Here Come the ABCs

My friend Jonathan and I have a tradition each year where we rate the top albums of the year. As I set out to figure out which album was my favorite for 2005, I started going through some of the CDs that I purchased this year.

I was scratching my head over all the great new albums I bought this year like Picaresque (The Decemberists), Employment (The Kaiser Chiefs), The Girl Who Couldn't Fly (Kate Rusby), Twin Cinema (The New Pornographers), Blinking Lights and Other Revelations (The Eels) etc. I ended up with a list of about 15 albums that were legitimate contenders for the title.

Then I remembered the album that I've actually listened to more than any other album this year...Here Come the ABCs, the new children's album by They Might Be Giants! Both of my kids were totally into the DVD that accompanied this album and we must have watched it an average of twice a day for the last 6 months.

Not only is it totally cool that our kids are into a band that Liz and I used to go see when we were in college, but this album is actually quite good. While the songs are about the alphabet, not a one of them would be out of place on any of your typical TMBG albums. In fact, I bet they even do some of the songs at their concerts.

Some of the songs are whimsical (Pictures of Pandas Painting -- can you guess what letter that one's about?), philosophical (Who Put the Alphabet in Alphabetical Order?), and downright clever (I C U -- an entire song whose lyrics are a coherent story made up of only single letter words).

I'm sure ultimately that I will conclude that one of the "adult" albums was truly the best album of 2005, but for the time being, They Might Be Giants is getting my vote for their generation spanning album.

What's your favorite album of 2005?