Our 59 Favorite Songs of 2005

& & by Joel Smith, Carey Murphy and Luke Baumgarten & & & r & This isn't a best of list; it's simply a buttload of songs we really, really liked this year. It's in no particular order, because Carey and Joel and I hate each other and we couldn't stand to be in the same room long enough to negotiate the fragile truce that would allow us to father an ordered list. Which means this: if you don't find anything that grabs you in the first ten or twenty or thirty, keep reading, you're bound to find something. Happy New Years, humans. -- Luke Baumgarten





& lt;ol & & lt;li & & quot;Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood, & quot; Clap Your Hands Say Yeah & lt;li & & quot;Spelunking, & quot; Laura Veirs & lt;li & & quot;Ballad of Our So-Called Friend, & quot; Okkervil River & lt;li & & quot;No Time Flat, & quot; Kevin Devine & lt;li & & quot;Gold Digger, & quot; Kanye West & lt;li & & quot;How a Resurrection Really Feels, & quot; The Hold Steady & lt;li & & quot;Bandages and Scars, & quot; Son Volt & lt;li & & quot;Pencil Rot, & quot; Stephen Malkmus & lt;li & & quot;What Can I Do, & quot; Antony and the Johnsons & lt;li & & quot;A Happy Medium, & quot; Malcolm Middleton & lt;li & & quot;What a Wonderful Man, & quot; My Morning Jacket & lt;li & & quot;Bingo, & quot; MIA & lt;li & & quot;In the Midnight, & quot; Langhorne Slim & lt;li & "I Feel Just Like a Child, & quot; Devendra Banhart & lt;li & & quot;Modern Music, & quot; Black Mountain & lt;li & & quot;John Wayne Gacy, Jr., & quot; Sufjan Stevens & lt;li & & quot;I'm Lonely (But I Ain't Lonely Yet), & quot; The White Stripes & lt;li & & quot;Maybe You Can Owe Me, & quot; Architecture in Helsinki & lt;li & & quot;I Feel Like the Mother of the World, & quot; Smog & lt;li & & quot;Your Party Will Be Alright, & quot; The Coachwhips & lt;li & & quot;18,000 Lira, & quot; Art Brut & lt;li & & quot;Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left, & quot; Andrew Bird & lt;li & & quot;Road to Joy, & quot; Bright Eyes & lt;li & & quot;Bloody Mother-Fucking Asshole, & quot; Martha Wainwright & lt;li & & quot;The Engine Driver, & quot; The Decemberists & lt;li & & quot;Sing For Me, & quot; The Fiery Furnaces & lt;li & & quot;Oslo in the Summertime, & quot; Of Montreal & lt;li & & quot;Exploration, & quot; Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion & lt;li & & quot;The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth, & quot; Clap Your Hands Say Yeah & lt;li & & quot;People 4 Prez, & quot; The Perceptionists & lt;li & & quot;White Center, & quot; Damien Jurado & lt;li & & quot;Onion, & quot; The Heartless Bastards & lt;li & & quot;Helicopter, & quot; Bloc Party & lt;li & & quot;Get Your Curse, & quot; His Name is Alive & lt;li & & quot;It's All Gonna Break, & quot; Broken Social Scene & lt;li & & quot;16 Military Wives, & quot; The Decemberists & lt;li & & quot;My Home is the Sea, & quot; Matt Sweeney and Bonnie & quot;Prince & quot; Billy & lt;li & & quot;The Battle for Straight Time, & quot; A.C. Newman & lt;li & & quot;Last of a Simple Feeling, & quot; Hockey & lt;li & & quot;Glosoli, & quot; Sigur Ross & lt;li & & quot;Ps and Qs, & quot; Kano & lt;li & & quot;No Room for Change, & quot; Crystal Skulls & lt;li & & quot;Pistol Totin' Man, & quot; The Dexateens & lt;li & & quot;Brighter Rays/Goddamn Your Energy, & quot; Invisible & lt;li & & quot;It Never Changes to Stop, & quot; The Books & lt;li & & quot;Extraordinary Machine, & quot; Fiona Apple & lt;li & & quot;Funky Voltron, & quot; Edan, featuring Insight & lt;li & & quot;Jealous Moon, & quot; Nickel Creek & lt;li & & quot;Beat Box, & quot; Matisyahu & lt;li & & quot;Our Pen's Out of Ink, & quot; The Russian Futurists & lt;li & & quot;Bridges and Balloons, & quot; Colin Meloy & lt;li & & quot;White Madam, & quot; The Joggers & lt;li & & quot;21, & quot; Aaron Schroeder & lt;li & & quot;The Black Hawk War, Or, How To Demolish An Entire Civilization And Still Feel Good About Yourself In The Morning, Or, We Apologize For The Inconvenience But You're Gonna Have To Leave Now, Or, 'I Have Fought The Big Knives And Will Continue To Fight..., & quot; Sufjan Stevens & lt;li & & quot;Sister Jack, & quot; Spoon & lt;li & & quot;Twin Cinema, & quot; The New Pornographers & lt;li & & quot;Cattle and the Creeping Things, & quot; The Hold Steady & lt;li & & quot;Open Face Crab Sandwich, & quot; Seaweed Jack & lt;li & & quot;Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts, & quot; Wolf Parade & lt;/ol &