Ridicules, it's only the beginning of November, so they had to do this even a few more weeks back. Fortunately, I have until the middle of January to get mine together.

BTW, I'm not going to post every single list like I did last year. I was so sick of lists after that, so only the bigger rags will get posted, from me at least. Uncut only because they are so far ahead of everyone else and give you something to chew on.

1. Arcade Fire - Funeral
2. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
3. Bob Dylan - No Direction Home: The soundtrack - The Bootleg Series vol. 7
4. Black Mountain - Black Mountain
5. The National - Alligator
6. The Rolling Stones - A Bigger Bang
7. LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
8. The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
9. Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better
10. Rufus Wainwright - Want Two
11. Ry Cooder - Chavez Ravine
12. Super Furry Animals - Love Kraft
13. Devendra Banhart - Cripple Crow
14. Kanye West - Late Registration
15. Ryan Adams & the Cardinals - Cold Roses
16. Annie - Anniemal
17. Neil Young - Prairie Wind
18. Dungen - Ta Det Lugnt
19. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Worn Copy
20. Elbow - Leaders of the Free World
21. Lightning Bolt - Hypermagic Mountain
22. Antony & the Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now
23. Richard Thompson - Front Parlour Ballads
24. Animal Collective - Feels
25. Gorillaz - Demon Days
26. My Morning Jacket - Z
27. Bruce Springsteen - Devils & Dust
28. Brendan Benson - The Alternative To Love
29. Josh Rouse - Nashville
30. Big Star - In Space
31. The Magic Numbers - The Magic Numbers
32. John Cale - blackAcetate
33. Espers - Espers
34. Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
35. Vitalic - OK Cowboy
36. The Pernice Brothers - Discover A Lovelier You
37. Beck - Guero
38. Hal - Hal
39. The Go-Betweens - Oceans Apart
40. Vic Chesnutt - Ghetto Bells
41. Robert Plant - Mighty Rearranger
42. Richmond Fontaine - The Fitzgerald
43. Smog - A River Ain't Too Much to Love
44. Kraftwerk - Minimum Maximum
45. Kaiser Chiefs - Employment
46. Paul Weller - As Is now
47. CocoRosie - Noah's Ark
48. Boards of Canada - The Campfire Headphase
49. Richard Hawley - Coles Corner
50. M.I.A. - Arular

Also the top 20 reissues:

1. Orange Juice - The Glasgow School
2. The Stooges - Fun House: Deluxe Edition
3. The Band - A Musical History
4. Bill Fay - Bill Fay
5. Various Artists - Hearing is Believing: The Jack Nitzsche Story 1962 - 1979
6. Can - Future Days
7. Dinosaur Jr - You're Living All Over Me
8. Johnny Cash - The Legend
9. Screaming Trees - Ocean of Confusion: Songs of Screaming Trees 1989 - 1996
10. Scritti Polliti - Early
11. Sonic Youth - Goo
12. Ray Charles - Pure Genius: The Complete Atalantic Recordings (1952 - 1959)
13. The Fall - The Complete Peel Sessions 1978 - 2004
14. Judee Sill - Dreams Come True
15. Free - Chronicles
16. The 101'ers - Elgin Avenue Breakdown (Revisited)
17. Comus - Song to Comus: The Complete Collection
18. The Associates - The Affectionate Punch 25th Anniversary Remaster
19. The Cure - Pornography Remastered Deluxe Edition
20. Simply Saucer - Cyborgs Revisited

I picked this up simply because of the Orange Juice article.

I'm kind of 50/50 on Uncut's list. I really dislike some of it and but it's good to see Coco Rosie, Smog and Lightning Bolt on the list.

Lightning Bolt is a bit of surprising pick...not the typical Uncut type fare. I'm also a bit surprised that they don't have Richard Thompson & Ry Cooder ranked higher.

I usually like Uncut's list about as much as anyones and this one is pretty underwhelming so I kind of feel pretty good about not buying as much new stuff this year.

don't you say that every year though, billy?

Wasn't Funeral the top album of 2004?

Naw...I usually buy a couple of hundred new albums and then complain that its a subpar year....this year I bought less than 25 and am saying it looks like a subpar year.

Wasn't Arcade Fire technically a 2004 release? And what...no Spoon on the list?



and where the hell are the Wrens!?!?!?!

I'll say this for the 14,000 time. 'Funeral' wasn't released in the UK until April 2005.

oops, I guess I missed your other 13,999 posts. My bad.

Cowboy Troy

DON'T FORGET THE NATIONAL DARRIN

1. Orange Juice - The Glasgow School

i love this.
and kelly clarkson's album is way better than springsteen's devils and dust.

The OJ is a winner. Other than that, the Gorillaz album is the highest ranked one I own (and that only to please my teenage upstairs neighbor, who thinks I'm a role model, of all things).

i don't get how No Direction Home is in the actual list and not the reissue list.