Mixtape 20: Late October 2005

1. Animal Collective – The Purple Bottle
2. Pavement – Transport is Arranged
3. José Gonzáles – Heartbeats (Video)
4. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Me and You, Watson (Live)
5. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy & Matt Sweeney – Lift Us Up
6. Serena Maneesh – Un-Deux
7. The Double – Blanket on a Beach
8. The Mr. T Experience – Even Hitler Had a Girlfriend
9. Spoon – My First Time, Vol. 3
10. North American Halloween Prevention Initiative – Do They Know It’s Halloween?

* * * * *

Feels may or may not have been the best album of 2005. On my personal list, it swapped spots with Why?'s Elephant Eyelash and The Double's Loose in the Air too many times to count. It was a good year for music (anyone that says otherwise simply didn't know where to look), and it contained lots of fodder for spirited debate. However, what was never and cannot ever be up for debate is that "The Purple Bottle" is the best song of the year. I didn't hear every song on every album released in 2005, and yet I can personally guarantee this statement's veracity. It's not so much an opinion as a provable fact. Nothing came close. Animal Collective's "Did You See the Words" (a fantastic song in its own right) originally led off this mixtape, but halfway through my deadline period, I discovered this song. It starts off all poundy tribal been-there-done-that AC. Somewhere the guitar kicks in, soft but glittery with flourishes--they know what's in store. "Got a big big big heart beat yeah, I think you are the sweetest thing / I wear a coat of feelings and they are loud," but the lyrics don't even matter; by now everything is together--melded drums and guitar and Avey Tare's wailing and somewhere in between the following three (yes, three) crescendoes, everything kind of dissipates into something other than sound.
The Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and The Double songs are fantastic, and the Vice charity single ("Do They Know It's Halloween?") is pretty fun, but nothing compares to "The Purple Bottle," so what's the point?