Best albums of 2005
The Strand's fiercest music critics, Ryan Hardy and Nav Purewal, stare down and select the top albums of 2005. So your favourite album didn't make the cut? Questioning why they choose said album? No need to be hatin'. Maybe your music just simply sucks.
By Ryan Hardy and Nav Purewal
Issue date: 12/1/05 Section: Film & Music
7. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
Sorry, do they suck now? Are they overexposed? Played out? Have we moved on? The hype machine comes and the hype machine goes, but actually talented bands, such as Bloc Party, can ignore the haters and stick to making good music. Ultimately it doesn't matter who the NME thinks will save rock and roll this week. A band that can write good songs and play very, very well, and that moreover does so with some passion and chutzpah, will always be in demand.
6. LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
There are good albums, there are great albums, and then there are those albums that may not exactly be the best in show but which manage to utterly nail down a moment in time. This is such an album.
5. David Banner - Certified
At a record industry showcase a few months ago, David Banner looked out at a sea of critics and label executives and informed them: "If my record don't sell and my father die [his father has cancer], I'm a kill all y'all." He then proceeded to make his DJ play "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. In other words, David Banner is a mad genius who is willing to spit lines like "beat it like Mike when he fucked Billie Jean" over some of the nastiest Deep South beats you will ever hear. Buy this album and help save the life of everyone in the audience at that showcase.
4. The Game - The Documentary
Dismissed as the product of an out-of-control Shady/Aftermath/G-Unit hype machine, and then subsequently cast aside by the same machine pretty much for talking too much shit, The Game appeared to have a rough year. Except that his album went platinum, produced three huge singles, and firmly established him as a major force in rap music (that is, if he can get off Interscope). Beneath all the media drama and commercial success, however, there was also the years finest rap album. Some of rap's great albums are great because they occupy a unique place in history (such as 3 Feet High and Rising or Raising Hell) whereas others possess an almost mystical je-ne-sais-quoi (like Illmatic or Madvillainy). Then some are just shit-hot beats matched to a talented MC rapping for his life. Like The Documentary.
Sorry, do they suck now? Are they overexposed? Played out? Have we moved on? The hype machine comes and the hype machine goes, but actually talented bands, such as Bloc Party, can ignore the haters and stick to making good music. Ultimately it doesn't matter who the NME thinks will save rock and roll this week. A band that can write good songs and play very, very well, and that moreover does so with some passion and chutzpah, will always be in demand.
6. LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
There are good albums, there are great albums, and then there are those albums that may not exactly be the best in show but which manage to utterly nail down a moment in time. This is such an album.
5. David Banner - Certified
At a record industry showcase a few months ago, David Banner looked out at a sea of critics and label executives and informed them: "If my record don't sell and my father die [his father has cancer], I'm a kill all y'all." He then proceeded to make his DJ play "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. In other words, David Banner is a mad genius who is willing to spit lines like "beat it like Mike when he fucked Billie Jean" over some of the nastiest Deep South beats you will ever hear. Buy this album and help save the life of everyone in the audience at that showcase.
4. The Game - The Documentary
Dismissed as the product of an out-of-control Shady/Aftermath/G-Unit hype machine, and then subsequently cast aside by the same machine pretty much for talking too much shit, The Game appeared to have a rough year. Except that his album went platinum, produced three huge singles, and firmly established him as a major force in rap music (that is, if he can get off Interscope). Beneath all the media drama and commercial success, however, there was also the years finest rap album. Some of rap's great albums are great because they occupy a unique place in history (such as 3 Feet High and Rising or Raising Hell) whereas others possess an almost mystical je-ne-sais-quoi (like Illmatic or Madvillainy). Then some are just shit-hot beats matched to a talented MC rapping for his life. Like The Documentary.
