24. Justin Timberlake - "Lovestoned/I Think She Knows" from Futuresex/Lovesounds (2006)
If we were handing out Producer of the Decade acolades, Timbaland would obviously have to be considered. And the apex of his career can pretty much be pinpointed in the last third of this track (or the transition between tracks, depending on how you look at it), which brings a near-apocalyptic hue to the song, and feels like seeing a new color for the first time.....but in the listening way. If that makes any sense. Anyway, it's pretty solid stuff for a pop song about hooking up with a hot girl at a party. I'm not gonna take the easy way out and only praise Timbaland's production though. Click the performance above to see Timberlake prove why he was one of the decade's biggest icons.
23. Peter Bjorn and John - "Young Folks" from Writer's Block (2006)
Insanely catchy and oddly potent at catching a specific moment in the decade before "twee" became a bad word.
22. TV On the Radio - "Wolf Like Me" from Return to Cookie Mountain (2006)
Brooklyn was obviously a hotbed of talent in the aughts, but no one in that particular scene rocked harder or more menacingly than TV On the Radio did here.
21. Beirut - "Postcards from Italy" from Gulag Orkestar (2006)
Zach Condon managed to emerge from the masses with an unmistakable sound, and no obvious contemporary influences. He's as original as they come, which is pretty remarkable, considering he wrote this one when he was eighteen. By the way, check this out if you're a fan of either him or the La Blogoteque series, as he turns "Nantes" into a real-life slice of musical theater.
20. The Strokes - "New York City Cops" from Is This It (2001)
Figures that the best song on the album would be banned from the US version, though considering it was released just after 9/11, it's tough to get worked up. The song features the kind of low-fi garage rock the group helped champion (and which influenced everyone and their mom), as well as the snot-nosed rich kid-playing-poor sensibility that still polarizes their audience. But what do you expect from true rock stars if not shameless arrogance?
19. Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone from Breakaway (2004)
And like that, suddenly it was okay for cool kids to sing along to pop again.
18. The Horrors - "Sea Within A Sea" from Primary Colours (2009)
I wrote a veritable essay on this one last month, so just scroll down. Suffice to say, it's a good song.
17. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Maps" from Fever to Tell (2003)
Maybe this one counts as a "lovelorn ballad" too. In that case, consider me corrected. Karen O and crew can rock very hard, but when they slow things down, it's always magic.
16. Jay- Z - "99 Problems" from The Black Album (2003)
Jay-Z entered the decade as a star and left as a supernova. Whether he was running his own record label, launching a blueprint that others tried in vain to follow, retiring, un-retiring, or letting the hottest chick in the game wear his chain, everything he did (save for a few missteps....see "un-retiring: the first couple years") he did with grace and fervor. But never moreso than on his Rick Rubin-enhanced standout from 2003. With the exception of a few ultra-PC types who misunderstand the song entirely, it's one that everyone and their mom rightfully lost their mind to.
15. Guillemots - "Sao Paulo" from Through the Windowpane (2005)
The song's too long to properly fit in any youtube clip is that rare opus that may go on for 10+ minutes, but feels like 3 at the end of it all. Guillemots are a polarizing band, but it's tough to deny the earnestness this song is born from- it's epic, but not bloated, and by the time the band crawls to the bombs-bursting finale, they've earned every note.
14.Modest Mouse - "Float On" from Good News for People Who Like Bad News (2004)
The veteran indie act finally broke into the mainstream with this little ditty. As a long-term fan, I'd love to play it cool and nominate something else as their career standout, but I'd just be lying. Nothing tops the melody gold mine found right here.
13. Panda Bear - "Comfy in Nautica" from Person Pitch (2007)
Animal Collective's turning point actually came from a single member when Panda Bear (aka Noah Lennox) hopped to the turntables and channelled the band's psychedelic frenzy into bold new electronic territory, informing both Merriweather Post Pavillion and Fall Be Kind to come, not to mention creating a whole sub-genre in the process.
12. M.I.A. - "Paper Planes" from Kala (2008)
Picking up the Producer of the Decade argument, Timbaland might have made the most obvious splash, but no one was a bigger innovator than Diplo, whose coute de gras was this little hit, which took about a year and a half to inexplicably hit top 40 radio, but changed things forever once it did. Proving to be inescapable (and a new kind of challenge to would-be censors), it made an unlikely mainstream success of indie darling M.I.A., who seemed completely uninterested in the spotlight (see her mainstage performance from Coachella last year as proof). By refusing to compromise, however, Myia dragged a lot of casual fans deep into intelligent, thrillingly new music, and made pop radio a little more savvy......not to mention giving The Clash's "Straight to Hell" a whole new life.
11. LCD Soundsystem - "Someone Great" from Sound of Silver (2007)
You know those feelings you get sometimes that can't be summed up with words, but that, every once in a while, get captured by the right song? Here ya go. And if that last sentence was a little cheesy, then just wait til you get a load of the melodramatic Swedish fan video.
10. Beyonce - "Get Me Bodied (Extended Version)" from B'Day (2006)
I get confused whenever I read arguments on why Britney, Christina or even Lady Gaga was the queen of pop for the last decade. However you wanna break it down: genuine quality, innovation, sales figures, prevalence, or amount of imitators, no one can touch Mrs. Jay-Z, whether solo or part of Destiny's Child. The woman's a genuine superstar for our time, who might well be protected by a layer of PR (google the "If I Were A Boy" story), but is hardly a puppet. Unlike the Ciaras or, dare I say, the Rihannas of the world, she's got a soul all her own that just feels authentic, no matter how hard her handlers try and package her. For me, the highlight of an already intimidating career is 2006's "Get Me Bodied", produced by Swizz Beats. In truth, I'm kind of shocked Swizz didn't sue the pants off the team responsible for "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)" two years later, considering "Bodied" might as well be that song's first half. Sure, there's less of a gimmick involved (the lyrics basically just concern going out to the club and wanting to have a good time; admittedly not novel), but the insane percussion (itself a refinement of 2004's Destiny's Child anthem "Lose My Breath"), combined with B's crescendoing refrains and the extended version's borderline-meltdown of a coda, easily wins out over the more popular tune. On top of that, the video's pretty fucking awesome too (though it subs early-90s camp and extravagance for the latter song's black-and-white minimalism). If you can listen to this and resist the urge to at least nod your head, you're a stronger person than I ("tick tick fight" gets me every time).
09. The Knife - "Heartbeats" from Deep Cuts (2005)
It's tough to pick one standout track from the duo's outstanding work the past decade, but when in doubt, go with the one that made them stars. There's obviously progressive thinking at work here, but underneath all the bells and whistles, it's simply a beautiful love song (as later excavated by Jose Gonzale's cover, which for whatever reason became more well known than the original that's managed to inspire countless more mainstream artists in the later parts of the decade.
08. Daft Punk - "One More Time" from Discovery (2000)
Like The Knife, it's a tall order to pick the Daft Punk track that best sums up their work last decade, but this is probably the most nuanced track they've dished out yet; blending foreboding with nostalgia in a way that's perfectly complimented by the goofy (though progressively less so) music video. If we're given at least 5 minutes' notice before the end of the world, I imagine a healthy portion of Earth's populace will be blasting this.
07. The White Stripes - "The Air Between My Fingers" from Elephant (2003)
Jack White was unquestionably one of the most important names in rock for the last ten years, but not so much for innovation. Sometimes, instead of progressing the medium, however, it's good to have someone around who can simply pay tribute to the past while making it sound like the present. In other words: artists like Jack White are why rock & roll was created. Over the course of three bands and countless records, Mr. White demonstrated a wide variety of talents, but never moreso than with his "little sister" Meg in the band that made him famous. On "The Air Near My Fingers", Jack exposes the sheer terror of being too close to the girl of his dreams, in the simplest and most direct way. And while our attention's briefly stolen by the lyrics, the floor drops out from under us and the song's insane middle beat takes over. Actually, now that I think of it, this one song might encapsulate all of Jack White's talents in one. And that's no small feat.
06. Outkast - "B.O.B." from Stankonia (2000)
At the beginning of the decade, Outkast threw down the gauntlet with the most insane hip hop concoction ever mixed. Too bad no one else was able to pick that gauntlet back up.
05. The Walkmen - "The Rat" from Bows + Arrows (2004)
"When I used to go out, I'd know everyone I saw/now I go out alone if I go out at all": The Strokes won the battle with Is This It, but three years later, The Walkmen won the war with a single song. And if anyone on the planet sings with more passion than Hamilton Leithauser, then I don't ever want to meet them. Because I'll likely be terrified.
04. Arcade Fire - "Wake Up" from Funeral (2004)
Redefining "anthemic", this song has a unifying power when performed live that most church hymns could only dream of. Now that the NFL, K-Rroq and Warner Bros have all joined forces to make the public think this song was released late last year, the band seems ready to rock the stadiums and fields they've always seemed destined for. Here's hoping the rest of the world proves worthy enough to really listen. PS: even if you know the song, click the link for a performance that'll knock your socks off all over again.
03. Wolf Parade - "I'll Believe in Anything" from Apologies to the Queen Mary (2006)
If "Wake Up" were buried under a pile of dirt, and became that much more desperate to claw its way up and make a point, it might resemble this track, which spins a sad tale over the course of over four minutes before working itself into a spinning frenzy toward the end, fooling the listener into thinking it might just go on forever. Which, in truth, might not be so bad. Desperation never sounded so good.
02. Sufjan Stevens - "Chicago" from Illinois (2006)
And the "EPICCC!!!" train rolls forward, though unlike the last two acts, Sufjan's less interested in shaking you to life here than nudging you awake through subtler means. In the end, a potentially sad discovery that life affords no such thing as a clean slate doesn't sound so bad when it's sung so beautifully. Over the last ten years, Stevens has proven himself to be both timeless and original, and honestly, has had probably the best track record of any artists mentioned on this list, but it now looks at least possible that Illinois slowly broke him, as he's released scant new material for himself in the past few years. As one of those tracks ("Majesty Snowbird") demonstrated, however, he hasn't lost either his skills or his penchant for the grandiose, so we can only pray the next decade will find him matching (or at least complementing) his output from the past one. Just a note for the "Chicago" link above: it's possibly the best recording I've ever heard, but Suf's intro runs a bit long, so fast forward to just before the 2 minute mark to skip right to the song.
01. Explosions in the Sky - "Your Hand in Mine" from The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place (2004)
When it's operating at its fullest, music should be able to tap some deep recess in your brain or your heart, and communicate beyond words that whatever you feel there is being felt by at least one other person. That being said, everyone can only share that feeling when they can each interpret the song in their own way, relating it in the most personal way that they can. It may then be cheating to give Song of the Decade to Explosions in the Sky, since they have no lyrics to muddy this whole process up. Other than the title, the song is literally yours to interpret however you wish. But on the flip side, whenever this song's done playing, you can't help but be impressed by what it stirred in you, lyrics or not. It's a rollercoaster of a track that reminds you why classical music has endured so long: arrangements that crescendo and peak can hit us harder than sometimes even the best lyrics can, and for a few minutes (in this case, a little over eight), you can experience everything the song stirs up in you, and trust that someone else is feeling the exact same emotions. That's heavy talk concerning the work of an Austin shoegaze band, but at the end of the day, these guys have truly crafted an indelible moment that every listener can claim as their own.
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