Best Of The Decade

I spend too much time thinking about stuff. Pointless, meaningless stuff. Way too much time. Let me give you an example…

Sometime around Thanksgiving 2009, I spotted the first droplets heralding the deluge of "Best of the Decade" lists that was to come. I've always been fascinated by such lists, in particular the "Best X Songs of the Year/Decade/Millenium" lists that have been put together by Rolling Stone, Spin, Pitchfork, etc. I've always been something of a musical gourmand, and despite the arbitrary nature of picking a certain number of songs from within a certain time period, the mere fact that someone took the time to determine which songs were released during that period always left me both amused and amazed. Picking the top X favorites from within that time period struck me as the easiest part of the undertaking.

As much as I'd wanted to put together my own list, I had always been deterred by the mountain of research that stood between myself and the goal. Sometime in the last decade, however, a synergistic combination of iTunes, database technology and the internet have finally solved that problem for me. I had to spend a few hours populating the Year field in my iTunes library with the help of discogs.com (currently the best discography source on the net, IMHO), but beyond that the heavy lifting all came down to decision-making. That's about when the hard work started.

Did I mention that I think too much about pointless, meaningless stuff? I did? Okay. As of December 1, 2009 I had all the data in front of me. I was resolved to complete the list by December 31, 2010 at 9pm so I could play it at our New Year's Eve party. By Christmas Day I had compiled a list of 350 candidates. And that's about when the hard work started.

I quickly decided to follow the Ancient Laws of Mix Tape Creation, which state clearly, “Yay though many songs by one band may express the feelings you wish to convey, still shall you use only one song, so that the listener may experience the maximum number of new artists. So mote it be.” Of course, picking the song which best represents Foo Fighters in the 21st century was not an easy matter, and I don't even want to think about how many times I listened to My Chemical Romance's “The Black Parade” trying to determine which song deserved inclusion, but in less than 24 hours I was down to only 250 tracks. I cut another 20 or so when I decided that cover versions simply confused the issue too much; I wasn't happy about the removal of “Comfortably Numb” by The Scissor Sisters, but it had to be done. And that's about when the hard work started.

What followed was five days of soul-searching, staring at my laptop, repeatedly listening to 30-second clips of songs, agonizingly editing and re-editing my spreadsheet, asking random passers-by if including Kanye West made me a bad person (I'm told that he's a gay fish), and just generally scratching my head wondering how I got myself into this. I had to kill bands I love. I cut Justin Timberlake, then brought sexy back... I dropped Snoop like he was hot, then picked him back up once I'd cooled off... I had 99 problems, and Jay-Z was one. But eventually, it was time; if it wasn't for the last minute, I'd never know when to finish anything. At 8pm on New Year's Eve, I finally settled on my list of the Best 100 Songs of the Decade.

And that's about when the hard work started.

On January 2, 2010, I discovered that one of the songs (“My Own Worst Enemy” by Lit) was actually released in 1999. After listening to the playlist alphabetically, I decided I just couldn't justify the exclusion of Blink 182 while Angels & Airwaves made the cut. I kicked myself back and forth before I replaced the incredibly popular “This Ain't A Scene...” by Fall Out Boy with the virtually unknown, but ultimately superior, “Hum Hallelujah” from the same album. I argued over whether I could forgive myself for allowing Coldplay in just because the album was produced by Brian Eno. And then came the issue of ordering. That's about when the hard work started.

Did I mention that I think too much about pointless, meaningless stuff? I did? Okay. You see, I loved listening to the list in shuffle mode, but I just couldn't put it in a definite order. I tried ranking the songs, listing them alphabetically and chronologically, breaking them up by genre... nothing seemed satisfying. Of course, it didn't matter to me, but I had promised to publish the list online, not to mention several people that wanted the list burned to audio CDs (seven discs in all), and I had to do something about the order.

It was my friend Mimi who eventually proposed the obvious solution to me. “If you like it on shuffle, why don't you just post it in a random order?” she asked. Hmm... well I suppose I could whip up a little JavaScript, but what about the CD's? “Just burn each person's copy in an order generated randomly uniquely for them,” she suggested. Hmm... neat! Why didn't I think of that?

And so, finally, here it is. If you're just viewing the list online and you don't like the order, hit refresh and it will change. If you're reading this through RSS and don't see the list at the end of the post, go view it on my actual blog; I have no confidence whatsoever that the JavaScript I wrote will actually execute in any sort of feed-reader. If you receive a data CD of MP3's from me (or if you download it, once I post the BitTorrent file), I may include a randomly ordered playlist, but I still recommend that you simply put your music player of choice on shuffle mode and let the electronics handle it for you. And if you receive (or burn) audio CDs, well, you're stuck with the order you get (unless you own a seven-disc changer, I suppose), but at least you'll know that it is unique to you.

I have a lot more to say on many of these songs, and a list of notes regarding why I included them, which I'll hopefully post once I've cleaned them up a bit. In general, my criteria for the list were that it be listenable, personal, cross-genre, exceptional, and finally that I wouldn't be embarrassed by it in 10 years. Of course, I expect disagreement on many of my selections, and I encourage comments about both the songs you think I unfairly passed over and the songs you think I'm an idiot for including. Dissent is educational, and while I don't guarantee that I'll change the list for you, I can't guarantee that I won't. In the end, this is the beauty of the internet; nothing is true, all is illusion, and any mistake can both be immediately corrected and never be erased.

1: Arctic Monkeys - Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
2: The Limousines - Very Busy People
3: Kylie Minogue - Can't Get You Out Of My Head
4: Coheed & Cambria - The Suffering
5: Rilo Kiley - Portions For Foxes
6: Beyoncé - Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)
7: OK Go - Here It Goes Again
8: Foo Fighters - All My Life
9: MGMT - Time To Pretend
10: Weezer - The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations On A Shaker Hymn)
11: Scissor Sisters - Take Your Mama
12: Coldplay - Viva La Vida
13: TV On The Radio - Staring At The Sun
14: Lily Allen - Smile
15: Lady Gaga - Bad Romance
16: Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps
17: A3 - Too Sick To Pray
18: Joss Stone - Snakes & Ladders
19: The Postal Service - Such Great Heights
20: The All-American Rejects - Dirty Little Secret
21: Snoop Dogg - Drop It Like It's Hot
22: The Decembrists - 16 Military Wives
23: The Beta Band - Squares
24: Basement Jaxx - Where's Your Head At
25: Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Counting Down The Hours
26: Beck - Think I'm In Love
27: The Strokes - Hard To Explain
28: The Coral - Dreaming Of You
29: Rogue Traders - Voodoo Child
30: The Chemical Brothers - The Test
31: Wolfmother - Joker & The Thief
32: Black Kids - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You
33: The Dresden Dolls - Backstabber
34: Modest Mouse - Float On
35: The Killers - All These Things That I've Done
36: She Wants Revenge - Tear You Apart
37: The Polyphonic Spree - Running Away
38: Phish - Sand
39: Jet - Are You Gonna Be My Girl
40: Panic At The Disco - Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off
41: Cake - Short Skirt/Long Jacket
42: Blue October - Breakfast After 10
43: The Fratellis - Flathead
44: Peter, Bjorn and John - Young Folks
45: Pink - Who Knew
46: Jay-Z - 99 Problems
47: Maroon 5 - Harder To Breathe
48: Missy Elliott - Work It
49: Goldfrapp - Ooh La La
50: CSS - Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above
51: The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize??
52: Madonna - Music
53: Klaxons - Golden Skans
54: Fall Out Boy - Hum Hallelejah
55: Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc.
56: Spoon - I Turn My Camera On
57: N.E.R.D. - Lapdance (featuring Lee Harvey and Vita)
58: Eve 6 - Promise
59: Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
60: My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade
61: Santigold - Lights Out
62: Caesars - Jerk It Out
63: LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends
64: Spiritualized® - Do It All Over Again
65: The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
66: Rihanna - Don't Stop The Music
67: Massive Attack - Small Time Shot Away
68: Interpol - Evil
69: Kanye West - Stronger (featuring Daft Punk)
70: Queens Of The Stone Age - No One Knows
71: Amy Winehouse - You Know I'm No Good
72: Daft Punk - One More Time
73: Finger Eleven - Paralyzer
74: Louis XIV - Finding Out True Love Is Blind
75: Death Cab For Cutie - I Will Possess Your Heart
76: Franz Ferdinand - No You Girls
77: Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling
78: Blink 182 - I Miss You
79: Zero 7 - Give It Away
80: Vampire Weekend - A-Punk
81: Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies)
82: OutKast - Hey Ya!
83: OPM - Heaven Is A Halfpipe
84: Doves - There Goes The Fear
85: The Rapture - Whoo! Alright-Yeah…Uh Huh
86: Dirty Projectors - Stillness Is The Move
87: Justin Timberlake - SexyBack (featuring Timbaland)
88: Wilco - Heavy Metal Drummer
89: Buckcherry - Next 2 You
90: Bloc Party - Hunting For Witches
91: The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name
92: Lemon Demon - The Ultimate Showdown
93: Broken Social Scene - 7/4 (Shoreline)
94: Phoenix - 1901
95: Flobots - Handlebars
96: M.I.A. - Paper Planes
97: U2 - Elevation
98: Jason Mraz - Curbside Prophet
99: Britney Spears - Toxic
100: Muse - Knights Of Cydonia