Favorite albums of 2005

This was posted in my Livejournal a while ago, and I'd decided to post it here too, just for shits and giggles. It's my top 10 albums of 2005.

10.
Black Mountain - Self Titled
The Epitome of what I like to call slacker rock. Not that they're slacking or anything, but when you listen to them, all you do is sit around, nod your head to the beat and go "yeah, I'm doing nothing today". It reminds me of the good rock from the 70's, where you envision everyone wearing brown and having long beards.

9.
Caribou - The Milk of Human Kindness
It's the fun beats of this thing that make me happy. It's the same category as Black Mountain, only for the electronic-type stuff. Very good, melodic beats, not too hard on the ears. The kind of album that starts and finishes and you wonder why it went so fast. Such a smooth transition from track to track

8.
Metric - Live It Out
This album isn't near their first in the "Fucking unbelievable" area, but Live It Out connects good live. It's the perfect album for them to continue with their reputation for being a really good live band, and has some really, really good songs on here. There's some spots in the middle that get stuck, but the standout tracks are so awesome on their own.

7.
Emilie Simon - La Marche De L'Empereur
Considering the few songs I had of hers prior to this album, La Marche makes a giant leap into new territory for Emilie Simon. It ditches the silly happy straightforward pop, and instead goes all out happy electronic, with sweet beats and fantastic musical numbers mixed in with her child-like in cuteness voice. Turns out this was the soundtrack to that Penguin Marching movie and I didn't even know.

6.
General Patton vs The X-Ecutioners - Self Titled
Man, this album is so fun to put on at work, or listen to by yourself, because there's so much stuff to sit there and laugh at. Not that it's a comedy album, but by how many layers Patton can add in a so-called 'remix' album. He's got so many short tracks with extended names that rival Sufjan Stevens, and he seems in more of a top form here than in other spots, which makes me really antsy to hear his solo project Peeping Tom.

5.
The Most Serene Republic - Underwater Cinematographer
Downloaded at first to say "Hey, who's this band opening for Metric?", and then falling for how great all of the sillyness and happiness drilled into each song, and sometimes even, trying to find out exactly what each title has to do with each song. This band is fantastic live. They have everything that an up and coming band needs in a loud drummer, a crazy frontman, and a really good album that makes you happy, regardless of your actual mood, or the place, is a place is a place is a place is a place that you're in.

4.
Jaga Jazzist - What We Must
They never fail at amazing me, this group. I first caught them on a Bravo Video thing, and likened them to Cinematic Orchestra at first, and found that they're actually much more interesting. They have better beats, and more interesting songs. Their albums are consistently beautiful pieces of work, and they're all rather young, too. It makes me feel better for the future of music, bands like these. Big pieces of people together, working to make art out of their songs.

3.
Fantomas - Suspended Animation
Everyone thought for the longest time that Fantomas were at their peak during the whole "Director's cut" thing. But you know what? I think this is my favorite of their albums yet. A song for every day in April, and a corresponding calendar with some copies, this thing is never anything but fun, as long as you get it. If you don't, you're going to wonder why I sit at my desk giggling at all of the great pieces of sound mashed in with cartoons and people gurgling water. It's just a plethora of great things together to make an amazing album.

2.
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
What can I say about this album that hasn't already been said? I'll quote myself so you can get an idea: By far and away this guy just can do anything with music and make me like it. I don't know what it is, it's just so fucking catchy, with the strangest song lyrics to accompany it. That he's able to sit down, study some place, and can then sit down again and write such beautiful compositions on his own and have you fall in love with every single note, that's amazing. Front to back, this thing just floors me. His terrifying lyrics about John Wayne Gacy, set to some of the most mellow acoustic music and fantastic background vocals make you not sure whether to smile or be sad.

1.
The Mars Volta - Frances The Mute
L'via L'viaquez was voted my favorite song of the year (that's right. I'll be posting that one here later, with a zip file for people do download my favorites), and this is my favorite album. You know the kind that you listen to so much that you start to recognize all of the patterns in things? That's this thing. It's a monster, a beast. And to think that at the start of the year I hardly even listened to the thing. It was the story that got me into it. It was everything surrounding the idea of one long, rambling story, and the fact that some parts of the album still give me chills, like when it comes out of a long meandering middle part and catches you off guard with some fantasticaly crunchy guitar riff and solo. It's fucking amazing. I'm going to love this album for a very, very long time. Unfortunately since I've kept all of the other songs hovering around three minutes or so, you're getting the edited version of the Widow, and not the one with two minutes of neat warped things at the end.