Best Albums of 2005

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
All in all, I think it's a pretty decent list. But that's just because I think the Decemberists and Sleater Kinney put out two of the very few great albums in 2005.

My only complaint is the glaring omission of Dead Meadow.

I agree, but more strongly:
Very nice list Mr Redsock.
I particularly like your writeups which are not incidentally just snippets from the reviews.


Oh…and for the record:
Dead Meadow was on my submitted list

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer:
It had one of my top 12, so it's a better list than popmatters or pitchdork.

I'll bite; which one Rhett?

It is a good list - includes some nice albums that were overlooked by alot of others, e.g., Radar Bros - I think it shows the growth of bigyawn as a site that they were able to cover so much ground during the year

kudos to eric for what I know is a thankless job

Originally posted by You go, Judge Alito:
I'll bite; which one Rhett?

Yeah me too,

Hackensaw boys or stars?

Josh Rouse

Originally posted by MTB-Markie:

Originally posted by You go, Judge Alito:
I'll bite; which one Rhett?

Yeah me too,

Hackensaw boys or stars?

Originally posted by HoyaParanoia:

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
So can anyone whose actually heard it give constructive critism of the Kanye West record? Something other than it blows Mountain Goats…. Is it one of those well done guilty pleasure/party records or just over hyped sewage. Just curious…

it's a very good hip-hop album with enough adventurous quality that it makes mainstream music fans who are kind of afraid of underground/backpack hip-hop think that they're listening to "artistic" music (much like outkast) … it has some fantastic productions, some pretty good flows (not great), but it blows radio mainstream shit like mike jones and young jeezy out of the water

that said, everyone here should pick up danger doom, it's a great, hilarious album … best hip-hop album of the year

Have you heard AZ's A.W.O.L.?

Originally posted by Joymonster:
Have you heard AZ's A.W.O.L.?

i haven't … i'm a big NAS fan, but for some reason i just never got into AZ … have "doe or die" and like it, but didn't blow my socks off

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
The eMusic top 50 has some interesting choices on it,

eMusic blows mountain goats for a quarter.

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
I'm suprised the Gogol Bordello isn't getting more nods, just downloaded the record and it has everything that all those new "punk" bands lack. Attitude to burn on the top of a band on verge of total musical choas. I can sense why this bands show could be amazing…

I love listening to this record for about 10 minutes or so. Then it gets a little samey and I'm thinking, what next. Would love to see them live though. I could see it being thundrous.

I really like the songs on Kanye's 2nd record but for some reason, have only listened to it twice maybe. Same thing happened with the first one. I like it in theory but am never moved to put it on.

Originally posted by Hanover Fiste:
eMusic blows mountain goats for a quarter.

no, Itunes blows mountain goats for a quarter, eMusic does it for 10 cents and lets you keep the goat and blow it whenever you want

Originally posted by Relaxer:


I really like the songs on Kanye's 2nd record but for some reason, have only listened to it twice maybe. Same thing happened with the first one. I like it in theory but am never moved to put it on.

Ah a bit like the Snow Patrol record last year for me… Maybe if I'm feeling inspired it will be a pick from yourmusic or get it really cheaped used a couple years down the road.

Personally several young bands especially some of the British ones released full lenghts albums that would have been better trimmed down to EPs. Kaiser Chiefs, Maximo Park, Dead 60s, and Magic Numbers all show real promise but need to more time to develop their sound and songwriting skills. Many young American bands appear to have developed the mall attitude of needing to come off as all the other bands around them.

In the past up and coming bands like the Beatles and Rolling Stones filled out early releases with covers. Nowadays you get instead of covers the cut and paste method of songwriting which results in songs that sort of sound like something from the past. i.e. There is a bassline on the Dead 60s that is directly lifted from "Oh Shit" by the Buzzcocks.

I doubt in the current crop of up and comers you'll see the same kind of intertwined band family trees that was found in the past, when the life span of one of the lucky groups was a single or two not an album. In the 70s a group like the Kaiser Chiefs would have been like Sweet working with specific hitmakers like Chapman and Chin. In this day and age of anything with a pulse being signed, would Led Zeppelin been signed as a band today? Page was already 24 and an established studio musician, by todays standards he might have been considered over the hill already.

Bottom line to much attention these days is focused on the Artists and not it's Repertoire, in part fueled by the constant search for the next big thing or something which can be pro-tooled to sound talented.

I was excited to see Gogol Bordello live at Bumbershoot three years ago. After about 25 minutes, I have up on them, bored, and dismissed them as a novelty act.

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
I'm suprised the Gogol Bordello isn't getting more nods, just downloaded the record and it has everything that all those new "punk" bands lack. Attitude to burn on the top of a band on verge of total musical choas. I can sense why this bands show could be amazing…

Originally posted by pdx pollard:

Originally posted by Hanover Fiste:
eMusic blows mountain goats for a quarter.

no, Itunes blows mountain goats for a quarter, eMusic does it for 10 cents and lets you keep the goat and blow it whenever you want

post of the week!

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:

Originally posted by redsock:
Our top 50 is up. Enjoy

What no Coltrane & Monk recorded in 1957 at Carnegie Hall? Surely some music snob would have included this on your list, as it was only released for the first time after the tape was recently discovered. Best record of year hands down appartently…

Got this album for Christmas, lives up to the hype. Looking at the full bill in the liner notes…Billy Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles, Sonny Rollins, along with Monk and Coltrane…I wouldn't be surprised if there was a box set on the way.

According to the City Paper, the best album of the year was a trance album from the Congo. Who knew?

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
Emusic Top 10

01 Konono No. 1, Congotronics (Crammed Discs)

"Konono No. 1 is a Congolese band led by a man named Mingiendi. Mingiendi plays the likembé, aka the thumb piano.

Mingiendi plugs his likembé through a distortion box, making his instrument sound more like a blurry staccatto electric guitar, a fast-flashing sound that dances around in the body of the listener.

The rest of his band is made up of other likembé players, percussionists, megaphone-yellers and whistlers,… three dancers and a "president".


mp3 on this page

yeah, paul van dyk it is not. i downloaded the whole album from this blog earlier this month and while i can't say it's my album of the year, it's damn good. apparently their show at millennium stage last month was kind of a let down, though, at least according to my friends who went.

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer:
According to the City Paper, the best album of the year was a trance album from the Congo. Who knew?

The Washington Post, although Jenkins writes for both papers

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer:
According to the City Paper, the best album of the year was a trance album from the Congo. Who knew?

I'm beginning to think that this may be some big joke cooked up after a big bong hit session at the journalist guild's christmas party.

eMusic Writer: Dude, who you putting number one on your year-end music list?

City Paper Writer: *chortle*
I'm puttin' this dude named Konono #1 at the top of my list!
*snort*

eMusic Writer: Huh?

City Paper Writer: *snicker*
Ko-no-no #1, dude. He's from, like, the Congo.
*snort*

eMusic Writer: The Congo?!?

City Paper Writer: *guffaw*
Yeah man. But the best part is….He plays an amplified thumb piano!! A fuckin' thumb piano, dude!!

eMusic Writer:No.Way.

City Paper Writer:way…

eMusic Writer:Dude, that is so awesome!! You're putting a freakin' Congolese thumb pianist as your number one album of the year!

City Paper Writer:My editor is going ta have a freakin stroke, brah!

eMusic Writer:Can I put this Kokomo dude at the top of my list, too?

City Paper Writer:Right on! We'll start like this whole new wave….All the indie kids will be looking for African thumb pianists.

eMusic Writer:Dude, have you tried these mini quiches?

from the eMusic forum…

"Allow me to also point out that Konono No. 1 won by a VERY WIDE margin. Almost every ballot included that title."

50 writers were polled…