The Top Fifteen Albums of 2005

Next up on our journey of the 5s, we've hit 2005, a year that gave us a solid assortment of modern classics. Sonically, 2005 was a year of both throwbacks, with a few big name legacy acts delivering excellent work that can rival their best moments, and of new voices emerging and staking their claim on the new era. The mix of new and old really defines the year, with the blend of sounds that we knew and loved with new flavors of the month, best seen in the rise of movements like pop-punk and Midwest hip-hop. I wouldn't say 2005 is the strongest musical year of its decade, but it is one that is an absolute blast to revisit, as many of the albums here are ones that you can sometimes overlook in a really strong catalog. I rediscovered a lot of lost favorites on this list, which made is a real joy. Without further adieu, let's count down the Top Fifteen Albums of 2005.

#15 Playing the Angel - Depeche Mode (52 minutes, Industrial / Synth-Rock)

When does a band become a legacy act?  It’s a challenging question.  Some say it’s when a group stops having hits.  Some say it’s when a group stops making great albums.  Some say it’s when a group ages out of the mainstream.  However you define it, by 2005, Depeche Mode were largely considered a legacy act after their first album of the new millennium, Exciter, was deemed their first project since they broke into the mainstream of alternative music to be a flop.  While this record didn’t result in DM triumphantly returning to the charts, it did dispel any thoughts that they were no longer of consequence, because this album is one of their strongest, a modern update of their classic synth-pop sound but with an edgier, harsher sonic palette as influenced by fellow electronic rock pioneer Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails.  This record sees Martin Gore write some of his most vital, aggressive songs which let Dave Gahan really let loose vocally, testifying with a real gospel fervor over the clattering electronic beats and fuzzed out guitar licks.  This is DM at their hardest, and it works wonders, bringing energy back into a group whose last album was frustratingly sleepy.  Songwriting wise, Gore is still writing about the interplay between religious dogma and sexuality in new ways, and his obsession with Christian symbolism is alive and well, with songs like the gospel rock takedown “John the Revelator” being some of their most upfront material yet.  Elsewhere, for the first time, Dave Gahan pens a song or two, which breathe new life into the group, especially the album’s strongest track, the pop-rocker “Suffer Well”, which is similar yet distinct from Gore’s more languid style.  The back half of the album lacks the acute sonic punch of the opening stretch, reveling in the atmospheric synth ballads that had become their bread and butter and would sustain them through the next decade, with Gore and Gahan’s supreme vocal chemistry elevating “Lillian” and “Precious” in particular.  Not every track on here is a stone cold classic, but it once and for all proved that DM’s classic era might be over, but they could still deliver a pound for pound great late career record whenever they wanted.  A hidden gem from a stacked catalog.

Choice Cuts: "Suffer Well" "Precious" "John the Revelator" "Lillian"

#14 With Teeth - Nine Inch Nails (56 minutes, Industrial / Alternative Rock)

Nine Inch Nails has never really been an easy band to listen to, they don’t make music to just throw on in the background, you have to choose to sit down and listen to their work.  As such, I’m not always in the mood for Reznor and company’s brutal, heavy, depressive brand of electronic, industrial rock, but when I am it hits as hard as a ton of bricks.  This album, the fourth in the NIN canon, is their first since Reznor’s massive double album The Fragile, an end of decade explosion of creativity that took years to recover from, artistically and physically.  Where both of Reznor’s 90s album (The Downward Spiral and The Fragile) are as heavy and unsettling as possible, this project sees Reznor and company make their most pop-friendly album in a while, though it’s far from happy go lucky.  The group maintains their razor-sharp electro-rock sound full of rough synths, brutal percussion and distorted guitar licks but write with a more traditional style, engaging in verse/chorus/bridge alt-rock structures for the first time since their 1989 debut Pretty Hate Machine.  Some of the rockers here would slot in well with the rock radio at the time, with “The Hand That Feeds” being an accessible anti-Iraq War song that had aged beautifully, but elsewhere the group continues their brand of heavy electronic dirges that are all about atmosphere instead of hooks.  The spacey synth heavy ballads that bookend the record show Reznor moving towards the atmospheric, instrumental beauty that would become his very successful work on film scores with Atticus Ross, and are some of the best tracks here.  Whether it be the hard rockers or the soft, unsettling synth ballads, Reznor is on fire here, creating his last truly essential NIN project after a decade and a half of innovation in the industrial rock arena.  Not an album for everyday, but every once in a while, nothing else will hit the same.

Choice Cuts: "Only" "The Hand That Feeds" "Every Day Is Exactly the Same" "Right Where It Belongs"

#13 Naturally - Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings (40 minutes, R&B/Funk)

Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings are a rare band out of time.  Lots of acts make a career of doing styles that were far more popular in the past, the revivalist scene will always be popular, but I’ve never encountered another group that sounds as if they were more or less rocketed from the past into the present day than Sharon and her band.  If you told me this album came out in 1966, I’d believe you because it sounds exactly like a great Stax album, and can easily sit next to anything Otis Redding, Sam & Dave or The Staples Singers were putting out during that era.  Where the group’s first album felt like a great live record, mainly consisting of airtight funk jams with Sharon delivering her best James Brown bandleader impression, this feels much more like a collection of well-written and structured songs as opposed to red hot vamps.  The record is very much a classic soul LP in its structure, peppering in blazing funk tracks, which are the highlights, alongside some slow, soul ballads which are expertly sung by Sharon whose voice shines across the entire LP, but  can occasionally feel a bit longer than they need to be and lack the lyrical sense of humor shown on the funkier tracks.  The best moments here see Sharon and the band channel the energy of their debut into well-written songs like the guitar-driven “How Long Do I Have to Wait for You?”, a truly pristine groove or their soulful, gospel-infused rendition of the protest song “This Land Is Your Land”, which has since become the only version of the song I ever reach for.  Like many R&B albums of the 60s, not every track sticks the landing, but when the band is on, they are better than just about anything else out there.  The group would release their best project as the follow up, which takes their Stax soul approach and channels it into slightly more Motown styled hits, but in terms of sheer musicianship and fun, you can’t go wrong with this platter.  You know I’m a sucker for a great horn section.

Choice Cuts: "How Long Do I Have to Wait for You?" "How Do I Let a Good Man Down?" "This Land Is Your Land"

#12 A Fever You Can't Sweat Out - Panic! At the Disco (39 minutes, Pop-Punk / Baroque Pop)

Panic! At the Disco have always been a bit of a controversial group, because they never quite fit neatly in any musical niche.  They were in their own words, “Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die”, and on this, their debut album, they proved to be unclassifiable odd from the jump.  On first blush, this is a pop-punk record, ala their labelmates Fall Out Boy, but whereas FOB specialized in straight ahead guitar riffage and remarkably quirky lyricism, Panic always had a campier, more theatrical bent than their peers, never content to just emulate the conventions of their chosen genre.  This is a very silly, highly melodramatic record, namely due to the sometimes histrionic but always impressive vocals of Brendon Urie, who flexes his falsetto all over these songs, belting like Freddie Mercury’s equally flamboyant protege.  Brendon’s tendency towards the theatrical pairs well with the lyrics, which are just as overly wink-wink nod-nod clever as Fall Out Boy’s, but with a queerer, campier bent and a slightly less razor tongue.  Musically, the pop-punk riffs are on nearly every song, but they also incorporate elements of electronica with a few sporadic synth/sequencer breakdowns courtesy of lead songwriter Ryan Ross. The best moments, to me, are where the classic pop-punk meets elements of baroque pop and cabaret with bouncy barstool piano licks, punchy horns and taut string arrangements that point the way towards their accomplished sophomore album, Pretty Odd which goes all in on the sounds of sunshine pop.  The best moments here soar like little other pop-punk, like the astonishing three track run of “Lying is the Most Fun…” through “But It’s Better If You Do” into the seamless transition that blends the former with the group’s signature hit, “I Write Sins Not Tragedies”.  Panic! was always gonna wear out their welcome, because they are so blatantly in your face, and sometimes you can overdose on quirkiness and falsetto, but on their premier platter, it’s all novel and it’s all a damn fun time.  Panic! At their manic, silly best.

Choice Cuts: "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" "Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Off Her Clothes" "But It's Better If You Do" "The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage"

#11 From Under the Cork Tree - Fall Out Boy (43 minutes, Pop-Punk)

In 2005, the pop-punk scene was bursting at the seams with countless groups with sardonic lyrics, crunchy guitar licks and histrionic, angst-ridden vocals, so it was hard to sift through the sea of soundalike groups to find the gems.  Twenty years on, it’s easy to see who has endured who was lost to time, and chief among the pop-punk survivors are Fall Out Boy, in my opinion, the greatest of the aughts pop-punkers along with their label mates Paramore and Panic! At the Disco.  Unlike Panic and Paramore, who would sooner or later abandon the stiff genre confines of the pop-punk sound, FOB always stuck it out in their chosen style, but this, the group’s second album is easily their definitive statement as the genre’s snotty poster boys.  Here they improv on their plucky debut album, with a set of songs that are as catchy as the plague, packing incredible chorus hooks (the three singles boast some truly generational choruses) and a sort of manic energy that you couldn’t tamp down even if you tried.  Lyrically, the group is even more cutting and idiosyncratic than ever, just look at the laugh out loud song titles, which would be pretentious if they weren’t so funny (and became a new genre hallmark after this record), and the group is so willing to poke fun at themselves and their image of pop-punk poster children.  Pete Wentz’s lyrics have never been better, and Patrick Stump’s high tenor roars with a ferocity that is perfect for the music.  Few albums toe the line between big dumb fun and relentlessly clever songwriting better than this one, and it’s that dichotomy that helped FOB to become the best band since Green Day to rep for the pop-punk kids.  A gem that I’m happy I got to grow up loving.

Choice Cuts: "Dance, Dance" "Sugar We're Goin' Down" "A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More Touch Me" "Our Lawyers Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued"

#10 Chaos and Creation in the Backyard - Paul McCartney (46 minutes, Rock / Singer-Songwriter)

Sometimes a great album is an unexpected surprise, especially when it comes from an artist who many consider well past their creative prime.  Paul McCartney’s 2005 album is exactly that, a brilliant return to form for one of pop’s all time greatest figures, which sees him sounding his age without losing a shred of his melodic vitality.  It had been a rough two decades for Paul, not being able to net a chart hit since the mid-80s, his albums becoming less and less strong and dealing with the tragic, untimely loss of his wife Linda, but by 1997 the tide began to change, with the release of Flaming Pie, his best album since the early eighties, harkening back to his former glory days.  This album even exceeded the expectations of anyone who heard his solid latter day records Flaming Pie and Driving Rain, as he feels fully settled into his later career style, delivering quieter, soft pop-rock songs with striking, gorgeous melodies driven mainly by piano and guitar.  Paul’s voice has obviously aged, and while he can no longer deliver roaring rock and roll gems in the same way, its newfound fragility is perfect for this style of song, with many of them feeling particularly warm and intimate due to his performances.  The production from Nigel Godrich, the man behind countless Radiohead classics, is pitch perfect and crisp, allowing the record to sound mainly as if he recorded it in his backyard as opposed to a studio.  The warmth and intimacy of these songs and performances make it a Macca essential, harkening back to his solo debut, the homespun McCartney and its follow up Ram, a love letter from the home-front.  This might not have any of his biggest hits, but it remains one of my all time favorites from my Beatle of choice.  A truly peerless latter day smash that proves genius doesn’t age, it just ripens.

Choice Cuts: "Riding to Vanity Fair" "Jenny Wren" "How Kind of You" "Fine Line"

#9 Confessions on a Dancefloor - Madonna (56 minutes, Dance-Pop / Nu-Disco)

Madonna, for better and for worse, has defined pop culture ever since she burst onto the scene in 1983 with her ebullient self-titled record full of dance-pop gems that took the world by storm.  In the twenty plus years between that album and Confessions, Madonna made a lot of music, a lot of it excellent, but not since 83 had we ever received another out and out club ready dance record, but in 2005, Madonna put her dancing shoes back on and delivered the club record we’d all been craving.  This record is a pure burst of auditory joy, the electronic dancefloor friendly beats are infectious and have barely dated a day in twenty years.  Stuart Price’s futuristic production gives Madonna great, dynamic grooves over which to sing and let loose with her lyrics, which still maintain a lot of the thoughtfulness and spirituality from her Ray of Light era.  This is elegant, beautiful dance music, it’s not just fat bass and blaring synths, there’s a gracefulness to these compositions that feel like the more pop friendly side to the trip-hoppy electro-pop of the masterful Ray of Light but even more accessible to her casual radio fans.  There’s nary a miss on here (except the sloppy “I Love New York”), and Madge doesn’t sound at all like a twenty year vet, she sounds fresh and hip, but with the life experience of a longer lived pop icon.  As a bounce back after the disastrous momentum-stalling flop, American Life from 2003, it shows that Madonna hadn’t lost any of her charms or way with a pop hook, when she locked in, few could ever hope to reach her level.  This is great pop music, it’s not just candyfloss hooks, there’s a real soul and substance to this.  A hefty, thoughtful album full of wall to wall dance bangers.  Who could ask for more?

Choice Cuts: "Sorry" "Hung Up" "Jump" "Get Together"

#8 The Emancipation of Mimi - Mariah Carey (50 minutes, R&B/Pop)

Mariah Carey was, at the peak of her career, a hitmaker second only to the likes of The Beatles in her ability to net chart-topper after chart-topper, but in 2005, Mariah was coming off an unpredented set of two relative "flop" albums.  The new millennium had stalled her momentum with two back to back albums that yielded little to no big songs, and they lacked the magic of her 90s work due to an overreliance on guest stars.  The fittingly titled Emancipation of Mimi, sees Mariah break free from the expectations of what a Mariah album could be and deliver what many consider to be one of the hallmarks of 00s R&B, a masterpiece featuring hits on hits on hits.  Mariah is in rare form on this album, with the record being primarily filled with up or midtempo material, only featuring one or two true ballads, which as always see Mariah flex her incomparable pipes to deliver stunning, emotional performances, but due to the sheer amount of danceable R&B club songs, this feels much livelier than any of her earlier albums.  Mariah’s grand comeback was very much helped along by a murderer’s row of production talent, with the album getting assists from red hot talents like The Neptunes and prime Kanye, but much of it is masterminded by the 00s R&B genius Jermaine Dupri, who was fresh off of major smashes from Nelly and Usher, giving the record a more modern sheen than Mariah had ever had, making her the new cutting edge of R&B, while still maintaining her soul.  The album’s marriage of Dupri’s sparse, hip-hop influenced beats along with a more traditional, throwback soul style that Mariah imbues in the arrangements (the horns and keys on this album are spectacular) make it an album that feels like a sister to Usher’s brilliant Confessions, not in subject matter but in style.  It’s refreshing to hear Mariah cut loose on this kind of club-ready production, becoming the dance-floor diva we all knew she could be, but the slower numbers are just as good, showcasing her brilliant vocal phrasing and newfound mastery of dynamics.  When she was young, occasionally Mariah could steamroll a song with her raw vocal power, but here she is just as good in the quiet moments.  The big singles here are well remembered, but there truly are very few if any skips here.  This isn’t Mariah’s “I’m back bitch” album, it’s her “I never left” album, and one of the many jewels in her fantastic catalog.

Choice Cuts: "Shake It Off" "We Belong Together" "Mine Again" "It's Like That"

#7 LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem (1 hour and 40 minutes, Dance-Punk / Electronica)

On the iconic “Losing My Edge”, frontman James Murphy delivers the lyric, “I was the first one to play Daft Punk for the rock kids”, but I’d go a step further than that, I’d argue that LCD Soundsystem is Daft Punk for the rock kids.  This record, the outfit’s first is the perfect blend of electronic dance music ala the house pioneers Daft Punk and other euro-DJs and the sleazy, indie rock that was dominant in the alt-scene at the time, creating a sound that’s loud, kinda ugly but always easy to get up and dance to, which was exactly what the indie kids were looking for in 2005.  The grooves on this double album are very rock-influenced in their noisy, sometimes overly fuzzed out production but they are impossible to not dance to, even just a little bit. Even when the songs are mainly just ten minutes of busy electro-funk vamping, I never feel the urge to skip because the beats are just too damn fun and engaging.  Where the best work from Daft Punk is slick, sleek futuristic house that sounds like it could have been made yesterday, LCD Soundsystem revels in sounding almost behind the times, these synths sound dated and kinda chintzy, but that’s part of the charm, it feels like you’re listening to an accomplished older school DJ absolutely crush a club set, but with the jaded, been there done that attitude of a vet who feels he’s being outclassed by the new kids.  While the grooves are agelessly funky, and smothering in crunchy guitar licks that give the album a boost of rock cred, the lyrics are absolutely fantastic, blending the funky chant style of classic P-Funk records with an acerbic, aged wit that makes it sound like Murphy and company are on their seventeenth album not their first.  The laissez-faire, hilariously cutting lyrics about how lame Murphy is for jumping on the dance music bandwagon as an older, former indie kid are sarcastic bliss, it’s hard not to laugh out loud at some of these songs.  There’s a real feeling of exhaustion and boredom that permeates this album, like it’s a midlife crisis record.  That makes it sound not fun, but it’s very fun, trust me.  The first half features the group’s new material, which benefits from tighter song structures, better hooks and great, nuanced performances from Murphy, as a single disc I return to that side more often, where the second half is comprised of the group’s early singles which are more focused on lengthy grooves than real song structuring, but it’s definitely a key part of the album.  As a whole, my sole critique is that sometimes it’s tough to swallow such a long project, but when it’s this much of a good time, I don’t usually mind.  LCD Soundsystem’s following two albums would take the bones of this album and create really strong, timeless album pieces, but for a first try, this absolutely rocks.

Choice Cuts: "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House" "Losing My Edge" "Never as Tired as When I'm Waking Up" "Disco Infiltrator" "Tribulations"

#6 Silent Alarm - Bloc Party (50 minutes, Post-Punk / Indie Rock)

Bloc Party’s debut album is the perfect blend of the past and present, with the group drawing on prominent post-punk and jangle-pop influences like The Smiths and Joy Division, while also channeling their contemporaries like The Strokes and Interpol to craft an album that feels distinctly 2005 while also harkening back to the glory days of their chosen genre.  This sort of guitar-driven jangle-rock isn’t anything new, it’s been a perennial favorite of indie heads since its onset in the early 80s, but Bloc Party don’t always play by the traditional playbook, they have a magic touch, with their musicianship being equally equipped to deliver delicate jangle-pop riffs for sweet, gentle ballads and heavy, Strokes-like rock riffs for their more uptempo moments, and both feel naturally suited to the group’s strengths.  The musicianship on this album is incredible, and allows even the weaker songs to really shine in their group dynamics.  The rhythm section in particular, along with the masterful guitar riffs, are unbelievably tight, their drummer Matt Tong is one of the best I’ve ever heard on an indie record.  Lead singer Kele Okereke, whose voice is able to be as warm and gentle, or roaringly gruff as it needs to be, is another real asset to the group.  Okereke’s keening voice and ability to convey emotion through his heavy English accent is incredible, adding a real depth of feeling to these tracks that Julian Casablancas never has been able to do.  The song-craft is solid, with Okereke’s lyricism really shining on the biting social critique of songs like “The Price of Gasoline” and “Banquet”, though his romantic paean to the banal, “This Modern Love” might be the album’s best moment.  Bloc Party are sometimes considered a one album wonder, I’d heavily disagree as I adore their sophomore as well, but if you’re looking for the group at their best, they knocked it out of the park on the first try.  A modern classic of post-punk that still inspires today.

Choice Cuts: "This Modern Love" "Helicopter" "Like Eating Glass" "Banquet"

#5 Extraordinary Machine - Fiona Apple (50 minutes, Art-Pop / Chamber Pop)

When Fiona Apple releases an album it feels like a holiday, as they come out so infrequently.  Her genius takes long periods to hibernate but when she delivers, it’s a guarantee that the album is going to be at least good, if not truly excellent.  This, her third album, was plagued from the get-go with setback after setback, including an unceremonious leak of the album’s original version, which lead to her rerecording many of the songs with a new production team.  You’d think that an album so belabored with issues would come out worse for wear, but this album doesn’t sound like it was a struggle to make at all, in fact it is one of Apple’s strongest sets of songs, with no moment feeling like filler.  The production from Mike Elizondo, who came up through producing for hip-hop luminaries like 50 Cent and Eminem, gives the record a crisper, more percussion heavy sound that plays very well with Apple’s keening, powerful voice and piano accompaniment.  The production sets it apart from her previous album, which was helmed by Jon Brion whose kaleidoscopic production choices are a stark difference from this album’s more naked, emotional sound palette, where Fiona is able to sit front and center, intimately singing so you can hear every break in her voice.  This is a somber, melancholy set of songs, mainly about heartbreak delivered hauntingly by Apple’s raw, emotive voice which has rarely sounded better in its wispy high registers and growling lower range.  Aside from the Disney-sounding cinematic strings and optimism of the opener, this is heavy stuff, like most of her work, but her poetic license and way with words makes no song feel repetitive, each song examines loneliness, bitterness, self-hatred and heartbreak from a new unique angle, sometimes finding solace in rage other times wistfully wishing she could find a better version of herself.  The sense of play in the instrumentation makes the album a captivating listen, her piano playing has always been creative rhythmically, but she excels in a new melodic territory while maintaining her knack for a sudden tempo change that is a hallmark of so many of her best songs. The percussion (occasionally from Questlove of The Roots) is hypnotic and always a highlight.  While this may lack any knockout single tracks, taken as a whole this is a wondrous, sometimes painful album that shows that even under the most challenging circumstances, Fiona Apple can’t seem to write a weak song.  For what many consider her weakest album, it’s remarkably good.

Choice Cuts: "Not About Love" "Better Version of Me" "O'Sailor" "Waltz (Better Than Fine)"

#4 Gimme Fiction - Spoon (43 minutes, Indie Rock / Post-Punk)

It breaks my heart that Spoon never really broke big, but at the same time, I don’t think they ever really wanted to.  I think it’s because they never really made music that felt “of its time”, never once have I thought a Spoon album felt super representative of its era (with the exception of their Pixies-aping debut platter), instead their music exists on its own spectrum, it sounds like Spoon.  This, the group’s fifth record was a bit of a new direction for Britt Daniel and company, moving away from the sparse, minimalist tendencies of Girls Can Tell and Kill the Moonlight, going for a more fully fleshed out sound, which benefits their songwriting which is more ambitious and interesting than ever.  Where the genius of their earlier albums was in how they could be so catchy and smart while using such little accompaniment, this record revels in a new sound palette and a louder dynamic range.  For the first time, we really get Spoon in rock mode, all of these songs have a real swinging beat, courtesy of the other consistent member, percussionist Jim Eno, who drives these songs with a real energetic touch and some fantastic guitar licks and solos.  The record has a more mysterious quality than any other, it lacks the straight ahead bangers of their later more classic rock tinged projects, the indie quirk is in full effect here with Britt’s oblique lyrics and off-kilter piano parts.  Every song has a unique flair, whether it be the tightly wound guitar-led funk of “I Turn My Camera On” and the hazy nocturnal bass groove of “Was It You?” to the Beatle-y power pop of “Sister Jack” and the tumbling, stream of consciousness piano rocker “My Mathematical Mind”, but they all have the same crisp production and slightly dark atmosphere.  This lacks the immediacy of their pop-friendly follow up Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, but songwriting wise it’s nearly as good, lacking a single skip anywhere in the track list.  This is to date Spoon’s longest album (a testament to their remarkable brevity) and it does feel a bit like their kind of “double album”, it’s a more unique listen than anything else they’d ever done, and for that it stands tall as one of Spoon’s best and brightest.  Not the first Spoon album I’d get, but definitely give it a spin, it’s full of gems.

Choice Cuts: "My Mathematical Mind" "I Turn My Camera On" "Sister Jack" "I Summon You"

#3 Tha Carter II - Lil Wayne (1 hour and 17 minutes, Southern Hip-Hop / Gangsta Rap)

Sequels are rarely, if ever, better than the original, but in the case of southern rap legend Lil Wayne, the second installment of the legendary Carter series takes everything you loved about the first LP and dials it up to eleven, creating an absolute hip-hop blockbuster.  This is Wayne’s first album where he feels like a true star, and he raps like he deserves that spot, spitting bars on bars on bars on every song.  Each track has at least one all-timer lyric, whether it be a riotous punchline, a genius bit of wordplay, an infectious bit of braggadocio or a surprisingly earnest bit of self-reflection.  Wayne has never delivered another consistently brilliant lyrical performance across a single album that stacks up to this one.  One of the highlights of the lengthy track-list is the rap-rock crossover, “Best Rapper Alive”, which expertly flips an Iron Maiden song into an epic, cinematic explosion of lyricism where he states that he’s the best MC in the game after Jay-Z’s 03 “retirement”, and damn if I don’t believe that to be true at least while this album is playing.  His flows are ridiculously tight and his quotables are deathless.  As for his beats, this is his first project to move away from the signature sound of the Cash Money Records stable where he cut his teeth along with fellow Big Tymers like his mentors Birdman and Juvenile.  His Carter I collaborator Mannie Fresh doesn’t contribute a single beat, which means he is able to move away from the New Orleans bounce and southern fried gangsta trap of his early years and play with different sounds, with more expensive synth-heavy beats and a few experiments with smooth soul flips for his lady-centric jams and even a Chipmunk soul beat ala the up and coming Kanye West.  These beats are still great for head-knocking twenty years on, and allow for a versatility that makes sure the album never feels long, even at a gargantuan hour and a twenty minutes.  There aren’t many features, cause Wayne doesn’t need any assists on the mic, but the guest spots from Birdman and a few others are solid, but it’s really all about Weezy F Baby.  The few down to earth earnest moments, where Wayne spits about his desire to raise the spirits of his hometown after the brutal effects of Hurricane Katrina gives this record a substance some of his others lack, but it’s still Wayne and it’s still fun as hell.  Does every song work?  Yeah, just about.  And the hits remain some of his crowning achievements.  On the even more popular Carter III, Wayne would get weirder and wilder, but all the true Weezy fanatics know that he never quite bettered this set.  A Mount Rushmore MC at the peak of his powers.

Choice Cuts: "Hustler Muzik" "Fireman" "Best Rapper Alive" "Receipt" "Tha Mobb"

#2 Late Registration - Kanye West (1 hour and 10 minutes, Hip-Hop / Chamber Pop)

The most telling lyric on this album is when Kanye spits “damn, everybody feel a way about K but at least y’all feel something”, a statement that would only become more prescient with each coming year and controversy weathered by hip-hop’s most unfiltered voice.  Back in 2005, Kanye didn’t seem like such a charged, controversial figure, he was a lovable underdog that made it big with his electric debut album, The College Dropout, and this album feels like a well-earned victory lap, with Kanye having a musical celebration that he’s finally a major label star, but also pushing and innovating on the chipmunk soul flips and wildly funny bars that made him an instant icon.  If College Dropout was like a series of home movies, with a real warmth and homespun quality, then Late Registration is that same talent getting the budget to make his own arthouse movie (before the trilogy completed with Graduation which was the Kanye equivalent of a MCU style blockbuster).  Musically, this album still uses the signature early Ye style of flipping iconic R&B samples and turning them into killer beats, though he somewhat moves away from his chipmunk style into more traditional vocal chops, instead adding levels of sweeping, beautiful live orchestration which makes the album feel full and cinematic in a way he hadn’t tried before.  This album feels like a production, namely due to the combination of Kanye’s beats and the production of Jon Brion, who produced for alt legends Fiona Apple and Elliott Smith, as well as scored lots of classic art house films.  The depth of feeling and musical grandness on display is infectious, and sounds like no other Kanye album, it’s expensive while still feeling warm and cozy.  Lyrically, Kanye keeps the slightly amateurish charm that he had on his debut, his flows aren’t crazy, and instead are melodic and loose.  What has changed is his subject matter, which is much more wide ranging than the come-up narrative that dominated The College Dropout, he still keeps his silliness and sense of humor, with some laugh out loud bars, but he also is more serious than ever, in between the celebrations of his newfound success he grapples with the death of his grandmother, discrimination in the healthcare system, the ethical dilemma of rocking blood diamonds and even a song all about how much he loves his mom.  This isn’t a heavy album, but it’s a thoughtful one (I can’t imagine Ye today making a song as nuanced and smart as “Diamonds from Sierra Leone”).  His feature list is even more stacked than his debut: not only keeping Jay-Z, Common and Consequence but adding in new voices like Lupe Fiasco, Cam’ron, Brandy, Jamie Foxx and even Nas all delivering strong performances.  I adore this album, because it reminds me of a time when Kanye was an aspirational figure, an underdog you wanted to root for, not a monster mired in controversy after controversy where his music is no longer truly of consequence.  Some might say I miss the Old Kanye, I sure do.  It’s a toss up between any of his first three albums which I consider my favorite, but whenever I listen to this one, it’s hard to argue against this.  A mature, ambitious hip-hop masterpiece.

Choice Cuts: "Diamonds from Sierra Leone (Remix)" "Hey Mama" "We Major" "Touch the Sky" "Gone"

#1 Demon Days - Gorillaz (50 minutes, Trip-Hop / Alternative Rock)

For Damon Albarn, I’m not sure Gorillaz was meant to be anything more than a goofy side-project, a weird off-shoot from his primary career as lead singer and songwriter behind Britpop titans Blur, yet if you ask anyone today I think more folks would be able to recognize him from the cartoon indie superstars Gorillaz than Blur.  This album was the one that has rocketed Gorillaz from a kitschy novelty to a truly innovative group all their own, laying down a truly hypnotic record that blends trip-hop textures with sleepy alt-rock vocals, electronic beats and off the wall rap verses from a murderer’s row of guest stars.  It’s hard to put this record into words, as I’ve never quite found anything like it sonically, it’s a true cosmic gumbo of genres, where it creates a sonic world all its own, a dystopic wonderland of morose atmosphere and languid beats. The record is as far away from the disparate genre experiments of the group’s first record, this is cohesive and well thought out, each song flowing seamlessly into the next, it’s genuinely challenging to listen to just one song on its own without wanting to dive into the entire project from top to bottom.  There’s a real sense of scope and worldbuilding that many other albums can’t boast, and it all feels so simple, it never feels effortful, which is the genius of Damon Albarn’s laissez-faire, almost disinterested sounding vocals, which make the album’s political commentary on our societal apathy so much more cutting.   I'll be real, I'm not sure what exactly the cartoon band members add, other than a unique visual aesthetic that really makes their music videos shine, but on record, it's all about Damon Albarn. Lyrically, there are some oblique moments, but the politically charged moments hit hard today, with brutal critiques of environmental destruction and the mindless hatred and greed that fueled the Iraq War.  While Albarn’s misanthrophic voice grounds much of the album, another genius move is off-setting himself with a stacked line up of guest MCs who liven up the proceedings with killer verses.  The spots from MF Doom, De La Soul, Bootie Brown (of Pharcyde fame) and others make it stand out from other moody indie leaning projects, showing a real desire to accomplish genuine genre fusion.  Musically, the hazy electronics are always grounded with real life instruments, whether it be a muted string section, fuzzy guitar licks or churchy organs, the sound palette is beautifully desolate.  This is an album about slowly slipping into dystopia, and it sounds like it, while still being an enjoyable musical experience I can’t help but love returning to.  While some prefer the even more ambitious experiments of their environmentally conscious Plastic Beach, I believe that Gorillaz, and Damon Albarn as a whole, peaked here.  This still sounds remarkably forward thinking and prescient today, twenty years later.  And if that’s not the mark of a masterpiece, I don’t know what is.  Don’t get lost in heaven, but please do get lost in this album, and do it often.

Choice Cuts: "Feel Good Inc." "DARE" "Dirty Harry" "Kids with Guns" "Every Planet We Reach Is Dead"

And that's 2005 everybody! Twenty years on, these albums are still as good as the day they came out and for that give them a spin on your turntable. The Best of 2015 is coming soon. Let me know below if there's anything you think I missed, or any thoughts of your own on these brilliant projects!

Happy listening!