Below, the tracklist for a cd made up of the stuff I listened to the most during 2005 or, at least, most strongly associate with the year:
1. Right In Time - Lucinda Williams
Definitely one of my artists of the year (along with Gillian Welch and, in a different way, Aimee Mann). "Right In Time" is the opening cut on her best album, Car Wheels On A Gravel Road, and I clearly remember the first time I heard it (and especially the chorus): on my discman as I walked down Swanston Street, late afternoon, with the sun on my face, wind in my hair, and that familiar sense of freedom mingled with regret upon me. It's still glorious.
2. In State - Kathleen Edwards
A sustained, swooning rush, epitomising the countryish female singer-songwriter theme of the year.
3. Little Stars - Lisa Miller
This was the first of Miller's post-As Far As A Life Goes songs that I heard - on that Country Songbirds compilation, which turned out to be just as significant to my 2005 (and beyond) as the rage one was along the road to the indie canon all those years ago - and very wonderful it is, too. Dreamy, heartfelt, and rather beautiful.
4. Little Bombs - Aimee Mann
...life just kind of empties out...
I probably listened to The Forgotten Arm twice as much as the next most highly-rotated album in these parts over '05, and that's a conservative guess; "Little Bombs" is the album's highlight, and completely the song to which I most sulked and burned over the year. Although in general 2005 was a pretty good year for me, I did spend parts of it feeling quite sad, and this was the perfect song for those times. [*]
5. Kaifuku Suru Kizu - Lily Chou-Chou
Gorgeously plaintive, pretty, and too sad for words. I spent a lot of time listening to this one, usually at night, in the first half of the year in particular. [*]
6. I Know I Know I Know - Tegan and Sara
...the weather is changing and breaking my stride...
Because I didn't hear a cuter or more catchy song all year, nor one that was more liable to make me feel happy in a slightly light-headed, silly kinda way. (And for another reason that we don't need to go into here...)
7. 14th Street - Laura Cantrell
Cantrell's such a lovely, unaffected singer and yet always so interesting to listen to; this song is a perfect fit in its sweet, yearning simplicity.
8. Cowgirl In The Sand - Neil Young with Crazy Horse
2005 was also the year in which Neil Young finally really made sense to me, and when it happened, it did so in a big way. I mostly associate his music with driving (especially on the freeway) or drifting (especially around the city), and "Cowgirl In The Sand" - fiery and plangent, urgent and tender, rockin' and introspective - especially goes with the first of those. [*]
9. Wrecking Ball - Gillian Welch
...showed me colours I'd never seen...
I actually discovered Soul Journey in '04, but it was in 2005 that the album - and Welch's music generally - really took hold of me. "Wrecking Ball" is my favourite of her songs, and the one that I'm most likely to have playing while I lie around by myself and dream of past and future. I wrote somewhere that listening to the song feels like coming home, and somehow it does, though I don't quite know what that means.
10. Ride The Wind To Me - Julie Miller
Another lovely, melodic song from the Country Songbirds set which, instead of fading away after the initial infatuation, continues to work its way deeper and deeper into my heart.
11. Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels) - The Arcade Fire
The last out-and-out rock band that I got really into, and possibly the last one for some time to come, too, if current tastes are anything to go by (evidently, 2005 was the year in which I found country music, at least as done by women in the last 20 years or so); while Funeral is brilliant but flawed, "Neighbourhood #1" is basically impeccable. It's sort of a coda on this cd for the simple pragmatic reason that it screws up the transitions when put anywhere else, but I feel as if this band, and this song, were everywhere in '05. [*]
