tops in pop

This year brought forth good albums by bands that usually make me spectacular study music- I'm looking at you, sigur ros and boards of canada. see also: MMJ. Thank goodness Serena-Maneesh was around and Jackson invented his Computer Band to keep me entertained during pathophysiology.

So for me 2005 was the Year of the Music to Which I Wanted to Dance. Tearing both my ACL and MCL made that difficult for a good part of the year, but I persevered and I'm stronger for it.

I'd like to send an extra-special buzz off to Tori-la for putting out the amazingly bad easy-listening Beekeeper without even a single redeeming song. Even the gross Scarlet's Walk had strange and Wednesday.

*sigh* and now down to business:

1. MIA- Arular I want to go on the record as saying that everything and everyone Justine Frischmann touches is gold.
2. Fiona- Extraordinary Machine
3. Spoon- Gimme Fiction
4. Cardigans- Super Extra Gravity
5. Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah-s/t
6. Bloc Party- Silent Alarm
7. Sleater-Kinney- The Woods. from chord one, deliciousness
8. Sufjan Stevens- Illinois. one of the girliest rock albums ever. so pretty
9. Gorillaz- Demon Days
10. Serena-Maneesh- s/t
11. Wolf Parade- Apologies to the Queen Mary
12. Beck- Guero
13. Common- B.E.
14. Sigur Ros- Takk... not the best study music ever, but a decent performance.
15. Amadou & Mariam- Dimanche a Bamako. Any album that namechecks the hopital Dantec across from the Score that was my only chance to walk through anything remotely Western every few weeks must crack the list. Also, it's proven lovely dinner party music
16. Ladytron- Witching Hour. In a few months this may well be bumped into the top 10
17. Broken Social Scene- s/t
18. Jackson and His Computer Band- Smash
19. M83- Before the Dawn Heals Us. worst use of samples in an album this year, most especially the lameness that is Car! Chase! Terror! (ok, those first two exclamation points are mine)
20. Bjork- Drawing restraint 9. I just can't decide when to listen to this album. As it's neither study music nor bouncing music, it has festered for quite a while.
21. Boards of Canada- campfire headphase
22. White Stripes- Get Behind me Satan. As soon as I read complaints about Meg's drumming and actually listened for it, this effort became unlistenable.
23. Clientele- Strange Geometry. I know, I complained earlier about how much this sounds like the Auteurs. Then I remembered how much I like the Auteurs and suddenly, everything was right in the world.
24. Jose Gonzalez-Veneer
25. Kaiser Chiefs- Employment
26. My Morning Jacket- Z
27. Franz Ferdinand- You could have it so much Better
128. Deathcab for a Cutie-Plans
28. LCD Soundsystem- s/t

I haven't heard the Kanye album all the way through, nor have I heard from my girlcrush Lindsay Lohan. That may also require adjustment in early 2006. On the plus side, I don't think I'm going to like the Actic Monkeys, so that should make my life that much easier.


I'm listening to:
Kraftwerk- Autobahn