Favorite Albums of 2005

Here they are, in no particular order because I love them all, with random commentary.

Heavy Rotation

• Sleater-Kinney, The Woods. Turn it up to 11. Buy new speakers. Best drummer in rock plays on this album. Entertain, indeed.
• LCD Soundsystem, LCD Soundsystem. All the furniture is in the garage. Set them up, kid. Set them up. "Cowbell album of the decade."
• The White Stripes, Get Behind Me Satan. 5 words...when you gonna ring it?
• Kanye West, Late Registration. Crack music is both a track and a description of this album. Sonic masterpiece with hooks for the masses.
• Wilco, Kicking Television. Considering my blogger identity and the fact that I was present at the recording, do I really even have to explain? I'm serious. I working on my abs. Stop shopping. Stop buying things. And, of course, spiders are filling out tax returns, on a private beach in Michigan. They laughed. They cried. They bled (at least Glenn did).
• Spoon, Gimme Fiction. I love Britt Daniel's voice, especially the falsetto on "I Turn My Camera On." This was my introduction to Spoon and I was hooked immediately by the the interplay between vocals, piano, guitar, and drums. Musically economical, rhythmically interesting, minimalist pop masterpiece. Just buy it. You won't be disappointed.
  
• The New Pornographers, Twin Cinema. Hooks and intelligent lyrics to spare. Plus, how can you not a band that was chose its name from a Pat Robertson quote that referred to rock music as the "new pornography." Those cheeky Canadians.
• Bloc Party, Silent Alarm.
  
• Death Cab for Cutie, Plans. The man with the voice of an angel sings songs about death, with hooks. Angst never sounded so beautiful. Allow me to sway for a moment.

Honorable Mention, which means they would probably in the group above had I not purchased so much music that I don't get around to listening to everything on my iPod as I should.

• Okkervil River, Black Sheep Boy
• Franz Ferdinand, You Could Have It So Much Better
  
• Sufjan Stevens, Illinois
• Wolf Parade, Apologies to the Queen Mary
• Beck, Guero
  
• Common, Be
• My Morning Jacket, Z
• M. I. A., Arular
• Bright Eyes, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
  

Post Updated: After further review, remembering, and re-listening, moved Spoon and New Pornographers to Heavy Rotation, added Bloc Party to Heavy Rotation, added My Morning Jacket and Franz Ferdinand to Honorable Mention, and dropped Kaiser Chiefs off the list. They had some great singles on Employment, but after further review there were too many songs that were easy to skip to be included with the other albums on the list. In the interest of trying to not obsess over the picks, that slipped through.

Looking back, I should have at least listened to my Heavy Rotation picks. In fact, I might as well obsess.

Let's face it. This list will probably change again, but I'm only listening to the Honorable Mention picks to see if they belong in Heavy Rotation.

Sometimes, I wonder how I ever finish a playlist. : )

[updated 01/13/06: added Beck. duh. what was i thinking? too much good music in 2005.]
[updated 02/05/06: read GK's Grammy article. had to look at my best of one more time. added Bright Eyes. sometimes i forget about those January releases.

Favorite Albums of 2005