Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Dio's Top Ten Musical Albums Of 2005

I love this, its my third outing and with the now annual round up of music that's been turning me on and inspiring me over the preceding 12 months. I've actually spent a lot of the year thinking about this and keeping a list of the stuff I want to mention in eager anticipation of writing it (you sad man.)

If nobody ever reads it I care not - As usual its a completely personal thing, doesn't include many albums released during the year and may have some similar themes to previous years (2003, 2004.) I really wish I'd started doing this earlier, as it fascinates me to see what was getting into my head in previous years. I've always been the type who can tell periods of time by what I was listening to at that time and this is a great aid to the old memory. So - here we go. In no order - ten favourites from 2005.

Cranes - Wings Of Joy [1991]

Dating back to the heady days of me latter youth, this was one of those albums I'd had for many years and almost completely ignored. On getting a CD version of it earlier this year, it's become an almost frighteningly regular listen. It even pipped the Crane's superlative new album, Particles And Waves to this coveted list.

I don't know why it had never caught before now - maybe I felt let down following the excellent debut mini-LP (Self-Non-Self), maybe a lot more needed to happen in my life to make it sound so damn good, I don't know. But after giving it another chance its fair to say its a beguiling record. Dark, clanging industrial guitars and Gothic pipe organs clash blissfully with the singer's child like angelic singing. Simple songs, at times perplexingly minimalist, given the intensive sound-scapes. They exist in that vacuum when you remember the songs and love them, but couldn't for the life of you call them to mind to sing, despite frequent listens. Which is probably explains why I've had to listen to it so many times this year.

Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene [2005]

If I had to choose one city in the world to move to for its music - Montreal would be in joint first with New York. Another great Canadian band featuring members of a number of other classy Montreal bands (full info here - too many to mention) - this album has been one of the shining lights of the darkest final quarter of 2005. Its hard to describe this LP as it could almost pass as a label sampler. It's equal turns joyful, melancholic, exhilarating, dense and frenetic. The sound is thickly layered and it brings to mind bands such as Pavement, Mercury Rev, Sonic Youth and many more.

Every song is a winner - shining and catchy. At times it's funky, at others it's cinematic and epic - it beats you into submission and stamps its authority over your head with gleeful abandon - it turns 62 minutes into seconds and never outstays its welcome. It's hard to pick out favourite tracks as there are too many to choose. At a push, Superconnected burns and brings joy to the heart whilst Ibi Dreams Of Pavement is so catchy it hurts. Simply a brilliant record.

The Ponys - Celebration Castle [2005]

This one's just so infectious. Little original to shout about, the Ponys make up for a lack of originality with some sharp song writing, catchy guitar riffage and sheer enthusiasm. It's all played loud and fast, the singing is both laconic and yearning or bright and spiky depending on which band member is singing. It's one of those albums you can put on come a dull Monday morning and it just lifts your spirits long enough to get to the lunch break and to cheer you just enough to not smash a colleagues face in for utter stupidty in the face of common sense - which is a good thing in my book. Another one which is all filling and no filler - like proper albums used to be.

Sleater-Kinney - The Woods [2005]

Another of those bands that had been around for years and I'd never come across, this LP saw the band sign to one of my old favourite labels, Sub Pop. I can't compare it with earlier works as I still haven't given them a spin, despite the sheer ballsy class of this record making them worth the effort.

This record is a wall of prog rock noise spun through the acid prism of a spikey grrrrl punk band. That sounds more convoluted than your average Coldplay record, but against all the odds it works a charm. Shimmering angry guitars pound against sarky and half spat words, soaring and shuddering through a range of sophisticated songs. The Woods is one of those albums that stands out for single-minded conviction amongst a year of wishy-washy wannabies and pop-indie-AOR-hell nothings. Juicy and sharp.

Slowdive - Souvlaki [1994]

One of those bands who've name I've known since they appeared, but who's music I've missed, Slowdive recently pissed me off when I discovered they'd made a song called 'Catch The Breeze' almost a decade before my own song of the same name. However, interest in how they sounded made me listen, and my ears have thanked me since. Souvlaki is one of those albums that can only be classed as Shoe-Gazer. It's the sound of my youth, it's sitting in my bedroom dreaming of ghosts, it's music that drips with ambience and it's music that evokes a me of a different age. A lot more dreamy-gazer than bands like My Bloody Valentine, it's none the less compelling and worth checking out for fans of music that shimmers and floats.

Great Lake Swimmers - Great Lake Swimmers [2005]

Simple, uncomplicated and beautiful - Great Lake Swimmers are the solo musical musings of one Tony Dekker. Every track sounds like it was recorded in a bedroom on an analogue 4-track and features the kind of quirky singer with acoustic guitar sound that makes it worth listening too a bloke in his bedroom being quirky with an acoustic guitar. Slightly surreal lyrics, elegant arrangements and background sounds full of ambience and gripping singing - this is just a joy to listen too.

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - I See A Darkness [1999]

Following on with the simple uncomplicated theme, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy is one of those artists I'm sure I should have heard of before, but only got to know this last year. So far this is by far my most favourite of his offerings.

Dark, brooding and crackly - this feels like lo-fi folk music for people who are beyond caring. Melancholy, regret, distrust and love clash and collide in a stunning collection of songs that make you ache and wince - but in a way that makes you feel alive despite it all. Towering, heartfelt and unforgettable - the way proper music should be.

M83 - Before The Dawn Heals Us [2005]

Shimmering and pulsating electronica that references everything from Shoe-Gazer to new age sound-scapaes and Pink Floyd like psychedelia. Enigmatic, soaring beats at times bring to mind the laid out beauty of the most sublime Chemical Brothers moments, and paints them with tints and layers which both enchant and motivate. Teen-Angst is a beautiful reminder of a long lost youth and its ideals whilst other tracks in turns scare, exhilarate and tingle in equal measures. Epic electronica for people who like to dance to their music.

The Wedding Present - Bizarro [1990]

Another band I knew from my youth but never indulged, they were slightly familiar from the days I listened to the late and lamented John Peel Show. Basically, the Wedding Present do one song, but they do it well and at many different speeds. The lyrics are easily interchangeable and pretty standard - usually about discomfort between lovers. But hell, this LP is another of them records that just glistens with energy and persistence. Guaranteed to take your mind off anything worth not thinking about for a short and energetic 45 minutes which basically hinges around the guitar party of the last instrumental half of the Velvet Underground's What Goes On. And is none the less enjoyable for it.

Arcade Fire - Funeral [2005 (In The UK)]

Talking about a late entry, I've only known this record a week, but its already a firm favourite (apparently its a hit with the real journos as well.) As far as I'm concerned it will be forever remembered as the record that ruined my 2005 Christmas party. I made the mistake of having the key listen to it before we went to the do. It just wouldn't leave my head and made me heart ache to the point I just could not bare being there and left. It made me want my wife, my son, my home, the things I love. It pressed the fakeness of where we were into a sharp focus and just made me say no to it. I had a downloaded version, but I wanted to leave, go to the record shop and buy it so that the next listen would be truly special. And you know what? It still is.

Outdoing Interpol in the Melancholy as joy stakes, the album throbs with an incendiary intensity. Songs build to epic proportions and its all an unstoppable forward momentum. Truly an emotional roller-coaster, at no point does it feel forced and contrived, every note touches a chord for me. Its about time passing, loved ones passing and the power of love for the things special to you. I can't quite believe my luck in getting to know this record. And what do you know - they're a flaming Montreal band again.

And there we have it. But this year I feel compelled to name check some LPs that didn't make the list but were none-the-less impressive and worthy of mention. They are:

Cranes - Particles And Waves
A Silver Mt. Zion - Horses In The Sky
Yo La Tengo - Electro Pura
Dinosaur Jr - You're Livin' All Over Me
Death Cult - Death Cult
Bauhaus - In The Flat Field
16 Horsepower - Folklore
Hammock - Kenotic
Mono - Hey, You!

So there we go... Until next year!

Posted by Dio Bach at 02:41

6 Comments:

Anonymous said...: Love love love Wings of Joy! It was one of the tapes I played constantly in my Walkman (remember those, granddad?) when I was walking the streets of London and I have really striking visual associations with that album. Never seems to get old for me.
Trivia:Jim Shaw (guitarist and brother of the vocalist) was stillborn and revived in the delivery room. Why so things like this stick in my head?; 2:42 AM
Anonymous said...: Bugger, 'twas Holly with a cat walking across the keyboard up there.; 2:43 AM
Dio Bach said...: Lol - I'm just amazed I ignored it for so long. I think I actually prefer it to Self-Non-Self now. That's one mighty strange piece of Trivia as well.

I was using a 'tape' (solid uncompressed audio storage device with reels for you younger types) up until 2000/2001 - I'm not quite neu-school enough to have been an early MP3 player adopter. ;); 10:41 PM
RR said...: Bonny Prince Billy is fab. Unfortunately I missed him in Edinburgh this summer but I think he's coming back so will definitely try to get to that. Have you listened to "Greatest Palace Music" and "Master and Everyone"? The latter is fantastic.; 1:09 PM
Dio Bach said...: I've not heard them yet - but I'm currently listening to the album he did with Matt Sweeney - Superwolf - I think it may be on next years list... :); 1:05 AM
RR said...: I have Superwolf too - it's magic! :-); 2:35 PM