2005 Records: 14 - 1
14. Decemberists - Picaresque
(Kill Rock Stars)
With Picaresque, the Decemberists finally fulfill the potential they've always displayed on previous records that were pretty good at best and deathly boring at worst. The result is their most eclectic, memorable, and best album to date. Oh, and "The Engine Driver?" Best song of 2005. (Pat)
13. Lightning
Bolt - Hypermagic Mountain
(Load)
Greek Mythology taught me a valuable lesson: Zeus is a bad ass motherfucker. The dude is essentially the old school version of the Spiderman villain Electro. I'm not physicist, but if you could convert the inertia and shock of these epic giants you would equate Lightning Bolt: drum and bass to the maximus. With Hypermagic Mountain, they took their formula to new thundering heights. Each bass string strum feels like your intestines tightened and throttled. Drums shake like a stampede of centipede feet in stilleto heels. I can't help but feel that this is what video game music would sound like if the Nintendo soundtrack innovators had heard the Boredoms. (Zed)
12. Sunn
O)))â??Black One
(Southern Lord)
An album full of frightening intensity, Black One assaults the senses with thunderous sub-bass sonics, droning guitars, shrieking feedback, and howling vocals all while being awash in white noise. Sunn0))) crafts a superbly cohesive piece with the help of their revolving guest conspirators. Just like the best horror movies, it will thrill the listener and hold you in its thrall until the very end. (Bob)
11. Propagandhi
- Potemkin City Limits
(Fat Wreck Chords/G7)
Raging, furious and exciting still, in a genre that's quickly becoming stagnant. Propagandhi's stunning return to form illustrated the bile and intellect that's made them one of the strongholds of the political punk scene in recent years. Potemkin City Limits is a lesson in how to be angry in a smart way. Take note, NOFX, Anti-Flag, and maybe even Green Day. Maybe. (Matt)
10. Gospel
- The Moon Is A Dead World
(Level Plane)
'Screamo 'assumptions are immediately frozen on The Moon is a Dead Place as we hear eight songs of near nonstop mind-wandering rock. If talent doesn't scare you away and listening to dense instrumentation that doesn't wander down a tech metal path excites you, Gospel will flood your brain like an alarm clock. Basically, if "alternative" rock all sounds the same and punk is beginning to all sound the same, my god, Gospel will slip into that ear hole perfectly. I swear. (Zed)
9. Kanye
West - Late Registration
(Roc-A-Fella)
If I had been in Kanye West's position this year, I would have relaxed. You know, buy an Xbox, maybe a jetpack, go to Sweden for a few months. Preparing a follow-up to the most important hip-hop album of 2004 wouldn't have been very high up on my list of things to do. But I am not Kanye West, and Kanye West isn't as big of a nerd as I am. So he hooked up with Jon Brion and got going again. What they made was something exciting, inventive, and every bit as keen as The College Dropout. Just like that, two great albums in a row. Effectively, this makes Kanye the Michael Jordan of hip-hop. The Wayne Gretzky. The Jose Conseco. The Hulk Hogan, if you will. (Giles)
8. Broken
Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
(Arts and Crafts)
It's all very good and fun and you really do understand why the band have become such cult favorites especially with songs as fun as "Windsurfing Nation," which had me squawking along to the chorus without even knowing what the bloody hell they are singing. "Handjobs for the Holiday" is possibly my favorite song title of 2005, made all the better by it being a fantastic song that had me nodding my head in approval all the way through.(Peanut)
7. Cursed
- II
(Goodfellow)
I didn't get a full appreciation for this album until I was driving from Redding, California to the state of Washington at three in the morning. The sky was covered in dark and the road in rain. It was then the dark intensity of II made sense. If you want to turn the lights off and try jumping through the screen of your television you're in luck. These are the songs that'll turn your shit black.(Zed)
6.
Antony & the Johnsons - I
am a Bird Now
(Secretly Canadian)
Check your masculine image at the door and be rewarded with the year's (and one of the decade's) finest. Antony's multi-octave vibrato effectively blurs the myriad lines between male and female while conducting one of the most singular recordings of our time. One of the select few albums actually deserving of the tag "breathtaking," the impossibly beautifully executed minimalism of I Am a Bird Now dwarfs albums twelve times its size; not since Talk Talk's Laughing Stock has so little said so much. (Pat)
5. Pelican
- The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw
(Hydra Head)
Obviously birds were way cool in 2005, just like post-rock. So it's not a surprise that Pelican have made their way onto numerous year end lists with The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw. With their most recent full-length the band moved away from their sludgy beginnings and opted down the ambient path. And while they may have alienated some fans in doing so, there is more to the music world than just metal, especially when you write music this enjoyable. (Michael)
4. Red
Sparowes - At The Soundless Dawn
(Neurot)
Red Sparowes' debut effort is a stunning piece of instrumental music. On the album the listener experiences layers upon layers of effect-laden guitars that are accentuated by a dynamic rhythm section. The music is as beautiful as any post-rock group, but much more complex, which is what distinguishes At the Soundless Dawn and puts it head above shoulders. (Michael)
3. Modern
Life Is War - Witness
(Deathwish Inc.)
MLIW aren't heavy or fast, and they certainly don't bring the mosh, so how on Earth were they able to create the best hardcore album of 2005? Through playing by no one else's rules but their own. Witness is impossibly huge, barely containable in its scant package just shy of 27 minutes. The band constantly sounds just on the edge of losing control of their monstrous compositions (see: the coda of "John and Jimmy"), packing as much raw energy into each inspired second as humanly possible. Despite stellar hardcore contributions from bands such as Bane, Killing the Dream, With Honor, Go It Alone, and Allegiance this year, it's Witness that will stick in our minds and hearts longest after the fact. (Pat)
2. Sufjan
Stevens - Illinois
(Asthmatic Kitty)
There's only so much I can say about this record in mere words. Once you listen to Sufjan Stevens, you'll find yourself humming the infectious melodies, tapping out the rhythms, and unconsciously absorbing useless pieces of information about Illinois, quite without realizing it, and you can't say that for The Mars Volta. This is a record you could put on for your parents and still enjoy without feeling the guilty burn of dad-rock. Look, enough beating about the bush. This record will improve your life. Buy this album. (Matt)
1. Jesu
- Jesu
(Hydra Head)
It is an honor to declare Jesu's self-titled effort as Scene Point Blank's album of the year for 2005. This eight-track 74 minute masterpiece is spectacular. Justin Broadrick evokes deep feelings of uneasiness and melancholy through the aural experience making each listen of this album truly delightful. If you somehow missed out on this album, now is the time to play catch-up. (Michael)
Statistics
That's right, SPB is getting technical on yo' ass! This first graph just shows
how overall record placement scored, eg, 8 staffers put Pelican on their list.
This one shows how close the battle for places in the top 5 was. This year's vote was pretty close with tied results for most positions.
Finally, this rather delicious-looking pie chart shows the proportion of the most popular labels in our top 30.
That's right, we just wanted to show off our smooth graphing technology really.
