411 Music Ten Deep 11.20.09: Top Ten Albums from 2005

Posted by Andrew Moll on 11.20.2009

This week's Ten Deep ranks the Top Ten Albums from 2005, from Nine Inch Nails' With Teeth to The Mars Volta's Frances the Mute to Kanye West's Late Registration! It's all in this week's edition of 411 Music Ten Deep!


(Disclaimer: All opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of 411 Music and its staff.)


Welcome everybody to the eighteenth edition of 411 Music Ten Deep as we continue our series on the top ten albums from each year this decade. The Music Zone is also continuing our look at the Top 100 songs of the decade which will go on for a few more weeks until we reach number one. Last week's Ten Deep, though, got some interesting responses, to say the least. Who knew people could get so upset at a music opinion? So let's dive right into the feedback:





Alright, we'll get to this one first:

Ok last comment I left I told you to listen to American Idiot. Yet you post all the comments that fellate yourself. Green Day - American Idiot is not Dookie. Nor was it supposed to be but it was damn great. I am a George W Bush supporter and I still loved the album.
Posted By: Radtke (Guest) on November 14, 2009 at 02:33 PM

For everybody's future reference, the columnists on the site have no control over the comments that get accepted or not. The ones that show up just show up and I'm not privy to how it's all done, so nobody just posts comments that agree with what we wrote.

Id say Annie shoulda gotten in, but I'll take it making honorable mention.
Posted By: jrpaper (Guest) on November 13, 2009 at 04:09 AM

The problem with Anniemal is that none of the songs on the album compare to "Hearbeat," since it's just so great.

Fuck the Killers, and I'm sick of everyone talking about The Streets too. The Streets is awful. 2004 was a pretty bad year for albums, and I haven't heard most of these, but I am curious about that Arcade Fire and Madvillian shit. Thank you for not including Green Day and The Killers, shame on you for liking The Streets.
Posted By: John (Guest) on November 13, 2009 at 12:43 PM

I agree with you on the Killers. The reason they didn't make the list is because I hate them with a slightly irrational passion. Not sure what it is, but I can't stand listening to them, sorry.

As for Green Day, I was a little surprised that a few people were pleased not see it on the list; I thought it was pretty well universally liked, which is why I put that note in last week.

KOL: Aha Shake Heartbreak
Posted By: A. Shakoor (Registered) on November 12, 2009 at 11:10 PM

Unless I'm mistaken, I thought that album came out in 2005? I mean, I hate KOL nearly as much as I hate the Killers so they won't be on any of these lists, but it's still a technicality.

You have a really eclectic taste in music and that's not intended as a compliment.
Posted By: Propagandhi (Guest) on November 13, 2009 at 09:56 AM

No offense, but I'm going to take it as a compliment anyway.

I love when you writers who i'm sure think of yourselves as big music buffs, when making these top ten lists of albums or bands, they are of bands pretty much no one has heard of , or gave a shit about. your the type of guys who probably love to listen to indie bands but as soon as the make it big you bitch bout how they sold out and how u liked them before everyone else
Posted By: Cody (Guest) on November 13, 2009 at 10:55 AM

If only I could be cool and knowledgeable enough to know a lot of bands before they break. Unfortunately, I tend to be a bit behind the times.

So, from what I just read, Smile might be Brian Wilson's masterpiece, which would make it better than Pet Sounds. But, Arcade Fire's Funeral is better than Smile, which would then make it better than Pet Sounds...and the thing about that is, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I think your skinny jeans and non prescription black rimmed glasses are making you delusional.
Posted By: Losaphone (Guest) on November 13, 2009 at 01:41 PM

Actually, my khakis and completely prescription black rimmed glasses are fitting me just fine, thanks. And, pray tell, why exactly can't Funeral be better than Pet Sounds? Have you even heard Funeral? The idea that an album that came out forty years ago is automatically better than an album that came out a few years ago is insane to me, and vice versa. I have no problem believing that Arcade Fire, as well as a number of other newer bands, can make music just as good as they did decades ago.



Top Ten Albums from 2005



2005 saw beginning of the second term of the Bush presidency, an even so heinous many of us choose never to speak of it again, and it also saw the launch of YouTube, an event that saw American work productivity eventually drop approximately 9000%. Musically, it was another great year as we were treated to more great albums in many genres, as some bands took big steps forward, older bands returned, newer artist sprang up, and one man cemented his legacy. All that is to come shortly, as we now have the albums that just missed the cut.


Some Honorable Mentions: Animal Collective - Feels; Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning; Death Cab for Cutie - Plans; The Evens - The Evens; Spoon - Gimme Fiction; Stars - Set Yourself on Fire; System of a Down - Mezmerize; The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan




10. Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock & Roll


I'll be honest, not only is Eddie Argos' singing voice not for everyone, but to call it a singing voice in the first place is being pretty generous. But as he himself put it in "Formed a Band," he was just talking to the kids. And that direct style broke Art Brut and their debut had plenty of exciting and fun rock music. You also have to love a band that knows what they want to achieve, as Argos sings "we're gonna be the band that writes the song/That makes Israel and Palestine get along/We're gonna write a song as universal as "Happy Birthday"/That makes sure everybody knows/That everything is going to be okay/We're going to take that song/And we're going to play it/Eight weeks in a row on Top of the Pops!" With that first single and as great an opening declaration from any band this decade, Argos become the twenty-first century Jarvis Cocker, the witty and charismatic leader of one of rock's coolest bands.





Art Brut's coolness has nothing to do with any attemopt to be cool, but rather the opposite since they're not afraid to be hopelessly romantic like on the excellent "Emily Kane" (with its tremendous line "I don't even know where she lives/I've not seen her in 10 years…/9 months, 3 weeks, 4 days, 6 hours, 13 minutes, 5 seconds") or even badmouth the Velvet Underground on the title track. In their review of the album, Allmusic points out the feeling of "pure, unadulterated joy" that permeates much of the album, and that description sums these songs up very well. Art Brut really does sound exactly like a group of musicians that just went out and formed a band and ended up making the most of it.





9. M.I.A. - Arular


Hip-hop hadn't really heard an album like M.I.A's Arular before; even though it took some of its cues from recognizable sources like UK garage, dancehall and electronic music, Arualr blended all that and more into something completely original that was both urban and universal, making M.I.A. a global rap star. Born in London and of Sri Lankan descent, M.I.A. put all her experiences into the album and her tough narratives were perfectly suited for the occasionally hectic music featured on the album. "Sunshowers" in particular tackles the idea of terrorism and the response to it head on, as she raps, "Semi-9 and snipered him/On that wall they posted him/They cornered him/And then just murdered him/He told them he didn't know them/He wasn't there, they didn't know him/They showed him a picture then /‘Ain't that you with the Muslims?'" Not only did no other hip-hop album sound like this one, but they also didn't address the same issues.





The immediate appeal, though, of Arular comes from the sounds and influences that can't be easily categorized. Its visceral impact is still stunning with each listen since these beats are so unique to her that no other rapper would dare attempt to use of them, or probably even think to use them in the first place. Much of that perhaps comes from M.I.A.'s background which allows her a different perspective than most rappers, a perspective that obviously infuses her lyrics as well. Arular is world music being brought to the masses through hip-hop, an originally American music style that has grown over the years to include a number of different styles that can be infused for a new sound. That's what M.I.A. did here as her music and approach set her apart as a singularly talented artist.





8. Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth


Six years after The Fragile, which had been five years after The Downward Spiral itself, we were treated to the new Trent Reznor. Clean and sober, Reznor seemed reinvigorated and it showed on With Teeth; where The Fragile had been overly long and at times self-indulgent, With Teeth was a powerful, tight album of the kind of cathartic industrial rock that made Nine Inch Nails in the first place. Getting himself clean didn't rid Reznor of his demons or anger, however and as a fan I'm thankful for that. Only Reznor can convincingly deliver lyrics like "I think I'm losing my grip/But I can still make a fist/You know I still got my one good arm/That I can beat, oh I can beat myself up with," as he does on "Getting Smaller." Those words still have an impact when he says them and its matched by the occasional chaos behind them.





Reznor also had a great weapon in his assault back into the mainstream, and that was a killer lead single in "The Hand that Feeds," another one of his genius pop creations. That song, like many others is incredibly powerful both emotionally and physically, with some of the tracks aided by the venerable Dave Grohl on drums. It's not all industrial all the time, though, as the album is highlighted by the finishing ballad "Right Where it Belongs" and the old school synth pop of "Only." Perhaps the most telling moments on the album come on the album's first and last tracks, "All the Love in the World" and "Right Where It Belongs." Both songs feature a slow muddy build that eventually clears up into something more open, and dare I say, more hopeful. This wasn't a completely different Trent Reznor, but it was still one willing to look at things a bit differently.





7. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods


Few bands, man or woman, could possibly kick as much ass as Sleater-Kinney did with their (for now) final album The Woods. The sonic attack begins immediately with "The Fox" and rarely lets up throughout the record as song after song stands as an impassioned statement about love, politics, suicide and more. Corin Tucker's wail certainly isn't for everybody, but it's put to good use on this album, backed by a wall of guitar, bass and drum that is delivered with a self-assuredness that is fierce and direct. From "What's Mine is Yours" to "Rollercoaster" to the eleven-minute guitar standout "Let's Call It Love," this is arena rock at his loudest and most powerful, combined with the great songwriting and musicianship that Sleater-Kinney have shown over the years.





The album's dense production also plays a big role in its impact as it allows each instrument to have maximum power behind and to have plenty of distortion. Even a more restrained and melodic song like "Modern Girl" has plenty of rough edges to it; The Woods is tough, loud rock and roll played a band that knew how to do it as well as anyone. This album is the continuation of the furious rock the band nearly perfected with Dig Me Out, but The Woods works so well because it perfects that idea in an entirely different way. Instead of focusing on punk rock, the band opted this time around to infuse influences like Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix; the result was one last great, massive statement from one great band.



6. Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary


Considering that Wolf Parade's debut Apologies to the Queen Mary was partly produced by Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock it's not surprising that the album excels in a certain kind of spastic rock. There's a real energy to Wolf Parade's songs that inescapable, and I'm sure a good part of that comes from the tension between the writing styles of members Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner who have been position as the dark experimental one and lighter melodic one, respectively. It's not quite Lennon and McCartney, but it's clear the disparity between the two ideas drives a lot of the album's better moments. The record still has a cohesiveness despite any differences in style partly because both Boeckner and Krug sing in a similar manner, a wild yelp that throws caution to the wind.





Apologies to the Queen Mary isn't afraid to be a little weird at times, with outsized vocals, popping keyboards, jittery rhythms and even a Theremin showing up on "Same Ghost Every Night." There's a good bit of Pixies influence here, with the pounding instruments and wailing vocals, but it's all channeled through a pop rock format that also strips away anything but the primal racket they're creating. The album is probably best defined by "I'll Believe in Anything", an energetic song that is practically bursting at the seams with desperation and it all flows out with a tremendous center piece for the album. Wolf Parade doesn't record as much as they should because of their numerous side projects (Sunset Rubdown, Frog Eyes, Handsome Furs and the rest), but with an album like Apologies to the Queen Mary, maybe there isn't a need to do much more.





5. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm


Little about Bloc Party's debut can be described as "silent"; instead the band opts for a tight, urgent, and earnest sound that makes them seem like the post-rock version of Coldplay. Contemporaries like Franz Ferdinand and the Futureheads didn't have these types of ambitions, but Bloc Party didn't have a problem reaching for the kind of epic, heart-on-sleeves guitar-rock that U2 has excelled at over the years. It also doesn't hurt to have a bunch of songs that you can dance to, and Silent Alarm delivers plenty of those with "Like Eating Glass," "Banquet" and others. While those songs are driven by the driven by the drumming prowess of Matt Tong, the album's other songs are led by singer Kele Okereke's passionate voice on both ballads ("Blue Light" and "This Modern Love") and political anthems ("Helicopters" and "Price of Gas").





The emotion and passion on Bloc Party's music would come to the forefront more in the band's next two albums, but with Silent Alarm all those emotions are easily matched by some great angular riffs, tight rhythm section and killer melodies. All those elements come together for a memorable album where Okereke regularly steals the show or is aided by the band, as when in "Positive Tension" he sings "Something glorious is about to happen!" A phrase like that could be simplistic and embarrassing in the wrong hands, but he delivers it with such direct passion and the band delivers such a punch that it turns into a great moment. The album is full of such great moments where a grand statement is made or some tension finds its resolution and made Bloc Party stand out amongst their peers and announced their arrival.



4. LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem


James Murphy's project LCD Soundsystem synthesized all his influences into a modern and self-aware album that thankfully didn't end up insular and closeted, but instead stood as a dance album that had the ability to get you out of your seat. Murphy is clearly a man with a lost of different records in his collection, and they all end up with a spot on the album, from Brian Eno to classic roc to post-punk and even a little Beatles on the great "Never As Tired As When I'm Waking Up." On paper he sounds like a rock-song oriented version of Girl Talk, but in reality this is an electronic album that resembles something no other DJ could envision. From the bouncing "Daft Punk is Playing at My House" to the rocking "Movement," this double album is a mish-mash of sounds that converge for a coherent album.





The second disc of the album features nothing but LCD Soundsystenm singles released before 2005, and even though there's nothing new to people familiar with the band it still gives a look into Murphy's evolution as an artist while also providing some more great songs. Most notably is the instant classic "Losing My Edge," a song that perfectly defines what it's like to be a hipster music fan in this day and age, when people are in continuous search for whatever will be next designated as cool. From the perspective of a man who was there with Can, Suicide, Captain Beefheart and more dealing with the new kids that come along and are aping everything he holds onto, namely being the coolest guy around because of the records he owns. Murphy ends it with a literal name check of each artist on the hipster must-own, and the track is indignation of indie culture even though the track was one of the best indie songs of the decade. Fortunately both discs are a lot more than just one track, with each song making you want to dance, laugh, or think with everything being both insular and populist.





3. My Morning Jacket - Z


I actually got my first taste of My Morning Jacket a year after this album came out when they opened up for Pearl Jam, and I was absolutely blown away by the epic and atmospheric sound. That sound was only expanded when listening to Z, one of the best headphone records of the decade, an album where all its parts have to completely consume you. MMJ had been a pretty good Southern guitar band up until 2005, but Z saw them expand their horizons and incorporate new ideas and sounds to their formula. The biggest new additions were synthesizers and keyboards, which gave MMJ's songs an entirely different dynamic, and they're a big part of tracks like "What a Wonderful Man" and "Wordless Chorus" and "Anytime."





On the other hand, a big part of why Z is so great is because it improves upon what the band already did, namely writing big guitar songs and drenching them in a good bit of reverb. Massive songs like "Lay Low" and "Dondante" would have been great on any record, but in the hands of the new and improved My Morning Jacket, they are immeasurably better. Also of note is the increased pop and soul sensibility of singer Jim James, whose tenor has always been good to hear, but on a dub-inspired song like "Off the Record" it's put it good use, the same with many other songs on the album. By throwing in different elements to the style they already had down, My Morning Jacket were able to take the next step in their career with an album that sounded like the past and future of rock molded into one thing, and an album that made them one of the best rock bands of these past ten years.





2. The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute


An experimental Latin jazz prog metal album detailing a diary found in the backseat of a repossessed car that has five tracks over seventy-seven minutes with elliptical lyrics? Sign me up! I have literally no clue what a line like "She was a mink handjob in sarcophagus heels" means, but I do know The Mars Volta not only know how to give that line a great backing, but can make it mean something. Frances the Mute is nothing if not mesmerizing, a kaleidoscope of sounds and ideas that reaches farther than it probably should but still manages to remain interesting and captivating. The album has a mystery to it that can never be fully revealed as something hovers underneath each note and each note, which are plenty mysterious on their own. This is an album that draws a line in the sand, daring you to cross it and embrace the bilingual lyrics, ambient nose and free jazz instrumentals.





The Mars Volta's ace in the hole is the fact that no matter what arty aspects they throw into their songs, they still know how to rock as evidenced by a number of moments throughout the album. That's an easy thing to accomplish when you've got John Frusciante helping out on guitar and Jon Theodore pounding away on drums. The band, though, is the work of Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez who infuse each song with their personal vision. That the album has a specific vision that doesn't waver or adhere to conventional though is what makes it so great and such a unique work. Even the band itself hasn't really been able to match it yet, and it's quite possible they won't. But Frances the Mute is such a stunning effort that it would be tough for any band to match it.





1. Kanye West - Late Registration


Late Registration is excessive, sometimes flawed, expansive, smart, features simple minded social commentary and incisive commentary, complex, paradoxical and at the end of the day, singularly genius. In other words, it's everything that Kanye West has been this decade. From the beloved pop star to the reviled pop star, Kanye has been a fascinating public figure for years, but it's with Late Registration that he solidified his status as a talent almost unmatched this decade. We can all agree that he needs to re-evaluate the things he says and does in public, to say the least, but one listen to this album immediately lets you know why we let him get away with so much for so long. The album is sprawling in ways both good (who else could so expertly ape a Bond song for a statement track about conflict diamonds) and bad (like so many hip-hop albums, it needs to drop the skits), but it's always enjoyable and fascinating. This is not just hip-hop, but pop music done the way Kanye always wanted to see it be done.





Enlisting the help of co-producer Jon Brion, best known for his work with Fiona Apple, Kanye's songs immediately have a different shine to them, with plenty of lush horns and strings while also having plenty of pop immediacy, like the hits "Touch the Sky" (which gets points for giving Lupe Fiasco his first big exposure) and "Heard ‘Em Say." The record also has one of the decade's defining pop hits in "Gold Digger" and an emotional track in "Hey Mama," and plenty of other interesting songs like "Addiction," "Crack Music," and "Gone." No other figure in music, pop, hip-hop rock or anything else, would have been able to construct an album like this, and that's why it's so frustrating to see Kanye auto-tuning his way through records and embarrassing himself at awards show. He's capable of so much and Late Registration is proof that there's still legendary music inside him.



That'll do it for this week folks, thanks for reading. If you have any questions, comments or concerns feel free to let me know, and make sure to leave your own lists in the comments. I'll see you all next week. And if you're out on your bike tonight, do wear white.