I thought we could post our final Top 20 Lists here, and with a ratings system (#1 - 20points,#2 - 19 points,etc... #20 - 1 point) I would save/update OUR final Top 20 Records on the next page of this thread. All can enter their FINAL TOP 20 (please enter only once) when complete....NO RUSH, as mine won't be complete until 2-3 weeks from now.But, for those of you interested, and have a Final 2005 20 list...feel free.
On the bottom of next message I will list who posted, and update after every 5 people.

FINAL Top 20 2005

1. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois - 613
2. Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary -453
3. My Morning Jacket - Z - 401
4. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods - 344
5. New Pornographers - Twin Cinema - 333
6. Spoon - Gimme Fiction - 319
7. Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy - 313
8. White Stripes- Get Behind Me Satan - 309
9. Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake It's Morning - 307
10. Broken Social Scene - s/t - 305
11. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - s/t - 288
12. The Decemberists - Picaresque - 278
13. Antony & the Johnsons - I Am A Bird - 271
14. Andrew Bird- Mysterious Production - 267
15. MIA - Arular - 247
16. Bloc Party -Silent Alarm - 231
17. Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree - 200
18. Architecture In Helsinki - In Case We Die - 173
19. Animal Collective - Feels - 172
20. The National - Alligator - 171

21. Sigur Ros - Takk... - 149
22. The Go! Team - Thunder,Lightning,Strike - 130
23. Kayne West - Late Registration - 119
24. Franz Ferdinard - You Could Have Is So Much Better - 118
25. Eels - Blinking Lights and Other Revelations - 106
26. The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday - 105
27. Stephan Malkmus - Face The Truth - 93
28. Gorillaz- Demon Days - 91
29. Super Fury Animals - Love Kraft - 91
30. LCD Soundsystem- S/T -88
31. Deerhoof - The Runners Four -84
32. Beck - Guero - 83
33. Coldplay - X&Y - 76
34. Iron & wine + Calexico - reins Ep - 74
35. Death Cab For Cutie - Plans - 68
36. Richard Hawley - Coles Corner - 66
37. Fiery Furnaces - EP - 65
38. Stars - Set Yourself On Fire - 65
39. Kate Bush - Aerial - 64
40. Wilco - Kicking Television(live) - 61

41. Edan - Beauty and the Beat - 60



PARTICIPANTS:daniel,Esq. - ericg75 - Twowaymonologues - dano - bonzob - PRG - cpa13 - keylimetrev - GrungeMuffin - Platypus Quest - ViNylandMoNo - Superabound - saintprattdaddy - MisterEnglish - webby686 - HellaHellaHella - paxsoprano - Vykromond - Kuro - philospherEric - seamusstimpsonandHisMagicalMelodyMachine - Hophead - DaninGraniteCity - headinsand - konstantinl - nathanielkt - J_Deighton - rama -TheFurnaceIsFiery - TheTreeIsMyHat - iamtryingtobreakyourheart - joji - Illiniq - The Sprawl - fearlessweaver - Cbankerman - dubs - tomsett - qualler - ikevinHess! - Deli - Peewee - TRUC - YAY! - juanboy - modestryan - hudson - MusicLifeLiberty - Bobthespirit - RavingLunatic - MattD - crazed - FragileKidA - markf - hoboghost - m.leland - LinnTate - buraj - Karen - Backcountry - . fin.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jayman,

Good idea, Fiery. Should be interesting.

When you say OUR top 20 records, do you plan on counting the lists of people who post on a semi-regular basis or do you plan on counting any person whose first and only post in the Metaforums is on this thread?

I'd consider curving the points a bit, but it's up to you since it's your thread.

When are you going to tally the final results? I'm probably not going to have my final list till late January-ish.

quote:

Originally posted by Bobthespirit:
I'm probably not going to have my final list till late January-ish.

It's gonna take you two months to make your final list? I mean, there's really nothing coming out from now until the end of the year. I think I've pretty much got mine done, barring a few minor alterations maybe.

I still haven't bought some of the albums from 2005 that I want.. plus, there are a couple I'm still waiting for - like the Shakira CD. Should have my final list ready in early Jan.

Has to be some system whereby you handle album release dates- is Thunder, Lightning, Strike eligible, for instance? I would say no, but...

quote:

Originally posted by Vykromond:
Has to be some system whereby you handle album release dates- is Thunder, Lightning, Strike eligible, for instance? I would say no, but...

I would say no as well, since so many people had already heard that record and it appeared on year-end lists last year. For something like Veneer by Jose Gonzalez, though I think it should count for this year since virtually no one had heard it before this year.

So I guess I can't put Dungen in there then?

If YOU never heard of it before 2005, and there's a 2005 release, I would say that of course you can include it. That seems legit, especially if things like Time Magazine's doin' the same thing!

quote:

Originally posted by mark f:
If YOU never heard of it before 2005, and there's a 2005 release, I would say that of course you can include it. That seems legit, especially if things like Time Magazine's doin' the same thing!

That's probably the way to go. You just have to recognize that not everyone else will be including it on their list and so it will probably not make the combined Metacritic top 20 list.

When we discussed dong this last year, the year of release was a question. My take is that a Best Records of 2005 list should include, for each person who posts one, records that they FIRST HEARD IN THEIR ENTIREITY in 2005 AND that had a release of some sort in 2005 (in other words, if you heard OK Computer for the first time in 2005, you can't list it here because it did not get a release or reissue in 2005). If you heard a track in late 2004 but you bought the record in 2005, then it's a 2005 release. But if you bought the import in 2004, and LISTENED TO THE RECORD in 2004, then you can't count it as a 2005 release merely because it got a US or Canadian release in 2005. It's a honor system thing...I think trying to determine which records were widely available to whom and where is kind of silly...just be honest about it.

...that's clear i think! You guys are taking it seriously, that's great to see.

I have a pretty good idea which *albums* will be on it, but I'll need to listen to them next to each other a little more to nail down the exact order.

quote:

Originally posted by Bobthespirit:
I have a pretty good idea which *albums* will be on it, but I'll need to listen to them next to each other a little more to nail down the exact order.

I think the points for the top 5 or maybe 10 should be staggered, but I'll be honest: the difference between my #12 and #13 is going to be, for the most part, quite arbitrary. I don't have time to re-listen to things side-by-side and try to compare apples and oranges in that way. I think the points should be more like this:

1: 10
2: 9
3: 8
...
10-20: 1

But it's Fiery's project, and he can do it whichever way he likes. I just think that, for most people who might participate, they won't have time to clearly distinguish 9 from 16, and so on, which makes the rankings (and the points attached) pretty arbitrary. But I do think I can make a clear Top 10 without difficulty. Maybe others, who have more spare time than I (shit...I can barely find the time to post at all, much less delete spam threads and chase Forum trolls!), can do 20 or 50 or whatnot....if so, I'll sketch out a legit 20. It's hard...I've picked up well over 200 new discs this year (not all of them 2005 releases)...

I don't think comparing apples to oranges is a fair analogy. One standard for music that can be applied to every piece of music ever made: How much enjoyment I get from the album. And that's easy to compare just by listening to them side by side.

But of course, most people wouldn't have the time to make a project out of it. (Or if they did they wouldn't do it because they wouldn't have the same kind of fun with it I do).

If I were in charge of it I'd do something like:
1) 30
2) 25
3) 20
4) 18
5) 16
Etc

Because the top few will probably be distinctively better than the others, and the rest will be all bunched together.

I agree with pE's post. I started putting together my list, and after the top 10, I just started putting down stuff I kinda liked. In reality there's not much of a difference in quality between 11 and 20 for me. I'd either weight the points differently, or just cut it down to a top 10 list.

I think some midpoint between Fiery's setup and the idea philosopherEric had about making 10-20 worth 1 point would work best for everyone.

Definitely keep it at 20. I'm leaving a off a ton of really good records as it is. If you want to give more weight to top albums, doing it Bob's way works. But I think for most people there's a noticeable difference between their 11th and 20th favorite records, I don't like making them all have the same (extremely low) value. If people only want to include 10 albums, that's fine, you can just add the points as if it were a top 20, only without giving points for 11-20.

RL had a good point about the rest of the year not really having any high points, especially now that Idlewind was pushed back again.

So, I'm going to start my 4th quarter thing now.
And..since I had an average of 24 albums from quarters 1-3, and only 12 from quarter 4, I'm including some worthy also-rans from Q1-3. Specifically, Nickel Creek, Jamie Lidell, and Go-Betweens.