So, about that best-of listâ?¦
(I realize that I’m the only one who will care if I never do a best-of-2005 list, but I don’t think I’ll be able to focus properly on 2006 posts until I get this one taken care of.)
2005 was the first year that I can remember when I truly couldn’t do a numbered top-howevermany list. There were just too many good records that bunched up in the 6-20 (or 50, more like) spots, and putting them in order was too much of a chore. I already posted a (very) partial list, but it’s actually changed since then, because the Clientele record so thoroughly dominated my December (and January, so far) that it moved up a few spots.
Anyway. My list, which will be missing records that I’m forgetting about, I’m sure (no notes added, because I’ve written about a lot of these here before, but ask me if you’re curious about any of them):
1. Son Volt, “Okemah and the Melody of Riot”
2. Robbie Fulks, “Georgia Hard”
3. The Clientele, “Strange Geometry”
4. Malcolm Middleton, “Into the Woods”
5. Steve Dawson, “Sweet Is the Anchor”
and the rest, with the first five representing most of what would be my top 10 if I’d done one, and then the remainder in no order:
the everybodyfields, “Plague of Dreams”
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, “Naturally”
The Morning After Girls, “Evolve”
Bettye Lavette, “I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise”
Dallas Wayne, “I’m Your Biggest Fan”
—–
Dierks Bentley, “Modern Day Drifter.”
Gary Allan, “Tough All Over.”
John Doyle, “Wayward Son”
Lasarfhiona ni Chonaola, “Flame of Wine.”
Cathie Ryan, “The Farthest Wave.”
British Sea Power, “Open Season”
Dogs, “Turn Against This Land”
Brakes, “Give Blood”
Richmond Fontaine, “The Fitzgerald”
Bettie Serveert, “Attagirl”
The Hacienda Brothers, s/t
Reigning Sound, “Home for Orphans”
Chatham County Line, “Route 23″
Caitlin Cary and Thad Cockrell, “Begonias”
Sleater-Kinney, “The Woods”
Two promising, if flawed, EPs:
The Love Experts, “Cuba Street.” A St. Louis band with a very distinctive sound. Too distinctive, maybe, because I find that the singer’s voice starts to get on my nerves by the end of the EP. But I’ll still be paying attention to whatever they do next, and I hope I’ll get a chance to see them live sometime.
The Squares, “Very Sharp.” I was very taken with this Columbus band’s debut EP when I first got it, though unfortunately I became less so with repeated listens—the record starts to seem a little too long, which isn’t a good thing for an EP. But I think they have oodles of potential, and you really can’t go wrong with a sound as straightforward and rocking as theirs.
Song of the Year:
If you can’t guess what this is going to be, you have either never read my blog before or you haven’t been paying attention. 
Yes, my song of the year is “Since K Got Over Me” by the Clientele. Duh. I think I finally figured out why it gets to me the way it does, too: it’s a London song, in the same way that Nick Drake’s “Bryter Layter” is a London album. There are no explicit references to London, but it just seems to permeate the song, and the line “But when the evening paints the streets/When the evening paints the streets/It’s like walking on a trampoline” immediately takes me to a very specific place and time in London and sends joy and heartbreak coursing through my veins all at once.
It beat out my previous lead-pipe-cinch single of the year, Alan Jackson’s “Monday Morning Church” (with magnificent backing vocals by Patty Loveless), which is a perfect country single. I like Alan Jackson better as a singles artist than as an album artist anyway, and between this song and “Drive,” he’s released arguably my two favorite country singles of the decade.
Other runners-up:
Son Volt, “Jet Pilot”
Robbie Fulks, “Georgia Hard” and “Where There’s a Road”
Malcolm Middleton, “Break My Heart”
Bettye Lavette, “How Am I Different?” (her astonishingly good cover of an already great Aimee Mann song)
In a way, I should have put more effort into my Song of the Year list than my albums list, because so much of my listening now is via the iPod, on song shuffle, so songs are more relevant than albums. But I’m an old person, and I still think in album terms. I’m doing a mix CD for a group I belong to in April, and though it’s going to include some songs from before 2005 (yes, I’m already planning/obsessing about what songs to put on it), I may use it as an opportunity to come up with a Best Songs of 2005 comp too. But I probably won’t, since I’m always too lazy to do those sorts of things. Maybe next yearâ?¦which is to say this year.