Am I the only person bored by 2005 (six months In, obv)?

answers appreciated by people who don't think things like the decemberists or the hold steady are making 2005 a rocking year, man.

On saying that I should be moving in Sept-ish which is a change, I suppose.

The main question is that I don't really know what I want to get out of things in 2005, which isn't exactly a Spinoza-shaking question.

Things that have made my year:
Gin
Dr Who
Plastic merlot
Lasagne
Microdisney

Strangely I am tempted to say music for the first time in a while, I seem to be listening to more stuff more often. Perhaps to make up for lack of Else in 2005. I should add I am rarely listening to stuff made after 2000 - perhaps 2005 is my year of not bothering to keep up with the kids.

Oh :(

(This is an ILM cliche I know - e.g. see here and here, and you can easily disprove it 'by science', but it still sort of feels true.

NB - strongo predicting 2004 to be best year EVAH in that first thread linked!

xpost

The result is that while I'm enjoying music I've spent a year rediscovering other stuff I enjoy and care about, so I feel nicely disconnected.

I think what I'm craving right now is the dramatization of moral dilemmas. It could be "a post-election thing."

Actually this is projection, as it's what I ought to be doing this summer for work.

so 2005 has suddenly become one of the best years in ages !

but the backlog still doesn't look too hot.

singles, not so much.

I was all happy-go-lucky WOO 2K5 for the first three-to-four months of the year, but I also found this joyous-shock-of-the-new meted by this streak of (INDIE ROCK!) nostalgia - going back to old old stuff, re-evaluating things I luv'd way back when. I imagine turning 30 had something to do w/ it. That's why I now have the last 2 Soundgarden CDs in my possession. Again.

(I do like that Decemberists album, tho, so, y'know, into the briar patch I go.)

that's all i've bought due to slackerdom and incessant working.

So, 2005 isn't boring, not overall. But right now, yes it is.

Ah, now this is interesting, I'll be seeing them on Monday open up for Meat Beat Manifesto, though I hadn't heard much positive about 'em. So what are they like?

Still, nothing's rocked me like the new Criterion rerelease of "The River" I got from Netflix last night.

2004 was a genuine bummer at the time, only partially saved by a few overlooked '04 purchases made later on.

'05 seems like it's going to be all about the first and last thirds of the year with a (welcome!) break in "things I really must buy" pressures for the summer.

Having said all that, I'm still getting the feeling that nothing has really leapt way out from leftfield, shocked and surprised people (or at least me) since 2003 now.

M.I.A. (and all the other trendy genres you can link to her) etcetera still seems more like a continuing consolidation of various exciting micro-trends than any huge and significant leap forward for music at this point. Still waiting for the '07's (according the the Anthony Wilson outlook on music cycles) perhaps?

*Just* for them? You madman! If you don't stick around for MBM then I will no longer lie!

There ya go, Scott.

Of course this is totally subjective.

and anyway, i do listen to metal scott. just not a lot. anymore.

I NEED to hear the Vitalic album.

Don't start taht again!

Crimes? or is there something newer?

Scott OTM. And OTM about Deana Carter, and that Ulver album, too. Either way, there have been scads of good metal albums this year. My favorites are probably Subterranean Masquerade and/or JD Blackfoot and/or the Sirens. All of which many metal fans would say are not metal, but what the hell. I have loved non-metal metal since forever.

Get the Jumpstyle 2005 album. It's thought provoking. Like the cusp of something really interesting about to happen. It's time the low countries came up with something new...

That Gustav song "We shall overcome" is also very exciting. A decent political dance record! Who'd'a thunk? Feels like it could foreshadow an infusion of 'meaning' into the electro juggernaut at a relatively late stage in its life, which could be unusual and life-affirming.

And finally, its from last year, but that Bertine Zetlitz song, 'Broken' is... wow. Not a great song per se, because it's ruined by the Imbruglia-isms of the singing, but the instrumental. Fuckin hell. If all europop goes that minimal this year, it could go really weird places.

And then 'Aim High vol 2' - that should have got anybody excited. Those freestyles! Shows that despite the apparent lull in the grime scene, the level of craft among the mcs is shooting skyward and we might get that classic album from someone other than Dizzee anytime soon.

2005 has felt like a slow year for me too, although it's not due to a lack of good music to check out (if anything since taking a break from weekly reviewing I'm more "behind" than ever) but because of two key absences:

1) the OMGWTF critical dances around key records, songs, scenes, sounds etc. (excepting the M.I.A. debate which is too conflicted to count I think)

2) the fact that I haven't been out dancing with my close friends much and therefore don't have the same amount of "our song" bonding that I used to wrt eg. "Hot In Herre" or "Get Busy" etc (not coincidentally my favourite songs from their respective years).

Thing is, the actual music is almost less crucial than this process surrounding it. If I'd been out dancing with my friends as much as normal than "One Thing" might mean as much to me for 2005 as "Hot In Herre" did for 2002.

Of course this is just me, yr mileage may vary obv.

Then you might like M2M's "Our Song," my most favorite teenpop song from the '00s thus far; it quotes, surrounds, recycles an old Bee Gees song that I'd only shrugged at in the original version; in this one, with the M2M song surrounding, it's in my pantheon of vulnerable hope and naked ache, along with the Chantels' "Maybe," the Shirelles' "Tonight's the Night," Irma Thomas's "Ruler of My Heart," and Debbie Deb's "When I Hear Music." ("Our Song" is on the first M2M album, Shades of Purple.)

(And the new Marion Raven single, out in Japan even as we speak, is an attempt to ride the crest of "Since U Been Gone," probably with Max twisting the dials: It's good, though Marion's voice isn't quite as suited as Kelly's for living-on-the-tiger-that's-ridin'-the-prayer-on-a-steel-horse-I-ride-while-riding-the-crest-type transcendence.) (Marion Raven was the M in M2M. Unless she was the other M.)

Actually, a good story here! Friend Stripey and I were record shopping tonight and this was playing over the PA -- Stripey was so taken by it that after a couple of minutes of listening she went ahead and bought it! I knew this would make Scott happy in particular. :-)

There's a lot of great singles from the past 6 months which have me at least moderately excited about new music. The excitement for me has dwindled slightly for the last 2 weeks or so, but I haven't bought Get Behind Me Satan yet, so there's hope.

I think the period starting 25th May 2004 up to date (fingers crossed there does appear to be a light at the end of the tunnel at the moment....) has probably been the worst of my life so far; thereby successfully elbowing 1983/84, 1992/93 and 2000 into (in no particular order) 2nd, 3rd and 4th place.

The last few years I've noticed a tendency to listen to music less than normal when I'm angry / upset; whereas when I was younger I used to imerse myself in it as a means of escape. I've no idea why this should be, but I'd be interested in any theories!

I don't seem to have been inspired to buy as much music the last few months 'though; which is not something I'm conscious of ever having been linked to periods feeling angry / upset in the past - if anything, probably the opposite.

I bought quite a few good things from 2004 back in Jan / Feb that had managed to slip through the net until I saw the same titles keep cropping up on various different year-end best-of lists (and I'm sure there will be a similar number come the end of this year; but so far the only new (2005) releases I can think of off hand that I've particularly enjoyed have been by Cheese, The Coral, The Eels, The Magic Band (obv.!), MIA and Smog.

when i was playing this last nite, ned, i thought of you (that you would dig it) and i was thinking of talk talk! isn't stripey the big talk talk fan? not that it really sounds like talk talk, but that a talk talk fan might like the new ulver. don't ask me how i made this leap. it was a leap. turns out i was right!

I need to hear this. Too, I like the Tra La La record OK, at first I said "Buzzcocks" but Chuck said "Jesus and Mary Chain" and I hear bits of both, and kinda some Liliput in there too. Sounds funny to me, I don't like the way the voices were recorded, but it's grown on me.

-- o. nate

My 2005 example has to be "Bitches Without Britches", my ears! also another absolute zinger for 2003 = still ruling my world.

'04 doesn't seem quite so bad now, and '05 not quite as great as it seemed like it might be (luckily for my finances) earlier in the year, still an improvement though.

How is anyone else feeling at this point?

Overlooked '05 thread due in Jan '06?