More best of 2005 cuts
jamie on December 15th, 2005
April:
April was a good month for music. So many new tracks just seemed to appear magically. I could barely keep up! Not only was a month of quantity, but also a ver quality month- chich makes the task of choosing three songs from April’s playlist exceptionally tough. To ease things, I’m making this month a four-track month. I couldn’t decide on just three, so I’ll have to reduce a later month by one, but I’m keeping four here!
Several others in April certainly deserve at least honorable mention here: Dilaudid is just an amazing track from The Mountain Goats full of tension (a great driving song); Kano gave us the second single frorm his brilliant album Home Sweet Home titled Remember Me, fusing UK two-step with latin rhythms.
#1 KT Tunstal - Other Side Of The World
KT first grabbed me this year with Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, which is a great song in it’s own- but when I first heard Other Side Of The World is when I really fell in love with her. It doesn’t hurt that she seems to have a perfect mix of good cheer and sarcasm in interviews, writes her own tour blog, and is easy on the eyes. But her songwriting voice is just incredible, and this track exemplifies this as she sings of long-distance love. She is a storyteller in her music, and each story is backed by it’s own musical texture, all joined together in Tunstall’s percussive guitar playing. Stateside, this track got picked up by the WB for inclusion in the series Smalville, and was added to the latest compilation CD to come from a WB show.
#2 Jose Gonzales - Crosses
I just read that Sony is using Jose Gonzalez’s track Heartbeat in a commercial for their new type of LCD televisions, and Crosses was aired on the season finale of The O.C.- so if television exposure for Gonzalez works as well aas it did for artists like Moby, then we’ll soon ALL know of this Sweedish singer/songwriter. His sound is surprisingly complex, coming from only a nylon-string guitar, and his voice. Crosses is prime example of Gonzalez’s delicate finger-picking, and muted vocal styling.
#3 Mike Doughty - Looking At The World From The Bottom Of A Well
Mike Doughty might be familiar to some of you, even if you don’t know the name- as he was part of the 90’s band Soul Coughing (Circles). Doughty’s new solo album, Houghty Melodic classic Mike Doughty (of which I’ve read some fans dissappointment), with lyrics that are witty and ironic (or sardonic, if a certain coffe-drinking segment of the population is listening), and his guitar riffs punchy and percussive. The first single, Looking At The World From The Bottom Of A Well is just a great song to listen to- and to sing with as well. The repetative nature of Doughty’s lyrical/singing style are especially fun for the echolalia-prone. Roudning out the trifecta of television-series music picks, Looking At The World From The Bottom Of A Well was featured on the hit series Grey’s Anatomy, and also on it’s compilation CD.
#4 Kanye West - Diamonds
Months before the album hit stores, somebody ‘leaked’ this track to several major radio outlets. I liked about half of West’s sophomore effort. The tracks on the album worth listening to are brilliant, but the rest are just filler. Diamonds is brilliance. The version to first appear was better than the eventual album release- I’m sure that’s why the first mix was released as a bonus track on the disc. Who else could take Shirley Bassey, and mold it into a rap beat?
May:
James Blunt - You’re Beautiful
James Blunt - High
James Blunt - Wise Men
James Blunt is surely one of my favorite artists of the year, one of the few albums that spent consecutive weeks playing (in the car, at work, in the iPod…constantly). That’s why my three favorite tracks from the album take the cuts for this month by default. It may also explain why the playlist for this month was so short on other artists- there just wasn’t enough time lef tin the day to listen to anything else. Blunt’s popularity in the US is finally taking off, with tour dates supporting Jason Mraz, and appearances on late night television shows (Tonight Show, Leno). His sucess in the US is about to mirror that in the UK.
June:
#1 Embrace - Gravity
Embrace just seems to have been skipped over when the US started importing music form the UK. OR maybe, more likely, the Brits decided to hold back some of their best as their own little secret. While stateside listeners clamor for ever new release from Coldplay, that brit-rock outfit gave Embrace one of their songs for their album Out Of Nothing. Gravity is so perfectly suited for Embrace, that you’d never guess it wasn’t written by the band themselves. In a case of truly taing a song and making it theirs, they embrace its anthematic hook, and back the piano themes with amped up guitars. The Coldplay version, just released recently in the UK, lacks this power, sapping the song’s power.
#2 Daniel Powter - Bad Day
Bad Day has a way of making you feel really good. It’s melodic way of dealing with the trials of thse days when shit just happens reminds you of the hope that tomorrow will come soon enough. Beside all that, it’s a catchy, melodic song that is very well produced.
#3 Kano - Nite Nite
Last year, it was Mike Skinner and A Grand Don’t COme For Free in UK Garage/2-Step. This year, it’s Kano. Skinner steps in to produce the UK rapper’s third single from Home Sweet Home (he also lends his voice a bit). Kano’s raping style is smoother, better suited to rapping than Skinner’s, and the pairing is perfect.
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