Absolution by Muse
I'll start by quoting the beginning of the Allmusic review: "Though some may still consider them Radiohead mimics, obviously Muse continues to strike a nerve with their alternative hard rock audience, here releasing their third album of heavy guitars, haunted harmonics, and paranoid musings in Absolution. Frontman Matt Bellamy and company stick to the same disturbed, and sometimes disturbing, formula that's worked in the past: the emotional intensity and style of Radiohead, a rock thunder descended from Black Sabbath, and the baroque drama of Queen. " just to say that from the next album after this Muse had become totally unbearable because they were just succumbing under the weight of their heaviness and baroqueness. But I used to like their first three albums and was wondering i I would still like them. This is the third one and the cracks are already showing as the quote from Allmusic shows. But boy it is still a great album notwithstanding the heaviness and the baroqueness. Why: just because the songs are great. Songs like Time Is Running Out, Hysteria and Butterflies & Hurricanes are sounding completely over the top but they are also monsters of songs with different suites and turns and they just rock as hell. The album even moves from the 22nd to the 10th rank of the year.
Just to say: after this they started to completely and utterly suck but they were very good up and until that 3rd album.
American Idiot by Green Day
Green Day has always been a bit underrated by "real" music lovers but not really in my opinion. They released a great punk album in Dookie and this album is the absolute highlight of their career. It's even a bit of a concept album but the concept is not dominating the songs which are nearly all fantastic. A track like Jesus Of Suburbia is just dazzling and succeeds at not its pace notwithstanding its many twists and turns. To me a classic which increases from the 21st to the 7th rank of the year.
Then an album in my wishlist:
ONoffON by Mission Of Burma
This is their return album after they split up in 1983 and it's clear they still had it in them and his album is of the same quality as in fact that only regular album they made in their heydays, Vs. They still can create absolute beauty in their chaos which is one of the distinct qualities of this band. There is not a weak song here so it immediately enters at the 18th rank and can certainly climb on repeated listens.
When going through the albums of 2005 I wanted to listen to, I chose for this one until I discovered that it was from 2004. So I changed the release date and listened to it anyway:
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Attagirl by Bettie Serveert
This Dutch band has made one classic (their debut Palomine), one fantastic album (their second: Lamprey) and a fairly large number of good albums of which this one. I still think that Carol Van Dijk has one of the best female voices in rock and it also shines on this album. And the songs are much better than I remembered and are in fact all very fine rock songs with a sensitive touch. In 2005 it was ranked 49th, in 2004 it's ranked 21st.
Fires In Distant Buildings by Gravenhurst
I have experienced this a few times during this thing I'm doing: liking an album when I first bought it, then giving it a low score when I was doing some quick scoring process when I first started using this beautiful site in 2015 and only discovering after 7 years when relistening to the album that it is in fact a real classic not yet discovered by the rest of the world and in fact not by me either. And to me it is a classic if only you start by the last track which does a droning Velvet Underground version of a Kinks classic See My Friends. But they really shine in the more sensitive songs like Animals and Nicole. But they can do it all, from post rock to folk. And it is a real classic because it climbs from the 31st to the third rank.
An album on my wishlist:
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The Weight Is A Gift by Nada Surf
This is the first album where they changed from an uninteresting poppunk band to an interesting indie band. They haven't yet reached their full form here but it's already a fine album which enters my year chart at the 38th rank.
My Dark Places by Television Personalities
I have this album in my year chart for one and only one raison: I'm Not Your Typical Boy, which is a song you can best described as clumsy and amateuristic, but boy, if they had made more quirky songs like this, I would love the band and this album: this track has a really unequivocal emotional depth. The other tracks are also clumsy and amateuristic but they especially are also very bad. I doubted for a long time but as there are some tracks which are just acceptable, I decided to keep it in my year chart at the 44th rank (even climbed from rank 52).
Then an album on my wishlist:
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Live A Little by Pernice Brothers
This is the second album I listen to of this wonderful band I recently discovered. This band has its roots in alt-country but they gradually evolved to something more rock based but still deeply steeped in surprisingly wonderful melodies. This is supposed to be one of their better albums and they indeed succeed in keeping it for the whole of the album.
For now I have only ranked this album at the 13th rank but I'm sure that ranking will improve after more listens. I'm a fan.
This is the second album I listen to of this wonderful band I recently discovered. This band has its roots in alt-country but they gradually evolved to something more rock based but still deeply steeped in surprisingly wonderful melodies. This is supposed to be one of their better albums and they indeed succeed in keeping it for the whole of the album.
Well then, speaking as someone who ranked The World Won't End as the #1 album of 2001 and the #2 album of that entire decade, welcome to the club...? 😁
I should say though, while I have all their albums and they're all good, there's a fairly noticeable qualitative drop-off from The World Won't End to their other stuff. Personally I would rank Overcome by Happiness as their second-best, but this one is just about as good really.
Well then, speaking as someone who ranked The World Won't End as the #1 album of 2001 and the #2 album of that entire decade, welcome to the club...? 😁
I should say though, while I have all their albums and they're all good, there's a fairly noticeable qualitative drop-off from The World Won't End to their other stuff. Personally I would rank Overcome by Happiness as their second-best, but this one is just about as good really.
New Moon by Elliott Smith
This is not a regular Elliott Smith album but an album of leftover released after his death. But any other artist would commit a murder for a similar album of leftovers because every tracks is a bit of a gem. Maybe this shouldn't have been a double album but the listen is certainly worthwile also on that great cover of Thirteen. And again I have grandiosely misjudged this one because the album rises from the 65th to a whopping 4th rank of the year.
And there are no more albums of this year on my wishlist but I still have more than a thousand others not from this year on that list so let's move on.
Rip It Off by Times New Viking
Neil Diamond would have called this What A Beautiful Noise. Warning: if you put your headphones on and you let this album pass at a loud level you could suffer from some ear damage after this because these very fuzzy tracks were mixed very loudly. But like I said: this is fantastic noise which is a must listen for everyone who likes melodic noise. I suppose I had rated this fairly low because of that but now it rises from the 74th to the 5th rank.
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Wagonwheel Blues by The War On Drugs
Their first and they were still searching a bit for their sound although it's clear that this is War On Drugs: not every tracks is good but especially on the more mesmerising songs like the long Show Me The Coast, they do shine: Good for the 38th rank.
Elvis Perkins In Dearland by Elvis Perkins
I bought this on Itunes and it was the lowest ranked album on my year chart. And now I deleted it from my year chart. I don't hate this album, there is only nothing interesting in it.
An album on my wishlist:
The Visitor by Jim O'Rourke
an album with only one tracks with different twists and turns but ultimately not leading to anything much interesting.
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