20. Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn (Saddle Creek)
The fact that Conor Oberst went from playing half-empty bars in the Midwest to being covered by every major media outlet is fascinating in just a few years. That he did it on his own, independent, non-commercial terms is impressive. That this coincided with a widening and deepening of his own songwriting is best of all. Both of Bright Eyes’ 2005 albums are intimate and direct, yet ambitious, pushing Oberst in new directions while crystallizing his strengths.
I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning gives a troubadour vibe to Oberst’s stories of life and love in the big city, while taking his small, personal songs and turning their focus outward, increasing their universality. Digital Ash in a Digital Urn wraps self-probing songs filled with Oberst’s usual obsessions, in essence, struggling to find hope in a world of death in an organic, rhythmic, electronic-pop sound that lifts them to exciting new heights. Together, the albums represent sonic and emotional range, and the maturing of a constantly evolving songwriter. – Dave Heaton
19. Sigur Rós – Takk… (Geffen/Universal)
Iceland’s most enigmatic sons released another masterful album in 2005, delivering a stunning mix of atmospheric guitars and haunting vocals. Partway through the first proper song, “Glosoli”, it becomes instantly clear that Sigur Rós are in rare form. Takk… doesn’t find the band venturing into uncharted territory; instead, it builds on the sounds explored on its previous two outings.
Occasionally following down the quieter paths of the enigmatic melodies explored on 2000’s Agætis Byrjun, and at other times opting for more tumultuous paths of the bombastic drums and bass of ( ), Sigur Rós wind their way through songs that paint a pastoral landscape as gorgeous as their native country. Stunning, gorgeous, bombastic, touching, breathtaking, and a host of other adjectives only begin to describe the majestic sounds that this band conjures, and the range of emotions these sounds evoke is equally unbound.
Sigur Rós at their best can break your heart and lift you to the moon in the same song. – Dave Brecheisen
18. Kanye West – Late Registration (Roc-a-Fella)
Kanye West’s shaky, emotional voice while uttering the infamous “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” sentence on prime-time TV demonstrated what Late Registration listeners should already have known: he shoots from the heart. His rhyming style is unique because it seems intuitive. It might not be technically perfect, but it jibes perfectly with the lyrical diversity of his songs, the way he goes from boasting and joking to crying and reminiscing in a heartbeat.
It’s an album that dares to be stupid, smart, angry, silly, painful, and joyous. The rhymes are further elevated by a layered, carefully crafted sound of melodic, atmospheric soul. Guest vocalists sing with yearning; strings and horns blend with samples of old soul and blues songs; MCs from disparate backgrounds make show-stopping appearances and disappear. Boundaries smoothly slide into each other, and everyday music is built. – Dave Heaton
17. Beck – Guero (Interscope)
I’m not a long-time Beck fan. I thought “Loser”, his debut single, was verisimilitude: you say you’re a loser? Fine. End of. But I’m now happily addicted to Beck’s sixth release, Guero. Produced with the Dust Brothers, the songs are a mix of head-bobbing bass (“Hell Yes” and Jack White of the White Stripes funkin’ the bass on “Go It Alone”) and smooth guitar (“Scarecrow” and “Emergency Exit”).
Unlike cultural vampire Gwen Stefani, Guero‘s a walking tour through Beck’s artistic development as influenced by Brazil, Japan, and East L.A.: The self-deprecating Chicano slang use in “Qué Onda Guero” (“Where you going, white boy?”), bassa nova love lost melancholy on “Missing”, and the rapping nod to Japan in “Hell Yes.” And he still manages to bring it all home with electronic chip music, synthesized bleeps, and arcade game noises reminiscent of his past work. Beck’s beat is nice? Hai. Hell yes. – Kimberly Springer
16. Wolf Parade – Apologies to the Queen Mary (Sub Pop)
Over-the-top vocals. Insipid cover art. Ill-conceived song sequence. This year’s best new underground rock band unleashes one of the year’s best records. And despite a blunt presentation, this album succeeds thanks to the songs that are so thunderous and torrential, they’re unforgettable. It’s as simple and unassailable as that. “I’ll Believe in Anything” and “This Heart’s on Fire” catch you in the stomach and will keep luring you back for years. It’s the sound of shoot-for-the-moon ambition colliding with shoot-to-kill intensity.
This foolhardy lack of restraint separates Wolf Parade from its peers, lupine or otherwise. Storm-proof rock zealotry that’s far more compelling than the output of the other, slicker bands of the moment. Attention spans will continue to shrink, but Apologies to the Queen Mary will sustain its potency. (Recommended listening circumstances: on headphones, walking through snowstorms; driving in a shitty station wagon through rainstorms; on a crappy boombox, trapped in a storm cellar with a lovelorn lover.) – Liam Colle
15. Blackalicious – The Craft (Anti-)
In a year when Eminem wheezed out a Best Of and the Black Eyed Peas learned that they could sell records faster if they sucked harder, we needed an excellent hip-hop act to grace us with a comeback. Praise the Lord, Gift of Gab and Chief Xcel delivered. Working with a live band, serving up hooks that could be another group’s samples (the piano in “Supreme People” and “Side to Side”, the guitar riffs in “Powers”), Gab and Xcel tear through 14 songs alternately funny, sexy, nerdy, and thoughtful. On “Supreme People”. they even have a political song that doesn’t make you wince. Le Tigre, take notes. – Dave Weigel
14. Bloc Party – Silent Alarm (Vice)
With a seemingly unending tide of bands being hyped this year by the British press (Arctic Monkeys, Test Icicles, Clor, Babyshambles), only one has remained standing at the end of the year. With their debut album Silent Alarm, Bloc Party took the angular guitar thing it seems every band on the planet is doing right now and pumped it full of everything the competition was missing: heart. The resulting 14 tracks are a mesmerizing, enthralling, and thrilling batch of songs with not one bit of filler in the bunch.
Angry and romantic, urgent and thoughtful, Bloc Party navigate the complex emotions of their songs with an assured maturity and undeniable confidence. It’s unsurprising that each of the single-worthy tracks was given the remix treatment and re-released to fans who wanted more. The resulting disc was an equally compelling album that twisted their songs into new shapes, revealing previously unseen facets of Bloc Party’s layered songs. Silent Alarm made a big noise this year for a reason, and its depth becomes apparent and enriching with each subsequent listen. – Kevin Jagernauth
13. My Morning Jacket – Z (ATO/RCA)
My Morning Jacket seem peaceful, but they’ve waged war on the Flaming Lips. The title of Baddest Psychedelic Indie Rock Band in the States is now up for grabs, as Z proves the Kentucky band can transmit sunny atmospherics and lofty melodies through far more than just spectral country-rock. “Worldless Chorus” flavors the group’s previous formula with a touch of dub; frontman Jim James cries like Prince reborn at its conclusion.
“Off the Record” employs fat, syncopated rhythm for bounce, heavily reverbed guitars for depth, and keyboards for an air of classic soul. “Lay Low” rocks unapologetically: two tireless lead guitars shimmy to a keyboard-laced groove, intermingling for three of Z’s finest minutes. While this is not a perfect record, it succeeds by avoiding pretension despite banking on bliss-out, seamlessly fusing an array of impulses, and above all, being a vast pleasure to listen to. – Nate Seltenrich
12. Common – Be (Geffen)
I remember the first time I heard Be. The sun was setting over the Hudson River, seemingly playing hide-and-seek as it darted between the Jersey City skyline buildings during its slow descent. I remember finishing the album and being left in a very serene and contented mood, appreciating my life just a little bit more than I had an hour before. These sentiments echo through Common’s lyrics. His verses dart from personal and cultural topics pulled from his life in Chicago to more worldly issues like spirituality.
Common wears the image of a hip-hop veteran well, settling into the role with mature and unpretentious rhymes that are complemented by the soulful production of Kanye West. Common has shrugged off the critics that dogged him after the 2002 release of Electric Circus and appears to have hit another stride in his already celebrated career. – Stephen Stirling
11. Architecture in Helsinki – In Case We Die (Bar/None)
Is indie-pop too gentle? Not raucous enough? Architecture in Helsinki’s second album is gentle and raucous, made of a million sweet melodies, intricately woven together and then set on hyperspeed. A funeral bell opens the album, introducing its theme: not death as much as living now, in case we die. Then the group bounces forward like a rambunctious marching band/choral group, its eight members playing anything they can find that makes a sound, chanting like sugar-fed cheerleaders and singing sensitively and sweetly. It’s big, colorful, joyous party music that’ll make you cry, scream, and dance your ass off, all the while contemplating your own mortality. – Dave Heaton