Basically because I don’t want to do homework, my top ten albums of 2005:

10. Andrew Bird – The Mysterious Production of Eggs
This album has two transcendent songs (Fake Palindromes and Tables and Chairs) and a lot of very good ones.

9. Of Montreal – The Sunlandic Twins
Some people saw this as a let-down after the possibly-brighter Satanic Panic. I think it’s more a delivery on the promise of poppy electronica Kevin Barnes hadn’t quite achieved with that album. This is the year’s most danceable album, hands down.

8. Spoon – Gimme Fiction
A complete redemption from the relative dullness of Kill the Moonlight, this album sees Spoon fleshing out their winning formula and Britt Daniels writing what may be the strongest songs of his career.

7. Animal Collective – Feels
I’m a latecomer to AC; I tracked down their previous work last year and decided that Sung Tongs was a complete anomaly: everything else they’d done sounded like shit. Feels proves me wrong, and I’m glad of it. Still sounding like nothing else you’ve ever heard, Animal Collective are also still sounding listenable. And that’s pretty great.

6. The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema
At first, this album seemed unlikely to top Electric Version. But I’ve slowly come to realize that it’s better. Much better. The Pornographers are stretching, and they probably had to in order to remain fresh. Luckily their idea of stretching still includes incredible music – I think The Bleeding Heart Show was the first song I fell in love with this year.

5. Sufjan Stevens – Illinois
I haven’t listened to this in a few months – I overplayed it so much when it leaked that it’s prematurely aged, much like Sufjan will if he tries to keep this gimmick up. El oh el. But Illinois is a brilliant album, nonetheless – an improvement on Michigan in terms of lyrics (Casimir Pulaski Day, Predatory Wasp of the Palisades) and instrumentation (Chicago).

4. Sigur Rós – Takk...
Perhaps because I never expected it to reach the heights of Parentheses, this album impressed the hell out of me. Hoppipolla became my “music to wake up to” for about two months, and listening to the album on the bike ride home from work at 4 AM provided me with much-needed calm.

3. Stars – Set Yourself on Fire
A surprise! I had never heard of this band before this fall, and then I realized how incredible they were. Witty-yet-personal lyrics, catchy melodies...I fell hard for this album. Especially the first half, which is absolutely killer.

2. The Lucksmiths – Warmer Corners
Another surprise! I heard about this band early Spring semester, and they’ve remained a favorite ever since. The Lucksmiths are also great at pairing great melodies and lyrics, though they’re a bit less power pop and a bit more Belle and Sebastian than Stars are. But better! The closing track, Fiction, is phenomenal. And you know what? So is the rest of the album.

1. Super Furry Animals – Love Kraft
Now this is not such a surprise. I would have predicted this album would be my favorite, and it is. But it deserves it. After 2003’s Phantom Power, where SFA directed barbs at US foreign policy, they’ve taken a left turn and written songs about dinosaurs, utopias, and apoca-lips. SFA are, to my mind, the best band out there right now – and while they mostly take a break from the electronics this album, they don’t falter a bit. Well, maybe a bit – Back on a Roll is below their usual mark. But it’s the sort of track that a lesser band would be happy to write. This album just makes me happy, from the splash-into-the-pool sound to the final Dennis-Wilson-esque piano part. If I haven’t tried to push it on you, count yourself damn lucky you didn't have to listen to me and damn unlucky you didn't get to listen to this.

Honorable mentions (basically, I didn’t feel like ranking after 10): Shout Out Louds – Howl Howl Gaff Gaff, Fruit Bats – Spelled in Bones, Archer Prewitt – Wilderness, Gorillaz – Demon Days, M. Ward – Transistor Radio, Immaculate Machine – Ones and Zeroes

Well, it's a very pop-heavy list. This is maybe to be expected and definitely indicative of what I'm usually feeling like spending time on recently. It was a fairly good year for music, but I expect next year to be even better.