…don’t you?
I’ll get my short list together soon but I’d like to see yours… Might help me out.
Top 10 Albums of the Year:
[ol]
[li]Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene[/li][li]Stars - Set Yourself On Fire[/li][li]M.I.A. - Arular[/li][li]Sufjan Stevens - Come On Feel The Illinoise![/li][li]Bloc Party - Silent Alarm[/li][li]LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem[/li][li]Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better[/li][li]Kanye West - Last Registration[/li][li]Metric - Live It Out[/li][li]The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan[/li][/ol]
I was just working on my Audio Christmas Card CD, which features my favorite tracks of 2005. A rough draft:
- Old 97s - “Melt Show” (live) *
- Death From Above 1979 - “Romantic Rights”
- Calexico/Iron and Wine - “Prison on Route 41”
- The Greencards - “Don’t Want Forever”
- Kanye West - “Addiction”
- Fruit Bats - “The Earthquake of '73”
- Gorillaz - “Feel Good, Inc.”
- Beck - “Black Tambourine”
- Wilco - “Misunderstood” (live) *
- The Duhks - “Dance Hall Girls/Bozeemon Boogie”
- The Clientele - “(I Can’t Seem To) Make You Mine”
- DJ Shadow - “Midnight in a Perfect World” **
- The Decemberists - “Sixteen Military Wives”
- Sufjan Stevens - “The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts”
- From live collections Alive and Wired and Kicking Television: Live in Chicago respectively.
** From DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing, which got a Deluxe reissue in 2005, which therefore gives me an excuse to slip a track from it onto my Christmas Card CD.
Critiques, suggestions, and cries of “Dammit, didn’t you hear (x)” are welcomed.
My Top Three so far:
- Spoon - Gimme Fiction
- Sons and Daughters - The Repulsion Box
- The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike (Yeah, it came out in the UK last year, but it was released in America with two bonus tracks in 2005)
I guess my top 5 would be rounded out with You Could Have It So Much Better and Get Behind Me Satan, both of which I thought were half brilliant and half “meh.”
Oh, and my five favorite discs of 2005:
- Sufjan Stevens, Illinois
- The Duhks (self-titled)
- Kanye West, Late Registration
- Beck, Guero
- Fruit Bats, Spelled in Bones
Honorable mentions:
Nickel Creek, Why Should the Fire Die
The Greencards, Weather and Water
Calexico/Iron and Wine, In the Reins
(all are, of course, dependent on reading this thread to see what I’ve missed)
Must admit I don’t really get the appeal of Sufjan Stevens. There is such a thing as too laid back, in my book. shrug
My top three of the year:
- Sleater-Kinney - The Woods
- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! (Self-Titled)
- Spoon - Gimme Fiction
Honorable mention goes to Stars’ “Set Yourself on Fire,” which I hadn’t actually heard until Kid_A’s recommendation, but am really enjoying after just two spins. I’m not so fond of the 80s synths, but that reflects my general distaste for a decade which, as far as I’m concerned, produced only two bands really worth mentioning: The Pixies and R.E.M.
In no particular order, CDs I have bought this year and particularly liked, and which actually came out this year, I think, maybe:
Beck, Guero
Disturbed, Ten Thousand Fists
System of a Down, Mesmerize
Queens of the Stone Age, Lullabies to Paralyze
I didn’t know they were still putting out records. Cool.
My favorites…
Arizona Amp & Alternator - S/T
Black Mountain - S/T
Buck 65 - Secret House Against The World
Ry Cooder - Chavez Ravine
C’Mon - In The Heat Of The Moment
Sarah Harmer - I Am A Mountain
Silver Jews - Tanglewood Numbers
The Violet Archers - The End Of Part One
Weird War - Illuminated By The Light
Wolf Parade - Apologies To The Queen Mary
You Say Party! We Say Die! - Hit The Floor
Coming to mind quickly:
Who’s Your New Professor? - Sam Prekop
Campfire Headphase - Boards of Canada
Oh shit, I don’t know any of these bands new bands or albums. Who was talking about the Pixies? Yeah, the Pixies rule!
The Decemberists - Picaresque (or was this in 2004?)
Beck - Guero
The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
Hahahaha funny! 
Thankfully, Sam Stone has listed the few I actually am familiar with. But mungo? His list could have been a bunch of words selected utterly at random for all I know.
Arizona Amp & Alternator Black Mountain Buck 65 Secret House Against The World Ry Cooder Chavez Ravine C’Mon In The Heat Of The Moment Sarah Harmer I Am A Mountain Silver Jews Tanglewood Numbers The Violet Archers The End Of Part One Weird War Illuminated By The Light Wolf Parade Apologies To The Queen Mary You Say Party! We Say Die! Hit The Floor
aahhhhhhh! So. Out. Of. Touch.
I can’t remember the last time I bought enough CDs in a year to make compiling a list meaningful.
I buy way too much music. Fwiw, I particularly liked
Beck-Guero
Spoon-Gimme Fiction
Eels-Blinkling Lights and Other Revelations
The Go-Betweens-Oceans Apart
The Hold Steady-Separation Sunday
Elbow-Leaders of The Free World
Calla-Collisions
Echo and the Bunnymen-Siberia
Franz Ferdinand-You Could Have Had It Much Better
Bloc Party-Silent Alarm
Thought it was a great year for music, when Coldplay, Sheryl Crow, The Wallflowers, Fiona Apple and Tori Amos put out solid efforts but don’t make it among the ten best for me, that’s a good year.
seeing comebacks by The Go-Betweens and Echo atb was particularly satisfying
Not to worry… some of them are Canadian and therefore would have spotty distribution or promotion elsewhere. So don’t feel bad, I probably wouldn’t know about a lot of the band from Monkey either.
Nope, it was 2005. It’s on my “Honorable Mention” list, as are Sleater-Kinney and Bloc Party.
I was less than taken with the White Stripes and the New Pornographers–I love both bands, but I just didn’t get into the new discs.
Same with Spoon; I have a feeling I’ll come around to Gimme Fiction eventually, but I haven’t yet. (Sometimes I just never listen to an album in the right frame of mind.)
I’m not quite ready for my final list yet, as I haven’t heard the new ones by Fiona Apple, Earth, SUNN 0))) or Ephel Duath, but here’s my first pass at it:
[ol]
[li]Ulver, Blood Inside: Getting a new Ulver recording is always fun. Even if you’ve heard everything they’ve done before, you really don’t have any idea what the next one is going to sound like, and even after you’ve listened to it, you might find it a little tough to describe. So let me just say that you absolutely must hear this album–that’s all there is to it.[/li]
[li]System of a Down, Mesmerize/Hypnotize: Based on Toxicity, I thought that SoaD had a lot of potential but weren’t quite there yet. With this release, I think they’ve finally arrived. The lyrics are a lot less stupid, and even some of the dumber ones work. There’s the right mix of humor and seriousness, and they’re not even pretending that they’re not a prog band any more. Bogus points for not just releasing a double album. [/li]
[li]Becoming the Archetype, Terminate Damnation: You know something’s up when the debut release from a Christian metal band makes my top ten list, but I just can’t deny an album of this caliber.[/li]
[li]Opeth, Ghost Reveries: After the Deliverance/Damnation split, I was very curious to see if Opeth was going to move away from their death metal roots to a proggier sound, or go back to being right heavy. They did both, and the result is an absolutely fantastic album.[/li]
[li]Red Sparowes, At the Soundless Dawn: This is a must-hear for fans of long, vaguely psychedelic instrumentals. It’s slightly less heavy than your Isis or Neurosis, and there are no vocals at all. If you like this, check out Pelican too.[/li]
[li]Buried Inside, Chronoclast: Half the time they sound like Isis, half the time they sound like Converge, and they’re all about deconstructing the concept of time.[/li]
[li]Solefald, Red For Fire: This was a bit of an interesting album. Solefald has always been known for doing really weird stuff, and this is a far more traditional album than you might expect (not counting the saxophone). Black metal is not for everyone, but if you’re at all curious, this isn’t a bad place to start. [/li]
[li]Swallow the Sun, The Morning Never Came: Old school doom/death at about as good as it gets. Put this one on if you’re feeling too cheerful.[/li]
[li]Octavia Sperati, Winter Enclosure: Another debut, this one from an all female band from Scandinavia (note: Scandinavian women are hot). One reviewer described it as sounding like an ethereal Black Sabbath, which isn’t too unfair.[/li]
[li]Arcturus, Sideshow Symphonies: It’s not up to the quality of their last two albums, but not much is. Besides, bad Arcturus beats almost anything else.[/li]
[/ol]
Hell Within gets an honorable mention for Asylum of the Human Predator (also a debut), Clutch for Robot Hive/Exodus, Mindless Self Indulgence for You’ll Rebel to Anything, and Pelican for The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw. I’m not 100% sure what I think of Demon Days, but I think I’m going to end up liking it a lot more than I do now.
Now for some of the year’s bigger disappointments:
[ul]
[li]Dream Theater, Octavarium: I guess Train of Thought didn’t sell well enough, because they completely abandoned the direction they had on that album for a much more accessible sound. It really sound like they’re just phoning it in here. Hardcore Dream Theater fans will eat it up, but I wasn’t impressed.[/li]
[li]Nile, Annihilation of the Wicked: I was hoping for something a lot like “Unas, Slayer of the Gods” or the title suite from In Their Darkened Shrines. This felt like a step backwards. It was still good, mind you; I think my expectations were just a little high.[/li]
[li]Garbage, Bleed Like Me: Again, they had a cool direction on their last album, and just abandoned it for what they’ve always done.[/li]
[li]Nine Inch Nails, With Teeth: Note to Trent: it’s not 1995 any more. Update your schtick just a little bit, please.[/li]
[li]Weezer, ???: No fucking way. Just hearing “Beverly Hills” is enough to know that this album sucks.[/li]
[/ul]
Oh man, can’t believe I forgot “Twin Cinema.” It doesn’t have any songs as immediately catchy as “Letter to an Occupant” or “Miss Teen Wordpower,” but I think it’s the New Pornographers’ most cohesive album so far. Plus, LOVE the higher profile of the drums, which reveal some serious chops that weren’t evident on the first two albums.
Big disappointment: Weezer’s “Make Believe.” My expectations were already low, as their last two albums were mediocre at best, but “Make Believe” somehow managed to surpass (or is it “underpass”?) them. Boring, whiny, formulaic songs with excrutiatingly stupid lyrics. The sarcastic, pop-culture name-checking Weezer wit of old is long gone, replaced with trite expressions of teen angst (all the more pathetic considering how old Rivers Cuomo is now).