NPR Music - Our No. 1 songs: 2005

Episode Date: August 21, 2025

What songs take us back to 2005?Note: This is a recurring feature in celebration of the show’s 25th anniversary. A shortened version of this episode ran earlier in the year.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

It's all songs considered, and we're celebrating our 25th anniversary. This is where you... I really thought I'd get a big round of applause or something from you there, Stephen. Was I supposed to... I didn't realize. You need to tell me when I'm supposed to stand and cheer. Yeah, hold a sign that says applause. Please enjoy the show now. Stephen Thompson here.

Hosted New Music Friday. You may know him from Pop Culture Happy Hour. Welcome. Hello, Robin. So here's what we're doing. All this spring and summer, we closed out our regular Tuesday. day episodes by talking about our number one songs from the past 25 years. We did a different year at the end of each episode. We talked about every year from 2000 to 2024. That's 25 years.

If you can do the math there, Stephen. Now we're expanding those segments a bit. We're offering them as standalone episodes a little easier for people to hear and we can talk about and play a bit more stuff. We're up to 2005 now. We just had the first five years. Now we're doing 2005. What do you want to start with. Well, I'm going to kick us off with a song that has gotten me through a lot of different years and lost nothing in the process. Well, it's the mountain goats. Very good. I can't believe this is 20 years old. I know, right? Referencing the name of the song in that line this year by the mountain goats, yeah, I know this one well. Yeah, this is a song that has lost nothing. Yeah. This is a song that remains 100% relatable.

no matter where you are in your life, even though the song is recounting this kind of, this big, tragic teenage drama, the emotions in this song remains completely timeless. And it's amazing how many seemingly unendurable life events are made better by the presence of this song. This song has helped a lot of people. If you've ever seen the Mountain Goats in concert

and they get to this song, you'll get a sense of how much this song means to Mountain Goats fans. by how everyone in the room will shriek this song and shriek basically every word of this song. It's very cathartic. Well, we've talked about this before on the show, you know, whenever we do a call out to listeners to tell us about a song that, you know,

like either lifts them up or gets them through, this song always comes up. Yeah. Such a great pick. But I'm going to play something completely different. I have to say, first thing I think of when I think of 2005 is maybe this. I turn my kids.

camera on? Yeah. Spoon. Spoon. I'm like, I knew the words to the song before I knew the band. I turned my camera on. I cut my fingers on the way. This album from Spoon, Gimmie fiction that came out, oh my God, I listened to it so much in 2005. easily my favorite album of 2005, but it's not going to be my number one song pick for 2005. I know I'm kind of cheating here. I'm trying to get as much in as possible. This is going to be my pick for 2005, and I bet you'll know it right away. Okay.

I'll show you the ropes kid. Show you the ropes. And the trailer at my house, my house. I'll show you the ropes. Show you the ropes. Oh my gosh. When we take a walk down memory lane and think about how music was changing and all the wild stuff we were hearing coming out in the early 2000s, when LCD sound system burst onto the scene with this song, Daft Punk is playing my house from their self-titled debut album in 2005.

It was the ultimate party song. It was everywhere. It was incredible. It's so funny, like, you know, I talked about this year being like the perfect song at the perfect time for me. LCD sound system was a little too cool for where my headspace was. I said, you sound like maybe you were in a different space. I was very much in like, give me some strings to reflect my sadness. It wasn't this?

This song is having a better time than I was in 2005. but a complete jam. So let's do this. Let's take a quick break, and when we come back, we can run through some of the other music that takes us back to 2005. All right, you're going to hear this a lot

as we move through the years, and that's the fact that there's way more stuff than we could ever play on a single show. But what's something else that takes you back to 2005, specifically? Well, I'm going to follow your fun party jam with one of the best breakup songs ever written. Stars. Mm-hmm.

Well, set yourself on fire, isn't it? The song is called Your Ex-Lover is Dead. Oh, right, right, right. We played this on All Songs Considered. I remember when it came out. Well, that's because you have ears. Well, it's not like this song was everywhere. Right, no, but it is one of the best songs of the 2000s.

God, that was strange to see you, Spide and said, yes, I think. I think we've met before to start and capture the tax to despise. Oh, yeah, I'm so glad you brought this one up. This is one I had not thought of in a long, long time. This song aches in such a beautiful way. And it's like a character sketch of these two people.

Because we played the first verse, which is Torquil Campbell, and then Amy Milan, the other singer-on-stars, kind of takes over. And they're kind of taking turns, and he's posturing. and he's such a jerk, and she just has so much more perspective than he does. And as that song kind of blooms, there's this point in the song where their voices come together. Have you ever been through anything? No, I know. Have you ever...

Just everything works out for me. I don't know what it is. I've experienced no sorrow. Have you ever stared at a hurt? turtle. This song. Sure, but I don't think in 2005, you clearly were going through some sort of breakup or something. I don't know, but we were having very different years in 2005. 2005, man, I was unemployed in 2005. I left my long-running job at the end of 2004.

At the onion. At the onion. You know, and I also just was not making a bunch of great decisions in my life in general. and was not my best self. And several of these songs from this era really, really helped me. Well, like with all of these years that we're looking at, as we look back at 25 years of all songs considered, there's a billion other songs that we could play.

We haven't even talked about the Sufion Stevens record. Well, I was going to say Illinois came out that year. Yeah. Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine came out that year. Talk about phenomenal albums. Oh, my gosh. I certainly haven't been shopping for any new shoes. I certainly haven't been spreading myself around.

I still only travel by foot and by foot it's a slow climb, but I'm good at being uncomfortable so I can't stop changing all the time. I notice that my opponent is always on the go and won't go slow so's not to focus And I notice He'll it to ride With any guide As long as they go fast From whence he came

But he's no good at being Uncomfortable so we can't stop staying Exactly the same Such a huge year But if you want to talk about songs That made you feel better and feel great I'm going to go with this one You got it yet?

Clap your hands say yeah Yeah clap your hands say yeah I was like, it's not David Byrne This was the first record that Clap Your Hand Say Yeah, the self-titled record from Clap Your Hand Say Yeah, upon this tidal wave of Youngblood. It was the track that closed out that album. This was such a huge example of how music blogs

reshaped the way people discover new music. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, really blew up on blogs. You know, you'd like download an MP3, and, you know, like, all of a sudden, the whole nature of music gatekeeping was really shifting in the early to mid-aughts and clap your hands say yeah we're kind of a beneficiary of that where like this band that didn't

necessarily have this huge label apparatus behind them was still able to blow up and find an audience so that was the self-titled album from clap your hands to yeah and the song that closed with upon this tidal wave of young blood so much we could talk about but we'll go out on this And until next time, thanks Stephen. Thank you, Robert. And for NPR music, I'm Robin Hilton.

It's All Songs Considered.