Favorite Music of 2005

I just got my year-end issue of Spin in the mail today, which means I can begin compiling the lists of best albums and songs of the year from the music magazines I read and determine what I may have missed that was worth hearing this year. It also means I can reassess why I read so many of these magazines when so few of them actually say anything different from the others.

I probably won't see the year-end polls from my favorite U.K. mags for a few more weeks, but here's a preliminary list of the albums (and some songs) that topped the polls from some of the major magazines (listed in order of my agreement with them):

Sleater-Kinney: The Woods (ranked #1 by Magnet)
If this band has ever made a record that wasn't worth hearing, I haven't heard it. They have already broken one of the primary laws of rock & roll (a law developed and preached to me by my friend Brock)--no band, other than maybe the Beatles, has made more than three absolutely essential and repeat-listenable full-length albums in a row during their career--and they show no signs of getting old and/or boring. This is a shit hot record from one of the best bands in the U.S.

Fiona Apple: Extraordinary Machine (ranked #1 by Entertainment Weekly)
I wrote about a song from this album earlier this year on the blog, but since then this album has really grown on me in ways I hadn't expected. In fact, I didn't really have high expectations for this record since it had been released after an almost 6-year delay and a dreaded "reworking" initiated by the artist's label, Epic. But Ms. Apple is in full form here and is no longer the whiny, insecure teen you may remember (though she may still hold some bitterness over certain relationships).

M.I.A.: Arular (ranked #1 by Blender)
I've only heard a few cuts from this album, and they sound like nothing else I've heard recently. This warrants further investigation.

Kanye West: Late Registration (ranked #1 by both Spin and Rolling Stone)
I'm more partial to OutKast than this dude, but he is bringing the freshness to both hip-hop and R&B, two genres that really need some help. I haven't heard much from this album either, other than "Gold Digger" (which I find hilarious).

The Arcade Fire: Funeral (ranked #1 by Uncut)
Technically, this was released in 2004 in the U.S., but not until this year in the U.K. I thought this was very nicely done, but not an album that demanded a lot of repeat plays.

Ry Cooder: Chavez Ravine (ranked #1 by No Depression)
I haven't heard anything off this album, but the concept appeals to me (an homage to a Latino Los Angeles neighborhood), as does the artist's earlier work. But I guess at least one of the points of these year-end lists is to bring albums like this to the attention of chronic music consumers like myself, so I'll have to get back to you on this one.

As for my own best of 2005 list, I'm still thinking about the rankings, but here are some of the contenders for my short list:

Ryan Adams & the Cardinals: Cold Roses
Bruce Springsteen: Devils and Dust
Beck: Guero
LCD Soundsystem
Bright Eyes: I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
Kaiser Chiefs: Employment
Spoon: Gimme Fiction
The Decemberists: Picaresque

I'm also putting together a list of my favorite songs of the year, a much less respectable and pop-trashy list than my list of albums. More on that later.