Best of CanCon 2005

[luke]

Good thing Broken Social Scene is so bad-ass, or else this album would OWN my spot for Best of CanCon 2005. An absolutely perfect pop album, and everything I've been looking for from a Canadian artist since Sloan switched from the Beatles to AC/DC. I bow before the awesome anti-9-5 sentiment (did Slaughter join the white collar workforce or something between this and Duotang? because he is fucking BITTER) and complex yet ever-so-simple pop arrangements.

I was wary of this album at first, as it sounded too good on first listen. This is always a bad sign in a pop album, as it means that it'll probably wear thing. But the reverse happened, and I'll be listening to this album for years and years to come.

And of course, I'm always a huge sucker for brass, especially that of the pop variety which finds its influence more in Mexico than New Orleans. The horns are utilized perfectly in this album, never overrunning a tune or being overused. It never sounds like they're inserting brass into a song just because they've got some trumpet player hanging around and need to use him.

So yeah, I haven't heard that C'mon, and probably will end up downloading it from Riley after all, being that I've already over-spent my entertainment media budget for this month and need new Darkness and SOAD still to come. But unless that one really shakes me, this album is my favorite of CanCon 2005 other than BSS.

[Rit]

the Novillero is indeed great.
Riley's public service details are in good standing for his championing of Novillero originally.

[riley]

I'm glad folks have taken a shining to it, rather than haiving it bask in relative obscuiryt. Great post Luke. I think I agree on just about all points.

[Dr. Drum]

The 33 hottest 'bands' in Canada in 2005, according to a certain cross-section of the Canuck blogosphere. What, no Plaskett?

Actually, much here that we’d likely all agree with, though I must confess, a few I’m not familiar with at all.

[Dr. Drum]

My final top 30 CanCon albums of the year:

1. Jason Collett – Idols of Exile
2. Martha Wainwright
3. Joel Plaskett – La De Da
4. The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema
5. Bell Orchestre – Recording a Tape the Colour of Light
6. Final Fantasy – Has a Good Home
7. The Violet Archers – The End of Part One
8. Wolf Parade – Apologies to the Queen Mary
9. Sarah Harmer – I'm a Mountain
10. P:ano – Brigadoon
11. Russian Futurists – Our Thickness
12. A Northern Chorus – Bitter Hands Resign
13. Wintersleep – untitled
14. Greg Keelor – Seven Songs for Jim
15. Great Lake Swimmers – Bodies and Minds
16. Fembots – The City
17. Broken Social Scene
18. Metric – Live It Out
19. Tom Wilson and Bob Lanois – The Shack Recordings, Vol. 1
20. Neil Young – Prairie Wind
21. The Constantines – Tournament of Hearts
22. C'mon – In the Heat of the Moment
23. Tangiers – The Family Myth
24. Novillero – Aim Right for the Holes in Their Lives
25. The Most Serene Republic – Underwater Cinematography
26. Sexsmith and Kerr – Destination Unknown
27. Emm Gryner – Songs of Love and Death
28. A Silver Mt. Zion – Horses in the Sky
29. Caribou – The Milk of Human Kindness
30. Controller.Controller – X-Amounts

Honourable Mention:

54.40 – Yes to Everything
Bontempi – What Keeps Us Awake
Buck 65 – Secret House Against the World
Cuff the Duke
Bruce Cockburn – Speechless
Daniel Lanois – Belladonna
The Ladies and Gentlemen – Small Sins
The Rheostatics – The Whale Music Concert, 1992
Leeroy Stagger – Beautiful House

A worthwhile compilation: When We Ruled: The Best of the Pursuit of Happiness Even their album tracks sounded like singles a lot of the time, so a proper best of was long overdue.

Reissue of the year: Martha and the Muffins – This is the Ice Age Two of this band's half-dozen or so (counting M+M) studio albums have now been properly reissued. I would dearly love to see the rest. Elegant pop from 1981 with band and producer Daniel Lanois in peak form. Listening to it now, particularly striking to hear how it anticipates Lanois' later more famous collaborations.

Top 10 imprints in Canada in 2005:

1. Arts and Crafts
2. MapleMusic
3. Mint Records
4. Dependent Records
5. Boompa Records
6. True North Records
7. Paper Bag Records
8. Blocks Recording Club
9. Sonic Unyon
10. Dead Daisy Records

One more label we should all be grateful for: zunior.com

So long and thanks for all the fish: Three Gut Records

[riley]

Great list Doc. Plan to chat more on some of your choices and offer my own final list later today (hopefully).

[riley]

1. Broken Social Scene - st
2. Novillero - Aim Right For The Holes In their Hearts
3. Joel Plaskett - La De Da
4. Wolf Parade - Apologies To The Queen Mary
5. Wintersleep - st
6. The Burdocks - What We Do Is Secret
7. New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
8. The Holy Shroud - Ghost Repeaters
9. Jason Collett - Idols Of Exile
10. Contrived - Dead Air Verbatim
11. Bell Orchestre - Recording A Tape The Colour Of Light
12. C'mon - In The Heat Of The Moment
13. Metric - Live It Out
14. Most Serene Republic - Underwater Cinematography
15. Tricky Woo - First Blush
16. Cuff The Duke - st
17. The Constantines - Tournament Of Hearts
18. Russian Futurists - Our Thickness
19. Chad Vangaalen - Infiniheart
20. The Ladies & Gentlemen - Small Sins
21. Code Pie - This Habit
22. Holy Fuck - st
23. Great Lake Swimmers - Bodies & Minds
24. Caribou - The Milk Of Human Kindness
25. Buck 65 - Secret House Against The World
26. Controller.Controller - X-Amounts
27. Hot Hot Heat - Elevator
28. Kathleen Edwards - Back To Me
29. Sharp Like Knives - No Pressure
30. A Silver Mt. Zion - Horses In The Sky

[luke]

So that Holy Fuck is worth it, eh? Almost downloaded it from you, then I said, "No, he probably just downloaded it because it's called Holy Fuck", but then I saw it in your list just now and decided to dl it.

[riley]

Yeah it's a worthwhile listen. A bit out there and spotty, but cool. Members from By Divine Right/Burnt Black (Brian Borcherdt), Wintersleep/Holy Shroud/Contrived (Loel Campbell), Blue Rodeo/Change Of Heart (Glen Milchem).

[Dr. Drum]

Great list, Riley. As always looks like we could cheerfully sit together in a room with the stereo going. Though, with these lists, there might be a few minor points of order raised over how frequently some stuff got played, eh?

[riley]

Yeah fair game. I am intimately acquainted with the BSS at this point, but still have some grow room even with Bell Orchestre.

Listened to Sara Harmer's for the first time last night, and it could easily be worked in without too much trouble.

[Dr. Drum]

I wish I liked the BSS disc more than I do. Some of it is brilliant but I think some of the tracks got away from them a little bit, with so much stuff piled on. It gets a little murky in places. I appreciate the effort and it’s not an out and out bad disc by any means, but I somehow don’t think Broken Social Scene is the BSS record we’ll be thinking back to in ten or even five years time.

[tuneschick]

You guys make my head hurt.

OK, so I'm happy to say that all of the discs I got for Christmas were CanCon... but I'm still nowhere close to hearing all of the discs on your lists.

Got the new Sarah Harmer, and it's uniformly excellent, as I figured it would be. Girl's got bluegrass in her soul, and thus far, there isn't a weak moment on this album for me.

Got the new Metric, but haven't opened it as of yet.

I may be a year late, but I finally have Arcade Fire's Funeral... too early to comment much, but so far so good.

Though I have to say, of all the discs I received, my favourite thus far is the new Stars album. Who knew?

[luke]

Just went to pay my tuition at LSU, and listened to Plaskett's La De Da twice on the commute. Been putting off getting it, as, usually, nothing pisses me off more in rock than "Guy With An Acoustic Guitar." From Bob Dylan to John Mayer and all the Surfjan Stevens inbetween, those guys usually make me wanna do the John Belushi with their guitars against the wall.

This one has some real gems on it, though, but I think it sorta trails off for a few songs in the second half before picking back up. Not gonna do it, but I should probably revise my "Best Songs of 2005" to include "Lying on a Beach," probably somewhere in the top 5.

[riley]

"Lying On A Beach" has kind of become my fave on that album too.

Did you listen to the Holy Fuck yet? Seeing them next weekend open for Contrived with a couple guys from work.

And on that point, there's some stuff I should probably rip and put on SLSK for you. Some Halifax bands present and slightly passed that would be right up your alley Luke. The Burdocks are doing a fresh take on Hali circa 1993-1997 ish. Think you'd really like them.