Well, it's that time again: the time of the year when everybody and his brother lists their top albums in the year, and not to miss the bandwagon, I've got my list too. I did this last year by simply listing the albums that I had picked up over the past year, but since I'm not some music critic who reviews an album or two every week, and because my purchasing power when it comes to music is limited, my own list turns out to be rather short. I can't easily list my top 10 albums of the year if, say, I've only picked up 9 albums. So I thought I'd do something a bit different this year by discussing my favorite song from each of the new albums that I got this year. There were so many good songs, though, that I might even name some honorable mentions. So, here we go . . .
Artist: The New Pornographers
Song: "The Jessica Numbers"
The New Pornographers already won my vote for the Best Song Ever when they released "The Laws Have Changed" back in 2003. Now, "The Jessica Numbers" has my vote for the best song of the year. I've been playing it constantly since their new album,
Twin Cinema, was relased late last summer, and I'm still not tired of it. It's just one of the greatest songs I have ever heard. Hyperbole? I don't think so. I don't think so at all. Although, after listening to the song as many times as I have, I still don't have any idea what the Jessica numbers are. Maybe 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42?
Honorable Mention: "Sing Me Spanish Techno"
Artist: Low
Song: "Death of a Salesman"
Low's album,
The Great Destroyer, was the most anticipated album of the year for me. It's a great album, but it is so different from the rest of their work, that it took me a while to warm up to it. Low, unfortunately, has been trapped in a musical genre of their own creation for the last decade or so. Their fans (me included) don't want them to escape, yet it's clear that Alan Sparhawk wants to do something more than just the slow, minimalist songs that have characterized Low up to this point. While I understand that, I also wish Low would stick to the sound that has made them (relatively) famous. No other band sounds like them, and when Low tries to sound like other indie pop bands, they just seem a lot less interesting. I choose "Death of a Salesman" off of this album because songs and stories about unrealized potential always kill me (
Jude the Obscure devastated me when I read it back in high school) and this song is one of the saddest things I've ever heard recorded.
Honorable Mention: "Just Stand Back"
Artist: Kate Bush
Song: "Aerial" (Laughter Remix)
It was tough for me choosing the "best" song off of Kate Bush's new album. Either of the honorable mentions below could have been the best song. But I chose this song, or at least the remix of this song, because it's a remix that I myself made, with the help of
Audacity. It's a shorter, tighter version the song that closes the second CD of Bush's double album release. It's been a dozen years since Kate Bush released an album, and much like Morrissey's long awaited album last year, it doesn't disappoint at all.
Honorable Mention: (Tie) "Joanni" and "How To Be Invisible"
Artist: Petra Haden
Song: "Armenia City in the Sky"
A totally original, completely plagiarized album,
Petra Haden Sings The Who Sell Out is fascinating to listen to, not simply because she sings the first dozen songs from The Who's famous album, but because sings everything from that album--the vocals, the guitars, the drums--everything. It's a weird, wonderful album and has proven to be, for me at least, an introduction to The Who's work. After listening to this album, I had to get the original Who version of
The Who Sells Out, just to compare.
Honorable Mention: "Sunrise"
Artist: Queen Adreena
Song: "FM Doll"
Kate Bush wasn't the only artist who re-emerged in my CD player after an extended absence. I learned early this year that Katie-Jane Garside and Crispin Grey, of Daisy Chainsaw, have released a series of albums under the name Queen Adreena since the start of the new millenium. Back in 1992, Daisy Chainsaw rocked my world when they released
Eleventeen, which even today earns a place on my list of the all-time great albums. If the creation of art (and music) is one of the things which distinguishes human beings from the rest of the animal kingdom, then Daisy Chainsaw sought to blur the line between animal and human. Garside's vocals were so wild, so unrestrained, so violent and visceral that even today I have nothing to compare it to. I used to describe her as "Kate Bush on PCP." After releasing their debut album, they essentially disppeared, and I had long given up waiting for another album, so imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered that Garside is still singing (uncontrollably).
Honorable Mention: "Pray for Me"
Artist: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Song: "Clap Your Hands"
Lots of glowing reviews of this new band have already been written and posted about the internet, so it's hard to say anything new in praise of their self-produced album. I'll just say this, though: they are, for me, a great example of the "post-rock" sound that I dig so much. All of their songs make use of a wide variety of instruments: guitars, synths, harmonicas, toy pianos, etc., and their songs represent a variety of popular and eccentric genres ("Clap Your Hands", for example, makes use of circus music). The singer sounds like the love-child of David Byrne and Morrissey, but hey, I thought Joanna Newsom was the New Artist of the Year last year, so what do I care about singing?
Honorable Mention: "Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood"
Artist: Badly Drawn Boy
Song: "You Were Right"
Another prime example of "post-rock", I don't think BDB actually released an album this year, but I discovered them several months ago when I downloaded the
Revolved album--a mash-up album that combined the Beatles'
Revolver with a set of songs by various artists. "Your Bird Was Right" was, and is, my favorite track off of the Revolved album, and with a little research, I tracked down and downloaded "You Were Right". It's a great, catchy, ecstatic song, and it has gotten me interested in the rest of Badly Drawn Boy's work.
Honorable Mention: "Your Bird Was Right" (mash-up with the Beatles)
Artist: The White Stripes
Song: "Blue Orchid"
The White Stripes' latest album,
Get Behind Me Satan, seems to be getting left out from everyone's top albums lists that I have seen. Indeed, I just had to go check Amazon to make sure that this was, in fact, released this year. It wasn't as great as
Elephant, but then, what is? It's still a solid, and inevitably overlooked album.
Honorable Mention: "As Ugly As I Seem"
Artist: The Free Design
Song: "Kije's Ouija"
Right, so let's just pretend that this is new band, OK? and that their music isn't actually older than I myself am? I forget how I stumbled upon this band, but I did, started downloading it, and fell in love with it. Their music is about as cheesy and rated-G as "rock" music will ever get, but their songs are very catchy, despite the cheese. They were also, apparently, a source of inspiration for Stereolab's late 90s work (Stereolab even has a song called "The Free Design") and indeed, a lot of The Free Design's music sounds a lot like Stereolab, minus the pro-Marxist lyrics, of course.
Honorable Mention: "Kites Are Fun"
Artist: The Go-Go's
Song: "Head Over Heels"
Well, hell, if I can put a band from the 60s on this list, then I'll put a band from the 80s on it too. No, I didn't discover The Go-Go's this year; I'm old enough to remember them before they broke up in the mid-80s, but my recent infatuation with power pop caused me to download a set of their songs, since they are one of the original power pop bands.
Honorable Mention: "Skidmarks on My Heart"
Well, hey! look at that--ten artists after all! They're not all new, but they are what I was listening to in 2005.
