best albums of the year?

since it's almost over anyway ... i've been largely out of the radio loop, and haven't picked up several of the albums i'd like to, but here're ten great albums that pop into mind:

Sunset Tree -- the Mountain Goats
What I Really Mean -- Robert Earl keen
Picaresque -- The Decemberists
Nashville -- Josh Rouse
Illinoise -- Sufjan Stevens
Twin Cinema -- New Pornographers
Transistor Radio -- M Ward
Alligator -- The National
Humming by the Flowered Vine -- Laura Cantrell
Chavez Ravine -- Ry Cooder

So what are yours?

Dredg - Catch Without Arms
The Decemberists - Picaresque
Opeth - Ghost Reveries
Depeche Mode - Playing The Angel
Porcupine Tree - Deadwing
The Rolling Stones - A Bigger Bang
Paul McCartney - Chaos And Creation In The Backyard
Gorillaz - Demon Days
Beck - Guero
Mars Volta - Frances The Mute
Tony Iommi / Glenn Hughes - Fused
Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth
George Clinton - How Late Do U Have 2BB4UR Absent?
Queens Of The Stone Age - Lullabies To Paralyze
Sigur Ros - Takk...
Nevermore - This Godless Endeavor
Damian Marley - Welcome To Jamrockk

I haven't listened, but I'll have to check it out. I like what I've heard of the new Depeche Mode and NIN, too, but I just haven't had the chance to hear the whole albums yet ...

It's way better than any Wings album.

Along with.....

"Paradise Hotel" - Eliza Gilkyson
"Weather and Water" - The Greencards
"Why Should the Fire Die?" - Nickel Creek
"Solo Acoustic, Vol. I" - Jackson Browne
"Mighty Rearranger" - Robert Plant
"The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw" - Pelican
"Demon Days" - Gorillaz

and from the brief snippets i've heard, it would have made my list if i'd gotten around to listening to it sooner :)

but that's all I can say until the year-end issue of my newspaper comes out. If I don't give them first-publishing rights, they fire me. :evilgrin:

so I guess I can live with the suspense :)

Best album they've done in more than 20 years, but it got virtually NO airplay as most rock stations are knocking at death's door these days.

A Bigger Bang is to the Stones what Love and Theft was to Bob Dylan in 2001 and what Heathen was to David Bowie in 2002 --

their best work in several decades, and the beginning of an artistic renaissance among the old-and-in-the-way crowd. With this many superior albums by ancient masters of the craft, you really do have to start calling it a trend.

Am I the only person whose "Best Of" list gets shorter every year? I own less than half a dozen albums releaed in 2005 and don't listen to them often. Sigh. I've turned into the person I disdained when I watched the Big Chill as a teenager.

Bunch of assholes who sold out their beliefs for cash.

Of course, just about every middle-aged person I know just LOVES that movie :evilgrin:

The only part of that movie that really bugged me was a character claiming that no decent music came out after the Sixties. I didn't think I'd ever be like that. Now I'm starting to wonder. I try to keep up with new bands but my interest is waning.

saying "no good music came out after x" and saying "i find i prefer the music I grew up with to the music that comes out now." (well, anyway, perhaps you can rationalize it to yourself that way ... i'm just tryin' to help ;))

I know a lot of people with more or less similar experience, though ... i have friends that I try to turn on to some of the stuff that interests me nowadays, and they've very little patience with it. They'd rather listen to the old high school mixed tapes again :)

I'd have to say, though, that in the last year I've found a lot of new music that I really do dig. Most of it isn't stuff you'd hear on the radio, but I still think there's a lot of good music out there ...

is the only album I bought this year that came out this year.

http://www.folkmusic.com/record/r_mighty.htm

I'll make it in January when I buy all the CDs I need to finalize it. I'll post another best of topic then. Here's how my list looks right now:

New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
Hope 7 - self-titled
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Veronicas - Secret Life of
Stacie Rose - Shadow And Splendor
The Like - Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking?
Madonna - Confessions On A Dance Floor
Wallflowers - Rebel, Sweetheart
Rogue Wave - Descended Like Vultures
Lee Ann Womack - There's More Where That Came From
Teenage Fanclub - Man-Made
Anna Nalick - Wreck Of The Day
Cindy Alexander - Angels & Demons
Martha Wainwright - self-titled
Liz Phair - Somebody's Miracle
White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
Brandi Carlile - self-titled
Garbage - Bleed Like Me
Amy Rigby - Little Fugitive
Decemberists - Picaresque

Need to buy/receive as gifts from: Julie Gribble, Mountain Goats, Imogen Heap, Kate Bush, The Magic Numbers, David Gray, Josh Ritter, Sigur Ros, Metric...

I'm also going to give some CDs from just outside of the list, like Sleater-Kinney's The Woods, another listen.

Not sure about: Bright Eyes. I know I'm not crazy about Digital Ash In Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, but I've wavered about I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning. The one song I bought from IWAIM is "Road To Joy," and I love it. It combines folk with an interesting form of emo. Song really heats up at the end. Also love "When The President Talks To God." But the latter song is not on IWAIM, and some of the samples seem tepid.

and
make believe ......Weezer
pressure chief by cake

Probably not my favorite style enough to make my list, but they sure are a hoot. And they have great anti-war (multiple wars) lyrics.