Critics Poll 2005 Albums

What makes a pop group formally excellent? When we say a pop band is "great", greater than its peers, what, exactly, do we mean by that? We might be talking about how well the band plays, or how well the singers harmonize or hit their notes, or, if the group is primarily a recording act, how much tape saturation they're able to achieve. And we like groups who can sustain some claim to originality -- melodic inventiveness, cleverness in songcraft, distinctive instrumental voices. As rock writing on the Internet has become more sophisticated, critics have begun to flag outward signs of intelligence: big vocabularies, deftly-turned phrases, wit, wordplay, literary pretensions. An "excellent band" is now a literate band -- students of rock history capable of redeploying signifiers from across genres, and even from other disciplines (plastic art, architecture, film, management theory, etc.)

That the music of the New Pornographers is absurdly catchy -- that Carl Newman is able to guide his pop melodies through an obstacle course of chord and section changes -- is almost immaterial. Newman's outfit has become a state-of-the-art Great Band circa 2005 by convincing discerning listeners that what they're up to is something genuinely new under the sun: something educated and accomplished, well-written and smoothly-discharged, assembled with precision, and meticulously recorded. The New Pornographers have flirted with the top spot on the poll in 2001 and 2003 (Carl Newman's solo album, recorded in '04 by a subset of the band, but without Neko Case, made the top twenty last year). This year, they've taken the title outright.

Case is often considered the key to the group's crossover success: she's the sweetener that makes these geek-rock anthems palatable to a mass audience. But Newman is an outstanding singer, too. Regardless of who is fronting the group at any particular moment (Twin Cinema, as you probably know, features additional vocals by Newman's niece), a New Pornographers singer is pulling from the same grab bag of cultural associations, snappy tunes, witticisms, and filched passages from half-forgotten pop classics. At this stage, Newman can probably plug musicians into his formula at will, and no matter who is fronting the group, his audience will consider it brilliant.

And it is brilliant. The New Pornographers radiate intelligence. But just as it's fair game to wonder whether or not art for art's sake is worth paying attention to, brilliance for the sheer sake of brilliance can seem, from a certain angle, similarly aimless. The problem with the New Pornographers is the same problem with formalism in general: it's self-reflexive, and self-contained. Carl Newman's songs flash their smarts at you, and at their best, they can even make you laugh -- but I'll be damned if I can make heads or tails of any of them. They're a compendium of riddles, of amusing lines and single lyrics, a string of dazzling moments. But when you follow the string, it doesn't lead anywhere. When you step away from the road to see where you've been, it's impossible to pick up the trail.

Yes, I know, you want to tell me the string is the thing; that it's enough to be in the presence of mastery, that the New Pornographers don't have to be about anything other than their own excellence. But it's not enough to say something is evocative if you can't tell what in hell it's evoking. Perhaps there's something about their insularity -- their refusal to engage with anything other than their own extremely private universe of associations -- that appeals to us; the idea that you can be smart and literary and accomplished, and that this can be an end in itself, rather than a means to a greater end. But at the risk of opening myself to charges of anti-mystical pedantry, I pause before running down the list to ask Hipster Nation what it is about this band that makes us pardon so much of their nonsense.

Okay, enough bashing Carl Newman, for one year, anyway. His is a gigantic talent, and I wouldn't want you to think I can't recognize that. Here's how you voted:

1. The New Pornographers -- Twin Cinema (280)
2. Of Montreal -- The Sunlandic Twins (216)
3. Spoon -- Gimme Fiction (203)
4. Kanye West -- Late Registration (200)
5. The Decemberists -- Picaresque (175)

The big surprise here is Of Montreal; Kevin Barnes's indiepop outfit (which is now nothing but Barnes overdubbing himself from here 'til next Wednesday) had never been within shouting distance of the top 40. The Sunlandic Twins shares more than a noun with Twin Cinema -- they're both Kinks-inspired, obscenely melodic, and mildly psychedelic, and both principal songwriters have never met a chord change they didn't like. However, where Carl Newman's narratives are impenetrable, Barnes writes forcefully, and even a bit anthemically, about his relationships and his feelings about American society. The New Pornographers showed up on more ballots, but I find it interesting that just about everybody who voted for both put The Sunlandic Twins ahead of Twin Cinema.

Spoon won the poll in 2002 with Kill The Moonlight; Gimme Fiction finishes slightly off that pace. Critics Poll voters just love Britt Daniel -- he could put out a record of hacking and coughing and he'd still make the top ten. A Guy Called West checks in at number four, lapping all the other rap in the poll. Last year, many voters admitted he was the Artist They Didn't Know, But Knew They Should -- even though they'd been voting for his ROC singles ever since "Izzo". Nobody had that problem after his unlikely capture of the Katrina brand.

6. Sigur Ros -- Takk… (162)
7. The White Stripes -- Get Behind Me Satan (151)
8. The Clientele -- Strange Geometry (149)
8. My Morning Jacket -- Z (149)
10. Silver Jews -- Tanglewood Numbers (132)

Every year I get a thimbleful of ballots that are extremely fragmentary -- a single here, an album there, a few desultory comments, maybe a vote in a random category for a musician I've never heard of. I'm not sure what to make of this, but at least half of those ballots lead with a vote for the White Stripes. Elephant finished second to Meadowlands in 2003, coming within ten points of taking the poll outright. We had almost twice as many voters in 2005 as we did then, and the Stripes picked up nearly 100 fewer points. But you knew that; if you followed rock journalism at all this year, you knew that Get Behind Me Satan was bewildering listeners and critics.

The bottom half of the top ten is rounded out by bands who have always done well on the poll, but never this well -- the Clientele, My Morning Jacket, and The Silver Jews. All three albums are beautifully-recorded, and all three are strongly reminiscent of sixties and seventies Left Coast experimental rock. In twenty years, will we still be pulling inspiration from the hippie era? When will our nostalgia for these years - years that none of us, by my count, were even conscious during -- fade for good? Like The Mayor, I'm just sayin'.

11. The Pernice Brothers -- Discover A Lovelier You (131)
12. Fiona Apple -- Extraordinary Machine (129)
13. The Fiery Furnaces -- Rehearsing My Choir (127)
14. Sufjan Stevens -- Illinois (125)
15. Calla -- Collisions (120)

Appropriately, this year's most polarizing and unfortunately-received album checks in at number thirteen. The Friedbergers had no luck with rock writers in 2005 -- a couple of troglodyte webloggers even suggested that year-end voters for Rehearsing My Choir were lying outright, and trying to score hipster points by selecting an intentionally difficult record. Nerds and other Fiery Furnaces fans are not so easily intimidated. I'm particularly gratified that Olga Sarantos's genuine lived reflections on Chicago narrowly beat out Sufjan Stevens's (to these ears) emotionally dishonest piece of quasi-geographic chain-pulling. But more on that later.

16. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah -- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (119)
17. The Hold Steady -- Separation Sunday (118)
18. Sage Francis -- A Healthy Distrust (115)
19. Tori Amos -- The Beekeeper (112)
20. Bloc Party -- Silent Alarm (111)

White emcees did surprisingly well on the poll this year -- Sage Francis drew strong support from all over the country, Edan topped a couple of ballots, and Paul Wall outpolled Mike Jones and Slim Thug put together. Leading the pack at number seventeen is hard rhymer Craig Finn, who at least one Critics Poll voter (correctly) evaluated as a rapper. Not that there's anything hip-hop about The Hold Steady, but c'mon, that dude ain't singin'.

Sage Francis picked up the fewest tallies in proportion to score: almost all of the people who voted for A Healthy Distrust had it at the top or near the top of their ballots. The Decemberists, by contrast, were named on more ballots than any other act (39 of 128), but the support felt lukewarm: lots of #8s and #9s, and honorable mentions.

21. Bright Eyes -- I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning (110)
22. Sleater-Kinney -- The Woods (108)
23. Neil Young -- Prairie Wind (106)
24. Eels -- Blinking Lights And Other Revelations (102)
25. Death Cab For Cutie -- Plans (101)
26. Animal Collective -- Feels (99)
27. Beck -- Guero (97)
27. The National -- Alligator (97)
29. Art Brut -- Bang Bang Rock And Roll (94)
30. System Of A Down -- Mezmerize/Hypnotize (93)

People talk shit about System Of A Down, but that there was a real concept album, not some waving at a vague framework meant to pull the wool over the gullible graduate students at Pitchfork. Conor Oberst also released two albums in 2005, but he made no attempt to fuse them into one entity. Critics Poll voters completely ignored the mildly electronic -- and thus slightly more interesting -- Digital Ash In A Digital Urn in favor of the stark, confessional I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning. Now, I have ripped on this guy plenty, and he's certainly an easy target, but since I don't know where else to put this, I'm going to put it here: the next time you are looking for real heroes in this rock and roll thing, look here. Oberst is an actual no-bullshit rock hero. He got on national television and he took that opportunity to sing something pretty damned courageous about national politics, he won't have anything to do with Clear Channel for all the right reasons, he plows his money back into his friends' albums, he continues to rep for Nebraska, he takes chances, he keeps his heart out there. He's got balls, he's a true indie, and although he's been presented with ample opportunity to do so, he hasn't sold out anything or anybody. I've never been too wild about his music. But if I'd made the count this morning and Bright Eyes had won the poll outright, I wouldn't have been upset about that at all.

31. Cass McCombs -- PREfection (92)
32. Kate Bush -- Aerial (91)
32. The Go! Team -- Thunder, Lightning, Strike! (91)
32. LCD Soundsystem -- LCD Soundsystem (91)
32. Kaiser Chiefs -- Employment (91)
36. Jens Lekman -- Oh You're So Silent Jens (90)
36. Steven Malkmus -- Face The Truth (90)
36. Broadcast -- Tender Buttons (90)
39. Low -- The Great Destroyer (88)
40. Common -- Be (86)
41. M.I.A. -- Arular (84)
41. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club -- Howl (84)
43. The Negatones -- The Negatones (80)
43. John Prine -- Fair & Square (80)
45. John Vanderslice -- Pixel Revolt (75)
46. Mars Volta -- Frances The Mute (72)
47. Kevin Devine -- Split The Country, Split The Street (66)
48. The Game -- The Documentary (64)
49. Edan -- Beauty And The Beat (61)
50. Nada Surf -- The Weight Is A Gift (60)

Predictably, The Negatones were the highest-polling local indie. Before anybody accuses me of manipulation or favoritism, consider that two bands that I am actually in put out albums in 2005, and neither made the leader boards. Other locals and quasi-locals bubbling under the top fifty: The Giraffes (47 points), Chris Mills (47 points), The Spinto Band (34 points), Au Revoir Simone (33 points), Like Moving Insects (30 points).

Both Jim Testa and Tom DeGise had John Prine's Fair & Square at or near the top of their ballots. If the Hudson County Executive and the Dean of Jersey Indie-Rock Criticism can agree, maybe there's real hope for all of us trying to turn this moribund scene around.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I thought there'd be no way I'd ever top last year's 106 total votes; I figured that would be a high-water mark that would stand for years. We shattered that, though; this time around, we got 128 votes. This year's ballots were even more comprehensive than last year's were. Many of you wrote to me or told me in person that you were taking your time this year to fill out the poll thoughtfully and comprehensively. I'll be damned if you weren't as good as your word. I hope this was, and is, as fun for you as it is for me. Thank you all. If these recaps make you laugh, or make you mad, or make you want to carry me around town on your shoulders, or just make you want to choke me to death, remember: it's only rock and roll.

Other albums recieving #1 votes:

50 Cent -- The Massacre
Andrew Bird -- The Mysterious Production Of Eggs
Atmosphere -- You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having
Benevento/Russo Duo -- Best Reasons To Buy The Sun
Ben Lee -- Awake Is The New Sleep
Coco Rosie -- Noah's Ark
Dalek -- Absence
Devendra Banhart -- Cripple Crow
Electrelane -- Axes
Elkland -- Golden
Ellis Paul -- American Jukebox Favorites
Golden Birds -- Transamerica
Gogol Bordello -- Gypsy Punks
Gorillaz -- Demon Days
Jennifer Gentle -- Valende
Jose Gonzalez -- Veneer
Kelly Clarkson -- Breakaway
Koufax -- Hard Times Are In Fashion
Magnolia Electric Company -- What Comes After The Blues
Mariah Carey -- The Emancipation Of Mimi
Nine Inch Nails -- With Teeth
Okkervil River -- Black Sheep Boy
Paint It Black -- Paradise
Proton Proton -- EP
Queens Of The Stone Age -- Lullabyes To Paralyze
Services -- Your Desire Is My Business
Sons & Daughters -- The Repulsion Box
Stars -- Set Yourself On Fire
Supergrass -- Road To Rouen
The Consultants -- Work From Home
The Oranges Band -- The World & Everything In It
Tim Fite -- Gone Ain't Gone
We Love Katamari -- Soundtrack

Here's last year's results.

Tomorrow: your singles list, and the accompanying essay.

Wednesday: the miscellaneous categories.

Thursday: all my picks, baybee.

Friday: "behind the numbers", with your host, Tris McCall.

If you've got something that sheds some light, e-mail me tonight.