'Tis the season? For music reviews?
1/2/06
It would appear that the beginning of a new year/end of previous year is the season for top 10 album reviews. Usually the people who review their "Top Ten Albums of 2005" review albums that were actually released in 2005. But I don't really listen to a lot of "new" or "newly released" music. It's not that I don't like any new music -- I do -- it's just that I'm gettin' old and am just not that plugged in anymore (so if any of you young'uns heard something really cool this year, let me know before I retire! (I'm exaggerating, that's still 30 years away for me, minimum)). Nor am I really interested in attempting to boost the sales of new albums currently out there just trying to sell as much as they can in their first year. The music that stands the test of time, even just a few years, is the best. I.e., No Doubt.
So, I would have to review the "Top Ten Albums I Listened To in 2005" most of which are probably available at your local library. What this will probably demonstrate most effectively is just how wide and eclectic my musical tastes are. Like most posts, this runs the serious risk of being most interesting to me. Perhaps much more so than to you. What the heck. This will require me to figure out what all I actually listened to in 2005, and narrow that list down to a mere 10. This I have done, so now I suppose I should comment on them:
The Top Ten Albums (I listened to) in 2005!!
10. Keur Moussa - Sacred Chant and African Rhythms from Senegal Keur Moussa is a French/Senegalese Benedictine monastery in Senegal. As the title suggests, this is a fusion of Benedictine chants and hymns with the rhythms and instruments of Senegal, the French and Senegalese monks singing in, you guessed it, French and Senegalese. Pretty cool stuff. My favorite is the way they do Psalms 148-149.
9. Stan Richardson - Moon on the Water This is Japanese Shakuhachi (bamboo flute) music. What can I say. I've spent too much time in Sushi restaurants, I got to liking the music...
8. Sounds and Songs of the Humpback Whales Oh yeah baby! This is not the flimsy record out of the National Geographic that you had to tape a dime to to play, oh-ho-ho no, this is 59 minutes and 3 seconds of CD quality whale song! And completely free of any crappy new age music overlaid on it! Just whales wailin!
7. Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Child This is the year I rediscovered the genius of Jimi Hendrix, in a big way. Seriously, if he wasn't rock and roll, he'd clearly have been a jazz master. This year for me it was all about Spanish Castle Magic and Land of the New Rising Sun.
6. Depeche Mode - The Singles 86-98 I also rediscovered Depeche Mode, big time. Everything Counts, Fly on the Windscreen, Never Let Me Down Again, Useless, and Shake the Disease. So awesome words fail me.
5. Blue Man Group - Audio Ok, they don't just sell Intel. That's their day job maybe. They are a performance art/music group. They're all percussionists. They make all their own instruments out of PVC. And they're supposed to be awesome in concert. I believe it. I love Drumbone!
4. Blue Man Group - The Complex This is their newer album from The Complex Rock tour, which pokes fun at the whole Rock Star/Rock Concert industry. I saw the DVD of the show. It's like they got an instructional video about how to be rock stars and do concerts, complete with canned, numbered "rock concert movements."
3. Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill Believe it or not it took me this long to really discover and appreciate Alanis Morissette. I particularly like Forgiven, Not the Doctor, and Wake Up.
2. Sekou Sundiata - longstoryshort Sekou Sundiata is a poet with a backup band! His poetry -- poetry, not lyrics -- set to music, a technique called "oralizing." It's hard to explain. Great poetry, great music. You have to hear it. From this album I liked the most, Mandela, Making Poems, Urban Music, and longstoryshort.
And the number one album I listened to in 2005:
1. Philip Glass - Kundun I am such a big fan of Philip Glass. Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, and now this, his soundtrack from the movie Kundun, about the early life of the Dalai Lama. Philip Glass' music is also hard to describe, except that he's a composer. But if you're thinking 'Mozart' right now, you're way off. Philip Glass is more like� more like� like nothing else really. The closest comparison I can think of is to compare him to Blue Man Group, and that is really a stretch. If you ever wondered what has happened in classical music in the 20th century, since George Gershwin, it's Philip Glass.
