I’m gona finish this list… I swear
jamie on December 27th, 2005
July:
Imogen Heap - Hide And Seek
The first time I heard this song was in the musical-montage ending of the O.C. season finale. The song is sung acapella with a vocal harmonizer effect over most of it. Imogen Heap has a fantastic voice, and the addition of the synthetic affect made me cringe a bit when I first heard it. But a week later, I’m listening to Zane Lowe in the afternoon, and he drops the track on me again. This time, I was prepared for it, and it clicked. After several further listens, I really liked it. The vocal harmonizer is almost harshly evident in the very begining of the song, because it’s a sound that no one could mistake for a choir, or even creative overdubbing. But as the track progresses, the effect is slowly minimized, and overdub tracks are subtly brought in to the mix. It’s an amazing song in itself, and the choice to record it acapella like this was a good one. I know that not every finds the same beauty in the track as I do. In fact, the Radio 1 listening audience seemed to be polarized by it- half of them adoring it, the other half hating it. But this isn’t their list, it’s miine, and this one makes the cut.
Bedouin Soundclash - When The Night Feels My Song
A gift from Mike Davies on his BBC Radio 1 show The Lock Up- this acoustic-punk-reggae track is a real gem, and has easily found favor among fans of punk, rock, and pop. There’s something in it’s raw reggae rhythm on acoustic guitars and tinny drumset that makes it instantly likeable. The melodic verses and empassioned hook round out a terrific song.
August:
August is a terrible month for me to have to choose the best tracks from. There was seriously so much good music coming out of everywhere at the end of the summer that I could barely keep up with it. Thankfully, I’ve only got limited selections in the months before and after August- so, I’m one selection from each month to make this easier (and so that I don’t have to eliminate two deserving songs from the list).
Still, I have to cut a few songs here that deserve some mention: First, David Gray is an all-time favorite songwriter of mine, and his work this year was nothing less than I would have expected. The One I Love is brilliantly beautiful, and I also particularly enjoyed his cover of The Killer’s Smile Like You Mean It. Second, it seems that every critic this year loves the Arcade Fire, and well that they should- it’s really good music, but I just couldn’t get into it. Since this is my list, and pretty much nobody else in the world cares, I’m cutting them. This leaves five tracks on the list (I’ve only included one from Kanye West, even though at least half of the full album is pretty brilliant- in the long run, I burned out on them really fast and moved almost the entire album out of rotation by October).
Tristan Prettyman - Love Love Love
Hot surfer chick does sweetly melodic music with an acoustic guitar and an amazing voice. She totally scores points for being sponsored by Roxy, but then looses them for dating Mraz. But this is about the music, and Prettyman’s debut album Twentythree is amazing. It’s got a wonderful range of tone and emotion and this single from the album is Prettyman in top form.
Alex Lloyd - Never Meant To Fail
One of my favorites released an album in his homeland of Australia this year, but treated fans to selection from that album on his website months before the release there. The first published single from the album, Never Meant To Fail is tonally darker than his previous album, but well-written and produced. This isn’t just me playing favorites to Lloyd here- I’m simply amazed that some of his previous work hasn’t gained a foothold in the US, because he’s simply an amazing singer-songwriter.
Stephen Fretwell - Emily
Rounding out a trifecta of singer-songwriters, Stephen Fretwell is a talent from Manchester, England, and is most recently being compared to Dylan (as if every songwriter with an acoustic guitar isn’t compared to Dylan), and Nick Drake. The track Emily comes in a variety of flavors- the album version is the simple magnificance of Fretwell’s writing and performing power, and truly deserving of being on the Best of 2005 list. Unfortunately, the song was remixed for radio with a strings and drums, and could have done without the drums, or at least less of them. ut it’s still an amazing song and I especially love the live version I found from an Internet radio broadcast, which displays Fretwell’s renouned live performance skills.
Kanye West - Heard ‘Em Say
Kanye West at the console, Adam Levine in the sample box. Fat beats and star appeal. Yeah, it’s probably still on the TRL charts (I havne’ twatched MTV in ages), but it deserves the props, because it’s just a killer track. I’m sure you’ave all heard it, so ’nuff said.
Rise Against - Swing Life Away
I’m not even sure when this was released, but I first heard it after a friend at the gym asked “Hey, do you know that song that goes…”, and with a few lyrics and a request for the song, I went out and found Rise Against. The thing was that this song is so unlike anything else on the album that I overlooked it several time swhile searching for it. In the end, it’s a great acoustic ballad that falls into that multi-genred spot that Beduoin Sounclash’s track When the Night… (see above) found.
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