Perfect Fit for the Machine:
Best Music of 2005
by Flak Staff

Graphic by Siobhan Harris

Streaming audio component produced by Andy Adams

 Streaming Audio

It's become something of a cliche to start our "Best music of last year" compilations with a word about how the way people listen to music is changing faster than you can say "Walkman." Just because it makes us sound like old fogies doesn't mean it's any less true.

Given that, for the most part, we skipped 2004, this is even more true of 2005's iteration, which we've been saving until now, almost midyear, so we could (ahem) gain a little perspective. In the past couple of years, the iPod has gone from pricey hipster accessory to the world's favorite birthday present. Its popular, easy-to-use iTunes software has gone a long way toward making the personal computer into the world's most widely used stereo component.

We're carrying the bulk of our music library in our pockets, buying hard drives to back it up and adding to it legally (online music store), illegally (peer-to-peer file sharing) and illegally with caveats (peer-to-peer, but only the stuff that's not in print). We're buying cars that come with inputs for portable music players. We're pining for the Olive. Recently, we've started using software like Windows Media Center and Connect360 to stream playlists wirelessly from our computers directly into our video games.

And now we're putting together a streaming playlist of our favorite songs and sharing them with our readers.

Perfect Fit for the Machine, this year's mix, takes its name from a line in the Epoxies' "Synthesized." We didn't pick it to allude to anything; we just liked the title. But we hope these songs are a perfect fit for your machines, be they laptops, desktop PCs, mp3 players, car stereos, video game consoles or good, old-fashioned CD players.

The tracks:
1. "Synthesized" · The Epoxies
2. "The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth" · Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
3. "Feel Good Inc." · Gorillaz
4. "I'm Ready" · Th' Faith Healers
5. "I'll Be on the Water" · Akron/Family
6. "Apply Some Pressure" · Maxïmo Park
7. "Crazy" · Gnarls Barkley
8. "Zero Point" · The Rogers Sisters
9. "New Casablanca" · Shivaree
10. "I Turn My Camera On" · Spoon
11. "Your Little Hoodrat Friend" · The Hold Steady
12. "Lose Control" · Missy Elliott
13. "Ladyflash" · The Go! Team
14. "The Vice and Virtue Ministry" · The Happy Bullets
15. "Pom Poms" · Scout Niblett
16. "Eva Braun" · A Frames
17. "Old School Rules" · Danger Doom (feat. Talib Kweli)
18. "You Are a Runner and I Am My Father's Son" · Wolf Parade
19. "Tribulations" · LCD Soundsystem
20. "16 Military Wives" · The Decemberists
21. "Casimir Pulaski Day" · Sufjan Stevens