collylogic.com - Simon Collison's weblog

Music Yearly: 2005

31st December 2005

It’s my fantastic end of year review, the bumper hard-back annual to accompany the regular monthlies that you all pretend to love so much. Note that I am publishing my Yearly on the 31st of December, unlike others that get their lists in way too early and could so easily miss that great album that comes out between Xmas and New year. Yet again, this hasn’t materialised, but my integrity is still intact. Anyway, here we go. This is for you, Grandchildren…

Best Ten Albums
  1. Editors - The Back Room.
  2. Arcade Fire - Funeral.
  3. Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger.
  4. Elbow - Leaders Of The Free World.
  5. Sigur Ros - Takk.
  6. Brakes - Give Blood.
  7. Micah P. Hinson - ...and the Gospel of Progress.
  8. Oasis - Don’t Believe The Truth.
  9. Leaves - Angela Test.
  10. Doves - Some Cities.
Best Ten Singles
  1. Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor.
  2. Leaves - Shakma.
  3. Maximo Park - Going Missing.
  4. Futureheads - Hounds Of Love.
  5. Elbow - Leaders Of The Free World.
  6. The White Stripes - Blue Orchid.
  7. Chemical Brothers - Push The Button.
  8. British Sea Power - Please Stand Up.
  9. Gorillaz - Dare.
  10. Queens Of The Stone Age - In My Head.
Best Five Tracks
  1. Arctic Monkeys - From The Ritz To The Rubble.
  2. Super Furry Animals - Zoom.
  3. British Sea Power - It Ended On An Oily Stage.
  4. Editors - Lights.
  5. Oasis - Guess God Thinks I’m Abel.

So there you go. A good year for the Brits. Lots of guitar-based stuff, but as ever I’m entirely unapologetic.  Some bands didn’t inspire me as much as usual (Super Furries, Sigur Ros) but still get the mentions they deserve.

Agree? Disagree? Ben Ward, are you there? Happy New Year anyway…

Simon Collison published this on 31/12/05, at 1:22 PM

Comments

Nice list Colly, as ever. Happy New Year to you.

I shall have to investigate the Micah P. Hinson, Leaves and Brakes in 2006. I’ve never even heard of the first of those three. The small pile of Christmas money I got ought to cover it though.

I should have my list out in a few hours. Let’s just say that there’s Œsome overlapĂ. I was a bit downbeat about the overall quality of this years albums, and I’m not sure how many of them will really be remembered as classics, but writing up the list made me feel a whole lot better.

One typo: You’ve put ŒDon’t Believe the HypeĂ, rather than ŒDon’t Believe The TruthĂ for the Oasis album.

31/12 at 16:18 from Ben Ward

Great list, that Arcade Fire album is great. I forgot all about Futureheads, they got lost in itunes.

Happy New Year!

31/12 at 17:59 from Brad Chmielewski

The Editors really is a nice album, I only just started getting into it towrds the end of the year though so it’s not fully settled yet.

Some cracking tunes on it, Blood and Bullets are my favourites so far.

31/12 at 18:03 from Colin Frame

OK, I’m done. Scored a whopping ŒColly overlap factorĂ of 4/5.

01/01 at 23:14 from Ben Ward

Hehe cool list. I’m glad to see there are more Arctic Monkeys fans spread around the place. I went to see them back in October and they were awesome, you should really check them out live if you haven’t already done so.

The only part I disagree with is the Editors album being number one, although what can I do about that, heh. It’s your opinion.

=)

03/01 at 12:13 from Paul

Oooh, that Maximo Park album is absolutely ace. I seem to have missed some other good stuff along the way though.

04/01 at 17:33 from Olly

Cool, I’m not the only person who really rates that Micah P Hinson album, then.  Some very good stuff in that album list, the Leaves was a long time coming, but worth it.

04/01 at 21:12 from Francis

Good list there mate.

10/01 at 00:29 from Andy Budd

Thanks all!

Oh and just to update those that have contacted me via email, I did not “forget” about Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party or Hard Fi.

The Kaisers are funny, likeable, and do the Britpop thing very well. I do own the album, and played it a lot for a week back in May. Longevity though is sorely lacking.

Bloc Party made one great record, namely Banquet, but what else? The album wasn’t very exciting was it?

Finally, Hard Fi. Everybody loves hard Fi. I don’t. I have the album, but never play it. Somehow they seem a bit wrong. Have you seen the singer flailing about. Not exactly Ian Curtis, is he?

End of mini-rant.

10/01 at 00:37 from Colly

Well, Bloc Party I do rather like so we’ll skip over them quietly. I’d probably suggest ŒTwo More YearsĂ as their definitive song, over Banquet. Oh yeah, skipping skipping˜

Kaiser Chiefs - bang on Colly. They’re great fun, supremely entertaining and I’ll grab live tickets when they next come around. But, the incessant, falsetto yelping in every. single. bloody. song... It was fun at first in I Predict a Riot. But who seriously thought it was a good idea for a trademark? Really? Who? Stand up… It makes it unbearable to listen to the whole album.

(This is with the notable exception of ŒModern WayĂ, which is fabulous and features no screaming crescendo whatsoever. That will survive a while longer.)

I very, very nearly bought the Hard-Fi album in the sales last week. But I didn’t. I later saw the video for ‘Cash Machine’ and didn’t regret buying into Jon Hicks‘ music collection instead (Rufus Wainwright, as it happens). Cash Machine: That’s a godawful song if ever there was one. They do sound a little bit different to other bands in the genre right now, so I sometimes feel that I should like them. But I don’t.

10/01 at 01:08 from Ben Ward

Ben: Spot on. What’s Cash Machine going on about, really?

Oh, and yeah Two More Years is great, but whenever I put that on, Emma always goes ”Is there two more years left, by any chance?“ which she finds very funny. They do repeat that line quite a bit. Soild tune, but NOT on my copy of the album, only more recent copies. Got it somehwere, though. Bah!

10/01 at 01:16 from Colly

The reissue was a pain in the arse, I’m still missing Little Thoughts, which is the other they tacked on. Whilst I tend to avoid iTunes for album purchases, it is useful for topping up any worthwhile Œsuper-special collectors free-pencil-sharpener editionĂ bonus tracks. Two More Years came from there.

As for Are there two more years left? - You have my deepest sympathy, but thankfully my better half loses interest in my music collection every six months when I go through a louder, rockier, shoutier phase. Thus, I’m generally free of such remarks.

What do you make of the new Strokes record then? Or do we have to wait until the end of the month for that judgement?

10/01 at 01:44 from Ben Ward

Ben: Re: The Strokes. End of the month of course!

Anyway, we’re up too late. Night, night dear readers…

10/01 at 01:47 from Colly

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