As the end of yet another year approaches, every music blog and magazine on the planet will rank the best albums and songs of the past year. Will Mike Went West, a blog that prides itself on being different, join the masses?
Hell yes I will. Who would pass up the opportunity to distill all of the year’s music into an intensely-biased list of 10 or so top albums? Clearly not me. But seeing as how the year hasn’t come to a close yet, my list top albums and songs probably won’t be out until mid-January.
So then why am I even mentioning all of this? Simple: I’ve got some other lists I want to post first. So sit back and enjoy the best albums of 2005 that I didn’t listen to or fully appreciate until 2006. Better late than never!
JEFF HANSON – Jeff Hanson
Yes I know, Jeff Hanson sounds like a girl. If you’ve listened to my second mix tape, you know what I’m taking about. Once you get past that, however, you’ll soon realize he writes some beautiful, catchy songs. He draws lots of comparisons to Elliott Smith for good reason: his melodies and arrangements are immediately catchy, while the lyrics are full of heartache and longing. The track posted below is one of the most upbeat songs on the album.
DEVIN DAVIS – Lonely People of the World, Unite!
I’ve been listening to Devin Davis a lot recently. I downloaded his album a long time ago but never really listened to it. Thanks to my recent laptop upgrade with a harddrive large enough to hold all my mp3′s, I can listen to any song I want with the push of a button. All those artists that got buried in my iPod have been unearthed. Devin Davis is one of them. His music spans many genres, as the two excellent songs posted below demostrate.
MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO – What Comes After the Blues
Talk about a grower. I purchased this album in 2005, gave it a few listens, and quickly cast it aside when I didn’t take to it immediately. The problem with What Comes After the Blues is that it is very much an album; tracks distinguish themselves only after you’ve listened to them many times. Now that I’ve given it the proper attention, I love it. I think bleak perfectly describes the mood.
THE JOE BEATS EXPERIMENT – Indie Rock Blues
I initially thought of indie rock as the anti-hip hop: the two genres had nothing in common. Lyrically, that may be true, but recently several indie rock bands have incorporated hip hop elements into their music (listen to “Where There’s a Will There’s a Whalebone” by Islands). And then there’s people who turn indie rock into hip hop. Joe Beats is one of those guys. Indie Rock Blues takes tracks from bands like Neutral Milk Hotel and Songs: Ohia and transforms them into one long indie-rock wet-dream remix.
TAPES ‘N TAPES – The Loon
I thought it kinda funny that Tapes ‘n Tapes made so many best of lists in 2005 given that The Loon was released so close to the end of the year. I didn’t pick up my copy until April 2006, but thanks to the blogs I’d already heard most of the songs. Despite this, I was still surprised by the quality of the album. It may be typical indie rock, but like Wolf Parade, it is extremely powerful and catchy (see Mix Tape 3 for evidence). The track posted below is the mellow song on the album.
Do you have any albums from 2005 that you’ve only discovered in 2006? Leave a comment and let me know. It may be new to me as well!
Andy (hey brother...) wrote:December 4, 2006
“wet-dream remix” wow, such gripping and compelling writing. not sure i want to dabble in the joey beats experiment for fear of having a wet dream myself
c wrote:December 10, 2006
i actually am putting the loon on my best of 2006 list – and i realize now that it should be 2005 – but i don’t care ;)
i love that magnolia electric co. cd, too.
cool post.