I haven't heard that much released in '05, but Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs is too cool for school and will undoubtedly make my year-end Top Ten. Thanks for putting him up here at Metacritic, as well as adding many other artists we've been championing here for the last nine months.

The three albums I find really engaging this year so far are:

Archer Prewitt - Wilderness
Low - The Great Destroyer
Andrew Bird - The Mysteriuos Production Of Eggs

I also enjoy Bright Eyes and Marianne Faithful, but they don't measure up quite so much to the ones I listed.

Josh Rouse's Nashville and Iron & Wine's Woman King have far exceeded my expectations. Rouse will surely be a Top Ten for 2005, unless a whole pile of really good records come out in the next 10 months.

I've only spun the Clem Snide once, but it was good on a cursory listen.

Josh Rouse, whose record has scored a crazy high Metacritic score (including a middling score from Pitchfork), has put out a record that will likely be in my Top 5 of 2005. After 6 listens in three days, I'm hooked. It's got the low-key power of Dressed Up Like Nebraska with the pop charms of Home and the grooves of 1972. It's a fantastic record.

Clem Snide's End of Love isn't far behind. Clever lyrics (about German techno records) and low-key tempos make the record a slow-burner, but a good one.

I had poker night at my place tonight and I spun Rouse, Clem Snide, and Ray Lamontagne in constant rotatation without complaint.

quote:

Originally posted by philosopherEric:
Clever lyrics (about German techno records)

What does he say?

I am curious...spit some quotes if u can?

quote:

Originally posted by philosopherEric:
Josh Rouse, whose record has scored a crazy high Metacritic score (including a middling score from Pitchfork), has put out a record that will likely be in my Top 5 of 2005.

Based on the scores — so far a Metascore of 90 from 91, 90, 90, 90 and Pitchfork's 66 — it would appear the law of averages ignores Schreiber's house of thesaurus abuse. (Good.) And I haven't heard Rouse's newest (nor the Clem Snide), but I intend to. My top 5 of January and February:

1) Antony and the Johnsons - I am a Bird Now
2) Matt Sweeney and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Superwolf
3) Sage Francis - A Healthy Distrust
4) Archer Prewitt - Wilderness
5) Amon Tobin - Chaos Theory*

*I'll be the first to admit it's not particularly good, but I spend 20 hours a week in the car (much of it doing at least 85mph) and it often finds its way into the CD player. I'll eventually grow tired of it, I'm sure, but for now it beats out Roots Manuva's Awfully Deep.

I bought three albums yesterday and liked them all quite a bit, so here's an updated list.

1) Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
2) Low - The Great Destroyer
3) Antony and the Johnstons - I Am A Bird Now
4) Iron & Wine - Woman King
5) Andrew Bird - The Mysterious Production of Eggs

quote:

Originally posted by Imprezu21:

quote:

Originally posted by philosopherEric:
Clever lyrics (about German techno records)

What does he say?

I am curious...spit some quotes if u can?

The song is called "The Sound of German Hip Hop". I misspoke. I thought it was about techno...

"I woke up with the sound of German hip hop in my head/
A great unholy clatter quickly filling me with dread/
I wondered then if silence had forever disappeared/
With everybody yelling, the end was finally near..."

Best two CD's I've come across this year have been Bright Eyes and LCD Soundsystem...I'm looking forward to a lot of albums this year: Flaming Lips, White Stripes, Coldplay, Franz Ferdinand, Outkast...should be fun. I wonder when new Radiohead album will come out? Haven't heard "Wilderness" yet, I may check it out.

"Arular" by M.I.A. is absolutely incredible.

Sorry, but I'm hard pressed to see another album coming along in a while that matches its level of consistent innovation, political ferociousness, and (especially) exuberant fun.

I'm having a blast listening to it. It's like nothing else I've ever heard. The production is flawless.

I think everyone has overlooked the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Matt Sweeney collaboration Superwolf. It's a very subtle album and features some of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's best work since I See a Darkness. I'd recommend the songs "My Home is the Sea" and "Blood Embrace," the latter being one of Will Oldham's darkest and most personal songs to date. Also, if you didn't pick up Man Man's Man in a Blue Turban with a Face in 2004 go and get that album. I know this is a Best of 2005 thread, but sweet Jesus, that album was amazing.

quote:

Originally posted by Keram the Caesarian:
I think everyone has overlooked the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Matt Sweeney collaboration Superwolf.

It's my #2. See above.

M.Ward also has a good chance of making the early top 5, based on my initial listen.

I also had the Superwolf album on my list. It hasn't stayed with me as much as I thought it would when I first heard it, but it has made me go back through all my old Will Oldham cds. Viva Last Blues is so good.

I don't know how, but I completely missed your posts. I'm a little scatter-brained right now. I ditched Superwolf after the first few listens as well, but every few weeks I come back and rediscover the album. I'd say give it another chance if you can, it’s an extremely rewarding album.

Keram,

What's the deal with the Atlanta/St. Louis locations? I currently live in the STL but we're getting ready to move back to Atlanta...odd that you share those two cities!

M. Ward's Transistor Radio is great from start to finish. Fans of Sparklehorse should get on board.

Antony and the Johnsons new one is also really good.

I've got Archer Prewitt on the way, based on the high praise here.

I agree, that's pretty strange. I'm originally from St. Louis, but at the moment, I'm in school in Atlanta. Both cities have their moments, although Atlanta's music scene is much better than St. Louis's scene.

Atlanta's scene certainly gets more indie and national bands than St. Louis'. St. Louis has a better alt-country and alt-folk scene, and several clubs that book that stuff almost exclusively (Off Broadway, Fred's) along with a pretty good indie-punk club (Creepy Crawl) but Atlanta gets most of the bigger acts, including many of the British bands that skip St Louis entirely. I s'pose St. Louis is best known for rap and hip-hop, which is unfortunate. Some great alt-country bands have come from the Lou...Uncle Tupelo/Son Volt/Wilco, Bottle Rockets, Nadine, and Waterloo, to name a few.

If you include Athens with Atlanta, you get a really nice set of clubs. I'm not sure what the "scene" really is...Ath-lanta's always been a hodgepodge of scenes lumped together...Elephant 6 bands, the R.E.M. contingent, the Eddie's Attic folk stuff (including John Mayer, Shawn Mullins, and Angie Aparo), and the Atlanta indie scene. I don't mention the hip-hop scene because I don't know it, but I know it's there.

If you combine St Louis with Columbia, I think you get a better set of venues. I'm going to Columbia this weekend to see Paul Westerberg play at the Blue Note.

quote:

Originally posted by m.leland:

5) Amon Tobin - Chaos Theory*

*I'll be the first to admit it's not particularly good, but I spend 20 hours a week in the car (much of it doing at least 85mph) and it often finds its way into the CD player. I'll eventually grow tired of it, I'm sure, but for now it beats out Roots Manuva's Awfully Deep.

Agreed...even though i like awfully deep alot.Chaos Theorey has made it into my cars cd player many times since i got it.

I feel really St. Louis ignorant right now. I had no idea that Uncle Tupelo and Wilco had St. Louis roots. I know Wilco does a lot of their recording in Midwestern cities like Chicago, but I had no idea they came from St. Louis.

I'm not sure if this is a gripe about the St. Louis scene or just a general problem with music today, but the only bands that get attention in St. Louis are the pop-punk/emo/screamo groups. If you've ever played a show at the Creepy Crawl or the Hi-Point, you know that you will be sharing the bill with at least two pop-punk/emo/screamo (which for simplicity I will henceforth refer to as pop-mo bands). Setting aside my personal judgments about the quality of pop-mo, these bands usually bring in a very temporary crowd that usually leaves after their one band plays. By ignoring the other bands, a true St. Louis local music scene is prevented from developing – a problem that has hurt the chance of any really creative bands from developing in St. Louis.

Fortunately, there are still places like The Way-Out club that encourage the development of scenes by picking a genre and only booking those bands, in the Way Out Club's case, Rockabilly and Psycobilly. As a result, some great rockabilly/psycobilly bands – a level of quality that is rare in the Rockabilly/psycobilly genre – have developed like the Trip Daddies and the Seven Shot Screamers.

Atlanta has some great venues. I just discovered the Eyedrum the other day…wow.