Disclaimer: Coldplay’s “X&Y” will not be praised in these reviews. It is not pretentious enough.
Although music critics can sleep together, they may not agree on their favorite albums. Take, for instance, Mr. Hittinger and Mr. Gonzalez, who have attended four concerts together in the past two years, yet insist on separate speakers.
One prefers the 60s, one prefers the 80s, but they agree that Spoon’s “Gimme Fiction” is the best album of 2005.
Melody, distortion and depth of vocals and lyrics give the album an intangible feeling of quality.
Spoon shows capable song craft from the minimalist dance groove of “I Turn My Camera On,” to anthemed guitar pop of “Sister Jack,” and acoustic, lyrical nostalgia of “I Summon You.”
“Gimme Fiction” strikes a balance between mellow pop and edgy rock. Listeners will be equally pleased regardless of their previous preferences.
The top ten lists and reviews represent the challenge each reviewer faced during a pleasing year in music. Albums reviewed throughout the year are not included.
Antony and the Johnsons--“I Am A Bird Now”
“I Am a Bird Now” breaks my top ten as the only album which dares call itself “easy listening.” Antony and the Johnsons beg for attention and receive it for strong vocals and soul.
Antony leads his crew through paced and precise crescendos. His vibrating vocals feel ready to crack, and they likely are, as he questions human sexuality. Antony is a drag queen and his vocals match the alternating times of strength and insecurity in his life.
Overall, his focus is humane, with emphasis on the man, sister, baby, boy, “somebody,” and himself. Antony is a troubled soul making human-focused music that is just plain pretty.
Although I thought “I Am a Bird Now” would most widen my music tastes this year, I have not been taken in by the easy listening genre. Perhaps Antony and the Johnsons are simply the best or most unique. (Anthony Gonzalez)
Sons and Daughters--“The Repulsion Box”
The Sons and Daughters are good for music. Heart and honesty, without clutter mark their latest release, “The Repulsion Box.” The album offers a dash of Irish folk with an array of vocals and enough stomping and clapping for a good time.
Like the influential Violent Femmes of the 1980s, the Sons and Daughters bring intensity and rawness to folk. Whether backed with a steady drumbeat, stomps, claps or all three together, the Sons and Daughters layer folk strumming and fuzzed guitars throughout short ditties.
Front woman Adele Bethel leaves little for the ears to imagine. With an Irish gutter voice and woeful moan, Bethel leads with swagger that allows calm spoken words and shouted commands.
Bethel, like backing harmonizer Scott Patterson, uses her voice as an intangible instrument, wielding a variety of whoops, chants, whistles, hums, bass-filled booms and onomatopoeia samplings.
Folk can be fun or sinister and the Sons and Daughters are both; they layer modern rock intensity over the voice-emphasized folk tradition. (Anthony Gonzalez)
Presidents of the United States of America-- “Love Everybody”
The Presidents return from years of dips and here-and-there notoriety with a release sure to please fans.
The zany vocals and up-tempo rhythms of “Love Everybody” carry the Presidents’ torch.
Lyrical smatterings of a “Massive Gorilla,” “Munky River,” and “Shreds of Boa,” dot the album as lead vocalist Chris Ballew continues to craft tongue twisters that somehow invite singing along.
While no new song matches the awesomeness of previous singles, the album is solid.
If you like the sassy, twang-filled and quirky side of rock, then listen to all of the Presidents’ albums. (Anthony Gonzalez)
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club--“Howl”
Taking the title of their third full-length from fellow San Franciscan Alan Ginsberg, the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club have completely changed direction with their newest release, becoming a more stripped-down, folksy version of their former selves.
Rather than using the thick walls of garage-and-punk-influenced distortion that were prevalent on their previous albums, “Howl” reinvents the BRMC as the next great American folk group. This means no distortion pedals, a scant amount of electric guitar, and lots of blues, slide guitar and piano.
Tracks like “Devil’s Waitin,’” and “Complicated Situation,” feature co-front man Peter Hayes with only an acoustic guitar, the former a Johnny Cash-like gospel song and the latter sounding eerily like “Freewheelin’”-era Bob Dylan.
Another highlight is the country-blues hoedown stomp of “Ain’t No Easy Way,” where Robert Levon Been (formerly Turner) puts down his bass for slide guitar while Hayes goes crazy on the harmonica.
It’s a startling change of pace for the trio, who saw their previous label Virgin dump them after lackluster sales of their first two albums. Unlike those two albums, “Howl” is the sound of a band that is willing to tear down the walls hiding their sound and bear it all. (Jack Hittinger)
British Sea Power--“Open Season”
Trying to describe British Sea Power is like trying to hunt fish in a barrel. That only really means that I’ve never actually seen it done.
The English quintet tries to do this on their official website, which says, “British Sea Power play amplified rock music and are based in Brighton, East Sussex.”
This seems like the most apt description yet. Straddling the thin line between David Bowie and indescribable punk insanity, BSP have changed their sound slightly with their sophomore record “Open Season.”
The band’s first release, “The Decline of British Sea Power,” had an almost equal ratio of punk, pop, and balladry—in that order.
But “Open Season” trades in many of the faster punk rhythms from the first third of “The Decline Of” for a more nuanced songwriting approach. It could be considered a concept album, using songs about nature and adventure as metaphors for love and death.
Lyricists Yan (vocals, guitar) and Hamilton (bass, vocals) bring strange and interesting references to songs to add their own unique flavor to them.
Songs like “Victorian Ice” and “Be Gone” use nature to talk about love, the former using sea creatures and icebergs (“Victorian Ice and Edwardian Snow”) and the other equating a lover leaving to seasons changing. Inversely, “North Hanging Rock” uses the language of dust and the earth for death.
“Open Season,” infused with beautiful melodies and excellent songwriting, as well as the occasional moment of rock, gives British Sea Power the distinction being the cleverest and most well-rounded pop band from England in a decade—Coldplay never writes songs about Fyodor Dostoyevsky, now do they? (Jack Hittinger)