Several weeks late, but here it is… A small sample of 2005’s best music, as selected by me. Comments? Queries? Quiests?
British Sea Power – Oh Larsen B
I saw these guys play a concert sometime last summer and it was awesome. I think it was the last show of their tour and they were just going nuts. The stage crew had to stop them from bringing down the lighting rigs at one point. (This was at the Logan Square Auditorium, so it’s not like that would have been the hardest thing in the world to do). I wanted to go right out and get their CD (Open Season) immediately, but one thing led to another and several months later I still didn’t have it. Finally I came across the disc at Laurie’s Planet of Sound and recalled how great the show was. I picked it up and played it as I drove up the Pacific Coast Highway from Los Angeles to San Francisco in October. If there is a more perfect soundtrack for this drive, I’d like to hear it. It’s just sounds big, epic, sweeping. The lyrics are great, too. Take “Oh Larsen B” for instance:
You’re fractured and cold, but your heart is unbroken
My favourite, foremost coastal Antarctic shelf
You had 12,000 years, and now it’s all over
500 billion tonnes of the purest packed ice and snow
Oh Larsen B, oh won’t you fall on me!
Sounds silly, but give it a listen and see if it doesn’t rock!
Patrick Wolf – Wind in the Wires
This is the second album from Patrick Wolf, and it’s one of those things that I kind of knew I’d like before I even listened to a single track. The story goes that Patrick Wolf was kind of a weirdo whose first album was totally unhinged and full of angst about his troubled childhood. Somehow in the course of promoting this album, he managed to piss off a lot of people in the London music press and eventually got so sick of the whole scene that he retreated to a little shack on a cliff overlooking the ocean in Cornwall. Here, he single-handedly recorded a series of tracks for his new album, layering dozen of stringed instruments, vocals, and various field recordings on top of electronic percussion and atmospherics. He finally took the whole mess back to London, polished it up and so we arrive at “Wind in the Wires.” It’s definetly a dark album, but not a bleak one, if that distinction makes any sense. I really like the following bit from the title track:
This wild electricity
Made static by industry
Like a bird in an aviary
Singing to the sky
Just singing to be free
This album makes me feel like moving to a little house by the ocean and watching the waves roll in and out.
The Boy Least Likely To – My Tiger My Heart
This is by “The Boy Least Likely To” who are awkwardly named after a Smiths song. Many people have supposed that this song is about Calvin & Hobbes, but this is allegedly not so. It does appear to be about a boy and his stuffed tiger, but let’s just leave it at that. It is a simple and sad song about growing up and leaving behind the things of your childhood. Clearly this has been done before, but it’s done really, really well here. There’s another Boy Least Likely song later in this series that is all kinds of funky with the xylophone and synthesizers but this is just vocals, guitar & bass. And that’s all it needs.
Ben Lee – Whatever It Is
Ok, first things first. I had a lot of doubts about including this particular song from Ben Lee’s 2005 album, “Awake is the New Sleep.” But everyone’s already heard “Catch My Disease,” I figured. Maybe they’d like to hear something new. Something to make them think, “Hey, maybe I should hear the rest of that album!” But of course if you haven’t heard “Catch My Disease,” then my whole thing just kind of falls apart. So if you haven’t heard that song, you’re really making things difficult for me here!! =) Anyhow, maybe I should say something about the song itself. Well, it’s soft and sweet and positive in a way that is maybe a nice change from the first few songs I’ve talked about. It says, “Yes, you can do whatever it is you want to do.”
Silver Jews – Sleeping is the Only Love
David Berman has taken his sweet time putting this album together, and it doesn’t show. I mean that in a good way. Let me explain. Some bands are just supposed to sound sloppy. Silver Jews share a lot of DNA with Pavement, so clearly they are one of these bands. Tanglewood Numbers is a much more accomplished recording than Silver Jews earlier works, but it retains whatever essential sloppyness makes them great. Berman’s lyrics are perfect, as always:
I heard they were taming the shrew
I heard the shrew was you
You might as well say “Fuck me” cause I’m gonna keep on
Keep on loving you”
And also:
I had this friend his name was Marc with a “C”
His sister was like the heat coming off the back of an old TV
Following up on Ben Lee’s self-affirmation, we are now firmly in feel-good territory with Berman’s track. Which is kind of weird, coming from the Jews, but I’m not gonna argue with somebody’s good mood.
Arctic Monkeys – Mardy Bum
Since I placed this song on my list in late December (yes, it has taken me a long time to post this!) the Arctic Monkeys have issued the fastest-selling debut album in the history of England. I’m normally not one to gloat, but having passed on my chance to see Franz Ferdinand play at the Empty Bottle before their ascent to superstardom I feel somewhat justified in a tiny bit of smugness here. (Having seen these guys play to a crowd of about 200 people in SF a few months ago). Anyway, as for the song, there is probably a more polished version of it on their album, but this is the demo that actually came out in 2005, so here it remains. Enjoy the unabashed britpoppery… I know I did!
Ween – Gabrielle
Maybe this is a bif of a cheat, as Ween’s “Shinola Vol. 1″ is actually a collection of previously recorded but unreleased tracks, but technicalities aside, this song kicks. People say this song is a blatant Thin Lizzy homage (which is true), but I say… “Hell yes! And why aren’t the rest of you slackers giving it up for Thin Lizzy?” I’m also fond of the phrase, “The foundation of my malevolence” that comes up pretty early on in here. =)
Jamie Lidell – Multiply
Jamie Lidell has been discussed here before, so I’m not going to spend a lot of time re-hashing what I already said. Let me just say that if this is not one of the best albums of 2005 then something must be wrong with my ears. Just buy it already!
Biirdie – To Know That You Need Me
Biirdie’s been mentioned here before as well, but perhaps I really did not emphasize enough the first time how essential these guys are! People who I dragged to concerts last year know what I’m talking about. The rest of you are gonna have to imagine hearing this song played acoustically by Kala and Jared, as they wander through the 10-odd people who stayed all the way till the end of their set at Martyrs. Like Renton says, “Take the best orgasm you ever had, multiply it by a thousand and you’re still nowhere close.” These guys are both the most underappreciated band of 2005, and my #1. No contest.
The Tears – Two Creatures
People keep waiting for Suede’s Brett Anderson to put out a shitty album, but I don’t think it’s gonna happen. After steering Suede’s last album in an unexpectedly pop/folk direction he’s healed the rift with former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler and it’s like Dog Man Star was yesterday. Clearly both guys are in a happier place now, so don’t go looking for any epic sex/drugs/mindfuck anthems like “The Asphalt World” on here, but if you’re after a song where the vocals and guitar don’t sound totally ridiculous with full string arrangement and chorus behind them, then this is your track.
The Boy Least Likely To – Be Gentle With Me
And we’re back to The Boy Least Likely To again. I think this is a fitting conclusion to the mix. It’s almost insanely twee but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t make me want to dance! A well named album, to be sure.
So this concludes the Best of 2K5 mix. Hope you enjoyed it. I’m already finding stuff I should have included, but in the interest of getting this out the door, and not having to re-order the track numbers in the ID3 tags, I’ve decided it’s finished. Keep watching this space though; more music will surely follow!
Download the whole thing as a ZIP [50MB] (note: this link, and in fact maybe all these links will not be live forever, so grab ‘em now or forever hold your piece!
