No.20
Between The Buried And Me - Alaska
Alaska is
nuts, but frequently brilliant. Few bands
cover so much ground, and fewer still do
it with such cohesion between what are often
considered mutually exclusive styles. BTBAM
somehow manage to seamlessly combine often
unfathomably complex and brutal tech metal
rhythms with spectacularly melodic pop chord
progressions, simultaneously nailing just
about every metal sub-genre in between with
consistent and dazzling ingenuity. Add the
staggeringly gorgeous guitar arpeggios which
are almost a BTBAM trademark, and you have
the only album of the year that makes sense
when you’re REALLY fucked up about
things. DS
|
|
 |
No.19
Bearsuit - Team Ping Pong
 |
|
Instead
of trying to describe what Bearsuit
sound like to my friends (scientists
have recently discovered it's actually
impossible), I've taken to playing
them Team Ping Pong to set
them straight. Providing handy examples
of all of the multitude of facets to
Bearsuit's unique and varying sound,
it ranges from cacophonous maelstroms
of flutes, guitars, keyboards and percussion
to thoughtful and understated melodies
and lyrics. Team Ping Pong shows
exactly why Bearsuit are a band which,
if this world is just in any way, should
make even bigger waves in 2006. JH
|
|
No.18
Pelican - The Fire In Our Throats Will
Beckon The Thaw
Intense
and epic soundscapes are what Pelican
do best, and this album is no different.
Well actually it is, and although introducing
acoustic elements into their music
was a risk, it paid off big style.
This is the band’s best work
to date, melting beautiful melodies
with extreme riffage. Heavier than
Rik Waller in a coat of lead and mellower
than flower picking with a hippy, if
you don’t like Pelican, you’re
either insane or dead. JB
|
|
 |
No.17
Bright Eyes - I’m Wide Awake its Morning
 |
|
One
of two Bright Eyes albums in 2005 (not
counting the live one), I’m
Wide Awake it’s Morning managed
to encapsulate almost everything Conor
Oberst has to offer. Considerably more
measured than on previous albums, Oberst
kept one eye on his musical integrity
while attracting a whole new audience.
Without a single weak track, highlights
range from the heartbroken resignation
of ‘Landlocked Blues’ to
the riotous political rant of closer ‘Road
To Joy’. Another year spent adding
to an already bulging repertoire of celebrated
songs, and he’s still only 25.
Bastard. RS
|
No.16 Envelopes -
Demon
Despite
my somewhat shallow misgivings about
bands naming themselves after something
found in a stationery cupboard, Envelopes
provided the year’s summer soundtrack
for me and many other satisfied customers.
This eclectic wedge of Scandinavian pop
trawls the indie seas, netting influences
from Pixies, Pavement and Belle and Sebastian
and presenting its catches in a way that
merits a mention in such revered company. Demon is
a ray of sunshine from a place that often
sees little of the stuff (I'm talking
about York, where they've been recording
their new album). Listen and smile. JH
|
|
 |
No.15 Twin
Zero - Monolith
 |
|
There’s
little doubt Twin Zero’s sophomore
effort (due 2006) will raise the bar
for metal even further, but Monolith got
2005 off to an epic, Armageddon-inducing
start. Unleashing a feast of pounding
rhythms, Karl Middleton (earthtone9)’s
soaring and searing vocal attack and
oodles of ideas, Monolith is
at times both life-affirmingly triumphant
and brain-crushingly destructive. And
as it’s basically one piece of
music, what you’ve got is essentially
nigh on forty minutes of whale-heavy
riffs and beautiful atmospheric interludes
to give your head a damn good seeing
to. DS
|
No.14 Zark
Behida - Isis
Zark
takes us on a seat-of-the-pants ride
through a turbulent drum and bass landscape,
with a suggested serving including big
speakers and the album's accompanying
book. Isis veers carefully between
typical dnb and more experimental broken
beats territory, never being straight-forward,
never too manic. This album can certainly
be numbered as one of the most satisfying
electronic offerings over the last year,
ticking both the energetic and profound
boxes on the Standard Review Form N36. SR
|
|
 |
No.13 Animal Collective
- Feels
 |
|
Any
band that consists of four members named
Geologist, Avey Tare, Panda Bear and
Deacon are automatically fine by me.
And when they produce wondrous, swirling,
subtly complex pop songs such as the
nine found on Feels, they cannot
fail to stay ingrained on the brain for
quite some time. No other album this
year has managed to sit eccentricity
so comfortably with sincerity. Feels may
not grab you at the first listen, but
give it the time it deserves and it will
never be far from your stereo. RS
|
No.12 British Sea
Power - Open Season
2003’s The
Decline of British Sea Power was
a fine album, but put some listeners
off with its more ‘out there’ tendencies.
The complex, epic Open Season saw
BSP pull off a more accessible and
obviously melodic album without sacrificing
any of their uniqueness. It’s
hard to think of another contemporary
band who could come up with song titles
as good as ‘It Ended On An Oily
Stage’; whose idiosyncratic lyrics
and artwork make frequent reference
to the Great Outdoors; or whose flora-strewn
gigs culminate with the band being
beaten up by a man in a bear costume.
I love this band and I plan to marry
it. MB
|
|
 |
No.11 Marmaduke Duke - The Magnificent
Duke
 |
|
Marmaduke
Duke (although they should really be
known as Biffy Sly-ro for the sneaky
concealment of Biffy front-man Simon
Neil) fire off volley after volley of
staccato alternative rock in this first
of a trilogy of fables. The Duke may
well be the evil twin brother of Biffy,
with a keyboard in his bag of tricks
and a sneer on his face. If you’re
fed up of character-less music with as
much emotion as Neil Hamilton, get hold
of The Duke and he’ll show you
what excitement and extravagance is all
about. SA
|
No.10 Million
Dead - Harmony No Harmony
Alas,
I once again write a TinyVoices Top 20
entry more as an epitaph than a review.
Million Dead took the rather shaky and
preposterous idea of British post-hardcore
and ran with it – and by the time
of this, only their second album, had
completely reinvented the form. Adding
wider influences from the Smiths to Soundgarden
into their wired punk-rock ire, Harmony
No Harmony saw Million Dead poised
for deserved recognition as one of the
UK’s most imaginative and talented
rock bands. Only no-one bought their
album and they broke up instead. Bollocks. TP
|
|
 |
No.9 Innocent
Cabbage - Innocent Cabbage
 |
|
How
Innocent Cabbage are not now every metalhead
teenager’s favourite band is beyond
me. This, their first real album, is
33 minutes packed full of massively atmospheric
riffs and the kind of screaming that
gets you sectioned under the Mental Health
Act. Throw in some of the best metal
song-writing in recent memory, a stupidly
talented drummer and a madcap ("You
care / You love me / I am so beautiful
/ Feel my nipple") but often shrewdly-observed
sense of humour, and the end result is
possibly the best metal album of the
noughties so far. WM
|
No.8 Reuben
- Very Fast Very Dangerous
Confidently
leading the British Emocore (or whatever
it’s called these days) scene,
Reuben return with their second LP, and
their first written from scratch. A quantum
leap in production quality (Chris Sheldon
has worked with Biffy Clyro and Foo Fighters)
allows Reuben to really show off their
energy. It’s all here – the
down-tuned riffery, the melodies, the
powerhouse rhythm section and more scringing
(that’s the rapid switch between
singing and screaming) than you could
care to wave a stick, a badger, or any
other wavy thing at. WM
|
|
 |
No.7 dEUS -
Pocket Revolution
 |
|
Lamarr
isn’t the only one who feels there’s
not much justice in the world. If there
was any justice in the world, dEUS would
be huge. On their first album since 1999’s
awesome The Ideal Crash Tom
Barman and co serve up a masterclass
of songwriting and inventiveness. From
blistering opener ‘Bad Timing’ to
the sublime jazz-pop of ‘Nothing
Really Ends’ dEUS show that nothing
is beyond them. Despite the scope of
their sound, perhaps dEUS’ greatest
trick is to never let their ecclecticism
overshadow the fact they have great tunes. JD
|
No.6 Coheed And Cambria - Good Apollo I’m Burning
Star
This,
the third album from prog-emo superstars
Coheed and Cambria, was even better than
we expected, taking the best parts of
their last two brilliant albums and forging
the finest record to emerge from that
already-stale scene. Claudio Sanchez’s
Geddy Lee-inspired vocals add stunning
melody to the awe-inspiring music. C&C
are sounding more and more like Pink
Floyd each day, and while this album
is already their best, you can’t
help feeling their greatest work is still
to come. JB
|
|
 |
5. Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock and Roll
 |
|
Look
at them, they formed a band. Bang
Bang Rock and Roll instantly blew
away all accusations that Art Brut were
a flash-in-the-pan one-joke band. From
rocking out to modern art, bungling a
heist and painfully (and hilariously)
recounting an attack of Mr Floppy ("Don’t
tell your friends!"), front man
Eddie Argos hits all-time highs of quotability
with his seemingly effortless absurdisms
and self-effacing one-liners ("and
yes, this is my singing voice").
But the amped up garage rock knocked
out by the rest of the band deserves
equal credit in achieving the seemingly
impossible – making a credible
and durable rock album full of brilliantly
funny moments. An addictive, deliciously
wry album from a gloriously out-of-kilter
band. TP
|
No.4 Oceansize
- Everyone Into Position
Can
this album really be as great as I said
it was when I first reviewed it? Yes,
actually. True, it’s meandering
and epic, and really quite self-indulgent
in places, but ultimately Everyone
Into Position has so much depth
and subtelty, and so many brilliant ideas,
that I can’t really fault it. It’s
well-crafted in a way that almost nothing
else is these days, a lesson in dynamics,
suspense and release, glorious, rampaging
heaviness and fragile, melodic splendour.
Am I allowed to say that this is the
pinnacle of guitar music? (It is). DS
|
|
 |
No.3 Sigur
Ros - Takk
 |
|
After
the near unrelenting menace of (
), the Ros returned in 2005 showing
off their more euphoric side. Their enourmous
sound is still unique, and it still doesn’t
matter if, like myself, you don’t
have a clue what Jonsi is singing about,
as the overall effect is just so beguiling
and dazzling. First single ‘Glosoli’ is
pretty much a microcosm for the whole
album, combining gentle atmospheres with
overwhelming noise to geniunely rousing
effect. A great band for whom there aren’t
sufficient superlatives. JD
|
No.2 System Of A
Down - Hypnotize / Mezmerize
This
dual album release from the Serbian superstars
may be insane, but luckily, as is often
the case, the insanity is twinned with
genius. Who else combines folk with metal
and actually makes it sound good? Singer
Serj Tankian’s political ruminations
may perhaps be too subtle for the average
SOAD fan, but the honourable task of
enlightenment is saddled in outlandishly
spectacular manner. No other band today
provides the masses with rock music as
eccentric and entertaining as this. SA
|
|
 |
No.1
Arcade Fire - Funeral
 |
|
Musically,
if not in any other sense, Canada has
some pretty horrific skeletons rattling
around its national closet: Adams, Dion,
Barenaked Ladies… Arcade Fire’s
debut album – released in the UK
in 2005 – went some way towards
compensating for these historical nightmares.
While comparisons to the likes of Bowie
and Talking Heads abounded (as comparisons
are wont to do), Funeral carved
out a distinctive sound of its own: baroque,
intricate, multi-layered and simultaneously
dark and joyous. In what was a very good
year for music, Arcade Fire fully deserve
their highly coveted position here and
their current status as darlings of the
indie-pop universe. Oh, and when they
did ‘Rebellion (Lies)’ on Top
of the Pops, it rocked. MB
|
|
more...
|
|
