Top 25 Albums #15 - #6
By: Music Staff |
Tuesday December 27, 2005 |
| The countdown continues today with one or two potential surprises. Though the inclusion of Billy Corgan's solo release of 2005 will probably trump them all. |
| We've got to be one of the few
music-related sites to put Billy Corgan's solo debut on a countdown so far and
that really warms my heart being a Smashing Pumpkins fan and all.
I think there are at least two more surprises to come. One today and one in the top five. At least I hope they're surprises. Don't forget to come back each day this week, as tomorrow we wrap up the albums and on Thursday we move on to the best singles of 2005 as voted by the writers of Static Multimedia. Happy Reading! Brett Hickman Managing Editor Static Multimedia 15. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm - Vice From the trembling guitars of the killer opener "Like Eating Glass" to the persistent drive of "Banquet" to the quiet and simple charm of "So Here We Are," the ambitious and impressive Bloc Party has put together a remarkable debut album. Combining lead singer Kele Okereke's engaging delivery with an extremely talented rhythm sections and you have a thrill of an album that stays compelling throughout. This is not another flash in the pan band riding the easy wave of post-punk revival to the top of the charts, but a band that is setting a solid foundation for a long and exciting career to come. For any band to put together an album as solid as this is no small feat, but for Bloc Party to have knocked it out of the park on the first try is truly astounding. -Jon Lundeen 14. Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine - Epic/Clean Slate Forget Brion. This production is glossy; there is no escape from the nuance, Apple's rasping vitriol, or when she slams everything upon the keys. This is the perfect way to receive the intimacy of the lyrics, the only respite coming with the emergence of other instruments in the mix, twisting the music into a sinister brooding smile. Behind that smile, and rolling note after note from the omnipresent piano, is a soulful pureness. The intimate production allows Apple to rewire the circuitry of earlier versions, making a connection to the mainframe heart of these songs, like a lover using different words to communicate the same message. Stay with me please. - Hari Ashurst 13. The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday - French Kiss Junkies, burnouts, born-agains, slackers, hookers, swindlers, liars, cheaters, hoodlums, punks, hoodrats, losers, users, abusers - they're all a part of Craig Finn's world. Backed up by a talented band that could probably give the E Street Band a run for their money on a good night, Finn spins his tales of the down and out over stellar arrangements that look back to the best of classic rock with a foot planted firmly in the present. This isn't a great album because Finn is a master storyteller with a tight band behind him - this is a great album because it's the living, breathing essence of rock and roll and life on the fringe. - Jon Lundeen 12. Sleater Kinney - The Woods - Sub Pop Sleater-Kinney's 7th record, The Woods is one more dip into the audacious that we've grown accustomed to from these ladies; saturated with standard issue never-forget-it's-rock guitar, more deviceful than ever, inspired lyrics, and Corin Tucker's distinctive, heavy yet thready, love it/hate it warble. A reflected glimmer, in part, of their recent tour with Pearl Jam coupled with their ever-increasing confidence in the studio. A little less articulate about political and social issues than their prior album One Beat, the call for reform on both counts is more implied, less obvious. Though at 11 minutes it's too long to be radio-friendly, for me "Let's Call It Love" checks in as one of the best songs to screw to, ever; their increased sophistication and mettle can be felt nowhere better than right there. The clever and downright boisterous "Rollercoaster" is arguably the most hit-friendly of the lot. Aptly named, The Woods is quite a journey into the foreboding, where dark and unexpected things go on, and I'm not sure where I am anymore...unequivocally the kind of pleasurable scare I'll seek out over and over again. - Jennifer Wagner 11. The National - Alligator - Beggars Banquet I must confess that, after several months of slogging through uninspiring albums by American guitar bands, the thought of listening to Alligator didn't fill me with much confidence. Imagine my surprise to find a wonderful maelstrom of failed relationships, cynicism, and weary nostalgia. Nothing sums up Alligator better than the final track, "Mr. November," which considers all the struggles, all the disappointments, surrounded by failure at every turn, before looking at them wide in the eye, yelling "I won't fuck us over!" over and over before riding off into a guitar-tracked sunset. The sonic equivalent of standing firm in the face of a firing squad, screaming "is that the best you can do?" as the bullets hit home. - Ian Pointer 10. Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary - Sub Pop While the Arcade Fire made a grand entrance in 2004, sashaying onto the floor with their matching black suits and dresses, captivating the masses with their ornate disco punk and Motown breakdowns, this year's Montreal band du jour Wolf Parade come staggering through the door like a bunch of sloppy drunks clumsily running indoors from the winter cold. The lack of focus on their debut album is part of its charm; songs lurch about clumsily one minute, sound primal the next, as Spencer Krug delivers his froggy-eyed Isaac Brock imitation, only to be followed by ciggy-smokin' guitarist Dan Boeckner, looking and sounding as weirdly out of place as Steve Rogers did with Mark Weiner's band in Welcome to the Dollhouse. Miraculously, about midway through the oddly gorgeous "Same Ghost Every Night," this big mess of guitar, synths, drums, and some guy named Hadji twiddling around on a laptop, actually starts to gel. While Boeckner's rock star hollering about shining lights or his heartburn is the most immediately gratifying, it's the awkward vulnerability of Krug's phrasing that grows on us the most, best exemplified by his performances on "Grounds For Divorce" and the album's best track, "I'll Believe in Anything." The Arcade Fire's puppydog-eyed Funeral won our collective hearts a year ago, but Wolf Parade's own mangy mutt, once you get used to its company, is every bit as endearing. - Adrien Begrand 09. Gorillaz - Demon Days - Virgin The sci-fi horror beats and sip-n-chill groove make Demon Days one of the freshest sounding albums of the past few years. Nothing else is quite as casual in blending the elements of electronic, rock, hip-hop, dance, indie, gospel, and mainstream. It's a futuristic sci-fi horror score with siren-loops, subtle strings, seamless raps and Damon Albarn crackling doomsday choruses from the backdrop. The album also contains some of the biggest singles of the year in "Feel Good Inc," "Dare" and to a lesser extent but still worthy "Dirty Harry," where all of the albums mad-max undertones are summed up and tossed aside in a dance anthem chorus making sure that Demon Days holds up fairly well over time. - Ryan Herzog 08. Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning - Saddle Creek This year a miraculous thing happened in the world of folk music. Conor Oberst, better known to us as Bright Eyes, released his most ambitious and beautiful work to date. I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning was one half of two albums released at the same time. Morning exploded onto the scene with some of the most true to form, down home folk music to date using mostly acoustic and steel guitars. Driven by Oberst's political frustrations and emotional style, the album preaches, cries and screams unlike anything since Dylan. - David Fox 07. Beck - Guero - Interscope Since 1996 fans and critics have been longing for Odelay 2: Electric Boogaloo. Mutations: Makes me sleepy. Midnite Vultures: I want to writhe around on a dance floor in spandex. Sea Change: Hating myself was never so lovely. Guero: Praise the Lord! I can jump on this bandwagon and ride it all year! A funny thing happened in between Odelay and Guero...time. The long anticipated "legitimate" follow up to his 1996 breakthrough was tinged with more maturity than expected and the patient, frothing fans were rewarded. Some say Beck was rehashing the same old stuff, but only on the surface...the disjointed obsession in "Girl," the lamenting "Missing," and "Scarecrow" puts a claim in for the best Beck song of all. Of course the deftly restrained party songs are there, but the amalgam of Beck is here which easily shoots this album near the top of many 2005 year end lists. - Nate Roth 06. My Morning Jacket - Z - ATO/RCA My Morning Jacket's Jim James was in a deep state of flux before the recording of Z, the band's off the rails great 2005 release. Gone were two band members, as well as the comfort of the band's old recording space. Also new, producer John Leckie, revered for past work with Radiohead. James hunkered down and focused his steely gaze upon a new era for MMJ. Odes to departed friends, religious epiphanies and a grand tune that radio nearly took hold of ("Off the Record") pepper the reverb and the soaring guitars. James' voice, warm but wracked by pain and confusion over life's twists and turns leads us through a collection of songs that at times recalls the majesty of Pink Floyd while never straying from what makes My Morning Jacket the great band they are. - Brett Hickman Check back tomorrow, Wednesday, December 28th for #5 to #1 as Static Multimedia's Countdown of the Top 25 albums of 2005 continues... |
