Vote

Cream: The Concert at Albert Hall, May 2005. Great recording and performance.

Dolly Parton's Live cd

David Chesky: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra; The Girl from Guatemala and Concerto for Flute and Orchestra. Performed by Area 31. Chesky SACD 288. Wondeful catchy compositions and in SOTA SACD sonics. David Chesky is becoming one of the best composers of our century. Bravo!

I can't break the tie: Illinois and Chavez Ravine were far and away my favorites this year.

This Godless Endeavor by the metal band Nevermore. Brilliant from front to back. A splendid musical journey in the true roots of progressive metal. It has set a new precedent this year for what all great metal albums have strived to be. Great title, too.

An old recording but a new release: Monk and Coltrane Live at Carnegie Hall.

Sufjan Stevens: Sun Came

Philadelphia Orchestra: Martinu, Klein, Bartok on Ondine.

I-Pod Nano playing old classic rock,Classical,LP's Computerized into 360 kbp's songs for I-Pod

Kem: Kem Album II

The Knitters: The Modern Sound of the Knitters; The White Stripes: Get Behind Me Satan; Mary Gauthier: Mercy Now; and Laura Cantrell: Humming By the Flowered Vine are the only new releases I remember buying this year. Everything else was back catalog, and vinyl when possible.

The Bad Plus "Suspicious Activity"

Takk from Sigur Ros. It is like a little slice of nirvana.

Beck: Guero. In a really bad year for music, this album made me laugh and it stood up to repeated listenings. Thank God!

I don't know if "reissue" is the right word, but for me it was the release of The Carnegie Hall concert of the Thelonius Monk band with John Coltrane.

Richard Thompson: Front Parlor Ballads. I thought Old Kit Bag was a little weak, but Thompson's latest is absolutely stunning. He continues to invent new styles of guitar playing on every album, but on this one his song-writing is back at the top level. These are dark, twisted ballads about people with a 21st-century sensibility in a late 19th-century environment, wonderfully sinister and inventive. Available on vinyl, too.

Bill Frisell: East/West, This 2CD live album captures everything that a live Frisell concert is all about, and sonically its a masterpiece.

American Idiot

The Old Scratch Revival Singers: Oh Didn't He Ramble. This is one people will be paying big bucks for on eBay in 20 years ... and they released it on vinyl as well!

Illinois by Sufjan Stevens

Mozart:- Flute Concertos (BIS-SACD-153901). Sharon Bezaly, flute; Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Juha Kangas.

That's an easy one! Paul Anka's Rock Swings. I recall Paul from the later 1950s as just a kid making a buck. What a difference a half century makes! Polished, seasoned, confident—you name it, Anka's a pro. And his voice is better than ever. With this CD, Paul takes on 1980s rock and makes it swing baby, swing! And the recording quality is excellent!

John Zorn: Bar Kokhba Sextet, 50th Birthday Celebration, Vol. 11 (Tzadik).

David Chesky: Area 31.

Greg Osby: Channel Three

Death Cab for Cutie. New, fresh, dark, and fine sounding on LP.

White Stripes: Get Behind Me Satan. On black wax of course.

There were some good ones, but nothing that I can actually remember as having stood out!

My vote is for Neil Young

John Hiatt's Master of Disaster. Great songs, singing, playing, production, and sound (pure DSD). Not coincidentally, won "Listener's Choice Award" at Surround Sound 2005 conference.