2009 : 13 "Drunk As Fuck [Top Billin Remix]" by Tittsworth

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Way back when this blog was covering 2000, I wrote about the Queens of the Stone Age's track "Feel Good Hit of the Summer," noting that it describes "a lifestyle so hedonistic that it would kill the majority of its listeners very quickly were they to adopt it." I also wrote that the track "evokes a special type of vicarious pleasure in the listener's head," and that this process "is one of the reasons popular music even exists in the first place." Hip-hop, of course, excels at the creation of very dense constellations of incantations and images that trigger the vicarious-pleasure parts of listener's brains: this, in fact, forms a key part of its appeal. A great example might be Tittsworth's "Drunk As Fuck," which celebrates just about every taboo one can think of: from the reeling intoxication identified in the track's title to, uh, genital torture. Anti-social? Sure. Take it seriously and it's actually disturbing. But take it as an opportunity to temporarily put on the costume of someone irresponsible and dangerous—to become "the king of all sleazy things" without any risk to one's self—and it yields a very concentrated form of ridiculous delight. —Jeremy Bushnell Listen: Tittsworth >> "Drunk As Fuck [Top Billin Remix]"

2008 : 18 "red light" by Rod Modell

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If Jacaszek's "Lament," which I wrote about not long ago, is like what house music would sound like if it emerged from a Transylvanian castle, then Rod Modell's blurred, smeary track "red light" is what house music would sound like if someone were playing it to you in an attempt to bring you out of a very deep drug-induced coma. —Jeremy Bushnell Listen: Rod Modell >> "red light"

2008 : 08 "Bedroom Costume" by Natalie Portman's Shaved Head

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For as much as pop music ostensibly concerns itself with physicality and sexuality, it's surprisingly rare to find songs that really evoke the particulars of erotic exchange with any degree of specificity. So when I find one, I end up appreciating it with special zeal. Remember 2001, when I posted "Love With The Three of Us," to my knowledge the world's only great song about menage-a-trois? Anyway, now we're in 2008, and here's "Bedroom Costume," which is likely the world's only great song about the mutually beneficial relationship between a voyeur and an exhibitionist. Note especially the moment when the exhibitionist finally delivers her version of events, around 1:30—it's a moment that's equal parts heartbreaking sweetness and unbearable erotic ferment. —Jeremy Bushnell Listen: Natalie Portman's Shaved Head >> "Bedroom Costume"

2007 : 37 Aught Music Roundtable: "Paper Planes" by M.I.A.

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First Pass Back when we were covering 2005, I wrote that M.I.A. might be the Artist of the Decade, in part because she was the living embodiment of a number of important trends that defined music in the Aughts more broadly. To see that logic continue to play out, one need merely examine the rise of "Paper Planes." It was released on M.I.A.'s second album, Kala, in 2007, but wasn't the lead single. (That was the likably weird "Boyz.") This track lay dormant until used as the backing track for the Pineapple Express trailer in early 2008, whereupon it blew up in a big way, permeating the culture until even the people who are arguably the biggest musical superstars in the world had to pay tribute. It's easy to see why: the second "Paper Planes" starts playing (about a minute in) is the exact moment this trailer starts to become cool: Once upon a time it may have been possible to keep your categories separate: movie trailers over here, viral YouTube clips over here, music videos over here, commercials over there. But the Pineapple Express trailer neatly collapses all of these categories: I'd say that it single-handedly sold more copies of "Paper Planes" than any commercial could have, except that it actually is a commercial, for both the movie and the song. Except that it isn't. Except that it is. One might see this as dispiriting: straight-up evidence that capitalism continues to mutate and evolve, spawning ever more pervasive forms. (The fact that the explicit topic of "Paper Planes" is the circulation of capital can be read as a crowning irony.) Or one might see it as a symbol of the unpredictability and ultimate richness of cultural cross-transmission. Probably it's a little of both, but the fact that a simple dance track can invoke these kinds of questions pretty much exemplifies the enjoyment that I derived from M.I.A. this decade. —Jeremy Bushnell Second Pass I fly like paper, get high like planes If you catch me at the border I got visas in my name If you come around here, I make 'em all day I get one down in a second if you wait There is something about this song that just captures me. Maybe because it is violent, but sung by a woman. Maybe it indulges the part of me that likes to watch gangster movies. Maybe it is because I like to sing along with the part about murder as I am at the gym. Maybe it is because I want to think the song is about running a lunch truck like the YouTube video. Anyway, I love this song. It totally sucks me in, like an action movie. This song is total escapism for me. This is one of the best work out songs on my iPod. Some some some I some I murder Some some some I let go Some some some I some I murder Some some some I let go —Rich Thomas Listen: M.I.A. >> "Paper Planes"

2007 : 11 "Superheroes 2007" by The Toxic Avenger

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In the last years of the decade, I went back to listening to a lot of electronic dance music. Dormant since the late 1990s, this love was re-awakened by my discovery of terrific European techno acts like Daft Punk and Justice. Try as I might, I just can't resist this kind of music: my response to it, in fact, borders on the Pavlovian. Give me some fat synth lines and some dance-floor-destroying beats and my brain automatically responds by flooding my mesolimbic reward pathway with massive amounts of dopamine. Shameful, really. Perhaps my reaction can be best illustrated with an audio-visual aid. Here's a video of myself dancing (in disguise no less!) to "Superheroes 2007," a track by The Toxic Avenger, an act who's less well-known than some of the other French techno practicioners, but every bit as fantastic. (Special thanks to K. for introducing me to him.) (part of the Top Secret Dance Off) I believe that my rubbery, blurry flailings say everything there is to say that's good about this music. —Jeremy Bushnell Listen: The Toxic Avenger >> "Superheroes 2007"

2006 : 03 "Pieces of the People We Love" by the Rapture

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For a short time in the mid-Aughts, I read a blog called "Teaching The Indie Kids To Dance Again." I don't read that blog any longer (it's been defunct since 2006) but the phrase that the author used for his title struck me as nicely zeitgeist-y at the time, and has stuck with me as a useful little sense-making tool, one way to reveal a pattern in the ebbing and flowing of trends over the course of the decade. Viewed through its lens, the long-ago 90s began to seem like a period when "alternative" or "indie" music lost touch with the kinesthetic impulse, surrendering the domain of repetitive beats to rival genres (electronica, hip-hop). If we accept that, then the Aughts begin to seem like a period wherein indie musicians reclaimed these pleasures, all at once remembering hey, moving your body? It feels good! As a sense-making narrative, this one, like all others, simplifies some things and leaves others out, but it's not without its share of explanatory power, helping to put early-decade developments like the "electroclash" movement and Peaches' embrace of the banging 808 into a context that also includes dance-punk acts like !!! and the Rapture. The Rapture's most lasting contribution to this story may have come early, with the cowbell-happy "House of Jealous Lovers" (2003), but their 2006 album Pieces of the People We Love represents a very fine extension of the energies therein, and it blows off the torpor that afflicts your average hipster at least as well as any other full-length rock album from this decade. —Jeremy Bushnell Listen: The Rapture >> "Pieces of the People We Love"

2005 : 39 "Blood on Our Hands (Justice Remix)" by Death From Above 1979

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"Blood on our Hands" is an unfathomably sleazy track from Death From Above 1979's unfathomably sleazy album You're A Woman, I'm A Machine (2004). By "unfathomable," I mean something that's almost bordering on "incomprehensible": trying to parse the lyrics leaves you with fragmentary phrases ("But the things that I've done to you") that don't connect to anything else in the song, but which definitely sound disreputable. With this 2005 remix, the two French dudes in Justice have done something amazing: they have taken the original, scummed it up with the electronic squelch and big beats of European house music, and somehow made it even sleazier. Put this on when you want to feel adolescent and evil. —Jeremy Bushnell Listen: Death From Above 1979 >> "Blood On Our Hands (Justice Remix)"

2005 : 27 "Losing My Edge" by LCD Soundsystem

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I've already mentioned the fact that I thought a lot, in 2005, about being an aging music fan. And part of this may have been because 2005 marked the release of the best song ever written about being an aging music fan: LCD Soundsystem's "Losing My Edge." I'm losing my edge To all the kids in Tokyo and Berlin I'm losing my edge to the art-school Brooklynites in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered eighties The early portion of the song is a gauntlet of trenchant observation and self-lacerating humor: no music fan of my generation will pass through without it landing at least one palpable hit. But the song's best passage comes around the 5:45 mark, when James Murphy begins racing through a roll-call of "relevant" bands. It's as simple as a grocery list, but no other gesture this decade has more truly evoked what it feels like to be a music fan in the contemporary world: the terrifying sublimity that comes from having your very identity bound up in efforts to attain mastery over a spectrum of cultural material that is, for all practical purposes, infinite. This Heat Pere Ubu Outsiders Nation of Ulysses Mars The Trojans The Black Dice Todd Terry the Germs Section 25 Althea and Donna Sexual Harrassment a-ha Pere Ubu Dorothy Ashby PIL the Fania All-Stars the Bar-Kays the Human League the Normal Lou Reed Scott Walker Monks Niagra Joy Division Lower 48 the Association Sun Ra Scientists Royal Trux 10cc Eric B. and Rakim Index Basic Channel Soulsonic Force Juan Atkins David Axelrod Electric Prunes Gil! Scott! Heron! the Slits Faust Mantronix Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines the Swans the Soft Cell the Sonics the Sonics the Sonics the Sonics.... —Jeremy Bushnell Listen: LCD Soundsystem >> "Losing My Edge"

2005 : 15 "Just Ask the Lonely" by Omar-S

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The sound of tomorrow is almost 30 years old. Considering its future-minded name, techno has a deep and ironic obsession with vintage drum machines and synths. Techno artists have embraced every recent development in music technology, but Roland's TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines, both introduced in the early 80's, are still widely considered the real thing, irreplaceable by even the best software emulations. Omar-S is a traditionalist, a classic Detroit techno artist. Listening to his records, it's as if the past 20 years of increasing BPMs, club lifestyle and sub-genre balkanization hadn't happened. To me, "Just Ask the Lonely" is a short-circuit to what techno originally was before it was a soundtrack to drug use / teen vampire movies / import car commercials: Detroit soul music made with machines and free of Motown's shadow. —Neil Jendon Listen: Omar-S >> "Just Ask The Lonely"

2005 : 01 "10 Dollar" by M.I.A.

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Is M.I.A. the artist of the decade? She wasn't my favorite artist of the last ten years, but there's a couple of things about her that neatly embody any number of trends that were important to the Aughts. A lot of ink and pixels have already been expended on discussing her personality / biography/ brand, and it's likely that most readers of this blog already have an opinion. I will say this: love it or hate it, M.I.A.'s diaspora-inflected polyglot mashup identity—part refugee, part resistance fighter, part art-school hipster —puts her in a pretty good position to create songs about militaries, terrorists, prostitutes, hostages, and markets: all highly relevant subject matter for the Aughts. The fact that songs with these heady, even grim topics almost uniformly work as sure-fire dance-floor igniters is a small miracle unto itself. (Exhibit A: "10 Dollar.") None of this might have mattered very much if M.I.A. didn't also have a keen grip on the mutating systems of musical distribution, another reason why she stands for me as a key cultural figure from the decade. She was not the first person to understand the mash-up, the remix, the calculated leak, the MP3, the file-sharing network, and the blog as the new decade's prime mechanisms of musical transmission, but she exploited that understanding with unusual canniness. Recall that prior to Arular's release, she and Diplo built buzz by integrating her vocal tracks into a mix (Piracy Funds Terrorism) and circulated that mix via the Internet. This move ended up being a wildly successful end-run around the traditional apparatus of music production and distribution, a stunning implementation of strategies and technologies that were, at the time, novel. What this meant, in my experience as a listener, is this: Arular is the first album I bought on the strengths of tracks I had downloaded from blogs. As I think back to that story, I remember that when I went into Tower Records to purchase it, I was thwarted: the album hadn't come out yet. Thanks to the Internet, I had a few tracks from the record literally in my pocket, but the actual physical album hadn't yet made its way into existence. I didn't understand that as a sea change at the time, but in retrospect, with Tower Records now vanished from the earth, it kind of looks that way, and M.I.A. will probably forever stand as the artist who best embodies that transition for me. —Jeremy Bushnell Listen: M.I.A. >> "10 Dollar"

2004 : 28 "Going Underground" by I Am The World Trade Center

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Every once in a while I like a song that I do not expect to like. "Going Underground" is one of those songs. I remember playing this song at a party when it was my turn to DJ. The host said that did not expect me to like this song. They thought it was too dance-ish and electronic for me. That comment did not surprise me. "Going Underground" is not in my usual wheel-house. I am not sure what is going on here. Did I change? Is I Am The World Trade Center doing something different, or is this song close to other songs? In other words: Did the world change or did I? I am not sure how answer that. Yes, my taste has changed over the last 10 years. I have been exposed to music that I did not expect. But there is something about "Going Underground" that I was not hearing before. I think that electronic music has moved to the center. So what do you think, did the world change or did I? —Rich Thomas Listen: I Am The World Trade Center >> "Going Underground"

2004 : 26 "Diplo Rhythm" by Diplo w/ Sandra Melody, Vybz Kartel & Pantera os Danadinhos

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Diplo's a white dude, but his DJ sets, mixtapes, and other musical projects frequently incorporate contributions from baile funk or Jamaician vocalists, or other samples drawn from the "Global South." How you respond to Diplo is going to be connected to how you respond to this sort of cultural activity. On a bad day, I might consider him a crass appropriator, or a kind of information-age colonial imperialist, utilizing the works of "authentic" brown people as a way of enriching his own "brand." But on a good day—when I'm more prone to admire the fluidity of cultural forms and the positive effects of cross-cultural transmission—I'm more likely to consider Diplo's work as an extended act of fandom, amplifying and popularizing a style of music that might normally have fallen outside of the listening scope of First World pop cosmopolitans like you or I. Still other days [!] I might argue that this type of music is actually the legitimate musical heritage of someone who grew up consuming the hybrid dance music(s) germinating in the hothouse environment of Florida's club scene. It's a complicated debate, and I don't really know where exactly I stand on it. But on the bright side, I've never been opposed to things that raise questions, and so the political and aesthetic concerns that circulate around a track like "Diplo Rhythm" (from his 2004 long-player Florida) may actually elevate it above a lot of other tracks that sound equally great on the dance floor. —Jeremy Bushnell Listen: Diplo (with Sandra Melody, Vybz Kartel, and Pantera os Danadinhos) >> "Diplo Rhythm"

2004 : 15 "Bottle Rocket" by The Go! Team

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If you had told me I'd love a song with a harmonica solo I'd call you a fucking liar. But here we are! Anyway, this song is such an aggressive sugar shock that it's like a chlamydia test with a candy cane. It's straight up Saturday Morning cartoon theme music. I used to love to walk home from work blasting this on my iPod. When I crossed the Walnut Street bridge and this would come on I'd feel like a super hero on a victory lap. It's totally the aural equivalent of a high-five, and you're supposed to take that as corny and unironically as possible. —James Specht Listen: The Go! Team >> "Bottle Rocket"

2003 : 47 "Best Friend" by Rhythm & Sound w/ Love Joy

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My love of funky Germans knows no bounds. From 1993 to 1995, Berlin dance music producers Moritz Von Oswald and Mark Ernestus, operating as Basic Channel, took the crystalline edges of techno and transformed them to liquid and vapors, obscuring the beat matrix until it was little more than a retinal afterimage. The sound was at once distant and warm as bath water, the throbbing comedown after the endless Friday night of Detroit/Berlin dance floor motivating. There was a third city in the mix: Kingston, Jamaica. Oswald and Ernestus's post-BC work is a steady progression away from the techno and deeper into dub. As Rhythm & Sound, they turned down the BPMs and brought together an all-star team of dance hall artists to make Rhythm & Sound w/the Artists. Rather than overwhelm with their signature abstractions, R&S lay back, giving wide berth to a series of stand out vocal performances from legendary Jamaican artists. Check out the low smolder from Love Joy on "Best Friend." In addition to the few R&S records, they have reissued several titles from the American reggae label Wackies. These reissues are a treasure trove of sides that were formerly only available to obsessed and thick-walleted collectors. If you like deep, sprawling dub and stony dancehall, seek out these discs. —Neil Jendon Listen: Rhythm & Sound w/ Love Joy >> "Best Friend"

2003 : 39 "Freetime" by Kenna

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I used to work in a retail store which received frequent deliveries of new and promotional albums from Sony. Kenna's album New Sacred Cow was one of these. We played it in the store a few times, and while no one else had much of an opinion on it, I was hooked. Not to be confused with Keane, Kenna is (I recently found out) an Ethiopian-American artist who opened for Dave Gahan in 2003. This track is synthpop which is so heavy on the pop that it's almost a bubblegum Depeche Mode; Kenna's voice is heartfelt, although the lyrics are not terrible deep. I found it addictive. It is the shiny, fruit-flavored lip gloss of music. Kenna, as Wikipedia informed me years later, was dropped from Sony without little fanfare and never really found a niche. It's a shame. This song is the perfect soundtrack for all your activities which call for a whole lot of style and not a great deal of substance. —Angela Smith Listen: Kenna >> "Freetime"

2003 : 37 "I've Lived On A Dirt Road All My Life" by Manitoba

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Here's how I imagine the Manitoba album Up In Flames came about: Kieran Hebden, a vinyl-collecting nerd, secludes himself in his bedroom with a trove of purloined break-beats which he proceeds to integrate into new sonic constructions, full of ornament and embellishment. To this task, he brings an omnivorous sensibility, raiding, in approximately equal measure, the fire energy of 60s jazz, the blasted-out, disorienting energy of late-80s-early-90s shoegazer rock, and the twentieth-century avant-garde love of sound for its own sake. He emerges with ten tracks that resemble Cornell boxes: idiosyncratic, meticulously built, self-contained, slightly airless yet weirdly vast. It's a deeply cerebral project, yet, like the best hermetic projects, it has, as its end, the aim of discovering something that is beautiful, blissed-out, and ecstatic. —Jeremy Bushnell Listen: Manitoba >> "I've Lived On A Dirt Road All My Life"

2003 : 27 "Invisible" by Fischerspooner

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The very first time I heard the jet sample that kicks off the first track on this album I fell in love with it. It was one of those albums that for whatever reason struck me in such a way so that I will always remember where I was when I first heard it. In this particular case I happened to be visiting with a good old friend out in Arizona. He put the album in his car's CD player and we started to drive around Phoenix. Since that time I have listened to this album hundreds of times. I just love the place this album takes me and the state it puts my head in. I find this album really easy to program to: I believe it has something to do with the pulsing synth bass and melody lines as well as the uniquely artificial sounding percussion. The vocal effect treatment lends an ethereal or other-worldly quality to the imaginative lyrics and I like that many tracks feature both male and female leads. Overall I find that the sound design reminds me of the (progressive?) electronic music from the late 80s and early 90s. There is definitely a video-game-like quality to a lot of the bass lines and melody lines as well as a good bit of dance and disco too. All of the tracks on this album are very good so I suggest listening to one of my favorites— "Invisible" —which is representative of their sound. —Dave Evans Listen: Fischerspooner >> "Invisible"

2003 : 05 "Hey Ya!" by Outkast

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Thank God for Mom and Dad For sticking two together 'Cause we don't know how (Uh!) I love songs that make me want to dance. I love songs that make me feel that dancing is the only good response. The beat of this song is just amazing. It is easy to see why this song was everywhere that year. I know that lots of people will discount this because it was so popular. In 2003 this song was everywhere. It was on TV, commercials, movie previews, stadiums, and just about anywhere else you might be. I know that turned many of my friends off to this song. What is even more amazing how the lyrics do not match the sound of the song. The lyrics are about how two people cannot keep their relationship together. It is so deep in the song it is easy to miss. I like that. You can even take the old Charlie Brown clips and put the music behind it. What else could I ask for? —Rich Thomas Listen: OutKast >> "Hey Ya!"

2002 : 41 "Six Days" by DJ Shadow

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Although lyrically inappropriate, this song goes great on a "let's get high and fuck" mix. But, when you hear that spine tingling loop and the marching band drums, who is going to notice? Actually, I kind of hate that when I've been going through my list of songs I've liked in the early Aughts so far, there has been a long cloud of pot smoke hovering over it. But truth be told, that is the state I was in during my early 20s. Now that I’m fast approaching 30, I can't remember the last time I felt the urge to listen to Ween live albums. This DJ Shadow track holds up really well—proof that beautiful usage of samples with strong, heartbreaking vocals trumps any substance you ingest to alter your mind. —James Specht Listen: DJ Shadow >> "Six Days"

2002 : 28 "In My Heart" by Moby

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I am not ashamed to say that I love the Moby album 18. I know that it is easy to mock me for liking Moby. He is the kind of artist who seems tailor-made to make fun of and the people who like him. The 18 album also got over-played, making it easier to make fun of. When I listen, though, I hear so much. First off, I never thought that Moby would make the album that most reminds me of Pink Floyd. I did not think that 18 would have threads of Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here in it. Every time I hear this album I can see the connection. This album is sweeping, expansive, and engulfing. It feels like it creates its own world, like a novel or a movie. It lets the listener live in that world for an hour or so. It moves in a way that makes the album more than just the sum of the songs. The more I listened to it, the more I got out of it. This album still makes me feel great. It still catches me in ways I am not expecting. I think it is really Moby's masterpiece. —Rich Thomas Listen: Moby >> "In My Heart"