The Top Fifty Favorite Songs Of 2005 - Pt.2

40. “What Are You Waiting For?” by Kathleen Edwards
I honestly believe that Kathleen Edwards made the best Ryan Adams record this year. But we are talking about songs, not records, which brings me to “What Are You Waiting For?” Fairly standard alt.country songwriting, no doubt, but it’s all in the vocal delivery: the interplay of held notes with twangy geetar and moans echoed by mournful lap steel, spits of disgust over cascading riffs, sigh-singing over a crescendo coming out of the bridge. Edwards isn’t gentile like Kelly Willis or guy-ish like Lucinda Williams, she’s just annoyed as hell and she’s calling it like it is. This balance between vitriol and poise is perfectly encapsulated in the line: “It’s been eight years and yer still mad, still you lock me in your memory, you’ve got to be fuck – ing kidding me.”

39. “The Engine Driver” by The Decemberists
I read on the message boreds and blogs that Picaresque was going to show Colin Meloy stepping out of his retro-1930s-40s-vaudeville-indie-rock schtick, thus, bringing his songs to a new level without compromising the quirkiness. This track is absolutely most representative of this critic-asserted new direction. Still there’s accordion, glockenspiel (oh I love you glockenspiel), a feeling of old times, but the vocals are smoother (retaining enough of his Jeff Magnum croon), and the guitars are very Smiths-like (not that surprising). Of course I love this tune, it constantly shifts, revolves in-and-around itself, gradually crescendos and falls back into a grand coda to a breathtaking end: a lovely sadness (“If you don’t love me, let me go”).

38. “Movement” by LCD Soundsystem
The first minute-eleven of this track finds James Murphy rapping MES over farty keys, a steady electronic drum beat, and occasionally slices of feedback, then at one-twelve the whole track explodes into pure rock domination. Murphy is “tapped-uh”, and he’s talking about “discipline” and “culture” and “pillaging” and “history”, and he is “tapped-uh”. Right when you think the song has run out of steam, in comes a huge punk rock chord progression slapping the shit out of you. “Movement” is not complicated, it’s not about melody, it’s just got a series of hooks that not only get in your head, but rail against anything and everything. I’m tapped-uh. And “Movement” is my solace. Best line: “It’s like a fat guy in a t-shirt, doing all the singing.”

37. “Pox” by Xiu Xiu
Jamie Stewart’s vocals are amazing (sure, he can get over-the-top but not recklessly so – see precious Conor Oberst), and are the first thing that jump out when hearing this track. Yes, the lyrics are equally tragic and disturbing in a kind of high school drama club sort of way (*shrug*). But there is much more to this: the goth-tinged rhythms and riffs, the squawking of vintage electronics, the odd guitar tunings, the breakdowns (the bam-bam-bam-squeals that litter the track and the one near the song’s end that out-creeps the creepiest Joy Division songs), all create an overbearing mood while … overbearing (!) … the melody is not suffocated and the stellar songwriting isn’t buried.

36. “Assume” by The Fall
The sheer power and nerve make this track rock. Classic Fall lead guitar – repetition repetition repetition – into punk rock explosion and back, MES’ band is definitely tapped in to the source. When MES whisper-sneers, “You are Kapitän, Kapitän!”, followed by “Tch tch tch tch tch”, followed by a filthy punk rock chord progression, it’s angry, and it’s creepy; actually, angrier than angry and creepier than creepy. It’s the swagger of disgusted indifference permeating every syllable and note. I’m assuming that the “Hume” MES sings of here is Scottish philosopher, David Hume. Brilliant.

35. “Hundred Million Lightyears” by Kait0
One the surface this is one of those pretty tracks – a light melody, muffled beats, and flourishes of ambient loveliness that slowly builds and then softly floats away. But I’m not about to be content with the surface when every time I heard this track, it made my ears stand tall. While listening on headphones, you hear a gentle rat-a-tat of snare drum, multiple layers of melodic tinkering, and tiny additions of layer upon layer of melody. Even when the beat drops out for a good forty-five seconds, the swelling of the song sucks you in. Definitely transcendent. For those wondering, Kait0 is the alias of Japanese producer and DJ, Hiroshi Watanabe.

34. “Keep Sending Me Black Fireworks” by Of Montreal
Riding high on a Beatles-esque jaunt, Of Montreal crafts a completely infectious piano-driven pop tune. With vocals courtesy of lead OM Kevin Barnes’ wife, Nina, the song takes on a different quality than if the male Barnes took the lead (he still contributes backing vocals). I love how it opens with a weird series of chords on a synth of sorts that quietly relent to the piano. Child-like music taking on adult love, the juxtaposition is irresistible. Best line: “You’re my favorite living human by far/’cause you make this frightening world less bizarre.” Obviously, 2005 had love on my mind, probably, because I identified with it more than I ever have before in my life.

33. “Don’t Save Us From The Flames” (album version) by M83
A friend described the drum rolls in this track as “totally retarded.” I agree, and I’ll add to it: absolutely sick. While this French electronic-rock band lost a member to the desire to own a solo career (now it’s only Anthony Gonzalez), making M83 a solo act (?), this track picks up marvelously where Dead Cities, Red Seas, & Lost Ghosts left off. The multi-layer approach that M83 is known is evident regardless of listening environment. “DSUFTF” is full of neo-shoegazer guitar heroics, insane theremin-like space synths, and breathy vocals. At the 3:27 mark, Gonazalez lets it all go and the song soars, soars, soars gloriously and forcefully to the top of the cityscape.

32. “You Can’t Steal My Love” by Mando Diao
On Mando Diao’s debut (Bring ‘Em In), these anglophile Swedes aped (with voracious authenticity!) Oasis, Tom Jones, and The Stones. Here we find a heavy Libertines’ influence. “You Can’t Steal My Love” definitely reflects this, but with an earnest tenderness that has been mixed with Stones-y riffage and Naughty Doherty vocals. The track is a rousing pub-drenched rocker, which jitters, jerks, and jams left-right-forwards-backwards, marked by an incredible vocal performance by Björn Dixgård. When he moans in his upper registers, “Honey I love you, like the summer falls And the winter crawls you’re above and beyond me,” shivers run down my spine and I smile because I know exactly what he is singing about.

31. “We Belong Together” by Mariah Carey
For the record: I have never, ever, never, ever, ever, never, ever been a Mariah Carey fan. I remembering giggling and shooting off a “No kidding”, when Michael Stipe said, “The only way I remember how to pronounce Mariah Carey’s name, is it rhymes with pariah.” Yep! I’m pretentious like that! I first heard this song in the car with my 12-year old daughter and Sharon. My mother had bought her (my daughter) the CD, and she wanted to kick the jams. She told me to skip to track 2, and then she sat back waiting for my reaction. Immediately, I was taken aback. The song starts off with Mariah perfectly delivering the melody, then about three-quarters of the way into the track, Mariah has a chance to get all over-the-top-look-at-me-hit-all-the-high-notes, but she exercises restraint (no, she doesn’t pull back, but it’s not until the fucking fadeout does she vamp to the nth octave). I call this maturity, the ability and knowledge to vamp when it’s time to vamp, and to be reasonable when it’s time to be reasonable. Everything about this song fits. There is space too – pauses in the piano and guitar riffs and sparse backbeat, which create a great backdrop to the soulful melody. Oh yeah, Mariah gets my vote for Comeback Of The Year.