Following on from my complaining about 2005 movies, I'm prepared to argue that there were few good music releases in 2005 (and what was good didn't sell much and was obscure). The charts back me up:
During the last 12 months, CD sales took two steps back, rather than one step forward, retreating about 8% to 2003 unit volume levels, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Even with blossoming digital download sales factored in, total music sales are still running behind 2004 by 4%.
And look at the Top Ten Best Selling Albums of 2005:
1. "The Emancipation of Mimi", Mariah Carey, 2005, 5.0 million.
2. "The Massacre", 50 Cent, 2005, 4.8 million.
3. "Breakaway", Kelly Clarkson, 2004, 3.5 million.
4. "American Idiot", Green Day, 2004, 3.4 million.
5. "Monkey Business", Black Eyed Peas, 2005, 3.0 million.
6. "X&Y", Coldplay, 2005, 2.6 million.
7. "Feels Like Today", Rascal Flatts, 2004, 2.5 million.
8. "Love. Angel. Music. Baby", Gwen Stefani, 2004, 2.5 million.
9. "Late Registration", Kanye West, 2005, 2.4 million.
10. "Documentary", The Game, 2005, 2.2 million.
Recognize several things. First, the top selling album of 2004 (when the industry saw sales rise for the first time in two or three years) was some album by Usher, who sold double (about 8 million) what either of the top two in 2005 sold. Second, #s 3,4,7, and 8 off the 2005 best sellers were released in 2004. Music this year pretty much sucked.
Looking back at what I listened to in 2005, I realized I was mostly listening to things released in 2004 (and earlier): Drive By Truckers, Isis, Killswitch Engage, Mastondon's utterly epic Leviathan, Rainer Maria's neat pop-punk Long Knives Drawn, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists' just perfect Hearts of Oak; those stand out (among others).
This isn't to say that good music didn't come out in 2005 (though you can't prove it by the chart above; I don't think I own any of them). While I'm certain no one will believe me, some really great metal came out in 2005: Cave In's almost magesterial Perfect Pitch Black, some weird proggy-metal in Old Dead Tree's Perpetual Motion, Pelican's heir-to-Rush's-proggy-roots-but-with-more-balls (and best album title of the year)The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw, (not quite as good, but still excellent) Porcupine Tree's Deadwing, and the concept album got a shot in the arm with Vendetta Red's bloody Sisters of the Red Death. More conventional, but still good, is Between The Buried And Me's Alaska.
Lest anyone think I just banged my head all year, there were really strong albums from Bloc Party and the quirky, upbeat, indie New Pornographer's Twin Cinema.
What 2005 lacked was an artistically good album that sold well, like Radiohead, U2, OutKast or the Beastie Boys. And, to forestall binky, there was no Flaming Lips album in 2005 (which makes it automatically suck, I suppose). I suspect 2006 will be better. I hope so.
Posted by baltar at January 11, 2006 10:00 PM | TrackBack | Posted to MusicDefine "artistically good". Both the Kanye West and Green Day albums have gotten some excellent reviews.
Posted by: Armand at January 11, 2006 10:57 PM | PERMALINKI might grant you the Kanye West (a bit too commercial a form of hip-hop for me), but the Green Day album was a 2004 release. And both albums may have gotten good reviews (where?), but I'd bet we can find better music in their genres.
Posted by: baltar at January 11, 2006 11:18 PM | PERMALINKThere was some interesting stuff that wasn't so listenable (e.g. Frances the Mute) but there was also Arcade Fire, Franz Ferdinand, etc. If you stick with indie, 2005 was much better.
Have no fear, however. 2006 will indeed be awesome. At War with the Mystics will be out in April, the 5.1 re-master of the Soft Bulletin, and Christmas on Mars finally (maybe, possibly)!
Posted by: binky at January 12, 2006 08:31 AM | PERMALINKTrue enough, American Idiot was a 2004 release - but the reviews were still pretty good (over at metacritic.com it's currently at a "77" which puts it in the range of the latest works by The Clientele, The Mendoza Line, Silver Jews and Deerhoof - not quite Sufjan Stevens or Wilco terrirtory - but pretty good).
And speaking of the good music of '05 quite possibly (probably) being from '04 - Binky, the Arcade Fire's Funeral was a 2004 release. Still, I didn't love it any less in 2005 because of that.
Posted by: Armand at January 12, 2006 09:18 AM | PERMALINKSo I guess I more or less agree with you Baltar, though there were some 2005 releases (Gorillaz, Hot Hot Heat, Wolf Parade, and Franz Ferdinand among them) that I liked a lot.
Posted by: Armand at January 12, 2006 09:22 AM | PERMALINKI couldn't remember if Arcade Fire was late 2004 or early 2005. It hit my brain in January 05 when we were in NYC (and the FLips people were talking about it A LOT).
This was sort of my point: I listened to lots of things in 2005, and many of them were made in 2004. I don't remember this happening in other years. Maybe I'm wrong, or my impression is.This was sort of my point: I listened to lots of things in 2005, and many of them were made in 2004. I don't remember this happening in other years. Maybe I'm wrong, or my impression is. Posted by: baltar at January 12, 2006 11:33 AM | PERMALINK
I'm a weirdo, but my mp3 player shows little from 2005:
Flaming Lips: Transmissions from the Satellite Heart, Clouds Taste Metallic, Soft Bulletin, Yoshimi, some b-sides, Bohemian Rhapsody (the only 2005 release); Old 97s Satellite Rides and FIght Songs; Mirah 2002?; Rasputina Frustration Plantation; Portishead Live at the Roseland; Lewis Black; Anthony and the Johnsons (2005)
Not much new. But as I said, I am a freak, and this is the soothing mix (except for Lewis Black, of course) I made for international travel and chilling on long flights.
Posted by: binky at January 12, 2006 11:53 AM | PERMALINKWow! Maybe I'm some dancing queen. I loved 2005. Of course I bought dozens of excellent Dance singles from around the world (Come Rain Come Shine by Jenn Cuneta, Paris to Berlin by Infernal...) and I crowned that with Madonna's Confessions masterpiece. At least my ass has been shaking!
Posted by: John at January 12, 2006 01:57 PM | PERMALINKI completely agree. The fact that we came out of 2005 with Mariah Carey and 50 Cent at the top of the charts says something horrible about the current music universe. With the exception of American Idiot (which regardless of what year it came out is still one of my favorites), everything has been unartistic, engineered crap. Some of it is fun to listen to but it ends there unfortunately.
However, since many radio stations are getting top 40 lists from most popular downloads on iTunes now rather than corporations, there may be improvement but I wouldn't expect it in 2006.
Posted by: Mikey at January 13, 2006 01:35 PM | PERMALINK