Stereogum Readers Poll: Top 20 Albums Of 2005
This year, Stereogum wanted you -- the readers -- to decide the year's best albums. Thousands voted during our 7 day poll and we've finally tallied the Top 20.
As promised, one of you (selected randomly) wins the lot of 'em, purchased NEW from an ACTUAL STORE ... so you can regift the ones with rootkits.
Props to those who gave Monk & Coltrane's Carnegie reissue a shoutout. And to everyone who couldn't get enough Kidz Bop. To the guy who said Walk The Line's Soundtrack was 2005's best: go buy a Johnny Cash album ... one without Jaoquin Phoenix. To the gal who voted for Simply Red's remix CD: I think you're reading the wrong blog.
One poll taker wrote in, "No good music has been released since 1998." Thank god he didn't win.
Kanye may claim Stereogum Readers Hate Black People, but Jed, Jim, and I think your responses were top-notch, even if you are racist. Thanks for voting, thanks for reading, have a great holiday.
 | 20 KANYE WEST Late Registration (Roc-A-Fella) RELEASED: August 30 Buy It! | |
|---|---|---|
 | 19 BRIGHT EYES I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning (Saddle Creek) RELEASED: January 25 Buy It! | |
 | 18 LCD SOUNDSYSTEM s/t (Capitol) RELEASED: February 15 Buy It! | |
 | 17 ANDREW BIRD Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production Of Eggs (Righteous Babe) RELEASED: February 8 Buy It! | |
 | 16 OKKERVIL RIVER Black Sheep Boy (Jagjaguwar) RELEASED: April 5 Buy It! | |
 | 15 GRIZZLY BEAR Horn Of Plenty (w/ Bonus Remixes) (Kanine) RE-RELEASED: November 8 Buy It! | |
 | 14 ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS I Am A Bird Now (Secretly Canadian) RELEASED: February 1 Buy It! | |
 | 13 THE NATIONAL Alligator (Beggars) RELEASED: April 12 Buy It! | |
 | 12 M.I.A. Arular (XL) RELEASED: March 22 Buy It! | |
 | 11 Animal Collective Feels (Fat Cat) RELEASED: October 18 Buy It! | |
 | 10 My Morning Jacket Z (ATO) RELEASED: October 4 Buy It! | |
 | 09 SLEATER-KINNEY The Woods (Subpop) RELEASED: May 24 Buy It! | |
 | 08 THE DECEMBERISTS Picaresque (Kill Rock Stars) RELEASED: March 22 Buy It! | |
 | 07 BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE s/t (Arts & Crafts) RELEASED: October 4 Buy It! | |
 | 06 NEW PORGRAPHERS Twin Cinema (Matador) RELEASED: August 23 Buy It! | |
 | 05 SPOON Gimme Fiction (Merge) RELEASED: May 10 Buy It! | |
 | 04 CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH s/t (CYHSY) RELEASED: October 11 Buy It! | |
 | 03 BLOC PARTY Silent Alarm (Vice) RELEASED: March 22 Buy It! | |
 | 02 WOLF PARADE Apologies To The Queen Mary (Subpop) RELEASED: September 27 Buy It! |
 | 01 SUFJAN STEVENS Illinois (Asthmatic Kitty) RELEASED: July 5 Buy It! |
|---|
And our randomly generated winner: Zac Cianflone. Congrats Zac!
UPDATE: You may have noticed Arcade Fire on the list earlier. I included them because pollmaster Jim said "Some people had convoluted arguments for considering AF an 05 release." I just read the arguments ... and they're not very good. So I put the Arcade Fire out. Welcome Kanye.
Posted at 9:00 AM in Contest
Tags: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
woah grizzly bear's in the top 20! nice! but what's up with them and animal collective not being higher? laaaaame. i'm not mad though....
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yeah it is nice, to see all these albums that didn't make it on other lists, hence why this reader poll is a lot more fun than the critics polls. bird/bear/national all albums i didn't see much of in other lists
good to see that alligator album getting some respect
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LCD Soundsystem. Man... never caught the bug. Also, nice to see Arular in the top 20, but not the top 10. Still a bit vexed about Pfork...
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i better have won and i want mine on vinyl
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if i won i will seriously cry with joy. what a freakin' awesome prize. crossing my fingers.
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Merry Friggin' Christmas Stereogum
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This is shaping up to be a much better top list than Pitchfork's....
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So far, SO good.
Happy hols Stereogum!
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i just got word Oasis wins
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I was kinda hopin' Journey's new cd without Steve Perry would chart
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I wasn't into the LCD album much either till I saw the show. Check out my top ten list...click my name.
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spacejunks top ten list just posted
http://www.spacejunk.org
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i'm kind of irked that "feels" wasn't top 5
i also never listned to the national before
i saw them host mtv2's subterranean and the guy seemed like a prick sort of
very glad about of montreal's charting
they were delightful this past september at UVA
a merry, merry, secular-humanist-non-denominational-winter giving season to EVERYONE!!
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I just read Rolling Stones' top 50 Albums of this year... man, you've got much more knowledgeable readers then those jokes over at RS... wtf?
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I just read Rolling Stones' top 50 Albums of this year... man, you've got much more knowledgeable readers then those jokes over at RS... wtf? You should do a side by side comparison... where is the new Rolling Stone album or the new Boss album? Looks like I'll be doing a whole lot of re-gifting after I win.
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At least Antony's not in the top 10.
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I really hope Spoon made it to the top 10.........
we all know Sufjan won. I mean look at the "hottest" indie rock girl of 05...that chick is busted...
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again, franz omg franz dudes franz needs 2 win franz ferdinand forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(if not them then interpol)
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Yeah, this is so far a pretty good list. Nice mix of the popular with the less-popular (Grizzly Bear, Okkervil and Andrew Bird charting is pretty impressive). It's weird to see that a list that was voted on is more interesting than P-fork's.
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i'm still hoping scott will list his personal top 20 anyway. last year his top 14 turned me on to so many great albums i would have otherwise missed.
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i'm sorry but after seeing grizzly bear live i can't listen to their music at all. they were all either extraordinarily drunk or the worst fucking band of all time. i think the smart money is on the latter. i'd rather see man man for fuck's sake.
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you must've been drunk, darlin.
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...and Man Man's awesome.
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man that mustve been a terrible grizzly bear show and that sucks for you. but i dont believe it really. where did you see them at?
because when i saw them in bloomington is when i completely sparked all my recent interest in them. worst band of all time?! to me, theyre new songs are amazing that they played. they have a beautiful new direction and sound. it was so awesome when i saw them. they intelligently incorporated so many different instruments and sounds and beautiful moments. it was intimate yet huge sounding. seriously, i was blown away. maybe youve got the wrong band? where did you see them?
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get bright eyes off that list and its a-ok
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jed and i saw grizzly bear at the bowery ballroom's katrina benefit, and it was huge, so that must have been an off show, J. i was really happy to see them voted into the top 20.
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Those two of you that wanted Spoon and Franz on this list might as well hit up the Rolling Stone Top 50 and dance with the masses... don't get me wrong, love them both, but there was so much more spectacular music out there this year... Mike, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning was completely deserving if not more than what was voted. Peace!
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are you kidding me??? Rolling Stone was all over Oberst's nuts earlier this year calling him the new Dylan and all sorts of shit...
I read every issue of RS and not once did they mention Gimme Fiction besides a review I think....get the fuck outta here....Bright Eyes is OK but come on, the world needs more Spoon and less whiny boring quiet indie boys.
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JayFlyer, why are you even reading Rolling Stone?
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dont forget Devin Davis Lonely People album
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Everybody forgot about M.Ward too
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WTF National's not #1???
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im really glad andrew bird made the list. he is one of the greatest artists in music right now, in my opinion.
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What, no Cam'ron?
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here are my highly-opinionated top 19 songs of 2005, complete with streaming audio and commentary:
http://krupsjustsayin.blogspot.com/2005/12/number-ones-that-never-werebest-of.html
enjoy...
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so far i have both my top 16 songs list and my top 10 remix lists of 2005 up.. both with complete mp3s.. enjoy
http://callmemickey.blogspot.com
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Since everybody else seems to be posting their own lists, I might as well do the same....everyone seems to like the same shit anyway.
http://bottleofbread.blogspot.com/
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almost merry christmas...heres a dancy techno number for the holidays.
"2040 Santa Claus"
http://www.runofftheplanet.com/santaclaus.mp3
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These comments are degenerating fast...lol..starting with insights on who might be in the top 10, to snapping on each others opinions, to pimping individual best of lists, to remixes...merry Christmas
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hey, cool. the national. 'abel,' totally gives that album the right to be there, indeed.
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so like,
franz ferdinand you could have it so much better.
i love that bright eyes is in the running.
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kudos to grizzly bear. and kudos to ben, their live show is amazing.
also excited to see Okkeril on here. most of these i like minus bright eyes, but i'm not 100 percent opposed
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You're a total beatch promising the Top 20 and only giving us 20-11. You may burn in hell for that. Cad.
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So now you have..hmmm I'd say about an hour and 5 minutes to give us the other 10 albums, and if not...I suggest anarchy.
Any other ideas?
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I suggest peace, love, and understanding. It's what Sufjan would do.
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The National is mello hipster garbage, M.I.As album was a medicre Piracy Funds Terrorism, and LCD Soundsystem is just shite.
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Medicre.
Hahah.
Medicre.
Stupid.
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All you guys are sitting here speculating on Sufjan and Franz Ferdinand, but you're overlooking the most OBVIOUS winner of all:
Scott Stapp
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People are bitter about these things, man. I am A-mazed. Granted, I did enjoy seeing stuff that I wasn't such a fan of "only" in the top 20, but woah. Let us bear in mind that if one refers to any of these albums as "trash" one is probably trying to be a bit too much of an indie rock kid, à la Something Awful's classification. Anyhoo, metacritic has a pretty nifty evaluation (& cool graph) comparing the top 10s of different sources at http://www.metacritic.com/music/bests/2005.shtml.
And where, pray, are the top 10? Inquiring minds still want to know.
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Damn, I think The Grinch Stole the Top Ten!
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nice list so far. were are the rest? the national is an interesting one. in my top 5 this year....seems to make most of the lists, though absent from pfork's list. maybe because it isn't quirky...or perhaps because it is a very slow burner. but almost everyone i know loves it. i never got into MIA or MMJ.
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i'm going to have to disagree with the claim that the national is "mello" hipster garbage. just 'cause. but i would agree with them not being on the list and just having the song 'abel,' as a top XX single of the year. either way, i don't care - but here's a video of the song, since i couldn't find an mp3 anywhere.
http://www.partizan.us/musicvideos/ais/national.html
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Yay. Decemberists.
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If I would have known that the Arcade Fire's debut would have been considered I would have voted that #1... though rightly so since it had little recongnition last year being released so late.
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1. no franz ferdinand. hoorah! i've listened to it a few times all the way through and it just doesn't really do anything for me. just seems like franz-by-numbers at this point.
2. illinois as #1 was super, no, mega obvious. he could fart on a snare drum and the hipsters would cream themselves over it.
3. very glad to see mmj, s-k and spoon all in the top 11.
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the national mellow? have you seen them live? they are f-ing amazing and anything but mellow.
first three tracks on wolf parade are my faves of the year....a lot of the rest i just cant even listen to. strange. spoon album has 7 great tracks and the rest is so so. and there are too many fuzzed out guitar solos a la jeff tweedy. sufjan is a genius.
great list.
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why did you even count the Arcade Fire votes?
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So good to see Bloc Party in the top three -- the most enjoyable album for me this year.
btw, the bit about creaming the pants made me laugh for about five minutes.
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Apollo Sunshine, And Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, "Naturally" they MUST have been 21 and 22?!
Ho Ho Ho.
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bloc party? that's a joke, right?
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i am just happy that the new porgraphers acquired a respectable slot on the top 20.
/yeah i like to knock typos
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I don't understand the hype over Gimme Fiction... don't get me wrong, I love Spoon, but GF was not deserving of a #5 listing... looks like hipsters are still creaming over Kill the Moonlight.
I don't know Carlolove... why would such an amazingly solid debute album land at #3? Have you listened to BP? Get with it.
I think this list is solid... we readers of Stereogum really know are shit... just amazed there was no Hold Steady rocking out the top 20. Scott, where did HS land?
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i like this list a lot. a lot of expected ones, some annoyingly expected ones like wolf and clap, and then other great ones that were uderrated like grizzly bear and andrew bird
i think this is a pretty neat list
wish I'd won it
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CYHSY #4.
YEAH YEAH.
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I also have an opinion! http://jakemohan.net/archives/881
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Wow... no Hold Steady?
Everybody's top 20 but nobody's number one I guess.
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no Starsailor?????
the outrage!
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Finally someone put MMJ and the Decemberists in a top ten. Those were damn good albums. MMJ was my personal fav of the year btw and the Decemberists put on the best show I saw all year.
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i hate this list. mostly because i didn't win.
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best list yet. love some of it. hate some of it.
i knew there was a reason i've wasted/spent/enjoyed about an hour a day at work reading the ramblings of the stereogum crowd.
happy new year to everyone who ever wrote, "first post, bitches," and to all the rest of us who thought about it the few times we had a chance...
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You totally spelled my name wrong. I am the true winner and in my heart I know it is so.
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if i read the words 'hipsters' and 'creaming themselves' in one more sentence i'll hit you all with an originality stick.
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was totally expecting the decemberists and CYHSY to rank higher. oops
i'm saving my lists until dec. 27th (albums i loved this year that were released before 2005) and dec. 31st (albums of the year)
http://clevertitlesaresolastsummer.blogspot.com
seriously, it'll be grand. (i know, shameless self-promotion....)
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Hipsters cream themselves over mello hipster garbage.
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I love it! Merry Christmas!
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umm, ok. no mountain goats?? i'm at a loss at this one, really. nothing like a little hipster hyp to ride your way to the best of the year lists, hey, lcd soundsystem? m.i.a.? animal collective? kanye west?
good god, please.
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This crap is trite, unoriginal, and boring. Keiji Haino's Black Blues (both Soft and Violent versions) are/is the best release this year, followed by Broadcast's Tender Buttons, and any/every D Yellow Swans release. And Black Dice. Anyway, you people need to read more (or any) Wire Magazine and stop being Pitchfork-lite.
And to the jackass who's about to say "Then why are you here?", I regrettably followed a link someone sent me.
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^three cheers for snobs!
or not!
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Nice picks!
I am happy to say that I own every CD in your top 10!
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Also shocked at the Hold Steady shutout. Not that I'm an expert, but it was my #1 of 2005.
Is it because (gross generalization to follow) no girls like them?
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kanye in place of arcade fire over a temporal technicality? funeral transcends time and place, while kanye is simply a walking gimmick. get it together, people.
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Scooter, please post your personal list's this year!!!!
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