Top 50

Since the end of the year is the time when everyone whips out their top 10 or 20 or 50 lists of books, music, movies, I thought I'd join the club and do my very first. This list is records of the year. But since I mostly collect and listen to used vinyl, this is a list of the best records listened to in the Helmut household this year rather than trying to sift through all the new stuff that came out in 2005. Some are from 2005, but most are from other years. The order broke down once I tried ranking them, so it's a random ranking in the end. Just stuff I listened to more than other stuff -- lots of it is music I came back to after a long layoff, like Astral Weeks (give it a spin again if you haven't listened to it in a while. Pure genius.). This is also not to say that these necessarily outrank others in my collection of about 4000 records (LP snob). But I do recommend them -- thus, the list.

The list is probably useless to you, dear readers, but these lists are always self-indulgent anyway. The records here are nevertheless still better than newer raves like the Fiery Furnaces who really started to irritate me after a second or third listening of the much-lauded Blueberry Boat. Just stick with a tune, will you?!! There are no White Stripes here (who are okay, but tiring), no Bright Eyes (who stinks), no Strokes (who are the most cosmically overrated band in the history of the universe forever and ever -- if you like the Strokes, go listen to The Monks instead and slap that crap out of you).

This list includes a few older records from the guy with whom Helmut would most like to sit down and have lots of non-transparent beers: Ray Davies. Yes, Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin or Aristotle in that alternative universe, but also Ray Davies. Now there's a guy who ought to be writing constitutions.

50. Rubens Bassini - Ritmo Fantastico
49. Cheap Trick - Cheap Trick
48. The Kinks - Village Green Preservation Society
47. The Fall - Extricate
46. Jana Hunter and Devendra Banhart
45. Wreckless Eric - Wreckless Eric
44. Nick Cave - Nocturama
43. Brian Wilson - Smile
42. Radiohead - Amnesiac
41. Lou Donaldson - Midnight Creeper
40. The Arcade Fire - Funeral
39. Nina Simone - Nina Simone Sings the Blues
38. Bela Bartók - Mikrokosmos
37. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
36. XTC - Apple Venus
35. John Martyn - So Far, So Good (and others)
34. Budd Johnson - Ya! Ya!
33. Wild Billy Childish - Crimes of the Future
32. Richard and Linda Thompson - Pour Down Like Silver
31. Roy Eldridge - Little Jazz
30. The Jam - Snap! (plus the records it compiles from)
29. The Kinks - Something Else
28. Cal Tjader - Mambo
27. Mouse on Mars - Distroia
26. Eugene McDaniels - Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse
25. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
24. Robert Wyatt - Old Rottenhat
23. The Fall - Dragnet
22. Robert Pete Williams - Free Again
21. Anita O'Day - Waiter, Make Mine the Blues
20. The Hangmen - Bitter Sweet
19. Jackie Mittoo - Macka Fat
18. A Chico Science compilation a Brazilian grad student made for me
17. The Kinks - Arthur
16. Wire - Pink Flag
15. Leroy Vinnegar Sextet - Leroy Walks!
14. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
13. Prefuse 73 - Surrounded by Silence
12. Haruomi Hosono - The Endless Talking
11. Paul McCartney - Ram
10. Marcos Valle - Essential Marcos Valle, Volumes 1 and 2
9. Big Black - Songs About Fucking
8. Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
7. Brian Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets
6. Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary
5. Handel - Concerti Grossi
4. Higelin and Areski
3. Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
2. The Books - The Lemon of Pink
1. The Kinks - Face to Face

See also Mark the Wege's really good list at Norwegianity. He listens to newer stuff than I.