59. Architecture in Helsinki, "That Beep" (2008)

find it on That Beep

58. Ed Harcourt, "Born In The 70's" (2005)

"Born In The 70s" is one of the songs whose conventional feel translated to square and was pretty much ignored, which is a real shame. This is a real jewel of the form: great hooks delivered with heartfelt vocals and chiming acoustic guitars. When songs like this hit the bullseye so squarely, it made me miss the entire genre.
find it on Until Tomorrow Then - The Best Of Ed Harcourt

57. Nouvelle Vague, "In A Manner of Speaking" (2005)

For a summer, Nouvelle Vauge felt like a revelation. Playing British new wave songs as bossa nova felt perfect and right, breathing new life into songs that felt as though they could only be of one time and place. "In A Manner Of Speaking" in particular hit perfectly, taking Tuxedomoon's stilted and overly arty original and turning into a hip-swiveling heartbreaker.

Then Nouvelle Vague felt like they had to vary their rhythm, which they probably did, but it ruined everything. We have that one album, though.
find it on Nouvelle Vague

56. Hercules & Love Affair (featuring Antony), "Blind" (2008)

Antony was one of those artists who I could never really get into, mostly because he sang every song exactly the same way. But on "Blind", away from his dramatic piano prop and on top of a fantastic new-disco track, he's a new revelation. He gives the song just enough convention to be catchy, but still leaves it formless enough to stay as a great dance track in the tradition of New Order. And most of all, his melodramatic voice loosens up and makes this a perfect mesh of the serious and funloving.
find it on Hercules And Love Affair

55. The Killers, "All These Things I've Done" (2004)

I once read an interview with Killers singer Brandon Flowers where he talked about how eye-opening the Strokes and White Stripes were to them, so we can thank the revival of gritty rock in the early part of the decade for the fact that this song still has an incredible strength and sincerity instead of being over-produced to a lifeless pulp. The "I got soul but I'm not a soldier" line may have made me cringe every time, but the entire track had such a beautiful energy that I never minded the Killer's melodrama for a single second.
find it on Hot Fuss

54. Mark Ronson (featuring Amy Winehouse), "Valerie" (2007)

A good cover version is a tricky thing, but "Valerie" is a great one, taking the pub rock of the Zuton's original and simply doubling the beat and adding horns and Amy Winehouse's spectacular voice to create something that would have sounded more at home on Motown in 1967. Winehouse's own Back To Black (which Ronson produced) was a great record in its own, but she never matched the vocal high she hits here, especially on the line "did you get a good lawyer-er-er".
find it on Version

53. Sufjan Stevens, "The Predatory Wasp Of The Palisades Is Out To Get Us!" (2005)

"The Predatory Wasp" is probably more on Sufjan's sensitive side than a lot of the other tracks of Illinois, but it still has that combination of all his songs: careful orchestration with a quick and heartfelt delivery. It's a beautiful song, and that beauty turns devastating at the simple change of melody at "all of my powers, day after day, I can tell you, we swaggered and swayed."
find it on Illinois

52. Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, "My Man Is A Mean Man" (2005)

There was no shortage of soul revivalists in the last ten years, with Daptone at the center of it. The Dap-Kings turned out plenty of great stuff that sounded like it was from the 60's, but in "My Man Is A Mean Man", that sound gets a modern boost of speed with some jump-out-your-seat excitement. The guitar chords in the choruses are as on fire as music can get.
find it on Naturally

51. Arctic Monkeys, "A Certain Romance" (2006)"

"A Certain Romance" is the Monkeys (Arctic variety) at their finest. A ska riff gives a playful counter to the ridiculously loud intro, but not only do you get the rock-out ending that make so many of their songs great, but the lead-in line is a great expression of tough guy friendship: "But over there, there's friends of mine. What can I say: I've known them for a long, long time, and though they might overstep the line, you just cannot get angry in the same way."
find it on Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I Am Not

50. The Fiery Furnaces, "Sing For Me" (2005)

"Sing For Me" is a great example of one of the best things to happen to music this decade: the idea that experimentation didn't have to be devoid of easy appeal and vice versa. The song itself is a lullaby with a beautiful melody, but its pairing with a insistent, double-time beat is jarring, and the analog synth break and piano outro make it more difficult listening than the sweet song itself. Of course, Fiery Furnaces gave mostly difficult listening, but in those times when they meshed conventional song structure with quirky delivery, it made for some of the most satisfying listening this decade.
find it on EP

49. The Lucksmiths, "The Year of Driving Languorously" (2001)

48. Beck, "Lost Cause" (2002)

Stylistically, the quiet and straight Sea Change was a massive change from the raucous electrofunk of Midnite Vultures, but even more shocking was the change from jokey, ironic, almost-meaningless word stews to raw, clear contemplation. The melancholy of "Lost Cause" makes it an emotional listen anyway, but when you compare it to, say, "Mixed Bizness" and wonder what level of hurt it must have taken to suck that much life out of the guy and leave him so low, it's devastating.
find it on Sea Change

47. New Pornographers, "Mass Romantic" (2000)

46. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, "I'll Be Glad" (2008)

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's album Lie Down In The Light was one of the very few albums of the second half of the decade that I preferred to listen to as a whole instead of as selected, shuffled pieces. It's one of the most beautiful records I've ever heard, and it's really surprising that my love of that record didn't bring out more of the appeal of his others. I really like all of his albums, but nothing he's done approaches the top quality of Lie Down In The Light.

"I'll Be Glad" is a fitting finale to the record, finding its beauty in a simple, achingly pretty melody, lyrics that sound as cynical as they do sweet, and ending with a burst of harmony that's stunningly gorgeous but painfully short, which, of course, leads to repeated listens.
find it on Lie Down In The Light

45. Outkast, "Hey Ya!"

It's easy to romanticize older pop songs because you don't have to live through the days when you couldn't avoid them. There's the douchebags that grab onto it and ruin it, there's the endless news stories about the artists themselves, and there's the playing of the songs themselves not only on every moment of the radio, but in TV shows, news montages and just about every available audio space. Once you get away from that, you're left with just the song.

It was really easy to get sick of "Hey Ya!" It was everywhere. But even in the days when I was completely sick of it, I looked forward to the day when I wasn't, and envied the kids who, in 2024, come upon this song and realize it for the perfect party pop that it is.
find it on Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

44. Andrew Bird, "How You Gonna Keep 'em Down On the Farm" (2008)

It's nothing new to say that Andrew Bird is a man out of time, romanticizing as he does the lyrical and musical phrases of decades ago. But there's few of his songs that so clearly nail a bygone time as this one. It puts in the present the concerns of farm boys gone off to see the world, but more than that, it gives us the chord changes that make older music never quite go away. "Imagine Reuben when he meets his pa, he'll pinch his cheek and holler 'Ooh la la!'" might seem hopelessly outdated, but when delivered with Bird's beauty, it's welcome in whatever time it finds itself in.
find it on Soldier On

43. Jarvis Cocker, "Big Julie" (2007)

Everything about about this song that makes it seem like the ultimate Jarvis song is exactly what makes it seem so unlike him. It's the kind of narrative he's well known for, but it's 3rd person instead of first. It's the type of chamber ballad that Pulp had plenty of in their catalog, but with a much more ordinary and insular feel. It's like seeing someone glamorous and fashionable in their comfortable clothes and glasses: same person, but shockingly different.

The change suits the song perfectly, though, giving it the best sound for the story. The climbing and climaxing last verse opens up the window for a hopeless story and gives the main character's future an infinite promise. "It will play until the day Big Julie rules the world."
find it on Jarvis

42. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, "The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth" (2005)

It's the sheer drive of this song that raises it far, FAR above Alec Ounsworth's affected hiccups and yelps. You can hear it best in the twin crash-and-snare hits at the end of the song, and the manic guitar line lifts me every time. It's no wonder that it became one of Mousetrap's standards: there is no way to stay in your seat when this song is playing.
find it on Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

41. Mull Historical Society, "The Supermarket Strikes Back" (2003)

Mull Historical Society's debut was a favorite. Most of the songs on the record had immediate and irresistible hooks, though after a few listens, the same hooks kind of revealed themselves as pretty conventional. It was still a hell of a fun listen, but the surface never really got too scratched.

On MHS's second record, though, the hooks became much more sophisticated, and there was nothing better than this track: a slow build with a subtle hook, deeply cynical lyrics and harmonies and textures that are much more mood than just straight influence. By the time he gets to the last repetition of "this is the last time that I'll sit...", it's gotten a stunning pop fullness. Colin MacIntyre was never able to follow up on this promise, but this song is so fully realized that that never really mattered.
find it on Us