Below you'll find my favorites (and non-favorites) of the year. Please note that if an album was released abroad (Dungen) or completely under the radar (Cut Copy) in 2004 I still considered them as 2005 releases. So let's not get too technical. Best albums will be up later this week.

Songs of the Year, by Artist

BRMC / "Weight of the World"
Bloc Party / "Compliments" +"Like Eating Glass"
The Chemical Brothers / "The Boxer" + "Galvanize"
Cut Copy / "That Was Just a Dream / Zap Zap"
The Decemberists / "The Engine Driver"
Dungen / "Panda" + "Festival"
Franz Ferdinand / "Outsiders"
The Game / "Hate It or Love It"
Interpol / "Song Seven"
Kent / "Palace & Main"
The Kills / "Love is a Deserter"
The Magic Numbers / "Love Me Like You"
Mahjongg / "Jamdek"
Mew / "Special" + "Apocalypso"
Monster & Maskiner / "I Won't Stay"
Nine Inch Nails / "Only"
Okkervil River / "Another Radio Song" + "For Real"
Panthers / "Thank Me With Your Hands [MSTRKRFT Remix]"
The Rosebuds / "Boxcar"
Royksopp / "What Else Is There?"
Spoon / "The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine" + "I Summon You"
Stars / "One More Night"
Stereophonics / "Dakota"
The Strokes / "You Only Live Once" + "The Other Side"
Vitalic / "The Past" + "Trahison" + "U and I"
Tom Vek / "I Ain't Saying My Goodbyes"
Voxtrot / "The Start of Something"


The Shark Sandwich Memorial Award: shockingly mediocre albums from otherwise respectable artists:

1. M83 / Before the Dawn Heals Us
Following up what I ranked as the #2 album of 2004, Anthony Gonzalez got rid of his apparently better half and made his solo voyage with M83 a massively disappointing one. Whereas Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts was a warm, beautiful epic, this feels like a reheated '80s schlockfest, all capped perfectly with titanically lame horror-movie narration. In spite of its latent shittiness, this album was actually pretty well reviewed.
2. Daft Punk / Human After All
My favorite part about this album was that they leaked some fake tracks which turned out to be better than the actual album tracks. With Discovery the DP boys brought a little more human touch to their electronica, so given the title we thought they might keep moving in that same direction. Nope. Instead it's a series of repetitive one-trick ponies, which could have been OK had the single tricks been even vaguely impressive. The title track is the lone highlight.

The High Expectations Are a Bitch Awards: decent to very good albums which I expected a whole more from

1. Franz Ferdinand / You Could Have It So Much Better
2. Nada Surf / The Weight is a Gift
3. British Sea Power / Open Season
4. Garbage / Bleed Like Me
5. The Bravery / The Bravery
6. Stars / Set Yourself on Fire

The Kool-Aid Awards: bands that I apparently should have loved but didn't at all

1. Wolf Parade
2. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
3. MIA
4. LCD Soundsystem