Bob Ham’s Top 5 Lists

The Top 5 Albums of 2005

1. Doves: Some Cities (Capitol)
This group didn’t get any attention this year by the critics and the writers because they weren’t trying to sound like either a Southern U.S. rock band or Gang of Four. Instead, they hearken back to the elegiac days of early ’90s British pop music with an album that is smart, dreamy, and powerful. They may have been initially slagged off as Radiohead rip-offs but they’ve surpassed those claims and come up with an album that is on par with (and sounds nothing like) OK Computer in its expansive, cinematic sound and heartfelt passion.

2. M.I.A.: Arular (XL)
A young Sri Lankan girl comes seemingly out of nowhere (or England depending upon what magazine article about her you’ve read) and puts out one of the most rightfully heralded debut albums of the past 5 years. This danceable mix of bhangra inflected hip hop beats, political undercurrents and sassy, self-assured lyrics still sounds fresh 10 months after it hit the streets. A favorite of club kids, political science professors, and snooty music fans alike.

3. Akron/Family (Young God)
The band photo shows a quartet of gents that might bore you to tears with emo or math rock stupidity. Thankfully the music found on the accompanying disc instead sounds like a series of folk records fed through musique concrete software. If you have any idea what that sentence means, you already own this CD. If not, think of it this way: if you peeled away all of Radiohead’s idiotic rock star leanings, this is what they would sound like.

4. General Patton vs. The X-Ecutioners (Ipecac)
My dark horse pick for one of the best of the year is this bizarre collaboration between multi-faceted vocalist Mike Patton (late of Faith No More) and the turntable crew the X-Ecutioners. Leave all your expectations at the door when you put this on and instead enjoy the non-stop head trip filled with scattered beats, random noise, and kitschy samples. The perfect marriage of avant garde leanings with hip hop credibility.

5. Jeff Hanson (Kill Rock Stars)
Much has been (and will be) made of Jeff Hanson’s eunuch-like singing voice but not enough has been said about the beauty of his playing and the heart wrenching, prose-like quality of his songwriting. A worthy heir to the thrones of Elliott Smith and Jeff Buckley, Hanson will most likely reach some kind of stardom in the next two years or so and this record that is both parts emotionally trying and emotionally fulfilling is irrefutable evidence why.

The 5 Best Movies That I Saw For the First Time, But Were Not Released, in 2005

1. He Walked By Night (1948, dir. Alfred Werker)
This noir gem features one of the creepiest lead performances by Richard Basehart, who skillfully portrays a sociopath named Roy who spends the better part of the film avoiding capture after he kills a policeman. As to be expected by the noir appellation, the scenes with Basehart are filled with dark shadows and moody atmosphere which makes moments like Roy lovingly rubbing the side of a cabinet or slapping around a possible witness that much more eerie (which could also be evidence to the rumors of noir specialist Anthony Mann’s hands behind the camera).

2. Masculin Feminin (1966, dir. Jean-Luc Godard)
Like most of Godard’s films that I’ve seen, I can’t say that I could tell you what this movie was about but I can tell you that it is a whole lot of fun. The young men and women that populate this film bounce around arguing about the nature of violence (while witnessing murders and suicides with detached gazes) and proclaiming themselves to be part of the “Pepsi generation” while the run and gun stylings of this nouvelle vague master threaten to eclipse their every word. A giddy mish mash of style and substance and the thin line that separates the two.

3. Jandek On Corwood (2003, dir. Chad Friedrichs)
If you see one documentary this year about an enigmatic and reclusive musician from Texas who has released upwards of 50 albums of near unlistenable yet strangely hypnotic pseudo-rock music and the people who are either obsessed with him or have actually dealt with him personally, make it Jandek On Corwood.

4. Castle In The Sky (1986, dir. Hayao Miyazaki)
An earlier film of Miyazaki’s, this not so cleverly shaded environmentalist tract is about a group of pirates and hangers on looking for the titular castle that is hiding in the clouds over an unnamed city. What happens in the interim is as magical and breathtaking and fun as you would expect by the only true genius working in animated films today.

5. Easy Rider (1969, dir. Dennis Hopper)
Sure much has been made about the freewheeling drug intake that marks this film (not to mention its impressive use of rock music in the soundtrack) but what shouldn’t be overlooked is the great acting (especially by Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson) and the equally impressive script (by Fonda and Terry Southern) that rings the death knell of the hippie lifestyle.

Bob Ham is a freelance writer whose work has graced the physical pages of Tablet, Lollipop, Dagger, and M+F Magazines as well as the virtual pages of Indiepop.com, Kevchino.com, and Invisible Limb. Bob is a recent graduate from Portland State University (BA in English) and lives in Portland with his lovely wife, Lalita.