It's That Time of Year: My Favorite CDs of 2005
Ah, the Top 10 list, a notion which seems so cliched that you swear you're not going to do it again, but come years-end, you just feel the need to put pen to paper. I've written about three of these already so far, for different small publications that graciously accept my writing, and it varies a little bit every time. In advance, I know this list isn't terribly adventurous, but this is what struck me this year. Dance-oriented stuff like MIA and LCD Soundsystem left me cold, as does most dance-centered stuff each year. I guess I just didn't get clued into this stuff at the right age. At any rate...
1Death Cab for Cutie - Plans (Atlantic)
This seems to be the year's uncool pick, as Ben Gibbard
got all the critical love last time around for his Postal Service side project as
well as Death Cab's Transatlanticism, and this is the band's major label
debut. So what? Good, thoughtful songs never go out of style. Sweeping in the best
sense of the word, Plans is an absolutely gorgeous record, the kind that you want
to press into your friends' hands and say, "You won't like everything on here, but
what you like, you'll really like." A few songs here -- "I Will Follow You into
the Dark," "Someday You Will Be Loved," and "Brothers on a Hotel Bed" -- not only
rank as some of Ben Gibbard's best songs, they're also some of the best songs you'll
hear over the next couple of years.
2The
Decemberists - Picaresque (Rough Trade)
Review here as appears in
PopMatters' Best 50 Albums of 2005:
Gleeful aesthetic that sounds like Art majors and English grad students raided the liquor cabinet? Lyrics obsessed with drowning, mythology, and love condemned to the widow's walk? Yep, it's the Decemberists, dancing to their own inner sea chanty and continuing their quirky, odds-defying run. It's not just that Picaresque dazzles with its range, sweeping from imperial majesty ("The Infanta") to foot-tapping protest ("16 Military Wives") to wistful death folk ("Eli, the Barrow Boy") with a few stops in between ? it's that the album brings all that's great about the band, all the promise it's shown before, under one cover. And in the case of "Eli, the Barrow Boy", the Decemberists show that they're also learning to transmute the base metal of arch intelligence into the gold of universal human emotion.
3Magnolia
Electric Company - What Comes After the Blues (Secret Canadian)
I caught Magnolia Electric Company live in Asheville, NC earlier this year, and I was stunned by what a tight band they were. It was definitely one of the best shows I saw all year. You hear their music on disc, hear that shambling
Neil Young-inspired sound, and the tendency is to dismiss the hard work that goes
into these songs. That's a testament to Jason Molina's growing abilities as a songwriter
and bandleader, as you can increasingly tell that he has a very specific artistic
vision and that he's getting better and better at expressing it.
Review
here as appears in PopMatters'
Best 50 Albums of 2005:
Such an unassuming record. Caitlin Cary, who's still referred to way too often as a former bandmember of Ryan Adams (despite consistently proving she's her own talent) and Thad Cockrell, who I'd -- shamefully -- scarcely even heard of. But oh, what sweet, sweet classic country sounds they make! It's difficult to put into words how this album grows on you. At first, you appreciate the traditional sound, and you definitely dig the high lonesome harmonies. But then you begin to hear how Cary and Cockrell sound unified and lonely at the same time. I got to see them live, was blown away, and still don't have a clue how they pull it off. One of those mysteries of artistic sympathy, I guess. Only time and (hopefully future releases) will tell, but this could become the greatest duo of alt-country.
5Spoon - Gimme Fiction (Merge)
I can remember when I first heard Spoon. My buddy Ward
and I were on a record-buying binge down in Athens, GA, and we were browsing through
Schoolkids Records. Ward was really excited about this band called Spoon, and the
store had Girls Can Tell on the listening station. Ten seconds in and I
was intrigued. A few minutes in, after punching through a couple of songs, and I
was hooked. Spoon, led by Britt Daniels, has a shambling rock and roll swagger,
but not in the conventional rock and roll sense. Their sound is dry and spare, occupying
a middle ground between huge rock riffage and simple indie repetition. There's even
some sexiness, not only in Daniels' drawl, but also in his best Prince imitations
(like the one found on "I Turn My Camera On").6Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - Naturally (Dap-Tone)
Review
here as appears in PopMatters'
Best 50 Albums of 2005:Sharon Jones's career arc is less dramatic than the rediscovery of Howard Tate, but her return from obscurity (and a job at Ryker's Island Jail) is equal cause for celebration. Like fellow Augusta, Georgia native James Brown, Jones knows a thing or two about keeping the groove, and Naturally is a blast of horn-drenched, sexy, sweaty, old-school, lockstep soul. Jones even pays worthy homage to Brown on the brand new bag of "Your Thing Is a Drag", showing off the Dap-Kings' road-tightened sound. The album's highlight, though, is easily "This Land Is Your Land", where Jones and company retool Woody Guthrie's classic as a slinky soul workout. From the funk of "Natural Born Lover" and "My Man Is a Mean Man" to the tender soul of "How Long Do I Have to Wait for You", Naturally makes you feel like you've discovered your own hidden slice of classic soul.
7The Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree (4AD)
John Darnielle's songs litter my mix CDs. The man's songs
are like bitter musical versions of Bartlett's Quotations, full of misanthropy,
bile, and humor. But I'd always appreciated his songs in the broadest sense: the
easy-to-understand venom of "No Children," for example. The Sunset Tree,
though, finds Darnielle upping the ante by making one of his most autobiographical
records to date. This is a record filled with anthems for the teenage years, written
with the benefit of adult hindsight, but with plenty of pain intact. The result's
iess like watching a train wreck than you'd think. Instead, despite the fact that
your childhood was probably a lot better than Darnielle's, a universal sense of
struggle and triumph shines through. I didn't have an abusive step-father and I
sure wasn't drinking Scotch at the video arcade, but my seventeen-year-old self
needed a song like "This Year."8Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy (Jagjaguwar)
I'm still figuring this record out -- it's such a curious
mixture of raw emotion and subtle, almost narcoleptic craft. In the end, totally
unassuming. I listen to it, thoroughly enjoy it, but something about it continues
to vex me in a good way. Take "For Real," for example, on which Will Robison Sheff
screams and wails amid guitar blasts like the world's coming apart around him. It's
a raw moment and yet it sounds totally organic, a perfect fit among the more restrained
fare the fills the rest of the record. An impressive, challenging disc -- like a
cross between Wilco and The Mountain Goats..9Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall (Blue Note)
Yes, giants once walked the Earth, and this disc finds
two of them sharing the same stage. The story goes that this recording was found
by accident by a Library of Congress staffer -- a scenario that probably isn't unlike
finding something in the warehouse from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Not only does the
disc sound great, but it captures a historic performance that shows Coltrane and
Monk teasing their way through each other's styles. A major find.10Clem Snide - End of Love (Spin Art)
I think a lot of people take Eef Barzelay's lyrics for
granted, which is understandable given the band's coy nature. End of Love,
though, continues Barzelay's streak of arch, genius lyrics that encompass real human
experience. Personally, my favorite part of the album is the one-two punch of "Jews
for Jesus Blues" and "God Answers Back," which confronts ambivalent belief with
a capricious sense of menace. As a whole, End of Love is your typical Clem
Snide album -- in fact, they're so consistently good that it's easy to take them
for granted. Barzelay continues, though, to hone his word skills, and his marriage
of the surreal with the personal will often surprise you. At the very least, you
may never hear German hip-hop the same way again.