Rajeev's Top 12 of 2005
Happy new year folks! This is perhaps the last day I can get away with posting a year-end list. The pile of '05 albums I still need to hear is sizable, so this list will probably be different in two months, etc. (You know, the usual drill.) My selections aren't all that different from the stuff that's been dominating lists for the last month, but here you go:
1. Art Brut - Bang, Bang, Rock & RollAll spring, all summer, all fall, I kept thinking I might burn out on this. It never happened, and the band's November US visit sealed their spot atop this list. If anything, I like the album more now than ever before. Those shows gave me new favorite lines and riffs, along with frontman Eddie Argos's call to arms. "ART. BRUT. TOP OF THE POPS." Indeed.
2. Isolée - WearemonsterSecond song "Schrapnell" has won the most attention, and rightfully so - it's a brilliant cut. But the other nine impeccably detailed tracks are what made me truly adore this record. The songs all win on both melodies and subtleties, and I've given up on trying to name a favorite. Each treads new ground while still carrying its weight - that sort of breadth and consistency is hard to find with an electronic album, making
Wearemonster one of the year's finest.
3. Sleater-Kinney - The WoodsLots was made of this being a new phase for Sleater-Kinney, but the shift doesn't seem as drastic now as it did when "The Fox" first roared through my headphones. Sure, what was once lean and angular is now thick and distorted, but Janet still pounds, Corin still wails, and I still always leave their gigs wanting to marry Carrie. Pedals and bravado only get you so far - this is the band's best work since
The Hot Rock largely because of the songwriting.
4. Broadcast - Tender ButtonsBroadcast dropped their drummer before this album, and I wasn't excited. I mean, the drums were the best part of
Haha Sound! Ah, but
Haha's dirty production was almost as good, and the band only improved on the formula here by marrying it with the space-pop stylings of their earlier work.
5. A-Frames - Black ForestMore than the rest of this list, this album needed to grow on me. But the A-Frames' distorted punk is centered around its relentless rhythms, played with a linear precision that kept me coming back. (Their guitars also have a way of cutting through subway noise like few others.) Love the packaging as well.
6. Kelley Polar - Love Songs of the Hanging GardensWith my well-known affinities for Metro Area, Arthur Russell, and the Junior Boys, this was a virtual shoo-in for my list. And by landing somewhere in the middle of those three, the Julliard-trained Polar gains a poppiness unique from them all. His vocals and strings play off the disco grooves wonderfully - one of the worst parts of losing my hard drive in November was being unable to hear this album for a month.
7. Optimo Present Psyche OutI generally don't include mixes on my year-end list, but this one was too good to leave off. For all my talk about Optimo, if I had just 20 minutes to make my case for them I wouldn't say a word. I'd just put on track 19 of this disc and let it play out to the end - 5 genres, 4 decades, and not a single piece feeling out of place.
8. The Fiery Furnaces - EPThe fact that this "EP" has 10 tracks and 41 minutes of music shows why I think the Furnaces are the most exciting rock band around today. They have no shortage of ideas and the willingness to try them all, and I'm very glad to hang on for the ride. As their most accessible work,
EP is best place to start with them - though I suspect the forthcoming
Bitter Tea may change that.
9. Tom Vek - We Have SoundI was initially drawn to this album for its percussion but these songs are all about their basslines, as was evident when Vek's band walked on stage with two basses and no guitars in September. His songs have the melodies to match the rhythms, and this debut suggests Vek's got a very bright future ahead of him.
10. Crazy Rhythms - RVNG PRSNTS MX4Another of the year's finest mixes, this one is by two of New York's finest DJ's. With this mix of post-punk, new wave, and disco of all varities, Dan Selzer and Mike Simonetti make me wonder how they found some of these songs and happy they decided to share. And at just
$3.00, it's by far the best value on this list.
11. Bloc Party - Silent AlarmFrankly, this feels like a record from last year. (Going by leak dates, it actually
is from last year.) It's been months since I've spun it regularly, but I heard "Blue Light" in a store the other day and realized it'd be wrong to leave
Silent Alarm off this list. For all the hype Bloc Party got, they actually delivered.
12. Cass McCombs - PREfectionCass's music has a gloom that manages to be both hopeful and haunting. It was there on his strong debut
A last year, but
PREfection improves the songwriting, adds energy, and turns up the reverb. Though these songs often evoke UK in the 80's - New Order, Echo and the Bunnymen, etc. - they are ripe with an emotion that makes them never feel derivative.
With nods to, in no particular order:
-
LCD Soundsystem. The intense anticipation drowned out an album that never quite blew me away like LCD's first singles but was still an '05 constant.
-
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks -
Face the Truth. Mr. Malkmus has had a lock on my ears for many years now, and this album kept the streak alive.
-
Delia Gonzalez + Gavin Russom -
Days of Mars. I wish I knew more music that sounded like this. I kept waiting for a beat to drop on my first listen, and I'm glad it never came.
-
DJ Koze -
Kosi Comes Around. "Brutalga Square" as the next to last track on Kompakt's best artist album of the year is like an amazing dessert after an already delicious meal.
-
The Fiery Furnaces -
Rehearsing My Choir. To all the haters - give this record time and an open mind and you may come around. It's worth the effort.
-
The Juan Maclean -
Less Than Human. I burned out on this, but for a couple months this summer it was all I wanted.
- Also:
Marc LeClair -
Musique Pour 3 Femmes Enceintes,
M.I.A. -
Arular,
The Spinto Band -
Nice and Nicely Done,
Sufjan Stevens -
Illinois,
The White Stripes -
Get Behind Me Satan,
Lindstrom and Prins Thomas
posted by rajeev @ 3:56 PM
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