Albums of 2005
10. Decemberists / Picaresque
The plot is always thickening for these bastards.
9. MIA / Arular
This is just a great album, a natural meeting place for so many different cultures done with such an open sensibililty.
8. King Creosote / KC Rules OK
Rural Scottsman Kenny Anderson makes music steeped in the principles of DIY and spontaneous musing. I've found a page from a collective called Fence he works with, and an interview he did that is pretty brief: Apparently he thinks horses are sarcastic and lives in a small Scottish village making his odd brand of indie-folk. His songs contain simple guitar lines, accordians, pianos and various drum machines, etc. KC rules Ok was done with the help of some friends, fellow Domino stablemates the Earlies. While he could occasionally use some editing, the sentiment of the songs is apparent without any over-technical gloss. Kenny is a fine singer and songwriter who doesn't need or want a big studio to make the points he wants to make.
7. Antony and the Johnsons / I Am A Bird Now
Antony is brilliant. No stranger to donning masks, his persona on this album is sometimes illusory. Is he overly precious? Hell yes, but he never gets carried away on a fantastical whim so far the music suffers. Instead his flights heighten the reality of his music without becoming detached because they are always anchored in the beauty and brutality of love's many guises. The Boy George comparisons must abound, and while you won't find him with posies in his pocket, but you will find him halfway to Klaus Nomi onstage. You'll also find a razor wit from the tradition of Oscar Wilde and an amazing crooner voice. His song "Fistful of Love" was a standout on this album, with bleating stax horns and a cubist sort of bit-crusher guitar sound by Lou Reed.
6. Tapes n' Tapes / The Loon
What can you say about this band that hasn't already been said about Afganistan? They're on fire!
5. Deerhoof / Runner's Four
You can read elsewhere why this is so awesome, and maybe you'll understand those reviews because half of what I've read about this album makes no sense to me. An example: "lyrically they can guess the emotions of all things living (people being chased by spies) or non-living (lightning rods)" and "But I appreciate Deerhoof's challenge here: to comb hair without cutting it, to wash face without popping all the pimples, to be the best band in the world, but beyond that, to be the most lovable, too." And that was pitchfork too. I don't know if this album inspires bullshit, but I don't want to try describing it myself beyond it rocks and it IS wierd, and is probably more like an extension of some of Yoko Ono's work than anything else.
4. Richard Thompson / Front Parlour Ballads
Richard Thomspon was popular before Springsteen, or before Patti Smith. He's been around and already made some amazing albums. His new album is full of amazing stuff, bizarre and brilliant guitar playing, black humour, literary and cultural acumen, all sung in a voice somehow melodic and sardonic at once. Buy this, and keep tongue firmly in cheek.
3. Devendra Banhart / Cripple Crow
The new godfather of wierd beards; Donovan and Marc Bolan's love child. He's gone electric and it actually works pretty damn well. I got to catch his live show and its one of the best I've ever seen; Banhart and crew are a buncha true showmen and gypseys. Some musicians are so talented they could hold a room even if the power went out, etc-these guys would be musical giants if all of America's power went out forever. Plus they dress like old-time train engineers/Jimmie Hendrix's band.
2. Constantines / Tournament of Hearts
Right now it is minus five including windchill in Chicago. I have to put the Devendra Banhart away until weather improves. Some people like to play sunny music in the coldest weather, I don't. It chaps my ears. Constantines are the perfect band for these cold weather spells, by turns brooding and ecstatic, wild-eyed poets in the snow with members of Do Make Say Think playing backup horns. Besides just having great songs, there is a lot frontman Bryan Webb and Steve Lambke have to write about, from "working fulltime" to Frisco wican eco-goddess Starhawk to women's curling tournaments to a gutter nearest you. Great surly music for these frozen northlands.
1. Mountain Goats / The Sunset Tree
What I love about John Darnielle is his humor. To say it's gallows humor isn't quite right because it isn't always, though it often spins out of his darker meditations. Few singers are talented enough to be this earnest and not have it be awful, but Darnielle has perfected it, it seems, and the result is not only an album rich with story telling, confrontation with his own ghosts of the past, and attentive ruminations on memory and how it forms us, but he is so involved in the process of thinking through these themes in his songs that a sense of humor is naturally born from the intimacy of the man to his work. The mark of true genius.
2005 Top Ten List
from Matt Kretzman, keyboardist for Tapes n' Tapes
Andrew Bird – Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production of Eggs
Andrew Bird displays virtuosic abilities on multiple instruments throughout this splendid orchestral folk pop record. Bird has an equally impeccable and inventive touch with composing and arranging. If Prince wrote folk songs it might sound something like this.
Calexico/Iron & Wine – In the Reins
A succinct and lovely little record! This pairing fleshes out the usually sparse songs of Sam Beam while retaining their natural captive beauty.
Common – Be
Common hits the nail on the head, start to finish, in his latest and best work to date. It’s a love letter to his past, the people, the (chi)city, and the joy of self discovery.
Lipshitz – Jed Sed
You’ve never heard of him, but this unrenowned Chicago MC turned in a superb EP in 2005, a promising portend. Genuine and sincere, but not self-serious. Lipshitz lays it down with poise and assurance over some of the dopest beats you have turned an ear on. That’s right, dopest. The full length is available now from nantucketastrophe.com, I just haven’t heard it yet so I can only give big ups to the EP.
Matt Sweeny & Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Superwolf
Possibly one of the most unique records of the year on several accounts. We all know that ol’ Bonnie never shies away from collaboration and this one saw him teaming up with former Chavez guitarist Matt Sweeny. The result is anything but ordinary. Stark seafaring songs, sonically bare-boned but simultaneously rapturous, it’s a record you really have to get down with. It’s a struggle, but a close listening pays dividends.
The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema
I thought the first two Pornographers records were pretty good though nothing I ever returned to with any regularity. Where past efforts simply power popped me to death, AC Newman and co. capture a brand of dynamism on this record that expands their horizons to encompass songs you can latch onto beyond just a catchy hook. Be not mistaken, this is a pop record through and through, but TNP strike a new balance with “Twin Cinema” and have created a record that shines above and beneath its shimmery sheen.
Sleater-Kinney – The Woods
Raucous, cacophonic, bombastic, and blaring. This record will rock your socks off, melt your face and your heart all at the same time. It’s such a visceral record – whether you like it or not, you won’t be able to listen to it and not respond.
Sufjan Stevens – Illinois
I probably shouldn’t list this on my year-end favorite albums. It can’t be one of my favorite albums because I never actually listen to the whole thing all the way through (once maybe). I could, however, list about a half dozen songs or so off this record as some of my favorite of the year. Yes, Sufjan, you are prolific, never short on words (even when it comes to song titles), but would a touch of restraint really inhibit the overall artistic vision? Be warned vinyl record consumers, as good as this record is, you might wish you’d held on to your cash when you are suffering through the fourth or fifth circus-like interlude on this exhausting 22-track affair.
Thelonius Monk Quartet with John Coltrane – Live at Carnegie Hall
Somebody fire the intern who filed this recording away 40+ years ago, nary to resurface again until this year in the Voices of America archive deep in the belly of the Smithsonian. A lot has been made of this for obvious historical significance – two of our greatest jazz heavyweights sharing the stage in their prime – this recording stands alone, these gentlemen were firing on all cylinders and story lives up to its hype.
Vicious Vicious – Don’t Look So Surprised
This mini-album gets a nod on a couple of counts, but one especially bears mention. “Castaways” is one of the best songs of the year. You’ll probably see it in some movie someday or maybe even a car commercial or an NBA highlight reel – everyone will want a piece of it once they hear it. The point is you should pick it up and give it a listen before someone ruins it for you.
Singles of 2005
Stephen Malkmus – “Baby, C’mon”
Spoon – “Sister Jack”
New Pornographers – “The Bleeding Heart Show”
John Vanderslice – “Dear Sarah Shu”
Kanye West – “Heard ‘em Say”
Wilco – “Panthers”
Kelly Clarkson – “Since U Been Gone”
The Decemberists – “The Engine Driver”
Silver Jews – “Punks in the Beerlight”
Low – “California”
Stars – “Your Ex-Lover is Dead”
My Morning Jacket – “Off the Record”
Wolf Parade – “Shine A Light”
The plot is always thickening for these bastards.
9. MIA / Arular
This is just a great album, a natural meeting place for so many different cultures done with such an open sensibililty.
8. King Creosote / KC Rules OK
Rural Scottsman Kenny Anderson makes music steeped in the principles of DIY and spontaneous musing. I've found a page from a collective called Fence he works with, and an interview he did that is pretty brief: Apparently he thinks horses are sarcastic and lives in a small Scottish village making his odd brand of indie-folk. His songs contain simple guitar lines, accordians, pianos and various drum machines, etc. KC rules Ok was done with the help of some friends, fellow Domino stablemates the Earlies. While he could occasionally use some editing, the sentiment of the songs is apparent without any over-technical gloss. Kenny is a fine singer and songwriter who doesn't need or want a big studio to make the points he wants to make.
7. Antony and the Johnsons / I Am A Bird Now
Antony is brilliant. No stranger to donning masks, his persona on this album is sometimes illusory. Is he overly precious? Hell yes, but he never gets carried away on a fantastical whim so far the music suffers. Instead his flights heighten the reality of his music without becoming detached because they are always anchored in the beauty and brutality of love's many guises. The Boy George comparisons must abound, and while you won't find him with posies in his pocket, but you will find him halfway to Klaus Nomi onstage. You'll also find a razor wit from the tradition of Oscar Wilde and an amazing crooner voice. His song "Fistful of Love" was a standout on this album, with bleating stax horns and a cubist sort of bit-crusher guitar sound by Lou Reed.
6. Tapes n' Tapes / The Loon
What can you say about this band that hasn't already been said about Afganistan? They're on fire!
5. Deerhoof / Runner's Four
You can read elsewhere why this is so awesome, and maybe you'll understand those reviews because half of what I've read about this album makes no sense to me. An example: "lyrically they can guess the emotions of all things living (people being chased by spies) or non-living (lightning rods)" and "But I appreciate Deerhoof's challenge here: to comb hair without cutting it, to wash face without popping all the pimples, to be the best band in the world, but beyond that, to be the most lovable, too." And that was pitchfork too. I don't know if this album inspires bullshit, but I don't want to try describing it myself beyond it rocks and it IS wierd, and is probably more like an extension of some of Yoko Ono's work than anything else.
4. Richard Thompson / Front Parlour Ballads
Richard Thomspon was popular before Springsteen, or before Patti Smith. He's been around and already made some amazing albums. His new album is full of amazing stuff, bizarre and brilliant guitar playing, black humour, literary and cultural acumen, all sung in a voice somehow melodic and sardonic at once. Buy this, and keep tongue firmly in cheek.
3. Devendra Banhart / Cripple Crow
The new godfather of wierd beards; Donovan and Marc Bolan's love child. He's gone electric and it actually works pretty damn well. I got to catch his live show and its one of the best I've ever seen; Banhart and crew are a buncha true showmen and gypseys. Some musicians are so talented they could hold a room even if the power went out, etc-these guys would be musical giants if all of America's power went out forever. Plus they dress like old-time train engineers/Jimmie Hendrix's band.
2. Constantines / Tournament of Hearts
Right now it is minus five including windchill in Chicago. I have to put the Devendra Banhart away until weather improves. Some people like to play sunny music in the coldest weather, I don't. It chaps my ears. Constantines are the perfect band for these cold weather spells, by turns brooding and ecstatic, wild-eyed poets in the snow with members of Do Make Say Think playing backup horns. Besides just having great songs, there is a lot frontman Bryan Webb and Steve Lambke have to write about, from "working fulltime" to Frisco wican eco-goddess Starhawk to women's curling tournaments to a gutter nearest you. Great surly music for these frozen northlands.
1. Mountain Goats / The Sunset Tree
What I love about John Darnielle is his humor. To say it's gallows humor isn't quite right because it isn't always, though it often spins out of his darker meditations. Few singers are talented enough to be this earnest and not have it be awful, but Darnielle has perfected it, it seems, and the result is not only an album rich with story telling, confrontation with his own ghosts of the past, and attentive ruminations on memory and how it forms us, but he is so involved in the process of thinking through these themes in his songs that a sense of humor is naturally born from the intimacy of the man to his work. The mark of true genius.
2005 Top Ten List
from Matt Kretzman, keyboardist for Tapes n' Tapes
Andrew Bird – Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production of Eggs
Andrew Bird displays virtuosic abilities on multiple instruments throughout this splendid orchestral folk pop record. Bird has an equally impeccable and inventive touch with composing and arranging. If Prince wrote folk songs it might sound something like this.
Calexico/Iron & Wine – In the Reins
A succinct and lovely little record! This pairing fleshes out the usually sparse songs of Sam Beam while retaining their natural captive beauty.
Common – Be
Common hits the nail on the head, start to finish, in his latest and best work to date. It’s a love letter to his past, the people, the (chi)city, and the joy of self discovery.
Lipshitz – Jed Sed
You’ve never heard of him, but this unrenowned Chicago MC turned in a superb EP in 2005, a promising portend. Genuine and sincere, but not self-serious. Lipshitz lays it down with poise and assurance over some of the dopest beats you have turned an ear on. That’s right, dopest. The full length is available now from nantucketastrophe.com, I just haven’t heard it yet so I can only give big ups to the EP.
Matt Sweeny & Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Superwolf
Possibly one of the most unique records of the year on several accounts. We all know that ol’ Bonnie never shies away from collaboration and this one saw him teaming up with former Chavez guitarist Matt Sweeny. The result is anything but ordinary. Stark seafaring songs, sonically bare-boned but simultaneously rapturous, it’s a record you really have to get down with. It’s a struggle, but a close listening pays dividends.
The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema
I thought the first two Pornographers records were pretty good though nothing I ever returned to with any regularity. Where past efforts simply power popped me to death, AC Newman and co. capture a brand of dynamism on this record that expands their horizons to encompass songs you can latch onto beyond just a catchy hook. Be not mistaken, this is a pop record through and through, but TNP strike a new balance with “Twin Cinema” and have created a record that shines above and beneath its shimmery sheen.
Sleater-Kinney – The Woods
Raucous, cacophonic, bombastic, and blaring. This record will rock your socks off, melt your face and your heart all at the same time. It’s such a visceral record – whether you like it or not, you won’t be able to listen to it and not respond.
Sufjan Stevens – Illinois
I probably shouldn’t list this on my year-end favorite albums. It can’t be one of my favorite albums because I never actually listen to the whole thing all the way through (once maybe). I could, however, list about a half dozen songs or so off this record as some of my favorite of the year. Yes, Sufjan, you are prolific, never short on words (even when it comes to song titles), but would a touch of restraint really inhibit the overall artistic vision? Be warned vinyl record consumers, as good as this record is, you might wish you’d held on to your cash when you are suffering through the fourth or fifth circus-like interlude on this exhausting 22-track affair.
Thelonius Monk Quartet with John Coltrane – Live at Carnegie Hall
Somebody fire the intern who filed this recording away 40+ years ago, nary to resurface again until this year in the Voices of America archive deep in the belly of the Smithsonian. A lot has been made of this for obvious historical significance – two of our greatest jazz heavyweights sharing the stage in their prime – this recording stands alone, these gentlemen were firing on all cylinders and story lives up to its hype.
Vicious Vicious – Don’t Look So Surprised
This mini-album gets a nod on a couple of counts, but one especially bears mention. “Castaways” is one of the best songs of the year. You’ll probably see it in some movie someday or maybe even a car commercial or an NBA highlight reel – everyone will want a piece of it once they hear it. The point is you should pick it up and give it a listen before someone ruins it for you.
Singles of 2005
Stephen Malkmus – “Baby, C’mon”
Spoon – “Sister Jack”
New Pornographers – “The Bleeding Heart Show”
John Vanderslice – “Dear Sarah Shu”
Kanye West – “Heard ‘em Say”
Wilco – “Panthers”
Kelly Clarkson – “Since U Been Gone”
The Decemberists – “The Engine Driver”
Silver Jews – “Punks in the Beerlight”
Low – “California”
Stars – “Your Ex-Lover is Dead”
My Morning Jacket – “Off the Record”
Wolf Parade – “Shine A Light”
posted by Nick Gardner at 6:47 AM
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