Friday, January 10, 2020

Top 30 Songs of the 2010s, Part 1

So remember yesterday, when I told you that the reason I went with 30 songs for my Top Songs of the Decade list was because I came up with 32 songs and rounded down? Good times, good times. Except it turns out I was out of my mind. I got my songs list mixed up with my albums list, where I came up with 23 albums and rounded down.

In my defense, the reason this was so hazy to me is that I actually put most of this list together back in September during the infamous "I Was Kidnapped" Connecticut trip. (You've got to have something to occupy your mind on that ferry trip back and forth). I finalized the list sometime after that, but my point is that I basically compiled my two Best of the Decade lists a while ago, but I had to wait until I had finished my 2019 lists before posting them, since posting the Decade lists first would have spoiled the 2019 lists. And at this point in my life, I get confused about anything past yesterday. (And sometimes about yesterday, too. Also, today isn't all that clear either.)

OK, now that we've got that settled, a few things about this list. I basically put it together by going back to each of my yearly lists and re-listening to all of the songs at the top of each. I obviously like all of these songs a whole lot, but my top two songs  of the decade I particularly love.

What I'm going to do is this. I'll be giving you my Top 30 Songs of the 2010s in three parts, in reverse order (of course), broken down so that Part 1 will include #'s 30-21, Part 2 #'s 20-11, and Part 1 #'s 10-1. Rather than give you individual links to each song, at the end of the Part 1 list, I'll give you a link to a YouTube playlist that includes all 30 songs. Does that work for you? Good, good.

So let's go.


30. Snail Mail - "Pristine"

Snail Mail is actually 20-year-old indie folk rocker Lindsey Jordan of Maryland. The song is an oddly structured bit of lo-fi grrl rock. My daughter always makes fun of me for listening to so many albums of "chicks singing about their feelings." Guilty.


29. Dot Hacker - "Beseech"

Dot Hacker is an experimental alt rock band from Los Angeles. This track is kind of a slow-to-mid tempo burn with some interesting percussion and occasional pleasing psychedelic effects coming in after each verse.


28. Charly Bliss - "Hard to Believe"

I've been singing the praises of this energetic Brooklyn indie rock quartet and their Young Enough LP all year. This is a lively track about hanging onto a decaying relationship.


27. Blondie - "A Rose By Any Name"

Deborah Harry shares the vocals with Beth Ditto of Gossip on this ode to gender fluidity that was a few years ahead of its time.


26. Candy Hearts - "Top of Our Lungs"

I have a thing for bands with female vocalists in general, and bands with unusual-sounding female vocalists in particular. Candy Hearts (now known as Best Ex) is a good example of this. This one's about a night of drinking that turns into friends exchanging benefits.


25. Candy Hearts - "Lighter Than the Air"

Two Candy Hearts songs in a row! Imagine that. (This will happen with another band somewhere a little higher in the count later). Another relationship song that starts with the ups then gives us the downs. Love can be so disappointing.


24. Linkin Park - "One More Light"

This album got hammered by critics and fans alike, and rightly so. This is a great song, though. It's a slow ballad about a friend of the band who died of cancer and the importance of one person's life, made all the more poignant by singer Chester Bennington's subsequent suicide.


23. Leslie Mendelson - "Jericho"

I described this song in 2017 as a "wistful and touching folk ballad " that found Long Island songstress Mendelson trying to "find her way back home". At the time, for some reason, I thought she had moved to Los Angeles. I heard from her afterwards that she was still in New York, living in Brooklyn. Oopsie. So maybe I have no idea what the track is about. Regardless, it's still a song of quiet beauty.


22. Glenn Hansard - "Brother's Keeper"

Gruff-voiced Irishman Glenn Hansard is one-half of the writing team that created the TONY Award winning musical Once. This track starts out about a protective love between brothers, then seems to morph into a song about the love between lovers. I'm pretty sure it's pro the patriarchy, but he probably doesn't want you to know that.


21. Foals - "Sunday"

Foals is a British alternative rock band, and this was my favorite song of 2019. I especially identify with lyrics of the chorus: "Time away from me is what I need". I know what they mean.


OK, I think we're off to a good start here. I'll be back in a day or so with Part 2 of this list, as we continue counting off the top songs of the decade.