2005 Coda, Part 2

Results of the Village Voice's Pazz N Jop poll are expected this week. In anticipation of the deluge of comments that will soon be blitzing a blog or messageboard near you, here is my PnJ ballot along with the comments I submitted. For album rankings, 100 points are distributed amongst ten albums, and no album can receive less than five or more than thirty points. For song rankings, each vote counts equally (so my #1 is worth just as much as my #10. Still, it's fun to rank them).

I kept the comments short and sweet. I'm not a fan of "The State of Music in the Year 2XXX" rants but I felt compelled to write about my fave album and single, took a shot at MIA (the likely winner of the albums poll), and added some lighthearted stuff about the MMVA's and The Killers. I'll probably be back later in the week with some post-results chinstroking. Until then, join me in rooting for Animal Collective's "Feels" (top 20? "Sung Tongs" was #21 last year) and hoping that Depeche Mode can crack the top 200 (in either poll).

Your Pazz & Jop albums ballot was submitted as follows:

1. Sigur Ros - Takk... - Geffen (17)
2. M83 - Before the Dawn Heals Us - Gooom/Mute (16)
3. Depeche Mode - Playing the Angel - Mute (14)
4. Animal Collective - Feels - Fat Cat (13)
5. Rhythm and Sound - See Mi Yah - Burial Mix (10)
6. Low - The Great Destroyer - Sub Pop (9)
7. Jesu - Jesu - Hydra Head (6)
8. Broadcast - Tender Buttons - Warp (5)
9. Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra&Tra-La-La Band - Horses In the Sky -
Constellation (5)
10. Ellen Allien - Thrills - Bpitch Control (5)


Your Pazz & Jop singles ballot was submitted as follows:

1. t.A.T.u. - All About Us - Interscope
2. Polmo Polpo - Kiss Me Again and Again - Intr_version
3. MFA - The Difference It Makes - Kompakt Pop
4. Madonna - Hung Up - Warner
5. Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone - RCA
6. Killers - All These Things That I've Done - Island
7. M83 - Don't Save Us From the Flames - Gooom/Mute
8. New Order - Krafty - London
9. Ciara - Oh - LaFace
10. Of Montreal - So Begins Our Abalee - Polyvinyl

Considering it was my #1 album of 2005, I should probably say something nice about Sigur Ros' "Takk...". Unfortunately, every time I try to write something, I find that what I've written is indistinguishable from a description of a really crappy album by Mum. For what it's worth, I was ready to give up on this band back in the "Von"/"Agetis Byrjun" days, when it seemed as though every Sigur Ros review or feature had to include the word "glacier" at least four times. More importantly, the records weren't even all that good. But with "Takk...", they've made their Disneyland album; equal parts hallucinatory childlike wonder and maudlin adult
requiem. See what I mean -- corny take on a shit Mum album or brilliant opus by Sigur Ros? You decide.

I stayed away from the MIA debates that held blogs and messageboards in a stranglehold this past spring. I'm not a fan of her records so I didn't feel the motivation to speak up. Anyway, here's a half-serious apples and oranges comparison: Roots Manuva drops similar beats (compare "Chin Up" from his underappreciated 2005 album "Awfully Deep" to anything from "Arular") and is 100 times more skilled as a rapper and lyricist. So basically, I had very little use for MIA in 2005. Unfortunately, at a Roots Manuva gig in Toronto in May, nobody so much as budged when he played his then-new single "Colossal Insight". I don't think the crowd wanted to hear a disco song.

Five Reasons Why You Might Want to Watch a Canadian Music Awards Show Next Year (2005 Much Music Video Awards Edition):
1. Where else can you see the Backstreet Boys interviewed by a sock puppet?
2. The chance to see the wheels spinning in the Killers' heads as they read from the winner's envelope and try to figure out how to pronounce rapper k-os' name (proper pronunciation = like "chaos"). Sadly, they ended up with "K.O.S.", like "S.O.S.". Their embarrassment is MY petty entertainment -- and it can be YOURS too! Which Canadian performer's name will be mispronounced by a non-Canadian next year?
3. VJ's hosting segments in seemingly unexpected locations, such as nearby rooftops and in the street outside the studio. Almost everywhere except the stages, for the most part.
4. Let's face it, there isn't a single awards show that couldn't be improved by holding it outdoors.
5. You can always be assured of getting a good laugh at some predictably terrible bands. Americans get to scratch this itch via Good Charlotte. We have Billy Talent.

My video of the year was The Killers' "All These Things That I've Done", not least because I can practically imagine Beavis and Butthead making the requisite jokes about tits and laughing at how ridiculous the band looks in those outfits. And you can't hate on the always excellent Anton Corbijn directing a charming Russ Meyer pastiche.

The lesbian thing is actively hurting t.A.T.u these days, at least in North America. Their act no longer courts controversy, instead, the reaction is one of general disgust -- "no, not those fake lesbians again." This is how Jerry Springer fell from grace. Once the yen for notoriety becomes blatantly obvious, people become bored with the entire spectacle. However, the album that supported this sideshow, "Dangerous and Moving", is packed with fantastic songs. "All About Us" should have been unstoppable -- part Wagnerian thunderbolts, part Thelma and Louise;
accompanied by an alluring video stuffed with mindless violence and push-up bras. I couldn't ask for much more than that from my pop stars.