Continuing my look at the albums of 2005…
I had to include this album in my 2005 rundown because it is one of the most critically-acclaimed releases of that year. However, Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois (or Come On Feel the Illinoise!) is a record I’ve just never been able to embrace.
I want to like it. It’s an ambitious indie folk opus by an artist who has a knack for the kind of melancholy music I’m usually drawn to. But it’s way too artsy-fartsy for my taste.
Continuing my look at the albums of 2005…
The world’s top-selling album in 2005 was Coldplay’s third studio release, X&Y. The album was the band’s first #1 in the U.S., cementing the British rockers as superstars on both sides of the pond.
X&Y is best known for sentimental single ‘Fix You,’ which balances on the razor’s edge between profound and maudlin and has been called one or the other by many a music fan. The better single is ‘Speed of Sound,’ one of the great rock anthems (even if it owes a bit too much to the band’s earlier hit, ‘Clocks‘).
Continuing my look at the albums of 2005…
The White Stripes’ fifth studio album, Get Behind Me Satan, moved away from the guitar-heavy sound of their earlier releases and made room for more piano and acoustic guitar. The duo still managed to rock out, and the album features its share of blues jams, but you’ll find just as many off-kilter ballads here.
This album reminds me a lot of 60s and early 70s Rolling Stones, with Jack White channeling Mick Jagger on deadpan bluegrass numbers and heartsick soft rockers like today’s SOTD.
Continuing my look at the albums of 2005…
I was surprised to discover I’ve only featured one song from Spoon’s 2005 album Gimme Fiction to date, way back in 2008. This is one of those bands, and one of those albums, that I seldom think about but always enjoy.
Gimme Fiction was my introduction to the Austin-based indie band. It’s their fifth studio album and the first to make a wider splash, with today’s song finding some moderate success on radio.
Continuing my look at the albums of 2005…
Now that I’ve counted down my favorite albums of 2005, I’m turning my attention to other notable albums from that year. Some of these I know a little bit or a lot, some I didn’t know at all. Each of them made a splash commercially or critically and helped shape the popular music landscape that year.
I wrote about Madonna’s Confessions On a Dance Floor back when I did a deep dive of all of her albums. This one was Madonna’s last Platinum album in the U.S., and the last real triumph of her career.
Meet Me In Montauk 