#20 The Flaming Lips – Do You Realize??
Album: Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
Year: 2002
I actually had “Funeral” by Band of Horses penciled into this spot originally. It’s a really pretty song with some significant emotional heft, but it feels less and less enjoyable to me in light of their newer work. Instead, I present you with a song that I’ve been attempting to slot in ever since Amanda posted it and reminded me that “Do You Realize??” is not, in fact, from The Soft Bulletin as I originally thought (which, being a 1999 album, would have disqualified it from this list). Emotional juxtaposition in music is a fantastic premise for a song, when executed correctly, and the gorgeous, soaring vocals and carefully orchestrated instrumentation are a flawless counterpoint to Wayne Coyne‘s ruminations on our inevitable mortality. When it comes time for your funeral, Band of Horses will have no place on the playlist compared to the majesty of “Do You Realize??”
#19 Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Maps
Album: Fever To Tell
Year: 2003
Karen O picked up Brian Chase at Oberlin College (whooo! Go Yeomen) in the late ’90s, and accumulated Nick Zinner in NYC around the turn of the century. Her entourage complete, she proceeded to release a full-length debut that blew everyone away. “Maps” opens with a guitar that sounds positively as though it is bleeding (and which I am pretty sure Bloc Party ripped off for the opening of “Like Eating Glass”). Karen O‘s heartbroken refrain, “they don’t love you like I love you,” feels like rallying cry for spurned lovers everywhere. Rumors abound that “Maps” is an acronym for “My Angus Please Stay”, an autobiographical reference by Karen O about her troubled relationship with Liars frontman Angus Andrew. I would believe it – the pain in her voice feels pretty raw and real (kind of like you, Coldplay, only… the opposite).
#18 The Shins – Saint Simon
Album: Chutes Too Narrow
Year: 2003
We’ve previously discussed how enjoyable it is when a song seems to have two or three different masks it can switch between at will (most notably, the wonderful “Your Cover’s Blown” by Belle and Sebastian). The Shins wrote “Saint Simon” while holding pocket aces – either of the oeuvres contained herein could have been fleshed out into the atmospheric structure for an entire album. The first 1:10 hints at a jaunty yet skeletal version of the power-pop they nailed on this, their sophomore album. When the lyrics ask you to ‘step into the night’, however, you are suddenly riding on a soft blanket of strings. James Mercer‘s lyrics veer from clever assonanace and attitude in the opening couplets to tender sentiments regarding mercy. Overall, the track’s cyclical beauty makes for an unbelievably rewarding listening experience – I won’t deny having listened to it on repeat for a solid half-hour while waiting to play an Oberlin College tennis match back in the day. The heat of Hilton Head over spring break never seemed so tolerable…
#17 Non-Prophets – The Cure
Album: Hope
Year: 2003
Sage Francis is the most intense lyricist. His meter and internal rhyme border on the absurd; his voice is a more technically sound instrument than any guitar. For the Non-Prophets project, he paired up with producer Joe Beats, who fills “The Cure” with paper-thin drums, a haunting saxophone riff and what sounds like a rattlesnake preparing to strike. Ominous? Wait until you hear what Sage has to say. A study of depression and mortality, “The Cure” leaves an indelible impact with lines like “Life is just a lie with an ‘f’ in it / And death is definite” (say it out loud) and “After I scratched the surface / I never saw the calm before the storm act so nervous”. His haunting refrain, “When a boy writes off the world it’s done with sloppy, misspelled words / When a girl writes off the world it’s done in cursive” is just a small window into the brain of a man stuffed to the brim with grim but worthwhile insight.
#16 Fleet Foxes – Mykonos
Album: Sun Giant EP
Year: 2008
I am well aware that this is ridiculous. Fleet Foxes only have two formal releases and one full-length album. Virtually their entire discography is from 2008. How exactly can I justify having two of their songs in the top half of my best songs of the decade?
Well, I don’t have to justify it. It’s my countdown. I am willing to try, however. You know how sometimes you hear a song and it just floors you? Maybe it’s playing kind of quietly, and you stop what you’re doing to focus on it more. Maybe it’s playing in the car and you scramble to find a pen to write the time on the back of your hand so you can look it up on the radio station website later. Well, Fleet Foxes have done that to me three times. The first time was in April 2008, when the Sun Giant EP emerged, and I heard “Mykonos”. The second, when I got my hands on their full-length and heard “White Winter Hymnal”. The third? When I saw them in person, and the vocal harmonies of “Mykonos” (yes, again) culminated in a cathartic bellow that has completely changed what I look for in live music. You don’t have to jam for hours on your biggest hit, but you shouldn’t just play it like the studio recording. You have to play it bigger. You have to play it more. Go see Fleet Foxes, live, and just live the moment.
