"Best of 2005"

Selections from the New Albums I've Heard This Year
November/December 2005
for: Neant

1. Your Ex-Lover Is Dead - Stars
2. Hey Man (Now You're Really Living) - Eels
3. Kids With Guns - Gorillaz
4. This Modern Love - Bloc Party
5. First Day of My Life - Bright Eyes
6. Greatest You Can Find - Keren Ann
7. Paul Simon - The Russian Futurists
8. The Power Is On - The Go! Team
9. Bells - Electrelane
10. Forever For Her (Is Over For Me) - The White Stripes
11. Mushaboom - Feist
12. Sénégal Fast Food - Amadou & Mariam
13. Gideon - My Morning Jacket
14. Rodeo Town - The Kills
15. Medicine - Sons & Daughters
16. Over and Over Again (Lost and Found) - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
17. The Price & Style - Robbers on High Street
18. Oh My God - Kaiser Chiefs
19. Go It Alone - Beck
20. Marx and Engels - Belle & Sebastian

Comments on the mix: My first "best of the year" mix came with a lot of caveats. Since I primarily listen to music through albums — and remain generally unaware of hot singles — I compiled a list of albums and then picked songs from each. The mix does give a picture of what I listened to that year — with albums that I adored (Stars, Eels, The White Stripes, Amadou and Mariam) and albums that I wished I hadn't spent money on (The Go! Team, My Morning Jacket, Robbers of High Street, Kaiser Chiefs). I included Belle & Sebastian as a bonus track ("Push Barman to Open Old Wounds" was released in 2005, although the song is older).

Comments on the cover: I was working with the idea of The Best ... Dressed, which I thought kind of worked, given the FTOTZ's fondness for celebrity gossip. To promote the "magazine" look, there's a big halftone pattern on the images (kind of lost in the jpg above). The tracklisting also included the name of each album.