impossibly geeky: The Top 68 Albums of 2005

OK kids: as per last year, it's not just my top 10, it's all the albums from 2005 I heard, ranked in roughly preferential order (obviously, the lower it gets, the shakier the rankings are). Scarily, I have apparently written about every one of these in the last year.

As a reminder to myself/preview of things to come: 2006 stuff I've been listening to includes the Arctic Monkeys, Fiery Furnaces, Bishop Allen's February EP, Sparks, and the Flaming Lips. And I still need to write about Cat Power. Older recent listening includes Bishop Allen's Charm School and MBV's Loveless. Another time.

PRO
1. Kanye West, LATE REGISTRATION
2. Franz Ferdinand, YOU COULD HAVE IT SO MUCH BETTER
3. Brendan Benson, THE ALTERNATIVE TO LOVE
4. Stars, SET YOURSELF ON FIRE
5. Saint Etienne, TALES FROM TURNPIKE HOUSE
6. Josh Rouse, NASHVILLE
7. M. Ward, TRANSISTOR RADIO

Pro
8. Sufjan Stevens, ILLINOISE
9. Venetian Snares, ROSSZ CSILLAG ALLAT SZULETETT
10. Sleater-Kinney, THE WOODS
11. Bloc Party, SILENT ALARM
12. The Cribs, THE CRIBS
13. Brakes, GIVE BLOOD
14. Eels, BLINKING LIGHTS & OTHER REVELATIONS
15. The National, ALLIGATOR
16. The Fiery Furnaces, EP
17. The Game, THE DOCUMENTARY
18. Slim Thug, ALREADY PLATINUM
19. Oranger, NEW COMES AND GOES
20. LCD Soundsystem, LCD SOUNDSYSTEM
21. Metric, LIVE IT OUT
22. Roisin Murphy, RUBY BLUE
23. Matias Aguayo, ARE YOU REALLY LOST?
24. Coldplay, X&Y

Mixed
25. Spoon, GIMME FICTION
26. The White Stripes, GET BEHIND ME SATAN
27. The Tears, HERE COME THE TEARS
28. My Morning Jacket, Z
29. Teenage Fanclub, MAN-MADE
30. Stereo Total, DO THE BAMBI
31. Bodies Without Organs, PROTOTYPE
32. Clem Snide, THE END OF LOVE
33. Hanne Hukkelberg, LITTLE THINGS
34. Doves, SOME CITIES
35. De Novo Dahl, CATS & KITTENS
36. Architecture In Helsinki, IN CASE WE DIE
37. Richard Hawley, COLES CORNER
38. Graham Coxon, HAPPINESS IN MAGAZINES
39. Aqueduct, I SOLD GOLD
40. Portastatic, BRIGHT IDEAS
41. The Decemberists, PICARESQUE
42. The Clientele, STRANGE GEOMETRY
43. Bright Eyes, DIGITAL ASH IN A DIGITAL URN
44. Bright Eyes, I'M WIDE AWAKE IT'S MORNING
45. Beck, GUERO
46. Mercury Rev, THE SECRET MIGRATION
47. Lemon Jelly, '64-'95
48. The Cardigans, SUPER EXTRA GRAVITY
49. The Go-Betweens, OCEANS APART

Con
50. Busdriver, FEAR OF A BLACK TANGENT
51. Babyshambles, DOWN IN ALBION
52. John Davis, JOHN DAVIS
53. Vitalic, OK COWBOY
54. Okkervil River, BLACK SHEEP BOY
55. Crooked Fingers, DIGNITY & SHAME
56. Daft Punk, HUMAN AFTER ALL
57. 13 & God, 13 & GOD
58. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH
59. Antony & The Johnsons, I AM A BIRD NOW
60. Aimee Mann, THE FORGOTTEN ARM
61. Montag, ALONE, NOT ALONE
62. ...and you will know us by the trail of dead, WORLDS APART
63. The Dandy Warhols, ODDITORIUM OR WARLORDS OF MARS
64. Big Star, IN SPACE
65. Jamie Lidell, MULTIPLY
66. M.I.A., ARULAR
67. Out Hud, LET US NEVER SPEAK OF IT AGAIN
68. Radar Bros., THE FALLEN LEAF PAGES

older albums

In an effort to retain my sanity and interest in music, this blog will occasionally focus on albums I've been listening to not of the immediate moment. Starting now:

Belle and Sebastian, Dear Catastrophe Waitress - Why are Belle and Sebastian fans afraid of sunlight? Everything wrong with them can be summed up with two examples:

1) Over on pitchfork, Scott Plagenhoef has reviewed no less than four
seperate releases (here's the fourth review) from the fearsomely twee group. Each one hammers on the same themes with frightening repetition: once B&S were tiny, cultist and mysterious, playing shambolic live shows and refusing to engage with their audience, and it felt like they were playing for YOU AND YOU ALONE, GODDAMMIT AND WHO ARE THESE NEW FANS AND DO THEY REALLY UNDERSTAND and so on and on and on. The bottom line is that a certain kind of fan will always conflate B&S'smusical merits with the kind of kick you get out of thinking that the reason you're the only 9th-grade B&S fan at your school is that only you can appreciate them. Like hardcore Smiths fans, B&S fans tend to take what they view as diletantte incursion way too seriously.

2) A few years ago, a friend of mine was trolling around on a Livejournal Belle & Sebastian forum, and found the saddest post in the world. It was from a 20-year oldman, who said he'd love to go see the band live but his parents wouldn'tl et him. 'Nuff said.

If you're not getting the drift yet: Belle &Sebastian fans can be fucking annoying, and for a long time I didn't listen to them for that reason. I was mildly charmed by If You're Feeling Sinister when I got around to it, a record that continues to grow on me at every listen. Still, there's no denying that Dear Catastrophe Waitressis so. Much. Better. For one thing, it's got the incredibly witty production of Trevor Horn, who's ADD-addled in all the best ways - like on the title track, when Stuart Murdoch sings "I know it's no joke" and a sarcastic xylophone undercuts him, or later on the same song when Horn throws in a full, Gershwin-imitating horn/strings section just for the hell of it.

For another thing, B&S were always far more musically adventurous than their fans were ever willing to give them credit for: the divisive release of "Your Cover's Blown," with its perfectly tuned white-boy funk, proved that they're way ahead of some of their fans. Similarly, this album masters not just fragile mope-rock but a variety of aggressive pop forms, all of which sparkle so finely that even the middle-school mope of "Lord Anthony" seems acceptable. I like this album a lot, and demand to know what the fuck is wrong with everyone.

Aimee Mann, Bachelor No. 2 - I'm guessing that Mann really did peak on the fascinatingly convoluted arrangements of the Magnolia soundtrack. This 2000 album shares four tracks and Jon Brion, but it's a lot less diverse; truth be told, I rarely make it past track 7. What's there is so warm, witty and well-constructed that I'm hard-pressed to ask for more: "Ghost World" in particular is a scarily acute portrait of post-high-school slacker malaise. "All my friends are acting weird or way too cool," sings Mann, and the cinematic strings and electric guitars pound away. Still, it's hard to blame those who think a lot of Mann is too much of a good thing; I'm starting to agree, a bit, even if I just discovered 2 or 3 of my new favorite songs on this album. It's a shuffle thing.

Brakes, Give Blood - a 2005 remainder (I'll probably post a belated 2005 top 10 this weekend when I have a second). It's country-fied punk with soul, wit, and pissiness to spare, all in a terse half-hour. Some of it is just inside-baseball scenester-bashing, which is really funny if you're in the mood and catch the references (test: do you find the line "You shared a cab with Karen O! Oh oh, oooooh oh!" funny? If not, avoid "Heard About Your Band," which is probably the only song which will ever mention Electrelane.). But along with 30-second fuck-yous, there's also riches like a cover of Johnny Cash's "Jackson" that boasts a female indie rocker who might actually be able to give Neko Case a run for her money (quick: American/British Idol face-off!) and "All Night Disco Party," a distilled dose of the disco-punk which was all the rage 2-3 years ago, except more fun. Brakes sing a great deal about boredom and cocaine, but they're the real deal. And I don't care if they're a side project.