Best Albums of 2005

Just before Christmas I handed out my worst albums of the year and now it’s time for the best ones. It was a dog fight for number one as there were only two albums that got the coveted Extreme Warning on my Terror Alert Scale. Both were worthy but I went with the one that always finds its way into my CD player while the other has a song or two that I will occasionally skip while listening to. For those that are interested to check these albums on the list out, the link on the album goes directly to iTunes while the links in the parentheses go to my original reviews. Feel free to leave some of your favorite albums of the past year in the comment section.


1. Wreck of the Day – Anna Nalick (These Words Are My Diary Singing Out Load)
2. Late Registration – Kanye West (You Gotta Love it Though Someone Still Speaks From His Soul)
3. Songs for Silverman – Ben Folds (If You Wrote Me Off I’d Understand It)
4. Room Noises – Eisley (You Humor Me Today)
5. Stand Up – Dave Matthews Band (Bring That Beat Back To Me Again)
6. Plans – Death Cab for Cutie (A Melody Softly Souring Through My Atmosphere)
7. In Between Dreams – Jack Johnson (We Drew Our Own Constellations)
8. Before the Robots – Better Than Ezra (3 ½ Minutes Felt Like a Lifetime)
9. Why Should the Fire Die? - Nickel Creek (You Came Along and Made Me Smile)
10. Get Lifted – John Legend (We’re Just Ordinary People)
11. Extraordinary Machine – Fiona Apple (I Promise You Everything Will Be Just Fine)
12. TwentythreePrettyman – Tristan Prettyman (I Wish You Couldn’t Take Your Eyes Off of Me)
13. The Breakthrough – Mary J. Blige (Anyone Who’s Ever Loved You Know Just What I Feel)
14. Hot Fuss: Limited Edition – The Killers ( I Got Soul But I’m Not a Soldier)
15. Everything in Transit – Jack’s Mannequin (I’ll Send This Message Through the Speakers)
16. Slow Motion – David Gray ( A Bucketful of Babylon)
17. Ain’t Nobody Worryin’ – Anthony Hamilton (If You Catch Me Dreaming, Please Don’t Wake Me Till I’m Done)
18. 29 – Ryan Adams (Can You Still Have Any Famous Last Words if You’re Somebody Nobody Knows)
19. A Time to Love – Stevie Wonder (We Can’t Sing a Song With No Melody)
20. Back Home – Eric Clapton (I Need to Hear That Song)
21. Try! – John Mayer Trio (Am I the One Who Plays the Quiet Songs?)
22. X&Y – Coldplay (All That Noise, All That Sound)
23. Out of Nothing – Embrace (Now Watch Me Rise Up and Leave)
24. The Sound of White – Missy Higgins (I See You’ve Painted Your Soul)
25. All That I Am – Santana (Your Fire Fills My Soul)
26. Oral Fixation vol. 2 – Shakira (What Language Do You Speak if You Speak at All)
27. Wikked Lil’ Grrrls – Esthro (We R in Need of a Musical Revolution)
28. On the Strength of All Convinced – Daphne Loves Derby (What We Have Been Waiting For)
29. Some Hearts – Carrie Underwood (Oh There’s Nothing like Oklahoma)
30. ¡Bastardos! – Blues Traveler (If Looks Could Kill I’d Die Today)


You can also download these albums DRM free at Amazon MP3 by checking out the widget below:

Best Free Songs of 2005

Every Tuesday, iTunes releases a couple of free songs some of which sometimes are forgettable but most of them are worth the download with a few that have even landed on some of my Mix-Tapes. Here is a list of the best songs that were available for free sometime during 2005 but are actually worth buying:


1. Telescope Eyes – Eisley
2. Me Plus One - Annie
3. Gotta Get Up from Here (Radio Edit) - Ellie Lawson
4. Club Foot - Kasabian
5. Son's Gonna Rise - Citizen Cope & Santana
6. Back to Me - Kathleen Edwards
7. Stars and Boulevards - Augustana
8. L-L-Love - Astaire
9. Empty Room - Marjorie Fair
10. Be the Girl - Aslyn
11. Over My Head (Cable Car) - The Fray
12. Gravity - Embrace
13. Who We Are - Hope Partlow
14. Bad Day - Daniel Powter
15. Till I Get to You (Radio Edit) - Nikka Costa
16. When the President Talks to God - Bright Eyes
17. Every Ship Must Sail Away - Blue Merle
18. Stand On Your Seat (Lord-Alge Mix Short) - Chris Glover
19. Come Touch Me - Bobby Valentino
20. She Said (Radio Edit) - Brie Larson
21. Let Go (LP Version) - BarlowGirl
22. Banjo Boy - Ryan Shupe & The Rubberband
23. When the Music's Not Forgotten - Deadman
24. Walking With a Ghost - Tegan and Sara
25. 15 Beers Ago - Deaf Pedestrians

Car Mix - April '05

1. Beverly Hills – Weezer (Check out my thought on this song at Just Don't Bring too Many Dudes.)
2. Club Foot – Kasabian (This song seems to popping up during all my favorite TV shows lately and was a former single of the week on iTunes.)
3. City of Blinding Light – U2
4. Work (Demo) – Jimmy Eat World (This was on the special edition version of JEW's latest album that I picked up as I'm a sucker for things of that nature. The song's a rawer version of the original.)
5. Back to Me – Kathleen Edwards (This was another great Single of the Week. It's a neo-country song, but not in the "My sister looks hot" kind of country.)
6. Behind These Hazel Eyes – Kelly Clarkson (This is the second song that she has conned me into liking. To be honest, it might be time for someone to hold an intervention for me.)
7. Be the Girl – Aslyn
8. Somebody – Bonnie McKee
9. A Lifetime – Better Than Ezra (From the guys that brought us Good, yet another solid song. BTE is one of the few bands to constantly put out good music.)
10. Telescope Eyes – Eisley
11. Toxic – Local H (A disturbingly faithful cover of the Brittany Spears song from the band best known for the mid-90's rocker, Bound to the Floor. Yet not even the best cover on this CD. That title goes to:)
12. (expletive deleted) Ain’t (expletive deleted) – Ben Folds (Due to the website's censors, I need to explain this. The song is a moody, piano driven version of the last song on Dr. Dre's first album which features Snoop Doggy Dogg. If you are not sure what I'm talking about, click the link and take a listen for yourself. This is the very reason that makes iTunes great. Due to the lyric, the song won't be played on the radio and it wouldn't fit very well on an album, so iTunes is a great place to get this type of music.)
13. Landed – Ben Folds
14. Chariot – Gavin DeGraw
15. Ordinary People – John Legend
16. All Falls Down – John Legend & Kanye West (A great live version of the song.)
17. 1 Thing – Amerie (The best song from a Will Smith movie since, umm, does the Theme to The Fresh Prince of Bel Air count?)
18. Gotta Get Up from Here – Ellie Lawson (This song has a cool Celtic feel to it.)
19. When the President Talks to God – Bright Eyes (A thoroughly amusing, yet sad at the same time, song you can get free the last time I checked at iTunes. Something everyone should take a listen to, which is easy because it's free. Who doesn't like free?)
20. Coconut – Harry Nilsson (A completely cheesy song that recently got co-opted by Coke. I've loved the song ever since it appeared on the Reservoir Dogs soundtrack.)

Please Don't Make Me Cry

For those interested, Eisley, who new album I recently reviewed, is currently the single of the week on iTunes. If you already have iTunes you can check out Telecope Eyes here. If you don't have iTunes, check out the link on the left. Might as well check it out, it's free. iTunes has had a pretty good track record with their singles of the week, I have about 15-20 song that are on heavy rotation on my iPod.

You Humor Me Today

A couple months ago I came across a new band by the name of Eisley. They are an eclectic band that I can best describe as if Hanson had a bunch of younger sisters who listen to a lot of Radiohead and Pink Floyd. And so I was hooked from the start. I gathered up a couple of EP's that they had already released, all of which were great, so when they recent release their first full length album, Room Noises, I had to pick it up. One aspect of note is that is that a fourth of the songs on the new album are on previous EP's.

The standout tracks on the new album are two older songs, Marvelous Things (a top ten entry on my Best of 2004 list) and Telescope Eyes (the new single). Telescope Eyes is the song that lured me into the band. There is something endearing about hearing a girl sing, "Please don't make me cry" over and over again. Marvelous Things on the other hand is a slow moving epic that highlights the drummer and the group's major strength, the harmonies between the two lead singers.

Of for the newer songs, the closer, Trolley Wood, is the best. Granted I've been a big fan of songs with hand claps ever since Jack and Diane. But Trolley Wood is the type of song that is so good you can envision a video while listening to it. For me, it's the band strolling along in a park while they pass by various people having a picnic, sitting on a park bench, and flying a kite. Another new song of note is Golly Sandra which has a psychedelic country feel to it and would sound too out of place in a country-western bar.

If I were to have one complaint of Room Noises is the sequencing. I'm not a big fan of albums that start out right away with singing. I think it's better to start things off with something soft and build up anticipation for the lyrics. Brightly Wound or One Day I Slowly Floated Away would have been better choices to start the album off. Another thing about Eisley is that you have to commit to the lyric that can be borderline pretentious sometimes. And the lyrics can be lightweight at times. Instead of seeing a "bullet with butterfly wings," they see a "bat with butterfly wings." With that said, I expect big things from Eisley in the future.

Room Noises gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

Car Mix - March '05

Every once in a while I like to make a CD to play in my car of recent music I'm listening to. Here my most recent CD.

1) Bold as Love - John Mayer (Taken from the Tsunami Aid: Concert of Hope which can be bought on connect.com)
2) Across the Universe - Various Artists (Taken from this year's Grammy awards. Proceeds, like the previous song, goes to Tsunami relief organizations. So don't say I didn't do my part, that's $1.98 right there.)
3) Sunday Morning (Acoustic) - Maroon 5
4) Trouble - Bonnie McKee
5) Breathe (2AM) - Anna Nalick (Along with Trouble, these were both former Single of the Week on iTunes. Most of them are really good so you should always check them out because you may find gems like these.)
6) Telescope Eyes - Eisley
7) Collide - Howie Day
8) Daughters (Home Demo) - John Mayer
9) Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own - U2
10) Existentialism on Prom Night - Straylight Run (I found this song free at mtv.com. Yet another steal.)
11) Chocolate - Snow Patrol (I was turned onto this band when their song Run was a Single of the Week. Solid album)
12) Work - Jimmy Eat World
13) Let Me Go - 3 Doors Down
14) Boulevard of Broken Songs - Green Day vs. Oasis (One of the best mash-up that I have heard in a while. It's built around the Green Day song and has hints of Oasis' Wonderwall and throws in some Travis and Aerosmith to round out the song. Highly recommended if you can hunt it down.)
15) Why [Remix] - Jadakiss, Common, Styles P and Nas
16) Jesus Walks - Kanye West, Common & Mase
17) Twisted (Remix) - Mobb Deep, Jae Millz, Joe Budden
18) Drop it Like it's Hot (Lil John Remix) - Snoop Dogg