by Subhash K Jha

As always, the best weren't necessarily the best-sellers. Though the year remained sharply slumped for the music industry there were bright spots throughout 2005.

You wished Himesh Reshammiya's work in Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye, Vivek Philips's My Brother Nikhil and Vishal-Shekhar's Home Delivery were more appreciated.

But what the yell! You've to take the sounds that come your way and be content with the echoes. Here's looking at the creatively and commercially successful soundtrack of the year.

1. Mera Kuch Saaman: Gulzar should celebrate his birthday every six months. At least the music companies would ensure there's an album of this caliber at least twice a year. An anthology where the poet-lyricist-moviemaker-scholar-thinker handpicked his lyrics.

What's more the anthology featured a list of every single lyric that Gulzar saab ever wrote. Result? An album you can go back to repeatedly without getting tired. Definitely one of the musical highlights of the year, Mera Kuch Saaman garnered the best sales among the anthologies of the year.

2. Bunty Aur Babli: From Kuch Na Kaho to Kal Ho Na Ho to this massy and rumbustious ode to spirited musicality, Shankar-Ehsan-Loy have been evolving rapidly. The songs in Bunty Aur Babli demonstrated verve and vitality.

Sunidhi Chauhan's opening invitation in Dhadak dhadak set the pace....By the time the album chugged to its feverish finale with the epoch making qawwali Kajra re, the verdict was out: the score was Yashraj music's biggest moneyspinner to date.

3. Zinda: Alive and ticking....At year-end just when we though we had heard and seen it all, came this shocker of a knocker. For Sanjay Gupta , Vishal-Shekhar designed a score that bore the wounds and marks of a lacerated humanity.

The songs were anxious energetic and emphatically punctuated by pain....a remarkable album from a filmmaker who broke every musical rule in Kaante and Musafir. Throaty, husky and smouldering the vocals rip a hole in your soul.

This is crossover music at its coolest, most promising. Apparently T Series allowed Sanjay Gupta to do his own thing without interference.

4. Dus: You didn't need Dus bahaane to like Vishal-Shekhar's tracks in this album of snazzy snap-and-crackle tunes. While Shaan and KK whooped it up in the chartbusting title song it was the powerful music video accompanying the track with Abhishek and Zayed that did the trick ...

People simply got out if their setas and danced. The audio sales for Dus were so high, they exceeded the film's boxoffice revenues!

5. Parineeta: Shantanu Moitra's silken stab at old-world music conveyed a quaint, though hardly dynamic charm. The best part of the music was the delicacy of the arrangements.

The melodies were passable, though not quite the volcanic curios they were expected to be. Trust Sunidhi Chauhan to smoulder up the soundtrack with her seductive Kaisi paheli hai yeh zindagani.

6. Rang De Basanti: After the disappointing Mangal Pandey A. R Rahman returned to form with this fabulously designed album of feel-glued music that offered a 'young' probing sound and outstanding lyrics by Prasoon Joshi. From a mother missing her son (a historic coming together of Lata Mangeshkar and Rahman) in Lukka chuppi to the youth anthem Khalbali...the score spanned a century of feelings.

7. Aashiq Banaya Aapne: You can't keep this one out! Emran Hashmi has all the luck in the world. The songs that he sings on screen have a way of hitting home. So what do we say about Himesh Reshammiya's nasal sufi-rock rendition of the title song which rocked the nation?

Even the other tracks namely Aapki kashish sarfaroshi hai and Marjawa mitjawa were chart-toppers. Though Himesh's work in Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye and Kyun Ki ... were far superior he seems to have found his métier in the rock-sufi style. Though Himesh wears by Salmanbhai's name he seems to have done his best work this year for him.

8. Kalyug: From Dil tadap tadap in Madhumati to Ustad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan's Jiya dhadak dhadak ....The Kalyug track is probably the best dhadak-dhadak song of the year. Its romantic appeal was so earthy and raw as to provide a counterpoint to Himesh's Aashiq Banaya Aapne.

This one track alone afforded a world-view into traditional sufi sounds as they shoujd, and must, sound in the present day and age.

9. You've Stolen My Heart: Kronos Quartet: The US jazz quartet got together with Asha Bhosle to work on some of R.D. Burman's choicest chants. And boy, did they kick up a storm!

10 Best Songs Of 2005

1. Mausam ki adla –badli : Black
2. Le chalen le chalen: My Brother Nkhil.
3. Shayad yehi to pyar hai: Lucky: No Time For Love
4. Dheere jalna: Paheli
5. Tauba tauba: Kaal
6. Kajra re: Bunty Sur Babli
7. Dus bahane: Dus
8. Jiya dhadak dhadak: Kalyug
9. Woh lamhe: Zehar
10. Just chill: Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya

Albums To Die For In 2006: Monty's Saanvariya, Anu Malik's Umrao Jaan . Shankar-Ehsan-Loy's Kabhi Alvidaa Na Kehna, Himesh Reshammiya's China Town.