Best music of 2005
It's that time of the year again, and I want to
blog about the year 2005 in music. A lot of artists released albums in the year
2005 to substantial hype, most of whom fell far short of the hype. In fact,
even though there was a lot of music released in 2005 that was very good and
enjoyable, this may have been one of the most underwhelming years, musically,
I've seen/heard in a while. So... here
goes:
Best song: "Soul Meets Body," by
Death Cab for Cutie
runner up: "They Are
Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!!
Aaahhh!" by Sufjan Stevens
Worst song: "Get
Your Way," by Jamie Cullum
runner up:
"All About the Wordplay," by Jason
Mraz
Best eulogy: "Jazzfrac's Soul,"
by Taki76
Best 'Free Download of the
Week' on the iTunes Music Store: tie between "Over My Head (Cable Car)" by the
Fray and "Don't Push" by the Exit.
Worst
'Free Download of the Week" on the iTunes Music Store: "Let Go," by
BarlowGirl
Best song from a soundtrack:
(tie) "Breathe Me," by Sia from Six Feet Under, and "Damsel in Distress," by
Idina Menzel from Desperate
Housewives
Now for my list of the ten
best albums of 2005:
10. Extraordinary
Machine, by Fiona Apple. This album would have placed higher on my list if she
had preserved some of her anger from her previous
efforts
9. Small White Town, by Danielia
Cotton. I really wasn't that impressed with her work until I saw her live. She
can really belt out a tune.
8. In Your
Honor, by the Foo Fighters. This is their best album since their
debut.
7. Aerial, by Kate Bush. Good to
hear her back on the scene. And with a 2-disc set no
less.
6. No Direction Home, by Bob Dylan.
Great hearing the alternate versions of that stuff. And it goes perfectly with
the PBS documentary.
5. Plans, by Death Cab
for Cutie. As solid a rock album as came out in
2005.
4. Sufjan Stevens Invites You to Come
on Feel the Illinoise! Easily the most pretentious album since Smashing
Pumpkins' Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness a decade ago, but since he
clearly embraced the pretense (see the song title above as the runner up for the
best song of the year), so did I. The ending just left me feeling
empty.
3. If You Didn't Laugh, You'd Cry, by
Marah. This album is doing what their album from a few years ago -- Float Away
with the Friday Night Gods -- was intended to
do.
2. Out Here at Sea, by Karen Kosowski.
The only thing keeping this from being my number one pick was that it wasn't
long enough.
1. Picaresque, by the
Decemberists. Fun and funny, energetic and basically
flawless.
There were three reasonably
well-established artists who released albums in 2005 to great fanfare, and the
albums they put out were quite disappointing. I have never been much of a fan
of Dave Matthews, but his latest album disappointed all but his most rabid fans.
I have been a fan of Tori Amos for quite some time now, but her album, The
Beekeeper, definitely is one of the worst of the year. For the first time in
her career, she put out an album that is not challenging and, quite frankly,
sounds like it's full of outtakes from her previous effort, Scarlett's Walk.
And the worst album of the year has to be Coldplay's X & Y. Apart from the
song "Speed of Sound," the album is a crawl through emotions that lead singer
Chris Martin didn't need to share with anyone other than his wife, Gwyneth
Paltrow, and their daughter, Apple.
Posted: Sun - January 8, 2006 at 10:05 PM