Top Albums of the Year 2005

It always happens this way. During December, I begin to reflect on the past year. Already in the nasty habit of making lists and checking them a hundred times, from shopping, wants, needs, and Christmas cards to send out, I browsed some of the web's music sites to get a taste of this year's Top Albums of 2005. Here's what I found...

Billboard magazine's top 10 albums of 2005 as chosen by their panel of critics:
1. My Morning Jacket, "Z" (ATO/RCA)
2. Tie: The Rolling Stones, "A Bigger Bang" (Virgin) and M.I.A., "Arular" (XL)
3. The New Pornographers, "Twin Cinema" (Matador)
4. Common, "Be" (G.O.O.D. Music/Geffen)
5. Sleater-Kinney, "The Woods" (Sub Pop)
6. Sufjan Stevens, "Illinois" (Asthmatic Kitty)
7. Tie: Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane, "At Carnegie Hall" (Blue Note/Thelonious Records) and Queens Of The Stone Age, "Lullabies To Paralyze" (Interscope)
8. Spoon, "Gimme Fiction" (Merge)
9. Tie: Jack Johnson, "In Between Dreams" (Brushfire/Universal) and Mariah Carey, "The Emancipation of Mimi" (Island Def Jam)
10. John Legend, "Get Lifted" (G.O.O.D. Music/Columbia)

Rolling Stone magazine's Top 10: (excerpted from their Top 50)
1. Kanye West, Late Registration
2. The Rolling Stones, A Bigger Bang
3. White Stripes, Get Behind Me Satan
4. Fiona Apple, Extraordinary Machine
5. Bruce Springsteen, Devils and Dust
6. My Morning Jacket, Z
7. Beck, Guero
8. Bright Eyes, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
9. Sufjan Stevens, Illinois
10. 50 Cent, The Massacre

Spin magazine is creating their own list of the 100 greatest albums of the past twenty years. That's how long they're been around, so it makes sense they would celebrate that milestone, rather than just this year.

Here's a list of The Top Albums of 2005 I found from a website called The Music Box
1) Neil Young - Prairie Wind ***
2) The Rolling Stones - A Bigger Bang
3) Cowboy Junkies - Early 21st Century Blues
4) Andrew Bird - The Mysterious Production of Eggs
5) Beck - Guero
6) Robert Plant - Mighty Rearranger
7) Van Morrison - Magic Time ***
8) John Doe - Forever Hasn't Happened Yet
9) Rodney Crowell - The Outsider
10) Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Cold Roses

And finally I found an online community called rateyourmusic that lets music lovers rate their own music and share with others. Not to be outdone, they rated their top 1000, but we'll just take a peek at the top 10.
1) Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
2) Thelonious Monk - Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall
3) Kraftwerk - Minimum - Maximum
4) Wilco - Kicking Television: Live in Chicago
5) Opeth - Ghost Reveries
6) Animal Collective - Feels
7) Sigur Ros - Takk...
8) Paul McCartney - Chaos and Creation in the Backyard ***
9) Andrew Bird - Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs
10) Nevermore - This Godless Endeavor

I can't quite shake this list mode I'm in, so I may come up with some others. Maybe a top ten list of the best lists?

In closing, I simply must mention this very cool list of gift ideas that Spin has on their site...my favorites are tied between the CD/DVD title printer and the Logitech Wireless Bluetooth Headphones for iPod. Cool stuff.

*** means "3 stars Jo Bob;" get this one and play it loud!