Albums of 2005 (so far...)

I was having an argument with someone on MSN yesterday about the amount of good music that had come out this year. He was trying to tell me that nothing really interesting had come out at all, and as I'd only spoken to this person once before, I asked who he had been listening to. He then informed me that the Coldplay album was the only good thing he'd bought this year, and everything else was a load of rubbish.

Now this is a problem with a lot of people. They don't bother buying anything because everything sounds like rubbish, when really they just haven't made the effort to listen to any of the good stuff. Same with old people, who resign themselves to the thrills of a new Paul Weller album because they think all the other music in the world sounds like Girls Aloud. Anyway I've probably discovered more great bands and heard more great albums this year than I can remember for a long time. I'm not sure whether that's because i've been looking for more and researching more, but it still seems like a lot of amazing stuff is coming out right now.

Therefore here's a list of my essential records of 2005 thus far. I think it's a pretty impressive list, considering this is just the stuff I can remember, and excludes a lot of the great reissues that have come out this year. It also probably (well definitely) excludes a bunch of stuff that I don't like but a lot of people obviously (Bright Eyes) do. If you want to make a poor student a tiny bit of money, you can click on the records to buy them on Amazon. Go on. Be kind.

Ryan Adams - Cold Roses	...Trail Of Dead - World's Apart	Antony & The Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now	The Arcade Fire - Funeral
Devendra Banhart - Cripple Crow	Belle & Sebastian - Push Barman To Open Old Wounds	Belle Orchestre - S/T	Bjork - Drawing Restraint
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm	Bonnie Prince Billy & Matt Sweeney - Superwolf	Laura Cantrell - Humming By The Flowered Vine	Coco Rosie - Noah's Ark
Death From Above 1979 - You're A Woman, I'm A Machine	Decemberists - Picaresque	Bob Dylan - No Direction Home	Eels - Blinking Lights & Other Revelations
The Fall - Complete John Peel Sessions	Fantomas - Suspended Animation	Kraftwerk - Minimum-Maximum	Low - The Great Destroyer
Mogwai - Government Commissions	New Pornographers - Twin Cinema	Dave Pajo - Pajo	Sleater Kinney - The Woods
Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise	Super Furry Animals - Love Kraft	Teenage Fanclub - Man-Made	Laura Veirs - Year Of Meteors
Martha Wainwright - S/T	Wedding Present - Take Fountain	Saul Williams - S/T	Patrick Wolf - Wind In The Wires