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12/25/2005 Archived Entry: "Top Ten"
Top Ten
Now it's time for the ever popular top ten albums of the year! My best of 2005:
1. Swedish Nursery Orchestra I Only Cry When It's August. Always a favorite around here. SNO's 2005 release was moodier and more somber than past recordings. "Want Went Won't" kept me up at nights thinking about past lives, past romances, past everything. Pure madness, yet compelling in its mixes. Black Sabbath and the Electric Company on one song! Amazing.
2. Everything is Thread Sentimental Heartbeats Pitchfork canned this debut disc from the band which was previously Pepsico Swindle (a lawsuit forced the name change). Still, something odd about this disc has me returning to it every other day. “Rally Around” is vintage Box Tops with a touch of Madlib.
3. Badminton. Nothing But Net. I usually hate English post-punk pop medley. But after buying this disc, I kept it in the CD changer for three weeks straight. Then I forgot about it.
4. Leslie Warrington. I'm The King. A Stray Cats/Cat Stevens kind of clone. Her voice can pierce a tightrope. The cover of her standing on top of a pile of burning shoes made me think of classic Clas Oldenberg.
5. Burnt Rubber Sensation. Damn You All. It's no secret that I'm drawn to bands with three words in their names: BTO, ELP, BOC, SNO. BRS is no exception. Janice Wells, the bassist, is straight out of the Bootsy Collins school of hard funk. "Chain Gang Letter" is funny, yet driving. “I wrote you a chain gang letter/just to do time on your line.”
6. The Potty Girls. Don't Call Us Girls. Normally, I'm not into all girl bands (Girlschool was ok; The Go-Gos so catchy, Margaret and the Funny Bones brilliant). The Potty Girls appeal to the Bataille in me, the lure of waste. All is waste. Nothing is used. If you see this in a bargain bin in a few years, don't blame me. I paid full price.
7. Cross Eyed Strangers. So Much, So Little. Another three word band name. They were big in the Frankfurt disco/techno scene for a few years and then vanished. This long awaited release puts them back among the year's best in trans-techno-sense music. A friend of mine who sometimes stops in Berlin on "business" picked this one up for me.
8. Derrick May. Don't Make Me Forget You. Shout out to the new Detroit-native release.
9. Ormeganngangg. IV IX XX. A Flemish Zen-inspired indie outfit that will make you think Spoon meets Fiona Apple. The kind of album that will re-invent Internet downloading. “Ode to Lucy and Desi” is the kitschy kind of thing I love.
10. Astran DeChernoitz. My Kind of Gal. The little known Bolivian pop singer has gotten some airplay lately due to an NPR story on his music and work with Brian Eno. It took me awhile to warm up to the odd songs. "Changling Changlang" is weird for its nonesense lyrics (English and Spanish: “Duel/Rule/When we go mad we drool”), but the riff is very catchy. This is music you will hear on college stations where the students aren't learning anything but are still doing lots of drugs.
