Relient K continued to impress in 2005, and the Apathetic EP became one of my favorite discs of the year even though it contains just seven songs and three of those are acoustic versions of previous tracks. But, perhaps more strange to me is the fact that High Of 75, track #3 on 2004's Mmhmm, has become one of my favorite tracks on the year, and it is a track that I have previously trashed numerous times for not matching up to the quality of the rest of the disc.
Another pleasant surprise in 2005 was Underoath. Thanks mostly to the fact that I have a few friends who enjoy nothing more than driving down the road and screaming at the top of their lungs, Feeling free, feeling fffffffrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!, Underoath quickly caught on for me this year. The re-release of They're Only Chasing Safety provided me an opportunity and reason to purchase a disc I had been thinking about getting for a while, and it has in turn become one of my most played discs in recent memory.
Dane Cook also set records in 2005. No, he's not a musician. Yes, he's a comedian. But when your 2 CD/1 DVD set goes to #4 on Billboard's Hot 200 on it's opening week and you're not a musician, something has to be said for that. Quite simply, this man is the funniest guy I know of. I cannot help but laugh at his jokes and his sheer insanity (Who do you honestly know of that would walk around their house and write lyrics to the tune of a car alarm...or, for that matter, write a joke about doing so?). The man is definitely leaving his legacy in this world...and it's not because he smashed a little kid's treat into his face or because he took a crap on the coats.
Late in the year I also found myself becoming a fan of Amber Pacific. Again, thanks to one of my friends, I was able to check out The Possibility & The Promise and immediately got hooked on the tracks that were inside. It was yet another pleasant surprise toward the end of the year. And one other great thing to come out of music this year was James Blunt. And, thanks to a certain non-American board member over at dctalksolo.com, I was able to get on board with this guy long before he started blazing up the American charts. And a big thank you to him for letting me know ahead of time, because You're Beautiful and High have become two of the more heavier played tracks for me in the last half of this year.
Overall, 2005 was all over the place. There were some major disappointments, but there were also some huge surprises. And, looking at the list of releases coming in the early portion of 2006, I can say that I truly am excited to see what next year brings for me musically.