So if you've got an mp3 livejournal, the to-do thing seems to be to top off the start of the new year with your review of the old, pronouncing with a wizened, compendious, utterly useless and Greil-Marcus-like authority the hits and misses of the year. Some people here have (understandably) ridiculed the idea that I should do so, since, as pal
Pravda has pointed out, I more or less live in a pop-culture cave, and know absolutely nothing about those albums that would conceivably turn up on any critic's "Best of 2005" list. But I probably think those records suck anyway. Instead, here's a summary of my 2005 in music:
BEST CAREER ANTHOLOGYTownes Van Zandt - If I Needed YouTo be honest, this was also the
only anthology that popped up when I sorted my iTunes by year, which is because I'm an obsessive archivist, and when I get a compilation I always enter the year as the year of the material's original release (or original recording, where available). Somehow I neglected to do that for this record, the soundtrack to the documentary about Van Zandt that's currently doing the art-house circuit. (The track is originally from Van Zandt's 1977
Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas.) But don't assume that that means I'm less than enthusiastic about this record, because I really do think it's awesome. Van Zandt's simple, direct, forthright country folkiness is too affecting to ignore, if you have any kind of heart beating in your chest.
BEST RECORD I NEVER WOULD HAVE GUESSED IS ACTUALLY FROM 2005Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - How Do You Let a Good Man Down?I'd come across
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings before, and assumed they were a 70s soul-funk outfit I'd never heard of, which isn't unusual, since it sometimes seems like everyone who even accidentally touched a James Brown record put together a funky band at some point in the 1970s. But even still, their stuff was so good I was surprised I'd never heard of them until recently. So I did a little Googling, and was astonished to find out that not only
wasn't Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings a classic funk band from my glory days as an embryo, their record had actually just come out a few months ago. Whoa.
Basically: it's just Sharon Jones, an ex-prison-guard with a serious soul voice, playing with the 'house band' (whatever that means these days) of Daptone records. No electronic studio chicanery; no piteous urban yodeling up and down the scale without actually landing on a recognizable note. It's great. It's like finding a box of brilliant but forgotten 45s in your attic. To be fair, the serious downfall of this music is that it's almost completely indistinguishable from music that was being made 36 years ago. But hell, that was some good music. It's certainly a better soul record than anything that's been released in the last decade (at least), that's for sure.
BEST ABSTRACT JAZZ LEAST LIKELY TO BE LISTENED TO BY ANYONE ON MY FRIENDS LISTNels Cline / Wally Shoup / Chris Corsano - Lake of Fire MemoriesS'funny, this was one of the very very few jazz records on my 2005 iTunes playlist. I guess I just didn't pick up much new jazz last year. Also, sadly, I haven't been going to very many shows, where I used to buy a lot of records, so that could be it too. Anyway, this slice of sanity here is a short little bit of ear-cleaning, brain-freezing, soul-exalting jazz astonishment, the way
Charles Gayle used to play it, before he went totally retarded and started dressing up like a clown and doing mime onstage.
BEST REALLY GOOD RECORD FROM A GUY WHO HASN'T HAD A REALLY GOOD RECORD IN A REALLY LONG TIMEElvis Costello & Emmylou Harris - The Scarlet TideI haven't liked an Elvis Costello album this much in
forever. Really. I scanned back in his discography and the last album of his I was this unequivocal about was
Imperial Bedroom, which was in
1982 for god's sake. Trying to do a country record seems to have rejuvenated him in a way that trying to do an opera record did not (surprise). This is a better album than
When I Was Cruel or
North, and a more consistent one than
Painted From Memory. This here duet with Emmylou Harris might be my favorite, as it seems to take its cues from the harmonizing, bluegrassy country of Harris's own
Roses in the Snow, an album I have a deep affection for.
BEST RECORD BY A GUY WHO PRETTY CONSISTENTLY PUTS OUT REALLY GOOD RECORDS BUT WHO HAS A REALLY WEIRD CHRIST/MARTYR COMPLEXVan Morrison - They Sold Me Out
BEST REMIXED TRACK FROM 2004Madvillain - Money Folder (Four Tet Remix)This is from a vinyl remix EP taken from last year's
Madvillainy album.
Madvillainy was pretty good, but the Four Tet remixes are complete genius. Indie hip-hop, but in a good way: catchy but weird, quirky but not precious, and completely lacking the dourness that usually characterizes "serious" hip hop. (Madvillain is the collaboration moniker of wunderkinder
Madlib and
MF Doom, and
Four Tet is the producer/DJ alias of Kieran Hebden when he's not playing guitar for Brit postpunks
Fridge, a band I have never heard).
BEST RECORD BY SOMEONE WHOSE CAREER SHOULD REALLY BE OVER BY NOW BUT SOMEHOW EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE STILL MAKES REALLY GOOD MUSIC[TIE]Bettye LaVette - Down to ZeroAnn Peebles - Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With YouBettye LaVette's dramatic reading of Joan Armatrading's (whatever happened to her?) "Down to Zero" comes from her collaboration with Joe Henry, the guy who produced Solomon Burke's
"comeback" record in 2002. The Ann Peebles song is from a compilation of new recordings by old New Orleans soul performers that I first saw being hawked after Hurricane Katrina in, of all places, a Starbucks. I couldn't imagine such a thing would be worth even a second of my time, but lo and behold it's actually pretty sweet.
BEST SONG ABOUT A HUMANITARIAN DISASTERThe Legendary K.O. - George Bush Doesn't Like Black PeopleSpeaking of Katrina, worth mentioning is The Legendary K.O.'s (an alias of Houston's K-Otix) riff on Kanye West's live-tv declaration about our beloved leader. It's less a polemic against Bush specifically, more a blanket expression of black anger in the wake of the hurricane, and as such is a really good example of something you don't see much of these days: a protest song. It certainly stands head and shoulders above Mos Def's whiny, venereal-sounding "Katrina Clap."
BEST...OH, I DON'T KNOW...BEST FUN GIRLY SINGLE?The Pipettes - Dirty MindOnly slightly anachronistic compared to some of the stuff on this list,
The Pipettes is a Brit trio that plays fun and poppy rock with, according to them, a sixties girl-group flavor, although to my ear they more vibe eightes girl-groups
a la the Go-Go's, and their harmonizing vocals are at times more reminiscent of the Dance Hall Crashers, but whatever. I liked the Go-Go's and DHC. They're also
kinda hot, and always wear matching outfits, which should really be required for girl bands.
BEST PUNK ROCK THAT SOUNDS LIKE IT WAS WRITTEN IN 1979The Rakes - Retreat2005: the year of the throwback. I don't listen to that much rock music these days (not stuff that's coming out now at least), since basically rock and roll today is all about trying to sound exactly like bands most listeners are too young to have known the first time around. And that's the
good stuff that's coming out these days. Having said that, these guys here are pretty decent. They sound like they could have opened for the Buzzcocks on the
Singles Going Steady tour. I'd always thought they were Aussies, but Allmusic says they're from London. Go figure.
BEST RAP RECORD BY A DEAD GUYOl' Dirty Bastard with Ghostface Killah - Back in the AirThe newest entry in what is fast becoming the largest subcategory of hip hop: records from beyond the grave. Pretty soon, only the dead will be able to put out any music at all. Kanye West will be removing his internal organs and embalming himself just to get people to take him seriously again. Zombie hip hop in 2006, that's what I'm seeing.
BEST OBVIOUSLY GHOSTWRITTEN RAP SONGLil' Kim - Lighters UpA fairly bright spot on an otherwise miserable record, "Lighters Up" has a pretty swell beat and pretty decent vocals from Lil' Kim who, given the remainder of the album and the remainder of her career, almost certainly had her material written by some unknown hip hop ringer. Also, I think this record cover is hilarious because it makes me think of the time
Vice Magazine's
fashion section said she looked like the Lion King.
BEST CHRISTMAS ALBUMBrian Wilson - Hark the Herald Angels SingBrian Wilson's
Pet Sounds is widely considered one of the greatest pop records of the 20th century in hip cirles, and widely considered an overrated jerk-fest in even hipper ones. Whatever. I used to think I was tired of
Pet Sounds, but then I got over myself. But that's kind of a one-shot deal, you know? Mostly I don't expect good things to ever come out of Brian Wilson again, because he's so cripplingly loony. Witness my surprise when this Christmas album turned out to be not only endurable, but actually really good. The new compositions on the album aren't so hot, but his interpretation of carols like this one, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" wound up being some of my most-played Christmas songs during the holiday.
BEST ALBUM FROM 2004 THAT UNTIL FIVE MINUTES AGO I THOUGHT WAS RELEASED IN 2005Nellie McKay - Ding DongIt was late 2004, so it almost counts. I was surprised by how much I liked this album. I had assumed it was going to be exactly the same kind of disposable crap I always see clogging the record store shelves in NYC, but after giving it a spin...it's not bad at all. Not really great, either, but definitely interesting. It's not very coherent, and a little overambitious, but it's got a
thing going on that works sometimes. Thing is, McKay's like a lot of smartypants young girls you wind up working with in bookstores. I feel like when I first started at this company, half my co-workers were Nellie McKay, stomping around in their ridiculously cute red jackets and handing out flyers for their little cabaret shows in Chelsea.
ARTIST I MOST WISH WOULD DEFECT TO AMERICALady Sovereign - Cheeky (remix)Move to America, SOV. I'll sponsor your visa, even! American radio needs you!
