December 2005 Archives

Unless you’re holed up in your bedroom poring over blogs and obscure magazines for the best music that isn’t being hawked by the major labels, there’s an excellent chance you’re a bit lost in the current marketplace. The rise of digital music delivery has meant that there’s very little you can’t download from somewhere, and the simple fact is that there is more music in the world than a person could possibly listen to in a thousand lifetimes.

As my wife and my bank account will confirm, I’m trying to do my part. So here are 12 albums (and one stray song) from 2005 that I loved, most of them in the indie-rock vein and all of them a bit off the beaten path.

In A Very Long Engagement, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s fervid need to turn everything into fussy, over-processed whimsy is wholly incongruous with its primary subject: war.

March of the Penguins, the surprise summer hit, is often awe-inspiring in its content and stunningly beautiful in its visuals, but it’s also a big fucking cheat.

The ever-divisive Lars von Trier is not known as a storyteller, and that’s the main reason his miniseries The Kingdom — which was released on DVD in November — is so surprising.