There's definitely some good songs but as overall albums, I wasn't impressed especially with the bottom 3.

I'm kinda picky, so there's tons of stuff I didn't like this year, but those that come to mind (in no particular order) are: Bright Eyes, Coldplay, Nada Surf, Metric, My Morning Jacket, Death Cab, the National, Sleater-Kinney, Eels, Antony & the Johnstons, CYHSY..... and I'll throw the new Strokes in, too.

Broken Social Scene would go in the mild disappointment category - A few good songs, but I just never got into it.

I thought about half of the MMJ record was great and the other half kinda phoned-in. Another great EP, disguised as a needlessly long LP.

I think Gimme Fiction suffered from terrible sequencing, but contains several great Spoon songs - they just don't all quite cohere as well as they could.

Rogue Wave had me sold on the first 2 songs...and then I discovered there wasn't much else after those. Good live band though...

that MMJ record was really frustrating for me. i liked their last 2 but this one had a few awesome songs and a bunch of kind of stuff that seemed to have a few sonic tweaks to try to make up for a lack of good tunes.

I'm a fan of Andrew Bird, but not this album.



I've heard one other AoL album and a few Swans albums which ones I can't recall at the moment. I'm not a big fan of his, I probably wouldn't have gotten the new AoL if it weren't the pick of a mediocre litter of free cd options when I was renewing Magnet.

I think some of it is funny and cute and purposefully retarded (songs like "Your Fat Friend" for instance). I enjoy listening to it, but it's a far cry from the Momus of a decade-plus ago. Lot of masturbatory laptop foolishness that doesn't add up to much in the way of songs. I like it, but it's not a Top 20.

That's funny because I've mentioned how good I thought the sequencing is on this one. Flows great to me. So subjective, but they did put a lot of effort into getting it the way they wanted as you can tell by many of the song transitions. Works for me

I think it flows together well enough, but I'd've put Sister Jack earlier, Delicate Place later, etc. While I like about 8 out of the 12 songs a great deal, I rarely make it through one listen.

Of course, I've been on a Series of Sneaks kick this year, so my attention span might have a good deal to do with this viewpoint.

Ah, OK. The new album certainly isn't great or anything (it's their worst, actually), but I couldn't see anyone who's a fan of M. Gira considering it as one of the year's worst albums. It's somewhere in my top 40 or 50 of the year.

Looks like I'm gonna have to revise my worst-of list. I've seen a few more things mentioned (Sigur Ros, Rogue Wave) that I like way less than some of the ones I listed.

I'd agree with Davey on this one - I thought the sequencing was pretty strong. But, I think you're on to something re: the MMJ, although I think you're being too kind with the use of 'great'.

The only two I really bought and haven't listened to at all would be:

Bright Eyes - Digital Ass
Beck - Gheyro

MMJ/Z - I thought they captured a great deal of atmosphere (again), but they seem a bit too preoccupied with creating a full-length...reminds me of an SFA record in certain respects. Like, what's the point with having ALL of these songs, other than to justify having an LP, with an LP's typical ebbs/flows? Pairing it down to 4 or 5 songs (I'm sure we'll all disagree on which ones) would've resulted in something as compelling/appetite-whetting as LSF's Rome EP.

Back on Spoon, I'd've put They Never Got You further up as well...and the b-side treatment of Was It You? did a lot more for me, come to think of it.

people who didn't like Frances the Mute:

what bugged you about it?

i'm not really a huge fan of either LP, but i'm just curious what some of you think.

We're not that far off. I've listened to less than 60 cds from 2005. I've sampled some that I'm pretty sure are far worse than my ten but I'm not gonna call them worse when I've not listened to them in their entirity.

1. bmrc howl
2. super furry animals love kraft
3. gorillaz demon days
4. franz ferdinand you could have it so much better
5. common be
6. hot hot heat elevator
7. the hold steady separation sunday
8. shout out louds howl howl gaff gaff
9. trail of dead worlds apart

i can't think of anything else.

a couple of these aren't horrible but i was just disappointed by them (ff, hold steady), a few of them outright suck though (sfa, gorillaz, hot hot heat, trail of dead, common).

if we're talking about most disappointing, it's easy:

1. prefuse 73

I've really come around on FF thanks to that record.

Yeah, I'm not big on adding to the hate, but wow...such a letdown.

Ugh! I forgot about Hot Hot Heat. I'll take Spoon out of my bummer 10 and replace with Hot Hot Heat.

No BillyG shits on any artist when they get some mainstream praise no matter how good the record is. See also: his dismissal of MMJ-Z

He is still cool though.

Also, what says the AoL/Gira folks about the split with Akron/Family? I haven't really listened to it enough to have anything of substance to say, but I like what I've heard.

did you read the article on cokemachineglow? i'm not one who usually refers people to someone else's writing, but dude nailed it on the head for sure.

http://www.cokemachineglow.com/feature/ ... opher.html

both halves are great.

rparis attempts to try and be cool, too.

as your editor yail, you didn't need to say attempt and try in the same sentence. it's extraneous.