Of all the albums released this year, what are your top 5 favorite?

5. A Perfect Circle - Thirteenth Step
4. Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
3. R.E.M. - In Time
2. Dave Matthews - Some Devil
1. Blink 182 - Blink 182

Wellllll?

good lord. thats depressing.

here's mine.

5. Britny Fox - Springhead Motorshark
4. KISS - Alive 4
3. American Hi Fi - Art of Losing
2. Pretty Boy Floyd - Tonight Belongs to the Young
1. The Darkness - Permission to Land

1. Mars Volta- Deloused at the Comatorium
2. Vaux- There Must be some way to stop them
3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Fever To Tell
4. Thrice- Artist in the Ambulance
5. Dizee Rascal: Boy in Da Corner

All hip hop as thats pretty much all I listen to. Only got three I can rank.

3. K-OS - Exit

2. Outkast - Speakerboxx/The Love Below
The one group that is uniquely enjoyed by both mainstream and underground because they are so unique.

1. Cunninlynguists - SouthernUnderground
"Seasons" gets my pick as top single of the year (the "rise and fall" of hip hop given in reference to the change of seasons from spring to winter).

Others I enjoyed but couldn't rank:
Gangstar - Ownerz
Roots - Phrenology
Talib Kweli - Quality
Jean Grae - The bootleg
J-live - Always Will Be (EP)

In the non-rap category I have really liked what i have heard from the White Stripes but have been to lazy to buy and listen otherwise it would have made the list

1. 2PAC -Resurrection
2. METALLICA -St. Anger
3. 50 CENT -Get Rich Or Die Tryin'
4. KORN -Take A Look In The Mirror
5. PEARL JAM -Lost Dogs
...
6. A PERFECT CIRCLE -Thirteenth Step
7. G-UNIT -Beg For Mercy

In no order:

1. Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers
2. The Cardigans - Long Gone Before Daylight
3. Rancid - Indestructible
4. Outkast - Speakerboxx/The Love Below
5. Beth Gibbon & Rustin' Man - Out of Season

1-The White Stripes-Elephant
2-A Perfect Circle-Thirteenth Step
3-Deftones-Deftones
4-Pearl Jam-Lost Dogs
5-Stone Temple Pilots-Thank You

5. The Mars Volta: Deloused...
4. British Sea Power: BSP
3. White Stripes: Elephant
2. Outkast: Speakerboxx/Love Below
1. The Shins: Chutes too Narrow

Barenaked Ladies - Everything To Everyone
Mars Volta
David Bowie - Reality (really grew on me after a while)
Evanescence - Fallen
Zwan - Mary Star Of The Sea
Radiohead - Hail To The Thief
Perfect Circle - 13th Step

So far:

01. Pearl Jam - Lost Dogs
02. Idlewild - The Remote Part
03. Deftones - Deftones
04. Tomahawk - Mit Gas
05.

Damn, I can't remember any others besides Weird Al and Radiohead.

My birthday and Xmas are coming I'm bound to get some good stuff (outkast, A Perfect Circle, REM...) Although, I did ask for a lot of older stuff. Oh well.

5. Richard Thompson - Old Kit Bag
4. White Stripes - Elephant
3. Guided By Voices - Earthquake Glue
2. Welcome Interstate Managers - Fountains of Wayne
1. Shins - Chutes Too Narrow

In no particular order
[list=1][*]White Stripes-Elephant
[*]Outkast-Speakerboxx/The Love Below (mostly the latter)
[*]Saves The Day-In Reverie
[*]The Strokes-Room on Fire
[*]Iggy Pop-Skull Ring (what can I say, definetly not his best
album, but I love Iggy )[/list=1]

Oh and The Distillers-Coral Fang gets an honorable mention, I love that album.

Top 5 is tough, but here's the best of what I bought this year (not including live albums or compilations)...

My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves
Drive-By Truckers - Decoration Day
The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
Beulah - Yoko
moe. - Wormwood
Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
Crooked Fingers - Red Devil Dawn

Worst is...
eels - Shootenanny! Their discs have been on the decline since Daisies of the Galaxy, which was good but not even close to Electro-Shock Blues. Souljacker kinda sucked, and Shootenany's only got one good song ("Love of the Loveless"). Sucks to see one of your favorite bands become irrelevant...

1) The Dears: No Cities Left
2) Sufjan Stevens: Michigan
3) Cardigans: Long Gone Before Daylight
4) Elvis Costello: North
5) British Sea Power: Decline of BSP

Re-issue/box set/etc: Scott Walker: Five Easy Pieces

Other releases I dug were: Postal Service: Give Up, Matthew Sweet: Kimi Ga Suki-Raifu, Her Space Holiday-The Young Machines, the two discs by the Decemberists, White Stripes: Elephant, Kanda: It's a Good Name For You, the Beautiful South: Gaze, and more I can't remember right now...

This was a good year

1. Loveholic - Loveholic
2. La Oreja De Van Gogh - Lo Que Te Conte Mientras Te Hacias La Dormida
3. Sarah Sadler - Sarah Sadler
4. SPEED - Bridge
5. Ana Torroja - Fragil

A greatest hits package in top 5 of the year?

In no particular order:

5. Jayhawks - Rainy Day Music
4. Sun Kill Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway
3. Pretty Girls Make Graves - The New Romance
2. Outkast - Speakerboxx/The Love Below
1. Radiohead - Hail to the Thief

Other notable releases that would fill up a top 20: Dizzee Rascal - Boy In Da Corner, The Decemberists - Castaways and Cutouts/Her Majesty, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Take Them On, On Your Own; The Fire Theft - The Fire Theft, Dressy Bessy - Dressy Bessy, The Twilight Singers - Blackberry Belle, The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow, Metric - Old World Underground, Where Are You Now

2003 was a weak, weak year for me.

1) Cage Weatherproof (EP): The leader of The Weathermen follows the Weathermen unofficial album with his own eight-song monster.
-"Weather People" "Summer in Hell"

2) J-Live Always Will Be (EP): One of the best rappers alive today. J-Live has no gimmicks to his music at all, its just quality professionalism.
-"Walkman Music" "Always Will Be"

3) Aesop Rock Bazooka Tooth (LP): One of the underground's best kept secrets is out of the box, permenantly. A decent album, in general, but not up to par with his past works.
-"Freeze" "Easy"

4) The Weathermen The Conspiracy ("mix CD"): Cage, El-P, Vast Aire, Breeze Brewlin', Tame One, Camu Tao, Copywrite, Jakki the Motormouth, Yak Ballz.
-"Beverly Crabs" "Concerto"

5) C-Rayz Walz Ravipops (LP): A mixed bag of battle raps, punchlines and consciousness-driven content. Its okay.
-"Floe" "Guns and Butter"

and now for something completely different!

1. Luther Vandross -- Dance With My Father
2. Tim McGraw -- and the Dance Hall Doctors
3. Michael McDonald -- Motown
4. Clay Aiken -- Measure of a Man
5. (TBD)

(I listen to a lot of radio... and rarely by albums... only 8 this year for me.)

Black-Eyed Peas - Elephunk
Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
Zwan - Mary Star of the Sea

1.Pearl Jam-Lost Dogs
2.White Stripes-Elephant
3.Radiohead-Hail to the Thief
4.Matthew Good-Avalanche
5.Undecided

Josh Rouse-1972: When's the last time you heard an album and every song was great? This is the one.

Fountains of Wayne-Welcome Interstate Managers: Perfect Pop-Rock, although I'm pretty burned out on "Stacy's Mom". The rest of the album has enough great songs on it to keep these guys out of the One Hit Wonder category.

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion-Plastic Fang: Just about the best rock record I've heard this year.

Coldplay-Rush of Blood to the Head

Peter Gabriel-Up: Darker than expected, but it grew on me. "Signal to Noise" and "I Grieve" are great epic songs.

OK, this Mars Volta business...I saw them open for RHCP in May, and I must say, it was the biggest pile of crap I've ever heard in my life. The guy just screamed from what we could tell, and most everyone was laughing at them and booing them by the time they were done. For this reason, I never d/l any of their stuff to see what their recordings sounded like. As many people have them on their lists here, they must not be all that bad (at least not as bad as I thought). Maybe they just had terrible equipment when I heard them, maybe they were drunk/high or a combination of the two, or maybe they really do suck? I'm going to check them out again, just to confirm or dissprove my opinion of them.

1. Pearl Jam - Lost Dogs
2. A Perfect Circle - The Thirteenth Step
3. White Stripes - Elephant
4. Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
5. Year of the Rabbit - S/T


Some of the worst crap I've heard this year:

Metallica - St. Anger
Limp Bizkit - Results May Vary

1. white stripes "Elephant"
2. the darkness "permission to land"
3. metallica "st. anger"
4. jet "get born
5. evanecance "fallen"