Yes, it’s time for the Solitude 2005 awards! We’ve already covered the best film of 2005 but there are plenty of other awards going:
- Best album of 2005 - Being the first year for a while that Biffy haven’t released anything and The Mars Volta album being good but not great, I think there is only one clear choice for best album: “Very Fast, Very Dangerous” by the excellent Reuben. Mixing some chunky British rock with some tight lyrics and sprinklings of pop mentality, this album has everything any fan of modern rock needs. Each of the singles showed off a different part of the band, and the album as a whole is just brilliantly pitched.
- Best new band - This means the best band I heard for the first time last year and is pretty tricky. I think the best band I heard last year were the impossibly tight Caretaker, a band with some incredible dynamics and transitions. I highly recommend their “Signs Of Four EP” (incidentally the best EP of 2005). That said, the industry being what it is, they won’t make it big. That’s not what this is about, mind, but another great band (who I actually heard first in November 2004) who you should be watching are Amplifico. A lot folkier and poppier than my usual leanings, but an excellent band nonetheless.
- Worst split - Although Ikara Colt were a sad loss and Degrassi showed a lot of promise, I think the worst loss of 2005 was the very early break up of the rather good Mclusky. After three albums of the kind of lyrical genius not seen outside of this band, musical differences forced them apart. Keep an eye out for the two new bands that will form from the ashes (one being the reasonably decent Shooting At Unarmed Men).
- Best Underuse Of A Great Actor - In any other year, March Of The Penguins would have gotten this for having Morgan Freeman narrate, but it has been beaten. Batman Begins beats all comers by not only putting Mr Freeman in a marginal role, but did the same to Michael Caine. It takes a certain amount of genius to do that and still be a pretty damn good film. Kudos to Christopher Nolan.
- Best use of William Fichtner - For anyone who had to follow that IMDB link to figure out who I mean, shame on you! Fichtner is an excellent actor who does not get the credit he deserves. Winner of the award this year goes to Crash, a terrible film with one or two good roles; Fichtner was as marginal as always, but still damn good.
I realise now that it would probably be best not to publish some of the other awards (such as Best Pub Quiz Teamname), so as to avoid incriminating myself. Any other awards people deserved?