By: Jacob Eckert
The 00’s, or whatever you may wish to call the decade, was a very interesting time for music. Perhaps primarily, it produced the popularization of the MP3, almost effectively killing the CD market. The iPod was created as well, which increased the portability of songs, and is a device that virtually everybody who likes some form of music owns. Along with the surge in popularity of the MP3, came the prevalence of popularity for the single song as opposed to a complete album. Because any single song now may be easily purchased, takes up less space on an iPod, and has a lower cost, the “single,” rather than the entire album, has come to the forefront as the way that music is identified. So, if you are going to own any music representing the best of this decade, the following twenty songs should be included in your music collection:
20. “Nothing Ever Happened”- Deerhunter (2008)
One of the most original bands in indie and noise rock, Deerhunter first came into the indie spotlight with their debut album Cryptograms (2005). Although a good effort, their true masterpiece came with their follow-up to this, entitled Microcastle (2008). The album is an assortment of indie rock songs that range from more melodic and slower indie rock songs to all-out noise-filled Sonic Youth-y tracks. The crowning glory of the album comes with “Nothing Ever Happened”, found near the end of the album. The song begins with a roughly one minute long instrumental segment, which is abruptly cut off by the extremely catchy and Joy Division influenced bass line. Vocalist Bradford Cox’s buried vocals are a great feature to the song, but the unforgettable bass line is where the song truly shines. The lyrics are not particularly uplifting, as is typical of Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox’s often self-deprecating songwriting style, but they fit the feel of the song almost perfectly, and the result is Deerhunter’s greatest song.
19. “Svefn-g-englar”- Sigur Rós (2000)
Sigur Rós are, quite simply, an Icelandic band that plays post-rock (a genre that uses rock instruments to make often ambient and spacey sounds) and sings in their own made-up language called Volenska. What sounds like an extremely bizarre concept for any band to undertake is a concept that is flawlessly pulled off by Sigur Rós. Ágætis Byrjun (2000) is the band’s masterpiece, a beautiful, ambient wonderland where no single sound in any song is poorly placed. “Svefn-g-englar” is very easily one of the most beautiful songs that has ever been created, and is one of the earliest songs on the album. Characterized by lead singer Jón Þór Birgisson’s falsetto vocals, guitars that sound like bizarre, dreamlike instruments that have not yet been created, and an overall entrancing sound, “Svefn-g-englar” is an extreme high point in post-rock, and in music altogether. It is also the most infamous song for bringing tears to the eyes of concert attendees every time Sigur Rós plays it live.
18. “My Girls”- Animal Collective (2009)
Animal Collective is what psychedelic rock sounds like in the 2000’s; it has evolved from its earliest creation by bands such as The Beatles. Where guitar sounds were prominent in earlier psychedelic rock, Animal Collective has replaced it with synthesizers and extremely electronically warped guitar sounds. Still, these new sounds are what psychedelic rock has evolved into, and with the 2009 release Merriweather Post Pavilion, it is apparent that this is a beneficial evolution. “My Girls” is the greatest example of the band’s psychedelic nature, and is a fantastic stand-alone single. It almost sounds like a synth-warped Beach Boys, and its lyrics (“I don’t mean to seem like I care about material things, like a social status”) talk about a simpler life, something that the 21st century appears to have forgotten about. “My Girls” serves as Animal Collective’s best single to date, and its mix of an extremely catchy melody and simple but effective lyrics combine to create one of the most memorable songs of the 00’s.
17. “The Rip”- Portishead (2008)
Portishead, in 1994, released one of the greatest albums of the 90’s called Dummy, and virtually singlehandedly created the genre of trip hop (a form of house music). They followed this up with a great self-titled album, then went on hiatus for ten years. With their comeback album, Third, that is easily better than other, more known bands’ comeback albums of the decade such as Guns N’Roses, Portishead reestablished itself as a major band in the indie rock and electronic genres. “The Rip” is a perfect example of why. With its arpeggiated guitar lines (trademark of Portishead) and Beth Gibbon’s soaring and depressed vocals (also trademark of Portishead), “The Rip” is one of Portishead’s greatest songs. About halfway through, the guitar suddenly changes to a synthesizer, in a transition that will send chills down your spine the first time that you listen to it. The song was originally entitled “Mystic,” and listening to it just once will tell you why: it has a very… well… mystical sound about it. It ranks right up with Portishead’s greatest songs, and is an easy choice as one of the best songs of the 00’s.
16. “Frontier Psychiatrist”- The Avalanches (2000)
Mashup is a genre where the songs are created entirely out of samples and was pioneered by the great DJ Shadow. There are not many artists who create music in this genre, but The Avalanches are one of them, and their 2000 debut Since I Left You (and their only album to date) is a masterpiece of the genre. The most memorable song off of the album is the superb “Frontier Psychiatrist”, the most playful and humorous song on the album. It samples such things as a b-movie about a truant child and the principal’s confrontation with the mother, a horse neighing, violins, a mariachi band, horns, a fitness tape, and many more; it weaves the samples together so seamlessly that the original feel of the audio recordings that they originally came from is completely changed. The song is one of the least serious songs on the album, but it is also an extremely entertaining song, has an unforgettable music video, and remains one of The Avalanches most memorable moments.
15. “Incinerate”- Sonic Youth (2006)
Sonic Youth are arguably the most consistently greatest band of all time. Forming in 1981, and still together, Sonic Youth have never truly released a bad album, except maybe their self-titled debut. Although their true artistic peak came and went in the late 80’s and early 90’s, they still continue to release great records, such as 2006’s Rather Ripped. “Incinerate” is the most immediately grabbing song off of this album, and is also their most poppy and accessible song to date. With very little dissonance and a very typical-of-rock song structure, this song displays Sonic Youth perhaps trying to get some mainstream play, something that the band has not had much of due to their trademark brand of often unharmonious noise rock. However, it also shows something else about Sonic Youth: that the band can do virtually anything that they set their mind to, be it indie pop rock, a dance-y album, or their traditional and amazing brand of noise rock.
14. “Hey Ya”- OutKast (2003)
Few songs have brought a band out into the mainstream while still appealing to people of all different musical tastes as quickly and efficiently as this track did for OutKast. “Hey Ya” is, hands down, the greatest rap song of the decade, and the greatest song to appear on popular radio of the decade. It has one of the greatest and catchiest beats in rap, extremely memorable lyrics, and is simply a song that can be loved by anyone who is even remotely a fan of music. Every single lyric is quotable (and all probably have been quoted), and, along with “B.O.B.”, is OutKast’s crowning glory. Sadly, the band has not released any new albums since their smash hit Speakerboxx/The Love Below which contains “Hey Ya” along with other great songs, but they do plan to release something new this year.
13. “Kim and Jessie”- M83 (2008)
If someone who is unfamiliar with M83 is told to listen to this song, they would make the honest assumption that it was a forgotten 80’s synth pop gem. The sound of French band M83 is basically stuck in the 80’s, which, in this case, is actually a very good thing. Sole member of the band Anthony Gonzalez knows how to construct a perfect single, something that he showed with “Don’t Save Us from the Flames” off of the band’s 2005 album Before the Dawn Heals Us, and something that he shows once more with Saturdays=Youth’s impeccable “Kim and Jessie”. Beginning with a drum intro straight from a Phil Collins song, the song falls into a melodic assault of synthesizers, guitars, and an overall extremely dreamy vibe. Gonzalez’s subdued vocals provide just another amazing melody to the beautiful sonic mélange of the track. The song culminates and ends with the repetition of the chorus, a sad moment because one begins to wish that the song would go on for a much longer amount of time before it suddenly cuts off and goes to the next great track.
12. “Everything In Its Right Place”- Radiohead (2000)
Radiohead was on top of the alternative world in 2000 when they were slated to release their follow-up to their 1997 masterwork OK Computer. Kid A, their brilliant 2000 follow-up, surprised many when its first track was not a perfect alternative rock song like OK Computer’s opening track “Airbag”, but was instead a seemingly pretentious electronic song where the lead singer’s perfect voice was completely ruined by computer manipulation. It was in this fashion that “Everything In Its Right Place” ushered in a new generation of Radiohead, an escape from their position of being the next huge thing in alternative to a highly experimental, electronic, krautrock-influenced sound that sounded nothing like the Radiohead that fans had grown to love. But “Everything In Its Right Place” also brought with it a new artistic golden age for the band, and allowed them to not become the next U2 or Red Hot Chili Peppers, and completely lose their meaning. The song itself is a brilliant, ambient composition with bizarre lyrics such as “Yesterday I woke up sucking on a lemon,” and other strange snippets of lyrics that seem to have no relation to each other. Still, this song and album was the perfect move for Radiohead to take in 2000, and is simply a fantastic song.
11. “Fight Test”- The Flaming Lips (2002)
“The test begins… now…” says a deep voice to open this song, making you feel as though you have stepped into the sonic future, a concept not at all inhibited by the title of the album, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. With this album, indie rock/neo-psychedelica The Flaming Lips truly prove that they are capable of way more than the eccentricities at which they had already proven themselves to be extremely proficient. “Fight Test” is a perfect example of the album to come: extremely catchy, a very trippy and psychedelic sound, yet not without its small idiosyncrasies like all other Flaming Lips albums. Vocalist Wayne Coyne’s inimitable voice reigns king in this song, as he belts out the psychedelic, bittersweet lyrics in his unexplainable style of singing. There could not be a better way to open Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots as this song shows what will come later on the album, and also catches the listener’s attention with its extremely catchy melody and is a perfect example of the band’s signature sound.
10. “Stillness Is the Move”- Dirty Projectors (2009)
“Stillness Is the Move” is one of the most accurate depictions of a good Dirty Projectors song: it has polyrhythmic elements, bizarre vocals that seem to randomly go into falsetto, and a perfect melody that will grow on the listener every time that the song is listened to. “Stillness Is the Move” is also the greatest Dirty Projectors song, and the greatest song of 2009. Sung by bassist Angel Deradoorian and guitarist Angel Coffman rather than the usual singer David Longstreth, “Stillness Is the Move” is a song that will make you almost always want to sing along or dance whenever it is played. The song opens with a keyboard line that pervades throughout the song, before Deradoorian’s vocals come in and steal the spotlight away quickly. The unforgettable chorus has Deradoorian hitting a seemingly impossible-to-hit high note, and is one that you will want to sing along to, that is if your vocal range is high enough. This song is an extremely high point in indie pop, and shows that Dirty Projectors’ experimental nature succeeds considerably more than it fails.
9. “Come On! Feel the Illinoise!”- Sufjan Stevens (2005)
Sufjan Stevens is the only musician that can make an album whose lyrical content is solely about the history, folklore, and important people of the state of Illinois and make it engrossing for all twenty-two tracks. This is exactly what Sufjan Stevens did with his 2005 indie pop/folk masterpiece, Illinoise, which contains somehow interesting lyrics, impeccable melodies, and paragraph-long song titles. “Come On! Feel the Illinoise!”, the kind-of title track is easily the greatest song off of the album, with lyrics about one of Illinois’ most historically significant events: The Columbian Exposition of 1893. The song opens with a piano line that sounds like it is straight out of Charlie Brown, and is then met by a large mix of other instruments, more of which seem to be added as the song progresses. The song has two segments, both breathtakingly beautiful and enthralling at every moment. The first part deals with the Columbian Exposition, and the second deals with a visit from Carl Sandburg in a dream. The song has a great deal of grandiose about it, as if it were written for a musical, and it goes extremely over-the-top with its enormous amount of instruments and vocalists, but this feel of grandiose is never ceased during the entire duration of the album, and “Come On! Feel the Illinoise!” is one of the many high points of the album.
8. “Stuck Between Stations”- The Hold Steady (2006)
There is no true way to describe the type of music that The Hold Steady play. It could be called classic rock revival, indie rock, or many other titles that would not be able to denote the band’s sound very effectively. The only sensible way to understand The Hold Steady’s sound is not to read text trying to describe it, but to listen to the band’s most shining moment that is entitled “Stuck Between Stations”. Mixing lyrics about drinking (leading to bad things happening) and Kerouack’s On the Road’s protagonist Sal Paradise, “Stuck Between Stations” is, simply put, one of the most amazing and original songs of all time. Lead singer (though it is a stretch to call him a “singer”) Craig Finn delivers these lyrics very passionately in his voice that is best described as a slightly sloppier Joe Strummer mixed with a slightly more normal-sounding Tom Waits, while the band captures a perfect classic rock sound in the background. Craig Finn’s lyrics are about his favorite subject: how one cannot party crazily for their entire life, and how one’s life can be whittled away from constant all-nighters. “Stuck Between Stations” could not have been a better way to open 2006’s amazing Boys and Girls in America, and it still stands as the best Hold Steady song.
7. “Wolf Like Me”- TV on the Radio (2006)
First hitting success with their brilliant song “Staring at the Sun”, TV on the Radio burst onto the indie scene with their pounding bass lines, grinding guitars, and strange vocal melodies and harmonies. However, where “Staring at the Sun” seemed to be about a more serious subject, “Wolf Like Me”, though retaining all of the punkish howl of that track, was about a much less serious subject: classic blues musician Howlin’ Wolf. The lyrics describe the 300-pound musician (“My hearts a-flame, my body’s changed…”) but the music itself seems to take no inspiration from the musician himself. The music has a very dark and grinding atmosphere around it, as if it were about a much more ominous subject than that of Howlin’ Wolf. The song is not a very complicated one; it has a simple melody that continues through most of the song, but there are so many layers of instruments that the song sounds a great deal more complicated than it truly is. There is layer after layer of guitar fuzz, giving the song the strange and dark feel that it so perfectly contains. Without a doubt this is the band’s best single, and is an easy choice for one of the greatest songs of the 00’s.
6. “White Winter Hymnal”- Fleet Foxes (2008)
Fleet Foxes are the greatest thing to happen to folk music since Bob Dylan. Though Fleet Foxes sound absolutely nothing like Bob Dylan, they are still a folk band, and are one of the greatest folk bands of all time. Their extremely intricate harmonies make their flawless 2008 self-titled debut have a very pastoral and simple sound to it, and also give the band one of the most original sounds in music today. “White Winter Hymnal” is basically the Fleet Foxes’ signature song. Opening with merely a single voice repeating the line “I was following the…”, “White Winter Hymnal” gets off to a very minimalist beginning. While the lyrics stay incredibly minimalist, with only one stanza that repeats throughout the brief two-and-a-half minute song, the sonic element of this song branches out very quickly and becomes very complex. Extremely beautiful vocal harmonies begin to form as the song progresses on, before finally being met by the sudden rush of the instruments in the background. This song is what indie folk was meant to sound like, and Fleet Foxes capture the feel of the wilderness and the countryside impeccably in “White Winter Hymnal”.
5. “Someone Great”- LCD Soundsystem (2007)
James Murphy is a genius. He can craft the perfect dance song, flawlessly reflective or ironic lyrics, and much more. He is also one of the few musicians to truly hit his stride in his late thirties. However, where other songs on 2007’s Sound of Silver truly are the perfect dance songs (“Get Innocuous” or “Time to Get Away”), “Someone Great” shows a very different side of LCD Soundsystem. It opens with a somewhat clichéd drum machine beat, before a very simple, deep synthesizer sound takes front stage over the beat. The synthesizer line begins to develop as more elements of the synthesizer line begin to come into the song, and then Murphy’s voice comes in after this instrumental segment has continued for about a minute and a half. It is in Murphy’s vocal delivery and the lyrical content of this song that the track truly shines. At first, the song sounds as if it could be about anything, perhaps a break-up (“I wish that we could talk about it”), but as the song begins to unfold, other lyrics seem to give the song a bit of a more dark feel (“To tell the truth I saw it coming, the way you were breathing”). The song reveals itself to be about a death of someone loved, and the subsequent feeling felt after finding this out, culminating with the very sad and somber chorus, where Murphy very sincerely sings “When someone great is gone.” This is the most emotionally affecting LCD Soundsystem song to date (and has very stiff competition with “All My Friends”), and is simply one of the greatest songs of all time.
4. “PDA”- Interpol (2002)
Interpol is basically what Joy Division would have sounded like if lead singer Ian Curtis was still alive and making music. Although they do draw painfully obvious influence from this great post-punk band, they still made one of the greatest albums of all time with their 2002 debut Turn on the Bright Lights. With the percussion section (bass and drums) front and center on virtually every song on this album, Interpol are the first and best band that brought back the post-punk genre in the 2000’s. “PDA” is the band’s strongest moment, a percussion-heavy, monotonously-sung, and surprisingly catchy throwback to the post-punk sound. Lead singer Paul Banks sings this song more as if he were simply talking to somebody than actually singing the song. However, his extremely monotonous voice is a highlight of the song, and is something that helps give Interpol the sound that they exhibit so well. The lyrics truly make very little sense, but they fit perfectly with the feel of the song. The drum beat is one that is immediately recognizable, and it continues on throughout the song, as well as the persistently pounding bass line. The song is Interpol’s greatest five minutes, a time where all the elements that go into the band meet to make something perfect and beautiful, not to mention, the most hummable track on the album.
3. “Jesus, Etc.”- Wilco (2002)
Emerging from the schism of alternative country band Uncle Tupelo, Wilco set out to make a name for themselves and eventually evolved to encompass an entirely different sound from that of Uncle Tupelo. While they still showed elements of their alt-country roots on 2002’s amazing Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, a great deal of these roots had either progressed to make completely new sounds, or had dissipated completely. “Jesus, Etc.” is a perfect example of this transformation. Opening with an immediately grabbing violin, “Jesus Etc.” really shows that the band is no longer specifically an alt-country band. This is simply one of the greatest indie rock songs of all time. Jeff Tweedy sings these lyrics so perfectly, lyrics that could be about a number of subjects from love (“Our love is all we have”) to the World Trade Center’s collapsing (“Skyscrapers are scrapin’ together). This is a landmark song for Wilco that shows that they have evolved and improved their alt-country roots, added more pop structure to their songs, and taken on a more mature feel to their songs. “Jesus, Etc.” is, without a doubt, Wilco’s greatest song.
2. “Rebellion (Lies)”- Arcade Fire (2004)
Arcade Fire is the best new thing to happen to music of the decade. With an almost theatrical feel at times due to the vast amount of instruments featured in their songs, Arcade Fire, over their two albums, redefined the word indie pop, and truly made a mark on indie music. Funeral is one of the greatest debut albums of all time, and was one of the best ways a band as original and innovative as Arcade Fire could be introduced to the indie scene. From passionate opener “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)” to bleak closer “In the Backseat”, Funeral truly shows a very artistic band doing all that they can do to make a great album, but it is in the album’s penultimate track “Rebellion (Lies)” that the band’s greatest triumphs, condensed to a five minute period of time, are shown. With very obviously metaphorical lyrics that, on the surface appear to be about rebelling against parents by not sleeping, but, a bit deeper down are more about not conforming with the mainstream, and an unforgettable bass line, “Rebellion (Lies)” shows Arcade Fire at their catchiest, most lively, and most simultaneously rocking and contemplative state. The chorus in the background shouting “Lies! Lies!”, with Butler’s very emotionally fragile voice and all of the instruments that go into “Rebellion (Lies),” form together an over-the-top masterpiece that is rivaled by little else in indie music.
1. “Idioteque”- Radiohead (2000)
Having made the best album of the decade with Kid A, there could not be a band more deserving of the number one slot on this list than Radiohead. Radiohead has truly shown themselves to be a lasting force in alternative music, transforming from thought-to-be one hit wonders, to leaders of the alternative music scene, to bizarre electronic-like music. Through their peculiar evolutions in sound, Radiohead has shown to the alternative world that they can make whatever type of music they want, be it the incredible pop sound of “Karma Police”, the anti-social, alienating sound of “Creep”, or the bone-chilling, extremely ominous sound of “Idioteque”. A drum machine announces the start of the song, and strange, dark synthesizer chords introduce the haunting atmosphere of the song. Thom Yorke’s trademark falsetto vocals are a focus point of the song, but they sound so incredibly different with this backdrop as opposed to other Radiohead classics, and his voice simply adds another layer of darkness to the track. The lyrics compose a dark story that seems to go nowhere with lines such as “laugh until my head comes off” that evoke bizarre mental images, “women and children first” that appear to tell of a disaster of some form, and other random snippets of a story. They can be interpreted to mean almost anything, from political meanings to existential concepts, to even a shipwreck. This song shows Radiohead at the peak of their experimental nature during their Kid A and Amnesiac period, and also shows that their experimental nature was an enormous artistic success that will last longer than any other pop venture that they could have made after their smash hit OK Computer. No other song is as deserving of position one on the list of the greatest songs of the 00’s than “Idioteque”, a triumph of art, experimental music, and atmosphere.
