Tough one...
1.)
"Haunted" by Poe
My brother introduced me to this one... Poe had always been at the edge of my musical awareness ever since her songs "Hello" and "Angry Johnny" from her first album made minor splashes on radio in the late 90s, but her second album
Haunted got by me entirely for several years. That us, until my brother popped in into my CD player on a short road trip and told me I
was going to listen to it. I've been grateful ever since... highly creative pop/rock with touches of electronica scattered about, with some Spanish flamenco flavoring on one song for good measure. It's also a concept album, with scattered recordings from her deceased father, who was a somewhat accomplished documentary filmmaker and public speaker in his day, and all the scattered recordings, lyrics and songs are all tied up together as an attempt at one last conversation between Poe and her father. The relationship they had was quite complex and conflicted, ranging from the sweetness of the final track "If You Were Here" to the almost gleeful viciousness of another song where she snarls, "I'm not a virgin anymore. Just thought you should know," and every possible emotion in between. If you only check out one album from my list, just trust me and make it this one.
2.)
"When The Pawn..." by Fiona Apple
I'll spare you the full album title, which is actually an 8-line poem.

I'm a sucker for a well-played piano, and this girl can flat-out play. She's also the only songwriter I know who can toss in words like "desideratum" into her lyrics without sounding forced AND while still fitting the established rhythm and rhyme schemes. The lyrics are all intensely personal but just guarded enough to give you something to think about, and the musical arrangements are unique and eclectic. The only thing that sounds like a Fiona Apple album is another Fiona Apple album, and this is her best.
3.)
"Spiritual Machines" by Our Lady Peace
Another concept album, this time about the very concept of life and what it is that seperates people from the things that people create, especially as we inch closer and closer to cloning and artificial intelligence and robots. These guys always swing for the fences with their brand of epic rock, and with this album they finally managed to hit a home run.
4.)
"Start Something" by Lostprophets
These guys often get criticized as being too derivative, but on this album they managed to borrow a lot of the best qualities of a bunch of other alternative bands without also picking up their weaknesses, and combined it into a very consistent set of hard-rockin' good songs. Think Hoobastank's pop/rock catchiness minus the commercial calculation, plus Evanescence's darker goth edge minus the hokey tendency to take themselves WAY too seriously. Yeah it's derivative, but who cares when it sounds this good?
5.)
"A Crow Left Of The Murder" by Incubus
By far the most intelligent alternative band out there, and this has been their most intelligent and challenging album yet. This is where they took the experimentation of their breakout album
Make Yourself, combined it with the straightforward pop-edged songwriting from their next album
Morning View, and put it all together. This is the album they've been trying to make for years, and they finally pulled it off. And they have yet another album coming out in November, so I'm looking forward to that one.
6.)
"The Colour And The Shape" by Foo Fighters
"Monkey Wrench," "Everlong" and "My Hero" are all off this album, and they weren't even the best songs. This whole album crackles with energy and is just damn FUN to hear.
7.)
Disc 2 from the "Best Of" CD by Seal
I own all 4 of Seal's studio albums and enjoy them all, but when Seal put together his "Best Of" CD a couple of years ago, he jumped back into the studio with long-time producer Trevor Horn and recorded acoustic versions of most of his radio hits and a scattering of his best album tracks. "Crazy" takes on a whole new life this way, "Waiting For You" comes off as a lot more playful than the studio version, and the previously lifeless "Colour" finally gets some much-needed color to match the title. All of these re-dos were put together with just as much care (perhaps more so!) than the original studio versions, and they truly shine.
8.)
"Dulcinea" by Toad The Wet Sprocket
A haunting and soulful album from one of my favorite groups. I still get chills sometimes when I hear "Windmills"...
9.)
"Room For Squares" by John Mayer
This album came out during a rather uncertain time in my life. The topics are so ordinary and everyday, but the songwriting and lyrics are so catchy and uplifting, and Mayer plays the hell out of his guitar. A great example of where it all comes together is his song "My Stupid Mouth," where saying one wrong thing changes everything: "We bit our lips / She looked out the window, rolling tiny balls of napkin paper / I played a quick game of chess with the salt and pepper shakers / And I could see clearly, an indelible line was drawn / Between what was good, what just slipped out, and what went wrong."
10.)
"Rockin' The Suburbs" by Ben Folds
After his band Ben Folds Five broke up, Ben Folds went solo and put together an incredible batch of tunes. He was still the same smart-ass slacker that he was in the 90s, but he was getting older, more mature, and he actually (*gasp!*) got married and started a family! So this was his last chance to be his old self, and he took full advantage. He also showed himself to be a formidable musician. Everyone already knew he was a virtuoso on the piano, but I had no idea that he could also play guitar, bass, drums and even a violin until I checked the album credits and saw that virtually all of the instrumentation was played by Ben Folds himself seperately, then produced and layered together over his own vocals later in the studio. The results are stunning. They're also damn fun to listen to; hey, it IS Ben Folds.
Honorable Mentions:
"One By One" by Agents Of Good Roots
"Lemon Parade" by Tonic
"Meteora" by Linkin Park
"Tragic Kingdom" by No Doubt
"Before These Crowded Streets" by The Dave Matthews Band
"Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I Am Not" - by Arctic Monkeys