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| Doof's Top 100 Songs of the Decade COMPLETE
Posting one a day for now, might speed up later.
Rules: only one entry per release (EP/album/single) | 100 | | clipping. CLPPNG
'Body & Blood'
Some of the bottom ten of this top 100 will go dangerously close to 'guilty pleasure' territory and I guess this is the prime candidate. Lyrics like 'she don't need you for shit but your dick and your veins...every man say she thicc and they wish they could bang' might provoke a snigger, and sometimes yes, I feel close to laughing...but then I realise that laugh would be the same laugh of 'sweet virgin boy' me being shown pornography for the first time in primary school. No, long ago I decided this song is a serious business. | 99 | | Annie A&R EP
'Invisible'
I always picture Girls Aloud from 2005 parachuting into the Russian tundra wearing only boots and fur bikinis, armed with kalashnikovs. The ginger one (Nicole?) is also carrying a big knife. Grrrrrr. 'Winter's cold and so are you'. Yes Annie does possess a somewhat kinky voice, at least in this song - the track is an outlier in her work and retro in all the right ways. | 98 | | Daughn Gibson Me Moan
'The Sound of Law'
Gibson's vocal style is so OTT he makes Presley, Danzig, Sturgill Simpson, Pete Steele (you name 'em)...well he's capable of making anyone else sound like a shrinking violet in comparison. His cartooon'ish hyper masculine gothic country drawl has never worked better than it does on 'The Sound of Law' where he wraps it around larger than life storytelling lyrics like 'with secrets dying to tell, he laid a kiss in my little hand...and blew that fucker off to Hell'. An acquired taste? You bet, but if you only learn to love one of his toons make it this one. | 97 | | Vektor Terminal Redux
'Pillars of Sand'
Sometimes a band release a song that goes in a more experimental direction and you find yourself wishing they'd do it more often. Conversely, sometimes a band simplify their approach, write a Metallica song, and sound all the better for it. This second scenario is what we have with Vektor on the whip snap sharp 'Pillars of Sand', a tune that surely anyone can connect with - the pained cries of "TIME is a clock on the wall we command...left bereft by the passage of...tiiiiiIIIME" (sounding not unlike someone has just inserted a red hot poker up a goblin's jacksie) will surely resonate. Time's a bitch and it hurts = relatable. | 96 | | Sleaford Mods Divide and Exit
‘Liveable Shit’
A song that sums up the last decade of life on the British Isles like no other, encapsulating; battery chicken office working (smelling the same ‘colleague’s stinky shits every morning), an explosion in the numbers of name dropping phoney hipsters, the spirit-sapping Tory government (‘the Prime Minister’s face hanging in the clouds like Gary Oldman’s Dracula’), misplaced patriotism/Brexit (‘St. George’s flag twat’) and ultimately the disenfranchisement/apathy that follows (‘now I don’t dream of anything I just wait for it to turn up - it’s the atmosphere round here’). Still, I (we?) would take another decade of all this ‘liveable shit’ as more and more are becoming convinced the next shit we’ll face (so much plastic in our food and water our testicles will resemble kinder eggs, conflict as we approach peak resources of one type or another, and of course, ‘climate change’) will be far less ‘liveable’. Positively unliveable
even, so uh, long live ‘liveable shit’. | 95 | | The Young Gods Data Mirage Tangram
'All My Skin Standing'
Yes, the first 2019 entrant on the list - and what will probably be the only pick from any of the late '80s/early '90s industrial rock old guard. That's right, no Nine Inch Nails or Ministry tracks will make the cut - for the simple reason that both those acts are now producing relatively uninspiring work that never transcends the level of studio doodling. Not so the appropriately titled 'All My Skin Standing' - an epic sounding creation that paints an image of a giant metal eagle breaking through the recording studio walls and then climbing up up up... until it's circling above the earth, gliding at some great altitude, letting out the occasional metallic cry that echoes for miles in every direction. | 94 | | Geotic Abysma
'Perish Song'
On what is a pretty blissful album this track still stands out as particularly 'heaven-like' - the tinkling keys and soothing vocals, describing the ‘heat of the sun', will have you feeling like you're waiting to transition to a more peaceful afterlife. The perfect middle ground between house and ambient for background listening - but where the level of detail is such that attentive listening's still rewarded. | 93 | | Liars Mess
'Mess on a Mission'
One of the songs that I feel taps in best to modern culture and just the general feel of the last decade or so. 'Cast out culture, compound impatience, without regard, trash the book the film's half based on'. Everyone's in a rush to make an often ill-judged choice, in a mad scramble to share an often ill-informed opinion, and ultimately in a rush to regret. All this anxiety, it all gets squeezed into your head...yes, I'm pretty sure most sputnikmusic.com users feel like a mess on a mission from time to time. | 92 | | The Unthanks Mount the Air
'Flutter'
After listening to music for so long I have a few deeply ingrained (yes probably irrational but stfu) 'canon artist' dislikes that I've now carried in my heart for what seems like forever. The Smiths are one, and whenever I find an artist who sound an awful lot like The Smiths without Morrissey on vocals I chalk up a small victory, another reason I'll not have to listen to that band as much. Every little helps. Another example, as most people here will no doubt know, is Bjork - yes, she had some good songs and a couple of pleasant overall albums, but for me that's it. So when I find a song that's 'Bjork-ish' (only without the stuff that turns me off from everyone's favourite Icelander) then immediate mental high five, I'm loving life. This is only a teeny bit Bjork-ish I guess but I like it a lot and I'm putting it down as an anti-Bjork winner all the same. | 91 | | The Antlers Familiars
'Refuge'
For a band who in 2009 were all about the emotion on 'Hospice', by their latest (last?) album 'Familiars' I felt distanced by them - listening to their new (still good) music I felt very little. The only time this changed was with the closing track, very much a case of 'right song, right time'. Some people will reach their thirties and have only called maybe five rooms their bedroom, somewhere they considered their home for at least a few months. Not so for me, by the time this album was released I'd guess it would have added up to nearer thirty bedrooms. So the concept of 'home' has always been an odd one for me - but after meeting my wife to be less than twelve months before this albums was released and moving in together I had a feeling I'd found a person who gave me a sense of home. When you are sure of this, 100% certain, well then 50% of all the bullshit you carry with you will evaporate instantly - this song sounds like the realisation that process has just happened. | 90 | | Real Lies Real Life
'North Circular'
Mike Skinner made a whole career from the knowledge that a certain demographic whose teen years fell within the '90s would always be drawn to 'rave nostalgia'. Real Lies are similar but manage to outdo the Streets for both urban grittiness AND poetic wistfulness, at least they do on this song. The lyrics continuously surprise, especially when they drop in a simple bitter truth like 'these days I say sorry a lot more' in among the swell of this fast flowing stream of consciousness. A song where you can taste the pollution, smell the pub carpet, feel the cold rain running down your face - This is England. | 89 | | Everything Everything Get to Heaven
'Fortune 500'
By 2015 terrorism really was the topic du jour so no one was surprised a glut of films and songs started making reference to it. Still, some went more hell for leather on dissecting this uncomfortable reality than others, and near the front of this charge were Mancunian art popsters Everything Everything. Their breakout album 'Get to Heaven' was a grim portrait painted in fluorescent colours, an album about something awful happening...and that awful thing finally takes place on 'Fortune 500'. Trying to get inside the head of a brainwashed assassin and then describe the lines of logic at play within that weaponised mind is a risky business, but hats off to EE they have a real go here and hold nothing back. 'They sing in my ears and make me feel like I'm lost, I don't want this, I never spoke up enough, think of the people that I'm doing it for...I've won, they told me that I've won'. The end result is disturbing sure, but also ends up somewhere close to fascinating. | 88 | | The Tiger Lillies Either Or
'Boredom'
The song that started the obsession, after reading a review of their new album 'Cold Night in Soho' I went straight to Spotify but it wasn't up yet...so I tried 'Either Or'. It was 'Boredom', the second song of the set, that clinched my interest - the vocal delivery was often actorly and glib but just underneath was a tone of pure misery and disgust that rang true. The lyrics are straightforward, the concept that everything bad in this world emanates from human boredom is hardly a new idea (the devil makes work for idle hands etc) but it had never before been delivered by a sad clown promising 'I'll rape, I'll rob, I'll fuck your son'. Charming. | 87 | | The Knife Shaking the Habitual
'Full of Fire'
The Knife recorded possibly my favourite intro of the '00s in the form of the opening two minutes of 'Like a Pen' and they repeat the trick here with a stunning opening three and a half minutes of slow build. After that marker the track dissolves into a formless, nightmarish soundscape that yes, sounds like a call to arms against traditional gender-bound power. The message is sometimes delivered by a freakish strangled robotic voice that hammers home the strangeness of how those outside of societal norms are viewed - if that wasn't enough the track wraps up with a parody of the wholesome chorus of 'Let's Talk About Sex' by Salt-N-Pepa. This is as close to a punk anthem (in the truest sense) as the decade delivered. | 86 | | Breathless Green to Blue
'I Want You to Realise'
Shoegaze is a genre where you can tell vocals are often a bit of an afterthought, and certainly attention grabbing singers are thin on the ground. Dominic Appleton of Breathless is one of the few exceptions who more often than not becomes the star turn in much of his band's output; it's not just the hint of a lisp, there's something weird and wounded that makes him come across as a more pleasant sounding Robert Smith. This subtly heartbreaking ballad is all about Appleton who delivers desperately sad lines like 'They told me I'd say this: I'm disappointed in you...nearly all of us paint a halo around ourselves, but I painted one around you.' Bittersweet sentiment has rarely sounded better. | 85 | | Craig finn I Need A New War
‘A Bathtub in the Kitchen’
As you get older you’ll find friendships and relationships where what once worked no longer does, where maybe one person has moved forward and the other seems frozen in a particular moment. Think of the main friendship in ‘On the Road’ where by the end of the novel, however much history those two people share, whatever fond wishes or memories they still hold, the nature of how they relate to each other has irrevocably altered. It’s a similar tale with ‘Bathtub’; often I interpret Finn’s lyrics as chapters of unwritten novels and this is a prime example. | 84 | | toy Join the Dots
'Left Myself Behind"
The most recent discovery on the list, this one is a straightforward ripper - think something along the same lines of Deerhunter of the Horrors. Psychedelic tinged noisy indie rock for guitar lovers - nothing too unique, this one just happens to be best in class. | 83 | | Strand of Oaks Heal
'JM'
Timothy Showalter's tribute to the late Jason Molina - tender verses give way to emotive blasts of lead guitar. 'I was an Indiana kid, gettin no one in my bed...I had your sweet tunes to play'. He does the great man proud. | 82 | | Mac DeMarco Salad Days
'Chamber of Reflection'
'Mr Slacker '10s Edition' actually, to my mind, sounds better without the trademark bendy hula surf guitar sound. Not sure a whole album of this approach would work but as a one off on 'Salad Days' it's a career highlight. | 81 | | Niechec Niechec
'Krew'
The first time I heard this song it stopped me dead - it really sounds like a world of chaos that occasionally breaks to reveal an underlying sadness which is in turn punctuated by primal howls of anguished saxophone. One of the most emotionally resonant instrumentals of the decade. | 80 | | Death Grips Bottomless Pit
'Bottomless Pit'
If I had to sum up my feelings about this decade in five simple words then I'd go with 'I fucked you in half'. | 79 | | Vangas Facial Tissue
'Skin'
Another 2019 pick and this one sounds like Daughters having a messy roll around with Sonic Youth. | 78 | | Slowdive Slowdive
'Don't Know Why'
Possibly a controversial choice as I'm sure a lot of people have another song they rate higher from the comeback album - for me this track is, on the surface, the most typically Slowdive toon...only it atypically bursts out of the traps and sort of tumbles over itself in a breathless orgy where the vocals and music nearly lose their connection with each other, and I like that. It's also very very pretty. | 77 | | Kurt Vile b'lieve i'm goin' down...
'Pretty Pimpin'
At once it's both the humorous slacker anthem J Mascis wishes he wrote this decade and also the last catchy slack jawed drawl the late Tom Petty would have wanted to sign off with. Mr Vile should get down to writing more 'near-hits' because this attempt is pretty pimpin. | 76 | | Ariel Pink Pom Pom
'Dayzed Inn Daydreams'
Of all the Ariel Pink solo songs why did I land on this one being my favourite of the decade? I guess I always read this one as auto biographical, a little love song to his own courage and where he ended up - it's both bittersweet and singalong triumphant, sentimental without being sappy. 'I used to dream, dream awake, hide in the dark, fade into gray, I used to pray but now I scream, Lord help me, no more daydreams'. The retro stylings are some of his most entertaining and really fit the melodies he's come up with here like a glove. Yeah, I'd have a hard time with anyone arguing this isn't one of his greatest and most affecting efforts and more than that it is in with a shout of being crowned my 'most effective album closer' of the decade too. | 75 | | Tropical Fuck Storm A Laughing Death in Meatspace
'You Let My Tyres Down'
One of the most incendiary album openers of the decade - this sounded like a fresh start for all the musicians involved and a riposte to anyone asking 'can you still do surprising things with a guitar in rock music these days?'. | 74 | | Sebastian Field Picture Stone
'Liberty Bell'
Obscure 2019 pick - a man in possession of an expressive Thom Yorke-ish voice pens an album of subtle, hypnotic art rock ballads, of which 'Liberty Bell' is the most perfectly formed example. Echoed vocals and rippling piano will transport you to the same dream world environs that 'Pyramid Song' took you to all those many years ago. | 73 | | Kauan Kaiho
'Nainen'
For the first time I was a pallbearer this year - three times we had to carry the coffin and it was raining sheets each time. That experience confirmed it....this song would make the ultimate funeral music; if you press play, listen to the opening 30 seconds of this track and the clouds don't instantly burst into heavy downpour in your imagination then I'm saying you're not correctly wired for sound, you might want someone to take a look at those ears. | 72 | | Fontaines D.C. Dogrel
'Big'
One of the great attention grabbing 'album career' openers of all time - short and sweet as you like. That Oirish brogue, the discordant guitar sound and the continuous clatter of the drums, 'Dublin in the rain is mine'...you're instantly won over. | 71 | | RY X Dawn
'Only'
I guess this placing so high means this claims the coveted 'favourite guilty pleasure of the 10s' - if Justin Vernon had no aspirations to produce anything other than pretty n' breathy ballads he'd start knocking out stuff like 'Only'. I'm pleased someone else is doing it for him as he's now locked himself into producing chipmunk vocal/electronic peppered 'soundscapes'. | 70 | | Clarence Clarity No Now
'Will to Believe'
Now this song is a balancing act and a half - even a tiny topple further towards trad Prince funk or a lurch deeper into chipmunk over production territory and I'd no doubt hate it. As it is this song is one of a healthy handful of tunes where CC gets it dead on - every time the chaos and clutter part to reveal that technicolor chorus, well, it's an event. He sort of outdoes M83's 'Midnight City' on this one, at least he does for me. | 69 | | Emeralds Does It Look Like I'm Here?
'Double Helix'
This album mixes electronics with guitar work like no other for me, the effect is so hypnotic the music can send me to sleep at the optimal volume - if that reads like a criticism it really isn't. Like taking a Durutti Column album and playing it at the same time as the most perfect slice of new age'ish ambient you could find, a wonderful thing in prospect no? | 68 | | Phosphorescent Muchacho
'Song for Zula'
With some discographies there's an obvious crown jewel, a song that stands apart as quite clearly the pinnacle of the artist's approach. 'Zula' is a case in point, this track just sounds more expansive, it has a weight to it, it's crying out for someone to have some sort of religious epiphany and remove all their clothes to it. Very nice stuff, it features a posh string section and everything. | 67 | | Julia Holter Loud City Song
'Hello Stranger'
A very (cliche alert) Lynch-ian cover version, atmosphere is the focus with distant bird cries and all manner of underlying ambience. The vocals are powerful without ever overstepping into the realms of the distracting or overbearing, and the approach is more sensitive than if you'd asked, say, The Chromatics to take a swing at it. Everything slowly and 'mildly discordantly' swells to a meaningful conclusion...basically the whole enterprise has that all important touch of class about it. | 66 | | Hayden Thorpe Diviner
'Diviner'
My favourite 'straightforward ditty' of 2019, just piano and voice for the most part - you get the feeling that throughout his career, Thorpe's continuously striving to learn how to better deploy that plummy voice of his to maximum understated effect. When you go solo you want to show there's a positive to you going solo, and here he does. | 65 | | Daughters Daughters
'The Hit'
Oh cruel irony...'The Hit' has now long established itself the most effective and consistently rewarding song by Daughters. At least for me. "Huh!" epic lead guitar squall. | 64 | | Elvis Depressedly New Alhambra
'Ease'
Probably the only album released this decade that I can clearly remember playing three times in a row because it's such an easy and addictive listen...and I guess the album is shorter than it needs to be. 'Ease' is the catchiest moment on an album full of earworms and is the perfect summation of the hazy, medicated vibe or 'New Alhambra' - slacker-tastic lyrics like 'I have failed at everything that I ever tried' the depression cherry on top. | 63 | | Joanna Newsom Have One on Me
'Does Not Suffice'
Some prime sad squeak from the most precious of precious darling luvvy song writers - a conventional piano ballad (ok, the vocals are still squeaky in places) but what sets this one apart is that the subject matter is relatable to all, plus Newsom's delivery betrays some genuine pain/emotional fatigue. It's an album closer in the Nick Drake 'Saturday Sun' mould - understated, classic. | 62 | | Neil Halstead Palindrome Hunches
'Full Moon Rising'
What's this? A Neil Halstead song featuring higher than any Slowdive song? Afraid so. As much as this song does give a whiff of 'closing credits of generic teen drama' there's no getting around the fact the song is a gently stirring, string laden lovely. Where so many would fall in the trap of going full on melodrama, Neil's vocals sidestep the door marked 'cheesy' and underplay the emotion. | 61 | | Ought Sun Coming Down
'Beautiful Blue Sky'
The 'Once in a Lifetime' of the '10s? I'd say so. Tim Darcy definitely channels some 'and you may find yourself...behind the wheel of a large automobile!' - his rambling 'How's the church? How's the job? How's the church? How's the job? How's the family? How's the family? How's the family? How's the family?' is pure Byrne in mantra mode. The musical backing for both tracks, whilst very different in every other regard, shares a certain melodic brightness | 60 | | Sun Kil Moon Among the Leaves
'Among the Leaves'
This t/t was a bit of an outlier on its parent album - this short and sweet, prettily melodic track tells a straightforward story with clear emotional cues for the listener. This is a rare example of the wilfully aggravating/borderline confrontational Kozelek being friendly towards his audience and throwing them a bone. | 59 | | Flying Lotus Cosmogramma
'Do the Astral Plane'
No doubt the most bitch basic selection for a FlyLo track to include on this countdown but there we go. 'Cosmogramma' was my introduction to the man's 'method behind the madness' chaotic/maximalist approach to jazz/funk referencing IDM and 'Astral Plane' was the tune that served as the perfect summation of the album's major charms. | 58 | | Foreign Fields What I Kept In Hiding
'I Have Your Weapons'
A very '10s take on indie folk complete with gurgling electronics and glitchy drums - the song manages its peaks and falls to perfection, the sound periodically dropping to a low whisper...this is delicately and sympathetically arranged stuff. 'Don't you cry you're not the only one' - heavy handed lyrics maybe, and tbh the song translates all the necessary emotion without the need for them, but they don't detract. | 57 | | Drake Nothing Was the Same
'Hold On We're Going Home'
This one could be a surprise but in no way am I claiming 'Hold On...' should be classed a guilty pleasure - this is as close to a timeless pop/soul tune as the decade delivered (yeah, half hearted apologies to Frank Ocean). I really can't claim to being a fan of either Drake the artist or Drake the man...and despite rummaging through his albums for more of the same, to my infinite disappointment, this remains just about the only song I have any time for. This tune positively smoulders. | 56 | | Girls Father, Son, Holy Ghost
'Vomit'
If there's one thing the doof dude can't abide it's lazy gospel sections in otherwise standard rawk or pop tunes. So many times with gospel vocals and melodies the minute they spark up you. know. exactly. where. they. are . headed. Straight down the well trod path, that one you're bored to death with. So where do Girls succeed where most every other rock act have failed? Well, quite simply they incorporate the gospel element both imaginatively and appropriately - it helps that much of the rest of the song is a subtle bittersweet tearjerker, so that by the time it comes in the gospel epiphany seems fully set up and well earned. Think something Floyd-ian rather than Sister Act. | 55 | | Kendrick Lamar To Pimp a Butterfly
'How Much a Dollar Cost'
Don't kill me this will be the only Kendrick on the list...and I wasted the selection on a non-banger too. Here a 'Pyramid Song' style piano lament is reappropriated to serve as the funeral march backing to a 'feel the spit spraying' intensely delivered fable. | 54 | | Future Islands The Far Field
'Time On Her Side'
An easy song to underestimate, the delicious layering and increasingly impassioned vocals are the key to this one - cock an ear for the moment Sam Herring exaggerates the 'ooooooooh' at the two minute mark, and listen out for the final chorus where the strings go all Pet Shop Boys at 2:32. These little touches add up to this track being the best example of propulsive pop Future Islands have yet recorded. | 53 | | The Drones Feelin Kinda Free
'Taman Shud'
A brittle, skeletal sound houses some of the most hilariously venomous lyrics penned in recent memory - it's soundbite central with bile piling upon bile. 'Don't hate me for not caring 'bout you losing your job, I think you're gonna suit being a welfare slob' immediately setting out that Gareth Liddard isn't going to pussyfoot around his audience before summing up the politically volatile, 24/7 universal soapbox nature of the age we live in with:
'Why you think the whole world's gotta be like you?...Everybody mouths off while they’re chewing cud'
Gottem | 52 | | Tame Impala Currents
'Let it Happen'
A song so good it rendered a further 43 minutes of subsequent album totally unnecessary - in fact listening to the latest song released from the upcoming Impala album you could get meaner still and say it's made Kevin Parker's entire song writing model irrelevant. As far as deadpan downbeat/musically uplifting psychedelic pop goes I can't imagine anyone could top this - certainly the Flaming Lips don't have a song in their armoury that could quite take this one at the same game, nor the Chemical Brothers who have attempted many a psychedelic reel in their time but never managed to bottle this much lightning. | 51 | | Glen Hansard This Wild Willing
'Race to the Bottom'
Genre mash! One of the strangest mixes of instrumentation of 2019 with a typical blues/folk framework finding itself embellished by both Middle Eastern AND Mariachi flavours - what could and maybe should have proved to be a negatively intoxicating concoction ends up quite the opposite, pretty darn delicious. Hansard puts on his most serious Cohen speak-sing tone and we have the final perfect ingredient. | 50 | | Everything Everything Man Alive
'Photoshop Handsome'
Another classic example of OCD sounding indie pop of the 2010s - I can forgive anyone for finding this teeth grindingly aggravating but this tune has a momentum that's impossible to deny. At first I thought this sounded like 'Talking Heads meets Vampire Weekend' but with hindsight, knowing where they'd end up, this was actually weirder than that description would suggest. | 49 | | John Grant Queen Of Denmark
'Marz'
Pretty music box piano melody ballad with big ol' John's honeyed croon - rather than 'sing the phonebook' here Grant sings the diner menu of his youth in a desperate attempt to escape to a nostalgia drenched hinterland. | 48 | | Darkside Psychic
'Metatron'
Still of the night, Floyd-ian instrumental from this Nicolas Jaar collab project - this slow motion closer was the highlight of the darkly atmospheric 'Psychic'. | 47 | | Lightning Bolt Sonic Citadel
'Air Conditioning'
This sprightly effort from the irrepressible Lightning Bolt just sounds happy to be alive in this world - like it sprung fully formed from the womb of some monster truck/rhinoceros hybrid parent and never stops sprinting for its entire lifespan (4:13 seconds). Meep Meep. | 46 | | Wild Beasts Smother
'Loop the Loop'
More Hayden Thorpe warble on this Talk Talk'ish slice of delicate art pop - the song steadily builds before reaching the emotional crux 'I've made enough enemies'. This is a very 'old soul' way of looking at the world of relationships - to have relationships is to risk making enemies of those you once cared for after all.
'Forget now,
How many must I forget now?
Remember,
As many as I remember,
I must forget,
Regret now,
How many do I regret now?
How many do I regret now?
How many do I regret?'
The baggage of loving. | 45 | | John Maus We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves
'Hey Moon'
This vaguely goth'y number from Maus is the sort of retro fluff that'd have slotted perfectly in the Donnie Darko soundtrack - 'Hey moon, it's just you and me tonight'...this might just be the closest JM has got to a perfect synthesis of lyrics/theme and sound/atmosphere. | 44 | | Thom Yorke Suspiria
'Unmade'
The ultimate Thom Yorke ballad of the decade didn't appear on any Radiohead album this time - no, finally his solo work caught up and, arguably, overtook the work of his main band on a number of occasions. 'Unmade' is one example, a perfectly judged effort backed by the most tasteful of arrangements - all choir vocals, simple piano and elegant synth washes. | 43 | | Rhye Woman
'The Fall'
Rhye were one of my most played bands of the decade, and yes, I'm surprised too in a way - they totally mastered the appeal of '80s Sade and the sort of 'chill' feel of Zero 7 and the like...and on the debut at least, the songs really were there to back all that up. The gimmick was that on first exposure you said 'that's a pretty voice she's got' but the gender bending novelty was quickly dismissed once you'd listened to the effortlessly smooth and aching 'The Fall'. | 42 | | Stimming Alpe Lusia
'Prepare'
Not an awful lot of electronic on this list but the supremely organic and warm sounding 'Prepare' has to feature - people made a huge fuss of Four Tet's 'Rounds' when that was released back in 2003 but I'd plump for this ahead of any track from that album. The piano melodies are to die for and really lift the song to another emotional level - the worst thing about this tune is it makes me wish every Stimming effort was equally strong and that really would be asking too much. | 41 | | Shearwater Animal Joy
'You As You Were'
When Shearwater drop their subtle tendencies they don't hold anything back, it's a full on charge towards stadium rock dramatics - this galloping, piano led mini-epic sounds like it wants to soundtrack a movie showing the journey back to a more primitive life where all you have to aid your survival are your animal senses, an axe, a bow...and maybe a pistol? This song is the faint taste of blood in your mouth partnered with a chest thumping adrenaline surge. | 40 | | Alex Cameron Forced Witness
'Country Figs'
Cameron has sparked a bit of a debate over whether ironic music is a good idea/could ever equate to excellence. Well, a song like 'Country Figs' makes as strong an argument as I've yet heard - the music IS '80s soft rock/yacht rock pastiche but the writing is top notch, the sax solo alone being infinitely addictive. The lyrics are little slices of comic genius:
'Got a cap full of temporary hair
I got a chest with a vacant heart
Got a skin full of piss and one last dart
And the memory of my woman
Passing by to call my name
Don't test me girl I've got torso pain'
These strangely affectionate but no less biting humorous character assassinations are Cameron's trademark - and when they mix with his best song writing they win me over every time. | 39 | | The National Sleep Well Beast
'The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness'
'Sleep Well Beast' saw most of the anticipated experimentation taking place within the sleepy end of The National's spectrum of sound, but this tune was the welcome exception. This rocker ushered in a whole new approach to Dessner’s guitar playing with robotic stabs and even a widescreen guitar solo. The catchiest song they released this decade, so an essential. | 38 | | Paul Buchanan Mid Air
'Mid Air'
The humble piano ballad can still be something special when you're the lead singer of the Blue Nile - pure fragile beauty. | 37 | | Deerhunter Halcyon Digest
'He Would Have Laughed'
One of the great meditations on 'the passage of time/how your outlook adjusts with age' in popular music, 'He Would Have Laughed' is that rare perfect album closer that seems to add weight to, and recontextualize, all the songs that came before it in the tracklist. This song might drive you crazy...or it could be the making of you. | 36 | | Anna von Hausswolff Dead Magic
'The Mysterious Vanishing Of Electra'
Now this one is powerful. It has a physicality. It's Anna Von Hausswolff but 'scaled up' - like going from 'The Fellowship of the Ring' straight to the final battle in 'The Return of the King'. Hausswolff has never let rip with her whooping scary mary vocals (that get close to throat singing in places) quite like this before - Kate Bush would approve. | 35 | | Paddy Hanna Frankly, I Mutate
'All I Can Say is I Love You'
The drunken barroom slowdance of the decade replete with Paddy's brilliant 'almost-slurring-club-singer' delivery. The Elvis lip curlin' 'Oh shugah, oh shugaahh!" is the ultimate singalong chorus moment of recent memory...in the alternative fantasy world I reside in anyway. | 34 | | The War on Drugs Lost in the Dream
'Red Eyes'
This band has been accused of being little more than Springsteen plagiarists on many occasions but in this case not such a damning critique - the War on Drugs have always had their thing, that underlying wash of ambience that blends perfectly with all those reappropriated arena rock tropes, and here it works better than ever. When they up the tempo there's something undeniable about their music, this song positively bounces. | 33 | | Big Thief U.F.O.F.
'Cattails'
Sometimes the best song on an album isn't the most perfectly written or the most impactful - it can be the one that embodies the entire spirit of the album, that one that you think of first when you recall the album, or the one tune that seems to follow you around wherever you turn. This year on three separate occasions this song has appeared at key moments out of the blue in the most unexpected of places - always welcome, always mixing with the mood rather than muddling it. 'U.F.O.F' was an album that in the context of Big Thief's previous output, as well as the huge swell of similar indie-ish releases, was refreshing - no song on the album moreso than 'Cattails'. | 32 | | Mark Eitzel Hey Mr Ferryman
'In My Role As Professional Singer And Ham'
An Eitzel top twenty classic song in the '10s was unexpected but here it is in all its epic grandeur - it boasts a perfect chorus lyric too:
'When you look at me...
I look away'
When Mark suffered his heart attack I feared the worst - that he'd retreat further still from the limelight, and possibly away from music for good. That instead he delivered a song of this calibre is a good news story and a half, one of the great song writers of his generation confirmed. | 31 | | Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti Before Today
'Round and Round'
A super obvious pick for favourite Ariel Pink tune but I'm beyond apologising for it, this track is one of those that packs in about three great songs worth of ideas into the single 5 minute 9 seconds of tape - to squeeze all these parts together without falling foul of the dreaded 'random cut and paste' feel is where Pink smashes it out of the park. Also about as close to 'anthemic' as the silly dollop's music has ever got. | 30 | | David Bowie Blackstar
'Dollar Days'
Something about how slowly this song starts, with the incidental noises, like Bowie's still there shuffling in the studio - it gets to me. Then of course there's the feel of the whole song that's a throwback to his glory days, coupled with those slightly more strained vocals that betray his age...
'If I'll never see the English evergreens I'm running to...
It's nothing to me'
It's poignant without being calculated...that morning I woke up to the news of his death made me think instantly of my mum saying the day he'd die would be the passing of her greatest hero and I realised that he wasn't just 'her favourite', that over the years I'd grown to feel much the same. This song soundtracked that realisation. | 29 | | Purple Mountains Purple Mountains
'Nights That won't Happen'
Of course Bowie wasn't the only passing that weighed heavy, Berman's death earlier this year was like the awful unfolding of a slow motion disaster - this album like a cryptic suicide note everyone deciphered an instant too late to stop him. You listen to this album now, a set of songs we all initially labelled as 'slightly morbid but still humorous and harmless', now recast as truly tragic and deeply disturbing. You still can't help but be anything other than impressed by these lyrics, and it's hard not to warm to the man who delivers them with such humanity and wit - but then you need to remember that he really lived these dark thoughts and in the end we're left in little doubt he wanted to leave. 'Nights That Won't Happen' is the song that stops flirting and finally sidles up to death - it's calm, it's philosophical, it's reflective, it's almost pretty...it's moving on from this place. | 28 | | Radiohead A Moon Shaped Pool
'Present Tense'
Often the best Radiohead song on any given album is the one with the strongest vocal performance from Thom - and that is definitely true of 'Moon Shaped Pool's 'Present Tense'. In many ways a strange outing musically for Radiohead - a light and airy samba shuffle with balearic vibes and a constantly shifting array of percussion. The star is definitely Yorke who shows off a little bit of everything he can give you vocally - low register, high register, up close and personal, distant and alien, soothing backing vocals, show stealing held notes, wordless soft scat weirdness. He's still the boss. | 27 | | Stevens/Dessner/Muhly/McAlister Planetarium
'Mercury'
The album itself was a big fat, overly indulgent blancmange - totally unappetising. The closer though, a totally different proposal. If the entire album had been as restrained and, uh, 'Radiohead-y' as this track then an album of the year would have been on the cards. The first section of the song is a traditional, but top grade, Sufjan tune - full of the usual echo'd vocals he frequently favours and falsetto flourishes, so good it's almost worth attempting to punch yourself in the testicles to try and sing along. From the half way point we go instrumental and look upwards towards the stars again...only this time instead of over egged orchestration we get mesmeric beauty. | 26 | | Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat Everything's Getting Older
'The Copper Top'
There's something about that thick Scottish brogue - I think everyone thought it effortlessly 'had it' even before Irvine Welsh made it 'mainstream cool' in the '90s. Aidan Moffat has the ultimate indie spoken word Scottish delivery, and he certainly has a style that just gets more authentic and grizzled sounding as the years pile on top of each other. 'I buy a pint and sit down' - the way he speak sings this line encapsulates the whole song. Sad and true, wistful/nostalgic but not sappy/manipulative, this is just great storytelling in song. | 25 | | Ben Howard Noonday Dream
'Someone in the Doorway'
'Noonday Dream' was a slow burning triumph, a study in upping the subtlety of your style and refining your song writing down to its fundamental core elements. The layers add up little by little, what starts as bare brittle percussion and voice eventually transformed at the 3:10 mark to reveal arguably the decade's most emotionally affecting use of strings. | 24 | | Beach House Bloom
'Myth'
One of the great identifiable intros of the decade, 'Myth' was perhaps one of those unfortunate cases of an opening song giving you the best of an entire album all in the one 4:19 composition. Victoria Legrand has never come up with a more perfect set of vocal melodies and phrasings and she holds nothing back in this performance - the verse starting at 2:47 with the line 'if you built yourself a myth...', building through '....oh let the ashes fly' and ending in the eargasm trilling guitar section is the closest to perfection Beach House has come - the ultimate microcosm of the appeal of the band. | 23 | | Cigarettes After Sex Cigarettes After Sex
'Apocalypse'
Controversial this featuring one higher than 'Myth' considering how much this band come across as the equally androgynous role-reverse of Beach House. It could be a case of recency bias...or it might just be that as a truly catchy, repeat plays joy this song slightly trumps its rival. An aquired taste perhaps, but strangely a little like Dan Bejar I find Greg Gonzalez has the happy knack of making near enough every carefully enunciated lyric that comes out of his mouth sound delicious. 'Got the music in you baby, tell me why' was the chorus cry of 2017. | 22 | | Sun Kil Moon Benji
'Micheline'
For my money Kozelek crammed three of the most emotionally devastating stories to feature on 'Benji' all within the very same song, which is a bit of a strange quirk. Poor mentally 'different from the others' Micheline being taken advantage of by the neighbourhood thug ('she had dreams just like anyone else'); Brett who suffered the aneurysm playing guitar that transformed him totally and shortened his life ('he had a wife and a son') and the touching ode to his grandma (...grandma, grandma) blend together into a single, disarmingly pure outpouring of love that's near impossible to find a suitable comparison for. Mark Kozelek haters? It's fuck the Mark Kozelek haters in my household mateyroo. | 21 | | Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Skeleton Tree
'Girl in Amber'
There's funereal songs and then there's 'Girl in Amber' - lordy this thing positively REEKS of grief. 'The phone it rings no more' matched to that trembling vocal, well, Nick had hold of you by both hands and there was no turning away. | 20 | | Craig Finn We All Want the Same Things
'God in Chicago'
Masterful storytelling from the Hold Steady frontman - it seems the more you strip down his music and put emphasis on the words, the better a writer he becomes...and the more emotive his songs get. To squeeze in so many 'little details' in this bittersweet borderline tragic relationship, to the point that when you reach 'St. Paul and she was sobbing', well you the listener have been given a right working over. | 19 | | Eleanor Friedberger Rebound
'My Jesus Phase'
This song is an elliptic enigma wrapped up in a tail-chasing melody with cryptic cut and paste lyrics to throw you yet further off the scent. It flows and blends with dream logic - Friedberger your sometime coolly robotic/sometime warm blooded empath tour guide. Fleetwood Macbook? 'Take it slow, for peace of mind, don't lust and cheat' - still don't know if that's her warning me...or wanting me? | 18 | | Run the Jewels Run the Jewels 2
'Oh My Darling Don't Cry'
Just an exercise in perfection from the classic choice of song title all the way through their best ever soundbites ('my business card says you're in luck, I do two things, I rap and fuck (switch)...I fuck and rap' and yes, 'You can all run naked backwards through a field of dicks'). It has to be the greatest RtJ track simply for having the most 'fucboi' references out of any of their tunes before you even get to anything other consideration. Gloriously uncool in the spirit of Eminem at the peak of his appeal, but irresistible anyway. | 17 | | Bill Callahan Apocalypse
'Riding for the Feeling'
No one this decade could match Callahan for the conversational ease of his vocal delivery - the warmth, the ache, the increasingly impassioned 'riding for the feeling!'s. 'It's never easy to say goodbye...all this leaving is never ending' - I'm not sure anyone had claim to being this generation's Leonard Cohen OR Nick Drake ahead of him. In the field of folk, the ultimate compliment surely? 'Riding' is one of his ten most essential songs and if you haven't listened to it you probably should. | 16 | | M83 Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
'Wait'
How to describe my relationship with the music of M83? 'Let's not go there lolz' 'it's complicated' etc. Also: 'when they're hot they're hot'...and not just hot, sizzling cinematic grandeur piping hot. When they're not hot they're absolute fucking dross but we don't have to go there now. Another time. 'No time, no time' exactly exactly, no time for that. The orchestral (or-kestrel?) climax of this song with the vocals starting to resemble bird cries is one for the ages. | 15 | | Anathema Weather Systems
'Untouchable Pt. 1'
A definite case of right song/right time as this is one of the decade's best (and most unlikely?) breakup songs (ok, that's me admitting an even better example of a breakup song features higher on this very list). Best enjoyed, unsurprisingly (yup) with Part 2 - incredible insight I'm providing here! It's not all about the emotion of the themes however, this song builds up the intensity so naturally and measuredly you can forget just how pounding it really is - as a test just listen to the section in the back straight where the vocals cut away at FULL VOLUME. A lot of music gets described as powerful - the end of this song truly is. | 14 | | Oneohtrix Point Never Garden of Delete
'Sticky Drama'
No album took me more listens to bond with than 'Garden of Delete' - after ten listens I was still none the closer to making a breakthrough with 90% of the album. 'Sticky Drama' was important because it was my entry point, the track that most kept me revisiting to satisfy my strange intrigue. Allegedly Lopatin spent a while listening to predominantly rock music before hiring a windowless studio to record the album and that makes sense listening to 'Sticky Drama' - the track sounds a little like unleashing a horde of nanobots at a Nine Inch Nails concert. Mischievous, borderline anarchic freak-fucker'y in the Aphex Twin tradition. | 13 | | Cloud Nothings Here and Nowhere Else
'Pattern Walks'
This song from 4:30 is what I'd play if the little green men arrived and asked 'what is rock? why is rock?' This tune has the very essence you see. The first half of the song, for all intents and purposes, is not that different than someone like Foo Fighters in 'combat mode', just a smidgen more raw - it's all about that deconstruction first to that drone-y squall, then to the caveman simplicity of the ferocious drums, and finally the collapse into spacey psychedelic guitar abandon. So yes, the second half of this track gives in to the base impulses a hundred Sonic Youth songs swerve in favour of something more artful...but sometimes rock is all. | 12 | | Bill Callahan Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest
'What Comes After Certainty'
'Shepherd...' may very well be a near faultless folk rambler, but for it to be considered a classic it needed one moment of such sublime resonance that it caught the listener off guard; that moment arrives like divine intervention half way through ‘What Comes After Certainty’. The song builds a beautiful image of Callahan's wife videoing him in the sea while on honeymoon, only we listeners are privy to hearing how at this same moment he believes he sees the face of God reflected in the water. The way this line is delivered, so unabashed and open hearted, you can’t help but share in his revelation - that he then describes the face as plain to see but ‘hard to read’ is not unexpected, but in reality this later assertion changes little. We both just saw it Bill, we really did. | 11 | | The National Trouble Will Find Me
'Slipped'
I guess I've just come to realise that my favourite type of National song is very identifiable - yes, this is from the same slow motion sad sacks lineage as Sorrow, Lemonworld and the ilk. So 'Slipped' has slowly become one of my favourite 'stepping off the train, heading into the city' songs, an artfully dejected shadow companion for such moments. As ever the verses are particularly killer in that brow beaten manner and Berninger's strange approach to wordless singing comes up trumps yet again - this time with the 'ahhhh ahhhhh-ahhh-aahhhh-aaah's instead of Lemonworld's 'do do do do doos'. | 10 | | Sufjan Stevens Carrie and Lowell
'Fourth of July'
The key moment on the unflinching, morbid 'Carrie and Lowell' where Death himself enters the room and puts his hand on your unsuspecting shoulder, stealing away your breath and freezing your heart - for sure, you could say this song is the equivalent of someone 'walking over your grave', if of course you believe in such guff. A child talking about death with a parent remains one of society's last taboos...and Sufjan enjoys making us all squirm at his boyhood memories of his young heart being torn asunder. | 9 | | Bon Iver Bon Iver, Bon Iver
'Holocene'
The only song to make me think Sowing might have everything right and it's actually everyone else who is wrong. Maybe. | 8 | | Aimee Mann Mental Illness
'Goose Snow Cone'
This gentle song seems harmless enough at first, some simple melodies and the inclusion of a few sleigh bells - you could call it 'cute'. Only later do you start recognising the sadness, oh the resigned sweet sadness. At times the approach to the orchestration, those little sympathetic swells, remind me of the Eels at their most heart tugging - and the lyrics match the mood in their effortlessly bittersweet tone; 'Thought I saw at my feet an origami crow, it was only the street hidden under the snow, always snatching defeat, it's the devil I know'. | 7 | | Tindersticks The Waiting Room
'How He Entered'
The first time I road tested this song out on the way to pick up lunch in the middle of my work day I had to stifle a massive lump in my throat, there's just something so nostalgic, tragic and beautiful about this simple spoken word lament. I see this as a sort of exaggerated self effacing auto biographical tale from Staples - 'He sang of it, but knew nothing of it'. Watching the band perform this with old grainy black and white footage of a wedding playing in the background and Staples holding the lyric sheet in his hand but never even once looking at it was a perfect musical moment of the decade for me. | 6 | | Beach House Teen Dream
'Walk in the Park'
Here it is, the other classic breakup song on the list - and also the greatest ever Beach House song of course. With 90% of this band's songs it's all about that long coda - they give the best loooooooong coda in the business. Here Legrand's increasingly firm assertion that 'you want more - only time can run you' taps into something primal and contrasts perfectly with the pining 'ghost' figure waiting for their painful memories to be erased by Old Father Time who occupies the remainder of the song. | 5 | | Lambchop FLOTUS
'The Hustle'
A mighty strange tip of the hat to the famous Van McCoy disco instrumental of the same name ('Do the hustle!'), this album closer was 18 minutes of pure cinematic elegance. 'The Hustle' ended up a strange world of its own, one housed within the larger strange world of 'FLOTUS', but one that remained self contained nonetheless. It was almost a mirror image of the rest of the album; where the majority of the remaining songs were marked by filtered vox with predominantly organic instrumentation this flipped over to clean singing and the album's most electronic influenced backdrop.
The band would make the connection with its 1974 namesake even more explicit on a revamped version labelled 'The Hustle Unlimited' that frames it in Tony Crow’s string arrangements (another juicy 5 out of 5 rating) but this expansive atmospheric effort wins out, claiming that first top 5 spot. | 4 | | Mark Kozelek & Jimmy Lavalle Perils from the Sea
'Gustavo'
The biggest decision I had to make in this top 10 was whether to include the original collaboration version of this song or the outstanding live version that opens the essential acoustic set 'Live at Biko'. What I didn't have any trouble deciding was that this should be my top ranked Kozelek song of the decade, even though it might seem perverse not to select something from the game changing 'Benji'. There are some great examples of storytelling song writing already to feature on the list but this is the pinnacle; Mark grappling with his dreams of carving out a little sanctuary in this world, framed through the rise and fall of the illegal Mexican who starts working on doing up his decrepit house - only to be deported after one too many wild nights in town. Of course he wants to help him...but then freezes at the realisation he's wiring money to a near-stranger who may or may not be able to use it effectively. It's too much to be asked of course, but he still feels uneasy. | 3 | | Cass McCombs Wit's End
'County Line'
There are those songs that you want, one magic day, to hear start up the minute you walk into a strange rural bar you've never been to before. 'County Line' is the ultimate example, the woozy nocturnal plod and antiquated organ fills instantly conjure a vibe of a smoke filled bar, a single jukebox and slowly shuffling drinkers sinking into the haze of alcohol intoxication. I guess I'm saying this one's for the romantics. Cheers. | 2 | | The National High Violet
'Sorrow'
Not 'officially' my favourite National song (that's 'first dance' soundtracking 'Slow Show') but 'unofficially' this is number one. That soft shuffle of an intro, those opening lines 'sorrow found me when I was young -
sorrow waited, sorrow won', the faint female backing vocals, Matt's sublime understated delivery, 'I live in a city sorrow built - it's in my honey, it's in my milk'...everything about this song is total perfection, it encompasses all you could ever want from a National song. Criticise the band all you want but they can't be all that stupid - this is the one song from their catalogue they played on repeat for 6 hours straight. Among all their material, it was the only acceptable choice. | 1 | | Destroyer Kaputt
'Chinatown'
I rarely find the right songs for the most perfect moment. By 2009 I'd spent 4 years close to broke, eating cereal at work and soup with a side of raw vegetables in the evening to try and save to afford the occasional night out or to pay to go on a date. In 4 years I'd had two holidays; a family holiday to Lanzarote my parents paid for and a cheap trip to Minorca with friends - beyond that I'd been UK bound. In 2010 I met a girl on New Years and had a whirlwind romance, sold up the flat, pocketed £75,000 and first thing we did was head to Thailand for three weeks. The feeling of escape, of being somewhere new and alien with someone I hardly new, it was disorientating and addictive - plus there was nostalgia from staying in Hong Kong as a ten year old boy. I realised I'd let the walls close in those previous four years and although I didn't listen to 'Chinatown' at the time, when I eventually did it seemed to put that feeling of adventure tinged with memories into music. | |
DoofDoof
10.16.19 | Maybe one a day? Goddam sput list functionality. | Pikazilla
10.16.19 | I remember a time when staff frogstomp'ed users on this website... | Demon of the Fall
10.16.19 | Is this the completed list Doof? Lol. | Pikazilla
10.16.19 | I thought he was doing a song-by-song reveal | Demon of the Fall
10.16.19 | Is he not then? Hmm... | tectactoe
10.16.19 | so this won't be finished until end on January '20 ? | StarlessCore
10.16.19 | Frogstomp the Sputnik classic | budgie
10.16.19 | list needs more dream pop | DoofDoof
10.16.19 | January 20th sounds like an alright finish date but I could speed it up :/ | Pikazilla
10.16.19 | A doof song a day keeps your sanity at bay
love ya | Pikazilla
10.16.19 | also, will you be doing one song per artist/album? | tectactoe
10.16.19 | (I was specifying 2020, not the exact 20th, as I don't even know if that's exactly 99 days from now but anyway.)
I don't mind slow countdowns but are you going to be able to consistently sustain the exercise over such a long period of time under a rigid quota?
Also I wonder how high 'Holocene' will place on this list.
It had better *place* on this damn list. | JohnnyoftheWell
10.16.19 | Croaking for more | DoofDoof
10.16.19 | tect - it will place on the list and you will be waiting a while...which means it places high ;D
On average I'll post one a day but if I miss a day I'll post two the next etc | DoofDoof
10.16.19 | Pika - just put up the rules, you beat me to it | SlothcoreSam
10.16.19 | Hard agree on 17, but 5 should be higher. And fuck 36, that is some whack shit. | tectactoe
10.16.19 | Gonna be wild to see what that comment looks like when the list is filled out. | Pikazilla
10.16.19 | but 5 should be higher.
this made me crack especially | Lucman
10.16.19 | Frogstomp must be good if it's placed 99 times! | DoofDoof
10.17.19 | Day 2, another one I just had to be honest and admit I've played to death. | dedex
10.17.19 | this is gonna b fun fun fun | unclereich
10.17.19 | art did this type of list years ago for his top 200 lps and it was dope, stoked for the rest of your choices | DoofDoof
10.17.19 | Thanks dedex and unclereich - hope the list keeps delivering the goods | DoofDoof
10.18.19 | bumpity bump bump | Larkinhill
10.18.19 | 27 should be higher. | Aenima97
10.18.19 | 1 is 1 | Dewinged
10.18.19 | Nice, hope you can see this through Doof! Excited to see what are your picks. | DoofDoof
10.18.19 | Thanks dewi, I will definitely see this one through - it’s my official songs of the decade. It has to get done ✅ | Sowing
10.18.19 | I'd feature this but it's a long way to the finish line. Excited to see what you come up with. | luci
10.18.19 | what if a song comes out that intrudes on your ranking, will you rearrange as you go? | zakalwe
10.18.19 | ‘Me Moan’
lol | tectactoe
10.18.19 | I'm pretty sure I know what #1 will be. Or at the very least, what album it will be from. | Demon of the Fall
10.18.19 | I'm gonna jam the shit out of 26, the whole album (if I've heard it then I'll 'ascend' from there till I hit the jackpot). If I remember... which I probably won't given that's 72 days away. I wait in anticipation. | DoofDoof
10.18.19 | luci - yes, that’s why I’m going slow with it, there are a few available places but then equally there’s stuff I could include if nothing surprises me before the end of the year. By the time I reach the top 50 that window might have closed up though | DoofDoof
10.19.19 | Day four, and that will be Vektor's only entry in this hur listy | DoofDoof
10.19.19 | bump | Demon of the Fall
10.19.19 | I’m pleased Vektor made it, perhaps a slightly oddball choice of song considering the quality of the album as a whole, but I can see why someone might see it as the pinnacle. | DoofDoof
10.19.19 | Demon - Vektor go past epic and into cheesy for me, usually on the most lauded tracks like the bookends of that release. That's their best self contained tune. | Demon of the Fall
10.19.19 | You do seem to have severe allergic reactions to cheese in general, it must be difficult. | DoofDoof
10.19.19 | A little difficult here yeah ;D | Gyromania
10.19.19 | Off to a bad start | DoofDoof
10.19.19 | we'd like to thank you for your patronage
the only thing I can say so far are the bottom ten are the closest to guilty pleasures/included because I played them a lot - rather than a chin stroke'y assessment of inherent quality so much. That will fill up the rest of the list.
Also, anyone who's featured so far - they're done on this list. | DoofDoof
10.20.19 | Day five and this might surprise people (maybe) but this will be the one and only entry by Sleaford Mods | DoofDoof
10.20.19 | bump | Larkinhill
10.20.19 | Bump | DoofDoof
10.21.19 | bump, my sixth pick taken from one of the most underrated albums of the year | DoofDoof
10.22.19 | bump, the Geotic track is a recent love and the song that most reminds me of my last holiday in Greece | DoofDoof
10.23.19 | bump...I guess everyone's waiting for me to put up something contentious...or even good? lol | luci
10.23.19 | Glad to see Perish Song made it. I interpret the track a bit differently, I think he wrote it about his experience being bedridden with E Coli. The rest of the record is about the comfort of domestic life; this song is about the feeling of wasting away indoors. Note how the percussion sounds like a ticking clock and the singer's passivity. Achingly bittersweet to me. | DoofDoof
10.23.19 | I can hear that, it's not a happy sound, more a 'being called to heaven' and finding peace vibe | luci
10.23.19 | you're right that this song/album works perfectly for both background and active listening. rare to see that | DoofDoof
10.23.19 | maybe 'heavenly' was the wrong word - it's more 'heaven-like', sort of waiting to transition to a peaceful afterlife
that's the picture I always had with it, amazing tune, there won't be a hell of a lot of electronic songs to make the list but that one had to go up | luci
10.23.19 | "'heaven-like', sort of waiting to transition to a peaceful afterlife"
yes! this captures the mood it evokes | DoofDoof
10.23.19 | I changed the description quickly on the fly, you're right that is more what I feel when listening - heavenly makes it sound like it's all marshmallows and puppies and that's not what it sounds like | DoofDoof
10.24.19 | ...and we keep on going | DoofDoof
10.25.19 | ...and going
starting to get to some meatier picks now.
returning to that Antlers song the last few days I remembered just what an important song it's been for me | luci
10.25.19 | that antlers track is lovely, also grew to be my favorite on the record. album as a whole hits the domestic comfort vibes | DoofDoof
10.25.19 | I need to return to the album as a whole too, I've probably underestimated it | DoofDoof
10.26.19 | Ooh, a good one today - check it out, or don't.... | DoofDoof
10.27.19 | Bump bump - Everything Everything are the first band featured that will have a second song feature in the list. | DoofDoof
10.28.19 | One Lillies song had to make the list, but it'll only be one pick from them | DoofDoof
10.29.19 | We keep going...by the time we reach the top 80 the really big hitters will start appearing. | sixdegrees
10.29.19 | #25 will SHOCK you | DoofDoof
10.29.19 | for sure | DoofDoof
10.30.19 | another one no one has heard of I'm guessing, we keep going... | zakalwe
10.30.19 | Bless ya | DoofDoof
10.30.19 | A few Zak bands already up :D | DoofDoof
10.31.19 | Bump, a second 2019 choice and this won’t be the only selection from Finn | DoofDoof
10.31.19 | Bump, put up the next three to cover the weekend | budgie
10.31.19 | would i like any of these | DoofDoof
10.31.19 | maybe Breathless or The Unthanks? | Josh D.
10.31.19 | damn, way more of an undertaking that my decade list. are these ranked? | budgie
10.31.19 | it was a joke doof
i hope you die | DoofDoof
10.31.19 | budgie, that will definitely happen so don't hope about it, unnecessary hoping
just wait and try not to die before me | DoofDoof
10.31.19 | Josh D - they are loosely ranked, more so once we get top the top 50 | budgie
10.31.19 | i try to die everyday so | DoofDoof
10.31.19 | well I am here giving you a reason to try and hold on even just to laugh at my inevitable demise | Relinquished
10.31.19 | ha | unclereich
10.31.19 | man with so much great material from Mac I could never cut it down to one song, although chamber is already considered a classic by most fans. awesome pick | StarlessCore
10.31.19 | Bruh refuge is the best song EVER | DoofDoof
10.31.19 | starless - that's probably my favourite Antlers now, used to be 'Two' from Hospice
unclereich - it just fought off 'Moonlight on the River' and 'Freaking Out the Neighbourhood' as my top pick | unclereich
10.31.19 | haha those are interesting picks, 'my kind of woman' will always be my no. 1 | DoofDoof
10.31.19 | it's your kind of song
another good one, like you said a lot of choice...just not much from this year's Mac
Viceroy and Passing Out Pieces too | unclereich
10.31.19 | yea man you seem like a big fan like I am, if that is the case than you were also as livid as I was with the new lp | unclereich
10.31.19 | viceroy is objectively the greatest song of all time | dedex
10.31.19 | So many good tracks from Mac, you can't really go wrong as long as don't pick one from the newest LP | DoofDoof
10.31.19 | agreed dedex, pretty consistent up until then - I'll stick with just one Mac entry for this list though | DoofDoof
11.05.19 | bump, three new extra visceral ones so short write ups - I'm a let the music do the talking with these ones | rabidfish
11.05.19 | Damn | hadeserbonfa
11.05.19 | Glad to see #93 in there, the band has fallen off recently but their output in the first half of the decade is pretty solid. I'd put "No. 1 Against the Rush" for similar reasons, it's essentially a pre-fabricated antidote for "Mess On a Mission". | tectactoe
11.05.19 | You forgot to denote the song from 'Bottomless Pit', even though I know it's the t/t based on the lyrics in your capsule. Was hoping if anything from BP it'd be 'Giving Bad People Good Ideas' which is blistering madness. | JohnnyoftheWell
11.05.19 | Full of Fire shit yeah | theBoneyKing
11.05.19 | Oh wow how have I not commented on this yet? List will be a classic once it's done. I always find it interesting how different your song lists can be from your album lists, I'm such an album focused listener that it's pretty rare for me to connect strongly with an individual song from an album that I don't love overall. | dmathias52
11.05.19 | Also following. I’ve heard maybe three songs so far on this, so that has to change | DoofDoof
11.05.19 | the one time I don't check back for comments I get a load... ;D
Boney, some of these early picks might be a case of giving them the edge over stuff by artists that'll make my album list
dmathias52, all I'll say is that once we enter the top 50 I expect this list will start overlapping with other user's picks...maybe
tect - the t/t is straightforward but I like that about it
hadeserbonfa - that would have been another good pick for Liars but I was a bit obsessed with MOAM when it was released, moreso than any previous Liars tune | butt.
11.05.19 | when list is complete, I suspect there will be no more than 15 artists I've even heard of | butt.
11.05.19 | actually we're at 6 already so maybe I'm being pessimistic | tectactoe
11.05.19 | Mildly pleased that *any* Death Grips song made it, honestly, since I know you're not the biggest fan. | butt.
11.05.19 | can someone explain the frogstomp meme to me? | DoofDoof
11.05.19 | tect - I haven't ruled out a second Death Grips song making the list
butt - I'd expect you to know about 50 from the final list, household names are a-comin' | DoofDoof
11.07.19 | Three more and c'mon I think everyone on the website probably knows of Slowdive, Kurt Vile and Ariel Pink?
Only Ariel Pink will get a second entry - although that will be a 'Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti' selection rather than another solo pick | unclereich
11.07.19 | 80 is 8----D~ | Pheromone
11.07.19 | That Antlers song is a great choice - I really think Familiars was underrated, though I didn't love it when it first came out. | DoofDoof
11.07.19 | Phero - 'Refuge' is looking like being my most respected pick so far which is a bit of a surprise, incredible song though, still don't quite think it would deserve a top 50 placing... | zakalwe
11.07.19 | 🥑 | DoofDoof
11.07.19 | What got the avocado? | zakalwe
11.07.19 | Half the list.
This is coming together quite nicely though tbh. I reckon there’s going to be some absolute blinders throughout. | DoofDoof
11.07.19 | Going to be a Zak top songs of the decade list? Ten entries for Sleaford Mods...and Opeth? ;) | tectactoe
11.07.19 | I already know which 'Trouble Will Find Me' song is going to show up here and I'll vehemently disagree with the choice but nevertheless continue to wonder how high it'll place. I think I know which National song (overall) will be the highest, though, which (assuming I'm correct) makes me happy because I also think it's the best song on 'High Violet'.
The only album of theirs of which I'm unsure of your song preferences is 'Sleep Well Beast'. Not even sure if a track from that'll end up here, honestly. Excited to see. You've already surprised me with a DG song so bravo. | DoofDoof
11.07.19 | Did you release any music this decade tho | hadeserbonfa
11.07.19 | I would definitely pick another song from Vile, but the Slowdive pick made up for it. "Don't Know Why" has always been a favorite of mine. | DoofDoof
11.07.19 | hadeserbonfa - 'Jesus Fever', 'Bassackwards' and 'Wakin on a Pretty Day' were in the running for Kurt
What of his songs would be top picks for you? | theBoneyKing
11.07.19 | Nice Kurt pick, that could be my fave choon of his. Actually, "Waking on a Pretty Day" exists so it's that but that's an epic so maybe "Pimpin" is a better pick for a song list. | DoofDoof
11.07.19 | Yeah Boney, a lot of these picks are 'what songs do I rate 5 out of 5 for an artist?' and then 'which of those songs did I honestly play the most often?'
'Pretty Pimpin' is definitely my most played Kurt Vile song | DoofDoof
11.08.19 | Three more and now I'll take the weekend off...we resume Monday or Tuesday | zakalwe
11.08.19 | Carrying a coffin in the rain.
It’s on me bucket list. | DoofDoof
11.08.19 | you have to really concentrate, you need to make sure you keep in time with the other five people carrying the coffin as you don't want to be the person to trip over the man in front's feet and drop the thing :D
going up and down steps is a killer as the weight keeps transferring to different people - my cousin bailed out after the first shift into the church as he was struggling with the weight and keeping grip in the rain.
coffin in the church...then out the church...then in the crematorium - bit of a to do | zakalwe
11.08.19 | Flytip it | DoofDoof
11.08.19 | Nah, have to respect gran's wishes...to ultimately be incinerated in a 'people oven' | DoofDoof
11.12.19 | Three more up, back to more obscure picks I guess :/ | Larkinhill
11.12.19 | Frogstomp is 1, agreed. | DoofDoof
11.12.19 | Spoiler: Tool is 1 | AsleepInTheBack
11.12.19 | Great list - I may steal this idea and completely butcher it | DoofDoof
11.12.19 | Do iiiiit! | zakalwe
11.12.19 | Australian indie singer songwriter and guitarist based in Los Angeles and the first artist signed to the Stockholm-based label Dumont Dumont label. He started performing under his birth name Ry Cuming, before adopting the stage name RY X.
Unquestionably binnable
| DoofDoof
11.12.19 | For sure, but equally fluffy chill out music for when you’ve worn out Moon Safari.
It’s just a voice really, you like his tone or you don’t.
No harm, no foul
| zakalwe
11.12.19 | Scythed down in the box with intent. | DoofDoof
11.15.19 | bump | JohnnyoftheWell
11.15.19 | Gud Daughters | tectactoe
11.15.19 | Nice addition. Feel like Daughter's s/t has been overshadowed by YWGWYW. (I actually do prefer the latter overall, but the s/t is still an amazing album in its own right, and the difference between the two is massive anyway.) | JesusCage
11.15.19 | Just subscribing the thread. Don't mind me. | Pheromone
11.15.19 | Doof, Phosphorescent's best track is Joe Tex but will let you off | DoofDoof
11.15.19 | Yeah I haven't listened to everything he's released so I was winging it there a bit with the description, will try that one. | JohnnyoftheWell
11.15.19 | Also forgot to post this, but Don't Know Why is pretty much the perfect dream pop song and a great pick from Slowdive. Love! | DoofDoof
11.15.19 | Nice to see some love for that one because at the time the album dropped no one seemed to agree with me that one is a highlight | Dylan620
11.15.19 | Probably my favorite song on that album tbh | JohnnyoftheWell
11.15.19 | I remember being it one of the first tracks that stood out to me, along with the opener. Need to return to that one tbh, I remember it being a little more balanced than I first thought but those two still being highlights | dedex
11.16.19 | The Hit yaaaaaaaaaaassssssssssssssssss | dedex
11.16.19 | That riff is so tasty | DoofDoof
11.16.19 | Damn right | unclereich
11.21.19 | the hit is one of their best songs and personally I prefer the s/t to their other works | BigHans
11.21.19 | Listening to these in reverse order. 65 sucks, but thats just because I detest mathy shit. 66-68 are all really nice. Never heard of any of them before. Even adde3d a couple to my smash time playlist. | theBoneyKing
11.21.19 | Nice shout on “Song For Zula” though I must disagree that it’s such an obvious discog highlight...I mean it probably is his best song but there are several close runners-up. Muchacho is a top 10 AOTD for me though so I’m bound to feel that way. | unclereich
11.21.19 | you have to be the only person who has ever said the 'the hit' sucks lol | BigHans
11.21.19 | I like the opening riff, then they waste it with getting mathy in the verses. I hate that shit. | unclereich
11.21.19 | it's ok you're still a good dude but no one has ever uttered that sentiment haha | BigHans
11.21.19 | When it comes time to jam hard, I like my hard jams simple. AC/DC, Motorhead, best shit ever. No frills rock n roll. No wasting my time with trying to cram a million notes or wankery into where it doesn't need to be. Just bring the swagger. | unclereich
11.21.19 | ok Joe dirt | BigHans
11.21.19 | Damn right | unclereich
11.21.19 | Def Leppard sucks! | DoofDoof
11.21.19 | Daaaaaaaaaaamn right | BigHans
11.21.19 | Nah Pyromania and High N Dry are hard 5's, Hysteria is close. The rest sucks. | unclereich
11.21.19 | u cryin boy!? | unclereich
11.21.19 | indubitably kid rock's best work | BigHans
11.21.19 | Kid Rock slays live, no joke. | JohnnyoftheWell
11.21.19 | The Hit is cool but The Unattractive Portable Head and Our Queens go even harder. Agreed on the s/t being a level above YWGWYW | unclereich
11.21.19 | boner xray> | BigHans
11.21.19 | Doof might have to steal your idea. I'm too lazy to rank though, will be completely random hard jams | unclereich
11.21.19 | dad rock: an anthology | BigHans
11.21.19 | I could do that better than anyone here, by a fucking mile, but Dad rock isn't in 2010 I'm afraid. Well, maybe some. | DoofDoof
11.24.19 | Next stop - the top fiddy | hadeserbonfa
11.24.19 | 51, 52, 53, 56 and 61 are all fantastic. I'd rank 61 higher, though.
Is 60 the last we'll see of Kozelek in this list? | DoofDoof
11.24.19 | Don’t think I’ll be giving too much away by saying no, there will be at least one more Kozelek song | hadeserbonfa
11.25.19 | great! I'm hoping it's something from Benji or Common as Light. | JohnnyoftheWell
11.25.19 | Let it Happen
Of all the people I didn't expect to be industry plants :O | dedex
11.25.19 | Perfect Kendrick choice. Nice to see The Drones too! | DoofDoof
12.01.19 | We enter the top 40 | Gyromania
12.01.19 | Save for smother and loud city song (oh and shaking the habitual) you've somehow managed to pick mostly the weakest or least interesting cuts from every album here | DoofDoof
12.01.19 | as generous spirited a contribution as ever :D | Gyromania
12.01.19 | Lmao ily doof and we love a lot of the samw stuff it just seems like we do for vastly different reasons lol | DoofDoof
12.01.19 | I put up my reasons, what can I say? Some of these are widely considered the best/one of the best on their respective albums so it might be you with the quirkier taste - at least in some cases :/ | DoofDoof
12.01.19 | Three songs of overlap is fine though ;) | JohnnyoftheWell
12.01.19 | Oh wow I missed Do the Astral Plane last time I glanced at this, your take is 100% the same as mine. So normy (compared to the rest of the album) but such a bop | luci
12.01.19 | "Let it Happen", "Do the Astral Plane" and "Marz" are also my favs by those artists (unless you're including more by them?). You're zeroing in on the best so I disagree with Gyro. | DoofDoof
12.03.19 | bump | JohnnyoftheWell
12.03.19 | gud Sonic Citadel pick | Pheromone
12.03.19 | Is Women - China Steps your number 1? | DoofDoof
12.03.19 | not currently - I'll give it a relisten... | DDDeftoneDDD
12.03.19 | this list is hard job m/ | DoofDoof
12.03.19 | DDD - this list is the most m/ thing with almost no metal on it ever | DDDeftoneDDD
12.03.19 | ahahah indeed...keep with the m/ job | hadeserbonfa
12.03.19 | #39 is fantastic live | DoofDoof
12.08.19 | we are into the top 30 - I'm hoping to be all done in the next two weeks, maybe three more sets of updates should do it... | Ryus
12.08.19 | 33 should be t/t | DoofDoof
12.08.19 | for the reasons stated, the most important song on the album is Cattails for me - though it took 6 months for that to become apparent | theBoneyKing
12.08.19 | 29 is such an incredible song. Having gone through Berman’s whole discog now I think that stands out as my top song from him - no mean feat. | DoofDoof
12.08.19 | It's a classic - if more than a little tragic | luci
12.08.19 | is red eyes really your favorite war on drugs? maybe there's more to come, that one comes across as a little basic/straightforward compared to their rest | DoofDoof
12.09.19 | luci - a band who've fallen off a bit for me but yup, that's the only War on Drugs on the list.
Could have gone for Brothers, I Was There or Disappearing as they're my only other War on Drugs 5 rated tunes. I'm not a huge fan at this stage. There's more an argument Red Eyes should have featured earlier I guess. | benkim
12.09.19 | 39 is mad underrated for some reason. Everything about that song is perfect | dedex
12.09.19 | Makes me wanna jam Dead Magic soon | neekafat
12.09.19 | fucking FUCK 36 is good | DoofDoof
12.09.19 | Dead Magic is great yeah, there are a couple of other tracks nearly as good as Electra
benkim - agreed, good that a band who’d already released so much material dropped an entirely unique sounding song for them | zakalwe
12.09.19 | 35 is the best one on the list so far. Absolute belter. | DoofDoof
12.09.19 | Zak I thought I’d maybe fret over my picks...now I’m finding it’s the order/ranking I’m struggling with. That Paddy Hanna tune has a case to being made top 10...but then a lot of others do. | theBoneyKing
12.09.19 | 39 is a bit of an odd one for me. I love it, indeed it’s one of The National’s more unique tunes and it fits well in SWB but it never fully hit me - the lyrics don’t click and are kind of uninteresting by Berninger standards. The song has a 4.5/5 ceiling for that reason | butt.
12.09.19 | 29 nice. one of my fav songs from that album | Pheromone
12.09.19 | Nights That won't Happen is a great pick - I love that album for how un-cryptic Berman is compared to a lot of his best Silver Jews / Poetry work. Seems purposeful.
Heartbreaking | DoofDoof
12.09.19 | Phero - I meant cryptic in so far as no one worked out just how serious Berman was
He said he’d been playing chicken with oblivion and I guess we all thought ‘great line, I guess he’ll just keep on doing the same, surely he isn’t that serious about it’ | Pheromone
12.09.19 | Aha, I didn't even see that you referred to the album as cryptic. I agree 100%, it's definitely got the Post-Blackstar treatment in that the album is purely morbid lyrically when you realise how real the words were. | hadeserbonfa
12.09.19 | great big thief pick! | NordicMindset
12.09.19 | You As You Were is fucking awesome. I haven’t thought about that song in years | DoofDoof
12.09.19 | GB - slot 'You As You Were' into your current listening and it'll still do the business, one of Shearwater's top 5 songs easy and their best 'rocker' | tectactoe
12.09.19 | A bit shocked by the Blackstar choice - I'd have gone with Lazarus, t/t, or even I Can't Give Everything Away. But the entire album is golden, really, and I like the unexpectedness of your pick. (Also, just glad to see Bowie somewhere on the list.) | DoofDoof
12.09.19 | The three other Bowie songs you mentioned I also rate as 5’s so any could have featured - strangely Dollar Days just moves me the most, plus I just think it’s classic old school Bowie | dedex
12.09.19 | Cool Ariel Pink track.
"this track is one of those that packs in about three great songs worth of ideas into the single 5 minute 9 seconds of tape"
That's my main problem with this dude: I almost always enjoy some parts of every song, but I fail to entirely love 'em. | DoofDoof
12.15.19 | bumpity bump | neekafat
12.15.19 | 16 is 1 | DoofDoof
12.15.19 | 16 is classic but 16 is not 1 | neekafat
12.15.19 | 16 is GOAT
Where is I Appear Missing
| DoofDoof
12.15.19 | I’m not too bothered about QOTSA’s ‘10s output really
Clockwork is quite solid but I rarely listen to it, bit too ‘mature’ compared to my favourite albums by them | DoofDoof
12.16.19 | bump | Gyromania
12.16.19 | Run the jewels fucking ewwww. Some great picks tho fo sho. Apocalypse hell yes, same with myth, nights that won't happen and present tense | unclereich
12.16.19 | hey guys gyro here, just reminding you i still really dont like this band haha ok later
| DoofDoof
12.16.19 | As I said, I find RtJ to be 'gloriously uncool in the spirit of Eminem at the peak of his appeal' - I guess if not a guilty pleasure than at least a self aware pleasure :/
Seems like a bit more agreement on some of these anyway Gyro, you put a hundred song entries up and you're unlikely to win them all | Gyromania
12.16.19 | I might make one but I still have a games list to make, and 2019 albums. Too much werk mang | Demon of the Fall
12.16.19 | Checking in to see if this is finished yet...
Negative. I'll see myself out then. | DDDeftoneDDD
12.16.19 | It's hard work guys! | Keynote23
12.17.19 | Yo thanks for #94. Got me hooked on the album and now I cant stop listening lol. Pure Bliss. | alamo
12.17.19 | just listened to the purple mountains album, holy fuck did people really think it was "slightly morbid but still humorous and harmless"? | sixdegrees
12.17.19 | a decade of doofcore | Frippertronics
12.17.19 | just waiting | DoofDoof
12.17.19 | I only have 14 left to finish - tough crowd. Will hopefully put them up Friday morning | tectactoe
12.17.19 | 14 left and still no 'Holocene'.
Hell yeah, brother. Here's to hoping it made the Top 10 (Top 5?!?!?!) | hadeserbonfa
12.18.19 | 21 and 22 would probably be in my top 10, though I'd be torn between Micheline and Carissa as well as between Girl In Amber and Magneto. All of them fantastic. I could never get into 23 though | Faraudo
12.18.19 | List needs some Charli XCX | Lord(e)Po)))ts
12.18.19 | are we still out here pretending clarence clarity doesn't suck
| Lord(e)Po)))ts
12.18.19 | props for 37, 42, 48, 59 and 87 altho thats not on the list of songs i'd pull from that album first
fuck u for precisely everything else | DoofDoof
12.18.19 | Clarence Clarity’s second album certainly sucks...as does over 50% of his debut. I like about three or four tunes, that’s it
I’m drifting from Potscore | DoofDoof
12.18.19 | just 5 left | theBoneyKing
12.18.19 | Lmao at the description for ”Holocene” | Lord(e)Po)))ts
12.18.19 | I dont know how ur drifting from potscore if we have more albums in common than ever before but ok | Lord(e)Po)))ts
12.18.19 | Reminder that when u joined the site you were basically british sowing | DoofDoof
12.18.19 | not quite as twinkly and I always hated emo and pop punk - but more correct an assertion than I'd like to admit now :D | theBoneyKing
12.18.19 | Doof at this point I can pretty much guess the last 5. Destroyer “Chinatown”, National “Sorrow”, Lambchop “The Hustle”, Cass “County Line” are the glaring Doofcore omissions off the top of my head, then another I’m forgetting I guess. (Feel free to delete this if you don’t want the spoiler. ;-P ) | zakalwe
12.18.19 | Well deduced bone | theBoneyKing
12.18.19 | Maybe “Sorrow” won’t make the cut since there are already two National songs? But iirc “Sorrow” is Doof’s number 2 Natty after “Slow Show”. | DoofDoof
12.18.19 | I still listen to as much potscore - just this year I've diluted it by listening to too much of everything in general
next year a reduction | AmericanFlagAsh
12.18.19 | Hmm weird we have the same favorite Beach House song | DoofDoof
12.18.19 | yes you got me boney - I mean they'll match my RYM top 100 songs so there's not really any mystery for my fellow RYM'ers but the countdown reveal gave me time to do descriptions | zakalwe
12.18.19 | Hang on a sec. After all this mess about the list is on RYM? Fucking hell. | DoofDoof
12.18.19 | zak - this isn't my top 100 songs, only about 7 of these make my top 100 songs, decade was a shitshow.
I mean what about the '90s?
it's just those last 7 anyone on RYM can check
the rest of the list I just sat down on itunes and shuffled my favourite '10s songs about until I was half happy with an order and chopped the ones that didn't make the cut | Lord(e)Po)))ts
12.18.19 | Reduce away, ur overdue for a regression I suppose | zakalwe
12.18.19 | Ah. Fair enough.
My number 1 will be Sleaford Mods - Jolly Fucker.
| theBoneyKing
12.18.19 | Slow your roll there Doof - a peek at the RYM list (which I've seen before - yeah that must be why those last few were easy to guess) it appears the top 12 here all make your top 100 all time list. Give the '10s a bit more credit. ;-P | theBoneyKing
12.18.19 | Looking forward to the last few blurbs in any case (even if I've read your thoughts on each before) | Lord(e)Po)))ts
12.18.19 | Zaks number one will be The Yorkshire Hollycocks - Jolly Good Pip Pip
It will be the blandest "alt" you've ever heard, because anything interesting is "artsy bollocks" | Lord(e)Po)))ts
12.18.19 | It will be blue collar as fuck and everyone in the band will wear the same work shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a loose tie | DoofDoof
12.18.19 | ‘Give the ‘10s a bit more credit’
They’re ok in the end, weakest decade since the 60s for me (and maybe only because I know hardly any music before 1965) - wait for the scientific analysis on my AOTD list ;P | Lord(e)Po)))ts
12.18.19 | Literally exponentially more music than ever before so thats a you problem if you cant find good stuff | Flugmorph
12.18.19 | excellent list (so far) | DoofDoof
12.18.19 | Pots - found a lot of good stuff, more than ever
Less life-changers though, that’s the distinction
I’m still finding more good old albums than good new albums - and I’m listening to far more new albums. About 500+ 2019 albums this year. | theBoneyKing
12.18.19 | The '10s are special for me of course because I came of age (both literally and musically) in them so it's the only decade I'm anywhere close to truly "knowing" musically but also a lot of my favorite albums in general are naturally releases from this decade. For that reason I'll probably always have a soft spot for the '10s even if more properly I probably like the '90s and '00s more as far as stuff on the high end goes. | DoofDoof
12.18.19 | I thought this decade was stronger than the previous but then I went back and looked at how much I rated 4.5+ from the 00s
It’s the 4.5+ stuff that is a tiny bit lacking for me - loads of 3.5-4 stuff
Of course some 10s music will grow over time so a bit unfair to compare now - but I still will to apply some sauce to my decade list | zakalwe
12.18.19 | For special albums 10s is definitely more fruitful than the 00s | DoofDoof
12.18.19 | For me unfortunately not - but I was operating under that assumption until I actually went back and checked | DoofDoof
12.18.19 | 2000 to 2003 is nearly 90s good | theBoneyKing
12.18.19 | If we're allowed to extend to 15 years, I think the most fruitful span of years for music for me (obivously on very limited knowledge) would be something like 93-07, that gets you about half of my 4.5s and 5s. | DoofDoof
12.18.19 | 88 to 02 for me | Lord(e)Po)))ts
12.18.19 | Then maybe you should listen to new music more selectively. Good old music is easier to find because not everyone with an internet connection could upload their music. That's the downside to more music - you have to know what to look for and how to look for it | Lord(e)Po)))ts
12.18.19 | As if looking at old ratings is any sort of absolute reflection of anything. If you went back and listened to all your 2000s ratings tonnes of them would change, as did your taste, and probably the way you rate too | Lord(e)Po)))ts
12.18.19 | Ur trying too hard to look at things empirically when there are too many circumstantial factors | zakalwe
12.18.19 | Nice one Spock | Lord(e)Po)))ts
12.18.19 | Also music tends to be more life changing when you ste younger and less conditioned to vast quantities of music as well. I call huge fucking shenanigans on your whole schtick here | zakalwe
12.18.19 | Yeah music is definitely more ‘life changing’ when your younger I’d argue it’s more enjoyable as you’re older though. Different sought of pleasure gleaned from it. | tectactoe
12.18.19 | "Different sought of pleasure gleaned from it."
kind of like taking a shit after you've been holding it in all day vs. sex with the missus. both great, both pleasurable, but for different reasons.
if you can pull them off simultaneously, though, you have reached the pinnacle of human pleasure. cannot guarantee the wife will be OK with it, though. proceed at your own risk. | Lord(e)Po)))ts
12.18.19 | Rofl jesus | Lord(e)Po)))ts
12.18.19 | But agreed.... with zak.... and tec too I guess | Sowing
12.18.19 | "The only song to make me think Sowing might have everything right and it's actually everyone else who is wrong. Maybe."
With that said 'Perth' is the better song from that album. | tectactoe
12.18.19 | 'With that said 'Perth' is the better song from that album.'
you can leave now | Sowing
12.18.19 | nah pretty comfy with that take actually | theBoneyKing
12.18.19 | “Perth” is, like, the worst song on BIBI | Sowing
12.18.19 | lolnah. those drums. | theBoneyKing
12.18.19 | Vocals ruin the song though those art pop drums are kind of awkward too. | tectactoe
12.18.19 | 'Perth' is great, but 'Holocene', 'Towers', and 'Calgary' are superior. | Sowing
12.18.19 | I love all the songs you mentioned just flip it to put Perth a hair above them. And what's art-poppy about the drums? I don't hear that at all. They're majestic and fit right in with the indie-folk ambience. | luci
12.18.19 | slipped is my favorite national song this decade (other than maybe sorrow), nice to see in the top 10 (11!) | Dylan620
12.18.19 | 2000 to 2003 is nearly 90s good [2]
Especially 2000 and 2002. | DoofDoof
12.19.19 | Kind of relieved this is complete, pretty happy with it. Thought I'd accidentally miss something. | dedex
12.19.19 | Top 2 is comfy af. Mammoth of a list bro, congrats. | DoofDoof
12.19.19 | thanks dedex, Sorrow had to be up there | dedex
12.19.19 | Sorrow will also make my top 10 fosho | Pheromone
12.24.19 | This is really great man - Hey Lucinda on 7 is one of my favourites of the decade for sure | Papa Universe
12.24.19 | checking in to find later as a playlist. | Pheromone
12.24.19 | you kids and your playlists | Papa Universe
12.24.19 | well sir, I'l have you know that I intend to finding these recordings in 7" form and playing them with me hip pals on our gramophone | Papa Universe
12.24.19 | call me a youngster, but ain dat jus not in no way yee business, sir, what we youths do in our spare time, free from factorial labour | Pheromone
12.24.19 | i saw someone at my uni with a walkman the other day
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hat's that all about? | Papa Universe
12.24.19 | poverty or hipsterdom | Pheromone
12.24.19 | it's the fine line of living in Brighton | Papa Universe
12.24.19 | explains a lot | Papa Universe
12.24.19 | you're the last remaining pheromone in Brighton, bub | AmericanFlagAsh
12.24.19 | Gonna check some of these out that I don't know | theBoneyKing
12.24.19 | Somehow missed that this was finished. Need to hear 4 (the album), will bump that up in my Kozelek exploration. | DoofDoof
12.24.19 | I think you'll like that one quite a bit
There's just a bit too big a gap between the good songs and the lesser songs on it | AmericanFlagAsh
12.24.19 | That 18 minute long Lambchop song was good |
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