It's Top 5 time. Here goes:

1. Fionn Regan- The End of History
2. Okkervil River- Stage Names
3. Kanye West- Graduation
4. Modest Mouse- We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
5. Bon Iver- For Emma, Forever Ago

Fionn Regan. It's hard to make an entire album of 4 minute folk songs interesting start to finish. But he did it. Excellent writing. I sent this album to sister and brother in law, hoping they'd love it as much.

Okkervil River has so much heart. It's small, cold and barely beating, but it's in everything they do.

The reason I like Kanye West can be summed up by a comment my friend said in the car when I was playing her the album. I made her listen to a string of lyrics and i really liked. "Man," she said, "You never remember that rappers are real people with real emotion." That, and he produces excellent scream along, dance around your room until you're sweaty songs. Plus, I love that I love him. I know it's typical, suburban, indie-snob white girl liking mainstream hip hop because it's funny and ironic. But I don't care. He brings personality and showmanship into a business that's nothing but a huge pissing contest between inarticulate brutes. Seriously, Kanye has more personality in his middle finger than 50 cent has in his huge, muscley body.

I have good associations with Modest Mouse. When I first met Hans, we gave me all of their released work. (this is right before Good News) Their body of work is huge. I like Isaac Brock's intensity, even though he's the typical drunk and miserable rock star type. Because of this, their live shows are awful (so I hear). But they can put out an album that's excellent start to finish. Plus the nautical/piratey theme was really popular this year, which helped them, I'm sure.

I feel like top 5 albums of the year are always top 5 albums of the last 3 months. I can't remember what I was listening to 11 months ago. I hesistated to put Bon Iver on this list, seeing as I heard it for the first time last week. Bon Iver understands that we music snobs love a good story about the genesis of an album as much as we love a good album. the "about" section on his site satisfies this for us. "oh this album? i was alone in a cabin for a few months in rural who-knows-where and i stumbled on this hyper emotional, beautiful, sweeping album." But it makes me feel. Neutral Milk Hotel feel. Which is rare.