2005: Listening
Dec. 29th, 2005 11:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coalescentEveryone else is doing it, so I figure I should as well: these are the songs that soundtracked my 2005. iTunes claim they have a running time of 1:19:59, so in theory they'll even fit on a single CD. Just about. Maybe.
01. Serenity - David Newman
In general I didn't care for David Newman's Serenity score as much as I did for Greg Edmonson's Firefly scores (of which a little more later), but for this track I make an exception. It's the reel that plays after the prologue is done, over our first glimpse of Serenity herself, camera circling around her as she falls into atmo, heat shield glowing. It's not long enough, but it makes it clear that yes, Firefly is back.
02. Winter in the Hamptons - Josh Rouse
Like a few others on the list, this isn't a 2005 track; the album it comes from, Nashville, came out in 2004. But it was February this year that Amazon mistakenly sent me a copy, and it's every month since then that I've listened to it at least once. I've since been back and gone through Josh Rouse's previous albums, but I think Nashville is the best: it has a directness and lack of showiness that works well. 'Winter in the Hamptons' is a crisp, jangly, poppy tune. Your feet will be tapping.
03. Black And White Town - Doves
It has to be said that Some Cities is not as good as The Last Broadcast. But then, ninety-five percent of the albums I own aren't as good as The Last Broadcast, so that's no particular shame, and it's not like Some Cities doesn't have selling points. Chief among them, as far as I'm concerned (and a definite high point when I finally saw the band live, back in March), is this echoey motown stomp.
04. We Used To Be Friends - The Dandy Warhols
Predictable? Of course. 'We Used to be Friends' is the theme tune of my tv discovery of the year, Veronica Mars--if you haven't checked it out yet, what on earth is your excuse?--and would therefore be indelibly associated with the year in my mind no matter what. Thankfully it's also one of The Dandy Warhols' best songs.
05. I Need Some Fine Wine and You, You Need to be Nicer - The Cardigans
At the very least, this has to be in contention for best song title of the year. It was a fine single, too, all growly guitars and snarly Nina Persson. Sadly, the following album, Super Extra Gravity, didn't maintain the quality throughout; like 2003's excellent Long Gone Before Daybreak, the overall vibe is alt.country, but it's a rougher, less reflective album, and the poorer for it.
06. Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt - We Are Scientists
Best indie-rock-dance-disco-thing tune of the year, brought to my attention by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
brassyn. Next!
07. Love Steals Us From Loneliness - Idlewild
Like 'I Need Some Fine Wine', 'Love Steals Us From Loneliness'--"my anger is a form of madness/so I'd rather have hope than sadness"--is a good single from a disappointing album. There were still flashes of energy and melody, but they were hard to find in the wash of mid-tempo and middling-quality tracks. Here's hoping the band can rediscover a bit of passion before their next album.
08. Darla's Sacrifice - Rob Kral
2005 was the year that an Angel soundtrack CD was finally released. This made me a very happy bunny, since I am a score music nerd, and Rob Kral's work always impressed me. Disappointingly, the CD didn't include what is perhaps my favourite score--from the second-season episode 'Are You Now or Have You Ever Been'--but there are plenty of other goodies to enjoy. Such as this, from the last act of 'Lullaby', notable because it's an act with almost no dialogue: it's left to the images and the music to carry the story. Like the show itself, it's a piece of music that treads a fine line between melodrama and moments of genuine emotion; the thundering clamour of Holtz's walk through Caritas is almost gleefully OTT. But every time, when the piano comes in for the last minute or so, it kills me again.
09. Better Together - Jack Johnson
And now for something completely different. In fact, it would be hard to get more laid-back than 'Better Together', which made it the perfect soundtrack to my holiday in Italy at the end of June. I can close my eyes and be back in a hammock in the hills north of Lucca. I think I havemajuran to thank for bringing it on the trip, so--thanks!
10. Landed - Ben Folds
Songs for Silverman was a step forward from Rockin' the Suburbs. Even if it did include an inexplicably popped-up version of 'Give Judy My Notice', a trio of great tracks--this one, 'Jesusland', and Elliott Smith tribute 'Late'--more than made up for any deficiencies. And dammit, it's still just good to hear a piano played like that.
11. Red Moon - Turin Brakes
I cannot explain why I like Turin Brakes. By all rights, I should find the vocals annoyingly nasal, and the lyrics verge on the banal ("if you try/you'll be alright"). And yet, and yet ... every time they release an album I find myself listening to it obsessively for at least a month. Maybe there are subliminal messages I'm subconsciously trying to decode. Anyway: 'Red Moon' is the best and liveliest track from this year's effort, Jackinthebox.
12. Camera - Editors
I saw Editors play to a packed barn at Truck festival, before I'd heard of them or about them in any way. Live, they were more Stills-meet-early-Idlewild than the Interpol-lite they can seem on record. In the absence of a genuine Interpol record, mind, The Back Room is a more than satisfactory substitute. This track, for some reason, reminds me of wandering around London on a wintry day.
13. Undercover - Gemma Hayes
If I was listing my favourite albums of the year, The Roads Don't Love You would be right up there. It's a bit less country-folk than Night On My Side, and there's only really one track, 'Easy on the Eye', that recaptures the acoustic charm of Hayes' early EPs. But the more complex arrangements on tracks like 'Keep Me Here', 'Nothing Can' and 'Tomorrow' work well, and the album as a whole, though it took a while to get under my skin, is just lovely.
14. You Never Left My Side - KTB
The problem with enthusing about KTB to anyone who didn't already know about her used to be that I had nothing I could play them. The songs on All Calm In Dreamland are fine, but the recording is distinctly naff (perils of a small label, I guess), and it really doesn't do justice to her voice. This year's album, Bluebird, is a partial fix, with a much greater sense of personality coming across. It helps that the songs are better, too; Kathryn-Williams-like simplicity, but an emotional directness that doesn't become saccharine. Well, most of the time. 'You Never Left My Side' is one of the highlights of a very good record.
15. Elizabeth, You Were Born to Play That Part - Ryan Adams
Yes, my favourite Ryan Adams track of the year--and let's face it, with two single albums and one double album, that's not a small pool to beat--is a quiet, angsty ballad. Are we surprised? No, not really.
16. The Funeral - Greg Edmonson
I'm not sure whether the mp3s of the Firefly soundtrack were available last year, but it was only a few months ago that I finally got my hands on them. The mix of styles is still wonderful. This is from the end of 'The Message' (another ending that relies more on images and music than on action), and if you aren't moved by it you must have a heart of stone. Either that, or for some inexplicable reason you haven't seen the episode in question.
17. Vampire Heart - Tom McRae
It seems to have been a year for disappointing albums with great individual tracks: The Cardigans, Idlewild, and now Tom McRae. All Maps Welcome starts strongly, but fizzles out frustratingly at the two-thirds mark. Before it does, though, we get this minor masterpiece. There's just a hint of self-parody at times ("If it don't end in bloodshed, dear/it's probably not love"), but all is forgiven for the high violin note at 1:32. I'm such a pushover.
18. Great Expectations - Elbow
I'm not sure whether my favourite album of the year is Elbow's Leaders of the Free World or Eels' Blinking Lights and Other Revelations (see below), but I do know that 'Great Expectations' is my favourite single song of the year, and runs 'Red' close as my favourite Elbow track. It's just perfect: lilting waltz time, slow ripples of acoustic guitar, shuffling drums and a clear piano line running through the middle. And over it all, of course, Guy Garvey's aching vocals.brassyn take note: if this ever shows up on my last.fm page with 229 listens in one week, it will be because I actually did listen to it 229 times in one week.
19. Rebellion (Lies) - The Arcade Fire
Everyone else loves the Arcade Fire, and so do I. I've probably loved each individual track on Funeral the most at some point or other over the last four months; right now, the organised chaos of 'Rebellion (Lies)' takes the cake.
20. Things The Grandchildren Should Know - Eels
I don't think, before now, there has been an Eels album I could genuinely say I loved. A lot of Daisies of the Galaxy is wonderful, but some of it isn't; similarly with Beautiful Freak, and Electro-Shock Blues has always been a bit too dour for me to get properly into. But Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, both baggy discs of it, I love. Of course it's patchy; any album this big would be. But the sprawl of it is a large part of the charm, since it takes in a wide range of styles and subjects, and it's so big that you just keep on finding moments of unexpected beauty long after other albums have been exhausted. And how do you end an album like that? With a song like this, a song of surprising warmth and apparent sincerity.
Now, if I could just find the option to export iTunes playlists, I'd be happy. I'm sure I've done it before.
01. Serenity - David Newman
In general I didn't care for David Newman's Serenity score as much as I did for Greg Edmonson's Firefly scores (of which a little more later), but for this track I make an exception. It's the reel that plays after the prologue is done, over our first glimpse of Serenity herself, camera circling around her as she falls into atmo, heat shield glowing. It's not long enough, but it makes it clear that yes, Firefly is back.
02. Winter in the Hamptons - Josh Rouse
Like a few others on the list, this isn't a 2005 track; the album it comes from, Nashville, came out in 2004. But it was February this year that Amazon mistakenly sent me a copy, and it's every month since then that I've listened to it at least once. I've since been back and gone through Josh Rouse's previous albums, but I think Nashville is the best: it has a directness and lack of showiness that works well. 'Winter in the Hamptons' is a crisp, jangly, poppy tune. Your feet will be tapping.
03. Black And White Town - Doves
It has to be said that Some Cities is not as good as The Last Broadcast. But then, ninety-five percent of the albums I own aren't as good as The Last Broadcast, so that's no particular shame, and it's not like Some Cities doesn't have selling points. Chief among them, as far as I'm concerned (and a definite high point when I finally saw the band live, back in March), is this echoey motown stomp.
04. We Used To Be Friends - The Dandy Warhols
Predictable? Of course. 'We Used to be Friends' is the theme tune of my tv discovery of the year, Veronica Mars--if you haven't checked it out yet, what on earth is your excuse?--and would therefore be indelibly associated with the year in my mind no matter what. Thankfully it's also one of The Dandy Warhols' best songs.
05. I Need Some Fine Wine and You, You Need to be Nicer - The Cardigans
At the very least, this has to be in contention for best song title of the year. It was a fine single, too, all growly guitars and snarly Nina Persson. Sadly, the following album, Super Extra Gravity, didn't maintain the quality throughout; like 2003's excellent Long Gone Before Daybreak, the overall vibe is alt.country, but it's a rougher, less reflective album, and the poorer for it.
06. Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt - We Are Scientists
Best indie-rock-dance-disco-thing tune of the year, brought to my attention by
brassyn. Next!07. Love Steals Us From Loneliness - Idlewild
Like 'I Need Some Fine Wine', 'Love Steals Us From Loneliness'--"my anger is a form of madness/so I'd rather have hope than sadness"--is a good single from a disappointing album. There were still flashes of energy and melody, but they were hard to find in the wash of mid-tempo and middling-quality tracks. Here's hoping the band can rediscover a bit of passion before their next album.
08. Darla's Sacrifice - Rob Kral
2005 was the year that an Angel soundtrack CD was finally released. This made me a very happy bunny, since I am a score music nerd, and Rob Kral's work always impressed me. Disappointingly, the CD didn't include what is perhaps my favourite score--from the second-season episode 'Are You Now or Have You Ever Been'--but there are plenty of other goodies to enjoy. Such as this, from the last act of 'Lullaby', notable because it's an act with almost no dialogue: it's left to the images and the music to carry the story. Like the show itself, it's a piece of music that treads a fine line between melodrama and moments of genuine emotion; the thundering clamour of Holtz's walk through Caritas is almost gleefully OTT. But every time, when the piano comes in for the last minute or so, it kills me again.
09. Better Together - Jack Johnson
And now for something completely different. In fact, it would be hard to get more laid-back than 'Better Together', which made it the perfect soundtrack to my holiday in Italy at the end of June. I can close my eyes and be back in a hammock in the hills north of Lucca. I think I have
majuran to thank for bringing it on the trip, so--thanks!10. Landed - Ben Folds
Songs for Silverman was a step forward from Rockin' the Suburbs. Even if it did include an inexplicably popped-up version of 'Give Judy My Notice', a trio of great tracks--this one, 'Jesusland', and Elliott Smith tribute 'Late'--more than made up for any deficiencies. And dammit, it's still just good to hear a piano played like that.
11. Red Moon - Turin Brakes
I cannot explain why I like Turin Brakes. By all rights, I should find the vocals annoyingly nasal, and the lyrics verge on the banal ("if you try/you'll be alright"). And yet, and yet ... every time they release an album I find myself listening to it obsessively for at least a month. Maybe there are subliminal messages I'm subconsciously trying to decode. Anyway: 'Red Moon' is the best and liveliest track from this year's effort, Jackinthebox.
12. Camera - Editors
I saw Editors play to a packed barn at Truck festival, before I'd heard of them or about them in any way. Live, they were more Stills-meet-early-Idlewild than the Interpol-lite they can seem on record. In the absence of a genuine Interpol record, mind, The Back Room is a more than satisfactory substitute. This track, for some reason, reminds me of wandering around London on a wintry day.
13. Undercover - Gemma Hayes
If I was listing my favourite albums of the year, The Roads Don't Love You would be right up there. It's a bit less country-folk than Night On My Side, and there's only really one track, 'Easy on the Eye', that recaptures the acoustic charm of Hayes' early EPs. But the more complex arrangements on tracks like 'Keep Me Here', 'Nothing Can' and 'Tomorrow' work well, and the album as a whole, though it took a while to get under my skin, is just lovely.
14. You Never Left My Side - KTB
The problem with enthusing about KTB to anyone who didn't already know about her used to be that I had nothing I could play them. The songs on All Calm In Dreamland are fine, but the recording is distinctly naff (perils of a small label, I guess), and it really doesn't do justice to her voice. This year's album, Bluebird, is a partial fix, with a much greater sense of personality coming across. It helps that the songs are better, too; Kathryn-Williams-like simplicity, but an emotional directness that doesn't become saccharine. Well, most of the time. 'You Never Left My Side' is one of the highlights of a very good record.
15. Elizabeth, You Were Born to Play That Part - Ryan Adams
Yes, my favourite Ryan Adams track of the year--and let's face it, with two single albums and one double album, that's not a small pool to beat--is a quiet, angsty ballad. Are we surprised? No, not really.
16. The Funeral - Greg Edmonson
I'm not sure whether the mp3s of the Firefly soundtrack were available last year, but it was only a few months ago that I finally got my hands on them. The mix of styles is still wonderful. This is from the end of 'The Message' (another ending that relies more on images and music than on action), and if you aren't moved by it you must have a heart of stone. Either that, or for some inexplicable reason you haven't seen the episode in question.
17. Vampire Heart - Tom McRae
It seems to have been a year for disappointing albums with great individual tracks: The Cardigans, Idlewild, and now Tom McRae. All Maps Welcome starts strongly, but fizzles out frustratingly at the two-thirds mark. Before it does, though, we get this minor masterpiece. There's just a hint of self-parody at times ("If it don't end in bloodshed, dear/it's probably not love"), but all is forgiven for the high violin note at 1:32. I'm such a pushover.
18. Great Expectations - Elbow
I'm not sure whether my favourite album of the year is Elbow's Leaders of the Free World or Eels' Blinking Lights and Other Revelations (see below), but I do know that 'Great Expectations' is my favourite single song of the year, and runs 'Red' close as my favourite Elbow track. It's just perfect: lilting waltz time, slow ripples of acoustic guitar, shuffling drums and a clear piano line running through the middle. And over it all, of course, Guy Garvey's aching vocals.
brassyn take note: if this ever shows up on my last.fm page with 229 listens in one week, it will be because I actually did listen to it 229 times in one week.19. Rebellion (Lies) - The Arcade Fire
Everyone else loves the Arcade Fire, and so do I. I've probably loved each individual track on Funeral the most at some point or other over the last four months; right now, the organised chaos of 'Rebellion (Lies)' takes the cake.
20. Things The Grandchildren Should Know - Eels
I don't think, before now, there has been an Eels album I could genuinely say I loved. A lot of Daisies of the Galaxy is wonderful, but some of it isn't; similarly with Beautiful Freak, and Electro-Shock Blues has always been a bit too dour for me to get properly into. But Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, both baggy discs of it, I love. Of course it's patchy; any album this big would be. But the sprawl of it is a large part of the charm, since it takes in a wide range of styles and subjects, and it's so big that you just keep on finding moments of unexpected beauty long after other albums have been exhausted. And how do you end an album like that? With a song like this, a song of surprising warmth and apparent sincerity.
Now, if I could just find the option to export iTunes playlists, I'd be happy. I'm sure I've done it before.
