December 14th, 2005
What defined 2005? Was it the continuing post-punk revival? The unexpectedly awesome return of Neil Diamond? "My Humps"? Who's to say, especially since the songs that ultimately take listeners back to a particular year usually don't reveal themselves until years later? But in spite of the futility of it all, The A.V. Club decided to give shape to the year the only way we know how: Top 10 lists. Below are our music writers' picks for 2005, and some random thoughts on the year that was.
CHRISTOPHER BAHN
1) The New Pornographers, Twin Cinema (Matador)
2) Iron & Wine and Calexico, In The Reins (Overcoat Recordings)
What do you get when you mix the moody, intelligent songcraft of Iron & Wine's Sam Beam and the gorgeous alt-country instrumentation of Calexico? One hell of a fine record, even if it's only seven songs long.
3) Low, The Great Destroyer (Sub Pop)
For Low's first record on Sub Pop, a label known for bands much noisier than the famously subdued Duluth trio, Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann cranked up the amps and showed that Low could increase the volume without sacrificing the intimacy that made its music special.
4) The Hold Steady, Separation Sunday (Frenchkiss Records)
5) Atmosphere, You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having (Rhymesayers)
6) Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion, Exploration (New West Records)
A lovely, laid-back set of alt-country tunes by husband-and-wife duo Irion and Guthrie, Exploration lives up to the legacy laid down by the famous folkies in Sara Lee's family tree—dad Arlo and grandpa Woody—with warm, humanist songs celebrating love and social justice. (No need for eye-rolling; the sentiments are presented too gently to be preachy, and too beautifully to be irritating.) The warm, harmony-drenched country vibe recalls The Jayhawks, which isn't surprising, since Gary Louris co-produced the disc.
7) Bob Dylan, No Direction Home: The Soundtrack (Columbia)
Hundreds (if not thousands) of others have covered him, but the primary interpreter of Bob Dylan's music is Dylan himself. His live shows are famous for startling new arrangements of familiar songs, even when the originals were already classics. And the entire second disc of this terrific time-capsule double CD (which is both a companion to Martin Scorsese's documentary No Direction Home and Vol. 7 of the ongoing Bootleg Series) is devoted to rare alternate takes from Dylan's most spellbindingly creative period, the electric albums of Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde On Blonde. No Dylanophile should be without this.
8) Konono No. 1, Congotronics (Crammed Discs)
Like Bob Dylan, who found something vibrantly new in the marriage between his Beat-inspired poetry and the cranked-up volume of an electric guitar, Congolese musician Mawangu Mingiedi discovered something wonderfully strange and hypnotic when he tried to make his band's traditional songs heard on the busy streets of Kinshasa, and was forced to accept the distortions created by the jury-rigged amplifiers he plugged his instruments into. Though Konono's music is still steeped in the pulsating rhythms and likembe thumb-piano melodies of its ancestral form, the radical sonic shift—aided by police whistles and percussion instruments made from metal pots and car parts—makes it sound as futuristic as the most cutting-edge Western electronic music.
9) Andrew Bird, The Mysterious Production Of Eggs (Righteous Babe)
With a surname like his, you'd think Andrew Bird would already know how eggs are made. But he does know a thing or two about rebirth, having moved from a darling of the retro-swing movement in the 1990s to the thoughtful folk-rock of his later work, which has always blazed its own eccentric path. As a case in point, Eggs marks Bird's first extensive use of the guitar, a contraption in somewhat wider acceptance elsewhere in the music industry.
10) Four Tet, Everything Ecstatic (Domino Recording Company)
Honorable Mentions
13 & God, 13 & God (Anticon)
The Bad Plus, Suspicious Activity? (Columbia)
Black Mountain, Druganaut (Jagjaguwar)
Brian Eno, Another Day On Earth (Hannibal)
Gogol Bordello, Gypsy Punks, (Side One Dummy)
Halloween, Alaska, Too Tall To Hide (East Side Digital)
Jeff Hanson, Jeff Hanson (Kill Rock Stars)
Happy Apple, The Peace Between Our Companies (Sunny Side)
Ivy, In The Clear (Nettwerk)
Seu Jorge, Cru (Wrasse) and The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions (Hollywood Records)
Ladytron, Witching Hour (Rykodisc)
Metric, Live It Out (Last Gang)
M.I.A., Arular (XL)
Mugison, Mugimama Is This Monkey Music? (Ipecac)
Of Montreal, The Sunlandic Twins (Polyvinyl)
Sage Francis, A Healthy Distrust (Epitaph)
Sinéad O'Connor, Throw Down Your Arms (That's Why There's Chocolate And Vanilla)
Sleater-Kinney, The Woods (Sub Pop)
The Soviettes, LP III (Fat Wreck Chords)
The White Stripes, Get Behind Me Satan (V2)
Great Cover Songs Of 2005
Jonathan Coulton, "Baby Got Back": The humorist (and guitarist on John Hodgman's hilarious "700 Hobo Names" song) does a hilariously straight-faced soft-rock version of Sir Mix-A-Lot's ode to the booty.
The Donnas, "Drive My Car," and Low, "Nowhere Man": Both from the Beatles tribute This Bird Has Flown, one's a reverent take on Paul McCartney's pure pop gem, and the other's a stripped-down slowcore rendering of John Lennon's melancholy classic.
Benjamin Wagner, "Girlfriend": Backed up by The Nadas, Wagner offers up an appropriately sweet bluegrass-tinged version of Matthew Sweet's romantic slice of power-pop.
Jenny Lewis, "Handle With Care": Technically, it's a 2006 song, since the record doesn't come out until January, but on her solo disc, Rilo Kiley singer Lewis features a nice update of the 1980s hit by The Traveling Wilburys.
The Subways, "Staring At The Sun": The English indie-rock trio offers a fragile, charming acoustic update to the TV On The Radio song.
Sinéad O'Connor, "Throw Down Your Arms": Willie Nelson also stepped out with an unexpectedly reverent reggae album this year, but O'Connor's disc simply rang with conviction. Great work.
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