STOP ME’s: Top 100 Tracks Of 2005

Here is my ‘Top 100 tracks of 2005’ list, along with some of the lyrics. The top 20-25 are in order. The rest are in pretty much random order.

1. Misty’s Big Adventure – The Story Of Love
“You’re the one that I belong to, yeah, the one you’ll through away”
Just one of the brilliant lines from this outstanding single from Grandmaster Gareth and his band.

2. Editors – Forest Fire
“Take me home, somewhere safe. Lean on me, saving grace”
Editors have a suicidal tendency to put all their best songs on the B-Sides. This a masterpiece.

3. I Am Kloot – Great Escape
“You want to learn to live like an aristocrat, but your girlfriend’s earrings, well they soon put paid to that”
This song was used to stunning effect in the criminally underrated sitcom ‘Early Doors’.

4. Kelman – The Happiest Man Alive
“Well i’m on the way down, I can read the signs. There’s always someone somewhere calling time”
A gorgeous voice and I can’t wait for their album. A bit like Richard Hawley, but better.

5. Elbow – Forget Myself
“Are you falling in-love every second song?”
One of the most anthemic songs ever? It just keeps biulding and biulding.

6. Battle – Demons
“I’ll stick a fork into your side, just to make sure your alive”
I love this song’s twisted lyrics. Lyrics about death, depression and mutilation but still life afirming. How, I don’t know.

7. The Features – 33 1/3
“Seems my girlfriend loves my LPs, more than she loves me”
The best record about the love of records since Billy Bragg’s ‘Tears Of My Tracks’.

8. Tiga – Louder Than A Bomb
“Both King and X, they got ridda’ both. A story untold, true, but unknown”
I loved this track since I first heard it. Tiga just keeps popping up now and again with killer singles.

9. The Research – The Way You Used To Smile
“I had headphones on, I couldn’t hear the phone ringing. I was a jerk”
When that line hits, my body is forced to move and it brings a big smile to my face. What a song!

10. Antony & The Johnsons – You Are My Sister (With Boy George)
“There where times we where friends but times I was so cruel”
Boy George actually out sings Antony! When he comes in at 3.15 it sends a shiver down my spine.

11. Levy – Rotten Love
“I said tonight is the party, would you like to come?”
I’ve been walking around humming this for months.

12. Absentee – Weasel
“A flower that won’t uncurl, yeah your my kinda’ girl”
Dan Michalson voice is beautiful and morose. The pop nature of this song complements it perfectly.

13. Brendan Benson – Spit It Out
“And there’s a window of time, your in the nick of it. You look at the view and your sick of it”
It’s physically impossible not to play air guitar to this! Roll on The Raconteurs album.

14. The Fall – Blindness
“The flag is evil”
The Dr Who theme is turned into a massive repetative riff, soundtracking a dictatorship.

15. Acoustic Ladyland – Iggy (Instumental)
The Stooges ‘Fun House’ was punk with jazz energy. This is jazz with punk energy. Bonkers and fantastic.

16. Eels – Losing Streak
“Never had a lotta luck, until I finally met her”
The best song from the album of the year. When the horns come in I want to dance with joy. Why wasn’t it a single?

17. Art Brut – Emily Kane
“Even though we didn’t understand how to do much more than just hold hands”
A clasic pop song from a much underrated band. Why aren’t they massive?

18. The Holloways – Generator
“May I remind you, that you don’t live in poverty, you’ve got your youth and you got food in your belly”
Great sing along chorus. Makes me feel 100% happier every time.

19. Arctic Monkeys – Wavin’ Bye To The Train Or The Bus
“And I can see you want to be attended to. Just count to 29 and i’ll attend to you”
Why isn’t this classic not going to be on the album. A future b-side perhaps? Let’s hope

20. Milk Kan – Bling Bling Baby
“Can’t skate, Date rape, walk straight, work late”
A 2005 updating of Bob Dylan’s ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ with all new lyrics. It’s better (Sacrilege?).

21. Adam Green – Emily
“Emily sweet baby, won’t you be my wife. Cutting me wide open with a kitchen knife”
Adam Green is a true genius. This line is just one example of the way juxtaposes the sweet and the sour.

22. The Acutes – Set On You
“Went to hang my head in glue. I had my heart set on you”
Very, very catchy guitar.

23. John Cale – Perfect
“From a distance, you’re perfect for me. In pajamas, you’re perfect for me, right now”
A full on pop song from the Velvets legend who previously brought us the sound of knives on violins. Who’d have thought.

24. Arcade Fire – Brazil
“We stood beneath an emerald moon”
Brilliant cover of a song previously performed by Django Reinhardt and also Frank Sinatra. The tension in the strings, wow.

25. Josh Rouse – It’s The Nighttime
“I’m not the kind of man, to come on so strong. But when you look as good as you do. I knew it wouldn’t be long”
Josh Rouse once again crafts the perfect single. The guitar the vocals, the drums, the lyrics, everything perfect.

26. Bloc Party – Blue Light
“And we didn’t even notice when the sky turned blue. And we couldn’t tell the difference between me and you”
When this line and the music kicks in you have to leap around.

27. Brakes – Ring A Ding Ding
“Dance, dance, dance, to the monkey macaroni”
Insane lyrics and an Oasis-like cheeky theft of Roxy Music’s ‘Virginia Plain’. From an album full of such delights.

28. Bright Eyes – True Blue
“I write my blue songs, with my blue pen. I sing the blue notes, to my blue friends”
The whole song is like this. The use of the word blue is so inventive. A great B-side.

29. British Sea Power – How Will I Ever Find My Way Home?
“Get up in the morning, i’m paying the bills. Watching the storm clouds, from over the hills”
Why wasn’t this single either? This band just keeps getting better. From a runner up album of the year.

30. Dan Sartain – P.C.B. 98
“I’ve got my name crushed into a penny. We had a ball in Panama City”
If I was ever driving across America this would have to go on the stereo. Followed by a speeding fine.

31. Gifthorse – Childhood Gang Reunion
“You where a tuff kid, never cried. Went to the fun fair, the day your mother died”
Sings like Morrissey, looks like Rick Waller. Hope this doesn’t hold them back. They should be massive.

32. Ian Broudie – A Time To Live In Dreams
“In this new day, change your heart. Forgive your brother, for life is precious”
A beautiful and understated cover of Dennis Wilson’s song.

33. iLiKETRAiNS – The Beeching Report
“Oh you are taking apart, what we made, with our hands and our hearts”
The massed voices singing ‘Reform, Reform’ are very sinister. A great new band.

34. Ironweed – Down To My Grave (Audio Suspects Remix)
“Cause the whole damn world just a-keeps on changing”
A song that brings up images of people riding in boxcars across the USA in days gone by. Great voice.

35. Jamie T – So Lonely Was The Ballad
“Say as your leavin’, get up or go go, say allo, Schwaddy-waddy, woh, woh, woh”
With the Arctic Monkeys and Jamie T, 2006 could be the year that’s all about lyrical invention.

36. Jim Noir – Computer Song
“Everytime I try to make a silly little song, my efforts are all wasted, ’cause machinery goes wrong”
A mix of Badly Drawn Boy and Brian Wilson. It’s that good.

37. Joy Zipper – 1
“Later on you stand alone, below an empty moon. With an empty heart, and your empty hands”
Joy Zipper’s great album and singles seem to have gone a bit unnoticed this year.

38. Kalev – Undoing (Demo)
“What did you saaaayyyy?”
They’ve just released a 7″ of this. For me this demo had a bit more of an edge. A dance-rock Monster!

39. Larrikin Love – Little Boy Lost
“Well catastrophe should be your first name and Bryl-Cream should be your middle name”
Contenders for Pete Doherty’s poetic crown (Since he doesn’t seem to want it anymore)?

40. Louis XIV – Paper Doll
“Oh tell me the horse that you pick. Well i’ll buy you a lolly pop you wanna lick”
Filth, from beginning to end. Brings a big un-PC smile to my face.

41. M.I.A. – Bucky Done Gun (Instrumental)
Her vocal is great, but stripped from this track you notice the amazing sonic invention. It’s Bongo mad.

42. Magnolia Electric Co – The Dark Don’t Hide It
“you said you only wanted friends, for long enough to get rid of them”
Like a great mising Neil Young classic. Just one of the highlights of Jason Molina’s album.

43. Monster Bobby – I Keep On Losing Things
“Lost my phone charger ’bout a hundred times. But I hope I never lose you”
I stumbled onto this when looking for another song. So glad I did.

44. New Order – Krafty
“That’s the kind of world that we live in today, but is it where you wanna be?”
The video they made for this is one of the best ever. It’s got that classic New Order sound.

45. The Rakes – Wish You Were Here
“The closest that you’ll get to this, is track 4 on Wham’s greatest hits”
Soon as the bass guitar comes in I’m in heaven. The lunatics put this on the B-side and not the A-Side!

46. Be Your Own Pet – Electric Shake
“Electric shake it down and out, and freakin’ dance till we’re no whores”
They get alot of press but this is their only truly great song. It’s on fire.

47. Richard Hawley – Kelham Island (Instrumental)
This instrumental slide-guitar gem makes me drift off to sandy shores far away. Beautiful.

48. The Rumble Strips – Motorcycle
“I start to dream that this little old bike, i’m sitting on is a big, loud, glistening speed machine”
Dexy’s Midnight Runner’s are reborn in The Rumble Strips. Check the high vocal bit. It’s out soon.

49. Stickboy – The Shiver
“I climbed, highest mountain, I drank from the fountain, the fountain of youth”
The new Badly Drawn Boy. He has many amazing songs such as this.

50. Vincent Vincent & The Villains – On My Own
“I won’t cut myself on other peoples broken dreams”
This is an amzing track but i’m not so sure about their others. Finger clicking, ace!

51. Fun Lovin’ Criminals – Mi Corazon
“When I say the same, I really mean better, and when I say better, I mean you’d never forget her”
The critics don’t like them. That’s their loss, this is their best single for years.

52. Omerta – Learn To Love The System
“Nice house, an apathetic wife, just Learn To Love The System”
Pulsating electro-rock. They’ve not been signed yet, why?

53. The Silent League – Can’t Get It Out Of My Head
“Walking on a wave she came. Staring as she called my name”
No not the Kylie track, a cover of ELO. I think it’s better than the original, my Dad disagrees.

54. Stephen Fretwell – Morning Theft
“What am I still to you? Some thief who stole from you?”
It’s better than Jeff Buckley’s original. Am I really saying this, surely not?

55. Pop Levi – Blue Honey
“People, people, when you lay me down”
Every song this guy does sounds totally different. It’s got a great groove to it.

56. Guillemots – Trains To Brazil
“And I think of you on cold winter mornings. Darling they remind me of when we we’re at school”
They sound like a more gentle version of Arcade Fire.

57. Fuck-Off Machete – If Gold Was Silver & Silver Was Gold
“So this is your place, I know it so well. It was in some film”
Both red-raw and velvety-smooth.

58. Bonny / Sweeney – I Gave You
“I gave you a house, and you didn’t haunt it. Now where am I supposed to live?”
The song it’s self is haunting.

59. Interpol – Evil
“But, hey who’s on trial?
I love this song, their other’s aren’t so good. Shame.

60. Kylie Minogue – Giving You Up
“A girls gotta suffer for fashion”
Most artists stick a couple of bits of filler on their greatest hits. Kylie pulled out the stops with one of her best.

61. We Rock Like Girls Don’t – I Just Wanna Stick My Head In The Bass Drum
“I just wanna feel it thumping and then some”
It’s like grunge never went away. Impossible not to bang your head along to this.

62. The Coral – In The Morning
“She wrote my name on a red telephone box. When I got there she’d already rubbed it off”
The Coral’s best ever single (That’s saying something).

63. Echo & Bunnymen – What If We Are? (Vocal & String Version)
“Maybe your not the world, maybe your not the stars, maybe your not the girl. But what if you are?
The endless acapella at the end is beautiful.

64. The Others – William
“Got my friend called William. He’s been my friend since we where young”
One of two fantastic songs that would have justified the hype had they had more like them.

65. Luxembourg – Luxembourg Vs Great Britain
“The demographic is a little top heavy. When your older we’ll let you starve if you don’t let us be”
The greatest unsigned band in britain. This isn’t even their best song.

66. Scissor Sisters – Filthy/Gorgeous
“your an acid-junky, college-flunky, dirty-puppy, daddy-bastard”
Funky and filthy disco pop genius.

67. The White Stripes – The Denial Twist
“So now you’re left denying the truth, and it’s hidden in the wisdom in the back of your tooth”
I love the way when Jack sings tooth he pronounces it “Toof”. Who needs guitars.

68. The Kills – No Wow
“Your gonna have to step over my dead body, before you walk out that door”
What an opener to their album. Shame it was downhill after this.

69. Bib – Jobs-On-Line
“Don’t get a coffee break. Just say oh for fuck sake”
Sounds like it was made on a casio toy piano. And better for it.

70. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Ain’t No Easy Way
“And the cold veins of the richest man. They’ve paid away to steal our hand”
Sounds like they visited the same cross roads as Robert Johnson for this comeback single.

71. The Raveonettes – Be My Sunshine
“Come on little baby be my sunshine now”
Just a simple and beautiful song.

72. David Ford – State Of The Union
“No abandon, no heartfelt desire. No love could be worth getting fired”
Politics, love and cynicism in this, well ‘State Of The Union’ address.

73. Manic Street Preachers – Dying Breeds
“I have known you now, almost half my life. May we never part, may love never die”
Nicky Wire is bringing out a solo record in 2006. Could this amazing B-Side have been the impetus?

74. The Old House – Relationships Hooray
“What you need’s a real man, a man’s man, a yorkshire man”
Gloriously ramshackle song from this Morrissey loving band.

75. The Vichy Government – Oliver Cromwell In Weimar Berlin
“Will he claim sanctuary in the chapel or will he bite the serpents apple”
The band kidnap Oliver Cromwell and transport him in time. This band is truely unique.

76. Viva Voce – The Center Of The Universe
“At the center of my heart, is a beautiful girl”
Brilliant anthemic pop.

77. Narco – Evil Brother
“So hold onto your moment, and the life you we’re never sold”
Head banging rock ‘n’ roll. Great chorus.

78. Coldcut (Feat. Saul Williams) – Mr Nichols
“Mr Nichols, you fail to see that you’ve always stood outside this window”
Coldcut provide the subtle backing track that Saul Williams’ voice has always needed.

79. Daniel Rachel – Pearl
“Do share these new surroundings”
Dexy’s meets ‘Born To Run’ era Springsteen.

80. The Radio Dept. – This Past Week
“This past week has been a strange one”
The kind of thing that Air used to do so well.

81. The Cloud Room – Blackout!
“We where making, making wishes, on some missiles, we mistook for shooting stars”
The same kind of Fall/Talking Heads ground that LCD Soundsystem covers. But more rock than dance.

82. The Exports – The Morning After
“But, while your in the jungle, girl you’ve got to look after yourself”
The new Buzzcocks.

83. Tom Vek – Nothing But Green Lights
“There’s nothing but green lights, from here. Nothing but, empty roads”
Great bass sound on this track. Vocals like Black Francis too.

84. Yeti – Never Lose Your Sense Of Wonder
“I saw wonder, reason could not define”
Kinks like pop from ex-Libertine John Hassell.

85. Vitalic – My Friend Dario
“Dario knows it’s prohibited. You either drive or either drink”
Four headed, drink fuelled, petrol fed, dance beast.

86. Frank Black – I Burn Today
“Down by the water you’ll find your happy days. I burn today, I burn today”
His best song in years.

87. The Tears – Imperfection
“Your teeth are not quite straight. Your mood swings oscillate”
They pick where Suede left off, except good. I love the cheeky lyrics of this song.

88. Weird War – Girls Like That
“They look so bad, they think they’re rad. What are they on? Where are they from?”
Great slinky bass. Let’s start the campaign to bring back the word ‘Rad’ now.

89. Baxter Dury – Cocaine Man
“We ware friendly smiles, all night”
Sounds nothing like Ian Dury but somehow you know who’s son he is.

90. The Spinto Band – Brown Boxes
“This box cutter’s too dull, otherwise I’d end it all”
Kazoo orchestra Solo! Fantastic lyrics too.

91. Sufjan Stevens – Come On! Feel The Illinoise!
“Ancient hieroglyphic, or the South Pacific. Typically terrific, busy and prolific”
A toss up between this and ‘John Wayne Gacy’. I went for this for the lyrical and musical invention.

92. Strange Idols – Listen To Me
“Listen to me, she’s gonna let you down again”
Top guitar riff and beautiful singing voice.

93. Patrick Wolf – The Libertine
“The Libertine is locked in jail. The pirate sunk and broke his sail”
A quirky dance masterpiece that surpasses his first albums best tracks.

94. D.V.D.A. – America, Fuck Yeah
“Terrorists, your game is through, ’cause now you’ll have to answer to, America, fuck yeah”
One of many brilliant songs that Trey Parker composed for the ‘Team America’ soundtrack. Trey Parker album please.

95. Lisa Brown – Anna
“You know the rain here cleanses the soul”
I love a good bit of Xylophone. Especially combined with such beautiful vocals.

96. Good Shoes – Small Town Girl
“But she says everything is going oh so wrong in my life”
I wonder if this a true story? If not, it’s still an amzing single.

97. Maxïmo Park – A Year Of Doubt
“You said that you were speechless and god I wish you were”
They need to stop trying so hard and make more effortless pop like this B-side.

98. Mystery Jets – You Can’t Fool Me Dennis
“Remember those barmy days, through rose tinted haze”
A great and inventive record. Looking forward to an album in 2006.

99. Captain – Frontline
“Every wave is a whisper”
Great Jangly electro-rock.

100. White Enemy – White Enemy
“Make a miracle, D, pump the lyrical”
A mash-up of Public Enemy’s ‘Bring The Noise’ & The White Stripes’ ‘Seven Nation Army’. Outstanding!