Best of 2005

I stole this idea from Miccio. Two a day, taken from my Village Voice Pazz & Jop ballot:

10. Kate Bush, Aerial



Having made my peace with Bush's rather stiffjointed motions towards ecstacy (chugging power chords don't achieve liftoff even when she's howling "I wanna be up, up, UP on the ROOF!" like she's still wants to take her shoes off and throw them in the lake), I relaxed and accepted this woman's version of middle-age domesticity. From dreaming of washing machines to Renaissange madrigals for her son to the subtle smarts of her sound (she makes the best case for the virtues of self-production), this is still plenty weird.

9. Spoon, Gimme Fiction



Unduly impresssed by Britt Daniels' previous excursions into tuneful opacity, I was prepared to like this record before forgetting it in December. What I did forget was how seductive tuneful opacity can be when garnished with bits of ugly guitar squalls, with Daniels' increasingly confident vocals atop. Flaunting the encyclopedic knowledge of all things rock that is de rigueur for canny aesthetes these days, Daniels is more comfortable doing "Rocks Off" ("Sister Jack") than "Emotional Rescue" ("I Turn My Camera On"). For canny aesthetes, this is a real achievement.