Looking Back at 2005 [Part I]

In the music biz, Thanksgiving’s a handy marker. Beyond that date, very few significant new releases can be expected for the rest of the year (although the best-ofs and live albums will proliferate), meaning that it’s safe to compile best-of-the-year lists, since nothing in December will bump any picks down. The more conscientious list-makers relisten to favorites from earlier in the year to see if they’ve held up. Here are a few I’ve enjoyed reacquainting myself with (there are more, but I’m skipping things I’ve already reviewed for The Big Takeover).

When MARY TIMONY (ex-HELIUM) and drummer DEVIN OCAMPO played an instore at Sound Fix, I wouldn’t have believed it was just two people if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. On Timony’s Ex Hex (Lookout!), it’s the same two, just as powerful but, thanks to bass and keyboard overdubs, with richer and more filled-out textures. After some chamber-rock leanings on her first two albums under her own name, it’s a return to Timony’s hard-rocking past. With her lyrics kicking as much ass as her guitar playing, even the moodier, piano-driven songs pack quite a punch.

STARS’ Set Yourself on Fire (Arts & Crafts) has become one of my favorite albums of all time. This New York-born, Montreal-based band has crafted a modern-rock update of the male/female vocal template, complete with lush arrangements including horns (trumpet, French horn, trombone, saxophone), glockenspiel, a string quartet, and lots of synthesizer. Mellow at times (though with an internal tension), it can also rock out with bouncy vitality, with guitars offering contrasting textures. There are plenty of sonically daring moments, plenty of sharp edges that prick one’s attention. The melodies have set up permanent residence in my head; they deliver acutely observant dissections of romantic relationships, mostly wistful, occasionally humorous, but sometimes filled with desperate yearning. A brilliant fulfillment of the promise of 2003’s Heart.

Some albums have grown in stature the longer I’ve listened to them. I wasn’t wild about the self-titled debut of WILDERNESS (Jagjaguwar) at first, but I enjoyed it enough that I didn’t complain when other people played it at the store. Lately I’m the one who’s been putting it in the player. This Baltimore band gets compared to PUBLIC IMAGE LTD. a lot, but it’s the PIL that was produced by BILL LASWELL, with jauntily chiming guitars and a big sound supporting the half-spoken, half-sung vocals of JAMES JOHNSON. The group formed in 1995 but only this year made its debut album. Amazingly, even though Johnson never really gives us a melody, this is anthemic music, the dense layering of ringing riffs and the walloping drumming making every track memorable.

I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that my favorite hip-hop album of the year is a collaboration, since the genre’s rife with them. Rarely are they as amusing as DANGER DOOM’s The Mouse and the Mask (Epitaph), which combines the talents of DANGER MOUSE and MF DOOM with the voices of characters on various shows on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim late-night bloc, which is definitely not for kiddies. SPACE GHOST curses like a sailor, Aqua Teen Hunger Force’s SHAKE alternately begs to be on the album and rants that he’s not, the same show’s CARL wonders where the instruments white people like (such as tambourines) are, BRAK sings, and much more: both familiar bites from old episodes and new material created for this album. Cameos by GHOSTFACE, CEE-LO, and TALIB KWELI add further spice on a disc where the beats and the humor are both first-class.

As SUFJAN STEVENS continued his state-album series, he also continued to expand his musical references. Illinois (Asthmatic Kitty) is a doozy, like an open marriage of folk and prog-rock with plenty of other styles cohabitating. “They Are Night Zombies!...” cops the marching rhythm of “Jesus Walks,” while a couple of tracks undulate enticingly with cool instrumental colors reminiscent of STEVE REICH-style minimalism. The lyrics bounce from clever wordplay to earnest sincerity to sheer whimsy. Whether it’s words or music, you can never tell what’s coming next on this wild road trip through Illinois, but you know it’ll be tuneful and stimulating.

This retropective is an ongoing process, so I’ll post a few more installments this month.