Best of 2005 - Just a few ideas

Ok, a little bit late I admit, but these last months haven’t been easy and sometimes writing is put behind and forgotten...

My list doesn’t have an order, it’s kind of unfair to say this one was better than the other when the music stiles can’t even be compared most of the times!

So here goes my favorite CD’s of the year (although there has been a lot I haven’t heard still):

Devendra Banhart – Cripple Crow, happy, beautiful, soul touching, sad, just absolutely beautiful!

Beck: Guero – A very misunderstood disc in my opinion, yes it is too long, yes it could have come in two CD’s but we are in a time when the few who actually by CD’s, as soon as they unwrap them they rip them to their computer and then straight head to their mp3 players. That is were small tiny little countries as Portugal, were most people can’t afford a computer, nevermind a mp3 player, are in disadvantage, specially when most of our population doesn’t even know who Beck is! And after all, after having his album freely available in the internet, weeks before it’s release, Beck tried to give a gift to his fans. I enjoy a lot of Guero’s songs, it allows us another perspective in his genius, a look to his roots and his influences, specially the latino ones. In the end, people just said it was Odelay 2, without even listening to it, and it’s far from Odelay 2, it’s more of all Beck’s album number 2 and much more. But who cares what critics say? They spoke so badly of Sea Change and it was an amazing album!

White Stripes: Get Behind me satan – It’s White Stripes and oh boy that guitar ;)

Animal Collective : Feels (I biggest regret of 2005 in terms of concerts)

Ryan Adams: Love is Hell – Not a 2005 but the best gift I received in 2005




Concerts of the year (those that I actually went to):

Devendra Banhart at Aula Magna, Lisbon – My best concert of the year

LCD Soundsystem at Sudoeste, Portugal

Josh Rouse at Sudoeste, Portugal

Wraygunn where ever I saw them, but the last time was really amazing, because I have never been so close to a band ;)

Clã at Rio Maior, Portugal (a pity my hometown doesn’t know good music)

Black Car, Yellow Car – Not a concert, but a DJ set and I can say sincerely it was the best I went to this year (and it wasn’t only because it was the only DJ set I remember going to this year ;)


Franz Ferdinand at Lisbon Soundz – End of tour but I had been waiting 1 year for them as I wasn’t lucky enough to see them in 2004 (being in Copenhagen made it impossible)

Gomo at Clinic – Just a pity it was so short



Best Concert of 2005 that I was not there (at least from what I heard):

Beck at Ilha do Ermal, Portugal – To the organization thanks a lot for putting him on a Sunday night after a very famous hip-hop Portuguese group who has mainly fans of 14 years old or less (no wonder if you hear their music), how don’t have enough good taste to appreciate something really meaningful and great, and on top of all about 4 to 5 hours by car from Lisbon where I had to work the following day! Thanks to Antena3, the best radio in the world, that transmitted the concert live for everybody! It must have been a hell of a great concert as one of the radio guys said he didn’t appreciate Beck and that the concert would not be a great deal (that was before the concert). But when he saw, what I only heard, Beck trying to play songs from his new album and suddenly realizing that hardly anybody from his audience knew who he was, just turned the whole concert, playing his most well known songs, to warm up the crowd, having a hell of a presence on stage, making his audience surrender to him and his music… Yet another great concert by Beck! I only hope his next visit will be to Coliseu dos Recreios, Lisbon, so he can remember how much his Portuguese fans love him!



Best DVD of 2005:

Blues by Martin Scorcesse, specially the first episode until now – I’m actually seeing the documentaries on national TV on Thursdays nights (that’s why I look like a zombie every Friday)



Best Movies of 2005 (a disaster as I only remember seeing two films this year):

Finding Neverland (I think it was only released in Portugal in the begging of 2005)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Corpse Bride – I still haven’t seen it but I now it is the best animated movie of 2005 and after my choices above it’s easy to see Johnny Depp his my favorite actor and Tim Burton one of my favorite directors


Some have been left behind, some haven’t been heard or seen still, some because I was unable, some because dicks speak louder than passion for music, and some because cash and time are too little for so much ;)