Crammmmmm

Gah, I HATE cramming in singles and albums for year-end consideration, totally throws all perception of everything else completely outta whack. Like I know I might regret putting Margaret Berger at #10 on albums (and nuthin on singles!), because I've only had a chance to listen to it like two and half times. I also realize that I forgot about Beyonce, who might have made 15-20 on albums. Haven't heard the Cassie album, but I love both the released singles. Ditto Bertine Zetlitz. Haven't heard the new Bob Dylan, haven't listened to Joanna Newsom's Y's enough to know where I stand and kept it off my list. Forgot about Man Man (probably wouldn't make my top 20), meaning I forget what the heck all of it even sounds like! Lost my digital copy. Here was my final tally:

1. Marit Larsen - Under the Surface
2. The Ark - State of the Ark
3. Paris Hilton - Paris
4. The Veronicas - Secret Life Of...
5. Amy Diamond - Still Me Still Now
6. Fergie - The Dutchess
7. My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade
8. Phoenix - It's Never Been Like That
9. BWO - Halcyon Days
10. Margaret Berger – Pretty Scary Silver Fairy
11. Girl Talk - Night Ripper
12. Pink - I'm Not Dead
13. Miranda! - Sin Restricionnes
14. Marie Serneholt - Enjoy the Ride
15. Dixie Chicks - Taking the Long Way
16. Lillix - Inside the Hollow
17. Fefe Dobson – Sunday Love
18. Arctic Monkeys – Whatever Yadda Yadda Yadda
19. LCD Soundsystem - 45:33
20. Devo 2.0 – Devo 2.0

Would probably switch out Arctic Monkeys for B'Day in a pinch, not sure if Miranda! counts (again), might MAYBE might include Hannah Montana 'round 20, although it works better as an EP with her best stuff + Everlife tune and maybe the Click Five one which shouldn't count cuz it's so damn old.

REALLY like Margaret Berger now but it might be fleeting, or hey it might be a Rachel Stevens thing where I smack myself much later for not fully getting how great it is (I hadn't heard RS before year-end deadlines last year, but it might be my #2 of 2005 at this point, altho I still have a soft spot for that Busdriver album). But I'm guessing it will fade a bit with time. Gwen was very disappointing, but it's certainly batshit in places.

Other things..."45:33" might count as a single, but that looks like an album length to me. Not even sure I love it all that much, but I've listened to it enough to put it on the list. Still missing two songs or so from Fefe's album, a physical copy will almost certainly increase my fondness for it. Decided last week some time that I actually quite like the Destroyer album, but need MUCH longer to process it. Still processing (i.e. not ranking) Scott Walker, Killers, Hold Steady, Lupe Fiasco (but I'll probably come down firmly on the side of meh on that one), CSS, Jojo (can't seem to get too far past the first three-four songs). Feel sorta bad not finding the new Mountain Goats in time since last year's was my number one. Hm, forgot MSTRKRFT entirely but I don't think it'd make my 20.

And two pressing 2005-y questions: could I include Marion Raven or Lindsay Lohan, both of whose albums technically I'd heard by deadline in 2005 but hadn't had enough time to process yet? Especially the latter, who would make a top ten-fifteen?

I'll repost finalized singles/albums lists in the second week of January or so, when I've actually processed some of this stuff. Meanwhile, anyone who wants to recommend more music is quite welcome to do so.

OK, gotta finish up a column and applications and the EMP proposal, which I haven't even started and truthfully might still chicken out. Rereading a paper I wrote on Hollywood productions in Latin America last year and I think I'll do a post soon about the fallacies of "Evil Corporations Etc."-type arguments applied to (some) pop productions. Thinking about very real exploitation of a local workforce in outsourced or "runaway" Hollywood productions and about how this is so completely opposed to the streamlined, specialized production of pop music, how misguided it is to compare the "real" Man of film production (say, in Mexico) to the Man perceived to be living in EVIL POP MUSIC WORLD, which is a purely fictitious space. I'm realizing that my concerns that developed throughout my final undergrad year about the film industry aren't "opposed" to my changing tastes in music at all -- it might even be in light of these concerns that I've been able to lighten up a little and shake off some of the idiotic myths on display in, oh, I dunno, Before the Music Dies . The ability to appreciate Titanic for its artistry but also acknowledge the utter destruction of its production has no analogue in pop music: a lot of people want to see an analogue in -- wait for it -- Paris Hilton's album in particular, but it's simply not there. (She's not hurting anyone. Even if she's threatening people, or threatening to people.) Which begs the question, what IS there (and "Nothing! You people are just wrong!" obviously isn't a very satisfying answer)?