Sonic Outpost

I am digging into the past to find my top 5 albums of a given year. 2005 was another good year for indie music. Animal Collective's new album shows they are entering their creative peak and Gnarls Barkley brings R&B sound to indie music. This is a list of the albums I found to be the most compelling listens.

5. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere

Gnarls Barkley's R&B influence brings a refreshing sound to indie music. Songs on the album are either hit or miss for me, but when they hit it is memorable. See Crazy for the album high point.

4. The National - Alligator

Straight-forward rock music by incredible songwriters. Numerous memorable lines and moments in their songs.

3. Metric - Live It Out

One of those albums that after my first listen I thought it was OK, but got exponentially better with each additional listen. I still find myself returning to listen to this album on occasion.  

2. Coldplay - X & Y

To my chagrin, I am going mainstream for a top album, but I have to give credit where its due. This may not be classic album in the sense that it brought rock music in new directions, but it does what it does very well. 8 of the 13 songs are just solid rock songs.

1. Animal Collective - Feels

This is the album where you can tell they are pulling all of their previous experimentation together to create some incredibly compelling songs. It may not have as many great songs as XY, but the incredible new sounds of songs like Grass and The Purple Bottle make Feels my top album of the year!