The Best 50 Albums Of 2005

20/ Louis XIV – ‘The Best Little Secrets Are Kept’ (Atlantic)
Slutty, dirty-as-**** grime from the sex-obsessed rockers Louis XIV – Exactly how we want our stars really. Patchy in places, but the soaring peaks of tracks like ‘Paper Doll’ far outweigh the troughs.
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19/ Jamie Lidell – ‘Multiply’ (Warp)
A work of sheer kaleidoscopic funk that’s provided the morpheme for anyone who’s got withdrawals from a Prince addiction. Inspired, but nowhere near as flamboyant as his hypnotic live performances.
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18/ The National – ‘Alligator’ (Beggars Banquet)
Alright, so they’ll never appeal to the Kaiser Chief-loving kids, but The National’s gorgeous third long-player was a lesson in emotive and captivating songwriting and rightly deserves a place in anyone’s top twenty.
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17/ Gorillaz – ‘Demon Days’ (Parlophone)
Some thought that Damon Albarn and co.’s Gorillaz project would be a short lived experiment, but the veritable smorgasbord of knock-out tunes that make up ‘Demon Days’ became to sound track of 2005 for many. Blinding. 
Read more on Gorillaz here 

16/ Kaiser Chiefs – ‘Employment’ (B-Unique)
With a healthy infatuation with Blur and all things Britpop, together with a healthy dollop of “na, na, na, na, na-ing”, those pesky Kaisers delivered in fine style with a pop onslaught of the finest quality. Loved by 15-year-olds across the land.
Read the full review here 

15/ Nine Black Alps – ‘Everything Is’ (Island)
They may sound like they’re from Seattle, but unashamedly over the 38 minutes of this album like Ronseal they do everything it says on the tin… and that is: rock. Pure and simple a great album.
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14/ Kanye West – ‘Late Registration’ (Roc-A-Fella)
The outspoken rapper returned and amazingly bettered his 2004’s fantastic ‘College Drop Out’ in fine style. A slick, assured and confident offering – so good even Adam Levine from Maroon 5 couldn’t ruin it.
Read more on Kanye West here

13/ The Cribs – ‘The New Fellas’ (Wichita)
The rougher-round-the-edges cousins of their fellow Leeds lads the Kaiser Chiefs, this is quirky, energetic and bloody good fun ride and simply killer songs. The kids are definitely alright.
Read the full review here 

12/ Maximo Park – ‘A Certain Trigger’ (Warp)
Bolstered by a bohemian, charismatic and highly poetic frontman Paul Smith, Maximo Park took the year by storm with plenty of Geordie charm, to die for melodies and bloody clever lyrics.
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11/ Tom Vek – ‘We Have Sound’ (Tummy Touch)
The floppy-haired geeky looking kid done good with this self-recorded nugget. Low-tech production, raw synths and plenty of boyish charm made this a lo-fi classic of the year.
Read the full review here 

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