The 50 Greatest CDs of 2005

50. Liz Phair
Somebody’s Miracle
Capitol
The ex-indie queen goes all Wisteria Lane, singing about doomed affairs and being desperate for love.

49. Devendra Banhart
Cripple Crow
XL
Beautiful, hairy, weird-ass folkie sings beautiful, hairy, weird-ass folk about beards, trees and children.

48. Amy Rigby
Little Fugitive
Signature Sounds
Roots-rock underdog makes mid-life romance sound as exciting as teenage one-night stands.

47. R. Kelly
TP.3 Reloaded
Jive
Troubled Chicago soul man continues his improbable comeback with an album full of sex in strange places.

46. Bobby Pinson
Man Like Me
RCA
Roughneck Texas country about growing up in a one-stoplight town and dying to get the hell out.

45. Lightning Bolt
Hypermagic Mountain
Load
Monstrous Rhode Island noise-metal duo — also known as When Art School Students Attack.

44. Kaiser Chiefs
Employment
Universal
More proof that the U.K. consists of nothing but white boys with better haircuts and dance moves than you.

43. Keyshia Cole
The Way It Is
A&M
World-weary dis tracks from a 22-year-old R&B rookie with Kanye in her corner.

42. My Morning Jacket
Z
ATO/RCA
Slimmed-down and synthed-up, the jammy Kentuckians’ fourth LP is their finest yet.

41. Keren Ann
Nolita
Metro Blue
A love letter to New York from an Israeli-Dutch singer-songwriter who lives in Paris. U.N. holla!

40. Broken Social Scene
Broken Social Scene
Arts & Crafts
Like 12 guitarists, two trumpeters and one kitchen-sinkist.

39. Clipse
We Got It 4 Cheap, Vol. 2
Mixunit.com
The Virginia duo drop 2005’s finest mixtape, full of exquisite beat-jacking and vicious drug-game raps.

38. Hot Hot Heat
Elevator
Sire
Wisecracking hipsters from Canada’s west coast come pogoing back for more songs about mean girls.

37. Sufjan Stevens
Illinois
Asthmatic Kitty
Feel-great indie-pop — but what can he possibly say about New Mexico? Check back with us in 48 years.

36. The Darkness
One Way Ticket to Hell … and Back
Atlantic
Back with 65% more falsetto, 100% more pan flute and 5,000% more cock.

35. Kings of Leon
Aha Shake Heartbreak
RCA
Jaded Nashville hipsters ask, “Is there anything more to life than supermodels and good drugs?”

34. Death Cab for Cutie
Plans
Atlantic
The lush, poignant sound of an overarticulate indie-rock dude pining for indie-rock hotties.

33. System of a Down
Hypnotize
Columbia
A pipe-bomb of a record, full of whipsaw riffs, barbed sloganeering and intimidating facial hair.

32. The Magic Numbers
The Magic Numbers
Capitol
Four rotund English hippies hit the wayback machine.

31. Amadou & Mariam
Dimanche a Bamako
Nonesuch
A blind Malian couple plead for world peace over disco, rock and spindly Afrobeat riffs.

30. Coheed and Cambria
Good Apollo …
Columbia
Cast level-seven emo wizardry! Activate falsetto! Thunderous prog riffs, attack!

29. Sleater-Kinney
The Woods
Sub Pop
The Olympia indie trio whip up an orgy of feedback and bloodcurdling shrieks about relationships gone, or going, horribly wrong.

28. Gary Allan
Tough All Over
MCA Nashville
From the dusty-voiced California cowboy, a devastating tribute to the wife who passed away last year.

27. Giant Drag
Hearts and Unicorns
Kickball/Interscope
L.A.’s deceptively cute boy-girl duo play precious pop about how much they hate you.

26. Neil Young
Prairie Wind
Reprise
Shakey curls up with some soft-stirred, soft-sung country rock—but his lyrics are anything but calming.

25. Bun B
Trill
Rap-A-Lot
Like Hideki Matsui: a crafty veteran makes his belated rookie bow

2005 was the year Houston’s rap scene seeped on to national radars, filling MTV with slow-mo tempos and heartfelt odes to vintage Cadillacs. But the best H-Town album came courtesy of a man who’s been on the scene for decades. On his solo debut, Bun B hustles the kind of street-vérité drug tales that made his duo, UGK, regional heroes and gangsta-rap visionaries. A fleet of younger Southern boys (Ludacris, Mike Jones, Young Jeezy) and longtime homeys (Jay-Z, Scarface) ride shotgun.

24. The Hold Steady
Separation Sunday
French Kiss
Brooklyn dickhead declaims some of the best lyrics in rock

Did you ever wish classic rock was about upper Midwestern suburban drug fiends with ballpoint tattoos and not-quite-numb hearts, who are haunted by Jesus Christ and obsessed with Kate Bush but hate new wave? Well, Craig Finn obviously did, and so he made his wish come true on a record that rocks like a hurricane while spinning gnarly stories that don’t sound entirely made up. America’s most literary bar band, hands down.

23. The Rolling Stones
A Bigger Bang
Virgin
Leathery geezers get their ya-ya’s out

The World’s Greatest Rock & Roll Band may have seen better and less wrinkly days, but their gazillionth album is their best in nearly two decades. Here, the Stones reach back to the rustic country and blues that distinguished their early-’70s classics, writing tunes rich with the dodgy humor and righteousness that come with age. They’re finally settling into their perch as rock’s reigning dirty old men.

22. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Clapyourhandssayyeah.com
And they’re not even Canadian!

This buzzy crew were the blog success story of 2005, selling 25,000 copies of their homemade debut out of singer Alec Ounsworth’s Brooklyn apartment. Named after a stray bit of graffiti, CYHSY (that’s what the cool kids call ’em) dreamed up a hipster Neverland full of chewy riffs, catchy melodies and lyrics about war and blood and falling behind in the rent, winning over tastemakers like Davids Byrne and Bowie along the way.

21. The Game
The Documentary
Aftermath/g-unit/ Interscope
Bloody opening shot from a Cali MC who sees dead people

Call it The Ghost Whisperer: Compton Edition. On his debut, 26-year-old Jayceon Taylor references rap’s fallen heroes nearly to the point of obsession. Of course, if you’d survived five slugs to the chest, arms and legs and a three-day coma, you might be preoccupied with death too. Featuring impeccable beats from Dre, Kanye and Timbaland and rhymes by Game’s homey-turned-nemesis-turned-who-knows-what, 50 Cent.

20. Spoon
Gimme Fiction
Merge
More slacker greatness from the perennial Next Big Things

There comes a time when most every indie band has to throw in the towel and head back to grad school. Just don’t tell Spoon. The quirky Austin outfit, led by stuffy-voiced frontman Britt Daniel, have been plugging away in semi-obscurity for more than 10 years; their fifth album glides along on hooky charm and the bittersweet knowledge that this is as good as it’s gonna get. But it’s not the sound of settling — it’s the sound of settling in.


To find out which albums made the top 20, pick up the latest issue of Blender on newsstands now!