The 100 Best Songs of the 2010s (81-90)

Continuing with my list of the best songs of the 2010s…

(Click here for the whole list so far, with a Spotify playlist.)


90. Rihanna (feat. Calvin Harris) — "We Found Love"

This is really a study in minimalism, seizing on one emotionally resonant line and repeating it over and over as the foundation of the song:

We found love in a hopeless place

(Piano-based cover.)




89. Phoebe Bridgers — "Motion Sickness"

She sings the first two lines with such pure directness:

I hate you for what you did

But I miss you like a little kid

(Live.)




88. Young the Giant — "Superposition"

(A more stripped-down version.)




87. Temples — "Hot Motion"




86. Dirty Projectors — "About to Die"

A band that seems constantly comical, yet serious.




85. Rose Windows — "Wartime Lovers"




84. Metallica — "Halo on Fire"

(Mini-documentary on the making of this song.)




83. Arcade Fire — "The Suburbs"




82. The Smashing Pumpkins — "Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)"

So many of the great '90s rock bands have lost their lead singers, forcing them to either disband or reinvent themselves with new singers. So it’s good to see other '90s bands still going strong with most of their original members, like Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the Smashing Pumpkins. The Pumpkins are no longer doing their best work after 3 decades, but they haven’t run out of inspiration.

(My blog tribute to Billy Corgan.)




81. Japanese Breakfast — "Boyish"




<— 91 - 100

71 - 80 —>

The 100 best songs of the first decade of the 2000s (30-21)

(Click here for the whole list.)


30. Ra Ra Riot — "Ghost Under Rocks"

This song has a great propulsive energy. There's some debate on the internet about the correct lyrics of the chorus, but I hear:

Here you are, you are breathing

Life into ghost under rocks

Like notes found in pocket

Coats of your fathers

Lost and forgotten

29. Yeah Yeah Yeahs — "Maps"

The kind of song that inspires graffiti.

(Unplugged.)




28. The Dodos — "Red and Purple"

This song has a personal resonance to me. I started listening to this song around the time, I was one of many people who had to say an emotional goodbye to someone important to us, and I kept finding parallels between that situation and this song. On one day when we said goodbye, many people showed up wearing this person's favorite colors: red and purple.




27. Rihanna — "Umbrella"

Possibly the youngest singer on the list: she was 19 when she recorded this song.




26. Arcade Fire — "Rebellion (Lies)"




25. MGMT — "Kids"

This song feels to me like a living, breathing creature on the prowl.

The instrumental interlude (starting about 3 minutes in) is outstanding. First, there's an adventurous and floridly Baroque keyboard solo — which is abruptly cut off and followed by a simple but effective drum passage, backed by just one relentlessly repeated chord. Then the bottom drops out for a moment, and we're back to the catchy chorus.




24. The Strokes - Last Nite

The Strokes and Tom Petty have admitted that this is derivative of Petty's "American Girl."




23. Esperanza Spalding — "Fall In"




22. OutKast — "Ms. Jackson"




21. Rufus Wainwright - I Don't Know What It Is

This is a masterful fitting of melody to chord progressions. He must have taken exquisite care to make this sound so effortless.