Top 35 of 2005

Belated as usual, I bring to you my Top 35 of 2005. I know last year I did more than this (Top 88 of 2004), but I'll tell you why I did not.

This year, I managed to review one album (or EP) a day for an entire year. That's 365 albums that I, by myself, have reviewed. This is a very difficult task to do and one that I do not anticipate continuing.

As much as I like finding new music, I like listening to new music. Accordingly, when I'm forever reviewing a new album, I don't get the chance to go back to listen to ones that I liked, or that I should have liked. I did not spend enough time with anything outside of the Top 5 this year. Whereas last year, when I spent a good deal of time on my Top 20 or so.

In addition to listening to 365 albums this year, I listened to 166 albums that came out this year (more than double that of last year), which, to me, is astounding. Overall though, I found this year to be a weaker collection that last. I'm very excited for next year, as there seems to be a ton of good stuff on the horizon. I did, however, get around to listening to all of the albums that I wanted to listen to this year.

I mentioned earlier that I do not anticipate continuing my pace of an album a day. Surely, you can understand how difficult this is and respect my decision to cut it back but a bit. You should still see 4-5 reviews a week, just not 7. And don't look for reviews when I'm on vacation or on holidays.

That being said, I could continue to update more frequently if I had some help. So I'm asking you, my readership, for help. I'm looking for more 'staff' to help me out. E-mail me and we'll talk about what I'm looking for, what I need and how you can help.

Without further delay, I bring to you my list of year end bests. I'm pretty set on my Top 5, but everything else is up for grabs.

1	Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
2	Mountain Goats, The - The Sunset Tree
3	Bloc Pary - Silent Alarm
4	Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
5	Nada Surf - The Weight is a Gift
6	Bright Eyes - Digital Ash Is A Digital Urn
7	Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
8	Stars - Set Yourself On Fire
9	Imogen Heap - Speak For Yourself
10	Calexico and Iron & Wine - In The Reins
11	Mars Volta - Frances the Mute
12	Fiery Furnaces - EP
13	My Morning Jacket - Z
14	Animal Collective - Feels
15	Sigur Ros - Takk
16	Calla - Collisions
17	National, The - Alligator
18	Clientele, The - Strange Geometry
19	Elbow - Leaders of the Free World
20	Gorillaz - Demon Days
21	Editors, The - The Back Room
22	One.Be.Lo - S.O.N.O.G.R.A.M.
23	Antony and the Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now
24	Apple, Fiona - Extraordinary Machine
25	Bird, Andrew - Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs
26	Coheed and Cambria - Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star4: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness, Volume 1
27	Common - Be
28	DangerDoom - The Mouse and the Mask
29	Foo Fighters - In Your Honor
30	Low - The Great Destroyer
31	Bane - The Note
32	Mental - Planet Mental
33	Leaves - The Angela Test
34	Coldplay - X&Y
35	Kaiser Chiefs - Employment