Top 20 Singles of 2005: #20 - #11
By: Music Staff |
Thursday December 29, 2005 |
| This list, the Top 20 singles of 2005, is what really gets me going. Staff choices were all over the map on singles, but these 20 were the most well-regarded overall. |
| This list, the Top 20 singles of 2005, is what really gets me going. Staff
choices were all over the map on singles, but these 20 were the most
well-regarded overall. As much as I love our albums list, these singles show
the site's diversity much clearer than that one did. The inclusion of The Game
with 50 Cent alone has me swooning, as that tune made my top ten for best of the
year. Check back tomorrow for the Top 10 singles of 2005.
Brett Hickman Managing Editor Static Multimedia 
20. The National - Abel It's an ode to those brief moments of clarity that break through the haze of drunkenness to reveal the fucked up state of your situation. Those times when the only thing you can do is toss back another drink, revel in your stupidity, and reach out for begrudging help. It's not a happy place, but somehow Matt Berninger's woozy "been there, drank it all" delivery makes it sound oh so magnificent in its decadence. And when the rest of the band jumps in with the screams of "my mind's not right" over that dizzy guitar line it turns downright transcendent - even when everything has all gone down wrong. - Jon Lundeen 
19. LCD Soundsystem - Daft Punk is Playing at my House Talk about an ode to influences and youth. Full of restrained energy and hip-shaking bravado, James Murphy sing-speaks the ultimate house party lines, "I bought fifteen cases for my house, all the furniture is in the garage, and it's every kid for miles at my house," on "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House," the leadoff track on LCD Soundsystem's critically acclaimed self-titled debut. With a heavy guitar riff over beat claps, a constant groove line, ooh-ooh-yeah falsetto's and a bit of cowbell-xlyo, "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House," is the party anthem of the year for music geeks. - Ryan Herzog 
18. New Order - Krafty They have lost the experimental edge that drove them throughout the 1980s, and yes, it's true that the loss of Gillian Gilbert is deeply felt in their new album. And yet. And yet. Peter Hook's bass comes in at the start of "Krafty", the keyboards and strings sounding like a magnificent sunrise, and then they're back. A meld of Brotherhood's "All Day Long" and Republic's "Regret", "Krafty" is New Order just being New Order, complete with nonsense lyrics from Barney that sound stupid when written down ("But out there the world is a beautiful place / With mountains, lakes and the human race"), but essential when he sings them in his still-naive-after-all-these years voice. There's no new barriers being broken, just the sound of one of the greatest British bands of the past twenty-five years doing what they do best. It's more than enough. - Ian Pointer 
16. (tie) LCD Soundsystem - Tribulations If you are to believe DFA Records founder and LCD Soundsystem singer/maestro James Murphy, it only takes a simple four/four beat, a rudimentary surf-guitar solo, and a melody that pays "homage" to the Colour Field's 1985 single "Things Could Be Beautiful" to create one of the most plangent and emotionally resonant singles of the year. This call for retribution is proof that crying on the dancefloor is, indeed, one of humanity's favorite pastimes. All together now- *"Everybody makes mistakes..." - Donna Brown 
16. (tie) Gorillaz - Dare The Gorillaz go full-on electronica on their second single off Demon Days. "Dare" is all mirror ball and strobe lights and dance floor. It's an infectious four minutes of funk-pop bliss that undeniably makes you want to get up and shake it, even if it's just dancing around your room like Noodle does in the video. Even the sparse yet alluring lyrics are catchy and hypnotic, "Jump with the moon and move it. Jump back and forth." Shaun Ryder of the Happy Monday's makes a special cameo on this funk groove. All things summed up, "Dare" is one hot single. - Ryan Herzog 
15. Girls Aloud - Biology I was still waiting for the inevitable misstep in the Girls Aloud singles oeuvre when they swung this pop paradigm shift. Don't be mistaken; this is prog-pop. This is Mars Volta after a �Clockwork Orange' style experiment forcing them to listen to Abba Gold in grindcore length segments. Each movement of this song powers in like a Roger Federer style volley of hooks, each raising the stakes higher than the last �bit', until that fist-pumping chorus - "You can't mistake my biology." Forget Sugababes, Forget Madonna, Forget Goldfrapp - this is the most perfect pop of the year. Game, set and match. - Hari Ashurst 
13. (tie) Robyn - Be Mine Remember Robyn, the cute Swedish pop starlet who predated Britney with her Max Martin-produced single "Show Me Love"? Well, it so happens she made one of the more impressive comebacks of 2005, highlighted by the heartbreaking "Be Mine". Constructed around a simple string sample and boasting a snappy, stuttering beat, it's all about Robyn's vulnerable, wounded vocal delivery, at first sounding devastated ("It's a hard thing faking a smile when I feel like I'm falling apart inside"), only to have rage rise to the surface as she spits, "No, you never were, and you never will be mine!" If that weren't enough, she tosses in a devastating bridge ("I just miss you, that's all") that reminds us of the power of the spoken word in pop songwriting. - Adrien Begrand 
13. (tie) Bloc Party - Helicopter The first thing you think of when hearing the opening ten seconds of British sensations Block Party's single Helicopter is the appropriateness of the title. The song starts off with a single winding guitar hook and is then joined with a fast beat on drums giving the song a sound that brilliantly construes the title. Helicopter is the defining track on their highly acclaimed album Silent Alarm and is considered by many in the college rock scene as the "cool" anthem of 2005. It is a call to all hipsters out there to wake up and come together. "Are you hoping for a miracle" singer Kele Okereke whales telling us Americans to get off our asses and make something happen. Couldn't have said any better myself guys. - David Fox 
12. Rachel Stevens - I Said Never Again (But Here We Are) Antmusic by way of Mud, a video dripping in lesbian overtones, stuffed as full with sexual innuendo as "Some Girls" ("Let you in my backdoor" indeed); it's a complete mystery as to why her record label didn't release this single as the first from Come And Get It. Those drums! The pop-goes-rock guitar! Rachel in being sultry shocker! All of which was lost on a largely disinterested British public who seemingly prefer the idea of the Arctic Monkeys to pop thrills. While we wait for the good people of my country to return to their senses, we have to go underground; let's make sure we take Ms. Stevens with us. - Ian Pointer 
11. The Game f/ 50 Cent - Hate It or Love It (57) They do make it difficult. 50 Cent alone comes with a heap of political baggage to suss out. But Hate it or Love it has a motoring beat and an undeniable sample, spiked with the Game's harsh verses and cushioned by 50 Cent's cascading vocal line. It's lyrically barbed rhymes are muted by an overwhelming smoothness that sets the tone from the get go. Horns punctuate the beat with a subdued triumphalism, clearly speaking 50's language and his aesthetic dominates as the Game is relegated to backup on his own track. Until about halfway through as the pace is picked up as a touch of social urgency creeps its way into the Game's gruff. The subtle shifts and overall tone are eloquent and impressive and even at times, moving. - Dan Haar Come back tomorrow, Friday, December 30th for the final ten in Static Multimedia's Countdown of the Top 20 singles of 2005... |
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