The 100 Best Songs of the 2010s (61-70)

More of the best songs of the decade…

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


70. Of Monsters and Men — "Little Talks"

The female singer of this Icelandic band, Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, explained that she and the male singer, Ragnar “Raggi” þórhallsson, wrote this song about a widow having a "conversation" with her dead husband. Hilmarsdóttir added: "We don’t know if she’s going crazy or if someone’s actually there."




69. Spoon — "Let Me Be Mine"




68. Passion Pit – "Take a Walk"




67. The Black Keys — "Tighten Up"

David Letterman seemed to like this: "That's it! That's what we're looking for! … Don't kid yourself: this kid can whistle."

(Official video.)




66. The Weeknd — "In the Night"

It's no surprise that this Canadian singer/songwriter has said one of his biggest inspirations is Michael Jackson. You could imagine this song on the Bad album in place of "Smooth Criminal" or "Dirty Diana."




65. Foster the People — "Pumped up Kicks"

Some radio stations banned this controversial song about a school shooter. The lyrics start in the third person but switch to the shooter's voice in first person. See Wikipedia for the songwriter's explanation. He recently talked about possibly "retiring" the song.

This live performance is better than the album version:




64. Alice in Chains — "The One You Know"




63. The Big Moon — "Silent Movie Susie"




62. Hiatus Kaiyote — "Jekyll"




61. Pharrell Williams — "Happy"




<— 71 - 80

51 - 60 —>

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.

The 100 best songs of the first decade of the 2000s (20-11)

(Click here for the whole list.)


20. Spoon — "The Beast and Dragon, Adored"




19. Radiohead — "How to Disappear Completely"




18. Rilo Kiley – "Does He Love You?"

(Live.)




17. Beyoncé (feat. Jay-Z) — "Crazy in Love"

Credit is also due to the Chi-Lites; the brass-section hook is sampled from their 1971 song "Are You My Woman? (Tell Me So)."




16. Björk – "Hidden Place"

A great introversion song. The build-up from the final verse ("Can I hide there too?") to the final chorus is quietly overwhelming. She gets so much feeling out of singing the words slightly off from the beat.




15. Regina Spektor – "Us"




14. Goldfrapp – "A&E"

When I said one of the criteria I used in deciding whether to include a song on the list was ...

Does the music have some sort of dramatic arc or development? (A bridge or other deviation from "verse/chorus/verse/chorus" is especially helpful.)

... this is one of the songs I had in mind. Wow!




13. The Flaming Lips — "Do You Realize??"

A song that gets great emotion out of stating simple facts, like: We're floating in space…




12. Frou Frou – "Let Go"

(Unplugged version by Imogen Heap, the singer of Frou Frou.)




11. Death Cab for Cutie – "I Will Follow You into the Dark"

The 100 best songs of the first decade of the 2000s (60-51)

(Click here for the whole list.)

60. Beck — "Lost Cause"




59. Spoon — "Everything Hits at Once"




58. Feist — "Mushaboom"




57. Radiohead — "Nude"




56. of Montreal — "Disconnect the Dots"




55. Rufus Wainwright — "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk"




54. Norah Jones — "Don't Know Why"




53. Green Day — "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"




52. Alicia Keys — "You Don't Know My Name"

The "Just My Imagination" of the '00s.




51. Adele — "Cold Shoulder"

(Acoustic version.)

Runners-up for the best songs of the first decade of the 2000s

As promised, I'm going to list the 100 greatest songs of the 2000s. But first, here are 100 runners-up, in no particular order…

(Click here for the whole list.) 


Goldfrapp — "Caravan Girl"



The New Pornographers — "My Rights Versus Yours" — WATCH

Grizzly Bear — "Southern Point" — LISTEN

The Weepies — "Nobody Knows Me at All" — WATCH

Solange — "I Decided" — WATCH

MGMT — "The Youth"— WATCH

Regina Spektor — "Better" — WATCH

Death Cab for Cutie — "Title and Registration" – WATCH

Esperanza Spalding — "I Adore You" — LISTEN

Dirty Projectors — "Cannibal Resource" — LISTEN

Radiohead — "Everything in Its Right Place"



The Thrills — "One Horse Town" — WATCH

Rilo Kiley — "I Never" — LISTEN

Lady Gaga — "Paparazzi" — WATCH

The Postal Service — "Such Great Heights" — WATCH (cover by Iron & Wine)

Rufus Wainwright — "Shadows" — LISTEN

The Apples in Stereo — "Energy" — WATCH

Phoenix — "Lisztomania" — WATCH

of Montreal — "The Repudiated Immortals" — LISTEN

Yeah Yeah Yeahs — "Runaway" — WATCH

Hot Hot Heat — "Talk to Me, Dance with Me"



Elliott Smith — "Son of Sam" — WATCH

The Notwist — "One with the Freaks" — LISTEN

Black Eyed Peas — "Boom Boom Pow" — WATCH

Alicia Keys — "Karma" — WATCH

Dido — "White Flag" — WATCH

The Dodos — "God?" — LISTEN

Spoon — "The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine" — WATCH

Death Cab for Cutie — "Tiny Vessels" — LISTEN

Lali Puna — "Small Things" — LISTEN

The Bird and the Bee — "Love Letter from Japan"



St. Vincent — "Your Lips are Red" — WATCH

Radiohead — "2 + 2 = 5 (The Lukewarm.)" — WATCH

Iron & Wine — "Boy with a Coin" — WATCH

Clue to Kalo — "Seconds When It’s Minutes" — LISTEN

Herbert (feat. Dani Siciliano & Shingai Shoniwa) — "The Audience" — WATCH

Sufjan Stevens — "All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace!" — LISTEN

Christina Aguilera — "Beautiful" — WATCH

Bosque Brown — "White Dove" — LISTEN

Yeasayer — "2080" — LISTEN

The Dresden Dolls — "Good Day"



Modest Mouse — "Float On" — WATCH

Arcade Fire — "My Body Is a Cage" — LISTEN

Hanne Hukkelberg — "Ease" — LISTEN

Styrofoam (feat. Ben Gibbard) — "Couches in Alleys" — LISTEN

The Go! Team — "Ladyflash" — WATCH

Monsters Are Waiting — "Crazy Love" — LISTEN

1990s — "See You at the Lights" — LISTEN

Wilco — "I'm the Man Who Loves You" — WATCH

John Mayer — "Daughters" — WATCH

Camera Obscura — "Let’s Get Out of This Country"



The Shins — "New Slang" — WATCH

Psapp — "Hi" — WATCH

Cut Copy — "Feel the Love" — LISTEN 

Amerie — "1 Thing" — WATCH

David Byrne & Brian Eno — "Strange Overtones" — WATCH

Lenka — "Trouble Is a Friend" — WATCH

Decoder Ring — "Traffic" — LISTEN

Foo Fighters — "The Pretender" — WATCH

Beck — "Lonesome Tears" — WATCH

Andrew Bird — "A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left"



of Montreal — "The Party’s Crashing Us"— LISTEN

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings — "100 Days, 100 Nights" — WATCH

Spoon — "The Way We Get By" — WATCH

Goldfrapp — "Ride a White Horse" — WATCH

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah — "Is This Love?" — LISTEN

Estelle (feat. Kanye West) — "American Boy" — WATCH

Jason Mraz — "I'm Yours" — LISTEN

The Strokes — "Someday" — WATCH

Death Cab for Cutie — "Transatlanticism" — LISTEN

Norah Jones — "Sinkin’ Soon"



St. Vincent — "Actor out of Work" — WATCH

The Sea and Cake — "Left Side Clouded" — WATCH

OutKast — "B.O.B. — Bombs over Baghdad" — WATCH

Animal Collective — "Peacebone" — LISTEN

Sara Bareilles — "Bottle It Up" — WATCH

Jenny Lewis — "Black Sand" — LISTEN

nine inch nails — "all the love in the world" — LISTEN

The Postal Service — "We Will Become Silhouettes" — WATCH

Goldfrapp — "Monster Love" — LISTEN

TV on the Radio — "Dreams"



Ms. John Soda — "Hands" — LISTEN

The Temper Trap — "Sweet Disposition" — WATCH

Arcade Fire — "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" — WATCH

M. Ward (feat. Zooey Deschanel) — "Never Had Nobody Like You" — LISTEN

The Strokes — "Hard to Explain" — WATCH

of Montreal — "Forecast Fascist Future" — LISTEN

Rihanna — "Disturbia" — WATCH

Radiohead — "Optimistic" — WATCH

Death Cab for Cutie — "Soul Meets Body" — WATCH

Bruce Springsteen — "The Rising"



MGMT — "Electric Feel" — WATCH

Sophie Ellis-Bextor — "Murder on the Dance Floor" — LISTEN

Amy Winehouse — "Rehab" — WATCH

Franz Ferdinand — "Jacqueline" — LISTEN

My Brightest Diamond — "Golden Star" — LISTEN

Green Day — "Wake Me Up When September Ends" — LISTEN

Broken Social Scene — "Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl" — WATCH

St. Vincent — "Black Rainbow" — LISTEN

The Postal Service — "Brand New Colony" — LISTEN