The Top 25 Songs of the 00's, Pt. 1

Every day I miss the zeroes (for lack of a better word) more and more.

I feel like it was easily the best decade for music, the forerunners of scenes like garage rock revival and indie pop taking the influences of their predecessors and tweaking them perfectly. It was a decade in which mainstream pop divas like Beyonce and Lady Gaga tore holes through the candy-coated radio rock stylings of Nickelback and Linkin Park.

So, without much further ado, here it is. Twenty-five tracks in all their glory. Maybe you'll agree, maybe you won't. I guess we'll see. It'll be five tracks a week for five weeks. And please, if you're reading this, leave a comment. Leave your thoughts. Leave criticism. Leave death threats. Leave whatever makes you happy. Come along for the ride.



25. Common - Be
from 2005's "Be", released on GOOD and Geffen



I want to be as free as the spirits of those who left
I'm talking Malcom, Coltrane, my man Yusef


24. MGMT - Time to Pretend
from 2008's "Oracular Spectacular", on Columbia Records



I'm feeling rough, I'm feeling raw, I'm in the prime of my life
Let's make some music, make some money, find some models for wives

23. Wilco - I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
from 2002's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot", on Nonesuch Records



I am an American aquarium drinker
I assassin down the avenue


22. Tegan and Sara - Call it Off
from 2007's "The Con", released on Sire Records



Maybe I would've been something you'd be good at
Maybe you would've been something I'd be good at


21. Jurassic 5 - A Day at the Races
from 2002's "Power in Numbers", released on Interscope Records



Get ready, for the ride, verbally hand-glide
Write and stay tight, mission's in sight
Murderer worldwide the stage is yo' knife

Titus Andronicus - The Monitor

The one thing I hate about talking to people about music is the introduction. "What kind of music do you like?" My first instinct is to start spouting off artists, but I know that isn't what they want to hear. They're looking for genres. And frankly, I never have had a favorite genre. Maybe not even a favorite sub-genre. But recently, I began to develop an answer to this question. The Best Genre Award goes to "punk bands that rip off Springsteen".

But Titus Andronicus aren't your average Brucepunk band, and they aren't your average hipsters. They don't care much for writing poignant narratives about boys and girls and their artistic endeavors. And lyricist Patrick Stickles isn't the umpteenth incarnation of Jack Kerouac. No, they're far more interested in writing sprawling concept albums about the Civil War.

There'll be no more counting the cars on the Garden State parkway
Nor waiting for the Fung Wah bus to carry me to who-knows-where

That lyric comes from opener "A More Perfect Union", a masterpiece both musically and lyrically, and a serious contender for my favorite song of 2010 so far. I don't like to throw the word "epic" around, especially since its awkward recent integration with real life, pseudo-clever high school kids, but The Monitor is certainly worthy of the prestigious (albeit overused) term. There's a total of two tracks under five minutes long, both of which are little more than battle cries, and fourteen-minute closer "The Battle of Hampton Roads" has a bagpipe solo.

A bagpipe solo.

From start to finish, The Monitor is a mess of stirring sing-a-longs and euphoric celebrations of paranoia, coming together to create what very well might be the best record 2010 currently has to offer. I'd like to think I speak for all fans of the band when I say this... Titus Andronicus forever!

The National - Alligator

The National are so damn boring. I say this in the kindest way possible.

Sorry, National fans, but I don't really think you can deny it. Matt Berninger sounds like he's almost trying to be drab. Not to mention many of these songs sound awfully similar, his dry and languid voice blabbering about wine and late nights on the town. The kind of stuff you'd converse about at upper-class suburban dinner parties.

This isn't to say his voice is completely sleep-inducing; he does give some incredibly inspired vocal performances on "Abel" and "Mr. November", two of the album's finest and catchiest numbers. But on the other tracks, it just lulls along. (See opener "Secret Meeting").

So why is this album so enjoyable?

Actually, let me retract that last statement. It's great if you're in the mood for it. If you just pop Alligator at 6PM on a summer night, you'll get nothing out of it. This is not music for parties, or barbecues, or road trips. Rather, it's music for late nights, regrettable nights, and everything in between. And after a few listens, Berninger's voice is perfectly relaxing, ideal for the kind of music these boys play.

Long live the National. Long live tedious, hipster nightclub music that's flawless in the strangest way possible.

De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising

Lately, I've found myself listening to hip-hop and its subgenres an awful lot more than the alternative/indie stylings I'm used to. It's been a pretty fresh few months; I've heard a lot of classic albums and some newer stuff too. But one of the first rap albums I've heard still ranks among my favorites: De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising.

3 Feet High and Rising practically reinvents fresh. Released at a time when the hard-hitting sounds of N.W.A. and Public Enemy infiltrated the airwaves, the positive, jazzy rhythms and rhymes of Trugoy, Posdnous, and Mase shook up the hip-hop scene with songs about awkward sexual experiences, numbers, and talking animals.

One thing they certainly had a talent for was creative robbery, evident in the many samples this album contains. And there's a lot of them. Seriously, look at this. For the love of god, "The Magic Number" samples a Schoolhouse Rock song. Now that's talent.

It's a little heavy on interludes sometimes, but 3 Feet High is an absolute hip-hop classic that can't be ignored. No other album can make 65 minutes feel so short. Long live De La Soul.

Common - Be

Whether it's the one lone candle on the front of Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation or the cocky pose the boys from OutKast strike on Stankonia, album covers have always had an incredible way of conveying the music within. And in the same way that Iggy Pop's toothy grin on the cover of Lust for Life flawlessly illustrated his attitude toward life at the time, Common's smile on the cover of Be is the perfect setup for an album so full of street-smart optimism, Mr. Rogers would proud.

Common isn't exactly what the music industry has taught us to expect from a rap artist. He's humble and reserved. He relies on the jazzy, soulful style of production popularized in 90's East Coast rap rather than beats we see in much of today's top 40 music. It didn't hurt to have Kanye West and J Dilla produce the album, either. Be also prominently showcases a trait that many rap albums severely lack: brevity.

Clocking in at just over forty minutes, Be remains concise and consistent throughout, with no filler or wasted moments. It begins and ends beautifully, from the double bass that opens the title track to the passionate and sincere spoken word of Common's own father that plays over solemn piano to close out "It's Your World".

Be... eternal.