Greetings everyone. As I said before, come hell or high water I'm going to do this list. But before I jump into the big list of ridiculously awesome albums, I'm going to hand out a few special achievement awards, just because I'm stalling for time while I actually finish the list.
And without further ado...
The Top 3 EPs of 2005
3. Jimmy Eat World - Stay on My Side Tonight
Let's face it. I'm just a sucker for whatever Jimmy Eat World puts out. This five song EP contains a bunch of the kinds of stuff you'd pretty much expect from the band, with a couple of rocky numbers, a couple of more meloncholy tracks (with the requisite song longer than 7 minutes) and kind of a cool remix of Drugs or Me from the last album. None of the tracks sound like crappy leftovers from Futures, and all the songs are good. What more could you ask for?
Key Tracks: Disintigration; Closer; Drugs or Me (Styrofoam Remix)
It wouldn't be too far off to describe the lead singer of Hey Willpower as the white Prince. Or at least a vague approximation of the white Prince. Whatever. Hey Willpower is the shirtless guy on the cover on vocals, a shy looking asian man on the beats, and a couple of back-up dancers that pull off these incredibly detached dance routines that are so beautifully simple, that it makes you wonder why most pop stars insist on all that gyrating and foot stomping. Obviously this four song EP is devoid of the dancing, but it's not devoid of the grooves. This record proves that Hey Willpower's music isn't just second banana to the stage show, and it's exactly the kind of stuff everybody should be playing at their next dance party--or at least the next time they feel the need to move their asses for one reason or another.
Key Tracks: Hundredaire; Double Fantasy II; Uh-Uh-Uh
There's a sort of purity to the brand of heart-pumping, body shaking, in-your-goddamn-face combination of soul and rock and roll that Von Iva makes. Comprised of four female musicians that any man would be equally beguiled and intimidated by, Von Iva is devoid of pretention. They want to rock, and they want you to rock with them. Simple as that. The songs on this six-track EP are some of the best the band has to offer. Though the production is a little more low key than you might expect, the fierceness of the music, as well as lead singer Jillian Iva's incredibly soulful voice shine through. When she exclaims at the beginning of Feel It!, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we're here to tell you what the world ain't got enough of," you stop and listen, because she commands your full attention (incidentally, it's "love" that the world ain't got enough of). It's a hell of a debut release, and hopefully a good indication of things to come from them.
Key Tracks: Feel It!; Not Hot to Trot; Soulshaker
The Top 3 Remix/Mashup/B-Sides Collection Albums of 2005
3. Death From Above 1979 - Romance Bloody Romance
Last year's You're a Woman, I'm a Machine was a heck of a good album, deftly mixing soulful singing with thrashy instrumentations. Romance Bloody Romance is a collection of remixes of tracks from that album, and though there's a fair amount of repetition in regards to song selection, the variety of the remixes themselves is simply excellent. Black History Month goes from a dancy discotheque groover to a moody, mellow rock piece, to a noisy, glitchy electro track, depending on who's remixing it (with one of the aforementioned remixes coming from Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme). In between all the remixes, there's also a cover of Le Peste's Better off Dead, but mostly this is a neat collection of reenvisionings for people who loved the original album--and that's just fine by me.
Key Tracks: Better off Dead; Black History Month (Alan Braxe & Fred Falke remix); Sexy Results (MSTRKRFT Edition)
Mashing up Queen music with hip-hop isn't a completely original idea (The Kleptones did it with A Night at the Hip-Hopera), but originality or not, nobody's done it quite like this record. Taking a smattering of 50 Cent-heavy tracks, and cross-breeding them with some of Queen's biggest hits, Q-Unit is as unholy as it is awesome. This is basically this year's Grey Album, though somehow completely devoid of the publicity that album recieved. The opening track, This is How We Bite the Dust, is a good indication of what's to come. The Game's How We Do (which might as well be a 50 Cent solo song) mixes almost frighteningly well into Another One Bites The Dust, with an original beat put over that infectious bass line, and Freddy Mercury's vocals provide the glue that keeps the whole thing together as 50 and Game spit over this ludicrous amalgamation. Most of the rest of the record is 50 solo tracks, and depending on your opinion of the larger than life rapper, you may not be able to get into this. I'll say this much, though: I hate 50 cent, yet I love this album. Go figure.
Key Tracks: This is How We Bite the Dust; Crazy Little Pimp Called Love; Just It All
1. Deftones - B-Sides and Rarities
I make no bones about my stupid Deftones fanboydom. I love this band, and generally pretty much anything it does. The collection of covers, remixes and acoustic tracks on this CD is basically any Deftones fan's wet dream. Chino and the boys tackle tracks from everyone from Duran Duran to Jawbox, from Sade to Helmet, and manage to do it all without sounding like a completely different band every single time. The acoustic tracks are really the best thing this disc has going for it, though. The stripped down versions of Change (in the House of Flies) and Digital Bath both give the songs entirely new, prettier qualities, but the acoustic version of Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away) in particular is simply beautiful on every level. There are a couple of notable absences on this disc that more industrious Deftones may have found previously and might be bummed isn't on this nicely mastered CD, as opposed to the lousy tape copy they currently have. But there's more than enough here to keep the Deftones loyalists busy for as long as it takes for the next album to come around.
Key Tracks: Savory; No Ordinary Love; Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away) (Acoustic)
Best Soundtrack of 2005 (Game or Movie)
Stubbs The Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse
This is not me being a rebel, going against the official winner of GameSpot's best licensed soundtrack of the year. I'd certainly argue that as a whole, PGR 3's soundtrack was probably better. But speaking purely from the position of what I'd like to be listening to on my own time, this soundtrack is hands down the most inventive and most listenable one out there this year. Collecting a smattering of indie and alternative bands to cover the hottest jams of the 1950's, Stubbs' soundtrack goes way beyond the usual lazy licensing practices of game publishers. Most everything on here is an absolute gem, too. Cake's rendition of Strangers in the Night is frighteningly natural, like it would have come from one of their albums previously. The Flaming Lips' If Only I Had a Brain is entirely goofy, but no goofier than the original song. Death Cab For Cutie is the perfect band to bring Earth Angel into the 21st century, and the one original track on the disc, Phantom Planet's The Living Dead rocks seriously hard. It's totally bizarre, out of left field and utterly hysterical--sort of like the game itself, no?
Key Tracks: Earth Angel; Strangers in the Night; Everyday
Worst Album By a Band I Generally Like
I suppose I shouldn't have been altogether surprised by this one. Dave Matthews Band hasn't made a great album since Before These Crowded Streets, but even the last two efforts were still pretty good, and not this flacid nonsense. It's not that I hate this album, exactly, but it's just so...boring. It's as if Dave has simply run out of things to sing about, yet couldn't be convinced that in absence of legitimate, heartfelt songwriting, that shirking the unique, jam-filled song structuring thing probably wasn't such a hot idea. Everything on here just comes across as sort of half-finished and lazy, and while there's a few catchy tracks here and there, it just doesn't have much to offer fans or newcomers alike. Guess I'll just be listening to Crash for a while longer.
The 2005 Album That Has No Business Being as Good as it is
Wait, don't give up on me yet. I'm not going out on a limb here and saying this is a truly great hip-hop album, or anything so completely ludicrous. What I am saying is that anytime you typically mix professional wrestling with a CD, you get the kind of ironically hysterical nonsense that involves Macho Man Randy Savage rapping for serious or Hulk Hogan rapping about his 24 inch pythons. Yeesh. With this album though, John Cena proves that not only is he above such crap, but also that he's not a half-bad MC. Sure, his delivery's a little on the simple side, and his sidekick, Tha Trademarc isn't much more talented, but the rhymes have a certain quality to them, the beats (while somewhat archaic) hearken back to a simpler time for hip hop, when groups like 3rd Bass were running the whiteboy hip-hop show, and the few guest spots by guys like Bumpy Knuckles and Esoteric add some cred to the whole thing. Again, not a great album, but a listenable one, and considering the source material, that's practically a revelation in and of itself.
Key Tracks: Make it Loud; Just Another Day; Bad, Bad Man
2005's Most Awesomely Bad Rock Album
or
The Album Most Likely to Appear in its Entirety in
Guitar Hero 2
Oh Turbonegro, how I love you. As Norwegian hard rock bands go, they don't get an awful lot better. Party Animals is basically everything the band has stood for over the years: Silly guitar riffs, obtuse lyrics, and just in general, the sort of music that kids with mullets and leather pants would have eaten up in 1986. City of Satan starts out with a sort of clap-along drumbeat that sounds like Motley Crue doing Queen, and then delves into an almost cautionary tale of society's excesses. Though, then again, excess and hubris are really what this record, and this band for that matter, are all about. Sometimes it's a bit much, especially in the lyrical department. But if you can get yourself in the mindset that this is purely a rock album for people who are looking to lose a few braincells while listening, then you'll certainly have to appreciate it for what it is.
Key Tracks: Blow Me (Like the Wind); City of Satan; Babylon Forever
OK. That's all the special stuff. I'll get that actual top 40 list going here in the next day or two. In the meantime, chew on all this.