List: Dap Dippin' With Sharon Jones and the Top 20

"If you can't feel the music on this album, then you must be a dead ass!"
-- Sharon Jones, "Soul Sister #1," on Naturally

Without any further ado, here are my top 20 albums for 2005. It should go without saying, but just in case it doesn't: down with major labels, down with over-production, down with music by committee! And while I'm at it, down with stylists! Any artist who can't dress themselves has no place on a list of mine. (No doubt Ms. Jones selected those five-inch glitter heels all by her lonesome--and more power to her!) So here's to the artists who write and perform their own material or, as in the case of the Detroit Cobras, music of their own choosing, performed in their own style. And that, for me, is the key word: Style. Some folks got it, some folks don't. These folks do.

2005

1. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - Naturally (Daptone)
2. MIA - Arular (XL Recordings)
3. The Dirtbombs - If You Don't Already Have a Look (In the Red)
4. Animal Collective - Feels (Fatcat)
5. The Ponys - Celebration Castle (In The Red)
6. The Kills - No Wow (Rough Trade)
7. Roky Erickson - I Have Always Been Here Before (Shout Factory) [Anthology]
8. The Deadly Snakes - Porcella (In the Red)
9. The Detroit Cobras - Baby (Bloodshot)
10. The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan (V2)
11. Spoon - Gimme Fiction (Merge)
12. Fiery Furnaces - EP (Rough Trade)
13. Annie - Anniemal (Big Beat/Atlantic)
14. Scout Niblett - Kidnapped by Neptune (Too Pure/Beggar's Banquet)
15. Sons & Daughters - Repulsion Box (Domino)
16. Scritti Politti - Early (Rough Trade)
17. Danger Doom - The Mouse and the Mask (Epitaph)
18. Seu Jorge - Cru (Wrasse Records)
19. The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema (Matador)
20. X-ray Spex - Germfree Adolescents (Castle/Sanctuary) [Reissue]

Runners-up:
LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem (Death From Above), Benjamin Biolay - A L'Origine (EMI) [France], Keren Ann - Nolita (Metro Blue/Blue Note), Lady & Bird - S/T (EMI) [France], Nouvelle Vague - S/T (Luaka Bop), Various Artists - Nao Wave (Man Recordings) [Germany], the Slits - Cut (Island/Koch) [Reissue], The Brian Jonestown Massacre - We Are the Radio mini-album (TeePee), Shivaree - Who's Got Trouble (Rounder), Robyn Hitchcock - Spooked (Yep Roc), The Skygreen Leopards - Jehovah Surrender EP (JagJaguwar), Jack Nitzsche - Hearing is Believing (Ace) [Retrospective], Lady Sovereign - Vertically Challenged EP (Chocolate Industries), and Calexico - Convict Pool EP (Quarterstick/Touch & Go).

Here are my top 10s for the past two years:

2004

1. The Black Keys - Rubber Factory (Fat Possum)
2. A.C. Newman - The Slow Wonder (Matador)
3. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand (Domino)
4. Camera Obscura - Underachievers Please Try Harder (Elefant/Merge)
5. Clinic - Winchester Cathederal (Domino)
6. The Beta Band - Heroes to Zeroes (Astralwerks)
7. Keren Ann - Not Going Anywhere (Metro Blue/Blue Note)
8. Benjamin Biolay & Chiara Mastoianni - Home (Virgin) [France]
9. The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat (Rough Trade)
10. Gomez - Split the Difference (Virgin)

2003

1. The Dirtbombs - Dangerous Magical Noise (In The Red)
2. The White Stripes - Elephant (V2)
3. Holly Golightly - Truly She Is No Other (Sympathy for the Record Industry)
4. The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow (Sub Pop)
5. Benjamin Biolay - Negatif (Virgin) [France]
6. Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks - Pig Lib (Matador)
7. Broadcast - Ha Ha Sound (Warp)
8. Quasi - Hot Shit (Touch & Go)
9. Various Artists - City of God [original soundtrack] (Milan)
10. The Clientele - The Violet Hour (Merge)

Image from Daptone Records. Most links point to my Amazon reviews. Unfortunately, I'm unable to link to the reviews I wrote for Resonance, because they're not online, and Tablet, because it's defunct.