Afternoon Baseball

Rolling Stone -- Top 50 of '05
The Onion A.V. Club
Pitchfork's top 50 singles and each writer's picks -- check back for their top albums

There won't be my top picks -- I have less music on my ITunes from 2005 than any year since 1996. Combination bad music, getting into stuff I missed first time around, having some favorites come out in 2004 (Echobrain, Incubus, Green Day, Velvet Revolver, The Killers, and traveling so much that I didn't see many music videos. I also haven't bought things like Franz Ferdinand's and The White Stripes' new albums, and I'm not sure I will.

But quickly, I liked Audioslave a lot, not so much Coldplay, the Decemberists were a pleasant surprise, what little I heard of the Bravery was cool, Garbage was underappreciated, ditto for Hot Hot Heat, Foo Fighters over-appreciated, ditto for the Mars Volta, Jack Johnson's kickin' it, Joe Perry, the White Stripes and Queens of the Stone Age can play some instruments even if all three are battling unrealistic expectations, and I've gotta get the rest of the Minus The Bear album.
Also, "Gold Digger" was damn, damn good, (the best message any young man can get is "We want pre-nup") but let's take a step back with the Kanye worship. At least on the flow. The beats are there, though, and he'll get all the way there soon. And Gwen Stefani -- keep looking hot, but make songs with No Doubt.