List: The Best Songs of 2005

Photo: The Clientele – Strange Geometry

Last year, in rounding up my favorite songs* of the year, I missed a few — namely, the Clientele’s totally awesome “Since K Got Over Me,” not to mention, uh, Amerie’s “One Thing” and plenty of other stuff. So as we wind down 2006, here’s a quick look back at 2005. The albums might not be trendy any more, but you can still jam this stuff on your iPod shuffle, right?

*On these kinds of lists, I tend to avoid tracks from the albums I really like because if I like the whole thing, how is a song going to stand out? So there’s no Andrew Bird or Lewis & Clarke on this list, though songs from most of my top 10 did manage to find a spot on here.

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Unrankable: R. Kelly – “Trapped in the Closet”

1. The Clientele – “Since K Got Over Me” (mp3)
2. Ryan Adams – “Starlite Diner”
3. Richard Hawley – “The Ocean” (mp3)
4. Smog – “Drinking At The Dam” (mp3)
5. Of Montreal – “The Party’s Crashing Us” (mp3)
6. Sea Snakes – “A Pall Bearer’s Calendar” (mp3)
7. Amerie – “One Thing”
8. Liam Singer – “One Day”
9. Mia Doi Todd – “What If We Do?” (mp3)
10. Frida Hyvonen – “Drive My Friend”
11. LCD Soundsystem – “Daft Punk is Playing At My House”
12. Sufjan Stevens – “Casimir Pulaski Day”
13. New Buffalo – “I’ve Got You and You’ve Got Me” (mp3)
14. Magic Numbers – “I See You, You See Me”
15. Broken Social Scene – “Swimmers”
16. Fiona Apple – “Not About Love” (mp3)
17. Antony & The Johnsons – “My Lady Story”
18. Art Brut – “Good Weekend”
19. Akron/Family – “I’ll Be On The Water”
20. Chad VanGaalen – “Traffic” (mp3)
21. The Game (ft. 50 Cent) – “Hate It or Love It”
22. Iron & Wine and Calexico – “16, Maybe Less”
23. The National – “Secret Meeting”
24. Rogue Wave – “Love’s Lost Guarantee” (mp3)
25. The Decemberists – “The Sporting Life”
26. Wolf Parade – “Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts” –> segue –> “I’ll Believe In Anything”
27. The Constantines – “Soon Enough”
28. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – “Pangea” (mp3)
29. Kelly Clarkson – “Since U Been Gone”
30. Spoon – “Sister Jack”
31. Bright Eyes – “First Day of My Life”
32. Bloc Party – “This Modern Love”
33. M. Ward – “Hi-Fi” (mp3)
34. Field Music – “You’re So Pretty…” (mp3)
35. Ben Folds – “Prison Food”
36. Bonnie “Prince” Billy/Matt Sweeney – “Bed is For Sleeping”
37. Phil – “Left Coast”
38. Dean Drouillard – “4 a.m.” (mp3)
39. Holopaw – “Losing Light”
40. Fruit Bats – “Lives of Crime”
41. Gwen Stefani – “Hollaback Girl”
42. Margot & The Nuclear So-and-So’s – “Dress Me Like A Clown”
43. Fog – “The Rabbit” (mp3)
44. Daedalus – “Impending Doom (feat. MF Doom)” (mp3)
45. AK-MOMO – “Return To N.Y.”
46. Nada Surf – “Always Love”
47. Cardinal – “You’ve Lost Me There”
48. Acid House Kings – “I Write Summer Songs for No Reason”
49. Faris Nourallah – “I Run Faster Than You Can” (mp3)

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There should be a Kanye West song on here too, but I can’t choose between “Gone” and “We Major.” Anything I missed?