The 50 Best Albums of 2005.

2005 was a great year for music... really fucking great. 2004 was awesome and the best year for new music in a long time, but 2005 has surpassed last year by far.
Starting around late March probably, I became obsessed with finding new music. In all, I've listened to over 150 albums that were released this year. :H. Over the last few hours I went through every one of them and listed them in order of favourite; I managed to narrow it down to fifty. The ones in bold are especially good, I think every fan of music should own those. I listed the main genres of the album, incase you're interested.

1) Marty Stuart ~ Badlands (Americana/ Traditional Country)
2) Songs of Green Pheasant ~ Songs of Green Pheasant (Lo-Fi/ Alternative Folk)
3) Vashti Bunyan ~ Lookaftering (British Folk)
4) Mi and L'au ~ Mi and L'au (Lo-Fi)
5) Spy Island ~ A Treasury of Great Science Fiction (Lo-fi)
6) Jens Lekman ~ Oh You're So Silent Jens (Chamber Pop/ Swedish Pop)
7) Kate Rusby ~ The Girl Who Couldn't Fly (British Folk/ Irish Folk/ Traditional Folk)
8) Marah ~ If You Didn't Laugh You'd Cry (American Traditional Rock)
9) Devendra Banhart ~ Cripple Crow (Psychedelic/ Alternative Folk)
10) Edith Frost ~ It's A Game (Lo-Fi/ Singer-Songwriter)

11) Espers ~ The Weed Tree (Alternative Folk/ Neo-Traditional Folk)
12) The New Pornographers ~ Twin Cinema (Pop Underground/ Power Pop)
13) Angels of Light ~ Angels of Light Sing Other People (Singer-Songwriter/ Experimental)
14) Iron & Wine/Calexico ~ In the Reins (Lo-Fi/ Singer-Songwriter)
15) Of Montreal ~ The Sunlandic Twins (Neo-Psychedelia/ Dream Pop)
16) Paul McCartney ~ Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (Singer-Songwriter)
17) Merle Haggard ~ Chicago Wind (Traditional Country)
18) Vetiver ~ Between (Lo-Fi/ Alternative Folk)
19) Sparrow ~ The Early Years (Chamber Pop)
20) The Silver Jews ~ Tanglewood Numbers (Alternative Pop/Rock/ Singer-Songwriter)

20) Jacqui McShee's Pentangle ~ Feoffee's Lands (British Folk)
22) The White Stripes ~ Get Behind Me Satan (Alternative Pop/Rock/ Blues Rock)
23) The Fiery Furnaces ~ Rehearsing My Choir (Garage Rock Revival/ Expiremental)
24) Anthony Hamilton ~ Ain't Nobody Worryin' (Neo-Soul)
25) Ryan Adams ~ Jacksonville City Nights (Americana/ Alternative Country/ Alternative Country-Rock/ Singer-Songwriter)
26) Flotation Toy Warning ~ Bluffer's Guide to the Flight Deck (Neo-Psychedelia/ Dream Pop/ Noise Pop/ Chamber Pop/ Experimental)
27) The Rolling Stones ~ A Bigger Bang (British Traditional Rock)
28) Animal Collective ~ Feels (Experimental Rock/ Alternative Folk)
29) Brian Eno ~ Another Day On Earth (Avant-Garde/ Alternative Pop/Rock/ Experimental Rock)
30) The Kills ~ No Wow (Garage Punk/ Lo-Fi)

31) The Sights ~ The Sights (Garage Rock Revival/ Pop Underground)
32) Seu Jorge ~ Cru (Brazilian Pop/ Singer-Songwriter)
33) (Smog) ~ A River Ain't Too Much to Love (Alternative Folk/ Singer-Songwriter)
34) Fiona Apple ~ Extraordinary Machine (Singer-Songwriter)
35) The Decemberists ~ Picaresque (Chamber Pop)
36) Ani DiFranco ~ Knuckle Down (Alternative Folk/ Singer-Songwriter)
37) Neon Blonde ~ Chandeliers in the Savannah (Experimental Rock/ Experimental Electronica)
38) Joel Harrison ~ Harrison on Harrison (Progressive Jazz)
39) Oasis ~ Don't Believe the Truth (Traditional British Rock/ Britpop)
40) Echo & The Bunnymen ~ Siberia (Alternative Pop/Rock/ Neo-Psychedelia)

41) Hal ~ Hal (Pop Underground/ British Traditional Rock)
42) The Redwalls ~ De Nova (British Traditional Rock/ American Traditional Rock)
43) The Wallflowers ~ Rebel, Sweetheart (American Traditional Rock)
44) The Lovethugs ~ Babylon Fading (Neo-Psychedelia)
45) Ringo Starr ~ Choose Love (Adult Alternative Pop/Rock)
46) Neil Young ~ Prairie Wind (Country-Rock/ Singer-Songwriter)
47) Mick Harvey ~ One Man's Treasure (Country-Rock/ Folk-Rock)
48) The Soundtrack of Our Lives ~ Origin, Vol. 1 (Neo-Psychedelia)
49) Dungen ~ Stadsvandringar (Neo-Psychedelia)
50) Ryan Adams ~ Cold Roses (Americana/ Alternative Pop/Rock/ Singer-Songwriter)

 

meh...not too into modern music, although i did see a few gems in there. glad you enjoyed this year's music anyway, though.

 

modern music kicks classic rock's ass.

 

rolling stones - a bigger bang? get that crap outta here. otherwise its a rather cool list my friend.

 

i thought it was a pretty good album.
well, obviously not that good, but i think it stacked up fairly well to the younger bands, and its only their best album since 1978.

 

Don't forget Brian Simpson's It's All Good or Mike Oldfield's Light+Shade.

 

Holy fucking hell you've got too much time on your hands.

 

i dont like mike oldfield's music.

i know of two brian simpsons but as far as i know neither of them are still making music.... who do you mean?

 

i'm so not looking forward to growing up.

 

If you haven't heard Mike Oldfield since the 70s or 80s, he's making completly different music now. It's more like electronica. And here's a link to Brian Simpson's website where you can listen to his whole album for free.
http://www.bsimpsonmusic.com/

 

very good list...i havent heard many of them, but now i got some music to download



from the top of my head, i would of added bonnie "prince" billy and matt sweenys superwolf on there...that album had some extrodinary tracks on it, and pretty good all round. maybe a few others, but i cant think of them right now...also, i thought antony and the johnsons i am a bird now and akron/familys s/t were also very great albums to.


good work chuck ...i was making a list to, but then i kind of forgot about it...dont really see a point in making one now though

 

take them all to the garbage.

 

there are some really great albums there, but you are missing way too many for my taste.

 

Ray LaMontagne - Trouble should be on there chuck

 

yeah i've found that i somehow skipped over a bunch..
antony & the johnsons, devin davis, broken social scene, ray lamontagne... and im sure theres more cos i think i only went through 90 or a hundred albums, i know ive got much more than that...pretty much whatever i didnt listen to in the last month, i forgot about

in all honesty i sort of rushed this list today, i wanted to be the first on here to post one. .

 

completely forgot all the psytrance and similar stuff that i found this year... what a crappy list.

 

go see a head shrink.

 

andrew bird would of been another good choice...there was alot of music i enjoyed this year.



but i dont think i listened to nearly as much as you chuck...damn i think i may of listened to almost 50 albums this year, and i thought that was alot

 

i wasnt joking when i said "allmusic is my bible"... if allmusic says to listen to something, then i will. .

 

no shit


i remember seeing edith frost recently on there, they gave it very good reviews, need to get that one...but im sure as hell not going to go all out as you have