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cuz' Europe always seemed so far...
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Best of 2005
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To close an average year well, nothing better than rely on the cult side of life, especially when it is a culturally rich year like 2005 was.
So, tomorrow I am leaving for new year's week at Chapada dos Veadeiros with my dad, and to say goodbye to this year I will start with the lyrics of a very nice song. Happy new year, everyone. Enjoy 2006 and make it the best year of your life. Because I will.
Misread
Kings of Convenience
If you wanna be my friend
You want us to get along
Please do not expect me to
Wrap it up and keep it there
The observation I am doing could
Easily be understood
As cynical demeanour
But one of us misread...
And what do you know
It happened again
A friend is not a means
You utilize to get somewhere
Somehow I didn't notice
friendship is an end
What do you know
It happened again
How come no-one told me
All throughout history
The loneliest people
Were the ones who always spoke the truth
The ones who made a difference
By withstanding the indifference
I guess it's up to me now
Should I take that risk or just smile?
What do you know
It happened again
What do you know
Now, to the business!
MUSIC
It was incredibly hard for me to pick 10 albums and rank them. I assume that probably some things here were overrated, but I picked the albums that touched me more, doesn't matter in what way. And, in general, were well accepted by worldwide critics - with exceptions such as the greats Hopes & Fears and Plans.
I know that Riot on an Empty Street and Funeral were both released in 2004, however they only arrived in Brazil this year, and being magnificent albums I had to put them on my top 10.
HONORS: Confessions on a Dance Floor by Madonna
Twin Cinema by The New Pornographers
These Were The Earlies by The Earlies
Employment by Kaiser Chiefs
Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes by TV on the Radio
10 - Hopes & Fears by Keane
Playlouder: Basically, this is a fantastic band releasing twelve brilliant songs, and it's not only the best guitar album you'll ever hear with no guitars on it, it's one of the best this year generally.
9 - X & Y by Coldplay
New Musical Express: Confident, bold, ambitious, bunged with singles and impossible to contain, ‘X&Y’ doesn’t reinvent the wheel but it does reinforce Coldplay as the band of their time.
8 - a ghost is born by Wilco
Pitchfork: In the end, the ambitious misfires and pre-coffee drowsiness of A Ghost Is Born don't ruin the album entirely-- they only serve as distractions that make it much more difficult to excavate the band's strengths from the surrounding detritus.
7 - Illinois by Sufjan Stevens
Slant Magazine: From its framing gimmick and its anti-folk folk songwriting to its he-has-to-be-kidding song titles and its show-offy instrumentation, Illinois should reduce to a simple stunt performance. That it's pop-art of the highest caliber, instead, cements Stevens as one of the most vital voices in music today.
6 - Z by Morning Jacket
Slant Magazine: Dialing down the reverb and allowing more wide-ranging influences to show through, My Morning Jacket fashions a messy, transitory record that's head-over-heels giddy, curiously experimental, and patently weird in equal measure.
5 - Plans by Death Cab For Cutie
E! Online: [Plans has] ginormous power-pop melodies in songs such as "Soul Meets Body" and "Marching Bands of Manhattan" and wussy-boy lyrics that'll make your heart grow a few sizes.
4 - Feels by Animal Collective
The Onion (AV) Club: A carefully sequenced, fully imagined album--one that's designed to be consumed by people wearing headphones and staring into space.
3 - Riot on an Empty Street by Kings of Convenience
Entertainment Weekly: Riot's tales of lost loves and existential confusion shimmer with precise harmonies, memorably melancholy melodies, and rich but restrained arrangements.
2 - Funeral by Arcade Fire
E! Online: An emotionally wracked masterpiece, drawing on immaculate influences like the Pixies and Talking Heads while sounding distinctly original.
1 - LOOKAFTERING by VASHTI BUNYAN
Pitchfork: On Lookaftering, it comes as a relief to hear not only how pristine Bunyan's delicate vocals remain but that she has retained her understated abilities as a songwriter.
MOVIES
Historical year in the theaters, eh? Unfortunately, us, brazilians, are unfortunate with release dates, and we haven't gotten certain titles that are, for sure, the bests of the year, such as Brokeback Mountain, Jarhead, Capote, Syriana and Good Night, and Good Luck. Although we had great pictures on screen, most titles I've watched this year sucked, some of them sucked really bad, like War of the Worlds and Narnia, so in order to fill a full top 10 of recent movies I decided to include 2004's movies in the list. As lame as it may seem, and it is, I don't care.
10 - Oldboy
Chicago Sun-Times: Oldboy is a powerful film not because of what it depicts, but because of the depths of the human heart which it strips bare.
9- Star Wars Episode III
The New York Times: This is by far the best film in the more recent trilogy, and also the best of the four episodes Mr. Lucas has directed. That's right (and my inner 11-year-old shudders as I type this): it's better than "Star Wars."
8 - Broken Flowers
Chicago Sun-Times: No actor is better than Bill Murray at doing nothing at all, and being fascinating while not doing it. Buster Keaton had the same gift for contemplating astonishing developments with absolute calm. Buster surrounded himself with slapstick, and in Broken Flowers Jim Jarmusch surrounds Murray with a parade of formidable women.
7 - Sideways
The Hollywood Reporter: Hysterically funny yet melancholy comedy.
6 - Before Sunset
Premiere: Yep, this movie is basically a yakfest, but an incredibly fluid and involving one, and if you have any kind of affinity for either of the characters, you’re bound to find the picture a kind of miracle.
5 - Batman Begins
Chicago Sun-Times: This is the Batman movie I've been waiting for; more correctly, this is the movie I did not realize I was waiting for, because I didn't realize that more emphasis on story and character and less emphasis on high-tech action was just what was needed. The movie works dramatically in addition to being an entertainment. There's something to it.
4 - Collateral
Los Angeles Times: As a result of Mann's craftsmanship and concern, Collateral crackles with energy and purpose, a propulsive film with character on its mind and confident men and women on both sides of the camera.
3 - Nobody Knows
Philadelphia Inquirer: It's a quietly powerful work, pulsing with gentle humor and a gripping sense of imminent calamity and dread.
2 - Howl's Moving Castle
Los Angeles Times: Parse it any way you like, Miyazaki's gifts as an animator place him in a category of his own. To see his latest film is to be somehow reminded of Italians who could hear Verdi's operas as soon as they were sung or English readers who could experience the novels of Dickens episode by episode.
1 - Crash
Entertainment Weekly: The stunning, must-see drama Crash is proof that words have not lost the ability to shock in our anesthetized society
That's it. I would expect something more elaborated, but I have to go to bed because I'm going out of town tomorrow. So, this is as good as it gets! :p
So, tomorrow I am leaving for new year's week at Chapada dos Veadeiros with my dad, and to say goodbye to this year I will start with the lyrics of a very nice song. Happy new year, everyone. Enjoy 2006 and make it the best year of your life. Because I will.
Misread
Kings of Convenience
If you wanna be my friend
You want us to get along
Please do not expect me to
Wrap it up and keep it there
The observation I am doing could
Easily be understood
As cynical demeanour
But one of us misread...
And what do you know
It happened again
A friend is not a means
You utilize to get somewhere
Somehow I didn't notice
friendship is an end
What do you know
It happened again
How come no-one told me
All throughout history
The loneliest people
Were the ones who always spoke the truth
The ones who made a difference
By withstanding the indifference
I guess it's up to me now
Should I take that risk or just smile?
What do you know
It happened again
What do you know
Now, to the business!
MUSIC
It was incredibly hard for me to pick 10 albums and rank them. I assume that probably some things here were overrated, but I picked the albums that touched me more, doesn't matter in what way. And, in general, were well accepted by worldwide critics - with exceptions such as the greats Hopes & Fears and Plans.
I know that Riot on an Empty Street and Funeral were both released in 2004, however they only arrived in Brazil this year, and being magnificent albums I had to put them on my top 10.
HONORS: Confessions on a Dance Floor by Madonna
Twin Cinema by The New Pornographers
These Were The Earlies by The Earlies
Employment by Kaiser Chiefs
Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes by TV on the Radio
10 - Hopes & Fears by Keane
Playlouder: Basically, this is a fantastic band releasing twelve brilliant songs, and it's not only the best guitar album you'll ever hear with no guitars on it, it's one of the best this year generally.
9 - X & Y by Coldplay
New Musical Express: Confident, bold, ambitious, bunged with singles and impossible to contain, ‘X&Y’ doesn’t reinvent the wheel but it does reinforce Coldplay as the band of their time.
8 - a ghost is born by Wilco
Pitchfork: In the end, the ambitious misfires and pre-coffee drowsiness of A Ghost Is Born don't ruin the album entirely-- they only serve as distractions that make it much more difficult to excavate the band's strengths from the surrounding detritus.
7 - Illinois by Sufjan Stevens
Slant Magazine: From its framing gimmick and its anti-folk folk songwriting to its he-has-to-be-kidding song titles and its show-offy instrumentation, Illinois should reduce to a simple stunt performance. That it's pop-art of the highest caliber, instead, cements Stevens as one of the most vital voices in music today.
6 - Z by Morning Jacket
Slant Magazine: Dialing down the reverb and allowing more wide-ranging influences to show through, My Morning Jacket fashions a messy, transitory record that's head-over-heels giddy, curiously experimental, and patently weird in equal measure.
5 - Plans by Death Cab For Cutie
E! Online: [Plans has] ginormous power-pop melodies in songs such as "Soul Meets Body" and "Marching Bands of Manhattan" and wussy-boy lyrics that'll make your heart grow a few sizes.
4 - Feels by Animal Collective
The Onion (AV) Club: A carefully sequenced, fully imagined album--one that's designed to be consumed by people wearing headphones and staring into space.
3 - Riot on an Empty Street by Kings of Convenience
Entertainment Weekly: Riot's tales of lost loves and existential confusion shimmer with precise harmonies, memorably melancholy melodies, and rich but restrained arrangements.
2 - Funeral by Arcade Fire
E! Online: An emotionally wracked masterpiece, drawing on immaculate influences like the Pixies and Talking Heads while sounding distinctly original.
1 - LOOKAFTERING by VASHTI BUNYAN
Pitchfork: On Lookaftering, it comes as a relief to hear not only how pristine Bunyan's delicate vocals remain but that she has retained her understated abilities as a songwriter.
MOVIES
Historical year in the theaters, eh? Unfortunately, us, brazilians, are unfortunate with release dates, and we haven't gotten certain titles that are, for sure, the bests of the year, such as Brokeback Mountain, Jarhead, Capote, Syriana and Good Night, and Good Luck. Although we had great pictures on screen, most titles I've watched this year sucked, some of them sucked really bad, like War of the Worlds and Narnia, so in order to fill a full top 10 of recent movies I decided to include 2004's movies in the list. As lame as it may seem, and it is, I don't care.
10 - Oldboy
Chicago Sun-Times: Oldboy is a powerful film not because of what it depicts, but because of the depths of the human heart which it strips bare.
9- Star Wars Episode III
The New York Times: This is by far the best film in the more recent trilogy, and also the best of the four episodes Mr. Lucas has directed. That's right (and my inner 11-year-old shudders as I type this): it's better than "Star Wars."
8 - Broken Flowers
Chicago Sun-Times: No actor is better than Bill Murray at doing nothing at all, and being fascinating while not doing it. Buster Keaton had the same gift for contemplating astonishing developments with absolute calm. Buster surrounded himself with slapstick, and in Broken Flowers Jim Jarmusch surrounds Murray with a parade of formidable women.
7 - Sideways
The Hollywood Reporter: Hysterically funny yet melancholy comedy.
6 - Before Sunset
Premiere: Yep, this movie is basically a yakfest, but an incredibly fluid and involving one, and if you have any kind of affinity for either of the characters, you’re bound to find the picture a kind of miracle.
5 - Batman Begins
Chicago Sun-Times: This is the Batman movie I've been waiting for; more correctly, this is the movie I did not realize I was waiting for, because I didn't realize that more emphasis on story and character and less emphasis on high-tech action was just what was needed. The movie works dramatically in addition to being an entertainment. There's something to it.
4 - Collateral
Los Angeles Times: As a result of Mann's craftsmanship and concern, Collateral crackles with energy and purpose, a propulsive film with character on its mind and confident men and women on both sides of the camera.
3 - Nobody Knows
Philadelphia Inquirer: It's a quietly powerful work, pulsing with gentle humor and a gripping sense of imminent calamity and dread.
2 - Howl's Moving Castle
Los Angeles Times: Parse it any way you like, Miyazaki's gifts as an animator place him in a category of his own. To see his latest film is to be somehow reminded of Italians who could hear Verdi's operas as soon as they were sung or English readers who could experience the novels of Dickens episode by episode.
1 - Crash
Entertainment Weekly: The stunning, must-see drama Crash is proof that words have not lost the ability to shock in our anesthetized society
That's it. I would expect something more elaborated, but I have to go to bed because I'm going out of town tomorrow. So, this is as good as it gets! :p
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