Before I put up my list of my top albums of the year, I should point out that I don’t really care much about critical or popular acclaim. There probably won’t be a whole lot of parallel between this list and the ones published in music magazines or blogs this year, but variety is the spice of life and if we all listened to the same things we’d all be very boring. What I did was write down as many albums that I liked enough to play numerous times this year, keeping it limited to the ones I knew had come out this year, and culled it down out of those to the 10 I liked listening to the most. Anything that had either a UK or US release date in 2005 was eligible, even if it had been released earlier elsewhere, which means a few of these were actually first released somewhere in 2004. But my house, my rules, you know? Although if I hadn’t set a limitation on release date I’m sure a few more albums from the last couple years would have slipped in there otherwise. But anyway, here we go, these are the albums that as of the end of 2005, defined the year for me:

1. The Cribs, The New Fellas (Wichita) - I’m making no pretence of objectivity here when I say this has been my favourite band of the year. They’re brilliant live, and this album comes closer to matching the energy of their live sets than their previous one did. Mixing infectious shoutalong choruses with scathing lyrics about the shallow excesses of the ‘cool’ kids, it’s an addictive slice of scuzzy lo-fi pop-punk from one of this year’s hardest-working bands.

2. Patrick Wolf, Wind In The Wires (Tomlab) - One of the most unique and refreshing artists I’ve heard in a long time, Patrick Wolf’s second album has been topping my playlists since its release earlier this year. A true individual, Wolf’s mix of breathtaking piano balladry and wistful violin mixed with electronic breaks is hard to define, much like the artist himself, but impossible to ignore.

3. The Arcade Fire, Funeral (Rough Trade) - I feel as if I may be cheating slightly by including this one, because it was originally released in the US on Merge in 2004 but didn’t come out in Europe until this year, but if any album were worthy of making annual lists twice in a row, it’d be this one. It’s no small feat to create a sprawling, epic work of art about death that escapes morbidity, but that’s what The Arcade Fire have done with Funeral, which manages to be transcendent and life-affirming rather than depressing. Though inspired by death in the family, this album is very much a celebration of life.

4. The Detroit Cobras, Baby (Bloodshot) - Proof that Motor City soul isn’t dead, the US release of Baby in 2005 actually comprised both the 2004 version released in the UK on Rough Trade and the 2003 Seven Easy Pieces EP. It’s an album that flaunts the axle grease under its nails with a gutsy hybrid of soul and rock’n’roll that manages to sound deliciously dirty, sexy and raw.

5. The Tears, Here Come The Tears (Independiente) - One of the biggest stories in music this year not to make major headlines was the reunion of Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler, the driving forces behind Suede, one of the best bands of the Britpop era. It’s my opinion Butler is one of the best guitarists around, and the combination of his guitar work and Anderson’s unmistakable voice makes The Tears’ debut an amazing return from one of the best music partnerships of the last decade.

6. Graham Coxon, Happiness In Magazines (Astralwerks) - Released in the US in January 2005 (a few months after its UK release on Parlophone), the 5th solo effort by Graham Coxon, another of my favourite guitar players, sounds more like Blur than Blur’s last effort, 2003’s Think Tank (recorded mostly without Coxon) did. Coming from me, that’s a good thing.

7. British Sea Power, Open Season (Rough Trade) - British Sea Power are one of the most unconventional bands around, with an unabashed love of wildlife and foliage they gleefully incorporate into their live shows. This album is some of the most brilliant, stirring guitar pop of the year, and BSP are completely unafraid to show off their slightly geeky prog tendencies at times. Rather than being pretentious, it comes off as quirky and charming, and really, what other band could get away with writing a song dedicated to an ice shelf?

8. Art Brut, Bang Bang Rock and Roll (Fierce Panda) - It’s art. It’s rock. It’s comedy genius. It’s a little bit of all three. Perhaps the wittiest album of the year, this is a band that knows what irony is and isn’t afraid to use it. While aiming sharp barbs at the trendy set who no longer listen to a-sides, the flair for self-deprecation also present in the lyrics saves Art Brut from becoming unbearably pretentious.

9. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Howl (Echo) - An astonishing dose of gospel-flavoured, rootsy folk, Howl may be the closest you got in 2005 to a Sunday afternoon revival down in the Delta. It’s quite a departure from what they used to sound like, proving that change can be a very, very good thing indeed.

10. Kaiser Chiefs, Employment (B-unique) - One of the year’s biggest success stories, Kaiser Chiefs built a reputation on their wildly entertaining live shows, and the rest of the world noticed. It’s not the most innovative album of the year, but it may well be the most fun and sometimes that’s what counts the most.

Honourable mentions go to Ryan Adams, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, stellastarr*, Spoon, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, We Are Scientists, Sleater-Kinney, and Bell Orchestre. It’s not that they weren’t really great albums as well, but while being really good, I didn’t feel like I listened to them as much as the ones that did make the list.

Now that I’ve gone through my best albums of the year, here are my worst three. Now when I say worst, that doesn’t necessarily mean bad, because I usually can’t stand to listen to anything I deem actually bad, but two of these in particular were just… well… bad, while the third simply failed to be interesting enough to warrant repeated listening.

1. Babyshambles, Down In Albion (Rough Trade) - I really wanted Babyshambles to surprise me this year and be good. I really did. The songs were there, for the most part (save a couple incredibly ridiculous new tracks on this one), but they failed to deliver. While an unpolished, rough album can really work sometimes, this one felt too apathetic. It possibly could have been good, if it had been done by a band not made complacent by far too many eager sycophants all too willing to accept anything passed off by the Notorious PPD and his Babyshamblin’ Hit Squad as pure genius when it’s really just mediocrity. Better versions of most of these songs exist elsewhere (with even less production on them than Mick Jones put into these) and some of the versions here are simply disgraceful.

2. The Paddingtons, First Comes First (Vertigo) - On paper, The Paddingtons are a band that I should like. They’re loud, garage-punky, and English. Northern, even. But this was the only album this entire year I managed to find even more unlistenable than the Babyshambles one.

3. Franz Ferdinand, You Could Have It So Much Better… (Domino) - While not purely ‘bad’ (the Oasis album in ‘05 was far worse, for instance, but that’s predictable) the fact is I expected something better from Franz Ferdinand than this, which I found frankly a little dull. Their first album may have desperately wanted to be Orange Juice, but even that was more novel than this.

And here are my top three singles of the year:

1. Yeti, ‘Never Lose Your Sense of Wonder’ (Moshi Moshi) - I admit I included this category solely so I could include this. With this easily one of the best songs of the year, Yeti are the overlooked dark horse band emerging from the breakup of The Libertines. Keep an eye out for them in 2006.

2. Patrick Wolf, ‘The Libertine’ (Tomlab) - With its swirlingly hypnotic gypsy violin and thumping dance beat, this track encompasses Wolf’s shocking precocity and indefinable genrelessness. One of the b-sides, ‘Penzance’, a stark piano-based track, wins my vote as one of the most beautiful songs of the year as well.

3. The Cribs, ‘Hey Scenesters!’ (Wichita) - Of course I had to put in one by The Cribs. It almost goes without saying, really. The problem was picking which one. ‘Hey Scenesters!’ won out in the end, though, mostly on the strength of its b-sides, which were the best of all the singles released off The New Fellas, and the no-punches-pulled lyrics hating on hipsters. I really like people who aren’t afraid to bitch in public, ok? One of the b-sides was even released later as a single in its own right based on fan popularity, and how many other bands managed that this year?

And the worst three…

1. James Blunt, ‘You’re Beautiful’ (Atlantic) - Uh… do I really need to justify this with a reason? This shit went to number one and stayed in the charts for a ridiculous amount of time, proving without a doubt that the mainstream music buyers have no taste.

2. Oasis, ‘Lyla’ (Big Brother) - More of the mediocre, MOR drivel Oasis has been consistently producing all the while deluding themselves they’re the Best Band In The World? Oh, joy. Being subjected to this constantly over the holidays via my kid brother’s FIFA 06 video game soundtrack reminded me just how much I really, really hate this song and Liam Gallagher’s annoying whine.

3. Babyshambles, ‘Fuck Forever’ (Rough Trade) - It can be summed up in one long drawn-out “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND” and a whole bucketload of horrific butcherings of what had once been a few decent acoustic tunes for the b-sides.

There you have it. The year in music, according to me as of the end of 2005.