Z on Year End Lists

[cuneyt81]

Z is #6 on Treble's year end list!

http://www.treblezine.com/viewer.cgi?id=51&type=f

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.filter-mag.com/news/interior.2862.html

Filter's Top 10 of 2005: Picks by Filter Magazine!
by Filter | 12.20.2005

 Finally... enough of these "rock star" picks, let's get to the meat of what the people listen to. Proletariate picks! Alright, psuedo-Communism aside, all of us at Filter not only want to impress you with our dazzling taste, diversity and general air of "great," but let you know what makes this magazine you read tick. We polled everyone from our multiple personalitied Editor-in-Chief and his pack of scribes, our head honcho owners/publishers, field marketing sojourns, ad sales snobs, online marketing gurus and those party planning fools in the club and lifestyle department what they loved about music in 2005. So, without further ado, we give you Filter's Top 10 of 2005:

Filter's Top 10 Albums of the Year

1. Sigur Ros, Takk
2. My Morning Jacket, Z
3. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Howl
4. Kaiser Chiefs, Employment
5. Sufjan Stevens, Illinoise
6. Dangerdoom, The Mouse and the Mask
7. ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Worlds Apart
8. Shout Out Louds, Howl Howl Gaff Gaff
9. Bright Eyes, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
10. Queens of the Stone Age, Lullabies To Paralyze

Chris Martins, Editor, Filter Mini
1: My Morning Jacket; Z (Sony)
2:Why?; Elephant Eyelash (Anticon)
3:Super Furry Animals; Love Kraft (XL/Beggars)
4: Animal Collective; Feels (Fat Cat)
5:Odd Nosdam; Burner (Anticon)
6:Fog; 10th Avenue Freakout (Lex)
7:Hood; Outside Closer (Domino)
8:Black Mountain; Black Mountain (Jagjaguar)
9: Smog; A River Ain't Too Much to Love (Drag City)
10: 13 & God; 13 & God (Anticon)

Eli Thomas
1: My Morning Jacket, Z (Sony)
2: Sufjan Stevens, Illinoise (Asthmatic Kitty)
3: Great Lake Swimmers, Bodies and Minds (Fargo)
4: ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, World's Apart (Astralwerks)
5: Spoon, Gimme Fiction (Merge)
6: Dangerdoom, The Mouse and The Mask (Geffen)
7: Damien Jurado, On My Way To Absence (Secretly Canadian)
8: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Wichita)
9: Quasimoto, The Further Adventures of Lord Quas (Stones Throw)
10: Ryan Adams, Cold Roses (Lost Highway)

Pat McGuire
1: My Morning Jacket, Z (Sony)
2: Dangerdoom, The Mouse and The Mask (Geffen)
3: Great Lake Swimmers, Bodies and Minds (Fargo)
4: Damien Jurado, On My Way To Absence (Secretly Canadian)
5: ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, World's Apart (Astralwerks)
6: Dirty Three, Cinder (Touch & Go)
7: Smog, A River Ain't Too Much to Love (Drag City)
8: Quasimoto, The Further Adventures of Lord Quas (Stones Throw)
9: Ryan Adams, Cold Roses (Lost Highway)
10: Lungfish, Feral Hymns (Dischord)

Marina Hackford
1: Common, Be (Geffen)
2: Kate Bush, Aerial (EMI)
3: My Morning Jacket, Z (Sony)
4: Rosebuds, Birds Make Good Neighbors (Merge)
5: Of Montreal, The Sunlandic Twins (Poluvinyl)
6: Sigur Ros, Takk (Geffen)
7: The Perceptionists, Black Dialogue (Def Jux)
8: Coldplay, X&Y (Capitol)
10: Sage Francis, A Healthy Distrust (Epitaph)

Gur Rashal
10: Tarantula A.D., Book of Sand (Kemado)
9: Supergrass, Road to Rouen (Capitol)
8: Kaiser Chiefs, Employment (Universal)
7: Queens of the Stone Age, Lullabies to Paralyze (Interscope)
6: Kanye West, Late Registration (Roc-a-Fella)
5: Coldplay, X&Y (Capitol)
4: My Morning Jacket, Z (Sony)
3: Sigur Ros, Takk (Geffen)
2: Fiona Apple, Extraordinary Machine (Sony/Epic)
1: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Howl (RCA)

Mark Mueller
1:The National, Alligator (Beggars)
2:Youth Group, Skeleton Jar (Epitaph)
3: Sigur Ros, Takk (Geffen)
4: Broken Social Scene, Broken Social Scene (Arts & Crafts)
5: My Morning Jacket, Z (Sony)
6:Crooked Fingers, Dignity and Shame (Merge)
7:Okkervil River, Black Sheep Boy (Jagjaguwar)
8:Greg Dulli, Amber Headlights (Infernal Recordings)
9: Bright Eyes, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning (Saddle Creek)
10: Great Lake Swimmers, Bodies and Minds (Fargo)

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5059418

NPR.org, December 16, 2005 · NPR reviewer Tom Moon shares his picks for the year's best CDs, from the lo-fi, indie folk of Iron and Wine to a newly discovered live recording by Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane. Moon writes for The Philadelphia Inquirer and is a regular contributor to NPR's All Things Considered. He's currently working on the book A Thousand Recordings to Hear Before You Die.

My Morning Jacket: Z

Even taking points off for the excessive reverb and the garbled imagery, this series of dashboard-pounding escape anthems and swirling, half-mystical entreaties (to a woman? to a God?) is the rock record of the year, by a long mile. It's the one to give to your crabby friends who maintain that everything of consequence in rock and roll was done by 1981.

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.independent.com/a&e/poprockjazz996.htm

Rewind 2005

by Josef Woodard

SONIC BAKER'S DOZEN: Normal, well-adjusted folks may find themselves sinking into, or at least submitting to, the sounds of the season and allowing the warm fuzzies to go to work. Others will go into hiding, either actual or symbolic, to wait out the holiday soundtrack.
And then there is the subspecies of music scribes (professional or otherwise), who find themselves perversely out of sync with the here-and-now
this time of year, instead plunging into mental rewind in search of getting a handle on the year that was. In effect, they become List-maniacs, checking their best-of list opinions twice and separating the naughty from the nice, or the other way around (depending on one's take on the potential virtues of naughtiness).
Forthwith follows the pretty-much-annual Baker's Dozen of albums worth noting and listening to, in both pop and jazz categories.

POP TARTS 'n' SMARTS: Of course, there's nothing like a moving live experience to fuel one's appreciation of good music, and some of the items on this list were clearly influenced by a close encounter of the concert kind, including Modest Mouse, My Morning Jacket, Queens of the Stone Age, and the remarkable soul woman Bettye LaVette.
Neil Young came back to earth after his masterful fiction detour, Greendale, with the quietly, assuredly powerful Prarie Wind. As fine a reflection on love and mortality as you'll find, it's further proof that Young belongs in an elite echelon of greats in pop history.
Sufjan Stevens is a fiendishly clever song-and-sound man who doesn't forget to pour heaping doses of musicality into his cheeky indie-pop brew. Norwegian singer/songwriter Hanne Hukkelberg's Little Things is pure quirky delight, a Nordic answer to Laura Veirs. This year's biggest socio-geographic tragedy, of course, was in the Crescent City, and Nonesuch's benefit compilation Our New Orleans pays due homage to the Katrina-damaged great American city.
The award for best pop hit/best use of a haunting melody basically deploying two notes goes to Modest Mouse for "The World at Large." Even though endless airplay threatened to kill it, the song refused to die, instead becoming an anthemic loop in our daily lives. And now, in order:

1) Neil Young, Prarie Wind (Reprise)
2) Sufjan Stevens, Illinois (Asthmatic Kitty)
3) My Morning Jacket, Z (ATO)
4) Hanne Hukkelberg, Little Things (Leaf)
5) Bettye LaVette, I've Got My Own Hell to Raise (Anti)
6)    Queens of the Stone Age, Lullabies to Paralyze (Interscope)
7) Our New Orleans (Nonesuch)

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.filter-mag.com/news/interior.2868.html

Filter's Top 10 of 2005 Day Fifteen: Jason Reece of ...Trail Of Dead
by Staff & Jason Reece | 12.21.2005

 Worlds Apart reminded us that good things can come out of Texas! And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead or ...Trail as we like to call 'em (we're tight... they were album #7 on our list!) have had quite the year. After non-stop touring the beginning of this year, the band decided to cool their heels a bit and let their mind blowing album speak for itself. Thankfully in the bliss of down time, Jason Reece gave us his top ten of this fine year.

Jason Reece of ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
1. ...And You Will Know us By The Trail of Dead, World's Apart
Jason: Because my band rules and shit

2. Paul Wall, The People's Champ
Jason: Southern bling takes you higher and
higher...a true player for real...H-town up in the motherfucker

3. My Morning Jacket, Z
Jason: I saw them at La Zona Rosa in Austin a week ago... the experience was so uplifting...and these dudes are from the South...it feels so warm to know the South has all the cool music...Ha!

4. Fiona Apple, Extraordinary Machine
Jason: I love the beauty and melancholy of this wrenching record...

5. The Ocean, Aeolian
Jason: I fell in love with this band while I was on tour in Germany this year...if you like heavy majestic breathtaking metal...then this is the real shit....it will blow your fucking brains out.

6. Esa-Pekka Solonen, Wing on Wing
Jason: A modern composer who will smite you with his power and intensity.

7. Shakira, Oral Fixation Vol. 1
Jason: Sexy ...Sexy...and oh so...so smart...what a weird singing voice! I love the way she moves.

8. Spoon, Gimme Fiction
Jason: Truly nice to the ears...these bitches are friends of mine...another example of how the South is kicking out the jams.

9. The Band, A Musical History
Jason: We watched The Last Waltz everyday while on tour...everyone should own at least one Band album.

10. Mike Jones, Who is Mike Jones?
Jason: Southern Screw Swisha House explosion kicking it hard on your headphones...Houston blows the fuck up...killing it....Texas style...It's true...everything down here is bigger.

[LaurieBlue]

http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Artists/M/My_Morning_Jacket/2005/12/22/1364687-ca.html

#1 Jam Music!

JAM!'s top 10 discs of 2005

By JOHN WILLIAMS
Senior Editor, JAM! Showbiz

Top 10: Jon Cook, JAM! contributor
Top 10: Mark Daniell, JAM! contributor

It's impossible to listen to every album that comes by our desk in the span of a year, but we did manage to come up with 10 musical efforts in 2005 that kept the iPod battery on low.

(Of course, lists like this are not a science, so please don't send us hate emails -- and please -- no wagering.)



1. MY MORNING JACKET
Z
(ATO/RCA)

This glorious fourth full-length disc from the Kentucky outfit blends the sonic smarts of Radiohead with a little down-home southern rock flavour.

The highlight of the 50-minute disc is Jim James's vocal range, which rivals vintage Elton John and Van Morrison.

ESSENTIAL TRACKS: "Off The Record," "Gideon," "Dondante."

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.filter-mag.com/news/interior.2874.html

Filter's Top 10 of 2005, Day Sixteen: Matt Tong of Bloc Party
by Staff & Matt Tong | 12.22.2005

 There has been no bigger year for Bloc Party than 2005. With their album Silent Alarm (and more recently, the remixed version) flying off shelves into the arms of anyone who's anyone (and we mean anyone) and tours selling out like mad, this year has been a Bloc Party bonanza. Celebrate.

Matt Tong of Bloc Party

1. Lightning Bolt – Hypermagic Mountain (Load)
2. My Morning Jacket – Z (ATO)
3. Dead Meadow – Feathers (Matador)
4. Arcade Fire – Funeral (Merge)
5. Black Mountain – Black Mountain (Jagjaguar)
6. Salty Butter – More Butter (?)
7. Fulcrum - A Tonne Of Feathers At The Dark Of Light (?)
8. Absentee – Donkeystock (Memphis)
9. Dream Warriors - Their Greatest Hits (?)
10. The Bruce Forsythe Band – You Bet! (?)

[corey]

PATTTERSON HOOD (of the Drive-By Truckers)- TOP TEN ALBUMS 2005

1. My Morning Jacket - Z  
Great band from Louisville KY rises to the occasion (and then some) with my favorite "released" album of the year.

2. Sufjan Stevens - Come On Feel The Illinoise
This one gets the prize for craziest idea, actually executed. Brilliant Northern Rock followup to his Michigan album, makes me look forward to the next 48.

3. The Dexateens - Red Dust Rising
My top 3 keep swapping places, but this one is easily my "most often played" album of the year. This one breaks no new ground, but the songs are incredible from the writing to the feel. "Devoted To Lonesome" is #2 in the nation if there was any justice in Rock.

4. Eddie Hinton - Beautiful Dreams (The Songwriting Sessions Volume 3)
This one is pt.3 of Zane Records incredible series of previously unreleased Hinton sides. This one took a little longer, but keeps growing daily. Hinton is THE great unknown soul singer and easily one of the finest writers and guitarists ever to make records. He's been dead over a decade but word is just now starting to spread. A buried treasure.

5. TIE: Don Chambers and GOAT - GOAT
Don is currently my favorite Athens artist and this album is non-stop fun. Another real grower.

5. TIE: Calexico and Iron and Wine - in The Reins
An addictive little tonic like a fire in a fireplace on a chilly night.

6. The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
Now that the backlash is setting in, they make possibly their finest album yet. Far better to me than the over-rated Elephant, they did the impossible of writing about the dark side of fame and made it all fun to listen to.

7. Common - Be
My favorite hip hop album (if it's even that) this year. Some really good songs and a far better than Kanye's over-hyped let down.

8. James McMurtry - Childish Things
Maybe the most under-rated songwriter out right now. He's finally made an album as good as the songs in it. "We Can't Make It Here" is as good as any classic Merle Haggard song and the title cut is the better than any Springsteen song of the last 17 years.

9. Bloodkin - Last Night Out
Another local act, not sure if this is even "officially" out, but deserves to be. This has some of the most disturbing songs I've ever heard, in that Big Star 3rd, Tonight's the Night kind of way, only it sounds like the Stones record they forgot how to make about 30 years ago. This one will probably move up my list as I keep listening to it.

10. John Hiatt - Master of Disaster
Have to confess here, my Dad plays bass on it, but no shit it's by far the best Hiatt album since 1988's Slow Turning.

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20051223/1066324.asp

While music downloads promote a solitary life, 2005 was a chance for album-oriented artists to shine

By JEFF MIERS
NEWS POP MUSIC CRITIC
12/23/2005  
  
This year was about redefining how and why we listen to music.  This is the reality we face in the age of the iPod and the era of digital downloading. The old modes of distribution are being questioned, which has happened in a cyclical fashion since the birth of the record industry, as the favored methods of dissemination moved from 45s to LPs, to cassettes, to CDs, and so forth. But more importantly, the very value of popular music - its utility, the essence of its use - came into sharp relief this year.

Everyone, it seems, has an iPod. Friends don't call friends to borrow an album anymore; they call to inquire regarding a suitable time to come over and, like an IV drug user, "hook up" to your iTunes and download whatever songs they require.

A quick fix. But what is the substance of what we're numbing out?

One needn't be an old hippy to lament the current lack of regard for "the album," as the downloading frenzy hints at a return to the era of the 45 RPM single. This isn't about being stuck in the past; it's about concern for the future of popular music as an art form. So, even though those who've fully embraced the iPod age will likely only be prepared to discuss their favorite songs of the year, the real story still concerns the most significant albums of the year, the full text these little snippets have been excerpted from. Which is the same as saying that the best artists this year knew the power of the single, but also knew the importance of context, of creating a fully developed canvas, upon which that instantly catchy song was just one of many colors.

The reason the full-length album remains the only truly significant mode of parlaying musical thought in pop can't be reduced to snippets of conventional wisdom, such as "Well, that's the way the Beatles and Pink Floyd did it" - although that's true enough. It really comes down to a lifestyle choice. Do you have enough time to sit down for an hour and immerse yourself in someone's musical statement? To turn off everything else, to tune out the distractions, and focus? And if not, why not?

A culture that can't concentrate for more than 15 minutes at a time produces soundbyte art. Check the radio, or MTV, or popular periodicals, and you'll find pretty much nothing else but. But as ever, the real revolution won't be televised, played on commercial radio, nor written about, until after the fact. And 2005 produced its fair share of revolutionary and near-revolutionary full-length albums.

Here are some of the best of them.

Album of the year: Kate Bush, "Aerial" (Columbia)

After 12 years, Bush releases a complete masterpiece. Spread across two discs, this record alone offers ample argument for the continued relevance of the album-as-art form. Bush is a true original, and she continues to create profound art that breaks ground compositionally as well as in terms of production, arrangement and subject matter. A deeply personal record that also manages to speak on a universal level.

Runner-up: Richard Hawley, "Cole's Corner" (Mute)

Sublime, sorrowful songwriting that's achingly sung and impeccably arranged.

Best of the rest:

3) Public Enemy, "New Whirl Odor" (SlamJamz).

Still the most important act in rap, and for my money, worth a busload of Kanye Wests. Chuck D, Flavor Flav and Professor Griff meld killer beats to stunning sound collages and incisive political and social commentary. This stuff is still gloriously dangerous, which can't be said about much modern hip-hop.

4) Robert Plant & the Strange Sensation, "Mighty Rearranger" (Sanctuary)

Plant and his stellar band make Zeppelin-worthy art here. Who else could blend the influence of Howlin' Wolf with that of Portishead? Thoroughly modern, yet deeply rooted.

5) Mercury Rev, "The Secret Migration" (V2)

Another in a long line of masterworks. Start to finish, a beautiful dream of a record.

6) Wilco, "Kicking Television" (Nonesuch)

Wilco's definitive lineup blends avant-garde music with roots idioms in front of a rabid Chicago audience. Unreal.

7) Sigur Ros, "Takk" (EMI)

Like "OK Computer" and "Dark Side of the Moon" viewed through a warped looking glass.

8) Bruce Springsteen, "Devils & Dust" (Columbia)

In 10 years, doubters will sing the praises of this stirring song cycle, a heart-rending paean to fallen man's search for redemption and meaning amongst chaos.

9) Common, "Be" (MCA)

Overshadowed by the hyperbolic praise heaped upon Kanye West, Common released a forward-looking stew of hip-hop, soul and R&B. The most compelling hip-hop record by a young artist this year, hands down.

10) My Morning Jacket, "Z" (Epic)

Less bizarre and dreamlike than previous efforts, "Z" found Jim James and MMJ adopting a more song-oriented approach without losing a single bit of the drama and grandeur.

Just missing the Top 10, but of definite merit:

Arcade Fire, "Funeral" (Rough Trade); Feist, "Let It Die" (Interscope); The Magic Numbers, "The Magic Numbers" (Capitol); Brian Eno, "Another Day on Earth" (Hannibal); Beck, "Guero" (DGC); Spoon, "Gimme Fiction" (Merge); Death Cab for Cutie, "Plans" (Atlantic); System of a Down, "Mezmerize" (American); Chris Whitley, "Soft Dangerous Shores" (Messenger); Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, "Howl" (RCA); The Mars Volta, "Frances the Mute" (Island); Ryan Adams, "Cold Roses" (Lost Highway); Fiona Apple, "Extraordinary Machine" (Columbia); Supergrass, "The Road to Rouen" (Parlophone).
 

[hmm]

Epic?

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2005/12/2310.cfm

Best Of 2005: Chart's Top 15 Records Of 2005
Friday December 23, 2005 @ 01:30 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff


Chart Magazine celebrated its 15th anniversary this past June and ChartAttack.com will turn 10 this spring with a brand new design and tons of new content. Surprisingly, in all that time, we've never compiled a staff and writers' Best Of list at the end of a year.

This year, we solicited all of our writers for top 10 lists, then added their picks to the staff picks to mathematically compile a Top 15. In the end, we used 36 top 10s (and one top five) to assemble the final list. We used a fairly simple method to do the math. A #1 pick was awarded 10 points, a #2 pick got nine points and so on and so forth (you can see the point totals at the bottom of the page). All of the picks had to be from 2005 and they had to be CDs, so if a writer or staff member chose, say a DVD or The Arcade Fire's record, those picks were deleted from their lists.

To read about the Canadian artists we saluted this year, or view the Top 100 Canadian Campus Radio Albums of 2005, check out our December issue here. Without further ado, here is the Chart staff and writers' Top 15 albums of 2005...

9. MY MORNING JACKET Z (RCA/Sony BMG)
Early in their career, My Morning Jacket riffed on standard alt.country arrangements, centred upon the prowess of Jim James, whose echoing falsetto haunts even the most brightly played guitar. Even their third studio album, It Still Moves, was a similar affair, mixing slow melodic ballads with more classic rock songs. As a follow-up, Z marks the simultaneous evolution of both the vocals and the music behind them into something unique and more polished. Taking more cues from Radiohead than Johnny Cash, MMJ expanded their repertoire to include styles ranging from classic rock and alt.country to space rock and dream pop. From the first melodic pumps of "Wordless Chorus," the album shows off its moody and dark face. But it slowly evolves, with a few bumps in between, into a quasi-jam band affair with "Off The Record." Bettering scores of artsy rock on the shelves, My Morning Jacket prove on Z that they can be inventive and tortured — plus, they can still light it up with good old-fashioned guitar riffs and a lap steel. Mike Armitage

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/25/arts/music/25sann.htm

NY Times - Can't quite tell if this is a top 10 of the year or not though.

7. MY MORNING JACKET, 'Z' (ATO/RCA). Finally, this Kentucky group creates the sprawling, digressive, rhythmically skewed, occasionally jam-band-ish, briefly reggae-fied, weirdly serene neo-Southern rock experiment fans didn't know they'd been waiting for.

[LaurieBlue]

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Dec/26/il/FP512260305.html

3. "Z" BY MY MORNING JACKET (ATO/RCA)

If Radiohead hailed from Louisville, Ky., and still deigned to include a whole lot of pre-"OK Computer" cosmos-traveling electric guitar in their songs, they might be mistaken for My Morning Jacket. That is, except for Jacket's occasional subtle sonic bow to folk and country roots rock, mild hip-hop and (yes, you really were feeling some) dub reggae. Guitarist/songwriter Jim James' dreamy tenor soars over and just above every impeccably crafted pop song on the band's fourth album. In a more perfect world, the infectiously jangly electrified, tinkling-piano sketched "What A Wonderful Man" would be all over rock radio and inspire the love of millions. Warm, strange, original and near flawless, "Z" is the work of a long-promising band finally achieving greatness.

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/reviews/2005-12-26-year-in-music_x.htm

USA TODAY's album of the year

(Not in the top 10, but...)


Honor roll

Common, Be

Jamie Cullum, Catching Tales

Eels, Blinking Lights and Other Revelations

50 Cent, The Massacre

David Gray, Life in Slow Motion

Kindred the Family Soul, In This Life Together

My Morning Jacket, Z

Brad Paisley, Time Well Wasted

Marty Stuart, Soul's Chapel and Badlands

White Stripes, Get Behind Me Satan

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/entertainment/13496435.htm

8) My Morning Jacket: "Z" (ATO/RCA Records) Ð This band's previous outing, "It Still Moves" had several sparkling tracks as My Morning Jacket fashioned a dreamy mix of echo-laden, rootsy folkish rock and pop. "Z" branches in bold new directions, while also taking the band's songwriting to new levels of consistency and accessibility.

[LaurieBlue]

Top three favorite albums this year

1. "Stoned," Lewis Taylor: The best album no one, including radio, heard about this year. Think Al Green, Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield. Now add Taylor's name to that list. This soulful singer-songwriter, a longtime underground favorite in England, deserves to be heard by as many R&B fans as possible. My favorite album of the year.

2. "Z," My Morning Jacket: This Kentucky-based band released an album that was not only a departure from its own alt-country sound, but also raised the bar for just about every other American rock band. MMJ's willingness to experiment makes it America's answer to Radiohead.

3. "Late Registration," Kanye West: I'm probably the only guy in America who was unimpressed by Kanye West's last CD, "The College Dropout." With "Late Registration," easily the best rap release of the year, he officially got my love.

http://www.charleston.net/stories/?newsID=60327&section=preview

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.freetimes.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2911

Cleveland Free Times

Aaron Mendelsohn

 
1. Franz Ferdinand, You Could Have It So Much Better (Epic) Much like the title suggests, this album is that much better than all the rest. With two excellent releases in as many years, these four Glaswegian lads are poised for world domination.  

2. Beck, Guero (Geffen) After ten years as the master of genre-blurring alternative rock, it'd be excusable for Beck to show signs of wear. Instead, he continues to reinvent himself with every album.

3. My Morning Jacket, Z (ATO) Reverb, falsettos, and flying V guitar solos. Jim James is challenging the boundary of experimental Americana rock, and that's a good thing.

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051229/GPG07/512290357/1273/GPGsports

Thomas Rozwadowski column: Best indie music in '05

Let's face it. From E!'s "Top 100 Celebrity Medical Mishaps" to VH1's "Awesomely Bad Rock 'n' Roll Catering Moments," we've become a culture fascinated by arbitrary lists. And while I can't possibly compete with C-list comedians making jokes about the same famous mugs, I can tell you what music made 2005 memorable for me.



Album of the year: The National, "Alligator" (Beggars Banquet). Like last year's list-topper, The Walkmen's "Bows + Arrows," it took several listens for "Alligator" to break through the cloud cover with its understated brilliance. The sheer ferocity of "Abel" is an immediate standout, but it's Matt Berninger's brooding vocals on "Karen," "Baby, We'll Be Fine," and the achingly beautiful "Daughters of the Soho Riots" that make this 2005's most haunting revelation.


Artist of the year: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Pitchfork media.com continued its role as the Pied Piper of indiedom by leading eager music fans to an unsigned Talking Heads-Television hybrid out of Brooklyn. With more than 40,000 copies sold — the majority self-released through the mail — CYHSY's meteoric rise eventually led to late-night TV gigs and "Hot List" blurbs in mainstream mags. Hype is relative, though. Listen to "Details of the War'' or "The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth'' and you'll know where the real credit lies.


Single of the year: "Shine a Light" by Wolf Parade. A throbbing bass line and crashing drums kick off "Shine a Light" before giving way to the kind of sweeping, sloppy chorus expected of producer/Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock. It's undeniably catchy without all the polish required of something that sells its soul for radio play. That's all a listener can really ask for in a four-minute song.

10 more great albums from '05

1. Bloc Party: "Silent Alarm" (Vice) —There are several knockout blows ("Helicopter" and "Banquet"), but it's the emotional directness of "This Modern Love" and "Blue Light" that transcend the limitations of simple dance-punk.


2. Spoon: "Gimme Fiction" (Merge) — Spoon is like the Paul Molitor of indie rock: consistently brilliant, occasionally dominant, but rarely the most sensational headline grabber. Before you know it, "Sister Jack" and "I Turn My Camera On" are touchstones for a remarkable career that few people took the time to appreciate.


3. Wolf Parade: "Apologies to the Queen Mary" (Sub Pop)


4. The New Pornographers: "Twin Cinema" (Matador)


5. Sleater-Kinney: "The Woods" (Sub Pop) — Not even die-hard Sleater-Kinney fans could have anticipated the bombastic nature of the beloved Portland trio's latest epic. "Entertain" and "Jumpers" are like having twin anvils dropped on your head.


6. The Clientele: "Strange Geometry" (Merge) — Calling it a modern-day "Forever Changes" would be blasphemy, but I'll do it anyway.


7. Maximo Park: "A Certain Trigger" (Warp)


8. My Morning Jacket: "Z" (Ato)


9. Art Brut: "Bang Bang Rock and Roll" (Fierce Panda) — The Brits have always been good at wit and bravado, so when lead singer Eddie Argos proclaims he's going to write the song that "makes Israel and Palestine get along," you know there's a Streets album and Liam Gallagher interview nearby.


10. Andrew Bird: "The Mysterious Production of Eggs" (Righteous Babe) — A collection of richly textured lullabies that should appeal to fans of Red House Painters and Badly Drawn Boy. Toss in glimpses of Rufus Wainwright and you have a breezy, enjoyable listen that never overwhelms, but often astounds.

Six for '06: If rumors and release dates are to be believed, here are six artists worth tracking down once the calendar turns: Arctic Monkeys, Editors, Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, Love is All, Neko Case, Wrens.

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.rep-am.com/story.php?id=752
Rock and roll bands still prove to be oldies but goodies in 2005

Thursday, December 29, 2005

By Alan Sculley


Copyright © 2005 Republican-American

The aging animal known as rock and roll was alive and kicking -- hard -- in 2005. At least on an artistic level, rock was one of the healthiest and most adventurous genres of music.

For proof, look no further than my picks for the top 10 CDs of 2005. Bona-fide rock acts claim nine of the 10 slots. Here are my picks for the best of the bunch.

1) System Of A Down: "Mezmerize" and "Hypnotize" (American/Columbia Records) -- System Of A Down aren't just today's best metal band, they're the first metal band since Pantera to genuinely expand the possibilities of what metal can be -- and do it in a way that appeals to a large audience. The band's secret? It's an uncanny ability to blend frenetic, careening rock, soaring melodies, a whacked out sense of humor and lyrical incisiveness all in one viscerally invigorating, highly entertaining package.

2) Bruce Springsteen: "Devils & Dust" (Columbia Records) -- "Devils & Dust" shows this talent remains undiminished as his characters grapple with desperate emotions (the title track) and hard-won second chances ("Long Time Coming"). Though billed as the successor to the austere acoustic "Nebraska" and "The Ghost Of Tom Joad" CDs, the songs on "Devils & Dust" generally feature some level of full-band instrumentation, which helps make "Devils & Dust" a musically stirring, lyrically moving work that stands with much of Springsteen's best work.

3) The Rolling Stones: "A Bigger Bang" (Virgin Records) -- "A Bigger Bang," shows there's still some spit and vinegar in these wily rockers. Stinging rockers like "Rough Justice," "It Won't Take Long" and "Driving Too Fast" rate with the band's best work, and throughout the CD, the Stones crackle and groove with a vigor that up to now seemed to have permanently moved beyond their grasp.


4) Sleater-Kinney: "The Woods" (Sub Pop Records) -- Already one of alternative rock's top bands, Sleater-Kinney hit a new peak with "The Woods." On the CD, the group takes their already spiky brand of hooky rock to noisier and more blustery levels -- usually with impressive results.

5) Franz Ferdinand: "You Could Have It So Much Better" (Epic Records) -- The Scottish rockers made a strong impression with their 2004 self-titled first CD. The buoyant dance-rock of the debut is back on terrific tracks like the hit single "Do You Want To" and "You're The Reason I'm Leaving," but songs like the spacious pop of "Walk Away" and the manic, vaguely trippy "Evil And A Heathen" suggest Franz Ferdinand have only begun to tap into some considerable potential.

6) Kanye West: "Late Registration" (Roc-A-Fella Records) -- West had a tough act to follow after debuting in 2004 with the outstanding CD, "The College Dropout." But "Late Registration" lives up to the standard set by that first CD, delivering a sequel that's lyrically smart and funny and musically clever and engaging.

7) Paul McCartney: "Chaos And Creation In The Backyard" (Capitol Records) -- With producer Nigel Godrich pushing him, along, Sir Paul has made his best post-Beatles CD. On "Chaos And Creation," he embraces his inner Beatle and delivers an intimate collection of gracefully melodic songs that recalls nothing so much as McCartney at his "White Album" best.

8) My Morning Jacket: "Z" (ATO/RCA Records) -- Of all the newer bands on a growth curve, My Morning Jacket may have made the biggest leap with "Z."

"Z" branches in some new directions (the infectious pop of "What A Wonderful Man" and the reggae inflected "Off The Record") while also taking the band's songwriting to new levels of consistency and accessibility.

9) Fiona Apple: "Extraordinary Machine" (Epic Records) -- Five years ago, Apple's promising career seemed to have crashed and burned when she cut short touring after a much publicized meltdown during a show at Roseland Ballroom in New York. It indeed took Apple time to get back on her feet, but "Extraordinary Machine" shows she didn't lose her touch.

10) Hot Hot Heat: "Elevator" (Sire Records) -- Two years ago, Hot Hot Heat were being hyped as the band that would bring genuinely danceable rock into the mainstream. The Killers and Franz Ferdinand ended up being the bands that connected. But at least on a musical level, Hot Hot Heat haven't disappointed at all. "Elevator" finds Hot Hot Heat moving slightly away from the dance-rock sound and going more for an energetic pop sound. "Pickin' It Up" and "Jingle Jangle" are among the killer (no pun intended) tunes that should have filled radio playlists this year.

Honorable mention: Foo Fighters: "In Your Honor"; John Hiatt: "Master Of Disaster"; Idlewild: "Warnings/Promises"; Bob Mould: "Body Of Song"; Nickel Creek: "Why Should The Fire Die?"; Graham Parker: "Songs Of No Consequence"; Robert Plant & Strange Sensation: "Mighty Rearranger"; Bonnie Raitt: "Souls Alike"; White Stripes: "Get Behind Me Satan"; Neil Young: "Prairie Wind"

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.westword.com/Issues/2005-12-29/music/music12.html

MUSIC
A Pack of Mutts
The Lone Wolves of 2005
By John Nova Lomax

Published: Thursday, December 29, 2005


As far as music goes, I am not a tribal person. I am not prodded by Pitchfork, nor narcotized by Relix, nor are my spirits lifted by No Depression. Not to say that those media sources are entirely flawed -- indeed, each has its virtues. But each of these influential outlets has an overweening aesthetic, each approaches a CD from a sort of preconceived ideal, and should a work stray from that imagined purity, it often suffers in their estimation. And those mongrels and strays are the very albums I love -- the ones that are too artsy and meandering for No Dep, too rootsy and plainspoken for Pitchfork and too concise for the hippies at Relix. Here's a list of ten of those records for all you other lone wolves out there.

1. My Morning Jacket, Z (ATO): Sure, the lyrics are stupid (burning kittens and babies in blenders, anyone?), and the pub-rock/Hawaii 5-0/carnival-in-hell middle stretch of the record sags a bit, but the seven majestic masterpieces that bookend Z more than make up for those shortcomings. It'll remind of you everything from the Celtic righteous-rock of bands such as U2 and the Waterboys ("Wordless Chorus" and "Gideon") to the fretboards afire/full-tilt keyboards attack of the Allmans ("Lay Low") to the narcodelic wooze of mid-period Floyd and early Radiohead. All that and occasional tinges of classical piano and soca and West African highlife guitars. Z is grandiose in the best possible way -- an album that'll turn the inside of your head into an ornate, vaulting cathedral.