Best Songs of 2005

If 2004 was a year where I could expand my musical horizons (and collection) in real time, largely thanks to the internet, 2005 was a year where that practice became old hat. I can trace my life with dozens of these songs back to mix CDs, FTP sites and, of course, blog posts.

2005 was a year where indie rock grew out of its confinements of a certain sound and out into the nebulous but larger world where suddenly these bands that once felt small could start to feel big, and not just because the outside world was noticing them. In large part, they truly weren’t. But the buzz bands that once came from college radio and late nights on MTV were now emanating from these still-newish things called weblogs.

Sure, Napster had truly merged the music and internet half a decade earlier, but with the rapid adoption of high-speed internet, the booming business of the iTunes Music Store and the rapid growth of the blogosphere—a word I have not heard in regular use in a long while—the relationship between the two got serious.

For me, that meant 2005 was one of the first years where my music consumption began to truly overtake my life. It was the first year I made myself a formal two-disc Best Of collection, mostly for myself, but also to hand out to a few friends, a practice which continued for the next decade.

Four years out of college, this was also a year of transition for me in life, as I finally set myself on the path toward working adulthood. The outsider probably cannot tell at a glance, but this tumultuous, adventurous period is reflected in these songs and these artists. With music so easily in reach, yet my limits still set by how much I could afford, this was a great year to stretch my tastes and yet still find room in my heart for new artists, albums and songs when I discovered them.

All that said, what you see below is an honest attempt to assess a year in time, merging the idealistic nature of a list made 10 years after the fact with the idea of what I actually loved and was into at the time. Surely I love a few of these songs more than I did then, and have lessened my interest in others, but these 100 songs remain a definitive statement of what mattered to me in, and from, 2005.

For these year-end lists, I like to undertake the seemingly impossibly task of creating an hours-long mix. The order you see below represents that effort, which you can listen to via Spotify. Sadly all 100 tracks aren't available, but you get the general idea. Track notes to come eventually or maybe never.

Show Grid

Banquet

Bloc Party

Silent Alarm

Vice

Notes
Apply Some Pressure

Maximo Park

A Certain Trigger

Warp

Notes
Very Loud

Shout Out Louds

Howl Howl Gaff Gaff

Capitol

2003 Swedish release.
Time’s Tight

The Embassy

Tacking

Service

Notes
Shadowland

Youth Group

Skeleton Jar

Epitaph

Notes
Starts Off With a Bang

Mobius Band

City vs Country

Ghostly International

Notes
The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Wichita

Notes
Sukkafish

The Grates

The Ouch. The Touch.

Fontana

Notes
Kissing Families

Silversun Pickups

Pikul

Dangerbird

Notes
Little Sister

Queens of the Stone Age

Lullabies to Paralyze

Interscope

Notes
Best of You

Foo Fighters

In Your Honor

Roswell/RCA

Notes
Abel

The National

Alligator

Beggars Banquet

Notes
Shine a Light

Wolf Parade

Apologies to the Queen Mary

Sub Pop

Notes
Earthquake Weather

Beck

Guero

DGC

Notes
The Corner

Common featuring Kanye West & The Last Poets

Be

Geffen

Notes
Touch the Sky

Kanye West

Late Registration

Roc-A-Fella

Notes
Connect For

Common Market

Common Market

Sciontific

Notes
Johnny Boy Theme

Johnny Boy

Johnny Boy

Wild Kingdom

2005 Swedish release
Take My Time

Junior Senior

Hey Hey My My Yo Yo

Crunchy Frog

2005 international release. Debuted in 2007 in America.
What Else Is There

Röyksopp

The Understanding

Astralwerks

Notes
Heartbeats

The Knife

Deep Cuts

Brille

Notes
Crosses

José González

Veneer

V2

2003 Swedish release. 2005 elsewhere.
My Lady Story

Antony & The Johnsons

I Am a Bird Now

Secretly Canadian

Notes
Hello Tomorrow (adidas version)

Karen O & Squeak E Clean

Hello Tomorrow

Interscope

Notes
We Will Become Silhouettes (Matthew Dear’s Remix)

The Postal Service

We Will Become Silhouettes

Sub Pop

Notes
Mushaboom

Feist

Let It Die

Interscope

Notes
7/4 (Shoreline)

Broken Social Scene

Broken Social Scene

Arts and Crafts

Notes
Ageless Beauty

Stars

Set Yourself on Fire

Arts and Crafts

Notes
This Scene Is Dead

We Are Scientists

With Love and Squalor

Virgin

2005 UK release. Debuted in America in January 2006.
Kick in the Teeth

Supergrass

Road to Rouen

Capitol

Notes
Cool James

Harvey Danger

Little by Little

Phonographic

Notes
Love Me Like You

The Magic Numbers

The Magic Numbers

Parlophone

Notes
Sister Jack

Spoon

Gimme Fiction

Merge

Notes
Do It Again

Nada Surf

The Weight Is a Gift

Barsuk

Notes
Fill Me With Your Light

Clem Snide

End of Love

spinART

Notes
Gamble Everything for Love

Ben Lee

Awake Is the New Sleep

New West

Notes
Wait

Ben Kweller

This Bird Has Flown

Razor & Tie

Notes
Jesusland

Ben Folds

Songs for Silverman

Epic

Notes
To Lick Your Boots

Eels

Blinking Lights and Other Revelations

Vagrant

Notes
Holiday Road

Matt Pond PA

Winter Songs

Altitude

Notes
Holding Back the Year

Lou Barlow

Emoh

Merge

Notes
This Year

The Mountain Goats

The Sunset Tree

4AD

Notes
The Sporting Life

The Decemberists

Picaresque

Kill Rock Stars

Notes
Another Travelin’ Song

Bright Eyes

I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning

Saddle Creek

Notes
Back to Me

Kathleen Edwards

Back to Me

Zoe

Notes
Cold Roses

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals

Cold Roses

Lost Highway

Notes
Endless War

Son Volt

Okemah and the Melody of Riot

Legacy

Notes
Red Dust

Calexico | Iron & Wine

In the Reins

Overcoat Recordings

Notes
As Day Is Long

Chris Whitley

Soft Dangerous Shores

Messenger

Notes
Running, Returning

Akron/Family

Akron/Family

Young God

Notes
A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left

Andrew Bird

The Mysterious Production of Eggs

Righteous Babe

Notes
Not About Love

Fiona Apple

Extraordinary Machine

Epic

Notes
I Don’t Care What You Call Me

David Ford

I Sincerely Apologise for All the Trouble I’ve Caused

Red

Notes
Saturday

Josh Rouse

Nashville

Rykodisc

Notes
Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight

Amos Lee

Amos Lee

Blue Note

Notes
Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole

Martha Wainwright

Martha Wainwright

Zoe

Notes
Modern Girl

Sleater-Kinney

The Woods

Sub Pop

Notes
Ring Out

Justin Vernon

Self Record

self-released

Notes
Sand

The Concretes

Layourbattleaxedown

Astralwerks

Notes
Black Cab

Jens Lekman

Oh You’re So Silent Jens

Secretly Canadian

Notes
White Center

Damien Jurado

On My Way to Absence

Sub Pop

Notes
Ohio

CocoRosie

The Believer Music Issue

The Believer

Notes
Hot Boyz

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

Bro Zone

States Rights

Notes
In the Kitchen (Remix)

R. Kelly

TP.3 Reloaded

Jive

Notes
What’s Up Fatlip

Fatlip

The Loneliest Punk

Delicious Vinyl

Notes
Lazy Sunday

The Lonely Island

Incredibad

Universal

Released as a digital single in 2005 but released on the album in 2009.
Galang

M.I.A.

Arular

XL Recordings

Notes
All Alone

Gorillaz

Demon Days

Virgin

Notes
Screaming Pro in Hell

Team 9

Team 9

self-released

Notes
Galvanize

The Chemical Brothers featuring Q-Tip

Push the Button

Astralwerks

Notes
Robot Rock

Daft Punk

Human After All

Virgin

Notes
Daft Punk Is Playing at My House

LCD Soundsystem

LCD Soundsystem

Parlophone

Notes
Hardcore Days & Softcore Nights

Aqueduct

I Sold Gold

Sub Pop

Notes
Dirty Lives

Love as Laughter

Laughter’s Fifth

Sub Pop

Notes
Hoorah

Mooncalf

Mooncalf

self-released

Notes
Burning in the Sun

Blue Merle

Burning in the Sun

Island

Notes
Lay Low

My Morning Jacket

Z

ATO

Notes
Slow Night, So Long

Kings of Leon

Aha Shake Heartbreak

RCA

Notes
You Might Die Trying

Dave Matthews Band

Stand Up

RCA

Notes
For Real

Okkervil River

Black Sheep Boy

Jagjaguwar

Notes
Still Suspicion Holds You Tight

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Howl

RCA

Notes
By the Time the Sun’s Gone Down

Langhorne Slim

When the Sun’s Gone Down

Narnack

Notes
I Will Follow You Into the Dark

Death Cab for Cutie

Plans

Atlantic

Notes
In the Pines

Smog

A River Ain’t Too Much to Love

Drag City

Notes
The Trapeze Swinger

Iron & Wine

The Trapeze Swinger

Sub Pop

2005 digital single compiled on 2009’s Around the Well.
Neverending Math Equation

Sun Kil Moon

Tiny Cities

Caldo Verde

Notes
Buckets of Rain

Neko Case

Sweetheart Vol. 2

Hear Music

Notes
Hi-Fi

M. Ward

Transistor Radio

Merge

Notes
Turn to the Assassin

Junip

Black Refuge EP

Teme Shet

European release
Cripple Crow

Devendra Banhart

Cripple Crow

XL Recordings

Notes
Casimir Pulaski Day

Sufjan Stevens

Illinois

Asthmatic Kitty

Notes
Salesman at the Day of the Parade

Rogue Wave

Descended Like Vultures

Sub Pop
Fake What You Need

Tim Seely

Funeral Music

Slow Love

Notes
Best of Luck

Nickel Creek

Why Should the Fire Die?

Sugar Hill

Notes
As Ugly As I Seem

The White Stripes

Get Behind Me Satan

V2

Notes
Your Misfortune

Mike Doughty

Haughty Melodic

ATO

Notes
Walk in Fire

Doves

Some Cities

Capitol

Notes
Forget Myself

Elbow

Leaders of the Free World

V2

Notes
The Bleeding Heart Show

The New Pornographers

Twin Cinema

Matador

Notes
A Message

Coldplay

X&Y

Capitol

Notes