Top 100 Favorite Songs of the 2000's (Part III)

Hi kids,

Happy Monday, and it's now time to get the list underway! For the first 80 songs or so, I'll reveal ten at a time in each blog post, and follow up each song with a favorite lyric and factoid. Keep in mind, once again, that this wasn't meant to be a definitive "best-of" list. The primary criterion was whether or not I, Pat Lavery, liked the song. (Feel free to leave comments and start the discussion, though!)

Alright, so without further ado...


SONGS 100 THROUGH 91


100. Kaiser Chiefs, "Never Miss A Beat" [2008]

What do you want for tea?/I want crisps/Why don't you join the team?/I just did

British humour at its finest. It's cool to know nothing.


99. Minus the Bear, "Double Vision Quest" [2007]

We awoke/At the edge of a summer

My buddy Rob once used to say this was three songs in one. For a band that's been at the forefront of what many call the "math rock" genre, that's a pretty cool equation.


98. The Hold Steady, "Sequestered In Memphis" [2008]

That's alright, I was desperate too/I'm getting pretty sick of this interview

First time I heard this song on the radio: "Is this Bruce? No, it can't be Bruce. But it sounds like Bruce! Well done." Best Springsteen tribute since John Cafferty's "On The Dark Side."


97. Spoon, "I Turn My Camera On" [2005]

I wipe my feelings off/You made me untouchable for life/And you wasn't polite

Before being used in a camera commercial (what else?), this was just a really cool song. Now it's a really cool song that you probably didn't know you knew.


96. John Legend, "Ordinary People" [2004]

Maybe we'll live and learn/Maybe we'll crash and burn/Maybe you'll stay, maybe you'll leave, maybe you'll return

Lost in all the sampling and electronics and processed vocals of this decade was just how powerful a simple, sincere piano ballad could be. John Legend found it.


95. Mika, "Stuck In The Middle" [2007]

I look at you, you look at me, we bite each other

How does this man sing so many high notes? I understand the concept of a falsetto range, but come on...


94. Norah Jones, "Don't Know Why" [2002]

Out across the endless sea/I will die in ecstasy/But I'll be a bag of bones/Driving down the road alone

First of all, Norah Jones is the daughter of Ravi Shankar, who was a good friend of the Beatles, which makes this the greatest song written since "Let It Be." But in all seriousness, read the rest of the lyrics. This is so depressing!


93. The Zutons, "Pressure Point" [2004]

Doctor, oh Doctor, I'm begging you please/To rid me of madness and cure this disease

This song just has a great simmer: it starts out really chill and groovy, and becomes an endless succession of unintelligible screaming by the end. The first of several songs on this list that I discovered through EA Sports video games.


92. Daft Punk, "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" [2001]

More than ever/Hour after/Our work is never over

One of the definitive songs of the decade for sure, and not just because Kanye sampled it.


91. Lenny Kravitz, "Again" [2000]

I've never had a yearning quite like this before/Now that you are walking right through my door

After years of going retro ("It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over," "Are You Gonna Go My Way," his cover of "American Woman"), Lenny releases his first contemporary-sounding single. Great success!


OK, that's it for today! Leave your thoughts...back tomorrow with songs 90 through 81.

-- pl