Top 15 Albums of 2005

I originally put this together sometime in mid January, and was just going back through it. I've made a few changes from what I wrote back then, changing the order a little, and adding a few more albums to the "Other" section, but the commentary is 90% the same. It still seems like a draft, and is rather poorly written (though everything I write is), but here goes...

updated 1045pm 3.7.06

15. Kaiser Chiefs – Employment
A damn sweet record. This is some extremely infectious stuff that will stay in your head for quite a long time. I like that.
Favorite Tracks: Na Na Na Na Naa, Oh My God


14. Feeder - Pushing the Senses
The fifth LP from Feeder (my official second favorite band) isn’t the album I was expecting or hoping for, but it’s still got some rock solid stuff. It’s only 10 songs, and two of them are somewhat mediocre, but the few scattered moments of greatness make up for it. They’ve dramatically softened their sound over their past two records, and while I like a lot of it, I really wish they’d start picking it up again (if only for a few more tracks per album).
Favorite Tracks: Tender, Feeling a Moment


13. Better than Ezra - Before the Robots
You seriously can’t go wrong with anything BTE puts out. This album feels more like an extension of Closer than a brand new original album, so it lost some points there, but I find Closer to be absolutely fantastic, so it gained some points there. It was kind of lame they put ‘A Lifetime’ on here after it was already on Closer, but apparently it was the label’s doing. Despite my complaints, it’s still an album I can listen to quite frequently…it’s just not as memorable as a lot of their previous work.
Favorite Tracks: Breathless, Hollow


12. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
The British invasion continues. I got this last January and can't remember if it was really a 2004 album, but I don't care. I originally said that it ran out of gas around track 9 (ironically with the song 'Price of Gas'), but I was just listening to it again, and I would like to rescind that statement. I don't know what I was talking about.
Favorite Tracks: Pioneers, Helicopter


11. Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better
I never bothered to check out their self-titled album because ‘Take me Out’ and ‘This Fire’ really didn’t really do anything for me, but ‘Do You Want To’ made me a fan and the album is has some really good stuff on it. It’s definitely made me reevaluate my opinion of their earlier stuff.
Favorite Tracks: The Fallen, You Could Have It So Much Better


10. Fall Out Boy - From Under the Cork Tree
The song titles alone are worth the price of admission. It’s nothing original, it’s nothing unique, and it’s nothing you should feel overly cool about listening to. It’s just the best executed and most distinguishable 2005 album (that I’ve heard) in a genre that has basically gone into the toilet with a massive influx of amateurish bands that all sound exactly the same. I really dig it.
Favorite Tracks: Sugar, We’re Goin Down, Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner


9. OK Go - Oh No
These guys are so freakin fun. I really don’t understand how people can not like this album, or anything by OK Go for that matter. While their debut album is better as a whole, this one has much more energy, and it feels like the guys had a better time making it.
Favorite Tracks: Here it Goes Again, Invincible


8. Hot Hot Heat - Elevator
Just continues where Make Up the Breakdown left off, and that’s really all that needs to be said. I can listen to this over and over again.
Favorite Tracks: Jingle, Jangle, Middle of Nowhere


7. Common – Be
I looked into this CD because I heard Kanye West produced it, and I’m glad I did, because it’s probably the best hip hop album (outside of Kanye himself) I’ve heard in a long time. There’s some really killer beats on here (yeah, I said ‘killer beats’…what you gonna do about it?), and Common really has a way with words that is pretty fascinating.
Favorite Tracks: The Corner, Testify


6. Jack's Mannequin - Everything in Transit
It initially comes off as just a more serious Something Corporate with less crunchy guitars, and while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, it’s something quite different. I’ve only recently started listening to the album a lot, but it quickly made its way into one of my favorites of the year.
Favorite Tracks: La La Lie, Dark Blue


5. Hard-Fi - Stars of CCTV
The final Brits in the countdown. I’m not sure I could categorize them or compare them to anyone in any way that would do them justice, so I’ll refrain from that. This is just an excellent album from front to back with nary a bad tune. Sometimes it makes you wanna dance, sometimes it makes you wanna sing at the top of your longs, and sometimes it makes you just wanna sit back and chill. I almost feel like this CD could be a soundtrack to a movie.
Favorite Tracks: Hard to Beat, Better do Better


4. Kanye West - Late Registration
I’m not sure anything he ever does from here on out can hit the highs of The College Dropout (I hope I’m wrong), but this album is fantastic.
Favorite Tracks: Diamonds From Sierra Leone, We Major


3. What Made Milwaukee Famous - Trying to Never Catch Up
A badass Austin band that I came across sort of by accident. I’m so glad I did though, because they freakin rock. Hellodrama is quite possibly my favorite song of 2005, and everything else is pretty damn great. Check them out. Seriously. Now, dammit!
Favorite Tracks: Hellodrama, Around the Gills


2. Foo Fighters - In Your Honor
It’s the Foo Fighters. It’s their new album. I love it.
Favorite Tracks: DOA, No Way Back



1. The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
My favorite new discovery of the year. I’d heard the name of the band a few times in passing over the years, but never made the effort to actually listen to any of their songs. From the first time I heard ‘Twin Cinema’, though, I was completely hooked. Every song on here is entirely unique. It’s extremely catchy, but not at all in a derivative mainstream way, and I have tremendous respect for that. I wish there were more I could say, but I’m not very good at praising the things I love without sounding like an idiot, so I’ll just leave it at that. Amazing album.
Favorite Tracks: Twin Cinema, The Jessica Numbers, The Bleeding Heart Show



Other Albums I Enjoyed:

All-American Rejects, The - Move Along (don't judge me)
Ash – Meltdown (2005 US release, but came out in the UK in 04; would probably be in the top 15 otherwise)
Augustana - All The Stars and Boulevards (didn't live up to the promise of the 3-song sampler I got over the summer, but those songs alone make the album worthy of a mention)
Ben Folds - Songs for Silverman
British Sea Power – Open Season (gets mentioned solely for the kickass song ‘Please Stand Up’)
Death Cab for Cutie – Plans (only finally started listening recently, mightve been ranked given more time; not as good as Trans or Photo Album, though)
Decemberists, The – Picaresque
Engineers - S/T (great album to just throw on in the background)
Go! Team, The - Thunger, Lightning, Strike
Jimmy Eat World – Stay on my Side Tonight (EP)
Home Town Hero - Bitch City (I have no idea when this is supposed to come out or if it ever will, but I dug it a good amount)
Koufax – Hard Times are in Fashion (picked it up after already making the list)
Magic Numbers - S/T
Mando Diao – Hurricane Bar
Nine Black Alps - Everything Is (grunge is back!)
Oasis – Don’t Believe the Truth
Our Lady Peace - Healthy in Paranoid Times (might have liked it more if I didn't know what they were capable of)
Reel Big Fish – We’re Not Happy Till You’re Not Happy
Spoon – Gimme Fiction (I like it, but i can't seem to get into Spoon like I feel like I should)
Stereophonics - Language. Sex. Violence. Other. (better than You Gotta Go There to Come Back, but still short of the greatness of Performance and Cocktails, and Just Enough Education to Perform)
We Are Scientists – With Love and Squalor (came out in 06 here, but 05 in the UK)
White Stripes, The - Get Behind Me Satan

I'm sure there's a few I'm forgetting, and there's tons more I would have liked to listen to, but just haven't gotten around to yet. I may list some of those at some point.