Best of

I always try to figure out what I think the best records of 2005 were for a mailing list I'm on. I clearly didn't buy enough released in '05 to make it to a top 10. So here's my top 7 (in no real order):

1. Richmond Fontaine - Fitzgerald
Lovely and bleak. Most of the songs were written in a $28/night hotel room in Reno. Willy Vlautin's written a novel, Motel Life. The press release reads, "Alongside such seminal works as Annie Proulx's Postcards, Raymond Carver's What we talk about when we talk about love and Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son, it should come to be seen as a classic of downbeat American prose."
Raymond Carver, of course.

2. Mountain Goats - Sunset Tree
Really, nothing better. I am going to make it through this year if it kills me. Painfully honest, the whole thing.

3. Josh Rouse - Nashville
I feel about Josh Rouse as I once did about Ducky Dale. It's hard to explain.

4. Pernice Brothers - Discover A Lovelier You
It didn't get the best reviews, but I like it.

5. Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise
I'm still exploring this one.

6. Jens Lekman - Oh You're So Silent Jens
He's only 23, he's excellent.

7. Damien Jurado - On My Way to Absence
I love everything he ever does.