My ten favourite albums of the year:
- Sleater-Kinney . The Woods
- The Heartless Bastards . Stairs And Elevators
- The Duke Spirit . Cuts Across The Land
- Spoon . Gimme Fiction
- The Dandy Warhols . Odditorium Or The Warlords Of Mars
- …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead . Worlds Apart
- The New Pornographers . Twin Cinema
- Low . The Great Destroyer
- The Constantines . Tournament Of Hearts
- Sigur Ros . Takk…
The best of the rest, in alphabetical order:
- Black Mountain . Black Mountain
- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club . Howl
- Bright Eyes . I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning
- Death Cab For Cutie . Plans
- Elbow . Leaders Of The Free World
- Explosions In The Sky . The Rescue
- The Fiery Furnaces . EP
- Great Lake Swimmers . Bodies And Minds
- Ladytron . Witching Hour
- LCD Soundsystem . LCD Soundsystem
- Metric . Live It Out
- Nine Inch Nails . With Teeth
- Rogue Wave . Descended Like Vultures
- The White Stripes . Get Behind Me Satan
- Wolf Parade . Apologies To The Queen Mary
There were two other albums that I left off the list, but felt they deserved a mention: Mogwai‘s Government Commisions: BBC Sessions 1996-2003 and the complilation Sunday Nights: The Songs Of Junior Kimbrough.
As I do every year I’m sure I’ll change my mind as I pick up more 2005 music in 2006, but for now…this is it.
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 
I was a bit underwhelmed by the Constatine’s latest, but I haven’t actually listened to it more than once.
I had to listen to Shine A Light three or four times before it really grabbed me. Tournament Of Hearts one had me on the first listen, but maybe that’s because I’d already worked so hard at Shine A Light. Give it another try.