A couple weeks ago, a few friends of mine got together in my apartment to play some poker and talk music. We all came with “best of” CDs in hand, recognizing the triviality of such a practice but still excited to see what kind of discussions would result from these discs. It was my hope that someone would get all up in arms over someone else’s choices, proclaiming to the group, “I find your whole understanding of this year to be superficial and question-begging!” While of course this never happened, it still turned out to be an interesting evening that forced me to swallow my pride and put together some form of a recap of the year.

I don’t want to spend too much time discussing the anatomy of the year in the rearview. Far too much has been said on that front. Yes, I know the problems inherent in such an affair. Music is in a constant state of flux and can’t be located so neatly in a “best of” list, and all that. That said, it’s still an amusing practice to participate in. Please don’t take this to be an exhaustive list by any means (the lack of any jazz or experimental music is indicative of that). Look at this as more of a conversation starter than anything else. These are just four songs that are doing it for me right at this moment, which just happens to be December, the season of the recap.

Akron/Family and Angels of Light: Raising the Sparks
Akron/Family has to be one of the more exciting bands to emerge in 2005, and “Raising the Sparks” is their defining moment. The brilliance of this song is the fluid way in which it is able to cut across any attempt to locate it in some musical style or another. With its lightning-fast stylistic changes, “Raising the Sparks” is southern rock but not southern rock, freak-folk but not freak-folk, gospel but not gospel. It is a song that, through its negating movement, will continue to reinvent itself with every listen.

(Smog): The Well
“The Well” casts Bill Callahan as one of the most intriguing songwriters today. It is an otherworldly story told in a very here-and-now setting. He speaks of very “real” scenarios in a very “fake” fashion, in such a way that the differences between the real and the fake are significantly blurred. Add this to the precariously constant guitar, the captivating drumming, and Callahan’s phrasing, and the listener is easily held in thrall for its seven-minute length.

Andrew Bird and the Marvelous Production of Eggs: Fake Palindromes
“Fake Palindromes” is the song that convinced me that Andrew Bird was more than a false copy of Jim O’Rourke with a dash of Rufus Wainwright thrown in. In contrast to “The Well,” Andrew Bird takes one idea, tears it open three times and then ends it (all before the three-minute mark). The song is cut off abruptly—leaving the listener begging for more.

Martha Wainwright: I Will Internalize
More Gram Parsons’ “Love Hurts” than the Beatles’ “All You Need is Love,” “I Will Internalize” is a beautifully awful portrayal of the dirtiness of love. This is not merely some meaninglessly romantic “love conquers all” song. Instead, Martha sings of a love that functions so long as it’s “shit-stained,” a love that weakens rather than strengthens, and yet one that sustains itself even in the midst of those darkest moments. With “I Will Internalize,” Martha Wainwright reminds us that the talent at work in the Wainwright family has not ended with Kate and Anna McGarrigle.

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