Sickness Picks- 2005: Albums

Albums of 2005

I crossed genre’s here, but most of it is Americana, Pop, some sort of Songwriter, or all three. This list is a good representation of which albums from 2005 that I listened to the most, but it certainly is not “THE TEN BEST ALBUMS OF 2005.” In my next blog I’ll recommend some good stuff in the realms of jazz and country, list out some good singles, and of course touch on the stuff that doesn’t get mentioned here.

10. Tori Amos “The Beekeeper” (Epic) This is the first Tori album I ever listened to and I loved it. After some serious guidance from a Tori-expert, I realize it isn’t even her best work. This lady is truly a soulful reincarnation of Clara Schumann- a renaissance woman with enough class and crass in her artwork to make you overlook the fact that she’s completely bananas. “Sweet the Sting” has a nice Hammond groove but there’s nothing here that’s as profoundly strange and artistic as, say, “Blood Roses” from “Boys for Pele.” She’s like a fine bottle of wine; it takes you awhile to fall in love, but its worth it.

9. Amos Lee "Amos Lee" (Blue Note) This guy got a great deal on Blue Note, and he has Norah Jones on his album and Jesse Alexander to produce it, but these are merely industry side-notes compared to the reasons Amos was signed in the first place; his boyishly good looks with a voice that’s fragile but soulful. His songwriting is simplistic and catchy as hell. He knows how to cook up a two-line refrain that will haunt you quaintly for the rest of the day, especially on “Give it Up.” With enough touring he’ll sell a whole lot of these albums, but we have to wait and see if he can come back with another statement that vindicates the promise that this one shows.

8. Beck “Guero” (Columbia) A return to form of sorts, since everyone compares this album to “Odelay,” the last album Beck did with production credit to the Dust Bros. In my mind, “Scarecrow” is just as good of a song as “Where It’s At” but probably not as memorable. Just because Beck made it onto the OC soundtrack doesn’t make his stuff any less compelling. “Missing Pieces” sounds like a pre-Audioslave Chris Cornell B-side. “Girl” is kind of a timely song, in that I only want to hear it when it’s very sunny outside, but his groove lift on “E-Pro” is timeless and “Hell Yes” is probably my favorite song that sounds like a Gameboy.

7. The Greencards “Weather & Water” (Dualtone) This one is just a great listen; Mandolin, fiddle, bass and guitar with lots of vocal harmony and just as much instrumental expertise.

It’s actually two different albums in one. The instrumental stuff is as good as any other new grass, better than Nickel Creek some would say. Then there’s the Alison Krauss evoking pop-sheen of tracks like Jedd Hughes’ “Weather & Water” and the absolutely haunting “The Ghost of Who We Were."

Guitarist Brian Sutton is on point-as-usual. Anything he does, in the studio or live, is consistently incredible. There are some other good albums in this category (see Nickel Creek’s “Why Should the Fire Die,” and The Duhks debut CD, both on Sugarhill) but the Greencards are two Australians and a Brit that make Americana music as good or better than some of their peers, so its music that is warm and charming with a touch of shtick. Why not when it sounds good?

6. Sylvie Lewis “Tangos and Tantrums” (Cheap Lullaby) More of a mood album. You have to enjoy this one for the clever lyrics and appreciate her attention to detail in her song-forms. Here’s a line from her drinking song, “When I Drink”:
“You, like the moon, could drive a girl mad
You drove me to this place
And now they’re calling me a cab”

That is good on so many different levels.

This CD is more like a collection of great songs than a great album, because each one has its own atmosphere. It’s been said plenty of times, but the record really has a “French cabaret” feeling because she spent some time in Paris. Listen to “By Heart” if you’re looking for tear jerking pocket opus, or “My Rival” for a quirky story about a young girl and her smoking hot older social nemesis who is getting all the guys.

5. Common “Be” (G.O.O.D) I’ll be the first one to tell you I’m not a hip-hop expert. Everyone from the biggest lyrical nit-pickers to the average Nelly buyer knows more about urban music than I do, but I know a good record when I hear one. Granted, the things full of old soul samples that I probably should’ve heard before, but Kanye knows how to pick ‘em, and Common has such a distinct “flow” (if I may) delivering those intricate, self-conscious rhymes (I just did). I was all about 2002’s “Electric Circus,” too.

4. Billy Joe Shaver “The Real Deal” (Compadre) I put this next to Common because he and Billy Joe are two of the most spiritual writers today, and they exist on completely different sides of the world, musically. Shaver has the truest of all cowboy stories to tell, and it’ll sure break your heart (in the personal-gospel-blues of “Try & Try Again”) but he’s still got his sense of humor well in tact (“If the Trailer’s Rockin’”). Without his son Eddy (who died of a heroine OD) and his Hendrix-blues styling, Billy Joe’s records are a little less flaring instrumentally. Now Billy Joe’s voice is more triumphant than ever and some production work by Lloyd Maines keeps everything crispy.

When I talked to Billy Joe he was genuinely proud to have Big & Rich guest-star on the opening track, "Live Forever," but I’ve never heard them talk about it. The song (which even gives B&R production credit) is up there amongst the greatest of all time, and this is probably the definitive recording of it. It SHOULD be a radio-hit. . . That is if country radio weren’t obsessed with redneck glorification, alcohol abuse and capitalizing on war-time sentiments.

3. Feist “Let it Die” (Cherry Tree/Interscope ) This album probably got more “You gotta hear this” to friends than any other this year. It only takes three choice tracks to make someone agree to buy this, but it only takes 15 seconds for them to realize they love it. No two tracks sound the same, and it exists as its own genre, but I haven’t named it yet. There are plenty of incredibly talented female singers with albums just like this (Toni Price, Robinella, Esthero, Annie, hell, Kimberly Locke) but I’d put this up track for track with any of them.

Who knows how long it took her to write, arrange, produce and record this record, but all I can say is thank God she did. You can jump on an album for sounding “too good” or blame someone for overly producing, but it makes for an enchanting listen, time and time again while consistently making you want to jump up and down. Listen to “Gatekeeper,” “When I Was a Young Girl,” and “Inside & Out.” Or go for “Mushaboom,” and “Leisure Suit.” Then go for the album.

2. Aqualung “Strange & Beautiful” (Epic) I’d tell anyone about this album using the same phrase, “It’s got all the things I like about Radiohead and Coldplay, without the thing I don’t.” Matthew Hales sounds a lot like Thome York part of the time, and he can change vocal registers like Chris Martin the rest of it. There is some bombastic cymbals and heavy guitar crunching like the best stuff off of “The Bends,” and “Brighter Than Sunshine” is as good a song as “Yellow.” It’s Yorke’s painful cry with intelligible lyrics.

1. Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez “Red Dog Tracks” (Back Porch) I’m going to name this record #1 because I definitely listened to it more than any other CD of 2005. It’s not one for everyone; it’s a twang-y roots record and both of their vocal deliveries aren’t exactly crispy and clean. But the way their voices sound together is the sweetest part. Chip is sixty something years old and wrote “Wild Thing.” He discovered the twenty something, fiddle playing Berklee graduate Rodriguez at South By Southwest a couple years ago.

Chip had since undergone a metamorphosis from professional gambler with alcohol problems to a spiritually awakened poet with some imaginative lyrics. “Red Dog Tracks,” their third record together, I think, really shows they’ve come into their own as a duo. Arthur Wood reviewed this record for FolkWax.com and he nailed it when he said these two belong amidst Tammy & George, Loretta & Conway, Emmylou & Gram.

The album itself, all 13 tracks, is great for multiple listens. You can dive into the lyrics (Try to figure out “Red Dog Tracks” would ya?) or bask in all the fantastic solos by this crack-team of studio musicians. Especially the solos of Bill Frisell; this guy knows how to paint a mellow glow with his guitars and he fits in nicely with the swamp sounds of “My Bucket’s got a Hole In It” and the front-porch loungin’ of “Private Thoughts,”which is also the best example of the weird sexuality these two’s voices present as one. They put a haunting mist on ol’ Hank’s “I Can’t Help It If I’m Still In Love With You” that’s still as sweetly chilling as when Hank did it on the Opry with Anita Carter.