David J. McCarthy Senior Staff Writer

A year comes and goes and it’s funny what you manage… David J. McCarthy Senior Staff Writer

A year comes and goes and it’s funny what you manage to hear while it’s rushing by. I wanted to listen to so many CDs this year and never got around to it. Luckily, the ones I did find time for were Casbah-rockin’. Here they are in order of rockliness.

5. Once More With Feeling

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Rounder

For the commercial release of the soundtrack to last television season’s sparkling diamond, Joss Whedon took only the songs from the musical and arranged them into a listener-friendly package. With the show’s dialogue and sound effects removed, only the music itself was left to shine through, and shine through it does. Now you can finally put the magic of Buffy into your CD player.

4. Highly Evolved

The Vines

Capitol

In 2002, The Vines took advantage of The Strokes’ year off and pushed their way to the front of the garage rock scene. Despite being much more arrogant and drugged-out than Is This It, The Vines’ debut still plays to the gaping hole in the soul of the music industry: simple, good rock music. The album’s greatest success lies in its ability to create melody and harmony and then elevate them with punk energy – sort of like if the Beatles took even more drugs.

3. A Rush of Blood to the Head

Coldplay

Capitol

This album surprised everyone (including the band themselves) in how beautifully everything came together. Not since Ben Folds has piano rock sounded so honest. A Rush of Blood to the Head feels naked in its sense that everything it creates is plainly and delicately put on display. The songs stand out on any radio station, just like finding modern rock stars in an art museum.

2. Hard Candy

Counting Crows

Universal

For the first time since August and Everything After, the Crows found a perfect mix of fast and slow in what is definitely their most fun album to date. Adam Duritz actually sounds happy and his songwriting is rock solid. There are instruments galore on Hard Candy and they sharply punctuate the rising and falling emotions that run across the album. Finally, refreshing proof that all of last decade’s icons aren’t dead.

1. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

The Flaming Lips

Warner Brothers

In a comic book tale of action, romance, and space ship noises, The Flaming Lips’ experimental follow up to The Soft Bulletin bursts with creativity. Similar to how Radiohead broke the mold with OK Computer, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is more of a living, breathing creature than it is just mere music. This album comes from a galaxy far, far away where everything sounds good and nobody watches MTV.