessly Exciting - This is one hell of an album. It’s a whole mess of samples and Forrest has that sort of rare genius that allows him to actually this kind of album off. “Combat Photographer” has to have been my favorite single of the year; (check out the video featuring animated Vikings rocking each other out in combat, until they transform into giant robots and go at it. The secret weapon: the horn section.) The whole album, holds together incredibly well thematically despite how varied the different cuts are. Forrest never reaches for the obvious with these samples either, instead he always goes for the interesting and compelling.
(9) Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine - What makes this album wonderful is that it’s so damn earnest. I have to admit, I came late to Fiona Apple, until earlier this year I had never actually listened to one of her albums. It was quite a coincidence that she elected to make her big come back shortly after my being introduced to her music. The album is great, and having recently absorbed the bulk of her albums I would argue possibly her best. Its brutally honest yet wonderfully melodic at the same time.
(8) Bob Dylan - No Direction Home Soundtrack - An archival find that typifies everything that’s great about the Dylan. Most of the alternate takes of the songs are actually worth hearing - some even doing their originals one better. The first disc contains a lot of alternate versions of Dylan’s early acoustic work, but the second disc is where things really start to heat up, including brilliant alternate takes on such Dylan war horses as “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” (with much more prominent piano and organ tracks) and a scorching “Maggie’s Farm” from the infamous Newport Folk Festival (backed by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band). Dylan tears into Maggie’s Farm with such reckless abandon, you can tell why it shocked the shit out of the folkies... Dylan sounded like he was actually calling for their blood.
(7) The Go! Team - Thunder Lighting Strike - So… um since the US version came out this year, I feel like I can safely get away with including this on my list. I’ve been crazy about the Go! Team ever since I first heard them over 2 and a half years ago and spent a fortune importing the Junior Kickstart EP. You all laughed at me at the time, and now while the lot of you have finally actually bothered to listen to the Go! Team and are going on and on about how great this new band you just discovered is, I can smugly sit back and laugh. And yeah, I agree Bottle Rocket is brilliant.
(6) Blackilicious - The Craft - This album typifies everything that’s great about Blackilicious and why they are way ahead of everyone else who's putting out hip-hop albums today. From the single “Powers” which gives “Hey Ya” a run for its money in terms of pure unrestrained joy to the all out Philly soul of “Black Diamonds and Pearls” this album demonstrates why Blackilicious, along with Outkast, The Roots and the J5 remain the most creative of the current hip hop bands. Between their musical innovation (thanks in no small part to working with a live band) and the uplifting lyrics, listening to Blackilicious is always a positive experience, guaranteed to get you out of the dumps.
(5) Sigur Ros - Takk… - Sigur Ros are brilliant I don’t care what you people say. Of course Sigur Ros are never going to top Agaetis Byrjun (or however the fuck you spell it), it was probably the most innovative album to come out in the last 10 years, however that doesn’t mean that they aren’t still producing music of value. What’s amazing about Sigur Ros is that they are capable of always doing something different without changing their core sound too much. Where () was minimalist affair, Takk… is the closest Sigur Ros will likely ever get to producing a pop album. The album opens on a strong note with the building anthemic Glosoli and moves into perfect dream pop with Hoppipola. Ignore the critics who go on and on about how pretentious the band is and how they never change their sound, just enjoy the album for what it is. Its both glacial and beautiful.
(4) The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan - You know what? I’m going to come out and say it: this is easily the White Stripes best album. It’s raw and ramshackle and a bit of a mess, but the songs are all solid, the instrumentation varies from tune to tune enough to keep things exciting and it is light on Jack White’s slop guitar freak outs. It’s like Exile On Main Street flash-forward 30 years and even weirder. From the butt rock of the album opener of Blue Orchird, to the marimba driven insanity of the nurse and the enormous hooks of the piano and drum driven My Doorbell, this album remains captivating. And that’s only the first three tracks. The album then veers off into the land of blue grass sing-alongs (Little Ghost), celebrity stalker anthems (the brilliant Take, Take, Take) and piano balladry (I’m Londely (But I Ain’t That Lonely Yet).
(3) Konono No. 1 - Congotronics - Despite its catching on in hipster circles there is no denying that this is an absolutely brilliant record. It sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before. It’s three thumb pianos amplified through home DIY systems made out of old car radios and backed by absolutely savage drumming. The end result is walls of distortion that would make My Bloody Valentine jealous while maintaining a certain degree of instrumental virtuosity and a beat that just won’t quit.
(2) Jamie Lidell - Multiply - No other album got spun in my CD player this year as much as this one did. Jamie Lidell’s great talent seems to have been breathing life back into the genre of soul music after years of it simply pulling out the same old tricks. He manages to sound like a combination of Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, James Brown and early Michael Jackson (think Off The Wall era). Lidell backs up his spectacular voice with some of the catchiest tunes, sounding as though they came out of a more up to date, contemporary version of the Stax and Motown studios. It sounds both familiar and fresh at the same time… meaning that it does exactly what good pop music is supposed to.
(1) Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane - At Carnegie Hall - Yeah, its another archival find and it was recorded almost 50 years ago, but what an album. Monk is in top form and really pushes Coltrane to play well outside of his comfort zone, forcing Trane to adapt a more melodic technique that is dramatically different from the sort of “sheets of sound” that he was playing on his own albums at the time. I used to think that Sonny Rollins, Charlie Rouse and Johnny Griffin were the only tenor players that could play sympathetically enough to what Monk was doing to really “get” Monk. What really is most amazing about this album is that it demonstrates a whole other side to Coltrane’s playing. It in effect proves he was even better than we already thought he was. And the rhythm section are fantastic as they add even more guts to the recording and take what already sounds great in interplay between Monk and Coltrane to a whole other level. The mastering on the album is fantastic, making it sound better than most live albums cut today, let alone something that was cut in the 50’s. The end result is not simply the best album of the year, but an outright jazz masterpiece in its own right.
Honorable Mentions:
Black Mountain - Self Titled
M. Ward - Transistor Radio
Common - B
Broken Social Scene - Self Titled
And what the hell, just because its fun...
The Five most disappointing and horridly over hyped albums of 2005:
(1) Bright Eyes - I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning - Goddamn it! Who told this shrill fucker that he should write songs about all of his white boy pain. He can barely play the guitar let alone carry a song (something he couldn’t do even with a bucket). How the normally impeachable Emmylou Harris got roped into appearing on this monstrosity is beyond me. Goddamn all of those vulgar record critics who convinced me to give this one a listen. Damn you Pitchforkmedia, ye shall rue the day when your hipster writers are fat, forty and only have this tuneless shit to remind them of their youth.
(2) The Rolling Stones - A Bigger Bang - While it started off promisingly with the savage and brutal “Rough Justice” this album immediately went straight to hell, with the possible exception of “Back of My Hand”. What the hell are the Stones doing? Why do people keep trying to claim this is anything other than the washed up mockery of what the Stones used to be. “Sweet Neo Con” is supposed to be edgy and political and instead comes off as a juvenile and well, kind of sad really. It’s like Jagger is trying really hard to sound edgy and hip and instead comes off as completely missing the point. The album boasts some of the worst lyrics of the year, such as the brilliant couplet from the afformentioned "Sweet Neo Con": “You call yourself a Christian/ I think that you're a hypocrite/ You say you are a patriot/ I think that you're a crock of shit.” If the Stones had wanted to write a political song, they should have listenened to the Clash first to see how it should be done, and done with style. If you don’t understand what I’m getting at, try listening to this back to back with “Sticky Fingers” or “Beggar’s Banquet”, then you’ll understand.
(3) Kanye West - Late Registration - Why does everybody love this guy so much? I don’t get it. His beats are dull, and the album a mess of unfunny jokes and songs that go nowhere. What I don’t understand is why Kanye gets all the buzz while groups like Blackilicious continue to linger in relative obscurity. And no, Rolling Stone, he's nowhere near as good as he says he is.
(4) Sufjan Stevens - Illinois - It’s kind of… well… dull. It’s not bad or anything. Relatively pleasant really... just well… dull. There I said it. Now fuck off.
(5) Coldplay - X & Y - How does Coldplay follow up having one of the catchiest singles to chart in the last couple of years, by making an album in which every something calculatedly sound exactly like that song with lyrics ambiguous enough to appeal to anyone… except they took it a step to far, the songs are bland and boring and the lyrics just kind of drift. And “Fix You” is in the running for worst song ever written.
And of course a special shout out goes to Daddy Yankee for the hell that is “Gasolina”. It’s a dreadful, head slappingly stupid song about "bling" with absolutely nothing going for it... but damn if I can’t get it out of my head. There is a special place in hell waiting for you Daddy Yankee, oh yes.
Next up: Top movies of 2005.
Coming soon: 2005: year end wrap up.