I’m still counting down my top picks for the year 2005 in this space, with brief comments on each. Having done 40-21 last time, here’s (drum roll please!!!) 20-1!!! (Again, there will be four categories: New Recordings, Old Recordings/Retrospectives, Singles, and Music DVDS. Enjoy!)
20. METRIC – Live it Out (Last Gang)
Sophomore slump? Ha! There’s no evidence of that here. Metric’s follow-up to 2003’s entertaining Old World Underground is even better, playing down the mildly retro new wave tendencies and playing up what they do best: rock. And not simply or stupidly, either, with plenty of lights and darks and slows and fasts that make for a fully realized, bumpy ride that is tight but chaotic.
19. GO-BETWEENS – Oceans Apart (Yep Roc)
Easily the best of the three Go-Be’s LPs since their return, Oceans Apart finally, thoroughly recaptures their later-1980s allure. For this one, old friends ROBERT FORSTER and GRANT McLENNAN wisely rehired producer MARK WALLIS, who did so very much for their 1988 first-go-round swansong, 16 Lovers Lane (assisted here, interestingly enough, by one of my all-time favorite musicians, RUTS drummer DAVE RUFFY, who chips in on keyboards and percussion). And right from Forster’s bracing, tone-setting “Here Comes a City,” it’s clear that the much deeper textures of 16 and its 1987 predecessor, Tallulah, have been restored in all their former luster!
18. NADA SURF – The Weight is the Gift (Barsuk)
Ah, those records that you like on first listen and then just keep getting better. Looking for first-rate, modern power pop? Look no further. How could this New York trio take such an old dog and teach it such new tricks? It’s nigh impossible to remember Nada Surf as the ’90s MTV one-hit wonders they were on the Electra label. Now, they drip with honeyed substance and terrific pop melodies that snuggle into you like a puppy.
17. GANG OF FOUR – Return the Gift (V2)
What’s the sense of rerecording quarter-century-old songs? Plenty, it turns out. The grand Gang gives punishing treatment to 14 of their 1978–1982 songs. Return the Gift has a substantive point to make, and it makes it handily. Making strong use of guitarist ANDY GILL’s current career as a producer, this re-imagines their old songs as packing a dense roar rather than a stripped-down, sparse, serrated edge. In particular, the backing tracks have doubled in prominence, led by HUGO BURNHAM’s much bigger-sounding drums, and it’s a real shake-up!
16. STARS – Set Yourself on Fire (Arts and Crafts)
Anyone mourning the recent, unexpected loss of Scotland’s valiant DELGADOS (say it isn’t so) should explore Montreal’s Stars. A mild sense of playful lyrical mischief abides, making teasing use of the intersexual vocal interplay between AMY MILLAN and TORQUIL CAMPBELL to chart the luscious rise and cynical fall of romance—though there are also a couple of pointed political songs about our president and his Iraqi adventures, such as “Celebration Guns” and the nicely incompatible, crazy, avant-garde new wave song “He Lied About Death.” Set yourself on fire for this CD forthwith.
15. SUPERGRASS – Road to Rouen (Capitol/EMI)
Hailed a decade ago as teenaged stars of the British “new wave of the new wave”—yes, there was a revival before the current one!—Oxford’s Supergrass are the only one of that scene still standing, still going strong on their fifth good LP out of five—and one much more fully realized than and just as eccentric as their last two. . The music isn’t growing softer as it gets mid-tempo (there’s still great electric lead work); it’s getting fuller and more involved.
14. DOVES – Some Cities (Capitol/EMI)
Manchester’s Doves cement their staying power with this, their third fine LP. If this is not as sinewy or as darkly moody as 2000’s Lost Souls, it’s nearly as good, and it’s far more consistent than 2002’s occasionally brilliant Last Broadcast. It finds the trio opening up their sound to communicate bigger, brighter, more cinematic vistas.
13. ROB DICKINSON – Fresh Wine For the Horses (Sanctuary/SonyBMG)
Five years may have passed since CATHERINE WHEEL stopped recording and performing, but they’ve never officially broken up and may be resurrected someday. Thus, their former and possibly future singer-songwriter seems intent upon continuing to evolve their sound and style on this, his first solo LP. Indeed, Fresh Wine picks up the subtler threads dangled by Catherine Wheel on their best post-Ferment work, Adam & Eve; adds a bit of the moodiness and quiet/disquiet found on Like Cats and Dogs, their LP sculpted out of specially picked U.K. b-sides; and adds a soulful solitude, calm grace, and polished beauty his much louder ex-band didn’t often try for.
12. LOU BARLOW – Emoh (Merge)
In the 17 years since Barlow left DINOSAUR JR., he’s made so many well-loved records that it’s odd that this is the first released as “Lou Barlow” (not counting the 1995 “Lou Barlow & Friends” Another Collection of Home Recordings). This record shows Barlow as a folkie of sorts, with significant seriousness evident in the songwriting and sound quality control. Even if Emoh is not the landmark record Barlow still has in him somewhere, he is still a prodigious songwriter and artist. This may be the start of a new phase in an august career.
31. THE POSIES – Every Kind of Light (Rykodisc)
Here comes the long-predicted proper comeback LP. And it’s as good as we suspected it would be, yet it’s quite refreshing in that it takes an unexpected direction. Rather than pick up on the mellifluous pop they left off with on Success, this finds them reworking the heavier, just as hooky post-grunge pop they did so well on 1993’s Frosting on the Beater and 1996’s underrated Amazing Disgrace, with a little of the lighter, spiritual pop found on KEN STRINGFELLOW’s solo work
10. PERNICE BROTHERS – Discover a Lovelier You (Ashmont)
The fourth Pernice Brothers is more like the last one, 2003’s Yours, Mine and Ours than the first two. That is to say it indulges more frequently in JOE PERNICE’s ’80s influences like than the early ‘70s ones that made those earlier records so priceless. And while I still prefer that older, more intricate orchestral-pop flavor, as it fits both Pernice’s about-to-melt-in-sadness voice better as well as his dynamic songwriting, this is once again another album of his that is impossible to stop playing.
9. NEW PORNOGRAPHERS – Twin Cinema (Mint/Matador)
Another great LP by Vancouver indie supergroup sensations the New Porns! This expertly expands on the blueprints of their milkshakes-and-sodas 2000 debut, Mass Romantic; 2003’s sophomore Electric Version LP; and leader A.C. NEWMAN’s smashing 2004 solo album, The Slow Wonder. The results are a kick.
8. NEW MODEL ARMY – Carnival (Attack Attack/Redeye)
Twenty-one years after their debut, Bradford, England’s New Model Army are still going strong. Their ninth studio LP and first in five years is their most direct, mainlined energy since 1993’s The Love of Hopeless Causes. In fact, this sometimes brings to mind their third-LP zenith two decades ago, 1986’s The Ghost of Cain—albeit a much more considered version in keeping with more recent works. How many groups who are so far into such an august career—longer than some of their fans are old—have been continually inspired?
7. TEENAGE FANCLUB – Man Made (Merge)
With only two having been produced in eight years (really!), a Teenage Fanclub album is a rare and increasingly valuable thing. Here they conclude a lightening progression that began with 1997’s toned-down, gorgeous Songs from Northern Britain and continued through 2000’s even more spare Howdy. Bandwagonesque-era fans will barely recognize the new LP’s quiet, jangly, no-fuss guitars that gently ring ’n’ chime and nestle like a sleepy kitty.
6. MAXIMO PARK – A Certain Trigger (Warp)
While a dozen U.K. bands seem hell-bent on post-punk thievery, stealing so much from the early ‘80s it’s as if they cracked open a vault with dynamite, this Newcastle quintet merely echo the sounds of the late ’70 through the later ’80s. Maxïmo Park thus sound totally ’00s, and they’ve got the energy and the tunes to beat their peers hands down, too! Behind hot singles “Apply Some Pressure” and “Graffiti,” Maxïmo are full-on fun, hot, and sneaky; before you know it, they’ll take over your CD player.
5. IDLEWILD – Warnings/Promises (Capitol/EMI)
The third outstanding record in a row from this Scottish quintet. As is true of only the best groups over the long haul, Idlewild keeps turning out new creations that maintain their signature sound and style while constantly evolving and changing—the hardest thing for a veteran group to achieve. What a joy it is to hear a favored, flat-out fantastic band continuing to stretch yet never losing the essential plot, one that challenges themselves and us without losing sight of the fact that the songs are king, one with just enough punk rock left in them from their younger days to play everything hard and clear even when expressing subtler and lighter emotions.
4. DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE – Plans (Atlantic/WEA)
Transatlanticism may have been a watershed album—a collection of songs that were so strong, it cemented the direction of four previous striving albums, just as the band was transcending its indie following—but Plans is a more cohesive, flowing album, a gorgeous, twinkling record that’s long been in the cards Here is the fruition of all of Death Cab’s plans, built on seven years of hard touring and recording: total independence, a major deal on their own terms (the vinyl remains on their former label Barsuk), a huge following built the old fashioned way, and an artistic exploration that still seems limitless. This is how a band is supposed to mature; by remaining so vital and energized. Plans is a gem, and in time it will be recognized as such by all.
3. ROGUE WAVE – Descended like Vultures (Sub Pop)
Having wowed fans with a stellar, self-released debut in 2003, Out of the Shadow—which led to their signing by Sub Pop and the album’s re-release last year—Oakland’s Rogue Wave’s second LP was bound to be different. Indeed, those who fell for the debut’s mix of THE BYRDS, THE LA’S, THE SHINS (with whom they’ve since toured), THE CHILLS, SIMON & GARFUNKEL (on the acoustic tracks), and classic indie pop had to wonder what to expect. After all, Shadow was a de facto solo LP by leader ZACH ROGUE with engineer BILL RACINE. This follow-up, however, again recorded with Racine, features the full band that Rogue assembled in the meantime.
2. DECEMBERISTS – Picaresque (Kill Rock Stars)
For 20 years I’d searched for a lyricist who could rival THE SMITHS’ MORRISSEY in voracious wit, cleverness, and uncanny love of language. Finally, I found him in COLIN MELOY of Portland, OR’s Decemberists, who released two LPs in 2003, Castaways and Cutouts and Her Majesty the Decemberists. And unlike Morrissey, who never had to write his own melodies, lo and behold, Meloy penned the tunes that fit his wordplay as seamlessly as JOHNNY MARR’s did in the early Smiths. And Meloy was an arranger whose imagination was as limitless as Marr’s. Best of all, unlike some Smiths copy band, The Decemberists’ songs and style were entirely their own, drawn from a wealth of historical pop sources, from Broadway, opera, rock, folk, R&B, and soul!
1. BOB MOULD – Body of Song (Yep Roc)
Seven years ago, Bob Mould announced his retirement from crash ’n’ burn guitar rock with the sarcastically titled album The Last Dog and Pony Show. He wrote wrestling scripts, moved to D.C., began DJing an electronic music party, and self-released two electro-centric LPs in 2002. These albums turned off or confused all but his most open-minded fans. Although Modulate combined familiar elements with a new interest in tape loops, keyboards and electronics, Long Playing Grooves was so left field it came out under a pseudonym, LOUDBOMB. A third release, LiveDog98, was a Dog and Pony tour document. This seven-year detour has finally ended in the colossal ‘comeback’ Body of Song, a stunning reawakening of his former sound like a slumbering Popeye after the contents of a spinach can find his gaping mouth. It’s frankly his hottest record since SUGAR’s File Under: Easy Listening (1994). Less claustrophobic, dour, dark, and gloomy than his four other solo LPs, Body is instead Mould’s first to tap into the fortifying energy of Sugar and his older hallowed band HUSKER DU. And unexpected or no, it is a total roar of triumph, 2005’s unlikely album of the year.
