yet another retrospective

Since Traci started the week with retrospectivityness, I'm going to continue the trend. Year-end lists are ready by the beginning of December most years and favorites are hastily chosen, yet there's always that one record (and if we admit it, dozens of records) that got away.

I don't know how much value you, faithful readers, place on critic year-end lists. Me? Not much. I hurry up and read them, get mad for whatever records were left off that SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN LEFT OFF, DAMMIT, ahem..., and then go back to listening to whatever I was listening to before. Two of my 2005 favorites actually made several lists, although the general music fan populace beyond critical circles never seemed to have heard them or heard of them, for that matter.

Ima share two of those favorites with you: one song from lap-pop favorite Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet, and two from Akron/Family's split LP with Angels of Light.

Here's what is probably the most accessible track from Four Tet's Everything Ecstatic, the appropriately named "Smile Around the Face."
Four Tet - Smile Around the Face.
Tell me it doesn't make you wanna.

Now, two very different yet equally awesome tracks from the Akron/Family & Angels of Light LP,
Akron/Family & Angels of Light - Awake and Akron/Family & Angels of Light - Raising the Sparks,
a freak-folk funfest (indeed).

Enjoy, or, Re-joyce, if you've already heard.