The 100 best songs of the first decade of the 2000s (100-91)

Whatever you want to call the decade spanning 2000 to 2009 (the '00s, the aughts, the naughts), we're reaching the end of it. So it's time to take stock of the past 10 years by answering the question: What were the 100 best songs?

(Click here for the whole list.)

As far as this list is concerned, a "song" has to be sung. Instrumentals by Amon Tobin, Four Tet, Ratatat, and the Octopus Project might deserve to be mentioned in a discussion of the best music of the 2000s, but they won't be on this list.

Also, the original version of the song must have been released in 2000 or later — no covers of pre-2000 songs.

Here are some other people's lists:

Pitchfork's top 500 (to see the whole list without audio or Pitchfork's commentary, click here)

Summer Anne's top 125 (a personal, emotional list)

The Factual Opinion's top 100 + 100 runners-up (plenty of drum machines and subtle analysis)

Telegraph's top 100 (These aren't intended to be the best songs released in the past 10 years; they're the songs that "defined" the decade, dating as early as 1981)

50 Songs, 10 Years (with personal stories of how these songs affected the blogger)

NME's top 100

Largehearted Boy is keeping a meta-list of "best of the decade" music lists. (As well as song lists, there are also lists of the best albums, the best music videos, etc.)

Here we go…

100. The Shins — "Kissing the Lipless"

Possibly the silliest song title in the list.




99. Hanne Hukkelberg — "A Cheater's Armory "




98. The Polyphonic Spree — "Light and Day/Reach for the Sun"




97. Edith Frost — "Cars and Parties"

Here's a video of her lip-synching the song on a cable-access show (her words).




96. Bon Iver — "Skinny Love"

This song, along with the rest of the album it's on, emerged accidentally from a state of illness and hibernation in northern Wisconsin. (Wikipedia has the details.)




95. Björk — "It's Not up to You"




94. Jem — "They"




93.  The White Stripes — "Seven Nation Army"

Pure rock.




92. Noisettes — "Never Forget You"




91. St. Vincent — "Marry Me"

Summer Anne put this song on her list and said:

many of her songs, lyrically, are like little puzzles waiting for you to solve them. They are personal, seemingly, but also cryptic and distant. She doesn’t hit you over the head with anything. This song is the perfect example. The lyrics are perfectly poetic and, like good poetry, grow with meaning every time they are studied:

But you, you’re a rock with a heart like a socket

I can plug into at will

And will you guess when I come around next

I hope your open sign is blinking still