Best of 2005: Filling In The Gaps

As seen below, I finally got around to compiling a rough draft of my Best of 2005 collection last week. The last few discs I'd ordered have come in, though, and I was able to work in a couple last-minute additions. I pulled The Bats from the mix -- decent album, but no real stand-out tracks, or at least nothing quite up to snuff with what made the final cut. I ended up with enough room for two final additions; here's what made the cut (and a few that didn't):


The Soundtrack of our Lives, "Believe I've Found." Although getting less favorable press than 2002's stellar Behind The Music, Swedish retro-rockers TSOOL's 2005 release Origin Vol. 1 has plenty of great tunes; I'm kinda disappointed I listened to the reviews and waited so long to pick it up. As with the last one, they churn out riff-heavy 70's-styled hard rock with a slight indie pop sensibility; kinda the Guess Who plus Pink Floyd as played by a band with a decent record collection. This particular song recalls Barrett-era Floyd (in the guitar sound) and sounds like something you'd expect to hear on a well-informed classic rock station.


Portastatic, "Through With People." Superchunk frontman Mac MacCaughan's one-time side project Portastatic has essentially evolved into a coequal band with Superchunk. And while Portastatic originally served as an outlet for Mac's mellower, more experimental urges that would have been out of place on Superchunk's hyped-up pop-punk albums, the two bands have met in the middle, with both becoming much more straightforward indie-pop (though Portastatic still tends to have a more artsy, meandering side). "Through With People" is a glorious angsty rocker that could easily have come out under the Superchunk moniker.

Not quite making the final cut:


The Fruit Bats: Liked the 2005 Spelled In Bones cd, which sounds like a cross between Of Montreal and the Shins -- relaxed and slightly twee guitar pop. Hasn't grown on me yet, though, and nothing jumped out as compelling enough to make the cut; maybe if I'd bought it earlier and had time to pick a favorite, but I think this gets relegated to the inevitable Disc Two: The Also-Ran Mix.


The Go! Team: Though originally released overseas in 2004, Thunder, Lightning, Strike made it into the States in summer 2005, bringing with it a ton of buzz. I can see why: the blend of Britpop and Hip-Hop, but with cheerleaders and college marching bands instead of rappers, is definitely unique. But I'm not convinced it's something I'm going to be playing very often.


Iron & Wine with Calexico: Really loved their joint EP (well, with 7 tracks it probably falls somewhere between an EP and a full-length cd) In The Reins. Definitely something I can see spending a lot of time with over the coming months. A bit too downbeat for my annual mix, which tends to focus primarily on upbeat tracks, but slated for inclusion on the spillover disc. Worth checking out for fans of either band's highly-stylized Americana.

The Best Of 2005 (Rough Draft)

Made an initial run at a Best of 2005. (I've been doing these for years; you can see my collection of annual compilations here.) I typically wait until a few months into the new year; that gives me a chance to pick up some things I may missed during the preceding months but read about on various end-of-year lists. I've still got a few last-minute items on order, and will probably swap out a few of these, but here's the dry run. (NOTE: These are listed in the running order of the mix, not based on preference, with the exception of the first couple tunes.)

1) New Pornographers, "The Bleeding Heart Show"
2) My Morning Jacket, "Off The Record"

As noted below, my two favorite songs of the past year, hands down. I still need to give the New Ps' disc a chance to grow on me, as I found the album a bit grating at first; in contrast, I loved My Morning Jacket's Z disc right off the bat, though I'm not quite as high on it right now.

3) The Orange Peels, "Circling The Sun." By far the best (and most poppy) song on an otherwise decent, if not awe-inspiring, sunshine pop album.

4) Death Cab For Cutie, "Soul Meets Body." Yeah, maybe it's a bit too commercial, but it's a great song off a great album.

5) Big Star, "Best Chance." One of several stand-out tracks on the surprisingly solid (but deeply flawed) "reunion" album.

6) Of Montreal, "Requiem For O.M.M.2." After a string of imaginative, twee epics, Of Montreal issues its second EP of electronica-infused alt-pop; like the last one (and like much of what's come before) it pushes one's tolerance for eccentricity but has a couple strong tracks.

7) Bright Eyes, "Another Travelin' Song." I probably like Bright Eyes more than I should, as (like Death Cab) they're probably more appropriate for Zanax-popping college sophomores pursuing a major in poetry and a minor in vermouth quaffing; but the 2005 acoustic album is pretty decent, and this upbeat country number (with Emmylou Harris) kicks serious ass.

8) Teenage Fanclub, "Slow Fade." Stand-out track from an otherwise ok album; their glory days are behind them, but they can still churn out memorable pop tunes like few others.

9) Ben Folds, "Landed." Something of a guilty pleasure, as Folds veers dangerously close to sappy Carole King territory here. But great chorus.

10) Green Pajamas, "The Secret of Bethany's Mouth." One of my favorite neo-psychedelic bands, though their latest album, like several others, has a couple killer highlights and a lot of filler.

11) Fountains of Wayne, "Maureen." New track off their collection of b-sides; a bit of a "Stacy's Mom" retreat, but still fun.

12) Bettie Serveert, "Attagirl." Like Teenage Fanclub, their glory days are in the past, but they continue to evolve and experiment. Nice, jazzy feel to this one.

13) Son Volt, "Afterglow 61." Always been more of a Tweedy guy than a Farrar guy, but the new album's got some strong rockers.

14) Matt Pond PA, "So Much Trouble." Embarrassed to say I discovered these guys through a Neutral Milk Hotel cover on an episode of the O.C.; but the new album is great, with lots of mellow, rustic folk-pop.

15) Dressy Bessy, "Small." Another album of 3-chord bubblegum punk, the Go-Go's crossed with the Ramones.

16) Stephen Malkmus, "Mama." Surprising number of stand-out tracks on his third post-Pavement solo album, but this is the poppiest.

17) Pernice Brothers, "Saddest Quo." Though I was underwhelmed at first, their 2005 album has really grown on me. Tough picking just one track.

18) Sufjan Stevens, "Come On! Feel The Illinoise!" An epic track, nearly 7 minutes of Broadway-infused melodic strangeness. If the rest of the album were this amazing, it would live up to the hype.

19) Mazarin, "For Energy Infinite." Sort of filling the void left by Neutral Milk Hotel (but far less intense), Mazarin's oddball indie-pop deserves a wider audience.

20) Kingsbury Manx, "And What Fallout!" Their fourth album of Pink Floyd-drenched rustic melancholia is their weakest, but still a few fine, headphone-friendly tracks.

21) Oranger, "Sukiyaki." Gotta say, found their latest album to lose a lot of the creative spark of earlier efforts; nothing wrong with another new-wave-ish, Weezer-esque jagged pop band, but no real standout tracks here. This one'll probably get cut when I put together the final mix.

22) The Bats, "Bells." I was elated to see these under-appreciated New Zealand mellow popsters get back together after a decade apart. Not their best album (and this track will probably be dropped), but not bad, either.

Further Reading

In case you've missed it, another blogger has assembled a truly inspired (and totally accurate) guide to making a hip end of the year best albums list. Incidentally, still working on my best of the year cdr mix (waiting to order a couple things I missed)... but I've listened to my rough cut a dozen times, and I still can't get enough of the New Pornographers' "The Bleeding Heart Show" and My Morning Jacket's "Off The Record." Great, great tunes. Also, in case you still haven't checked it out -- jeez, who doesn't read the Onion every week the instant it's updated? -- make sure to review their annual Least Essential Album article. I continue to be amazed at the crap the industry puts out each year (and then whines that it's file-sharing that's killing the music biz).

Just Some Random News...

Apparently album sales fell about 7% in 2005, hitting their lowest numbers in 9 years. I'd feel bad about this, except (a) the music industry continues to release and promote really shitty music, and (b) I personally decided not to buy about 7% of what I'd hoped to buy by abstaining from purchasing anything with "copy protection" on it. Of course, the industry will probably react to the revenue downturn by blaming mp3's and file-sharing and continuing to push copy protection and other anti-consumer schemes, rather than realizing that maybe they should stop catering to the lowest common denominator and release some decent music...

...Despite the Sony copy protection fiasco, other companies are apparently undeterred in their efforts to screw the people who actually pay for the cd's the industry releases. Some interesting reports about the version of Coldplay's X&Y being sold in India, in which the liner notes caution that the cd probably won't play in most devices on the market (and returns will not be accepted... something you won't know until after you've opened the cd and read the liner notes!). Coming to the U.S. soon? Better line up the lawyers...

(Incidentally, as this marks the first time I have ever referenced Coldplay on this Blog, let me state for the record that I'd been pretty content to let them permeate popular culture without ever registering on my radar screen, but my 9-year-old son played me a couple of their tracks recently, and they were distinctly... non-sucky. Not something I'd buy, mind you, but surprisingly unobjectionable. Just saying.)...

...Sad news for lovers of sunshine pop (ugh, that sure sounds incongruous, but I'm too lazy to retype)... Barry Cowsill, original member of the Cowsills, the not-exactly-legendary band of kids & their mom who, though probably best remembered for supposedly being the inspiration behind the fictional Partridge Family, actually had some great songs, was found dead in New Orleans. He'd been missing for several months, and was apparently a victim of Hurricane Katrina. (Heckuva job, Brownie!) For those of us not entirely embarrassed by the genre, it's hard to deny that songs like "The Rain, The Park & Other Things" are pretty dang nifty, even 35+ years later. Plus, they had that one really bizarre album full of Biblical songs, IIxII, which really ought to be issued on cd by Sundazed or some other retro label one of these days...

...And, finally, Pat Robertson continue to be absolutely, 100% batshit. Isn't there some way to put him out of his misery? For his own good?