Thanksgiving is over and you all know what that means. It’s end-of-the-year lists season! Just as you’d expect from any good blogger, I’ve begun work on my lists and I’ve decided that before I go forward I should revisit the past a bit. While I think I was in a pretty good state of mind for my best of 2006 as I really wouldn’t change much about those lists, my top 25 albums of ’05 list is, to put it nicely, a bit flawed (Seriously, We Are Scientists, Franz Ferdinand, and the Stubbs the Zombie Soundtrack in the top 10? What was I thinking!).
I’m blaming my poor list-making skills on my inadequate blogging experience at the time and the fact that many of my favorite albums from the year I didn’t hear untill after the fact. I also lacked a top 25 songs list in ’05, so you’ll find one of those in this post (albeit unranked) with some MP3 downloads. So sit back and remember the good old times when Facebook was only for college students, Arrested Development was on the air, Pluto was still a planet, and YouTube parodies of Brokeback Mountain were all the craze.
() notes previous rank. HM = Honorable Mention
25. LCD Soundsystem – s/t (unlisted)
24. Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning (#13)
23. José Gonzalez – Veneer (HM)
22. The Go! Team – Thunder Lightning Strike (#20)
21. Rogue Wave – Descended Like Vultures (#3)
20. Architecture in Helsinki – In Case We Die (unlisted)
19. Broken Social Scene – s/t (unlisted)
18. The Rosebuds – Birds Make Good Neighbors (#16)
17. Kanye West – Late Registration (unlisted)
16. Page France – Hello, Dear Wind (unlisted)
15 .The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema (#14)
14. Sigur Ros – Takk (#9)
13. Okkervil River – Black Sheep Boy (unlisted)
12. Spoon – Gimme Fiction (unlisted)
11. Of Montreal – The Sunlandic Twins (unlisted)
10 Bloc Party – Silent Alarm (#4)
9. The Decemberists – Picaresque (#2)
8. The Mountain Goats – The Sunset Tree (unlisted)
7. Jens Lekman – Oh You’re So Silent Jens (unlisted)
6. Stars – Set Yourself On Fire (#7)
5. Wolf Parade – Apologies to Queen Mary (unlisted)
4. The Hold Steady – Separation Sunday (unlisted)
3. Andrew Bird – The Mysterious Production of Eggs (#11)
2. The National – Alligator (HM)
1. Sufjan Stevens – Illinois (#1)
Ordered Alphabetically by Track Name
Jens Lekman – A Sweet Night on Hammers Hill
Stars – Ageless Beauty
Nada Surf – Always Love
The New Pornographers – The Bleeding Heart Show
Page France – Chariot
LCD Soundsystem – Daft Punk is playing at my house
The Mountain Goats – Dance Music
Bright Eyes – First Day of my life
Okkervil River – For Real
Rogue Wave – Love’s Lost Guarantee
The Knife/Jose Gonzalez – Heartbeats
Cloud Room – Hey Now Now
The Rosebuds – Hold Hands and Fight
Sigur Ros – Hoppipolla
Spoon – I Summon You
Wolf Parade – I’ll believe in anything
Broken Social Scene – Ibi Dreams of Pavement
The National – Mr. November
Feist – Mushaboom
Sufjan Stevens – The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is out to Get Us!
Of Montreal – Requiem for OMM2
Andrew Bird – Tables and Chairs
Bloc Party – This Modern Love
Iron & Wine – The Trapeze Swinger
Eagle*Seagull – Your Beauty is a Knife Turned on my Throat
Music For Kids Who Can't Read Good 
You’re doing better than me, as I’m only just now beginning to feel comfortable about picking my top 10 for ’04. At this stage my top 20 for ’05 looks something like this (descending order):
Bloc Party — Silent Alarm
Goldfrapp — Supernature
Sons & Daughters — The Repulsion Box
Ladytron — Witching Hour
The Drones — Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club — Howl
Depeche Mode — Playing The Angel
Garbage — Bleed Like Me
Sufjan Stevens — Illinoise
Silversun Pickups — Pikul [Mini Album]
Sophie Koh — All The Pretty Boys
Dälek — Absence
The Duke Spirit — Cuts Across The Land
Wolf Parade — Apologies To The Queen Mary
Kaiser Chiefs — Employment
Billy Corgan — TheFutureEmbrace [Yes. Billy Corgan]
Nine Inch Nails — With Teeth
Josh Pyke — Feeding The Wolves [Mini Album]
Magic Dirt — Snow White
The Panics — Sleeps Like A Curse
Only Bloc Party and Goldfrapp have consistently remained at the top of the list throughout the past two years. BRMC is sinking, and Garbage is a recent addition (The lead singles convinced me I wouldn’t like it, so I bought it only a couple of months ago).
Cheers
Dropping Franz Ferdinand entirely seems a little harsh. You Could Have It Better isn’t as good as their first one, but its still a damn fine album.
Geez, I thought this year was a great year for music! Set Yourself on Fire, BSS, Gimme Fiction, BRMC, Silent Alarm, Picaresque… WOW. If I had a Top 50 Albums of all time, all of these would be on there. Plus, who doesn’t like Sufjan? That being said, I’d probably include quite a few from this year, as well. What a great year for music (’05 and ’07, that is…). Also Taylor, I realized I left a couple albums out of my Top 5/Honorable Mentions in the Facebook group: Explosions in the Sky’s “All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone;” Thurston Moore’s “Trees Outside the Academy,” Andrew Bird’s “Armchair Apocrypha,” and dammit if someone will give me an official, globe-spanning release date for Feist’s “The Reminder” that would be fantastic. Plus it just adds to 2007’s insanity. Quite a tough one this time around! Can’t wait to see your list, Taylor!
Cool. I think I’m gonna do the same now that I’m listening to so much music. I would put The Go! team way higher. I think that album is actually one of the best albums of this decade. Not a big fan of the new album, but I can’t deny of original their first one is. Nice list.
Ah, and I’m one of those that doesn’t really care about Sufjan Stevens.
i haven’t yet listed by top songs of 2007, but i must commend you on your choices, you mentioned several of my favorite songs. “for real” is the song that got me hooked on okkervil river, i think “hoppilla” is beautiful and completely inspired, sufjan’s lyrics are completely amazing and so emotional. “heartbeats” is great, and of course (id venture to say) “first day of my life” is this century’s great love song. however, i think there are much better stars, mountain goats, and andrew bird songs. “simple x” by andrew bird (or martin dosh, as well) is by far amazing, “this year” by mountain goats (as cheesy and stereotypical teenager-ish as it is, i think is very amazing, and i think the fact that its so easily relatible to our teenage years is what makes it so great), and “reunion” or “what i’m trying to say” by stars far outweighs “ageless beauty”. granted, both songs convey a strong sense of emotion, but “what im trying to say” is so very emotional and so very easily identifiable to anyone who has had a strong inclination to another person, for fear that that emotion is not reciprocated or warranted.
but, overall, great choices! if you ever want to talk music, drop me an email, i love getting new music.
Awesome idea. I think things that make a great album are how well it can stand the test of time… in this case 2 years. It hard to say what the best of the year are other than hype with only a month or so from the newer releases.
That being said…
Bloc Party, Rogue Wave, and the Decemberists got the shaft in your new list. I would still place all 3 in the top 5. If you liked them that well in the first place, what changed so much about those? I haven’t been able to get sick of any of the three albums. Of course Illinois is unbelievable too, and should stay in the top 5 as well. Andrew Bird moving up and The National making an appearance is good, but I think the others were bumped down to far. Maybe the excitement over those is a little gone, but I think they have what it takes.
Thanks for the kind words guys.
@Tyler, I don’t think I gave any of those artists the shaft. I love all three of those albums and I think they’ve held up very well. Nothing really changed about them, I just found other albums after the fact that I like a little better. I didn’t listen to much quality music the first 2/3 of 2005 and it took me a while to catch up with great albums like Alligator, Hello Dear Wind, Gimme Fiction, etc. I agree that those albums have still have what it takes, that’s why they’re still in my top ten!
Interesting list, but I would’ve had My Morning Jacket’s “Z” at the top spot. IMO, it’s a glaring omission from the top 25, but hey, it’s your list. 😉
i couldn’t pick a better top three. perfect!
I was quite interested to find this, since I’ve been thinking a lot about ’05 lately too. In 2005 I was still listening to crappy pop/punk and christian contemporary music, it’s been in 2007 that I started appreciating real artistry in music and discovered real music. Your top two of this list are my two favorite albums of all time. For me as a songwriter, both albums are such an inspiration, although when I listen to my own stuff after them I get depressed! Anyway, I’ve come to love a lot of the 2005ness, most notably Eggs, Illinoise, Gimme Fiction, A Ghost is Born, Black Sheep Boy, Places Like This, The Sunlandic Twins, Twin Cinema, Alligator, Matisyahu’s Live at Stubbs, Jack Johnson’s In Between Dreams, Veneer, Dr. Dog’s Easy Beat, In the Reins, Danger Doom’s The Mouse and the Mask, Picaresque and I Am a Bird Now. I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but you get the idea…