Wednesday, January 3, 2001

McQ's Favorite Albums Of 2005

Last updated 09.10.2015

HIGHEST RECOMMENDS

1. The Woods - Sleater-Kinney: A rolling, thundering juggernaut, Sleater-Kinney's The Woods is not fare for the weak eared, but it's an artistic triumph on every level. Proving the adage that every great punk band has two classics in them - their first or second release and then the late career album where they reject punk's limitations altogether - The Woods is Sleater-Kinney's all-out abandonment of rriot girrl punk for the instrumentally more adventurous summer-of-love psychedelia epitomized by Jimi Hendrix, Love, and Big Brother & The Holding Company. Full of oh-so-heavy feedback, incendiary breakdowns, and some of the most dynamic drumming of the Aughts, the opening seven-song suite is one of the most electrifying thirty-minute stretches rock 'n' roll has ever produced. All this, and I've yet to mention its one-of-a-kind in-the-red mix or the dense lyrical design that opens the album up to multiple levels of interpretation. A masterpiece. The biggest, baddest album of the Aughts! Absolutely essential.
Spotify! / iTunes / Amazon.

2. The Sunset Tree - The Mountain Goats
3. Blinking Lights And Other Revelations - Eels
4. Black Sheep Boy - Okkervil River
5. Illinois - Sufjan Stevens
6. Z - My Morning Jacket
7. Late Registration - Kayne West

STRONG RECOMMENDS
8. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
9. Picaresque - The Decemberists
10. Separation Sunday - The Hold Steady
11. LCD Soundsystem
12. I Am A Bird Now - Antony And The Johnsons
13. Apologies To The Queen Mary - Wolf Parade
14. Twin Cinema - The New Pornographers
15. The Mysterious Production Of Eggs - Andrew Bird
16. I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning - Bright Eyes
17. Oh, You're So Silent Jens - Jens Lekmen
18. Bang Bang Rock And Roll - Art Brut
19. Get Behind Me Satan - The White Stripes

SOLID RECOMMENDS
20. Alligator - The National
21. The Great Destroyer - Low
22. Takk - Sigur Ros
23. Leaders Of The Free World - Elbow
24. Gimme Fiction - Spoon
25. Coles Corner - Richard Hawley
26. The Runners Four - Deerhoof
27. No Wow - The Kills
28. Wolfmother
29. Guero - Beck
30. OK Cowboy - Vitalic
31. Feels - Animal Collective
32. Pink - Boris
33. The Magic Numbers
34. Set Yourself On Fire - Stars

MILD RECOMMENDS
35. Aerials - Kate Bush
36. Engineers
37. Hypermagic Mountain - Lightning Bolt
38. Oceans Apart - The Go-Betweens
39. You Could Have It So Much Better - Franz Ferdinand
40. School Of The Flower - Six Organs Of Admittance
41. Silent Alarm - Bloc Party
42. Devils & Dust - Bruce Springsteen
43. Multiply - Jamie Lidell
44. The Loon - Tapes 'n' Tapes
45. Plans - Death Cab For Cutie
46. Broken Social Scene
47. We Are Monster - Isolee
48. Howl - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
49. Lullabies To Paralyze - Queens Of The Stone Age
50. In Case We Die - Architecture In Helsinki
51. Extraordinary Machine  - Fiona Apple
52. Chavez Ravine - Ry Cooder
53. Lost And Safe - The Books
54. X & Y - Coldplay
55. Cripple Crow - Devandra Banhart
56. Lookaftering - Vashti Bunyan
57. Demon Days - Gorillaz
58. Congotronics - Konono No. 1
59. Digital Ash In A Digital Urn - Bright Eyes.

2005 Albums Of Critical Note I've Yet To Process In Full
A Certain Time - Maximo Park
Arular - M.I.A.
Be - Common
Beauty And The Beat - Eden
Chaos And Creation In The Backyard - Paul McCartney
Confessions On A Dance Floor - Madonna
Employment - Kaiser Chiefs
Francis The Mute - The Mars Volta
Mesmerize - System Of A Down
The Back Room - Editors

No comments: