The highs and lows of ‘05 music
It was a good year for music, a not-so-good year for the music industry.
Total music sales were down again, by 4.5 percent, although legal music downloads more than doubled.
The industry’s struggle against piracy included a Supreme Court victory against the file-sharing service Grokster in June. But Sony BMG suffered an embarrassing setback last month, when the copy-protection software on 4.7 million CDs – by Alicia Keys and Neil Diamond, among others – exposed fans’ computers to Internet viruses and had to be recalled.
It was a year for the Time magazine-cover coronation of Kanye West, the continued commercial dominance of 50 Cent, and the unlikely ascension of Mariah Carey as the Grammys’ favorite comeback queen.
Drawling Houston rappers Mike Jones and Paul Wall flourished. So did “O.C.”-sanctioned singer-songwriters like Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley, and Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes.
Meanwhile, music blogs and Internet tip sheets like Pitchfork Media threatened to make old-media gatekeepers like Rolling Stone obsolete.
What follows are my top 10 picks of 2005, in alphabetical order. It was hard to leave it at that, so there are some honorable mentions as well.
Fiona Apple, “Extraordinary Machine”
The unfinished version that was leaked onto the Internet months before the official release gives fans a choice: producer Jon Brion’s rococo experiment or Mike Elizondo’s (and Apple’s) stripped-down, muscled-up version. I’ll take the latter; it eliminates the distractions, the better to focus on the husky singer’s witty, resilient tales of doomed romance.
Recommended download: “O’ Sailor.”
Bright Eyes, “I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning”
Like many an ambitious young songwriter in a hurry, Omaha, Neb., wunderkind Conor Oberst is guilty of getting mad at the world and feeling sorry for himself. That, and clunky quasi-electronic arrangements, drag down his other 2005 release, “Digital Ash in a Digital Urn.” But on “Wide Awake,” he keeps it rootsy and maps out his postadolescent confusion with poetic grace.
Download: “Old Soul Song (For the New World Order).”
Buck 65, “This Right Here Is Buck 65”
No relation to 50 Cent, Buck 65 is a born storyteller, a Halifax hip-hop-head who’s equal parts Woody Guthrie and Run-D.M.C. “This Right Here” samples 10 years’ worth of indie releases, delving into blues, hard rock and dub with a writerly eye for detail.
Download: “Wicked and Weird.”
Danger Doom, “The Mouse and the Mask”
Pop music takes itself s-o-o-o seriously. Danger Doom supplies the antidote. Commissioned by the Adult Swim arm of Cartoon Network, this CD teams the iron-masked rapper MF Doom with producer Danger Mouse, whose “Grey Album” mashup of the Beatles and Jay-Z was one of 2004’s highlights. Guest rappers like Talib Kweli show up to “make up a lyrical flow, over a cereal bowl,” and Meatwad (of “Aqua Teen Hunger Force”) takes it to the dance floor on “Turn the Beat Around.”
Download: “Benzi Box.”
Feist, “Let It Die”
This year’s Norah Jones? Canadian singer Leslie Feist fills the niche with a record that won’t alienate anyone and nourishes the soul on repeated listening. Feist is a supremely relaxed torch singer, and has French chanteuse and disco-queen moves. Like Jones, she displays subtle songwriting skills alongside covers that she turns into personal statements.
Download: “Mushaboom.”
Franz Ferdinand, “You Could Have It So Much Better”
The success of these four Glaswegians’ self-titled 2004 debut set off a vogue in Gang of Four-influenced British dance rock. Franz upped the ante with this harder, faster, equally decadent follow-up, winning extra subversive points for the overtly gay “Do You Want To.”
Download: “You’re the Reason I’m Leaving.”
M.I.A., “Arular”
The hyperkinetic debut of London-based, Sri Lanka-bred Maya Arulpragasan is a beat-crazy collage of street-savvy sounds: U.K. grime, Rio favela funk, Puerto Rican reggaeton. “Arular” multitasks: It can make you bounce around your living room with delight, or ponder the political subjugation of the global underclass. The most fun I had listening this year, by far.
Download: “Amazon.”
Amy Rigby, “Little Fugitive”
Rock ‘n’ roll is about the chase, and country music is about what happens after the vows are spoken. That’s why, among pop-rock songwriters, Amy Rigby is such a rare case. Since 1996’s “Diary of a Mod Housewife,” the divorced single mom has specialized in pop songs with a country tinge that attack grown-up situations with pointed wit and growing self-knowledge. “Little Fugitive” pays raucous tribute to Joey Ramone, goes psychedelic on “So Now You Know,” and takes aim at the enemy in “Needy Men.”
Download: “Girls Got It Bad.”
System of a Down, “Mesmerize”/”Hypnotize”
One came out in the spring and one in the fall but, really, they’re one long attention-deficit-disorder tour de force. The Armenian American quartet, led by vocalist Serj Tankian and guitarist-mastermind Daron Malakian, rages on about the war in Iraq and the early-20th-century Armenian genocide, and chants “banana banana terra cotta pie” ad nauseam. It may not all make sense, but each song is packed with enough musical ideas to fill up a whole album.
Download: “Soldier Side.”
Kanye West, “Late Registration”
Not quite as dazzling or consistent as 2004’s “The College Dropout,” but still, West goes to the head of the class. “Late Registration” samples Ray Charles and Curtis Mayfield, has collaborations with Jon Brion and Jay-Z, and revels in the contradictions of a Ralph Lauren-wearing preppy who’s become king of the rap game.
Download: “Hey Mama.”
Honorable mentions
Amadou & Mariam, “Dimanche a Bamako”; Brendan Benson, “The Alternative to Love”; Tim Fite, “Gone Ain’t Gone”; Betty LaVette, “I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise”; Sinead O’Connor, “Throw Down Your Arms”; Sleater-Kinney, “The Woods”; Spoon, “Gimme Fiction”; Bruce Springsteen, “Devils & Dust”; Sufjan Stevens, “Illinois”; White Stripes, “Get Behind Me Satan.”