The Twelfth Annual GDA Record Of The Year List

My first record of the year lists were made on nexus in the music section. They are probably lost for ever but I pretty much remember every single record in them. A couple of others are missing due to email deletion, but I can remember the top two or three in each year without fail.
It has always been a top ten, however good or bad the year has been. Not this year though, oh no sirree…
I'm going top 20! 2005 has been a great year in my opinion and I can not only pick the top 20 records of the year, I can also list six others that I liked but that missed out. Ain't that just dandy?

So, before the awards start, here are the "six records I liked but of which there are at least 20 other records that I enjoyed more". It’s the SRILBOWTAALTORTIEM award!

Tom McRae - All Maps Welcome

Good, though not great album from the melancholic singer/songwriter.

Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger

Enjoyable guitar pop from odd looking northeners.

Silver Sun - Disappear Here

These boys once made one of the greatest albums of all time. They'll never hit that peak again, but this is fun.

Ben Folds - Songs For Silverman

I love Ben Folds, though this isn't his greatest work.

Deus - Pocket Revolution

Good, but alas not great new album from my all-time favourite Belgian band.

Eels - Blinking Lights

Occasionally genius double album from a bloke who seems to have gone through a lot of bad things. A staggeringly lengthy listen.

Right, before I list the top twenty in the reverse order, two things are worth noting. The top 5 or 6 records from this year would have won if they'd been released in 2004, and most would have finished higher in many other years. 2005 has been that good in my opinion.
Last thing, compilation of the year has undoubtedly been The Boo Radleys with Find The Way Out, a welcome reminder of the utter genius of that band. They should have been worshipped more.

Okay,

TOP 20 RECORDS OF THE YEAR

20. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

I like it, I really do. Yet, it just creeps into the top twenty, which says more about
the quality of 2005 than the quality of this album. Still, I will be listening to it in 2006, which is more than I can say about some of the albums that have disappointed me this year, such as the latest from Doves, Rufus Wainwright, Beck and The White Stripes.

19. David Ford - I Sincerely Apologise For All The Trouble I've Caused

9 songs of bile from the ex-Easyworld frontman. It is obviously a record he has crafted by himself in his home studio, and whereas his songwriting has always been excellent, I can't help but miss the noise
and energy that went with Easyworld. It's not an easy listen, and whereas some songs are immediate, others take quite a while to get. From listening to the last Easyworld album and his first solo-work, David Ford is one of the chief miserabilists in operation today. Grand for people wanting to have a big sulk.

18. Bloc Party - Silent Alaram

On first hearing Bloc Party I didn't overly like them. But Helicopter was great so I thought I'd give the album a try. I was pleasantly surprised. January and February are notoriously slow months for new music, but this was certainly one of the better albums I was listening to back then. It's not perfect but there is an energy and point to it that is missing from the meandering old nonsense produced by Oasis this year for instance.

17. Wolf Parade - Apologies To The Queen Mary

Well, thanks for the answers.
Whilst listening to the Wolf Parade EPs that proceeded ATTQM, I had a thought in my head. Was the ramshackle production hindering the sound or did it add to the overall excitement of the records? I certainly really enjoyed the EPs, and was curious about what effect it had on my listening experience, in that they sounded like the songs on them were being played live and possibly for the very first time as a band.
Grounds For Divorce gives the first real pointer as on the EP it fizzed with energy. Here, a lot of that is lost, it's still a great song but that spark seems to have been quashed. If this was the first time you'd heard the song then you'd like it, it's just that there is a far better version out there. Something has been lost. And that’s my problem, because however much I like the material, I can't shake this feeling that they could have been 10% better.

16. Sufjan Stevens - Come On Feel The Illinoise

However much I like this album, it's too much. There are many beautiful and gentle songs here, but it could have been trimmed. Sufjan could have saved some for his album about Ohio or New Mexico. And it is the fact that it can't hold my interest for a whole listen (which probably says more about me) that means it isn't in the top ten. Still, all rather nice though.

15. Idlewild - Warnings/Promises

Are you here because you are the fifteenth best album of 2005 or are you here because you are by Idlewild? The last Idlewild album ended up in the top ten but it wasn't as good as this. But do I like this? Sometimes I listen to it and think it's great, other times I just feel that something is missing. Maybe I just miss the Idlewild of Hope Is Important and 100 Broken Windows. It is frustrating because I feel with a bit of tweaking and better single choices, that the album would have fared better artistically as well as commercially. Anyway, it's rather mellow, but still occasionally sparks into life…like an album REM used to make.

14. Super Furry Animals - Love Kraft

Jesus, this makes the fourth album in a row that makes the top twenty but leaves me very slightly disappointed. It is good and some of it is great, yet it is far from being my favourite Super Furry Animals record. SFA have been making increasingly downbeat albums for a while and maybe I think they've gone too far. Sill, Zoom! And Cloud Berries are fantastic and the rest is perfectly suited to a Sunday morning of moping.

13. Brendan Benson - Alternative To Love

On paper Brendan Benson's forthcoming collaboration with Jack White looks rather exciting. Both are rather eclectic, Jack in his desire to make the people of the 21st century swallow blues-rock and Brendan in his pursuit of unusual melodies.
It is this thirst for melody that permeates Alternative To Love. Like last album Lapalco, what is harder to pin down is a definitive style. Spit It Out is straightforward indie, Pledge Of Allegiance has been put through a Phil Spector filter, Alternative To Love has an alt-country flavour whereas Them And Me is wistful and dreamy.
Obviously an accomplished musician, it is this breadth of scope that gives Alternative To Love it's charm (plus Brendo Benso's adaptable and deceptively expansive vocal talents). Yet, this freedom to produce whatever he likes is what will probably always restrict Brendan to a cult following as opposed to the mainstream.

12. The Chalets - Check In

Surprisingly entertaining harmony laden indie/pop with a fifties slant. Fight Your Kids is one of my favourite records of the year and the whole thing chugs along at a fair face, leaving a feeling of happiness afterwards. A lot of my favourite records of this year have been those that have made the day at work more bearable and this is one of them.

11. Low - The Great Destroyer

It seems that Low have discovered that music can be played at volumes of greater than 1. For this album they seem to have increased the volume to oooh, about 5. It's probably a bit long, but offers a rare emotional depth. Mellow with occasional spurts of noise, Low just write really nice songs.

10. The Crimea - Tragedy Rocks

A personal live favourite, The Crimea have released this album twice now, once self-released and now on a major label. Inventive non-linear indie/rock, it is the closest the band have come to putting the energy of their live performances onto record.

9. Roots Manuva - Awfully Deep

The music I really love is the music that I can identify with. Most of my favourite bands deal with melancholy and the emotions of the morose and fretful. Hippity-hop often "says nothing to me about my life" and it is the main problem I have with it. There are bits I like, but anything about bitches and caps in asses doesn't trigger the part of my brain that loves music for what it can identify with. That is why I love the work of Rodney Smith, Mr. Roots Manuva. Introspective, thoughtful and undeniably British, here is a man who can combine great (and diverse) tunes/beats/whatever with intelligent lyrical themes. Really rather smashing.

8. Mando Diao - Hurricane Bar

When a band that you've never heard of is recommended to you as "something you'd like" then it's almost a contractual obligation to check out what the hell they sound like.
So I found myself at Leeds festival this summer, watching a bunch of Swedish oddballs whizzing around the new band stage delivering what seemed like a brand of melodic rock/pop, something akin to The Hives. Which is handy as they're Swedish as well.
It was great though, a storm of energy and jumping around. By the end I was worried that one of them may collapse from exhaustion.
You know, you can take most of your new found RAWK n' ROLL revivalists and shove them up your arse, f**king hats, leather jackets, drainpipe jeans and all. But take a pop chorus and inject some RAWK, a dash of ROLL and a great big load of fizzy joie de vivre and you have a winner. Something for pissed up indie disco dancers and computer chair spinners everywhere.

7. The Tears - Here Comes The Tears

The best Suede album since 1996.
It can't all be Bernard Butler's doing, as Coming Up was a great "pop" Suede album and one which didn't feature Butler at all. But whatever chemistry the two have, whatever "magic" existed between the two in the early nineties seems to still be in place.
So, what do the other members of Suede think?
"You made us play all that tuneless nonsense when you had some of this up your sleeve? Why Brett, why?"
So, choruses and energy are what we have here. Lovers is the best Suede single not made by Suede in the last 9 years, Beautiful Pain, Refugees and Imperfection are the best Suede album tracks not made by Suede in the last 9 years.
The lyrics range from the good to downright laughable. Which is how Suede, sorry The Tears, should be.

6. Joy Zipper - The Heartlight Set

Wistful and lovely Californian music from an American boy/girl duo. It feels a bit out of place listening to this in the winter months as it is undeniably a summer album, songs that could bring a smile to even the most curmudgeonly of faces.

5. Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy

Rather beautiful and occasionally raucous guitar folk? I don't really know how to explain Okkervil River to people who've never heard of them. If you have heard them then you'll already love this, if you haven't then you really should. Lyrically staggering, it dumbfounds a musical retard like myself how they manage to craft beautiful music from such rampant verbosity. All I can merely say is that I rate it higher than Sufjan, though maybe not as highly as the previous album, Down The River Of Golden Dreams, my second favourite of 2003.

4. Herman Dune - Not On Top

My favourite album of 2003 was Mas Cambios by Herman Dune.
David-Ivar Herman Dune writes songs. Andre Herman Dune writes songs. On Herman Dune albums they generally take turns, singing a song each. Live, the experience is much the same, alternately starting one of their own songs, quickly accompanied by the rest of the band as they realise which one he's playing. Is there a competitive element? Are the brothers trying to trump one another?
With two prolific and highly creative main men, it makes for an embarrassment of riches and great creative freedom.
Not On Top is their most upbeat and electronic album yet. The standout Walk Don't Run even threatens to rock (and it does live). And whereas on exquisite previous album Mas Cambios it was Andre's songs which stood out, here David-Ivar seems at the top of his game.
And it is hard to pigeonhole. I'd probably call it upbeat folk-pop with hints of eclectic indie and alt-country. That's not really a genre is it? It's also quirky, lyrically inventive and interesting, as well as instrumentally varied.
What it all adds up to is a consistently high quality record, the relatively straightforward Little Wounds and title track Not On Top are openers to draw in the casual listener before the experimentation can begin.
It may be 2005 but we don't need all that fancy computer nonsense and modernity, here is a band who'll wilfully produce a warm-hearted record of energy, invention and beautiful simplicity. And record it in mono. If we stopped airbrushing personalities from our musicians and didn't over-produce everything to the point where it may as well be played by the latest Nokia mobile phone, here's what we could have.

3. The Arcade Fire - Funeral

I heard this last year but missed it off my record of the year list. It would have won last year as well and I think I may have been unfair. I'm sure the band will be distraught that they missed out on the number 1 spot in the annual best record list of a grumpy Fleetwoodian with bad hair and a sour face.
I'm guessing that you've all heard this now haven't you? It's great isn't it? I don't really need to say anything else but that, when I thought that I knew everywhere guitar music could go, it surprises the hell out of me to be proved wrong. Fantastic.

2. British Sea Power - Open Season

Musical awkwardness - the ability to keep things non-linear yet always convincing holds Open Season together as a whole, something which is obvious from the first listen. So when the euphoria of Please Stand Up fades into the slow-burn of North Hanging Rock, it all feels natural and marks the difference between a great album as opposed to a great collection of potential singles.
There are plenty of classic indie singles here however, It Ended On An Oily Stage, How Will I Ever Find My Way Home and the really rather magnificent Please Stand Up all soar, and often leave me with the strange desire to punch the air.
There is a wonder if there is a market for this today, do people have the patience to listen to a 40 minute piece of seamless majesty? Because, for all the brilliance of the singles, for all the melody and musicianship in each track, it is the fact that Open Season delivers such faultless quality from start to finish that makes this one of the best albums of 2005. There is no weakness, no flabby sag when experimentation is confused with quality. Whether a song soars or glides, everything here is a gem.
As British guitar music endlessly regurgitates inferior copies of what has gone before, British Sea Power seem willing and able to modify their output and outlook to cement themselves as one of the most innovative, accomplished and frankly rather fantastic bands we have.

1. The National - Alligator

a full review…

How do I write this?
I've been sat here for ten minutes staring at a blank page, unable to work out how I can write a review for what I consider to be the best album of the last five years.
I'll never do it justice, so why am I trying?
I guess I'd like to put across how I find it so beautiful, so thrilling and so utterly damn near perfect. I'm trying to avoid just listing superlatives here and am maybe trying to deny the feelings that I know I have.
Reviews of Alligator have invariably mentioned artists such as Nick Cave and The Tindersticks but this is largely a comment on the voice of lead singer Matt Berninger - a baritone crooner of dark lyrical themes. Berninger's drawl is to the fore on delicate songs such as Looking For Astronauts, Daughters Of The Soho Riots and Karen, but to label The National as Bad Seeds tinged Americana is flawed.
There have been National songs before where Berninger has let loose, and his deep and emotive voice has been replaced by a primeval howl, but on Alligator it is used to such exhilarating effect that you suddenly remember why you loved music in the first place. The screams of [I]'my minds not right'[/I] on Abel are enough to make you want to punch the air through sheer joy, the cries of [I]'I won't fuck us over, I'm Mister November'[/I] on album closer Mr.November makes you want to listen again, eager to here how a band can switch from the euphoric high of Abel, to the delicate Geese Of Beverley Road and City Middle, and then back to the pure bliss of Mr.November all in four songs. How can a band place the fury of Abel next to The Geese Of Beverley Road, a song that manages to be completely heartbreaking yet life-affirming all at the same time, and still make it sound so natural? Because that is the thing here, bands have written beautifully melancholic songs before, and just as many have written songs that make you want to jump up and down. Not many though have managed to put both of them together on the same album and for it to sound so perfectly normal and natural.
Alligator is pitched perfectly, melancholic but never morose, joyous without becoming superficial. Lyrically and musically it is superb, this is really a band at the top of their game. There is no dip in standard to be found, and whereas the upbeat numbers such as Secret Meeting, Lit Up and the aforementioned Abel and Mr.November can be found towards the start and end of Alligator, there is no sag in the middle. Baby We'll Be Fine is a touching song of remorse, ending in the beautifully shattering refrain of [I]'I'm So Sorry For Everything'[/I]. Looking For Astronauts and Daughters Of The Soho Riots at first seem to be straightforward ballads, but the lyrics and musicianship raise them to the very top drawer.
It probably sums it up that Alligator could be the soundtrack for the greatest night out of your life, yet could just as easily accompany the worst night out, one that ends with you slumped over a table wrapped up in misery. It'll make you feel better for whichever cause you use it for.

And after all that, all the false starts, all the rewrites, the worry about how to put across how I feel about something and the final decision to just write it straight in one-shot, I haven't done it justice. I never could.