December 14th, 2005
NOEL MURRAY
1) My Morning Jacket, Z (ATO/RCA)
My Morning Jacket has always made pretty good records, even though they tend to be rambling and padded out with aimless jams. But Z represents something like a conversion, with 10 unassailable songs packed into 47 minutes, cycling through styles from R&B to reggae to surf to prog to sadcore to southern rock. The eclecticism is unified by the high-lonesome moan of singer-songwriter Jim James, who gives My Morning Jacket its grandeur and pounding heart.
2) Clem Snide, End Of Love (spinART)
3) Crooked Fingers, Dignity And Shame (Merge)
4) Kings Of Leon, Aha Shake Heartbreak (RCA)
5) The Decemberists, Picaresque (Kill Rock Stars)
6) Constantines, Tournament Of Hearts (Sub Pop)
7) The New Pornographers, Twin Cinema (Matador)
Since Twin Cinema followed a trio of fine 2004 solo albums by the three primary New Pornographers—Carl Newman, Dan Bejar, and Neko Case—the sheer quality of the new album's songs came as a mild surprise, to the extent that it was a little tough to trust. It took three or four spins through new classics like "Use It," "Jackie Dressed In Cobras," and "Sing Me Spanish Techno" for the reaction "Ho-hum, another good New Pornographers album" to become "Holy balls, how do they do it?"
8) The Hold Steady, Separation Sunday (Frenchkiss)
The backlash is in full effect against The Hold Steady, who just a year ago were making lists of "the best bands you haven't heard." Maybe hype just doesn't suit a group whose musical innovations are limited to some stolen power chords and dynamic rhythms, but can't the naysayers hear how funny the band is? Sure, singer-songwriter Craig Finn shouts all his lines and repeats himself, but he also sketches a little community of losers and poseurs, looking for spiritual rebirth in the back alleys of rock clubs, where the bass bleeds through the granite.
9) Bright Eyes, I'm Wide Awake It's Morning (Saddle Creek)
When Bright Eyes' I'm Wide Awake It's Morning and Digital Ash In A Digital Urn were released simultaneously early in the year, the latter album initially sounded like the real breakthrough, with its electronic soundscapes and journeys into abrasion. But the simple folk-rock structures and gentle melodicism of I'm Wide Awake has worn better, and its well-observed songs of rage like "Old Soul Song" and "Road To Joy" now sound more radical in their way. In a sense, the shifting opinions of the two Bright Eyes albums set the tone for a year where forward-looking sounds faded next to the virtues of traditional songcraft and lyrical passion.
10) The Deadly Snakes, Porcella (In The Red)
The Next 15
Paul Weller, As Is Now (Yep Roc)
Ghosty, Grow Up Or Sleep In (Future Farmer)
The Clientele, Strange Geometry (Merge)
The Ponys, Celebration Castle (In The Red)
The Rosebuds, Birds Make Good Neighbors (Merge)
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, Cold Roses (Lost Highway)
Regina Spektor, Soviet Kitsch (Sire/Shoplifter)
Pernice Brothers, Discover A Lovelier You (Ashmont)
Teenage Fanclub, Man-Made (Merge)
Tenement Halls, Knitting Needles & Bicycle Bells (Merge)
The Zincs, Dimmer (Thrill Jockey)
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Naturally (Daptone)
Animal Collective, Feels (Fat Cat)
Marah, If You Didn't Laugh You'd Cry (Yep Roc)
Low, The Great Destroyer (Sub Pop)
Reissue Label Of The Year
Rhino Records rallied from the disastrous Whatever: The '90s Pop & Culture Box to produce two of the year's best box sets in Children Of Nuggets and One Kiss Can Lead To Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost & Found, and Collector's Choice and Columbia Legacy also put out some must-have collections in 2005 (and none more essential than the latter's three-disc reissue of Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run). But for consistency, packaging, and real sense of discovery, nobody could top relative newcomer The Numero Group, which put out the thrilling double-disc power-pop treasure trove Yellow Pills: Prefill, Fern Jones' lost rockabilly gospel classic The Glory Road, and maybe the best reissue of the year, Cult Cargo: Belize City Boil Up, which uncovered a cache of sea-swept Latin R&B as good as any David Byrne anthropology project.
The Shit List
Since one of the best ways to describe the best music of the year is to take a few shots at the worst, let's take a moment to plug away at some records that are leading rock 'n' roll down dead-end paths. Please, no more of: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Howl (a shift from dunderheaded drone-rock to ultra-simplistic folk-country didn't make these L.A. opportunists any more credible); Eyeball Skeleton, #1 (yes it's neat that elementary-school kids can start a punk band, but keep their art on the refrigerator, where it belongs); Scott H. Biram, The Dirty Old One Man Band (murder ballads and redneck romanticism… must be a Bloodshot Records release); Yellow Second, Altitude (standing in for every innocuous emo act with more studio polish than songwriting ideas); New Order, Waiting For The Sirens' Call (after a decade of crafting near-perfect dance-floor-ready albums and a decade of inactivity, New Order has apparently decided to spend its third decade pumping out uninspired, hookless rock); Currituck County, Ghost Man On Second (tuneless plucking and moaning with a loose organizing concept… must be a Troubleman Unlimited release); Antigone Rising, From The Ground Up (generic bar-band rock doesn't automatically get more profound just because it's femme-centric); Nouvelle Vague, Nouvelle Vague (remaking post-punk classics in a bossa nova style sounds like a fun gimmick, but these uninspired results are enough to make people pine for the relative depth of Dread Zeppelin); American Head Charge, The Feeding (standing in for every assaultive thrash act that strokes the great dark violence in adolescent hearts); and finally, The Click Five, Greetings From Imrie House (because while the commercial co-opting of quality rock sounds may be nothing new, it's still a painful procedure, requiring much anesthetic).
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