Fridge's World, Top Albums of 2005

Yeah, so I haven't listened to every album put out this year, or even one out of every hundred, but this is a list of the twenty best records that I did manage to sit through. I like every one of 'em, and you should too.
	1. Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise It's almost reached the point of being a cop-out to put this at the top... but well, it really was the best album put out this year. It was certainly the one I listened to the most, and at least half the tracks on it would make appearances were I to make a similar list featuring singles. Sufjan's weaves the better part of an orchestra, a full choir, some guy with a banjo, and all sorts of great percussion into a stunningly gorgeous backdrop for his folkish indie-pop vocals. He's telling stories, but I honestly don't care where they're taking me, I just enjoy the music. Simply amazing album, start to finish one of my favorites ever put out.
	2. Annie - Anniemal I've had "Greatest Hit" on my computer for several years, but had simply assumed it was a random single from a euro-club act that would never again amount to anything. Fortunately that's not the case, as annie reprised the 1999 single with a full-length 6 years later (a gap explained by the death of her boyfriend/producer in between), and it's a truly excellent collection of european electropop. "Heartbeat", "Chewing Gum", "Greatest Hit", all follow a simple formula, with a solid, pulsing bassline and shimmering vocals on top. But they all do it really well. Seriously, it's good stuff. Of course, I also consider "Mmmbop" to be a great song, so my pop bias is never far from the top. Anyway, every song has a solid hook, they're all extremely dancable, and if you don't like it I declare you to have no soul, so there!
	3. Opeth - Ghost Reveries Don't know who Opeth is? If you're at all into metal or progressive rock, you certainly should. They've got probably the best guitar playing going in the world, and it's constantly getting better. This is one of my favorite albums by them, highlighting the guitars and pushing the Death Metal trappings a bit farther back... but without departing completely into the acoustic like they did with Damnation. The lead track, "Ghosts Of Perdition" is truly gorgeous, with a strong melodic line and an excellent mix of harsh/soft vocals. Great stuff, if you've got any taste for metal whatsoever, you need to be listening to these guys (and probably already are). If you don't.. well.. you're missing out.
	4. Dream Theater - Octavarium Is Dream Theater my favorite band? Most likely, they're certainly the one I've been listening to consistently for the longest. Oct was a bit of a step back for them, but more in that it didn't break any new territory than any true fault in the music itself. The heavier tracks like "The Root Of All Evil" were solid, the guitar wanking on "Panic Attack" was virtuoso, the ballads, particularly "The Answer Lies Within" were excellent, and the ridiculously EPIC title track was sheer madness, as only a progressive rock band understands it. So yeah, yet another awesome album in a long string of awesome albums, just not quite as big a step forward as they usually try to take. Of course, they've been playing the same style of music for 16 years, and been at the top of the game that entire time, so maybe there's just not that far they can climb.
	5. Kanye West - Late Registration I'm not a huge rap fan, and so there aren't many artists in the genre whose full albums I can sit through. Kanye's one of them, and this was a solid step up from the already excellent "College Dropout". No, I don't care about his political leanings, and I'm certainly not buying into his "I don't got a degree and I made it therefore college is useless for everyone" theory, but the man knows how to weave a soul hook into a solid beat and spit random rhyming junk over top of it better than anyone else currently in the game. It's good stuff, and if you didn't have "Gold Digger" stuck in your head for at least the last month of this year, you must not own a radio... but Kanye almost made the experience enjoyable.
	6. The OneUps - Volume 1 This is an album of remixes of Video Game songs, done by a band that most closely resembles a jazz ensemble. This might be a bit too "out there" for you.. but umm, it's good stuff, ok? Taking cuts from games like Chrono Trigger, Super Mario Kart, and Donkey Kong, the classic melodies that I spent many hours humming along with are reinvented in a studio session by real people playing real instruments. If you don't enjoy this stuff you simply didn't spend as much of your childhood sitting in front of a tv with a controller in your hands as I did.. which I suppose is perfectly understandable, I loved my SNES. Anyway, yeah, at the very least it's a very enjoyable light jazz album, especially featuring some very solid sax soloing.
	7. Mindless Self Indulgence - You'll Rebel To Anything I owe my discovery of this band to one Mr. B33R (not the drink, the person, if you don't know who he is nevermind :)), since one day he was on IRC hunting for the track "2 Hookers And An Eightball"... a song with a title very indicative of the mood found on this album. Allmusic has it listed as "Industrial Dance" and I suppose that's as good a description as any, though I'd be more inclined to simply call it 'fun'. This album is razer sharp, with excellent guitar playing, fast drumming... and an absolutely ridiculous sense of humor. The lead singer, Jimmy Urine (yeah, you read that right), spits out one goofy line after another, and the amazing music drags you along for the ride. Awesome album, if not anything I'd listen to with my parents.
	8. Imogen Heap - Speak For Yourself The album put out by "Frou Frou" a few years ago didn't really do anything for me, but this solo effort by the singer in that partnership, Imogen Heap, is absolutely excellent, with light electropop backdrops framing her wonderful vocals. Standout tracks "Goodnight And Go" and "Hide And Seek" stand on opposite ends of the spectrum, one a light, happy dance track, the other a somber, heavy, and almost funereal number, and the rest of the album fills in between. Awesome stuff, and I hope she doesn't wait another 7 years before releasing more solo material.
	9. Sigur Rós - Takk... Apparently () was a fairly large jump for sigur away from agaetis. I wouldn't know, I didn't hear it, but this new album sounds like a direct continuation of their '99 masterpiece, and I love it. Lush, swirling backdrops and soaring, nonsensical lyrics combine to create something that should be absolutely retarded... but instead is just amazingly beautiful. Definitely the best thing Iceland's ever done for me, I love my sigur.
	10. The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema Any album with a song about "Spanish Techno" HAS to be good, doesn't it? I dunno, but this one certainly is. The porn collective made yet another wonderful guitar pop album, full of hooks, goofy lyrics, and massive quantities of entertainment. Sure most of it makes no sense, like the aforementioned Spanish Techno song or the repetitive "Falling Through Your Clothes", but it's all enjoyable, and all a wonderful slice of canadian goodness. Go Canada!
	11. Porcupine Tree - Deadwing Yet another slice of progressive rock goodness, Deadwing is a very solid guitar album, if a definite step back form Wilson's previous effort "In Absentia". The singing's just as good, the playing's just as good... the songs just aren't as good. They don't have the hooks to keep the meandering progressive numbers high in your consciousness. Another good album, but a bit lacking in individual tracks that stand out as excellent on their own.
	12. The Boy Least Likely To - The Best Party Ever As the cover would suggest, this album is almost painfully cute. Tracks about monsters under the bed, stuffed animals, and paper cuts use childlike imagery to discuss very adult themes. That said, it's quite easy to ignore the often somber themes behind the songs and simply lose yourself in the joyful combination of acoustic guitars and glockenspiels that dominate the record. Cute and fluffy, with a deep center, this is an album that takes a while to fully appreciate, but you'll certainly enjoy the journey.
	13. Various Artists - Bound Together Yet another album full of video game songs, this one doesn't limit itself by the style (as the previous jazzy album did) but rather by the source of the music. A wide variety of artists and styles, from techno to orchestral to hip hop, all covering tracks from the SNES classic Earthbound. Again, perhaps this seems a bit off the deep end for you, but behind its origins, this is simply quality music, that happens to evoke a bit of nostalgia at the same time. Great stuff, standout tracks include bLiNd's techno number, Dhsu's piano tracks, and Mythril Nazgul and his posse on "Da Black Market".
	14. Death Cab For Cutie - Plans This album might be better than I give it credit for, but for one reason or another I haven't really gotten into it yet, outside of "Soul Meets Body". The songs seem to be good, the flow seems to be good, I just didn't enjoy it for whatever reason. Odds are I'll put it on my mp3 player sometime in the next year and really get into it, but for now here it sits in the bottom half. Perhaps it's just too similar to all their other work, there really doesn't appear to be much growth for Death Cab.
	15. The Black Eyed Peas - Monkey Business Alright, in all fairness, no one who's heard "My Humps" could possibly consider this to be a 'good' album. It's not one. But it does what it does better than anything else put out this year - gets stuck in your head. And the goofy, infectious, dance tracks manage to be enjoyable at the same time. The Peas have had a long journey from the respectable neo-political hip hop group into their current hip-pop, pants pissing, niche, but they're selling a hell of a lot more records, so I can't blame them. Meh, "Don't Lie" is probably the single track I've played more than any other this year - the Peas might not be good anymore, but they sure do write a solid hook.
	16. The Decemberists - Picaresque The decemberists are weird, their songs 4 (plus) minute plays, and you can't help but love them for it. Well, maybe you can, but I can't. Anyway, this is my least favorite of their three albums, mostly because it just doesn't have that one song that really stands out for me. It's a good listen, but when I feel like some weird folkish indie pop I usually find myself reaching back farther into their catalogue.
	17. Our Lady Peace - Healthy In Paranoid Times This is entirely a loyalty/nostalgia pick. I love OLP, and have for years, but this album was extremely generic, late-90s/early 00s modern rock, with almost nothing standing out. I can listen to it all the way through and not remember a word of it. That said, it added more OLP to my playlist, and that's nothing but a good thing.
	18. 311 - Don't Tread On Me Yet another loyalty pick, 311 just didn't have it working this time out. They've faded into being a very generic parody of.. well, themselves. It's true, no one sounds like them, and they've still got that, but even they can't pull "them" off this time around. The songs are plain, the hooks bland, and the members of the band are getting older every day. It's a pleasant listen, and I truly do enjoy it, but if you aren't a 311 fan this certainly isn't bringing you into the fold. I've yet to hear a song off this album on the radio, and I can't say I think that's going to change. Can 311 pull themselves back into relevancy? I'd like to think so, but I ain't betting on it.
	19. Eels - Blinking Lights And Other Revelations I'd never listened to Mark Everett's creations prior to picking up this album, but I must say I really enjoy the soundscape he creates. Almost gentle rock songs find flourishes from a wide variety of instrumental cues, and over it all Everett tells stories from his experiences in true singer/songwriter fashion. I haven't played the album enough to fully appreciate it, but I love what I've gotten into so far, and look forward to digging back through their catalogue.
	20. Coldplay - X&Y I'm not sure I've listened to this album all the way through since the first time I played it, but it really doesn't matter. This one's on here because of a pair of very quality singles, "Speed Of Sound" and "Fix You", which are as good as anything the band's yet put out. I've always looked at them as Radiohead lite, and they havne't wholly escaped that, but they certainly write some good pop songs. Anyway, there're probably some other good tracks somewhere on here, but I haven't really given 'em a chance to shine through.