Another year is over-which means another year-end column. Goody! After 8 of them, you know my disdain for these. As always, it’s accompained by the caveat that these are the best I heard in 2005. There may have been better, but I didn’t hear them. These are in no particular order.
- Don’t Believe the Truth – Oasis
- As Is Now – Paul Weller
- Glisten – Songs From A Random House
- Silent Alarm – Bloc Party
- Prairie Wind – Neil Young
- A Time 2 Love – Stevie Wonder
- Let Them Drink – The Capitol Years
- Home to You – Martha Reeves
- Underwater – Forward Thrust
- Youth – Collective Soul
Comments: The regional husband-and-wife duo turned in an outstanding, albeit eclectic, double disc. While they live in Allentown, they’ve adopted Hazleton as their home base (although they’ve moved from the Ramada Inn to the Comfort Inn Tuesday nights). Subjects are as varied as fantasy, the change of seasons, the death of a friend, a porn star’s bio, and a teenager forced to have an abortion by her parents.
“Underwater’s” two discs are subtitled the “red disc” and the “blue disc”. Each offers a slightly different perspective. On both, you’ll find well-crafted songs about subjects that are anything but run-of-the-mill. And they kick!
