TOP 3 Albums of 2005

[noresolution]

Facing New York- Self Titled
The Mars Volta- Frances the Mute
Circa Survive- Juturna

I just can't get into the new Sigur Ros. It's too...happy. ( ) blew my mind and Takk.. just feels like a step back for them.

[Gnomad]

Top 3 of 2005

1. Between the Buried and Me - Alaska
2. Meshuggah - Catch Thirty-Three
3. dredg - Catch Without Arms

Honorable Mentions

Delta Activity - Happy is the New Sad
Day One Symphony - A Vicious Circle
DevilDriver - The Fury of Our Maker's Hand
The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute
Opeth - Ghost Reveries
Pelican - The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw

[Eagle Morph]

re: TOP 3 Albums of 2005

Top Three:

#3. Dream Theater - Octavarium
#2. The Wallflowers - Rebel, Sweetheart
#1. dredg - Catch Without Arms

Honorable Mentions:
Porcupine Tree - Deadwing
Ra - Duality
System of a Down - Hypnotize/Mezmerize
Fort Minor - The Rising Tied
Green Day - American Idiot
O.A.R. - Stories of a Stranger
Oceansize - Everyone Into Position

[jsbedlam]

Black Eyed Peas - Monkey Business
Barbara Striesand - Guilty Pleasures
Scott Stapp - The Great Divide

haha!! yeah man!!

really though, this is tough . . . i can't just pick 3 sorry . . .
in constantly revolving order . . .

dredg- catch . . .
mars volta - frances . . .
oceansize - everyone into . . .
wintersleep - s/t 2005 . . .
sigur ros - takk (! how could you doubt this record?)

and the runners up . . .
elbow - leaders of the free world
calla - collisions
broken social scene - s/t

ok . . . that's all . . .

[Spectre1982]

re: TOP 3 Albums of 2005

Hmm...I don't think I've even posted on this site since the move from EZboard, but I wanted to share my favorite albums of the year with fellow dredg fans. Hello to any old friends out there.

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The Best of 2005

A look at the year that was, starting with the best and then moving on to the rest. I'll start out with numbers, though most of these were difficult to order exactly.

The Top 40

40.
Of Montreal - The Sunlandic Twins

B
Song Highlights: Oslo in the Summertime, The Repudiated Immortals, The Party's Crashing on Us
Links: Homepage

39.
The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema

B
Fun. One of the better indie-pop albums of the year.
Song Highlights: Use It, Twin Cinema

38.
Of The Hour - Entropy

B
First release by this very new New England group.
Song Highlights: Robot Affliction, Remembrance, Strange the Way It Is
Links: Homepage - Myspace

37.
The Robot Ate Me - The Carousel Waltz

B
Quiet singer/songwriter album highlighted with light strings and horns.
Song Highlights: Where Love Goes, Regret
Links: Homepage

36.
Minus the Bear - Menos El Oso

B
Gone are their wonderfully ridiculous song titles, but the songs themselves are still ridiculously good.
Song Highlights: Michio's Death Drive, Pachuca Sunrise, Hooray, Fulfill the Dream
Links: Homepage - Myspace

35.
Kasabian - Kasabian

B+
(UK 2004, US 2005) I was kind of annoyed by the singing on this at first, but it did finally grow on me. My favorite part is the breakdown in "Running Battle".
Song Highlights: Running Battle, Club Foot, Processed Beats
Links: Homepage - Myspace

34.
Portal - Element

B+
Creative, intelligent rock that most definitely draws a lot of inspiration from Tool. Singer/Guitar player/band leader Kenton Thomas provides the lyrics that are one of the bands biggest strengths and most obvious quirks: The words are very intelligently written and thoughtful, but come on...nobody talks this way!
Song Highlights: The Paradigm, Remnants, Insurgent Few
Links: Homepage - Myspace

33.
Rosetta - The Galilean Satellites

B+
Part post-rock, part progressive metal. Fans of TMV might like this band's instrumentation. The two-disc album has a novel feature, which is certainly the first of it's kind that I'm aware of: If you take the more aggressive disc 1 and play it simultaneously with the ambient sounds of disc 2, the two compliment each other, basically creating a whole new album.
Song Highlights: Absent / Beta Aquilae
Links: Homepage - Myspace

32.
Jaga Jazzist - What We Must

B+
One of the best instrumental albums of the year.
Song Highlights: All I Know is Tonight, I Have a Ghost Now What?, Oslo Skyline
Links: Homepage

31.
Team Sleep - Team Sleep

B+
Similar to flashes that Chino Moreno has shown sporadically with the Deftones, e.g. Teenager: beautiful, ambient, trip-hop moments highlight this album.
Song Highlights: Ever (Foreign Flag), Tomb of Leigia, Ataraxia
Links: Homepage - Myspace

30.
Emanuel - Soundtrack to a Headrush

B+
One of the best albums of it's kind since Blindside's Silence or the lostprophets' thefakesoundofprogress.
Song Highlights: Xeroxicide, (You Cannot Rape) The Willing, Hey, Breathe Underwater, Buy American Machines
Links: Homepage - Myspace

29.
Taproot - Blue Sky Research

B+
They'll probably never again record something quite like Gift, but this is a decent album from this maturing group, and their live performances are still of the highest quality.
Song Highlights: Calling, Birthday, April Suits
Links: Homepage - Myspace

28.
Gym Class Heroes - The Papercut Chronicles

B+
The playfulness and honesty of lyricist Travis takes center stage for this hip-hop band's album and live performances, but the creative guitar playing of Disashi is really their greatest strength.
Song Highlights: Papercuts, Makeout Club, Nothing Boy vs. The Echo Factor, Petrified Life And The Twice Told Joke (Decrepit Bricks)
Links: Homepage - Myspace

27.
Boy Hits Car - The Passage

B+
Very nice to see this band shrug off shrug off the nasty treatment they've received from the big labels and get back together for more music. There are some great songs on here, like the title track in particular, but unfortunately this doesn't even come close to the awesomeness of their self titled album on the whole.
Song Highlights: The Passage, Forever and a Day, Love's Subtle Scheme
Links: Homepage - Myspace

26.
10 Years - The Autumn Effect

B+
Very solid alt-metal debut. Their songs are filled with energy and feeling, though they could stand to be a little more adventurous.
Song Highlights: Waking Up, Wasteland, The Recipe, Half Life
Links: Homepage - [urlhttp://www.myspace.com/10years[/url]

25.
M83 - Before the Dawn Heals Us

B+
Nice sounding mix of intense electronic noise and airy ambience.
Song Highlights: Don't Save Us From the Flames, Farewell/Goodbye, Teen Angst
Links: Homepage - Myspace

24.
Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine

B+
It was worth the wait, that's for sure. Fiona's singing and songwriting have exceeded expectations on this album that was shelved for nearly six years. It is a shame that the eventual re-production of this album did not happen much earlier, because it is really too good to go unheard for so long. The Sony personnel that tried to prevent it from ever being released should either be fired for keeping such a gem under wraps, or given huge raises for inadvertently creating such a buzz around this thing for the last 6 years. The original Jon Brion versions are an interesting listen and might have been almost as good if they had been polished up a little.
Song Highlights: Not About Love, O' Sailor, Waltz
Links: Homepage - Myspace

23.
Mel Gibson & The Pants - A Mannequin America

B+
Their playful name may be slightly misleading, as this drum & base/trip-hop/minimalist rock group really gets down to business on their debut album. Harold Sanders, who sounds a bit like Andre from Outkast leads the group with his skillful tongue.
Song Highlights: Cast Me In Oak, Paper Shaper Shifter, Shark Sandwich (F.P.O.S.)
Links: Homepage - Myspace

22.
Facing New York - Facing New York

B+
Do you miss At the Drive-In and aren't quite satisfied with the The Mars Volta as a substitute? Perhaps you should check out Facing New York, who's sound falls somewhere between and are gathering all kinds of attention for their self titled album with comments like, "If you're not listening to Facing New York, you’re missing out on [one of] the best things out there right now" or "Facing New York is the best guitar-driven prog-pop-rock with keyboards band out there right now." I would tend to agree.
Song Highlights: Cutting My Hair, Full Turn, Styrofoam Walls, Flagstaff
Links: Homepage - Myspace

21.
The Symphony Case - Cumulus

A
The Symphony Case's first full length incorporates a wide variety of sounds--from strings, piano, electronic effects, etc--and should appeal to an equally varied audience with their stronger songwriting and vocals.
As an interesting side note, one of the bands they compare themselves to are Muse, and they prove it by pulling off their best impression of them on the song Jezzebel Red, right down to the howling vocals of Matt Bellamy.
Song Highlights: Curse The Wicked Tree, Rebirtherapy, Forgotten Iceberg
Links: Homepage - Myspace

20.
Coheed & Cambria - Good Apollo; I'm Burning Star IV

A
Perhaps the allure of Co&Ca has faded enough by now to make this seam like a huge letdown, but after listening several times the bright spots on this album do shine through and by the time you're ready to accept that this is not going to eclipse IKSSE:3, you may find that this is a pretty good album.
Song Highlights: Welcome Home, Ten Speed (Of God's Blood and Burial), Apollo I: The Writing Writer
Links: Homepage - Myspace

19.
Day One Symphony - Avisciouscircle

A
Their dreamy, spacey alternative style makes for a great listen on this EP and holds a lot of promise for their future full length release.
Song Highlights: Comabath, Panacea, The Big Trap, AVISCIOUSCIRCLE
Links: Homepage - Myspace

18.
Klimt 1918 - Dopoguerra

A
Beautiful progressive metal from this Italian group is both melancholic and melodic. The very fist bars of the album's opening song, They Were Wed By the Sea, are likely to hook you for the rest of the album.
Song Highlights: They Were Wed By The Sea, Snow of '85, Lomo, Sleepwalking in Rome
Links: Homepage - Myspace

17.
Emptyself - Emptyself

A
An accomplished blues guitarist and the man behind the intellectual rock incarnation Cire, Eric Johanson released his most recent recording under the moniker Emptyself. The album focuses more on the acoustic guitar and trip-hop electronic effects, but maintains his usual level of extremely intelligent lyrical subject matter.
Song Highlights: Phantoms in the Sky, None Except You, 24 Waves, And Though We Fade Away
Links: Homepage - Myspace

16.
The Jimmy Chamberlin Complex - Life Begins Again

A
Jimmy Chamberlin's most recent post-pumpkins band features wonderful modern jazz compositions sandwiched between excellent alternative tunes guided by an array of accomplished vocalists: Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, Rob Dickinson of Catherine Wheel, and Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers.
Song Highlights: Love is Real, Streetcrawler, Life Begins Again, Loki Cat
Links: Homepage - Myspace

15.
Abandoned Pools - Armed To The Teeth

A
This is the second solo release by Tommy Walter since leaving his more famous co-creation, Eels. One of the reasons that Walter left the band was that Eels' success prevented him from branching out musically, and in that respect Armed to the Teeth picks up right where Humanistic left off with a solid alternative rock album.
Song Highlights: Armed to the Teeth, Maybe Then Someday, Lethal Killers
Links: Homepage - Myspace

14.
Gavin Castleton & One Drop - FortNightShift (EP)

A
Gavin Castleton, with five releases in the past two years, is quite possibly the most prolific recording artist over that span. Working with drum and bass group One Drop on this short EP, he reminds that he is also one of the most versatile. With more tracks, this could have been up at the very top.
Song Highlights: Speedbumps, [You Put the V@&!%a in the] Pon Pon, Bad Rabbits
Links: Homepage - Myspace

13.
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois

A
This album brought Sufjan Stevens and his 50 States project to the spotlight this year, and for good reason. It is easily the richest and most fun indie folk album released in a year in which the genre is taking it's turn at the forefront of alternative music.
Song Highlights: Jacksonville, They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From The Dead!! Ahhhh!, Chicago, Casmir Pulaski
Links: Homepage - Myspace

12.
Veda - The Weight of an Empty Room

A
Kristen May has possibly the strongest, most beautiful voice featured on any release this year. The only thing left to be desired of this album are in the three or four forgettable tracks--forgivable for a band that is barely a year old.
Song Highlights: The Falling Kind, Trade This Fear, Moments Rewound, Song for a Friend
Links: Homepage - Myspace

11.
Mew - And the Glass Handed Kites

A
This album has a lot to offer for a broad audience: They make use of indie pop melodies similar to Stars or The Arcade Fire, but throw in the kind of extravagant progressive movements that would be more expected from a band like dredg.
Song Highlights: Apocolypso, Special, Zookeeper's Boy
Links: Homepage - Myspace

10.
Camp Kill Yourself - An Answer Can Be Found

A
Deron Miller's unique, pounding chord progressions drive another terrific CKY album.
Song Highlights: Suddenly Tragic, Dressed in Decay, Familiar Realm
Links: Homepage - Myspace

9.
Sage Francis - A Healthy Distrust

A
Sage Francis matches beats with his intelligent mix of sociopolitical activism and personal introspection on this killer hip-hop album.
Song Highlights: The Buzz Kill, Sea Lion, Sun Vs Moon, Lie Detector Test, Slow Down Gandhi
Links: Homepage

8.
Metric - Live It Out

A
Like their two previous albums, this is bouncy electronic pop rock led by Emily Haines' charming voice.
Song Highlights: Empty, Handshakes, Too Little Too Late, Poster of a Girl
Links: Homepage - Myspace

7.
30 Seconds to Mars - A Beautiful Lie

A+
The follow up to their self titled debut, something of a spacey experiment, has a much more focused and purposeful sound. The transition threw me off for the first listen through, but upon subsequent spins the improvement in song writing is apparent. Singer Jared Leto is better known for other things, but after two ambitious albums he deserves as much credit as a musician.
Song Highlights: Attack, A Beautiful Lie, The Story, R-Evolve
Links: Homepage - Myspace

6.
Circa Survive - Juturna

A+
Anthony Green's intense vocals and the frenetic guitar playing of Colin Frangicetto highlight this thoughtfully constructed post-hardcore album. The music moves forward without changing gears until the very last track, but even this will not discourage you from spinning it over and over.
Song Highlights: The Great Golden Baby, Act Appalled, Holding Someone’s Hair Back, Oh. Hello
Links: Homepage - Myspace

5.
Jonny Classic & The Classic Johns - Your New Favorite Record

A+
Gruvis Malt's Brendan Bell follows where his vocal partner Gavin Castleton ventured last year with a solo project of his own (Gavin's Dark Age being my favorite album of 2004). This album goes off into very different territory, becoming perhaps the first album in the genre of Game-Boy Pop. Brendan wrote and recorded the music with the aid of a Nintendo Game-Boy, which adds a surprisingly dense and layered background for his own rich vocals. The result is one of the most unique and infectiously catchy albums of the year.
Song Highlights: Inactive Action Theme, Sandpaper Cross, Tonight Tonite (TNT TNGHT), Positively Shit St.
Links: Homepage - Myspace

4.
Grüvis Malt - Maximum Unicorn

A+
Gruvis Malt's collective musical talent combined with their total freedom and willingness to try just about anything results in the latest in a long string of outstanding releases. Their genius is on display as they jump from a thrasher that would make Mr. Bungle proud, to the best monster dance track since Thriller, over a grand tribute to the late Eliott Smith to a set of moving acoustic tracks, climaxing with an epic trilogy (complete with a car chase!). What else can I say about the album, it's something you need to hear for yourself to really grasp.
Song Highlights: Since 1968, Mr. Smith Goes to Heaven, The American Trilogy, No Rest for the Wicked Awesome
Links: Homepage - Myspace - More MP3 Samples

3.
Oceansize - Everyone Into Position

A+
It is quite impressive how seamlessly this album slips from rumbling progressive alt-metal to beautifully arranged ambient music. Magnificent from start to finish.
Song Highlights: Heaven Alive, A Homage to a Shame, Meredith, You Can't Keep a Bad Man Down
Links: Homepage - Myspace

2.
dredg - Catch Without Arms

A+
Dredg's latest album arrived with much anticipation from the band's existing fans and has surely gotten the attention of a new set of listeners. This release represents more of a collection of individual songs than their previous, almost continuously flowing albums, but their propensity for writing epic music with dense guitars and soaring vocals continues.
Their film score for the film "Waterborne" acts as a nice accompaniment to the album, carrying on the theme from "The Ornament" for a tranquil half-hour instrumental.
Song Highlights: Ode to the Sun, Bug Eyes, Jamais Vu, Planting Seeds, Hungover on a Tuesday
Links: Homepage - Myspace

1.
Kaddisfly - Buy Our Intention; We'll Buy You a Unicorn

A++
Kaddisfly's second full length album blends an array of styles, but while they incorporate a mix of alternative, progressive, post-hardcore, and even a little bit of and lounge jazz, it only begins to describe their expansive and unique sound. The album is long at 15 tracks and 68 minutes, but contains enough creativity to remain captivating from start to finish--every song has one of those moments that make you think, "Wow, I love that part." The album's lyrics are thoughtful, conveying singer Chris Ruff's altruistic philosophy. Whether upbeat and melodic, intelligent and explorative, or powerful and moving, the music remains enchanting. In a year filled with wonderful releases, this one is peerlessly exceptional. Album of the year.
Song Highlights: La Primera Natural Disaster, New Moon Over Swift Water, What Comes of Honesty, For Ejection of Rest; They'll Dance, Horses Galloping On Sail Boats
Links: Homepage - Myspace - Purevolume (Stream entire album)













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Honorable Mentions
These were good, just not something that got extensive play from me this year.

Deerhoof - The Runners Four

B
Pretty good, but I was expecting something a little more with all of the talk around this one.

Armor for Sleep - What to Do When You Are Dead

B
A lot of things that I like, some stuff that I don't. The vocals would be #1 on that list. Interesting theme for an album (the title says it all). The music for 'Basement Ghost Singing' elevates this album all by itself.
Song Highlights: Basement Ghost Singing

Up-C Down-C Left-C Right-C ABC+Start - And The Battle Is Won

B
One of many excellent post rock albums released this year.

Calla - Collisions

B
A fine album, but it is a major disappointment in the shadow of Televise.
Song Highlights: It Dawned On Me, Initiate, Swagger

The Samuel Jackson 5 - Easily Misunderstood

B
Instrumental release stands out for blending post rock with avant jazz.

Anberlin - Never Take Friendship Personal

B
Song Highlights: Never Take Friendship Personal

The Fall of Troy - Doppelganger

B
The 1,000 mile per hour guitar playing on this album is something to behold.
Song Highlights: every song has basically the same appeal

Porcupine Tree - Deadwing

B
Song Highlights: Arriving Somewhere But Not Here, The Start of Something Beautiful, Open Car
Links: Homepage - Myspace

Death Cab For Cutie - Plans

B
Every Death Cab album before this one is solid all the way through, but for whatever reason this one bombs on more than half of the tracks. They connect with 3 or 4 in usual fashion, but a disappointment otherwise.
Song Highlights: Summer Skin, Your Heart is an Empty Room, Crooked Teeth
Links: Homepage - Myspace

Flyleaf - Flyleaf

B
I don't share in the philosophies of this band, which kind of sours the whole experience for me. Otherwise the music is pretty good.
Song Highlights: I'm So Sick, Breathe Today

Black Angels - Sniper at the Gates of Dawn (EP)

It's only an EP, but there's a lot of promise in this release for the Black Angels. This sums it up well: The Black Angels throw punches – a swirling full-fisted flurry of sexually delivered lyrics, drug-hazed Velvet Underground repetition, and that special attitude that makes rock and roll exciting, intriguing, and identifiable. - Crutchmusic.

This Is Your Captain Speaking - Storyboard
Wonderful post-rock instrumental album.

Mahjongg - Raydoncong 2005

From Monument to Masses - Schools of Thought Contend
Remixes of the already perfect album, The Impossible Leap In 100 Simple Steps, and a few new tracks. One of the highlights of this album is the fantastic remix of Comrades & Friends by Loquat. The smooth female vocals add a nice, new dimension to the song.

HIM - Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666
Somehow, they make it all work.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
I guess they can thank p4k for the nice review that jumpstarted their breakout. I hate most of the vocals, but By The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth is one of the better songs of the year.

13 + God - 13 + God
Paulson - All at Once

Liz Phair - Somebody's Miracle
After releasing a polished pop album (which deserves more credit than it is given) Liz Phair goes back to what made her a 90's indie icon. Is anyone still listening?

HORSE The Band - The Mechanical Hand
In the tradition of Green Jelly, this album shows that metal can be fun.

Andrew Bird - The Mysterious Production of Eggs
It was a little of a slow grower, but a decent singer/songwriter album.

A Northern Chorus - Bitter Hands Resign

Stellastarr - Harmonies for the Haunted
Another voice that I'm not very keen on, but you would think this would be more popular among fans of British dance-pop. It's certainly better than say, the new Franz Ferdinand.

Okkervil River – Black Sheep Boy

Mae - The Everglow

Hundred Year Storm - Hundred Year Storm

Finch - Say Hello To Sunshine

Coldplay - X & Y

Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
For a long time I couldn't get the hype around this album, and in some ways I still don't. That said, it is a decent album and there are some pretty good songs, especially "Blue Light".

27/00 Split

…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Worlds Apart
I think a lot of people will disagree, but I liked this even better than ST&C.

Wintersleep - untitled
Song Highlight: Lipstick

The Mayan Factor - 44

Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth

Elemae - Popular Misconceptions of Happiness

Cog - The New Normal

Between The Buried and Me - Alaska

Beck - Guero

Ticonderoga - Ticonderoga & The Heilig-Levine

Declan de Barra - Song of 1000 Birds
This is a decent album with some good songs, particularly "Blackbird Song", but on the whole it just makes me sad that Clann Zu is no more.

65daysofstatic - One Time For All Time

The Fiery Furnaces - EP
At 10 songs, it's still longer than most LP's, and it may not wholly qualify as a new release because, like Les Savy Fav's Inches, it is a collection of recordings that spans their entire history. Overall it's an interesting listen, but not nearly as good as the very special Blueberry Boat.

Institute - Distort Yourself
This is a decent album with some good songs, but on the whole it just makes me sad that Bush is no more.

Hood - Outside Closer

Blindside - The Great Depression
Oh, Blindside. I wish they had taken the two sets of recordings since the wonderful Silence and boiled them down to the best set of tracks and then released them as one album. About a Burning Fire and Great Depression both seem to have a few great tracks (e.g. When I Remember) muddled down by an abundance of filler.

Receiving End of Sirens - Between the Heart and a Synapse
Track Highlight: Epilogue


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...And then there were some other releases that I wasn't crazy about. For the most part, I really only listened to these once or twice through (though for a few that got all kinds of hype, I made more of an effort).

Idlewild - Warnings / Promises
Kind of boring really.

Bright Eyes - Digital Ash In a Digital Urn

Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake It's Morning
They only really got one listen each, but they didn't quite grab me.

Hejira - Hejira

Efterklang - Tripper

Pelican - The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw

Sleater-Kinney - The Woods

Kinski - Alpine Static

Panic! At the Disco - A Fever You Can't Sweat Out

One Drop - Soul

Red Sparrowes - At the Soundless Dawn

Spoon - Gimme Fiction

Cave In - Perfect Pitch Black

Architecture In Helsinki - In Case We Die

Trapt - Someone In Control
The self titled release had redeeming qualities that this one lacks.


Redemption - The Fullness of Time
Hilarious cheese metal.

Mogwai - Government Commissions
Another boring Mogwai release.

Lake Trout - Not Them You

Kaiser Chiefs - Employment

The Mars Volta - Frances The Mute
The Mars Volta have made a significant achievement in their career, being that they can now record and release just about anything to (some) critical acclaim as long as they put some contrived story behind it. In all seriousness, the band are to be commended for their tenacious dedication to their craft and to the principle of making a deep, layered album, but unfortunately that alone does not earn praise on the part of the finished product. The main problem is that in all of the self indulgent gluttony of the songs, Frances the Mute is even more inaccessible than De-Loused in the Comatorium, and requires far too much effort on the part of the listener for any kind of connection to be made.

Trust Company - True Parallels
The Lonely Position of Neutral displayed a lot of promise that hasn't been realized here.

The Bravery - The Bravery
The most absurd accusation (in music) of the year goes to The Killers for suggesting that the Bravery are ripping off their sound, when in fact they are merely ripping off the same 80's group's that they get their style from. It all reached the level of pure comedy when they tried to point out that The Bravery's bassist was once in a Ska band, only to find out that one of their own members had a secret ska band past. haha.

Bear Vs. Shark - Terrorhawk
Eh, not that great.

Queens of the Stoneage - Lullabies to Paralyze
Was I wrong to toss this aside after one listen? The drop off between this and Songs for the Deaf just seemed far to big for me to give this a second look.

System of a Down - Mezmerize
A few of the songs on this album are so over the top that they sound like goofy caricatures of their previous work. It kind of turned me off to even checking out Hypnotize.

Eels - Blinking Lights and Other Revelations
I don't enjoy them as much as Tommy Walter and Abandoned Pools.

LCD Soundsystem - LCDSoundsystem
Another over hyped album that just sounds kind of mediocre to me.

Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better
How ironic is that album title? The success of the band's first album was no accident, but this album is basically just awful.

The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan

The Decemberists - Picaresque
There is one great song on this album as far as I am concerned: 16 Military Wives. The rest of it just sounds campy and/or dull.

British Sea Power - Open Season

Mike Doughty - Haughty Melodic

Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary
Despite the comparisons, a great record like The Arcade Fire's Funeral, this is not.

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If you're wondering why Set Yourself On Fire by Stars, Funeral by The Arcade Fire, or Let It Die by Feist were not mentioned, I included them in my Best of 2004.

If you're wondering why Feels by Animal Collective wasn't mentioned, it's because I didn't even bother with it after hearing Sung Tongs.

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[Ooga]

re: TOP 3 Albums of 2005

Wow.. I wonder if you actually have more than 1 song from most of those albums memorized because that seems excessive.

[SoundscapeMN]

ok so for me, to keep score at home:

Facing New York
Klimt 1918
Rosetta - that thing you described about playing disc 1 and 2 simultaneously: either I read about that specific reference, or some other band did the same thing a few years ago and I heard about it.
Kaddisfly
Gruvis Malt (someone from their band signed my myspace page recently)
Jimmy Chamberlain Complex - I saw them at the DRUMPAD 20th Anniversary Show..good stuff.

thanks 3, or 50?..I have to submit up to 50 on the local Minnesota public-radio alt-station's forum by Thursday. It appears Spectre1982 would have no trouble coming up with 50..I don't think I heard more than about 30 new albums this year (altho I heard more than 50 albums that were new TO ME). And I listen to music 7hrs a day, 5 days a week which to a lot of people is a ton :roll:

Kyle

[jsbedlam]

wow. great breakdown of this year's releases! you definetly got me interested in a few records that i kept hearing/reading about, but never actually got around to checking out . . .
excessive? maybe, but look at the effort that went into it . . . fucking awesome in my book. thanks spectre, you are the man.

[lmerr]

every time I try to do something like that, my computer will fuck up while submitting it or something, and I'd get extremely pissed off

[Soul Eater]

Grüvis Malt - Maximum Unicorn
Circa Survive - Juturna
Dredg - Catch Without Arms /311 - Don't Tread On Me

[evasivetear]

Re: re: TOP 3 Albums of 2005

38.
Of The Hour - Entropy

B
First release by this very new New England group.
Song Highlights: Robot Affliction, Remembrance, Strange the Way It Is
Links: Homepage - Myspace

I'm glad to see you know of this band...they're really great musicians and excellent people

[Donnie Darko]

re: TOP 3 Albums of 2005

Holy Shit.....Extensive List....I agree almost completely with every band ive heard, and the ones i havent im interested in listening to.....but CKY at # 10?????

[noclevername]

dredg - cwoa
btbam - alaska
killwhitneydead - so pretty so plastic
finch - say hello to sunshine

[Peter Linfield]

I can't believe that I'm the only person to mention The Go! Team's Thunder, Lightning, Strike. Though released in 2004 in the UK, it didn't come to North America till 2005. It's a phenomenal album. Absolutely funky, catchy, and rock-out all at once.

The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike is an album that everyone on these boards should be rocking out to.

[Spectre1982]

I had The Go! Team last year, it is pretty good.

but CKY at # 10?????

As opposed to....#1?