Last week, we travelled back in time to 2005 and revealed the albums we were listening to in the first half of the year.
So before you delve into this article you can catch up on Part 1 here: Music in 2005: 20 Year Album Anniversaries in 2025 (Part 1 – January to June) – Northern Chorus.
There are plenty more records celebrating 20 year anniversaries in 2025, including some more noughties indie gold, Mercury nominees, and albums that stand the test of time two decades on.
So it’s time to revisit 2005, starting with July and running month-by-month through the rest of the year to reminisce on the albums of 20 years ago…
We said we had noughties indie gold and Mercury nominees to come, and we start as we mean to go on with two for the price of one. Hard Fi‘s “Stars of CCTV” kicked off July in style, and the band’s debut studio album was nominated for the Mercury gong after bringing the likes of “Living for the Weekend” and “Hard to Beat” to indie nightclubs across the country.
Two more stellar debuts followed in this month, including Editors‘ “The Back Room”, and The Subways‘ “Young for Eternity”, before pop punk took over with releases from All American Rejects and Paramore. The former featured “Dirty Little Secret”, now a pop punk classic, while the latter was the debut offering from Hayley Williams and co.
August saw the release of the fifth studio album from Supergrass with “Road to Ruen”, before Black Rebel Motorcycle Club‘s polarising third record landed in the shape of “Howl”. There were also returns from McFly and Thirty Seconds to Mars with “Wonderland” and “A Beautiful Lie” respectively.
Kanye West stole the show in August with “Late Registration”, featuring hit singles “Gold Digger” and “Touch the Sky”, and there was a breakthrough pop debut for a certain Rihanna, whose “Music of the Sun” LP featured the smash hit “Pon de Replay” and launched one of the most successful pop careers of the 21st century.
Rock royalty opened up September as The Rolling Stones released their twenty-second studio album, “A Bigger Bang”, which would turn out to be the final original album recorded entirely with drummer Charlie Watts. This was followed by Paul McCartney releasing “Chaos and Creation in the Backyard”; Macca’s thirteenth solo album. Not a bad couple of names to kick start the month!
David Gray and Echo & The Bunnymen returned with “Life in Slow Motion” and “Siberia” respectively, before Brendan Urie’s Panic! at the Disco released their debut album “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out”, featuring the iconic “I Write Sings Not Tragedies”.
The month was closed out by three artists who feel peak 2005. Franz Ferdinand‘s “You Could Have It So Much Better” was a sophomore success, along with Katie Melua‘s “Piece by Piece” which featured “Nine Million Bicycles”. The Fray‘s debut album “How to Save a Life” also arrived packed with pop earworms, with the band taking the album out for another spin this year on a 20th anniversary tour.
October hosted “All the Right Reasons” from the band that love to split opinion, Nickelback. It was packed with hits, including “Photograph”, which is now possibly more recognisable for THAT meme. However, none were bigger than the mammoth hit, “Rockstar”, which dominated airwaves around the world.
Paul Weller also returned in October with his eighth studio album “As Is Now”, before Robbie Williams was back in the pop limelight with “Intensive Care”. Not one of Williams’ biggest successes, but it featured stand-out single “Advertising Space”. Robbie would go on to become a CGI monkey in 2024.
As the year drew to a close, the incredible comeback from Kate Bush graced our ears in November, as “Aerial” marked the enigmatic artist’s first album release in 12 years. It was followed by another big return in the shape of Madonna‘s “Confessions on a Dancefloor”, featuring hit single “Hung Up”.
The month ended with the eagerly anticipated return of The Darkness, who followed up debut breakthrough success in 2003 with “One Way Ticket to Hell… and Back”. The title track and follow-up single “Hazel Eyes” were the picks of the bunch from an album costing the band £1m to make according to frontman Justin Hawkins.
And finally we come to December 2005. As Christmas festivities began, there was still time for a stellar album release. December 20th was the date for Mary J Blige‘s seventh album “The Breakthrough”. It picked up Blige’s first every Grammy win after collecting the “Grammy Award for Best R&B Album”, and was a resounding success, despite the unusual release date…
So there you have it; those were the albums we were listening to 20 years ago. Feeling old yet?
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