Best Of 2005: Albums


Hate It Or Love It:
Mike C.'s Favorite Music Of 2005

Can I talk my shit again?

It's become an annual tradition. Sometime in late January or early February, weeks after best-of roundups have been published by major media outlets and even most bloggers and amateur pundits, I finally get around to mine. Those extra few weeks give a little extra perspective on the year, some more time to make sense of it all, and just maybe a fighting chance to stand out among all the other lists out there. My lists could be revised and re-revised to death, so around this time of the new year feels like a good point to cut it off. When I watch a movie, I stay until the last credit has rolled; similarly, I can't fairly comment on the best cultural offerings of a year just passed until all 365 or 366 days have indeed finished parading by.

Last year I ranked my 100 favorite albums. I would have liked to repeat that ostentatious number this year, but I only feel strongly about 75 or so records this time out. It seemed wiser to concentrate on the good stuff rather than pad it out just the sake of reaching a bigger, rounder number. So, a special note to everyone whose record is toward the end of these 50, or who made the "also worthy" list: realize that you did quite well. This is not like being awarded the "Participant" ribbon at 6th grade field day. Hey, this year you made the list and The New Pornographers didn't. And if this were last year, there would be plenty of records on behind yours on the list. This truly is the creme de la creme of the chess world in a show with everything but Yul Brenner.

Though this year I plan to launch another website, mikecmusic.com, at this time my web activities are based out of Hoboken Rock City. HRC is where you can find my blog, podcasts, reviews (soon to be updated with 2005 entries), and a bunch of other rock & roll fun.

Disclaimer: In addition to being a frequent DJ and a sometime critic, I am also a full-time employee of one of those big, bad major record labels. Though some people may feel that last bit disqualifies me from being able to credibly write opinions about music, the fact is I would have nothing much to gain by letting personal or professional self-interests influence the opinions I express about music. Anyone who�s interested in knowing my business or personal relationship with any of the artists on these lists is welcome to ask.

UPDATE 01/30/06
For more a more democratic take on the year in music, Tris McCall's Critics Poll began posting its results today. Tomorrow, The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop goes up. What a fun week for music nerds!

Thank you, and rock on,
Mike C.

50 Favorite Albums Of 2005

1. COMMON - Be (Good/Geffen)
For the first time since Guru's Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1 in 1993, a hip-hop album tops my list. This is noteworthy, considering that I spend relatively little of music-listening time on hip-hop, that my DJ gigs at the Alphabet City punk haven Manitoba's in NYC (where I'm spinning punk rock tunes next Wednesday, Feb. 1, 10 p.m.) are strict celebrations of rockism, and that when I do spin hip-hop at gigs it's usually at the insistence of certain members of the staff of a certain Hoboken bar (where I can usually be found spinning on Saturdays). Given these truths, Common's album landing at #1 on my list has to rank as a surprise development.

The first time hearing Jazzmatazz was an impressionable event for a 21-year-old about-to-be-college-senior. I was hanging out after-hours in an office in the Rap Promotion department of EMI Records on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, visiting a friend and classmate who was interning there. Fully forty floors below in the same building, I was interning in the editorial department of a well-known national entertainment magazine. I'd grown up within a half-hour drive of New York City, but it was not until this two-day-a-week intern gig in the summer of '93 that I first felt like I was a part of the city. My internship wasn't bad, but my classmate's gig at the record label seemed more exciting. It wasn't just that she could hook me up with free CDs at will, though that certainly was part of the allure; free CDs are a big deal when you're used to paying for them. There was something about the energy of that office, even after two-thirds of the staff had left for the day, that gave me a charge and made me want to be a part of it. When it came time to do another internship during the second half of senior year, I signed right up with a record company, putting my journalistic dreams on the back burner where they have simmered since.

Guru's first Jazzmatazz got mixed reviews, but I fully bought the hype about its fusion of hip-hop and live jazz played by Donald Byrd, Roy Ayers, and others ushering in a new era for hip-hop. Of course, despite (or perhaps because of) the popularity of Arrested Development, Digable Planets, and L.L. Cool J's appearance on MTV Unplugged, the so-called rap enlightenment was not televised, because it never materialized. Alongside Jazzmatazz, the other rap album that captured my imagination that summer was Dr. Dre's The Chronic, a diametrically opposed work in many ways which, in retrospect, has withstood the test of time a hell of a lot better than the efforts of Guru and his cavalcade of guest jazz cats and soul vocalists.

With all this in mind, why on earth did I gravitate to Be more than any other album I heard in 2005? Oh, Common and Be's producer Kanye West are hardly paragons of virtue insofar as their lyrics are concerned. Fine, their misogyny is watered down more than many of the most popular rappers, and they don't glorify drug use or gang violence. But their edge is intact; this really isn't PC stuff. The key is that they don't get by solely on edge, the crutch of too many rappers; any gangsta sentiment (and there isn't much on this album, although the cry of "When this bitch did the crime!" on "Testify" is awfully mean spirited, even if it's just part of the narrative) leavens the relatively placid soundscapes and creates a dynamic tension on top of which Kanye's flawless production shines.

Thematically it's a little all over the map, veering from sexual fantasies to the life aspirations of small children, but no one's asking for a concept album. Be is not overly focused so as to be boring, and it's not insularly defined as to be predictable. It's short enough to be savored and understood without having to devote hours and hours of one's time to it, yet not so simple when you dig a little deeper. It has zero bad songs and is a flawless work.

2. PITTY SING � Pitty Sing (Or)
The biggest nouveau new wave album of 2005 was...The Killers' mid-2004 release. Sigh. While the pace of technology increases and the means of distributing music to the public are the fastest they've ever been, the lethargy with which the industry is content to milk product continues unabated. Hot Fuss was my favorite album of 2004, and I think it still stands up well a year later, but come on, enough already.

The charts in the trade mags and the playlists on terrestrial radio barely change from week to week, and it's no secret why. The industry long ago figured out that it's cheaper and easier to sell four million copies of one release than to sell one million copies each of four separate releases. Hence the present era of mega-hits or bust. The Killers actually got some traction in the mainstream as 2004 went on, so they were shoved down everyone's throats for all of 2005. It helped sales of their record, but it's doubtful it'll build a lasting career. That's just not how things work, historically. If you want an artist's fan base to grow organically, you let them do their thing at their own artistic pace, you don't overexpose them, you embrace the concept of artist development.

How things would have played out for Pitty Sing, we'll never know. The New York quintet whose self-titled full-length debut, a January 2005 release teeming with at least a half-dozen radio-friendly singles, succumbed to their own apparently enormous egos and disbanded before the year even ended. Maybe the singer sounded a little too much like Morrissey in spots�he was born in Manchester�and we all know how well the Mozzer went over with mainstream America during The Smiths' heyday.

But I don't totally buy that excuse for their lack of success. The lyrics aren't any worse than what Brandon Flowers & Co. came up with, and much of the music is catchier. Why such a near-perfect pop album molded into a mainstream-friendly form got zero hype and limped its way to 4,700 copies sold while their labelmate Matisyahu has sold 52 times that amount and counting with a live album of Hasidic reggae that was the talk of the music blogs from here to Hungary is a mystery that ought to be showing up on one of those Law & Order knockoffs like Cold Case in a few years.

3. ELECTRIC SIX � Se�or Smoke (XL)
Chuck Klosterman compares them to Van Halen, Anthony Miccio compares them to The New York Dolls, and I think they're both onto something. Flamboyant, inherently ridiculous, hard to take seriously, undeniably indelible. The Detroit masters of the disco-rock hybrid were rewarded for improving on their debut by having this even better album held back from U.S. audiences for a full year; an early 2005 release in Europe, this puppy doesn't hit U.S. stores until February 7, 2006. Talk about inherently ridiculous.

4. BRENDAN BENSON � The Alternative To Love (V2)
In the mold of Matthew Sweet's magnum opus Girlfriend, this is the type of album that people who don't immerse themselves in the music press, or the web, or satellite radio, or a network of musically obsessed friends will claim no one makes anymore. If you like white male singers in the power-pop tradition with great lyrics about relationship angst, The Alternative To Love is your album of the year.

5. KANYE WEST � Late Registration (Roc-A-Fella)
Though his greatest and most admirable achievement of 2005 was speaking truth to power on national TV in a day and age when hardly anyone has the guts to do so, Hoboken's favorite son�yes, he lives here, he's ours now, sorry Chi-town�actually bested his debut with an even more engaging second album.

6. MY MORNING JACKET � Z (ATO/RCA)
From behind the haze of echo emerges a cohesive, restrained (ambition-wise, not emotionally) batch of 10 memorably good songs.

7. LCD SOUNDSYSTEM - LCD Soundsystem (DFA/EMI)
A multi-disc dance extravaganza a la Saturday Night Fever, except it's all basically one guy, and you won't hear it at weddings 25 years from now. How well James Murphy's electro-disco will fare over time remains to be seen; my Fatboy Slim CDs which were indispensible when I started DJing seven years ago aren't exactly in heavy rotation now. But boy, anyone who likes to work a little vibey electronic dance pop into their DJ sets had to view this collection of recent dance floor faves with a disc of solid new material as a hell of a godsend. To pretend that this music foretells a new golden age of electronic pop conquering the mainstream is to believe it's still the 20th century, but to ignore the obvious charms within here would be equally short-sighted. Get up, get into it, and get involved.

8. ART BRUT � Bang Bang Rock & Roll (Fierce Panda)
Sincere, bratty, but not mean-spirited English punk album of the year. A pleasantly consistent surprise of an album from a band whose debut single "Formed A Band" b/w "Bad Weekend" could have easily been a flash in the punk rock pan.

9. SUFJAN STEVENS � Illinois (Asthmatic Kitty)
I find it almost embarrassing that Pitchfork's pick for best album of the year made my top 10; hell all of their top 4 (Sufjan plus Kanye, Art Brut, and M.I.A.) made my top 11. Just because Pitchfork's condescending "indier than thou�and cooler, too, punk" stance makes their record reviews literally unreadable doesn't mean they can't occasionally be right. For those unfamiliar with this, this is quasi-Christian folkie Stevens' second album dedicated to one of the fifty states; the first one�which I've yet to hear�was a meditation on Michigan. Overlong and perhaps overly ambitious, an album eerily similiar in spirit to last year's Fiery Furnaces effort Blueberry Boat. The chief difference between the two, and the reason why this album made the top 10 while that '04 Furnaces record checked in at #66, is that Illinois contains actual songs.

10. PERNICE BROTHERS � Discover A Lovelier You (Ashmont)
So subtly brilliant that they can be easy to miss, even a relatively minor effort like this one is a major event when it's a band this good. It's difficult to gauge what the future holds for this group once based in Massachusetts, then New York City, before its members scattered to the far corners of the continent. Main man Joe Pernice is now living in Toronto, and he grew the beard to prove it. Hopefully the group and its malleable lineup will continue to perform under this name. Either way, it's as fine a collection of '60s-meets-'90s influenced pop as could be hoped for, just another 40 or so minutes of brilliance that will enrich anyone whose path it crosses.

11. M.I.A. - Arular (XL)
I had to leave M.I.A. out of my top 10 because I don't trust the fact that I like her. Not because she isn't great; she clearly is. But as someone who's not big on hip-hop most years, doesn't dig much "world" music, and can't stand dancehall reggae, I'm awfully suspicious that I could like an album that is fusion of all three. Sometimes the most restrictive stereotypes are the ones we give ourselves.

12. KATE BUSH � Aerial (Columbia)
The Village Voice really screwed Kate Bush this year. Nothing against the Voice, whose annual Pazz & Jop poll is as close to a definitive survey of the year in music as exists in the U.S., but their deadline for top 10 lists was really early this year: December 27, in fact, four days before the year allegedly being evaluated even friggin' ended. Album releases may indeed be more predictable than natural disasters, which is the only reason why it's slightly less offensive that critics were asked to rank the top albums and singles of a year that wasn't quite over yet as opposed to mainstream journalism outlets, who routinely run "top 10 news stories of the year" lists sometime around the second week of December, leading to farces like lists of the "top 10 news stories of 2004" that did not include the December 26 tsunami.

Anyway, the first album in 12 years by Kate�who, through no fault of her own, happens to share a surname with the leader of what was referred to as "the free world" until Bill Clinton left office�is a "grower," the sort of album that takes time to reveal its many layers of genius. I had this album before December 27, I liked it before December 27, and I was in love with its lush final two tracks before December 27. But I wasn't consumed with it like I am now. Perhaps it's my fault for not spending more time with this album in the waning months of 2005. Since the to 10 spots on my albums and songs lists had to be finalized on December 27 for the Voice's purposes, Kate finished out of the money on both lists. For reasons of consistency, I'm unwilling to change my top 10 as I publish the unexpurgated versions of my lists now, nearly a month later. Sorry, Kate.

13. THE TEARS � Here Come The Tears (Independiente)
There are probably fewer than 50 people in the world who think Suede's best work was done after guitarist Bernard Butler left the glammy Brit rockers to fend for themselves, but I am one of them. So Butler's first collaboration with singer Brett Anderson in a decade surprises not because it picks up where the two left off with Dog Man Star, but because it sounds like the fraternal twin of the first album Suede Mach II made sans Bernard, and by far my favorite of the band's career, Coming Up.

14. SAINT ETIENNE � Tales From Turnpike House (Sanctuary)
A quietly brilliant sketch of a London apartment building from the city's electro-tinged pop trio, replete with two or three songs that would fit in just fine on U.S. Top 40 radio if singer Sarah Cracknell's last name were Clarkson, Lohan, or Duff. Oh well, more for us.

15. BLOC PARTY � Silent Alarm (Vice)
If you're the kind of person who reads these kinds of lists, you probably already know if you like this, and odds are pretty good you do. Like the first Franz Ferdinand album, a thoroughly solid work that will be awfully tough to follow up.

16. ELKLAND � Golden (Columbia)
Straight-ahead no-bull synth-pop album just like they used to make back in the good old days. Fitting that they opened all 10 shows of Erasure's stay at Irving Plaza. If this album were released in 1988, it would have been all over alternative radio stations like WLIR, and after burning up the dance floor at Aldo's and The Loop Lounge for months, "I Need You Tonight" might have crossed over and became one of the biggest pop songs of the year.

17. IVY � In The Clear (Nettwerk)
The American Saint Etienne�both groups are trios with two male instrumentalists and a female singer, both based in their respective country's most obvious metropolis, both at it since the early '90s, both masters of glamorous pop with a rock & roll edge�nail it again. They're less prolific than Ms. Cracknell & Co., at least in part because one of them splits his time between this band and Fountains Of Wayne, who sound nothing like this band. The relative sparseness of their offerings makes each one all the more luscious to savor.

18. THE HOLD STEADY - Separation Sunday (Frenchkiss)
Casual sexism aside, ths is faux Thin Lizzy/early Springsteen at its absolute best.

19. OCEAN COLOUR SCENE � A Hyperactive Workout For The Flying Squad (Sanctuary)
In which a band leftover from the '90s Britpop explosion�one of the few I never cared for much, in fact�comes out of nowhere to make a career-defining opus full of vibrant pop. If a tree falls in the forest...

20. RODNEY CROWELL � The Outsider (Columbia)
Wordy, world-weary, but not wishy-washy country-influenced singer/songwriter stuff. One of the best albums in a career full of good ones by a man whose ex-father-in-law was Johnny Cash. Emmylou Harris and John Prine guest, and if they mean anything to you, you'll go nuts for this. If they don't mean anything to you, do something about that first.

21. TSAR � Band-Girls-Money (TVT)
A primer by which punk-pop ought to be redefined.

22. FEIST � Let It Die (Interscope)
Short on songwriting, long on style, ambience, and cover song choices--can't go wrong with the Bee Gees or Ron Sexsmith. As a debut album from this sexy-voiced Canadian songstress and Broken Social Scenester, we'll take it.

23. TIM BURGESS � I Believe (Koch)
On his solo debut, the Charlatans UK frontman goes the Paul Weller route, with a breezy, easy-to-please collection of upbeat pop moments that sounds very little like his old group in terms of production and instrumentation. A welcome surprise.

24. THE BRAVERY � The Bravery (Island)
Hate it or love it, yeeeeeeah. No one with any credibility on the topic of 21st century new wave is supposed to like this, but if you can ignore the fact that these guys pretty much are poseurs, you'll find that a good two-thirds of the songs on their debut are well-constructed pop machines, and their lyrics aren't any worse than anyone else's in the genre. May stand the test of time better than anyone suspects.

25. THE WHITE STRIPES � Get Behind Me Satan (V2)
I've learned not to ignore them, but I still don't love them. Their most stylistically varied work to date is, if not their best album, certainly their most enjoyable listen. Their continued popularity relative to other bands doing a similar type of thing amazes me to no end.

26. LYRICS BORN � Same #$*& Different Day (Quannum)
Remix wins again. The best remix album in a year of some good ones (Bloc Party, even Death From Above 1979) recasts tunes from the Japanese rapper's 2003 effort Later That Day... alongside gems like the Stereo MC's Rattlesnake Mix of "I Changed My Mind," which is only the best five minutes of funk unleashed in this solar system in the last ten years, and has really never left heavy rotation at my gigs or in my life since it was released in 1999.

27. SHOUT OUT LOUDS � Howl Howl Gaff Gaff (Capitol/Bud Fox)
28. LOUIS XIV � The Best Little Secrets Are Kept (Atlantic)
Just like you can't have a picnic unless somebody brings the ants, you can't have a party unless somebody brings the rock.

29. THE GO! TEAM � Thunder, Lightning, Strike (Columbia/Memphis Industries)
Poppy? Yes. Hipper than thou? Oh yeah. Songs? Kinda. Cool production? Totally. Ephemeral? Likely. Temporarily indispensible? Shit yeah.

30. RENO�S MEN � Step Up To The Stereo Slider (Quagmyre Shagpile)
Wither Reno's Men. The best live crew to come out of New Jersey since the change was made uptown and the Big Man joined the band, these Scottish expats never failed to enthrall at their theatrical club gigs at The Loop Lounge, Brownie's, The China Club, and everyplace else that had them. These four lads, cruel victims of music biz ageism who would have been signed to a good indie label in a late-'90s heartbeat had they been a few years younger, melded several generations of punkfunktriphopglam and more into a synthesis that by all rights never should have worked yet always did.

Though recordings passed around among friends and fans (including WFMU's Glen Jones) but never truly "released" did hint at their greatness, it was not until Step Up that frontman James Murphy (no relation to the LCD Soundsystem guy) and his gang of three properly captured their essence on disc. Which makes it all a bit sadder that the album's release coincided with the band's decision to cease performing. If Reno's Men had re-recorded the 10 or 12 best songs in their repertoire with this production quality, it would easily be the best album of the year, if not the decade.

31. HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEARTS � Heels N� Wheels (Get Hip)
Meanwhile, fellow Jerseyites the Sweethearts similarly call it quits by releasing their finest-ever recorded work as their swan song. There's nothing classier than going out at the top of your game. This is garage-grrrl rock (with farfisa) at its finest.

32. DAVE�S TRUE STORY � Nature (Bepop)
David Cantor is one of the wittiest writers in New York City, which makes this subtle but noticeable shift toward less kitschy or humorous material a surprise. Still, the songs are all strong, as are their arrangements, not to mention their delivery by the inimitable chanteuse Kelly Flint.

33. THE PONYS � Celebration Castle (In The Red)
Darker, less obvious, and less memorable than their debut (my #5 album of 2004), but not without its moments. Someday, when I finally learn an instrument for real and/or get the cojones to sing for real, I hope to have a "difficult second album" this good.

34. MARJORIE FAIR � Self-Help Serenade (EMI)
Only the world. A transporting kind of record for fans of Red House Painters, Low, and Brian-in-the-sandbox era Beach Boys. Brought to you by Hackensack-bred Californian Evan Slamka. Yes, that's all you get for your money.

35. CHRIS MILLS � The Wall To Wall Sessions (Ernest Jenning/Powerless Pop)
Recorded and mixed live to two-track with no overdubs�no easy feat when the songs are this quirky and a horn section is involved�Mills' fourth album is a smile-enducing if lyrically self-deprecatory "Huh, sometimes they do make 'em like they used to" good time.

36. FRANZ FERDINAND � You Could Have It So Much Better (Epic)
And we did, on the first album. Far from godawful, and far from godhead. And "This Boy" would be a #1 smash in a more open-minded world.

37. MAXIMO PARK � A Certain Trigger (Warp)
Solid, angular British rock & roll a la Joe Jackson's first album. Great singles, unmemorable album tracks. Very similar to The Futureheads (#26 last year) and yet slightly more derivative. Does that make them The Pastheads?

38. STEREO TOTAL - Do The Bambi (Kill Rock Stars)
German kitsch-dance fun.

39. STARS � Set Yourself On Fire (Arts & Crafts)
Canadian indie pop with an underlying sweetness that's never sickly.

40. THE PILLCRUSHERS � Welcome To The World (Itsaboutmusic.com)
New York power pop of the less slick, old school variety (think Big Star) as opposed to the smoother sheen of the new school variety (think Weezer). Nice nice nice.

41. METRIC � Live It Out (Last Gang)
As per last time, three or four must-hear, all-world tracks of urgent girl-fronted post-Elastica rock, and not much else. Fair enough; I look forward to more of the same in another two years.

42. TOM VEK � We Have Sound (Star Time)
New-wave/post-punk dance party stizz, I believe the kids call it.

43. TRUE LOVE � Wings (Not Lame)
Hoboken power pop manna.

44. BEDSIT POETS � The Summer That Changed (Bongo Beat)
The dynamic, delicate duo of Edward Rogers and Amanda Thorpe collaborate for a baroque pop treat.

45. THE GIRAFFES � The Giraffes (Razor & Tie)
As much as I love loud guitars, when a band starts veering toward metal they tend to lose me. If these guys weren't local, I probably wouldn't've bothered to give this album the spins it deserves. The record Queens Of The Stoneage should have made, and the heavy rock album of the year.

46. MYLO � Destroy Rock & Roll (Breastfed/RCA)
Scottish sample-a-delic dance party.

47. THE JESSICA FLETCHERS � Less Sophistication (Rainbow Quartz)
Gabba gabba garage.

48. PETRA HADEN - Sings The Who Sell Out (Bar/None)
Too clever by two-thirds but ultimately irresistible, Ms. Haden's note-for-note a capella rendering of The Who's best album is more party favor than party fodder, but it's never boring.

49. R. KELLY � TP.3 Reloaded (Jive)
Don't you hate it...when you go to the bathroom...and there's no toilet paper?

50. THE VANITY PROJECT � The Vanity Project (Flagship)
Steven Page�who, aw hell, we'll say it out loud here, is more or less the frontman of Barenaked Ladies, although his bandmate Ed Robertson pens about 40 percent of the band's material was the sole composer of "One Week"�steps outside his longtime band for a full album of songs co-written with The Lilac Time's Stephen Duffy. As skilled Page is as a vocalist, it comes as a major shock and disappointment that the talented Duffy does not sing lead on a single one of the tracks. Good, though, good. Will remind fans of the Ladies' first two albums why they liked them in the first place.




Also Worthy
THE LOST PATROL � Lonesome Sky (no label)
SHELBY � The Luxury Of Time (Gigantic)
THE 88 � Over And Over (EMK)
LADYTRON � Witching Hour (Rykodisc)
SLEATER-KINNEY � The Woods (Sub Pop)
IMOGEN HEAP � Speak For Yourself (RCA Victor/Megaphonic)
DAVE�S TRUE STORY � Simple Twist Of Fate: DTS Does Dylan (Bepop)
BLOC PARTY � Silent Alarm Remixed (Vice)
PERNICE BROTHERS - Nobody's Watching/Nobody's Listening (Ashmont)
THE MULTI-PURPOSE SOLUTION � How Can A Man Be Tougher Than The World? (Mustache/Diwad)
LITTLE BARRIE � We Are Little Barrie (Artemis)
BOB MOULD � Body Of Song (Yep Roc)
THE BLUE VAN � The Art Of Rolling (TVT)



Perhaps I Should�ve Spent More Time With
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN � Devils & Dust (Columbia)
SPOON - Gimme Fiction (Merge)
HOT HOT HEAT � Elevator (Sire)
MADONNA � Confessions On A Dance Floor (Maverick)
STEVIE WONDER � A Time To Love (Motown)
OUTRAGEOUS CHERRY - Our Love Will Change The World (Rainbow Quartz)
THE CAPITOL YEARS � Let Them Drink (Burn & Shiver)
PEELANDER-Z � Dancing Friendly (Eat Rice)
DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979 � Romance Bloody Romance: Remixed & B-Sides (Vice)
THE RAVEONETTES � Pretty In Black (Columbia)
BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB � Howl (RCA)
MORRISSEY � Live At Earls Court (Attack/Sanctuary)
EMILIANA TORRINI � Fisherman�s Woman (Rough Trade)
OASIS � Don�t Believe The Truth (Epic)



Overrated, Uneven, Disappointing, And/Or Lame
THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS � Twin Cinema (Matador)
BECK � Guero (Interscope)
NEIL DIAMOND � 12 Songs (Columbia)
DANGER DOOM � The Mouse And The Mask (Epitaph/Ada)
QUEENS OF THE STONEAGE � Lullabies To Paralyze (Interscope)
GORILLAZ � Demon Days (Virgin)
50 CENT � The Massacre (Shady/Aftermath/Interscope)
FIONA APPLE � Extraordinary Machine (Epic)
CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH � Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE � Plans (Atlantic)



Probably Worthy Of Consideration, But I Didn't Hear Them In Their Entirety
LIZ PHAIR � Somebody�s Miracle (Capitol)
NADA SURF � The Weight Is A Gift (Barsuk)
CAM'RON - Purple Haze (Interscope)
OUT HUD - Let Us Never Speak Of It Again (Kranky)
BUCK 65 - This Right Here Is Buck 65 (V2)
BLACKALICIOUS � The Craft (Anti)
ED HARCOURT - Strangers (Heavenly/EMI)
JENS LEKMAN � Oh You�re So Silent Jens (Secretly Canadian)
DOVES � Some Cities (Capitol)
ESTHERO � Wikkid Lil� Grrrls (Warner)
MICHAEL FRANTI/SPEARHEAD � The Lost Sex Singles & Collectors� Remixes (Liberation)
IDLEWILD � Warnings/Promises (EMI)
SUPERGRASS � Road To Rouen (Capitol)
MUNDY � Raining Down Arrows (Camcor)
ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS - I Am A Bird Now (Secretly Canadian)
ROGUE WAVE � Descended Like Vultures (Sub Pop)
THE MOUNTAIN GOATS - The Sunset Tree (4AD)
THELONIOUS MONK QUARTET WITH JOHN COLTRANE � At Carnegie Hall (Blue Note)
EMMA BUNTON - Free Me (19/Universal)
VAN MORRISON � Magic Time (Geffen)
SHELBY LYNNE � Suit Yourself (Capitol)



Wish I Had Heard In Their Entirety, Imports Still Eligible For 2006 List Because They're Coming Out Domestically This Year
GOLDFRAPP � Supernature (Mute)
JUNIOR SENIOR � Hey Hey My My Yo Yo (Crunchy Frog)
EDITORS � The Back Room (Kitchenware)
THE SUBWAYS � Young For Eternity

More lists: songs � reissues � live shows