Daryn's Top Fives

Top 5 albums of 2005

Mercury Rev - Secret Migration - American pastoral removed slightly from the psychedelic
"outness" of previous outings, but suffers no less because of this
Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning - not quite the new Dylan, but better than most
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy & Matt Sweeny - Superwolf - Chavez meets Palace on this set of sparse
songs honed live during 2004
Teenage Fanclub - ManMade - the greatest power pop band ever show why they're the best kept secret in the world
Super Furry Animals - Love Kraft - singalong choruses, phased guitars and the best performance on TOTP this year


Top 5 reissues of 2005

Morrissey - Live at Earls Court - a great document of a fantastic tour
Sonic Youth - Goo - now with added non major label hissy demos
John Coltrane/Thelonius Monk- Carnegie Hall - a second document of a five month link up
Bob Dylan - No direction home - , fuzzy
bass, Bloomfield's noodly guitars, demos, protest songs, Guthrie
The Fall - The Complete Peel Sessions - time to ditch those hissy c90s recorded in the 80s,
now for the pristine pile driving sound of the "Mighty Fall."


Top 5 films of 2005

Batman Begins - making all the right moves by referencing Frank Miller and Jeph Loeb's
darker interpretation of this character, the best one since 1989's Tim Burton debut (though
that's not exactly an achievement)
Cinderella Man - a great boxing film, engaging narrative, not too schmaltzy
A very long engagement - portraying the French attitude to their soldiers during the First
World War within the context of a story that weaves in elements of romance, war and the
detective story, beautiful to watch
No Direction Home - two masters collide and produce an engaging portrayal of both the time
and the "legend"
Sin City - another Frank Miller adaptation, surely the greatest comic genius (apart from
Alan Moore), where CGI showed how it can be used by a great director



Top 5 TV programmes

Ramsays Kitchen Nighmares - forever changes the way you view the food trade as Ramsay
uncovers a catalogue of ineptitude which delights the viewer but surely must frighten the
diner
Desperate Housewives - refreshing TV, easy to watch, good entertainment
The West Wing - a soap opera dressed up as serious drama, brilliant
Ashes Cricket - Channel 4 show why Sky's gain is our loss
Blackpool - referencing Dennis Potter's use of songs to crystallise the internal thoughts
etc of characters, fantastic fun



Top 5 books

Bret Easton Ellis - Lunar Park - a return to form after Glamorama, even a downloadable playlist to listen to while reading, his best yet
Nick Laird - To a Fault - Zadie Smith has good taste in ex lawyers turned poets and bad novelists
Johnny Rogan - Van Morrison - years in the making, can almost be forgiven for the severed alliance (sausage appliance)
Richard Yates - Collected short stories - American realist, flows of the page, perfectly weighted short stories
Paul Auster and David Mazzuchelli (art) - City of
glass - turning Paul Auster's "detective story" into a graphical novel offered a unique interpretation of this great novel