Disappointments and failures in music of 2005

I finally got the list compiled of my biggest musical disappointment of 2005. The list and my reasoning is as follows:

Dishonorable mention: I can't officially rate a piece of work that I have purposely avoided. However, since the record label in question pushed back new artists; projects that I have been looking forward to for the purposes of it's release, I take great pleasure in including Scott Stapp's The Great Divide here. Wind-Up would you please just release People in Planes or Megan McCauley already?

5) 10 Years-- The Autumn Effect
I know there are still several of you who may be unaware of the band 10 Years. If not for a festival appearance here in Houston and the incessant overplay of their radio single "Wasteland," I wouldn't have either. As I tend to do with band on the first album, if I like the initial single and find the album on sale somewhere I am willing to take chances. "Wasteland", the first 20-30 times I heard it was not a bad song; therefore, I experimented. 10 Years is very much a less-talented Tool knockoff. The CD has 3 tracks which I enjoy surround by 7 tracks that sound virtually identical and less than stellar.

4) Jason Mraz -- Mr. A-Z
Having personally enjoyed Waiting for My Rocket to Come I was looking forward to Mraz's sophomore effort, and the initial single "Wordplay," while not "The Remedy," still added to the anticipation. Sadly beyond "Wordplay" I couldn't get into the flow of anything else and thus it makes the list.

3) Staind -- Chapter V
Many things have been said about the singles from this album. The Buzz lists "Right Here" as the third most popular song of 2005, while a number of wise music commentators, notably Mike and Jeff over on Mike's blog have expressed the sentiment that the second single "Falling" is the much better song. A sentiment I fully support. "Falling" and "Paper Jesus" and good songs but the rest are far below the standards I have come to expected from Staind.

2) Story of the Year -- In the Wake of Determination
I enjoyed Story of the Year's debut Effort Page Avenue. Some of my musical advisors above disagree with me on this. However, I enjoyed their attempted mix of melody and anger. Flash forward to the present day. In the Wake of Determination keeps one of the two aspects but at the expense of the other. I liked the lead single "We Don't Care Anymore" though it was clear that they had taken things to an angrier level. After purchasing and listening to the album in its entirety, I'm still looking for the melodic efforts.

1) Trustcompany -- True Parallels
2002 brought us The Lonely Position of Neutral a strong effort from the Alabama based group Trustcompany. "Downfall" and "Hover" highlighted what was a strong effort. Sadly, In March of 2005 Trustcompany took a major step back with True Parallels. The lead single "Stronger" got only occasional radio play here in prepartion for their Buzzfest XV appearance and then it was never heard again. Their live show was the second most disappointing part of Buzzfest XV behind the set played by Unwritten Law. True Parallels lack the dynamics of the first album sounding virtually the same throughout. Thus it was a failure which resulted in their label dropping them so that they could gain a new start.