Fit 2 Burst

Review 2005 / Music: A best-of list couldn't do justice to all the top albums of 2005, writes Jim Carroll

MOST years, this round-up writes itself. It becomes apparent round about October which albums have made the running all year long. You round 'em up, remind yourself of their bona-fides and walk on by. Job done.

Not so in 2005. If we're to believe the digital chatter, the days of the album are numbered. If so, that hardy artefact is going out with one hell of a bang.

Rarely have so many fantastic albums hit the streets in any 12-month period. Rarely have so many diverse albums come out with all guns blazing. Rarely have there been at least two dozen albums which could have fitted easily into the Top 5. Rarely, indeed, could you have had a Top 5 made up of just artists beginning with "A".

For me, it was the year of The Arcade Fire. Funeral may have come out in the United States in 2004, but its '05 release over here allowed Europe to go wow over a new kind of big music. They also produced the live show of the year, their big tent performance at the Electric Picnic showing just why people are investing so much emotion in this band. You'd travel many a long road before you saw something like that again.

Those who like their indie rock/pop to be dashing and daring had a field day, with the marvellous Come on Feel the Illinoise from Sufjan Stevens, Alligator from The National, Repulsion Box from Sons & Daughters, and Feels from Animal Collective all hitting the right notes. And Arcade Fire weren't the only Canucks in this year's pantheon: both Wolf Parade and Stars also received high marks.

Those who wandered off well-trodden paths were amply rewarded. Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate may share a continent with Konono No 1, but that's as far as it goes. The former's In the Heart of the Moon was the most ecstatically slow-motion album to soundtrack the year, while the latter's Congotronics was the heart-stopping Kinshasha rave that kept on giving.

The more you looked, the more you found, and it was all good. Asha Bhosle's collaboration with The Kronos Quartet on You've Stolen My Heart sent hearts fluttering, Amadou & Mariam's Dimanche à Bamako put bodies swaying, and Brian Eno's Another Day on Earth set heads nodding.

Jamie Lidell's outlandishly funky Multiply, the alien curves and grooves of MIA's Arular, and Vashti Bunyan's gorgeous Lookaftering all gobsmacked listeners with their panache. Keren Ann's haunting odes to big city life on Nolita, the resurgent bluesy soul of Bettye LaVette's I've Got My Own Hell to Raise, and the alien siren songs of I Am a Bird Now from Antony & The Johnsons found space to let in many hearts.

There were also adventures galore on more mainstream terrain. It was another bumper year for Kanye West. Both of his charges, Common and John Legend, produced works to savour, while West's own Late Registration showed that College Dropout was no fluke.

Annie showed us that pop doesn't always have to be a dirty word with Anniemal, Franz Ferdinand came, saw and gave expert tailoring again with You Could Have It So Much Better, and Roisin Murphy's Ruby Blue was the most soulful thing to ever come out of Wicklow. Kate Bush's Aerial was an endless voyage of discovery, while Gorillaz went widescreen and technicolour with Demon Days.

The home fires were also burning bright. Cane 141's enchanting Moonpool makes the final frame by virtue of its width and depth, but not without duelling with Bell X1's superbly confident Flock, the graceful beauty of Joe Chester's A Murder of Crows, and Giveamanakick's furious We Are The Way Forward for consideration.

There was also much to admire in the mesmerising simplicity of Julie Feeney's 13 Songs, the mischievous electro-stomp of Hystereo's Corporate Crimewave, God Is an Astronaut's ambitious rocktronica on All Is Violent, All Is Bright, and the sweet, subtle delights of Hulk's Silver Thread of Ghosts.

That was 2005, the year when good music came screaming back into vogue.

PICK 2005

The Arcade Fire: Funeral

Ali Farka, Toure & Toumani Diabate: In The Heart of the Moon

Common: Be

Konono No 1: Congotronics

Cane 141: Moonpool