The best albums of 2005 are...

[pattentank24]

#3
Bloc Party- Silent Alarm


Let me ask you something
"Are you hoping for a miracle?"(Helicopter)
Bloc Party might be the new Oasis
You either love em or hate em
I love em right down to my purple Bloc Party Polo
The Ep didn't prepare you for what was to come
Sure we all loved the intro to Banquet and wondered who was that drummer or was that a drum machine trick.
Silent Alarm is that RARE album that deserved the hype
Wait NME just claimed a 12 yr old who makes straw bubbles will save Rock N Roll.
Nothing was happening really...at the end of 2004 with music in the US.
All my "Too Cool Hype Loving Radio Buddies with their Imports" were already arguing over what song blah blah
I saw a 30 min concert On-Demand cable show they shot as a promo.
I was convinced
This was gonna be special following it.
It surpassed all my expectations and put Bloc Party in that class with TV On The Radio as bands who are magicians and can seemly do anything and everything.
And It STILL WILL WORK.
The Depth of Kele's lyrics are of a confindent frontman who wants the forum to say what he thinks
But Not as Directly as Others.
Which make Him Human when he sings "Blue Light"/This Modern Love"/Plans".
Their not aiming at the charts with these songs.
They want more than that ,
They want that yearning piece of each us for something better.
No album defined the state of politics in America better
"Price of Gas"/"Pioneers"
Are Not Anti-Goverment
They're Pro Power To The People
Both songs seem to point out
Yeah Shit's all Fucked Up Right Now
But Will Get Through This and Be Better
More Aware of What's Around Us.
Oh and A kickass Remix album full of b-sides proved just that
They Are Better As A Band
If I had to place a bet on what band from 2005 will be celebrating it's 10 aniversary edition debut album
This is the one you'll be dancing to for years to come
When it comes over the speakers 10 yrs from now
You'll know where it all began with that breaking glass.


Standout- I've changed my favorite song at least 4 x with this album right now It's "Plans" the accostic version/the Mogwai remix are all fantastic but the orginal still King

[pattentank24]

#2
Stars- Set Yourself On Fire

Set Yourself On Fire is an album.
I Want You To Love
How did this not end up on every list in Canada when it was released there in 2004.
It's Release here in March 2005
Furthered my jealousy of it
I feel like I lived this album and could have written alot of these songs.
I'm most impressed with music that makes me jealous of it.
I know every single experience that's taking place
Odd Encounter with an X-Lover"I was trying to remember your name" ("Your X-Lover Is Dead")
That Sense of the last time you'll ever be together"please Love Please"/I'll Kill Who You Hate/Take off That Dress So You won't Freeze"("One More Night")
I'll Show You you still Care About Me "All I Want is One More Chance"/To Show You/You Were Right For Me ("Reunion")
Those moments in the lost afternoon "You Look So Good in the Shoes of an outcast/I kissed your throat every they said it wouldn't last("What I'm Trying To Say")
Details of how you met "Fifth Time In your Bedroom/When We Finally Rested/You Leaned Upon Your Elbow/And Began to speak to me/but you stopped yourself and kissed me/And I grabbed your wrist and told You/I know,I Know/I feel The Same as you("The First 5 Times")
It's an album of Romantic Expression
The sweet/Sour of Being In Love
That Never Tries To Hide It's Scars
It's Such a Honest Testament due to the fact the 2 singers are former lovers (Torquil Campbell/Amy Millan)
It Will Rip You Apart at Times and Make you Apprecitae Your Current/Past Experiences at other points.
Even the title is a metaphor for being in love
"When You Have Nothing Left To Give/You Must Set Yourself On Fire"
They even work in a little fun-flavored Bush Bashing toward the end
"I Hope Your Drunken Daughters Are Gay!"("He Lied About Death")
"How Will You Know Your Enemy/By The Colour or Your Fear"("Celebration Guns")
You would think WOW that just kills the mood and theme of the album but every song is so good you forget about the pettiness.
I don't think I've listened to an album at night more since Interpol's debut.
It's an Instant Classic
That will grab any single roamantic fiber in your body.
Damn I wish I had written this album

Standout "Your X-Lover Is Dead"- The end of the song always gets me as it's fading
"You were What I Wanted"
"I Gave What I Gave"
"I'm Not Sorry I Met You
I'm Not Sorry, It's Over
"I'm Not Sorry, There's Nothing To Save"
and I'm always that guy when things go Bad

[maarts]

*drumrolls and fanfares*

Don't keep us in suspense! What's numbah one?

[pattentank24]

Alright Here It is/Some of You Figured This Out I Bet
Happy New Year

#1
The Mars Volta- Frances The Mute

I hate all thos Prog Bands from the 70" except Pink Floyd
They bored the piss out of me,that's why I learned punk music first but
THIS IS WHAT A ALBUM IS
You can't subtract anything not a single thing
You couldn't have a conversation with Me this year
Without talking about The Mars Volta's Mindfuck
FTM is everything you want from a band who already shocked you with a concept like Deloused In the Comatorium
1) Concept although still at the end of the year no one can quite figure out what the hell besides mother-child relationship.
2)The Willingness to Say Fuck All Were Going To Do What We Want Artistically if that means letting sound-effects GO that probably add to the story
3) Do What You Do Best
a) Cedric's Abstract Lyrics destined to be translated
b) Omar's iconic Guitar playing and the orginal free-form improv production he brings.
4) Insaine Art Work that ties again into a complete concept that your left scracthing how does this all connect.
I spent drunken hours looking at people's theories of what's this mean does this connect to that?
Friends would drive our female friends crazy if it was brought up.
I Still Can't Listen to just one track -You have to hear the whole thing and The Frances The Mute Single that was supposed to be the begining of our story.
I sat around making my list I knew this was #1
But I guess it's something you had to hear to understand.(Ask Thorny/Shin Around Here)
Let me compare it David Lynch's "Mullholland Drive"
Everyone saw it and basically were wondering David What's This Really About?
He Said in a rare interview

"I considered telling people after it was on DVD , but then I heard about all these various theories that kept the flim alive so I didn't want to kill that thrill of putting a puzzle together for those people

Everything about this album's mystery taught me so much
I learned about Max Ernst"s Paintings/I went back and researched Greek Mythology/ I learned a little more Spanish to follow the language changes throughout/
Poverty,The Brutality of Priests In Mexico.
I learned about the influence of Jazz on Latin classical guitar music.
I had completely new ideals it seemed everytime someone sent me a new concept.

I haven't even mentioned the music the only band who was in the same ball-park with MV musically in 2005 was System of a Down
The opening guitar driven to the depths in the span of 56 seconds open the door to a whole new galaxy of sound where Punk/Metal/Zeppelin/Santana/Miles Davis all reside and

Were introduced to an abortion that survived named Vismund Cygnus who is lost either in his head battling his multiple personalities or the murder of his mother and who's responsable

"The Widow" could be many things Drug-Dealer/Transvestite prosititute/Vismund as one or both.
We do know someone is going die then/soon

"L"via L"Viaquez" is the funkiest spanish jazz guitar struct where we have no ideal whose telling the story is it a sister of Frances/Another vocie in the head/ but we know someone has been taken is it /a evil church taking Frances or the baby/Frances's Baby(Cygnus)


You get what I mean as the last 2 suites
"Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holly Anymore"/"Cassandra Gemnni"
bring Revenge/Sex/Murder/BlackMail/Unsolved Crimes/Suicide
basically some real DRAMA

Miranda sounds like an old Western with Kill Bill Venegence spread all over an old enemy.

Cassandra is the 26 min finale where rivers run with blood and everything is spooky and passionate Cedric goes to a whole new level as a vocalist
HIS VOICE Is Pain/Anger/Remorse/Defeat and that's just the first 8 min.
Desperate Whispering follows shortly.

It's Everything Shakesperian with so many connections to it's characters in this lyric to that greek mythology story

With The Frances Single Your Listening Experience will stretch to a 90 min movie That's without drugs
in the spirit of David Lynch
With Time Changes/Alternate endings to choose as long as you want.

The Journey then creeps into your dreams(it did mine and a few friends)

You finally put it away and then as soon as you get someone eles's take .
Back in The player it goes

This album was the reason they invented headphones
It's my favorite "Concept Album" of all time
It's my Darkside/Wall
On Roadtrips I'd listen till it was over or finish it on the move.

Someday The Truth will come out ,it always does
and the fact the bookend "Helena" suppose to be the twin of Cassandra..here we go again
the MV's 3rd album is being recorded in Amsterdam sometime soon.
Something Tells Me,
I'm Not Finished With This Puzzle Yet
No Outlines/Middle Pieces
And After Everything All I Still Have Is A Box To Listen To
Who Needs A Finished Puzzle?
Not ME

[skvorisdeadsorta]

That's a good choice for album of the year.

[maarts]

I never even listened throroughly to that one- you convinced me now.

Had the Omar Rodriguez new solo-album in the other day and was impressed that all titles are in Dutch!
Spent obviously way too much time talking to the prostitutes there....

[Ayinger]

Every time I've seen that STARS cover I keep having the image of this EXPOLSIONS IN THE SKY cover from the other year pop in my mind:


...save for the reaching hand, they're almost identical right down to the bands' names done in red!

I'm with Maarts that maybe I'm going to have to try and pull "Frances" back out....gone there several times without being overly blown over... Same with "De-loused" as I picked it up too back when it was new and had a 'I can take it or leave it' sort of reaction to it. Heh, I'll give it to the guys that they certainly CAN stir it up tho'!

[phil]

Patten ~ Thank you for your 2005 reviews ...

Very well done and informative and APPRECIATED !!

[JesusLooksLikeMe]

Aye, top stuff. I'll check out that Mars Volta.

[ScottsyII]

Patten, I admit I am probably remiss in not having at least Heard Francis the Mute - I really do wanna hear it because I liked if not loved their previous work - I just need someone with a copy they don't mind burning for me... :-)

[JesusLooksLikeMe]

I have about 30 albums I need to hear now, thanks to patten's list. A lot of that stuff is damn obscure, at least from a UK angle.

My own top 5 is now finalised and a bit predictable, I'm afraid:

5. X&Y - Coldplay
They're just wonderfully crafted melodies, delivered with increased confidence.

4. I Am A Bird Now - Antony & The Johnsons
Astonishing voice and largely unique album.

3. You Could Have It So Much Better - Franz Ferdinand
A quick word in their defence: No-one else can replicate this... so many strong, irresistable hooks in each song, never mind the album as a whole. Fantastic lyrics, charisma, accomplished playing, singing, production. They prove themselves masters of Wings-ish balladry, dance-floor stompers, punk, post-post-punk, you name it... This is genius and Television and XTC etc etc blah blah blah were never anywhere near this consistently great. I know. I was there at the time, wanking. Revisionism is bollocks and the knockers should actually sit down and listen to all 14 tracks carefully.

2. Takk - Sigur Ros
I've said enough on this.

1. Silent Alarm - Bloc Party
The best British album for me since 1997.


Most overrated - Kaiser Chiefs (Employment)
Best guilty pleasure - The Darkness (One Way Ticket...)


[Edit: Hmmm, on proof-reading I realise I've been very loyal to British acts. It wasn't a conscious decision]

[JesusLooksLikeMe]

Still feel I should have found a place for System of a Down. Meh. Maybe if they'd dropped a song or two and released a single album it would have been my album of the year. I don't know whether it was self-indulgence or commercial cynicism at play, but they fucked it up.

[ScottsyII]

Well, my top ten for the year is in - and there's alot of stuff here some might find lamentable, but I stand proudly by this list!

For full write ups on each album, feel free to visit my (gratuitous plug alert) site at...

www.geocities.com/scottly_25/infiniteverses.html

But anyways, here's the list...

10. Hotel - Moby
9. Worlds Apart - ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead
8. Plans - Death Cab for Cutie
7. Some Cities - Doves
6. Fractions - Decoder Ring
5. In Your Honor - Foo Fighters
4. Mesmerize / Hypnotize - System of a Down
3. Oceans Apart - The Go Betweens
2. Main Street - Epicure
1. The Sunset Tree - The Mountain Goats

And not a single college rock / party band in that list, and proud of it. :-)

[maarts]

And not a single college rock / party band in that list, and proud of it.

Foo Fighters is not a college rock/party band?

[riley]

I think this should qualify as my final 20, since there's fuck all chance I'm re-doing it at this point.

20. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - st
19. Editors - The Back Room
18. The Go-Betweens - Oceans Apart
17. Wintersleep - st
16. Rogue Wave - Descended Like Vultures
15. Bell Orchestre - Recording A Tape The Colour Of Light
14. Calla - Collisions
13. Brendan Benson - Alternative To Love
12. Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better
11. The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
10. Hood - Outside Closer
9. Spoon - Gimme Fiction
8. Stephen Malkmus - Face The Truth
7. Minus The Bear - Menos El Oso
6. Novillero - Aim Right For The Holes In Their Lives
5. Echo & The Bunnymen - Siberia
4. Wolf Parade - Apologies To The Queen Mary
3. My Morning Jacket - Z
2. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
1. Broken Social Scene - st