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My Top Ten Records For The 2005 Calendar Year
(these aren't really ordered in any way, though I think since we're talking about ordering both Ryan Adams CDs would be at the top, so I'll start with them....)

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, Cold Roses : This album is CRAZY and I am more and more astounded every time I put it on. I could go on forever, so I'll leave it at that.

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, Jacksonville City Nights : an old-skool '70s country record, that blows the doors off everything else I heard in the alt-country space this year (Which I will admit was markedly less than it could have been, given I spent so much time listening to Ryan's new stuff...)

Matt Mays & ET, Matt Mays + El Torpedo : This guy is going to be humongous. In 15 years we'll all be bragging to people about how we saw him play smaller shows the same way people talk about early 'Hip shows right now.

Kathleen Edwards, Back To Me : This woman rocks and I can't get enough of her. And I disagree with Andrew - I think it IS as good as her first. I think both records are sort of 'one'. I think her poetry has really grown up. Exhibit A:
"You say you like me in your memory
You've got to be fucking kidding me"

Exhibit B (Ballsiest lyric I've heard from a female in AGES):
"I've got ways to make you run
And my daddy is coming for you"

I could go on....


Willie Nelson, Countryman : What some people have called the "reggae" album (which is balogney). I think this is some of the smartest stuff in music this year. It's totally country (again, old-skool outlaw shizzat) but with a definite mix of his more contemporary and diverse influences, including the psychedelics. Two tracks that stand out are "One In A Row" and "I'll Still Be Thinking Of You"


C'mon, In The Heat Of The Moment : no self respecting rock'n'roll fan could deny the pleasure, the power, intensity, and filth dripping from every analog note of this record. The friggin' song title read like a rock lyric on their own: This is yr captain, come taste the rock, call my name, desperate hearts, my witness, kingdom of soon, gonna get some, I don't wanna, cut me down, I got a fever, burn all night, bad angel, it's done.


Daft Punk, Human After All : I know not everyone will be into this record... Despite the criticism they've taken for this release (and I've taken it right along with them) - mostly in the form of zero press coverage and zero promotion - this record will be a stronghold of the modernization of dance music. These dudes are the best in the business, and for anyone who can get anything out of dance music at all, this record deserves to be in your collection.


Esthero, Wikked Lil' Grrrls : 17 tracks of erotic, semi-political, intelligent R&B/Dance music that will hopefully at least make her enough money to make another record. I know not everyone will be able to give E much love either, but I think she's the best around.


The Cardigans, Super Extra Gravity : I know that I probably like this record more for its connection to their previous release (Long Gone Before Daylight) than for its own musicality, but I don't care. This was a great follow-up to LGBD, and though it doesn't blow me away the way that record did, I think it will be hard for any record to beat me up the way that one did. In its own right, this is a release to be reckoned with.


Broken Social Scene, Broken Social Scene : the last track (It's All Gonna Break') is enough to propel this one to this list for me, but the rest of the record is super solid too. I miss some of the more 'ambient' stuff they did on 'You Forgot It In People' like "Pacific Theme", etc, but I LOVE the collaboration on this record (I think it's a characteristic that's very 'central Canada' - it's also what I love about the BV3000 stuff)


The new Ryan Adams CD (released YESTERDAY) might contend now that it's out, but I pretty much had my list formed, so let's just call it brilliant and make like it's assumed that anything Ryan releases would go into my top ten lists.


I wish I had more than ten spots so I could include these records:

• Joel Plaskett, La De Da (it's great, but other great alt-country releases took the shine off)
• Dale Murray, Brighter Lives, Darker Side
• Wintersleep, Wintersleep II
• Beck, Guero
• Stars, Set Yourself On Fire
• Sheryl Crow, Wildflower
• Mark Bragg, Bear Music
• Queens Of The Stone Age, Lullabies To Paralyse
• The New Pornographers, Twin Cinema
• Harvey Danger, Little By Little
• Oasis, Don't Believe The Truth

I wish these records had qualified as 2005 releases:

• Tegan and Sara, So Jealous
• Sarah Harmer, All Of Our Names

I was somewhat disappointed by:

• Paul McCartney, Chaos And Creation In The Backyard
• Steve Earle, The Revolution Starts Now (was this a 2004 release?)
  
• Neil Young, Prairie Wind

In response to a colleague who wrote:

still cannot get into that BSS cd........ i tried and tried.

I say:

It's alright that you're not into the BSS disc. I can't wrap my head around the Arcade Fire stuff, so maybe we have some kind of genetic difference that precipitates in mutually exclusive personal taste?

When I mentioned the "zero press/promotion" for the daft punk cd I was forgetting about the huge iTunes ad that used "Technologic" - but that was it anyway, so though they were used to peddle the biggest thing in money-spending this year, I still think they got pants'ed by the powers that be.

Another comment in regards to my dissapointment with "The Revolution Starts Now":

Agreed on Revolution Starts Now (even though I'm pretty sure that was a 2004 release). In his defense it was thrown together to try and make a difference in the election.