I finally got to the end of my podcast stockpile (and skipped going to a couple shows I'd thought about attending last weekend), so while you wait for Mike Doughty clips to arrive next week, how about I finally finish my best of 2005 write-up?

I got an iPod last year, which means that almost all my music consumption was done using one form or another of the iTunes interface. This was a pretty big change from my previous primitive MP3 player, and it allowed me to start actually using the iTunes rating function. So for this year's list, I came up with a formula* based on the song-by-song ratings to see how well the quantitative results matched up with what I thought my favorite records were. It actually tracked pretty well, as you can see from the ratings below.

* The final scores are out of 10, but it would be basically impossible to score that high -- every song on the album would have to get five stars.

Motion City Soundtrack / Commit This to Memory Epitaph 8.498 You can call Motion City Soundtrack pop-punk or whatever you like, but what they're doing is so far beyond their peers that labelling them is kind of pointless. They went in a different direction than I expected with this album, creating a much more mature sounding extension of their first album, I Am the Movie, tops on my 2003 list. With the Get Up Kids breaking up recently, MCS sounds poised to take over their position as the kings of sweet, energetic, melodic indie rock. They deserve that kind of success and exposure for this album -- I just wish it didn't mean they had to stop playing club shows in Madison. They're on all kinds of crazy "punk" festival tours these days but, you know, I can't really bring myself to drive all the way to Milwaukee to pay $30 to see one great band and half a dozen Atreyus. Top tracks: Everything Is Alright, When "You're" Around, Time Turn Fragile

Bloc Party / Silent Alarm Wichita 7.465 I'm lucky in that I heard the buzz about Bloc Party through a couple of BitTorrent sites before finding out that they were the latest in a long line of NME darlings. That kind of hype could have poisoned them for me, the way it did for Travis, Starsailor or the Libertines (also, those guys kind of suck, but still). I actually had a copy of Silent Alarm late in 2004, and spent the whole year listening to it. Later on, I realized that they'd basically taken the place of Franz Ferdinand in my listening rotation, and that I liked them a lot better. They seemed to be pushing further into their modern interpretation of the dance-y post-punk of Gang of Four and Wire than their contemporaries were, and their songs were a lot less fluffy (Kaiser Chiefs, I'm looking at you). They've already released a follow-up single ("Two More Years") and have another LP planned for 2006. Hopefully this one is enough to break big in America as well as the UK. Top tracks: Like Eating Glass, Banquet, So Here We Are

Hot Hot Heat / Elevator Sire 7.324 When I went through my 2005 albums to make sure I had everything rated, this was the one that surprised me the most. I realized, as I listened to the whole thing, that I'd been thinking of these songs separately -- there were a lot of great songs that weren't really linked up in my mind. But when I saw the final score, saw that Elevator was probably going to come out in the top five, I thought, yeah, that seems about right. This is really the best pop record of the year, loading with quality singles and altogether radio-friendly, plus they've got some holdover indie cred. How the Warner machine failed to make these guys huge right out of the gate (My Chemical Romance, I'm looking at you) I'll never know. Top tracks: Dirty Mouth, Island of the Honest Man, Soldier in a Box

Troubled Hubble / Making Beds in a Burning House Lookout! 7.140 Troubled Hubble's break-up is probably the biggest loss for indie rock in 2005. They did something similar to what the Dismemberment Plan had going on their final album, 2001's Changes -- a kind of spastic, mathified version of late 80's college rock -- and their live show was an absolute joy. As a swan song, Making Beds is a knockout. Easily their best and most cohesive work, the album is a perfect 21st century take on the likes of R.E.M. (the early years) and the Replacements (the later years). Former frontman Chris Otepka has a new solo thing going ("The Heligoats") but I suspect, like Travis Morrison from the D-Plan, he won't have the feel of his old band. It's too bad, but I'll take Making Beds and a break-up over half a dozen boring records. Top tracks: Bees, I'm Pretty Sure I Can See Molecules, Jackpot Stampede Deluxe

Mike Doughty / Haughty Melodic ATO 6.972 I saw Mike Doughty's Band in October, and the crowd was uniformly old. That, combined with the frequent calls for "Circles," indicates to me that he's still living off the old Soul Coughing audience, seven years later, which is really too bad. I always found Soul Coughing a little too clever for their own good, but Doughty seems to have reclaimed and reconstructed earnestness for his solo material, and it works really well. Top tracks: Unsingable Name, Madeline and Nine, Busting Up a Starbucks

Eisley / Room Noises Reprise 6.737 Eisley is, I guess, another one of those "Christian" bands whose music doesn't have anything in particular to do with Christ (see also my treatise on the Juliana Theory and Evanescence from 2003). My disdain for Christian media content is well noted, but my weakness for high, lilting vocals is no secret either. Eisley's collection of sad, sweet love songs make up a much more authentic approach to what Sixpence None the Richer did way back when, or even mid-90's era Sarah McLachlan, except, you know, awesome. Top tracks: Telescope Eyes, I Wasn't Prepared, Brightly Wound

The Bravery / The Bravery Island 6.502 I know, I know. "The Bribery," ha ha ha. Complaining that this is a Cure rip is like complaining that Nirvana were just copying the Pixies, or that Soundgarden were the sensitive new age guy's Black Sabbath. Of course it's basically true -- but so what? These guys may be working from a template, they may have already abandoned the make-up and feathered hair stage act, but they've also put together some amazingly catchy songs in a package that does a good job of concealing the fact that they only have maybe four distinct tracks. Top tracks: An Honest Mistake, Fearless, Swollen Summer

...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead / Worlds Apart Interscope 6.479 I'll say it -- Source Tags & Codes wasn't anything close to its Pitchfork-ten-point-oh reputation. Apart from a few good songs, it was a barrage of noise from a band that sounded like they were trying to recapture something they never really were (see also Green Day's Insomniac). With Worlds Apart, they start to really experiment with what their place in the "indie" rock world means, using a thicker instrumentation and juxtaposing alt. rock styles from the throughout the past decade and a half. Top tracks: Will You Smile Again?, The Rest Will Follow, Caterwaul

Cruiserweight / Sweet Weaponry Doghouse 5.948 It seems like there's a band like this for me every year -- late in 2004 it was Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer, at the end of 2003 and early 2004 it was Karmella's Game. Bright sounding, female-fronted, pop-punk bands with synths aren't dime-a-dozen, but for some reason it feels like it; Cruiserweight stands above this non-existent pack with a tone like (to steal from myself) a post-Blink version of Dance Hall Crashers. It's an insistently fun but menacing romp that comes through in a number of singles that should've been major hits. Top tracks: This Ain't No Beach Party, Vacation Vacate, Operation Eyes Closed

Robbers on High Street / Tree City New Line 5.948 Let's get it out of the way: This band rips off Spoon like crackheads going after VCR's. But where Spoon fell into the same maturity trap as Ben Folds did in 2005, Robbers on High Street get the brash rockness that is central to their own misappropriated sound. "Spanish Teeth" is the most obviously Kill the Moonlight-ganking track on the record, while others take a subtler, more piano-driven approach to Spoonery, but the point is this: Spoon is an excellent band with a unique sound, and these guys made a record that's at least a notch above Gimme Fiction. Top tracks: Spanish Teeth, Japanese Girls, Descender

Nine Inch Nails / With Teeth nothing 6.165 I'll be honest -- I was extremely skeptical about another five-year gap for NIN. When The Fragile came out in 1999, there was all kinds of talk about the many other tracks Trent Reznor had ready to go and how the next album would be quick in coming, blah blah blah. It didn't happen. With Teeth was supposed to be the long-in-coming debut of the new, organic NIN -- again, blah blah blah. This should've been complete crap. And yet, it turned out to be a collection of solid songs highlighted by a few gems. The only real downside is that it doesn't hang together as a cohesive album, at least not in the way that every previous NIN album has. It's a minor complaint, though; what we have here is a couple of great songs and several good but not great ones. Can you really complain about that 16 years after pretty hate machine? Top tracks: You Know What You Are?, The Collector, Only

OK Go / Oh No Capitol 5.948 And on the flipside, I wasn't skeptical at all about this one. I saw OK Go live early in 2005 and they played a number of tracks from this record, most of which I liked a lot. And then the record came out last summer and just kind of... fizzled. Their first record opened with three punch-you-in-the-face awesome tracks and had a few more, to boot; this one was much rawer and didn't have the brilliant pop feel of OK Go. But eventually I found myself excited to hear these songs pop up on shuffle, then I started seeking them out, then I realized they really were pretty catchy. It's not great and it's ultimately a step down, but it's still really good and a treat to turn up way too loud. Top tracks: Do What You Want, A Good Idea at the Time, It's a Disaster

Gatsby's American Dream / Volcano Fearless 5.915 Gatsby's American Dream was the full-on, post-punk band of the year for me. The memealogy that began way back when with the DC core that spawned Fugazi and Jawbox has mostly been diluted by pop ambition or "maturity" (i.e., the use of lots of electronics). Even latecomers like Cave In and Alkaline Trio are only sort of in the genre -- Gatsby's may be the band most fully committed to this style that you can find today. And while they aren't perfect at it -- the ups and downs between the greats songs and mediocre ones on this record can be jarring -- they have the form down pat and should be a significant musical force for some time to come. They're playing in an important, evocative niche, and there's nobody else in there to compete with them. Top tracks: Theatre, Pompeii, Fable

System of a Down / Mezmerize Sony 5.915 Metal has always had this weird relationship with great technical musicianship. As much as parents of metalheads may have complained about "noise" in the years since Black Sabbath and Zeppelin set the ball rolling, that noise is often comprised of extremely precise and well-designed music. In the case of System of a Down, it's technical musical ability combined with a deep appreciation of a number of different kinds of musical artistry -- most notably Armenian folk music -- and an uncompromising political philosophy. It's easy to dismiss the social commentary of a song like "B.Y.O.B.," in much the same way that it's easy for cynics to dismiss the social commentary of any piece of art (witness the complaining about the V For Vendetta movie adaptation from self-styled "anarchists"), but it's not easy to do something that it both better and equally as able to reach the kinds of people that SOAD reaches. Mezmerize -- for some reason a damn sight better than its companion, Hypnotize -- is probably the most important metal record since ...And Justice For All for just that reason. Top tracks: B.Y.O.B., Radio/Video, Violent Pornography

Portastatic / Bright Ideas Merge 5.915 Superchunk is dead, kids; sorry. What once was Mac McCaughan's acoustic, lo-fi, noodly side-project is now a full-fledged indie rock band and -- shock! -- they sound just like what Superchunk would probably sound like if they'd put out a follow-up to Here's to Shutting Up yet. As with a lot of the early 90's indie contingent, McCaughan's current work is quite introspective and more steady than what Superchunk did in the "Slack Motherfucker" days. While the record contains a number of good songs, early tentpole "I Wanna Know Girls" is what makes the record truly memorable, and is itself great enough to enhance the effect of surrounding tracks. It's an amazing adult pop love song -- a paean to love and crushing that, in an era overrun with hollow, commoditized sexuality, is the kind of song that reminds you what music really means as a mode of self-expression. Top tracks: White Wave, I Wanna Know Girls, Registered Ghost

And the rest of the top 25:

16. The Chemical Brothers / Push the Button (Astralwerks)
17. Franz Ferdinand / You Could Have It So Much Better (Domino)
18. Kaiser Chiefs / Employment (B-Unique)
19. Metric / Live It Out (Last Gang)
20. Maritime / We, the Vehicles (Grand Hotel Van; 2006 US release on Flameshovel)
21. New Pornographers / Twin Cinema (Matador)
22. Erin McKeown / We Will Become Like Birds (Nettwerk)
23-t. Of Montreal / The Sunlandic Twins (Polyvinyl)
23-t. Garbage / Bleed Like Me (Geffen)
25. The Aquabats / Charge!! (Nitro)