2005

                Quite a bit going on this year, though a lot of it feels like wheel-spinning.  Across genres, a theme this year seems to be artists repeating themselves with diminishing returns.  There are examples in hip-hop, and in rock in both the US and UK.  Not that it’s all to the bad, of course; there are some great albums, esp. on the frontiers of rock and more danceable styles.  Still, though, a year where a lot of acts seem to be either mired in the past or straining to figure out a way to move forward.

                I suppose I’ll start in hip-hop.  First of all, to my surprise, I don’t hate Kanye West’s second album.  That may be because I haven’t actually listened to it all in one sitting, but when he’s partying, he’s ok (if not great), with decent beats, even if he still can’t rap his way out of  a wet paper bag, and when he’s mourning, that’s at least better than his whining last album.  Also, “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” is pretty catchy, even if it reminds me a lot of U2 circa Zooropa.  Though I think the remix version accidentally becomes a pro-blood diamond song, as Kanye raps on the first verse about how he feels a little guilty that his beloved Roc-A-Fella necklace might have blood diamonds, then decides it’s more important that diamonds make him feel good (then Jay-Z raps about how that’s a good decision, because, well, that’s what Jay-Z does).  I dunno; I don’t listen to much mainstream hip-hop from this century, so maybe West really is the best the mainstream has to offer.  Certainly he’s better than the likes of Lil Wayne (who has a mixtape this year).

                But the underground a bit better, mostly due to Dangermouse.  Last year saw the debut of Dangermouse and a big jump in MF Doom’s profile (esp. courtesy of Madvillain), so this year they team up for what’s probably the unlikely best hip-hop album of the year, the Adult Swim-homage The Mouse & the Mask.  Given Doom’s predilection for sci-fi and geek-culture references, it’s a good fit, but Dangermouse’s sonic template also fits Doom very well.  It’s a bit less outré than Madlib or Doom’s own productions, though in the same general wheelhouse.  If nothing else, it’s proof that Danger is more than a novelty act.  Also proving this (and showcasing a sonic debt to Automator by stepping into his shoes) is Danger’s work on the new Gorillaz album, which isn’t strictly hip-hop, but probably better at being hip-hop than a lot out there this year.

                Elsewhere, the underground isn’t quite all it could be.  Blackalicious’s third album changes their sound up slightly, chiefly by getting a live band to play soul-funk rather than relying on samples, but is generally less exciting than either of their first two (admittedly masterful) albums, or last year’s Maroons.  “Powers” is probably worth noting as an obvious attempt to get them their own, “Hey Ya”-style rock crossover hit.  Otherwise, the Perceptionists embody a lot of how I feel about a lot of hip-hop this year:  I like their sound, but it feels a little like indie hip-hop by the numbers.  The Roots only putting out some random ephemera doesn’t help either.

                The most exciting (if not best) rapping out there this year might be from the UK, where the Run the Road comp shows off the mightily hyped (inevitably, being from the UK) “grime” scene, the explosion of a British take on rapping.  It has very little to do with either American hip-hop or British pop, sounding basically like Jamaican-style toasting over grungy, industrial beats.  Although the Streets appear here, it shows that they/he were more a gateway to a much more radically different scene.  Funkless, but then perhaps massively influential, as within a few years funk will also be gone from mainstream US hip-hop, replaced by shiny Eurodisco beats (as opposed to the harsher industrial beats here).

                Within the electronic dance scene more generally, there’s a shift toward grungier, rockier sounds.  The Chemical Brothers have a stadium-anthem for the ages (evidently) in “Galvanize,” while Daft Punk set out to play up the “punk” part of their name.  In what almost sounds like an attempt to approximate the sound of the dance-punks, Daft Punk replace their previous meticulous approach with a record quick-&-dirty approach, trying (I suspect) to capture the spontaneity of live rock in an electronica format.  Some tracks really work, some sound like retreats (the “Harder Better Faster Stronger” soundalike “Technologic”), but a lot mostly sound unfinished. 

                LCD Soundsystem sound like they’re trying to capture a similar rock-energy-in-dance-music approach on their excellent debut, but succeed where Daft Punk stumble.  A lot of this recalls a lot of the past (especially the Fall and New Order, but also dance/disco acts I can’t name and (surprisingly) the Beatles), but it’s all carried with a through-line of excellent arrangements and real intensity.  Easily the peak of dance-punk to date.  Also good is Out Hud’s second album, which sounds a lot more contemporary than most of the dance-punk scene, and also a lot more like !!! (with whom they share membership) than their debut (which is to say, both more like contemporary dance and with more rock attitude).  Of course, apart from Out Hud/!!!, the rest of dance-punk is, as I said, pretty dire.  Perhaps the most obvious cash-in is Supersystem, who actually were a bog-standard indie-rock group of some long standing before grafting on beats. 

                Not that the hipster indie kids weren’t supremely proud of themselves for (re-)discovering danceable beats, overlooking the fact that rock & dance beats go back quite a ways, the twee/metal interregnum notwithstanding.  So it’s appropriate that ome of the beat-oriented alt-rockers return this year.  Nine Inch Nails probably have the most in common with the dance-punks, coming out of the industrial scene as they do, so they also sound quite appropriate only slightly updating their sound this year.  Actually, if you were to tell me that they were a new dance-punk act, I’d definitely believe you (and place them in the upper echelon of the genre). 

                Of course, a lot of the later beat-based alt stuff owed more to hip-hop, esp. Beck.  This year he returns to a version of the collage-funk sound of Odelay and Midnite Vultures, which is a better fit for him than dour singer-songwriter stuff, though he’s more interested in collage-jams based on rock rhythms than hip-hop ones.  It makes Guero more than just a retread, even if my favorite tracks are the ones that still lean the most on the more funky boom-bap of hip-hop.  Beck also suffers by having one of his disciples show him up, as Gorillaz clearly owe a lot to the sonic template he developed.  Unlike Beck’s Guero, Demon Days owes a lot to hip-hop (and even has the likes of MF Doom and De La Soul guest), but also to Madchester (from which Shaun Ryder guests, on the dance-punk-recalling “DARE”).  Also fitting in this pan-global beat-pop style (which hasn’t had a new act in awhile) are Balkan Beat Box, a fantastic Slavic-Israeli-hip-hop conglomerate.  Not too far from Gogol Bordello’s gypsy-punk, but more collage-based and hip-hop-driven.

                Another veteran of that turn-of-the-century collage-pop style are the Super Furry Animals, who have dropped the country out of their sound after a one-off experiment, but doubled down on the hazy psychedelia and prog.  Love Kraft is probably their least accessible album, as each song is a layered mini-suite, but highly enjoyable, esp. on a hazy summer day.  Like if Be Here Now has worked…  Also returning from the Britpop side of things (and also Super) are Supergrass, who show a bit more ambition (and Zeppelin influence) than on their earlier stuff; a bit less hyper, but also willing to press their sound forward.

                In that they stand in opposition to a lot of what’s happening in British rock, where traditionalism dominates.  Oasis’s Don’t Believe The Truth is easily the best of their “craftsman” records, where they lack the energy of the first three, but make up for it with Noel’s keen ear for melody.  It also includes two of their finest pieces of naked hero-worship, in the Kinks-y “Part of the Queue” and White Album-y “The Importance of Being Idle.”  The later is worth noting also for bettering LCD Soundsystem at the White Album pastiche game this year, as the latter’s “Never As Tired As When I’m Waking Up” suffers from being an obvious “Dear Prudence" rip.  Also in the UK we get Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, who, like Kasabian, really want to be Primal Scream, but unlike Kasabian, want to be Primal Scream circa Give Out But Don't Give Up, at their most Stonesy/rootsy.  Similarly trad/roots-focused are Gomez, who used to be more boundary-pushing, but on this year's double-live play up their more stripped, jammy sound.  Also, this year I'm really noticing the resemblance of one of their vocalists to Liam Gallagher.  At least circa 2005, Oasis have clearly won the battle for Brit-pop over the more wry and experimental Blur/Pulp school.

Over in the US, Wilco, like Gomez, play down their experimental/electronic side and play up their roots-rock side on a double-live album.  Apart from "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" and old song "Misunderstood," even the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost is Born tracks are restructured as straightforward roots-rock.  At the time, you could say it was a function of the live setting, but it also foreshadows a retreat to more trad sounds going forward in the studio too.  So it's fitting, I suppose, that this is the year that My Morning Jacket step up to be the new Wilco, fusing their previous roots-rock sound with a more expansive approach, incorporating synthetic sounds and decidedly un-roots sounds.  Considerably more downtempo and (deliberately) murky-sounding than Wilco, though.

More up-tempo in roots rock are the White Stripes, who repeat the country-art-blues approach of Elephant.  They're far beyond the already-vanished neo-garage scene they came up in, and "Blue Orchid" suggests that guesting with fellow Detroiters the Electric Six rubbed off on Jack White.  But between Get Behind Me Satan's diminished returns and Rubber Factory last year, this is the moment that the Black Keys surpass the White Stripes as the best rust-belt blurs-rock duo, a category I didn't even consider until these two groups emerged.

Otherwise in American rock, the pattern of bands repeating themselves with diminishing returns continues.  The Queens of the Stone Age, while appreciated as one of the few straight hard rock bands active this year, definitely are not breaking any new ground.  Similarly, former QotSA drummer Dave Grohl & the Foo Fighters continue to ply their consistent formula of Sugar-derived alt-pop-rock.  They’re among the only purveyors of this style left, but it’s starting to sound like a bit of a straitjacket.  Fortunately, Grohl & co. are canny enough to see the dangers of repetition, and shake up their sound with a second disc of all acoustic material.  This is to the good, if not as remarkable as Nirvana's acoustic moves, nor as daring or revealing, sounding not too different from their electric material, but quieter.  Still, it’s better than Weezer, who have degenerated into a chart-hit-desperate caricature of their former selves.  The basic guitar-pop remains, but the hooks are cheesier and the quirk definitely feels market-tested.

                Decidedly less market-tested are the Mars Volta, formed in part from members of the progressive-hardcore At The Drive-In.  I suppose it was inevitable that someone would turn Refused-style progressive-hardcore into full-bore progressive rock, but it’s still a bit of a shock to hear just how much the Mars Volta sound like a somewhat more aggressive version of early King Crimson/ELP prog.  It appears that last year’s classic prog resurgence wasn’t just a one-off.  Still, the Mars Volta lack the inventiveness of classic Crimson, and definitely lack the melodic sense of Yes.

                The Decemberists last year were also part of the mini-prog-resurgence, but this year they’re back to a more English-folk-inflected folk-pop sound.  Even their long epic this year owes more to Fairport Convention’s extended pieces than Jethro Tull’s, though with inferior singing & playing, and an arch theatrical sense that still sounds somewhere between Ian Anderson’s and Morrisey’s.  Overall, they’re not too far from the Shins, if the Shins had an actual folk influence (as opposed to folk-rock). 

                The New Pornographers also formerly sounded like the Shins, but are moving out of folk-rock sounds and into somewhat more synthy and less immediate sounds.  This helps them avoid the repetition trap that snares a lot of others, but while the tight harmonies and hooks remain, it also pushes them away from their signal strengths, esp. the sugar-rush energy (though since they’re not to be conflated with mainstream pop, call it the organic sugar-in-the-raw rush).

                On the other hand,  Spoon don’t change their sound at all, and come up with probably the best rock album of the year, discounting rock-hybrids like LCD Soundsystem and Gorillaz.  Though actually, Gimme Fiction is just about on their level, with slight demerits for not being a significant change in sound; such are the perils of consistency, I guess.  Spoon do, of course, foreground the beat more than a lot of the non-hyphenated rock bands, and even recall Soul Coughing a touch this year, but remain resolutely on the rock side.  The result is a band that sounds both classic and of their time. 

Elsewhere in indie rock, there’s a new single from the Arcade Fire (much in the same vein as Funeral), and some convincing evidence that overhyped “saviors of rock/next big things” aren’t only a UK phenomenon.  Much like their British equivalents in hype (Suede, the Stone Roses, etc.), the likes of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Wolf Parade are pretty good, but nothing close to the earth-shattering bands the American indie-sphere made them out to be.  Wolf Parade, especially, is fun in a sub-Modest Mouse kind of way, but do nothing to step out of the shadow of their idols (and, not coincidentally, their producer, Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock).  Actually living up to the hype, though, are the Hold Steady, who charge out of Minneapolis fusing the sound of their hometown’s best band (the Replacements and Hüsker Dü) with the street-level gritty romanticism & storytelling of early Springsteen.  The hipster rediscovery of Springsteen pretty much starts here.

The man himself, meanwhile, continues to look back to his classic sounds, this time to the stripped acoustic darkness of Nebraska (and The Ghost of Tom Joad, suggesting that Springsteen’s return to classic form actually started in the 90s, but no one noticed).  Neil Young is also looking backward, and exploring a relatively spartan acoustic sound, though since Prairie Wind is a veritable twin to Silver & Gold, the mood is more nostalgic than Springsteen’s bleaker tone.  Willie Nelson, at least, is a bit more adventurous (if less successful), with his simultaneously bizarre and inevitable reggae record.  The results are pretty much what you’d expect, with a mellow, less than credible groove that actually recalls a less doofy/less jokey Jimmy Buffet (who did, after all, get his start as a country singer).

The newer singer-songwriters, meanwhile, split pretty cleanly between the traditionalists and the innovators.  Among the traditionalists, Jack Johnson was the biggest deal commercially, and like Nelson, rides a mellow, tropical-feeling acoustic country kind of groove.  I personally find this kind of stuff entirely pleasant while it’s playing, but seldom reach for it, so your mileage may vary.  Personally, I like my mellow folky summer jams to be more of the Grateful Dead variety, so I apparently have that much in common with Ryan Adams, who borrows Jerry Garcia’s piercing steel guitar tone and the stripped country-folk sound of Workingman’s Dead on what amounts to a comeback record.  Despite it being only a few years removed from his early solo acclaim, apparently a lot of people hated the genre-experimenting records in between.  Having not heard them, I remain agnostic, but this year’s Cold Roses is the closest thing to true alt-country we get this year, so I’m down with it.  Adams’ other record this year, on the other hand, is neither alt-country nor country-rock, but a tribute to the vintage Bakersfield sound.  Elvis Country it’s not, but it’s a fun, if minor, bit of pastiche.

Straddling the boundary of the more traditional and the more adventurous is Bright Eyes, with one album continuing in the same post-Dylan vein of Lifted and another gussying up Oberst’s sound with mild electronica, Postal Service-style.  The latter I haven’t heard much of, but doesn’t particularly blow me away, sounding a bit too safe a way to experiment.  On the other hand, I grow fonder of Bright Eyes’ classic sound; listening a song at a time rather than an album at a time I think makes the virtues more apparent and the flaws less distracting.  Also surprisingly right on the boundary is Mike Doughty, formerly of Soul Coughing, who abandons his former band’s beat-driven experimentation for a much  more straightforward sound.  He’s still a bit quirky rhythmically and vocally, but it’s decidedly less exciting than his old band.

So the most exciting stuff in the singer-songwriter world comes from a pair of records that, each in their own low-key kind of way, are willing to play around with surprisingly sophisticated and at times unconventional arrangements.  The Eels have long worked this territory, but their double album this year might just be their best, with the sprawl working to their advantage, conveying a range of moods from Elvis Costello-style New Wave to garage rock send-ups to the Elliott Smith-style balladry that’s E’s real strength.  No breakout single á la “Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues,” but the state of the mainstream may be too far gone for such a thing to happen anyway.  However, very much in the same style as the Eels and making waves in the indie world is Sufjan Stevens, an artist who I’ve previously largely overlooked, but who packs a fantastic amount of complexity into his arrangements, just not in a flashy kind of way.  It’s not exactly new (as I said, there’s a big debt to the Eels especially), but it’s very good.  I’ll probably need to pick up more of his stuff, esp. since I’ve been on the fence about his mammoth Christmas box set for quite a while now…

Song of the Year:  Dangerdoom feat. Talib Kweli – “Old School”  The melding of Talib Kweli’s masterful flow and Doom’s anti-flow is a fantastic study in equally appropriate approaches to great rapping, all laid over a catchy-as-hell sub-Jackson Five bubblegum-soul groove.  It doesn’t sound anything like the rest of the album, but is fantastic in its own grimy-technicolor way.

Album of the Year:  Gorillaz - Demon Days, then LCD Soundsystem.  It would be a toss-up, except that LCD Soundsystem will get better, and this is Gorillaz’ peak.  A concept album both sprawling and tight, and straddling hip-hop, UK dance sounds, and a dash of rock elements.  Also much more forward looking than LCD Soundsystem’s, which is, as with most dance-punk, firmly fixed on the techno sounds of the 80s and 90s (and in the case of its Eno-derived closer, the 70s).  Still, LCD’s album is a blast, driven by great arrangements, tight playing, and a rush of energy. 

Artist Most Benefiting from Reevaluation:  Sufjan Stevens, who’d gotten lost in the shuffle for me but is nicely slightly ambitious in an Eels kind of way. 

Artist Most Diminished in Reevaluation:  No really obvious pick.  A number of bands feel like they’re wheel-spinning, but I’d hate to single any one of them out.  The Decemberists, maybe, just because I’m impatient for them to move past their early sound and embrace their destiny as the 21^st Century Jethro Tull (though I fully acknowledge there are a lot of people who prefer this early stuff, and it’s not bad; it’s just that the Decemberists are about to get much more distinctive and ambitous).

Album List

!!! - Take Ecstacy With Me/Get Up EP

Arcade Fire - Cold Wind 7"

B.R.M.C. - Howl

Balkan Beat Box - Balkan Beat Box

Beck - Guero [Bonus Tracks]

Beck - Misc.

Blackalicious - Misc.

Blackalicious - The Craft

Bob Dylan - North Country - Music From The Motion Picture

Bob Dylan - Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs

Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning

Bronson Arroyo - Covering the Bases

Bruce Springsteen - Devils & Dust

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Daft Punk - Human After All

Daft Punk - Musique Vol 1

Dangerdoom - The Mouse & The Mask

Dropkick Murphys - Misc.

Dropkick Murphys - Wedding Songs

Eels - Blinking Lights And Other Revelations [Disc 1]

Eels - Blinking Lights And Other Revelations [Disc 2]

Eels - Manchester 2005 ep

Foo Fighters - In Your Honor [Disc 1]

Foo Fighters - In Your Honor [Disc 2]

Gomez - Out West

Gorillaz - Demon Days

Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams

Kanye West - Late Registration

LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem [Disc 1]

Lil Wayne - The Dedication

Matthew Sweet - Misc.

Merle Haggard - HAG: The Best Of Merle Haggard

Mike Doughty - Haughty Melodic

My Morning Jacket - Z

Neil Young - Prairie Wind

Nine Inch Nails - Misc.

Oasis - Don't Believe The Truth

Out Hud - Let Us Never Speak of It Again

Out Hud - Misc.

Pearl Jam - Christmas Singles

Queens Of The Stone Age - Lullabies To Paralyze

Richard Thompson - Misc.

Ringo Starr - Photograph: The Very Best Of Ringo Starr

Ryan Adams - Cold Roses [Disc 1]

Ryan Adams - Cold Roses [Disc 2]

Ryan Adams - Jacksonville City Nights

Social Distortion - Misc.

Spoon - Gimme Fiction

Sufjan Stevens - Illinois

Super Furry Animals - Love Kraft

Supergrass - Road to Rouen

The Decemberists - Misc.

The Decemberists - Picaresque

The Flaming Lips - Misc.

The Flaming Lips - The Fearless Freaks

The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday

The Mars Volta - Frances The Mute

The Meters - Funkify Your Life:  The Meters Anthology

The Mountain Goats - Misc.

The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic

The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema

The Perceptionists - Black Dialogue

The Roots - 2005-6-17...Red Rocks Amp./Morrison,CO

The Roots - The Roots Present...Clones

The Stooges - Misc.

The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan

TV On The Radio - Deperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes

V/A - 2008 Pitchfork Music Festival Sampler

V/A - Run The Road

Ween - Shinola (Vol. 1)

Weezer - Make Believe

Wilco - Kicking Television: Live In Chicago [Disc 1]

Wilco - Kicking Television: Live In Chicago [Disc 2]

Willie Nelson - Countryman