Best Albums of 2005...

According to me. I make no apologies.

15. Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – Cold Roses – Never thought I would enjoy a post Whiskeytown Adam’s album, but this is surprisingly awesome. Better than the Jacksonville City Nights album because he doesn’t seem like he’s trying, which is a welcome change of pace.

14. The Russian Futurists – Our Thickness – That reverb that guy uses, it kills me. And his thousand tracked vocals? So cool. So cool.

13. Stars – Set Yourself on Fire – They could have just released the first song, “Your Ex-Lover is Dead” and still have ended up on everyone’s best of list. I’m actually not sure if this is 2004 or 2005, but I just found it, so it’s new to me.

12. Giant Drag – Hearts and Unicorns – Really, this belongs in 1997 alongside a PJ Harvey record. But the best song titles.

11. Death Cab For Cutie – Plans – Seriously, I loved this album. Walla’s production continues to improve, and the melodies are strong, and Ben Gibbard’s voice is still my all time favorite.

10. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! – S/T – I really think they deserved the hype. I hate all the crap that gets said about “influences” which is overplayed by critics. Sure it might sound a bit like NMH, but shit, I think we could all be happy if everything sounded like NMH.

9. Sigur Ros – Takk – Beautiful. End.

8. The Silver Jews – Tanglewood Numbers – I never listened to the Silver Jews before I saw all these write ups about the new album and how David Berman lives in Nashville. I really hope someday I see him at Grimey’s or something, even though I probably would never be able to tell who he was. Anyways, this is awesome.

7. Bloc Party – Silent Alarm – This probably would have ranked higher a few months ago, and really, it should be. It’s as solid as the come; I just really hope they can deliver on the follow up.

6. Broken Social Scene – S/T – The production gets knocked a bit on this album, but I think David Newfeld did an amazing job, coming from an engineer’s perspective, with managing everything, and I loved his use of distortion on practically everything.

5. LCD Soundsystem – S/T – Definitely lived up to the hype, best live show of the year as well.

4. The Juan MacLean – Less Than Human – There was this one point during the Juan MacLean show where John kept flinging apart the two mics he was using during “Tito’s Way” and at the same time the Theremin player would freak out. It was perfect. Just like this.

3. The National – Alligator – I had been high on these guys since freshman year when they played 2NMC, and I really didn’t think anyone else knew about them. This album stayed in constant rotation since its release, a beautiful record from start to finish.

2. Sufjan Stevens – Come On Feel the Illinoise! – This was my album of the year until I saw him live, which was a terribly disappointing experience. But besides that this album is perfect. I remember driving up to I-57 and “Come On Feel The Illinoise” came on just as I hit the entrance ramp. Tears of joy.

1. Wolf Parade – Apologies to the Queen Mary – When I first heard this album, I was in awe. I downloaded “You Are A Runner” a long time ago on the Sub Pop website, but I didn’t give it much of a listen. I was an idiot. Hands down the most exciting release of 2005.

-ed