2005: The Year in Alternative and Indie Rock

It’s true: I positively love the rock and roll. And on par 2005 has been a better than average year. Five of the eleven bands below are new discoveries, at least for me. Could I have imagined the transcendent pleasure of these cds back at the beginning of 2005? Not exactly. Or at least not in all their varied richness and idiosyncratic beauty.

#1 Sufjan Stevens Come on Feel the Illinois. Yes, there are cds that are currently giving me more pleasure than the hugely ambitious and accomplished Illinois. But Sufjan gets the top spot because it’s a rare case of an exceptionally good songwriter / musician expanding his reach and making a great cd. Tuneful, original, tender, operatic. It’s also Sufjan Stevens’ most balanced cd. We always knew he could do poignant folk ballads, but there are songs on Illinois that flat out rock.

#2 Spoon Gimme Fiction Perhaps for indie rock fans the most anticipated cd of the year. And, after Kill the Moonlight, it wasn’t quite the cd we expected. In fact, the first few listens baffled me, until I realized Spoon was indulging in some truly deep, subtle and sophisticated grooves. Once I wizened up, I realized this was an even better cd than I’d hoped for. The first seven songs are unstoppable. “Sister Jack’ and “I Summon You” are out-of –this-world good. Fun fact: None other than Stephen King picked “I Summon You” as best single of the year.

#3 Bright Eyes I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning A leap forward for Coner Oberst. He’s a truly gifted, angry, wildly articulate songwriter. But this is the cd where he had the good sense to pay extra for topflight musicians and sound production and Emmylou Harris. Right now Oberst is hands down the best young musician to mine the dark ironies of our war on terror and our cowboy president.

#4 The Clientele Strange Geometry If the contest for best Twee British pop band is all about wickedly ironic lyrics, then Belle and Sebastian win by a landslide. But if it’s about truly gorgeous, transcendent, deeply nostalgic songs that rise up into giddy crescendos of sound and feeling, then The Clientele takes home the trophy. Strange Geometry is the group’s richest-sounding and best cd. I dare you to find a more dreamily romantic songwriter than Alasdair MacLean. And you better listen to him soon because this sort of romanticism rarely last into middle age.

#5 Okkervil River Black Sheep Boy Just how much great music has been inspired by Neutral Milk Hotel’s In The Aeroplane Over the Sea? Hard to say. But Okkervil River’s Black Sheep Boy is strong evidence how a masterpiece like Aeroplan” causes other bands to rise to the occasion. This is not to say that Okkervil River is derivative. Black Sheep Boy is a more varied album than it’s gothic cd cover would have you believe. It’s raw and loud. It’s mournful. It’s poppy. And if anyone this year has written a more darkly romantic, bracing and powerful love song than “A Stone”, I’d like to hear it.

#6 Jens Lekman Oh You’re So Silent Jens This oddly, but very nicely, titled cd is a grower. At first you here the influences: mainly Magnetic Fields and Morrissey (though there’s a nice touch of Belle and Sebastian) But then Jens Lekman’s own fine sensibilities –his humor and compassion and fine voice—begin to shine through, and you realize these simple songs have a depth and staying power you hadn’t quite counted on.

#7 Mountain Goats The Sunset Tree I just discovered John Darnielle’s Mountain Goats this year. It’s a painfully honest cd. It’s also a beautiful one. The Sunset Tree most reminds me of a certain kind of short story collection in which addicted, ruined, hard-pressed characters, once traumatized as children, live out their bleak adult lives. What’s most impressive is that this cd manages to go deeper than many such story collections. It gives us the hard, unforgettable truth one moment and in the next illuminates these characters with a very light and graceful touch.

#8 Decemberists Picturesque Their third, richest and probably best cd. Picturesque is a series of startling adventures ranging from the lament of a lowly Victorian-era barrow boy to the surreal ironies of contemporary military wives to an extravagant revenge tale told from inside the belly of the whale. Too strange, you say? Hardly. Colin Meloy has a way of making the heartbreak and joy of even the oddest characters our heartbreak and joy.

#9 Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Clap Your Hands Say Yeah So this is the self-made, self-produced, truly indie cd of the year. As such it’s enormously lively and tuneful and just plain fun, fun, fun. (Lyrically, however, it’s pretty hard to decipher). But its wild and eccentric energy reminds me of hearing the Talking heads for the first time.

#10 Stars Set Yourself On Fire & The Magic Numbers The Magic Numbers Two very fine pop cds. Great musicianship and songwriting. Both are nicely produced. And they both capture your attention on the first listen and then deepen over time. Of the two Stars have more serious matters on their minds (war, politics, failed love). The Magic Numbers are all about buoyant melodies and catchy grooves with a country twang.

--John Dalton