I’m a hypocrite and I apologize. The truth is, I like lists. I mean, come on… the name of this blog is based on listing things. Sorry lists, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.

So, as a token of my apology, I’ve created the list. So here are my ten albums of 2005 that stank up the room (in no particular order other than the order in which I thought of them):

1. Avenged Sevenfold - City Of Evil
   They were headed on on the path to success with Waking The Fallen, but some heavy changes to their attitude and vocal talents sent them on a road to disaster. The guitars are as good as ever, but everything else has gone downhill.
2. M.I.A. - Arular
   Nasal, whiny and incomprehensible. An album full of catchy beats have gone to waste.
3. System Of A Down - Mezmerize/Hypnotize
   Yet another big letdown this year. There’s a fine line between “raw” and “lacking talent,” and System Of A Down is now straddling this line and leaning heavily in the direction of the latter.
4. Matisyahu - Shake Off The Dust… Arise
   I can’t quite figure out why anyone ever thought Jewish dub/hip hop would be a good idea.
5. Black Eyed Peas - Monkey Business
   Letdown number three. After the terribly catchy Elephunk, this one lacked the phunk (you hate me for that, don’t you?), the one exception being the girlie anthem “My Humps,” which goes so far into the realm of rediculous that it swings back around into cool.
6. GODS - I See You Through Glass
   I don’t quite know what these former Zao members were thinking with this. Probably something along the lines of, Well, we can’t just copy Zao because that’s too expected. So since Zao is so groundbreaking and new, we’d better go with what they’re not: monotonous and atonal.
7. Scott Stapp - The Great Divide
   Hmm… let’s think about this. The featured frontman of a band that collapsed under his weight (proof that it was only his weight: Alter Bridge) and then put out a best-of album for a band that only recorded three albums over the course of four years. I don’t even have to listen to it to tell you how much it stinks.
8. Antony And The Johnsons - I’m A Bird Now
   Yet another example where vocals have the power to make a good sound go bad.
9. Thrice - Vheissu
   One word: overrated. I’m almost convinced that the anticipation for this album was so strong that people are afraid to admit that it’s mediocre at best. Yet another letdown based on my opinion of previous releases.
10. I Am Ghost - We Are Always Searching
    The vocals… ohhh the vocals. They hurt and need to go away. The band had such potential and then… the vocals.

It was actually rather difficult picking ten. It was actually comparable to picking one’s top ten albums of all time. Fun, though, nonetheless. A little pessimism never hurt anyone… much.

LA Weekly has put out a list of lists for 2005. I know we’re all sick of the new end-of-year listing trend that has overtaken the internet, but 10 Albums That Stank Up The Room by Adam Bregman made me laugh:

3. Coheed & Cambria, Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV, Vol. I (Equal Vision/Columbia). The guy with the pink Flying V making an incredible racket at Guitar Center has a band called Coheed & Cambria, and like mastodons rampaging across a desert plain, they will suffocate you with their elfin metal magic.

I liked Good Apollo but it was still amusing, to say the least.

And I’d make a “stank” list of my own if I wasn’t getting tired of the lists myself. (And yes, I am well aware that my last post was a list of lists.)

[Link]

So I wrote this a while ago but didn’t even think to post it here. So… here it is:

Best New Releases

1. mewithoutYou - Catch For Us The Foxes (So it actually came out in 2004, but it’s just that good.)
2. Norma Jean - O God, The Aftermath
3. Coldplay - X&Y
4. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
5. The Agony Scene - The Darkest Red
6. Copeland - In Motion
7. As I Lay Dying - Shadows Are Security
8. The Mars Volta - Frances The Mute
9. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
10. Ben Folds - Songs For Silverman

Best New Discoveries

1. Mute Math
2. Bloc Party
3. As Cities Burn
4. Classic Case
5. The Stiletto Formal
6. Eels
7. Denison Witmer
8. The Go! Team
9. The Locust
10. The Receiving End Of Sirens

Best Live Show

1. Nickel Creek
2. The Dillinger Escape Plan
3. Blesk
4. As I Lay Dying
5. He Is Legend
6. Haste The Day
7. Scary Kids Scaring Kids
8. Project 86
9. The Agony Scene
10. Killswitch Engage

Best Albums To Dance To

1. Daft Punk - Discovery
2. The Faint - Danse Macabre
3. Jay-Z - The Black Album
4. The Faint - Wet From Birth
5. Kanye West - College Dropout
6. Notorious B.I.G. - Duets: The Final Chapter
7. Junior Senior - D-D-Don’t Don’t Stop The Beat
8. Panic! At The Disco - A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out

Best Albums To Headbang To

1. The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza - Self Titled
2. Unearth - The Oncoming Storm
3. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity
4. Norma Jean - O God, The Aftermath
5. The Agony Scene - The Darkest Red
6. Becoming The Archetype - Terminate Damnation
7. Bleeding Through - This Is Love, This Is Murderous
8. Still Remains - Of Love And Lunacy
9. Extol - Undeceived
10. Project 86 - …And The Rest Will Follow

Best Indie Snob Fodder

1. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Self Titled
2. The Arcade Fire - Funeral
3. Andrew Bird - And The Mysterious Production Of Eggs
4. The Mars Volta - Frances The Mute
5. Eels - Blinking Lights And Other Revelations
6. Denison Witmer - Are You A Dreamer?
7. Error - Self Titled
8. Nick Drake - Pink Moon
9. Sacha Sacket - Shadowed
10. Saul Williams - Self Titled

Best Music To Fall Asleep To

1. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven
2. Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun
3. Explosions In The Sky - The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place
4. Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
5. Nickel Creek - Self Titled
6. Garden State Soundtrack
7. Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days
8. Alison Krauss + Union Station - Live
9. Zero 7 - Simple Things
10. Opeth - Damnation

I was caught off guard just now when reading a post about Dillinger Escape Plan on Buzzgrinder.com. Apparently Seth found the interview I mentioned with Greg Puciato, and cited this humble little blog.

Also, as of late I’ve been experimenting a bit with ideas for starting my own Buzzgrinder-esque blog/site (oh, the irony?). I started a blog over at WordPress to test out my idea. You can check it out if you want:
Find Of The Day

Obviously, I haven’t updated that one in a few weeks. Mostly because I wasn’t satisfied with what I was coming up with. So, for right now, I’m back to the drawing board looking for a better way to accomplish my music writing/blogging dreams.