Ranking albums is fun and maddening and dicey and way too subjective. It’s also strangely satisfying. No matter how thoroughly you’ve scoured the year’s release calendars, you inevitably miss something that absolutely, inarguably belongs in there somewhere. So you slot it into the list and resume your insufferable tweaking once more. This year was a great one for music and the following best-of list gives props to the absolute tip-top-shelf releases to grace store shelves in 2005. Go ahead and print it out, take it with you to the record store. You won’t be sorry, apart from torpedoing your monthly budget. There’s always next month.

Top 23 Albums of ’05:

1.Modern Skirts – Catalogue of Generous Men

2.Sufjan Stevens – Illinois

3.Mugison – Mugimama! Is This Monkey Music?

4. Sigur Rós – Takk…

5. Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning

6. Jeff Hanson – Jeff Hanson

7. Stars – Set Yourself On Fire

8. Dungen – Ta Det Lugnt

9. Kanye West – Late Registration

10. Fiona Apple – Extraordinary Machine

11. Antony & The Johnsons – I Am A Bird Now

12. Copeland – In Motion

13. Beck – Guero

14. Collin Herring – The Other Side Of Kindness

15. Sun Kil Moon – Tiny Cities

16. Eisley – Room Noises

17. Nickel Creek – Why Should The Fire Die?

18. My Morning Jacket – Z

19.Apollo Sunshine – Apollo Sunshine

20. Aimee Mann – The Forgotten Arm

21. Wolf Parade – Apologies To The Queen Mary

22. Over The Rhine – Drunkard’s Prayer

23. Holopaw – Quit +/or Fight Top

12 Singles of ’05:

1. Sufjan Stevens – “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.”

2. David Mead – “Astronaut”

3. Copeland – “Don’t Slow Down”

4. Sun Kil Moon – “Ocean Breathes Salty”

5. Modern Skirts – “Seventeen Dirty Magazines”

6. The Free Design (Remixed by Styrofoam & Sarah Shannon) – I Found Love

7. Kanye West – “Hey Mama”

8. Joy Electric – “Quite Quieter Than Spiders”

9.  Jason Harrod – “Messed Up Everywhere Blues”

10. American Analog Set – “Always Wins”

11. Death Cab for Cutie – “Soul Meets Body”

12. Little Barrie – “Burned Out”