End Of Year Polls: 2005 Inpress Writers' Poll

2005 INPRESS MAGAZINE WRITERS’ POLL


TOP 10 ALBUMS (format: Artist TITLE)
1. Editors THE BACK ROOM
2. The Arcade Fire FUNERAL
3. The National ALLIGATOR
4. Kate Bush AERIAL
5. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club HOWL
6. Art Brut BANG BANG ROCK & ROLL
7. The Magic Numbers THE MAGIC NUMBERS
8. The Chalets CHECK IN
9. Maximo Park A CERTAIN TRIGGER
10.Emiliana Torrini FISHERMAN'S WOMAN

ARTIST OF THE YEAR
1. The Arcade Fire
2. Gang of Four
3. The Fall

BEST INTERNATIONAL ARTIST GIG
1. Hope Of The States – Astoria, London
2. The Psychedelic Furs – Shepherds Bush Empire, London
3. The Arcade Fire – The Leadmill, Sheffield

BEST LOCAL ARTIST GIG
Enough of The Birthday Party / Scientists stuff already! None of the Oz acts I saw in the UK this year rose much above mediocre.

BEST RADIO SHOW
1. Gideon Coe – BBC 6Music
2. Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington on XFM
3. Steve Lamacq – BBC 6Music / BBC Radio 1

BEST TV SHOW
1. Doctor Who
2. The Monastery
3. Peep Show

BEST FILM
Didn’t see enough to say

BEST BOOK
1. Rip It Up and Start Again: Post Punk 1978-1984 by Simon Reynolds

BEST WEBSITE
1. Tachyon TV Hub
2. BBC Cult
3. eBay

BEST MEDIA MOMENT
Return of Doctor Who – they got so much right, how can you quibble?

HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR
Moshpit at the Furs - years fell away…

LOWLIGHT OF THE YEAR
London bombings and reactions, tsunami, Iraq, Cronulla, etc. Crappy behaviour at gigs

PREDICTION FOR 2006
Is disco coming back now? We’ve had everything else…
Looking forward to albums from Apartment, The Long Blondes, The Blue Aeroplanes, The Duke Spirit

QUOTE OF THE YEAR
“Political correctness gone mad” - almost a catchphrase

WHERE WERE YOU LAST NEW YEAR’S EVE?
The Bell, E17

WHERE WILL YOU BE THIS NYE?
No idea

IF ’04 WAS THE YEAR OF ‘THE’ AND ’05 WAS THE YEAR OF ‘WOLF’, WHAT WILL ’06 BE?
The year of Pop. Independent artists are creating great pop music – let’s hope it breaks into the mainstream

2005 IN REVIEW (150 WORDS OR WE CUT IT OFF AT WORD #150)
2005 was the year of the oldie. With some new acts proving poor live performers, it was up to the old guard [Gang Of Four, The Fall, etc] to show the way. Even Simple Minds and New Order produced their first decent LPs since the 1980’s. Art Brut and The Chalets reminded us that pop could be fun, and The Arcade Fire’s controlled onstage anarchy was a hard act for anyone to follow. Arctic Monkey’s # 1 proved that downloading wasn’t killing music.

Amidst a pile of reality shite, BBC’s The Monastery showed how it could be. Old sci-fi franchises were revived successfully, with Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who. In comedy, Peep Show continued to impress, and The Thick Of It was almost too accurate to be funny.

The continuing rise of intolerant attitudes made 2005 an uncomfortable political year. Will longer pub hours make us forget nuclear power stations?

© James McGalliard 2007