Aughts Songs: #1 Phoenix - "Too Young" from United ('00)

PERFECTION! From the chords to the subject matter to the production to the instrumentation...is this not all the things that I loved about the other 19 songs wrapped into one? IT IS.

Aughts Songs: #2 Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - "In This Home On Ice" from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah ('05)

Like I said before, the top 5 songs on a different tier, but the top 2 are on another planet. This song just makes me melt. The chords and the texture are gorgeous, but the way that it switches up in the middle and introduces other chords without devaluing the perfection of the main chords is crucial. Like the outro to "Superpowers," if I could get some kind of permanent vibrating system that represents the notes played within this song implanted within my ears forever, I would consider it.

Aughts Songs: #3 The Dismemberment Plan - "Superpowers" from Change ('01)

When I think of this song, I think about a specific time I listened to it on my headphones while walking around the Spring Arbor campus. I realized that the tempo was about the same as the steps I was taking and so I began to walk in step with the beat. But the drum part is so funky that I couldn't help getting lost in the song and adding a little swagger, which eventually became a full-on strut. Then I realized I probably looked like a total knob-job and stopped. But that's how powerful and convincing the Plan is: They turned a nervous introverted kid into a unconscious strutter. And I'm betting I'm not the first.

The thing that elevated this to "All-Time Great" status for me was when I learned to appreciate the extended outro jam that comes in at 3:20. I could listen to that part repeated forever. It sounds exotic and affluent and sexy and European (in fact, I've always kinda thought it sounds like this looks).

Aughts Songs: #4 The Clientele - "Since K Got Over Me" from Strange Geometry ('05)

Sometimes it takes an outside perspective for me to fully appreciate something. Like all the subtleties and hidden rhythm tricks that Quillen's pointed out to me over the years. With "Since K Got Over Me," it took sharing the song with Alec and Tom and seeing their reverence and awe for it that made me take a step back and reconsider how seriously great this song is. I mean, I've always loved the song and have always felt a strong connection to the resigned sort of melancholy that Alasdair MacLean is expressing. The last chorus, especially the line "I don't think I'll be happy anymore/I guess I've closed that door" has always killed me. But with all of the songs one hears every year, it's easy to neglect offering your full attention to worthy songs. For me, seeing or hearing a friend's passion can be the ultimate selling point. Maybe it's an illusion, but it's one I don't have a problem buying into.

Aughts Songs: #5 Blitzen Trapper - "Futures & Folly" from Wild Mountain Nation ('07)

From this point on, the songs are in a different tier. Each of these songs could have been #1.

I knew I liked this song! That doesn't always happen, especially with the great ones. It's rare that something clicks immediately with me and I fall in love and it's able to last for more than a week or two. I think my favorite parts are the arrangement and the main riff. I guess that's really it...I don't have any personal connection to it or specific part I gravitate toward, I just like it. A musical song played by instruments, recorded for listening purposes.

Aughts Songs: #6 Jens Lekman - "A Sweet Summer's Night On Hammer Hill" from Oh You're So Silent, Jens ('05)

Sometimes music is capable of evoking thoughts or memories that you forgot you ever had. I don't how real this is, but I have these memories of when I was really young, like around 5, and my parents took me to a party at one of their friend's apartment complex. It was a great night and lots of fun, and this became the quintessential block party experience for me. So when Jens sings about a "sweet summer's night," these really vivid images come to mind of a hot August night in Flint in 1988, with the sun going down and my parents and their friends cooking on a grill and grabbing beers out of a kiddie pool. Did this ever happen? I don't know, and I don't wanna know, because it makes me feel good to think about this. But I hadn't really considered any of this before hearing this song.

Aughts Songs: #7 Radiohead - "Optimistic" from Kid A ('00)

I didn't fully appreciate this song until I learned to play it on guitar a few years ago. Outside of The Dismemberment Plan, I've never known such a melodically disjointed song to be so coherent. The key shift that happens between halves of the progression (the first 3 chords vs. the second 3 chords) is something that I don't think I'll ever understand. Throw in all the crazy little leads (especially the one that comes in after the chorus at 1:30 - the rhythm and the texture make it one of the most eerily beautiful of the 00s), and end with a drum part whose sound calls back to the title track and you have a hell of a song. Apologies for the nerdy theory-speak...uh, I also love how wide open the lyrics in the chorus are.

Aughts Songs: #8 Death Cab For Cutie - "Debate Exposes Doubt" from The Photo Album ('01)

This is one of the best guitar songs of the decade. I can't think of another song that made as much of an impression on me in terms of ideal guitar arrangement. Two chimey parts, playing occasional notes outside the scale, and almost no true chords. One of two excellent Death Cab songs that lyrically take place inside a restaurant, the theme here is big and romantic, and is typically Gibbardian. It's always sounded cooler to me than all of his other lyrics. There's a little bit more of an edge to this, more menace in his "choked" stare than any other DCFC song I can think of. It's possible that this song had an unfair advantage over the rest of the album because when I only had a burned copy back in '01, this song cut out after 10 seconds. So I ended up waiting until the actual album came from Barsuk to really spend as much time with this song as I had with the rest. Along with "Coney Island," it always sounds a little bit fresher than the rest of the album. Even after nine years, it's a song I haven't begun to get sick of.

Aughts Songs: #9 The Decemberists - "The Engine Driver" from Picaresque ('05)

I always assumed I was going to include "Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect," which is generally considered The Decemberists' best song, in this list. But this summer I realized I felt much closer to this song. The occupational metaphors that lie outside of context give the lyrics a feeling of timelessness, that Colin Meloy is singing about a relationship that could have existed centuries ago or in the future. Though it's not especially profound, it's one of the most convincing expressions of love and yearning that I can think of within a song. The haunting chords and acoustic guitar sound are an excellent compliment to the song's sentiment, and the prechorus harmony part ("And if you don't love me let me go") is one of my favorites of all time. Every time that line is repeated, it seems to have a greater impact. When it is repeated in the coda, it defines the kind of perfection that I'm always trying to find in a song.

Aughts Songs: #10 Belle & Sebastian: "Piazza, New York Catcher" from Dear Catastrophe Waitress ('03)

Here is one of the most unique ballads of the decade. The arrangement is common, but the melody Stuart Murdoch sings oozes 60s Merseybeat. The remarkable thing is how he does it with just a voice and guitar. Everyone else needs a 12 string rickenbacker, a tambourine, and three part harmonies. Up til this point, B&S had been perfecting the style for 7 years. By the time DCW came out, it was in Murdoch's bones. Gorgeous, sophisticated...the nod to The Left Banke is just showing off.
And while we're on the subject...C'mon Mike, we won't judge you. Nobody likes a closeted self-loather.

Aughts Songs: #11 Annie - "Heartbeat" from Anniemal ('04)

This song is singlehandedly responsible for Honest Men. Ashleigh and I have always bonded over these upbeat, minor key electronic pop songs and pretty quickly we realized that this was a perfect realization of what we loved about that style. The 10cc-style "Ahhh"s (aka "bondi breath" in Garageband) in the chorus are the crucial element. They blow up the chorus in a way that crashing cymbals cannot.

Aughts Songs: #12 The Avalanches - "Since I Left You" from Since I Left You ('00)

There is music all over this one. It's nothing like the mash-up culture that it sometimes gets thrown in with. Something like this requires skill and patience. It's smart, and every decision is a right one. It's not lacking, and there are no superfluous layers. "Since I Left You" sounds like a big party, with dozens of gorgeous samples filtering into one room, trying to find their places. It takes them until the breakdown at 1:38, where everything clicks, and everyone does a perfectly choreographed electric slide. What a groove!

Aughts Songs: #13 Yo La Tengo - "The Race Is On Again" from I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass ('06)

This song has been for me what "Blank Generation" was for Malcolm McLaren. It has become the foundation for an entire personal movement for me as a listener. It taught me that when a song repeats itself, using mostly only one chord, any changes have a tenfold effect. Here, the big change comes with the crash cymbal at the 2:47 mark, when the song takes off into the stratosphere. If it wasn't for hearing all the incredible songs that preceded this as an influence, this might have ended up being my favorite song. Still, it is easily the best song of this decade that follows that awesome VU formula.

Aughts Songs: #14 Jimmy Eat World - "If You Don't, Don't" (Demo) from Bleed American Demos ('00)

It's easy for me to forget this, but there was a time around the fall of 2000 to summer 2001, where Jimmy Eat World seemed like they had limitless potential. They were already one of my favorite bands, but they were starting to show signs that they could really fly off the charts (so to speak). They had just put out three excellent songs on their split with Jebediah, bootlegs of Jim Adkins' side project Go Big Casino were floating around that featured one especially great song ("Power"), and their live show in Sept. '00 blew me away. They opened with "What I Would Say To You Now," played an ace version of "No Sensitivity" from the split, and debuted new songs from their upcoming album. One of these songs was called "If You Don't, Don't." And this song had the sweetest, cleanest, shimmeriest guitars I'd heard in my life to that point. If that weren't enough, they added a sort of call-and-answer chorus that is sublime. J.E.W. was in between labels at the time, so they recorded Bleed American themselves to shop around. That demo version leaked on Napster and it was full of really great and exciting songs. I spent so much time with it, that it became sort of a faux-official album itself. And of course, the story of B.A. ends badly: Dreamworks releases a neutered version of the album, every song sounds worse instead of being better, the guitars don't sound the same, there's no soul, and they never recover. BUT...
Have you ever been hoping to hear a certain kind of music or to hear a specific thing, and then actually be lucky enough to have it fall into your lap within that same phase of your life? Personally, it's been such a rare phenomenon that I always remember when it happens. Even if it was fleeting, this was certainly one of those moments for me.

Aughts Songs: #15 Spoon - "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga ('07)

This is one of the most overt examples of how Britt Daniels has such a unique ability to co-opt elements of sixties songs without sounding like a straight-up rip. Leading with the bass and horn section along with the fixed, static drum part is a pretty clear nod to Motown, but they manage to do it with enough restraint so as not to sound like genre tourists. One of the things that amazes me about this band is that as certain as their songs sound, they're always so malleable. This could've just as easily been a country song, or been played in a different time signature. How they settled on this arrangement for only this song is confounding. How can they not be tempted to give every one of their songs a sound that feels this good?

Aughts Songs: #16 Elliott Smith - "Happiness" from Figure 8 ('00)

This is as grand as Elliott Smith ever got, in terms of sound and theme. I bought this album in high school (I cannot believe that was this same decade) after hearing this song on the MSU station on the way home from a baseball game. I liked it then, but it took until late 2002 for me to develop a real closeness to this song. I clung to "Happiness" during a sort of recovery phase I was going through, and it became more than just a welcome distraction. It seemed to have an unavoidable favorite song/personal anthem weight to it. It has a general theme that different kinds of people can relate their situations to, while still managing to make the song feel very personal. Which is a big reason why so many people love his music so much.