Monday, June 9, 2008

Best Albums of 2005 w/ Commentary

The other night a came across this list on my computer and thought it might be worthy of a post, since, who doesn't like a good list, right? A list of my favourite albums compiled at the end of 2005, with commentary from .... say, around five minutes ago.

10. Jens Lekman Oh, You’re So Silent Jens
I remember hearing this album approximately 3 or 4 days before making this list, but it probably should be, at the very least a top 3 of 2005 - unless it doesn't count since its a compilation of previous work...



9. Asamov And Now…

Probably much higher (or included) because I was desperate for some hip-hop, and coming out of a big hip-hop phase. The album is pretty forgettable - there was one good single (I'm looking it up right now) "Boom Box" - but its a fairly standard 'remember when things were simple and we used to sit on the porch' song.

8. The Go! Team Thunder, Lightening, Strike

Was much more innovative three years ago, for my money Thunderheist is doing it better now than tG!T ever did.

7. Antony and the Johnsons I Am a Bird

The token (really, really) weird album on the list. I think the cover art says it all. I saw that Antony's new band Hercules and the Love Affair got a 9.1 on Pitchfork. My feeling is that if you put the women in the cover in an outfit from American Apparel and you'd get the pictoral version of the Hercules album ... as you might guess, I'm not a fan.

6. Stars Set Yourself on Fire

My favourite Stars album, definitely deserves to be higher, and likely the reason (in addition to being very bland) that the newest Stars album got panned by so many people.

5. Imogean Heap Speak for Yourself

I can't believe this is on here... I watched one too many episodes of the OC.

4. Atmosphere You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re Having

... nothing like an angry white man.

3. Common Be

My favourite Common album - in large part because of the production - I think Kanye is a genius. What I like best is that its short, my opinion is that most rap albums are 4-5 songs and 4-5 skits (no one wants to here your inside jokes) too long. This one has at least 5 outstanding tracks - 'Introduction', 'Corners', 'Chi City' 'Love Is' 'The Food' - with no songs that I have to skip over (see: 'Barry Bonds' from my Best Album of 2007). Until Kanye put 'Good Morning' on Graduation, 'Introduction' from this album was the intro to basically every hip-hop mixCD that I made over the last 3 years.
2. Broken Social Scene Broken Social Scene

Enough chaos to make Kevin Drew happy, but not enough to turn off, say, everyone.

1. Sufjan Stevens Illinois

Might be my favourite album of all time, but I probably don't have enough history with it to say that definitively. Right now, the Travelling Wilburys' Vol. 1, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Full Moon Fever, Hayden's Everything I Long For, and Nas' Illmatic probably rank ahead (today), but not my much. Its incredibly ambitious, and incredibly easy to listen to considering its about a single state. Suf's probably kicking himself for not dropping a Barack Obama reference on the CD though...

No comments: