The Best Songs of the 2010s: Runners-up

10 years ago, I posted a list of the 100 best songs of the decade, 2000 to 2009.

Now I'm doing it again with the decade that's coming to an end: 2010 to 2019.

But first, here are 100 runners-up — songs I like but didn't have room for in the top 100 — in no particular order. (The song title usually links to an album the song is on, and after that I embed or link to video.)

A Spotify playlist of these songs is at the end of this post.


Owen Pallett — "Lewis Takes Off His Shirt"



Zola Jesus — "Dangerous Days" — WATCH (official video)

Broken Bells — "Good Luck" — LISTEN

The face of evil is on the news tonight

We see the darkness over light

But have we ever really lived in better times?

The Naked and Famous — "Young Blood" — WATCH

Robyn — "Ever Again" — WATCH

The Goo Goo Dolls — "Miracle Pill" — WATCH

Frances Quinlan — "Rare Thing" — WATCH

I only managed to stay small by making giants out of strangers

Regina Spektor — "Small Town Moon" — LISTEN

The Tragically Hip — "In a World Possessed by the Human Mind" — WATCH

Estelle — "Wonderful Life" — WATCH

Wye Oak — "Glory"

How do 2 people make so much sound? Look at the drummer: he's playing keyboard at the same time!



I Don't Know How But They Found Me — "Nobody Likes the Opening Band" — WATCH

Daft Punk (feat. Pharrell Williams) — "Get Lucky" — WATCH (acoustic cover)

Sophie Ellis-Bextor — "Come with Us" — WATCH

Feist — "How Come You Never Go There" — WATCH 
 
Faded Paper Figures — "Information Runs On" — LISTEN

Willie J Healey — "Polyphonic Love" — WATCH

David Bowie — "Sue (or in a Season of Crime)" — WATCH (rock version)

Lorde — "Tennis Court" — WATCH

Joanna Newsom — "Easy" — LISTEN

Hiatus Kaiyote — "Breathing Underwater"



Cults — "Always Forever" — LISTEN

Sky Ferreira — "You're Not the One" — WATCH (live)

Florence and the Machine — "Hunger" — WATCH

Marian Hill — "Down" — WATCH

Emeli Sandé — "Next to Me" — WATCH

Cage the Elephant — "Trouble" — WATCH

Rise Against — "Lanterns" — LISTEN

The Strokes — "80's Comedown Machine" — LISTEN

Wilco — "Art of Almost" — LISTEN

Aloe Blacc — "Loving You Is Killing Me"

I like the raw energy of the live version below, but here's the more polished recording.



Hot Chip — "Spell" — WATCH

Phantogram — "Fall in Love" — WATCH

Belle and Sebastian — "Party Line" — WATCH

Tame Impala — "The Less I Know the Better" — WATCH  

P!nk — "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)" — WATCH

The Stepkids — "Art of Forgetting" — WATCH

Grizzly Bear — "Losing All Sense" — WATCH 

Rose Windows — "Native Dreams" — WATCH

Red Hot Chili Peppers — "The Hunter" — LISTEN

Kimbra — "Come Into My Head"

Check this blog later for a very different Kimbra!



Gregory Porter — "Don't Lose Your Steam" — WATCH

Frank Ocean — "Thinkin Bout You" — LISTEN

Alvvays — "Dreams Tonite" — WATCH

Daedelus (feat. Inara George) — "Penny Loafers" — LISTEN

Snarky Puppy (feat. Knower & Jeff Coffin) — "I Remember" — WATCH

U2 — "The Blackout" — WATCH

Caribou — "Odessa" — WATCH

Imogen Heap — "Lifeline" — WATCH

Bon Iver — "Holocene" — WATCH

Fleet Foxes — "Helplessness Blues"

I was raised up believing

I was somehow unique

Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes

Unique in each way you can see

And now after some thinking

I'd say I'd rather be

A functioning cog in some great machinery

Serving something beyond me…

Sharon Van Etten — "Seventeen" — WATCH

Jenny Lewis — "Wasted Youth" — WATCH 

Kacey Musgraves — "Follow Your Arrow" — WATCH 

Paul McCartney — "Alligator" — LISTEN

White Rabbits — "Heavy Metal" — WATCH

Raury — "God's Whisper" — WATCH

Cherri Bomb (later known as Hey Violet) — "Shake the Ground" — WATCH

nine inch nails — "find my way" — LISTEN

Oh Land — "Doubt My Legs" — LISTEN

Björk — "Notget"



Becca Stevens — "Queen Mab" — WATCH

HAIM — "The Wire" — WATCH

Anderson .Paak — "Put Me Thru" — WATCH

Sleater-Kinney — "Reach Out" — LISTEN

FKA twigs — "Two Weeks" — WATCH

Lady Gaga — "Judas" — WATCH

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers — "Red River" — LISTEN

Weezer — "Beach Boys" — LISTEN

Pearl Jam — "Sleeping by Myself" — LISTEN

Snarky Puppy (feat. Laura Mvula & Michelle Willis) — "Sing to the Moon" — WATCH 



MGMT — "It's Working" — WATCH

of Montreal — "Nursing Slopes" — LISTEN

Carly Rae Jepsen — "Call Me Maybe" — WATCH

The Kooks — "Junk of the Heart (Happy)" — WATCH

Keri Hilson — "Pretty Girl Rock" — WATCH

Pale Waves — "There's a Honey" — WATCH

M83 — "Midnight City" — WATCH

Beck — "Morning" — LISTEN

Labrinth & Zendaya — "All for Us" — WATCH

Mark Ronson (feat. Bruno Mars) — "Uptown Funk"



Norah Jones — "Say Goodbye" — LISTEN

Well, it ain't easy to stay in love

If you can't tell lies

So I'll just have to take a bow

And say goodbye

The Horrors — "Still Life" — WATCH

The Smashing Pumpkins — "Panopticon" — LISTEN

Melissa McMillan — "Keep Coming Back To You" — WATCH

Parcels — "Overnight" — LISTEN

BØRNS — "Past Lives" — WATCH

Santigold — "Disparate Youth" — WATCH

Rival Sons — "Soul" — WATCH

Snarky Puppy (feat. Chris Turner) — "Liquid Love" — WATCH

Angel Olsen — "Lark"

This song has a stunning climax starting about 4 minutes in.



Spoon — "Do I Have to Talk You Into It" — LISTEN

Esperanza Spalding — "One" — WATCH

Kitten — "Like a Stranger" — WATCH
 
The Dodos — "Black Night" — WATCH

Intervals — "Moment Marauder" — LISTEN

Paul Gilbert — "Adventure and Trouble" — LISTEN

Death Cab for Cutie — "Codes and Keys" — LISTEN

Justin Timberlake — "Mirrors" — WATCH

Jónsi — "Sinking Friendships" — LISTEN

*

Thanks to all who offered suggestions for the list, including Akponoluo, Alex, Ariel, Brit, Chris, Francesca, Jamie, John, Matt, and Nick.

*

Here's a Spotify playlist of all the runners-up, except two songs that aren't on Spotify ("Easy" by Joanna Newsom, and "Nobody Likes the Opening Band" by I Don't Know How But They Found Me):




Click here for the full list of the best songs of the decade.

Pearl Jam's Ten turns 25

25 years ago today, on August 27, 1991, Pearl Jam released its debut album, Ten, which most people would probably agree is the band's best.

"Jeremy" might be Pearl Jam's most iconic song. Not many bands are willing to devote this kind of care and attention to individually shaping the melody of each line to fit the lyrics and create a whole musical/dramatic arc. Here's the disturbing video for this disturbing song. (YouTube won't let me embed it here.)

"Even Flow" is Pearl Jam's take on homelessness.

Freezin'
Rests his head on a pillow made of concrete
Again . . .

Even flow
Thoughts arrive like butterflies
Oh he don't know
So he chases them away
Someday yet
He'll begin his life again

Eddie Vedder wrote "Alive" based on his own childhood. His parents divorced when he was a baby, and his mom quickly remarried. He grew up believing his stepdad was his dad. His mom finally told him the news when he was a teenager, but by then, his biological father, whom he had only briefly met, had died of multiple sclerosis.




"Black" is a transcendently beautiful breakup song.

I know someday you'll have a beautiful life
I know you'll be a star
In somebody else's sky . . .

Eddie Vedder will be David Letterman's second-to-last musical guest.

I'll bet I know what song he's going to sing . . .



(Correction: I originally said he'd be the last guest — he'll be the second-to-last musical guest. Also, no guests have been announced for the last show, so there might be surprise guests.)


UPDATE: I was wrong:

And the top 5 grunge songs are...

2. Pearl Jam - Jeremy

Pearl Jam has never been one of my favorite bands. But I give them a lot of credit: they sincerely tried to make a work of art with this song, and they succeeded.

When it comes to musical composition, most bands are satisfied if they just write a nice melody for the verse and then another nice melody for the chorus. Not many bands are willing to devote this kind of care and attention to individually shaping the melody of each line to fit the lyrics and create a whole musical/dramatic arc.

Here's the disturbing video for this disturbing song:



And here's an impassioned live performance:



(Click here for song #1.)

(Click here for the whole list.)

The 40 greatest grunge songs (15-11)

(Click here for the whole list.)


15. Hum - Stars

This starts out underwhelming, and then it blows you away.




14. Alice in Chains - No Excuses

Vocal harmonies have been largely neglected in rock music from the '90s onward, so it's nice to hear this kind of arrangement. The result doesn't really fit into "grunge" or any other category I can think of. It's just plain good music. (From their excellent acoustic EP Jar of Flies.)




13. Pearl Jam - Even Flow

The rockingest portrait of homelessness I've ever heard.

Freezin', rests his head on a pillow made of concrete...




12. Weezer - Undone (The Sweater Song)

Perfect nerd rock.

Watch out for the dogs!

If you want to destroy my sweater, hold this thread as I walk away...




11. The Breeders - Cannonball

How to make a great rock recording by stringing together one gimmick after another.

The album this is from, Last Splash, and their debut album, Pod, are both essential items in the music library of anyone who's into good '90s music.

Check, check, check, ah-ooooohhh-ooh...



>>> Go to #10-6 >>>

The 40 greatest grunge songs (40-36)

For the next couple months of Music Friday, I bring you...

The 40 greatest grunge songs of all time! Please try to contain your excitement!

[UPDATE: Click here for the whole list.]

People always say the music that's popular when you're an adolescent makes the biggest impression on you. I think that's overstated -- a lot of people who were born in the early '80s (like me) seem at least as heavily influenced by music from the '60s as they are by music from the '90s or '00s. But there's something to the theory.

For better or worse, the grunge rock of the '90s inevitably shaped me as a guitarist. That's the teenage me with my Les Paul up there. And this was my life in high school:

With that out of the way, let's get to the list.

Whenever you see one of these "top [#] _______s of all time" lists in the MSM, they purport to be objective, but you can tell they've imposed a bunch of arbitrary restrictions. As a blogger, I have no need to be objective and can admit that this list is a mix of my own taste, quasi-objective judgments, and arbitrary restrictions.

One restriction is that for the sake of variety, I'm going to generally have just one song per band, with a few choice exceptions.

And then there's the question of what "counts." My basic definition of grunge is music that was made mostly in the '90s, drawing on the early punk and heavy metal of the '70s-'80s as far as dynamics and tone quality (namely, loud and distorted), but drawing more on the songwriting of the '60s. There's usually a loose, lazy, "Anyone could play this" vibe, and there are rarely any instruments other than guitar, bass, drums, and vocals.

Some of these songs will fit those criteria better than others. Another feature of grunge is an "I don't really care" attitude, so it would be un-grunge-like of me to worry too much about the labels. Anyway, I'm more interested in music that pushes against the confines of a genre than music that politely stays within them.

[UPDATE: Case in point: a commenter complains that this list isn't "strict grunge." Strict grunge? Isn't that an oxymoron?]

Huge thanks to the people who answered my question on AskMetafilter in preparation for this list.

Here we go... This week, the first 5 of the top 40:

40. The Flaming Lips - Turn It On

Sheer grungy joy in a laundromat, without a trace of angst.

When you ain't got no relation to all those other stations...




39. Tool - Sober

At the other end of the emotional spectrum, this is about as dead-serious as rock music gets. I have no idea what they're so upset about, but they rock. And wow, what a video!




38. Daisy Chainsaw - Love your Money

Obligatory novelty song.

37. Dinosaur Jr. - Feel the Pain

Deceptively simple. Great use of tempo changes. Remember the World Trade Center!

 


36. Bush - Everything Zen

I always thought the unfortunately named Bush was a pale imitation of Pearl Jam. But "Everything Zen" endures.

Soon after I first saw this video on MTV's 120 Minutes, I went and saw them play one of the most exciting shows I've ever seen: a band right on the cusp of their commercial breakthrough, but just obscure enough to be playing a small, intimate club in Madison, Wisconsin (the Paramount, which, like the band, no longer exists).

 

(Photos of me by my mom, Ann Althouse.)

UPDATE: My mom links and reminisces.

>>> Go to #35-31 >>>