The Decade List
As the first decade of this millennium draws to a close, it is time to start looking back a bit. One of the ways that I intend to do that is by creating my own personal playlist of the decade. This includes 25 songs that have made an impact on me in the past 9 years and 11 months. I do not think that I have the ability or desire to rank pieces of art objectively. So my criteria are simple. All songs on the list must have been released in a year that begins with 20. Also, for the purposes of accessibility, they are all going to be singles. With that specific definition left up to me.
I plan on releasing the list in groups of five over the next month and a bit. I do not have any schedule, they will just appear when I see fit I suppose.
Interestingly enough, I found that most of these songs were released in between 2004 and 2007. These two years are significant to me both musically, as they are the year that my favourite band, Arcade Fire, released their two albums, and also personally, as they are the two years that I received University Degrees. I am not certain if there is a connection or not, but it does add a certain credence to the notion that we need music when we are seeking meaning to our lives. Something that certainly comes with facing the unknown world outside of the comforts of Academia.
Enough dither, there is plenty of time for that as the list goes on.
The List So Far:
1. The Killers – All These Things That I’ve Done
2. Bloc Party – This Modern Love
3. Beck – Lost Cause
4. Stars – Your Ex-Lover is Dead
5. Arcade Fire – Rebellion (Lies
6. Matthew Good – Weapon
7. Metric – Monster Hospital
8. M.I.A. – Paper Planes
9. The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army
10. Ryan Adams – New York, New York
11. Feist – 1234
12. Broken Social Scene – Cause = Time
13. Flobots – Handlebars
14. Kanye West – Jesus Walks
15. DJ Dangermouse – Encore
16. Franz Ferdinand – Take Me Out
17. Justin Timberlake – Sexy Back
18. Flo Rida featuring Kesha – Right Round
19. Outkast – Hey Ya
20. Rihanna featuring Jay-Z – Umbrella
21. The Knife – Heartbeats
22. LCD Soundsystem – All My Friends
23. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Maps
24. Sufjan Stevens – Chicago
25. The National – Fake Empire
Track #1
The Killers – All These Things That I’ve Done
Album: Hot Fuss (2004)
What better song to get you in the mood for some good old fashion reflection?
For me this is the song that made the Killers for me. I had bought the album after enjoying “Somebody Told Me” and really falling for “Mr. Brightside”, but when this song came over my car speakers I was overwhelmed. It is able to just feel epic. The slow intro, the steady build, and of course the iconic sing-a-long make this a song to remember.
As much as I loved this song when I first heard it, it seems to have grown on me as I have grown. As I grow up, and try to carve out a bit of meaning I find that I “want to shine on in the hearts of man”, and that I too “need direction to perfection”, and of course I lament “the cold-hearted boy I used to be”. This is a song about growing up and trying to figure things out. This is something that my 21 year old self who knew all the answers didn’t seem to get, but the 26 year old gets more and more every day.
Favourite Lyric: “I got soul, but I’m not a soldier”
Track #2
Album: Silent Alarm (2005)
The first of many songs about heart-break to crack the list. However, what makes this song special is not how well it describes one particular heartbreak, but how it summarizes so much about heartbreak in general this decade and the complications that seem to arise in this strange modern world that we have grown use to.
In this song, the singer seems to be chasing a girl who has a host of other issues as he asks her questions like “What’s always in the way?” and “Why so scared of romance?”. However, he doesn’t seem to know the first thing about chasing someone down as he says things like “I’ve never known what’s good for me”.
He says that “This modern love breaks me/This modern love wastes me” which is a situation that is certainly not unique to him. While relationships are difficult in this day and age, it is worth noting however that they probably were difficult in any sort of nostalgic time that people consistently long for. It’s just that we never had to deal with any of those issues.
Favourite Lyric: “You told me you wanted to eat up my sadness/ Well jump on, enjoy, you can gorge away”
Track #3
Album: Sea Change (2002)
Probably the saddest song you will ever hear. This song truly captures hopelessness like few others have.
While this song is clearly dedicated to a relationship that isn’t worth fighting for, it has some very clear applications on other aspects of life. Has any of it really been worth it or has it been a lost cause? This song makes the list because of the inevitable regret that comes with reflection. It may be misplaced, but it’s hard not to feel it for a little while at least.
Favourite Lyric: “I’m tired of fighting/Fighting for a lost cause”
Track #4
Album: Set Yourself on Fire (2004)
Two years ago, almost to the day, I had a theme here called “Stars Week” as I counted down the days until I got to see one of my favourite bands for the first time. This song was the first one that I looked at. For the most part my feelings of why this song is special to me haven’t really changed, so here is a copy/paste from my original post.
“This is one of those amazing songs to listen to late at night when you are thinking about someone from days past. When the song reaches it’s zenith and Amy Milan’s angelic voice chymes in with “I’m not sorry I met you/I’m not sorry it’s over/I’m not sorry there’s nothing to save”, then the song is able to pass through the last step in the grieving process, acceptance as closure is finally attained.
I guess I feel that this song spoke to me so clearly, because I found it at a very crucial time in my life, when I was ready to move on. Sad and angry songs are great, but they don’t ever deal with the root of the issue. I had heard this song, and the band before this crucial stage in my life but I wasn’t all that into them. But it was when I heard this song at that very crucial point in my life that I became hooked. While I know that I searched out this song, I can’t help but feel that it found me when I needed it the most.”
To add to that original entry. Both times I saw this band play this song stood out as major highlights. Their energy and passion for this song was noticeable. The best part of both performances was the sing-along for the “Lise through this and you won’t look back” parts. It send shivers up my spine and is impossible to separate from the song itself.
Favourite Lyric: “I chose to feel it and you couldn’t choose”
Track #5
Arcade Fire – Rebellion (Lies)
Album: Funeral (2004)
Simply put: If I had never heard this song, I wouldn’t be writing such a passionate post about music.
Now don’t get me wrong, I always liked music. But really, who doesn’t? I tried to go beyond the Top 40, but usually found that to be rather challenging, or to be honest, a little pointless. I didn’t get it. But then I heard this song.
This album was highly recommended to me by my friend Ryan, and I gave a few tracks a listen, but it didn’t really click with me. Then one day something strange happened. It was just one of those days that everything was going wrong. It was cold and rainy, I was having a fight with my girlfriend, and work wasn’t going too well. I was listening to my iTunes and this song came on, and everything somehow clicked. I was in need of a rebellion, and I found one.
This song made me rebel from my musical paradigm at the time. I never “got” music before then. I never felt that a song written by people I have never met could honestly and truly say anything about my most intimate thoughts and feelings.
The more I listen to this song the more I fall for it. It is playing right now as I type and I am still just as amazed at what I am hearing as I was five years ago. It stretches not only what music means to me, but what I feel music can be.
Favourite Lyric: “Come on baby in our dreams we can live our misbehaviour”
Track #6
Album: Avalanche (2003)
One of my favourite albums of the 1990s was Beautiful Midnight by the Matthew Good Band, with Underdogs not far from that list. So imagine my disappointment when the band broke up in early 2002 after a sub-par (but occasionally brilliant) Audio of Being album. Then in late 2002, Matthew Good released his first solo single and quite frankly, it blew me away. The slow acoustic build, the hard rock crescendo and then the slow fade out. It was like all the best parts of Beautiful Midnight combined into one great song.
To top this off, it was around this time that I became much better friends with a few fellow Matt Good fans. To say that we listened to this song a lot would be an understatement. But whenever I hear this song I am always taken back to my 3rd year of University, which may have been my favourite of them all.
Favourite Lyric: And you give in/And you give out/For it ain’t so weird/How it makes you a weapon”
Track #7
Album: Live it Out (2005)
One of the biggest stories of the decade was the American-lead invasion of Iraq. Back in 2002 and 2003 the Bush administration really pulled out all the stops to convince the world to topple Saddam Hussein’s regime. As it seemed more and more likely that an invasion was going to happen there were more and more protests against the war. Sadly, the side of peace lost again.
This song with it’s powerful chorus really captures the futility that fills people who protest the decisions of the powerful. But damnit, they’ll keep fighting. Add in a sweet reference to The Clash and you have a song that evokes the rebel in us all.
Favourite Lyric: “I fought the war, but the war won’t stop for the love of God”
Track #8
Album: Kala (2007)
Like many hip-hop songs there isn’t much that I can personally relate to in the narrative. I mean, what do I a white upper-lower-middle class male in his mid-twenties know about someone who is committing armed robbery?
I remember very distinctly the first time I heard this song. I was in Laos on a Community Service trip with a bunch of students. After working very hard in very hot weather laying concrete in a very poor village we hoped in the back of a truck to ride back into town. I got talking about music with a number of students and one of them handed me her iPod to play this song. I listened to it as we drove past some very impoverished villages on the way back to our rather nice accommodations.
Right then and there I got it. I felt like I truly understood why people turn to a life of crime and violence. If you were in that situation, wouldn’t you consider a life as a bonafide hustler?
Favourite Lyric: “No one on the corner has swagger like us”
Track #9
White Stripes – Seven Nation Army
Album: Elephant (2003)
I have always said that I was born at the wrong time, and this song is a perfect example of it. My teenage years were filled with a soundtrack of rock. However, the chart toppers at the time were anything but rock as Britney, Christina and N’SYNC battled it out for the top of the pops on a weekly basis. While I quite like pop music, there was something lacking in the mainstream discourse as far as I was concerned.
And then this song happened.
Sure there had been other rock songs hit #1 in the years leading up to this point, but none of them were nearly this iconic. This song defined the summer of 2003, and when was the last time that a rock song was the indisputable “song of the summer”? I certainly couldn’t remember.
After years of “Macarenna” and “Mambo Number 5″ rock was finally king again.
Favourite Lyric: “And I’m bleeding, and I’m bleeding, and I’m bleeding/Right before the Lord”
Track #10
Ryan Adams – New York, New York
Album: Gold (2001)
While the last four songs have dealt with conflict in some way, this song is all about resolution.
The success and symbolism of this song is more happenstance than anything, but it doesn’t make it any less powerful. The video for this song featuring Manhattan’s iconic sideline was filmed September 7, 2001. Four days before the city changed in a profound way.
The song was used in the weeks and months after the terrorist attacks as a sort of inspiration. However unlike Tim McGraw’s song about revenge, this song was used to incite far more positive emotions. This song is completely defiant of the acts of terror, unaffected by their violence and horror that they intend to create. No matter what happens, no matter what you do, this song will still love New York and there is nothing anyone can do to change it.
After making my first of hopefully many visits to the city this summer, I can completely understand where Ryan Adams is coming from. Don’t worry New York, I still love you.
Favourite Lyric: “And love don’t play any games with me/ Anymore like she did before”
Track #11
Album: The Reminder (2007)
Words can’t describe the joyous surprise I felt when I heard the familiar voice start to sing during a commercial break. This was one of “my songs” coming from somewhere other than my own speakers. To make the moment even more surreal it was in an ad for the very product that I have used to experience “my music”.
Fast forward a few months and Feistis coming through Toronto, needless to say I’m very excited for a chance to see her live. But then, disaster strikes! The tickets are sold out for both of her shows in a matter of hours and all I can find on Craig’s List was far, FAR too expensive for my budget or tastes.
Who were these people who usurped my right to see one of my favourite little indie darlings? Had any of them wept to her rendition of “Lover’s Spit”? Could any of them complete the sentence “It could begin and end in____ _______”? Hell, had any of them even heard of her before Steve Jobs said that we all should?
The answer to all of this probably varies somewhere in between “maybe” and “who cares”? I shouldn’t be mad at someone for being successful, and I shouldn’t be mad at people who enjoy a damn good song, even if they are late to the game. Lord knows I’ve been behind several musical trends many times in my life.
Back in my review of 2007, when talking about the success that this song generated for Feist I said:
Watching a video takes a certain effort, either by switching to MTV/MuchMusic (during the 20 minutes of the day when they actually play videos..) or following a link to the YouTube video. Commercials on the other hand take a certain effort to avoid watching. You need to find the remote and another channel where you know something else is on, and really it’s just easier to passively lay there and be bombarded with your consumerist message.
I still think that is most definitely true. We are bombarded with so much it is hard to avoid, and it is plain and simply easier to just let the messages come to you. While this can have disastrous consequences (see: Invasion of Iraq, The) it can bring beautiful things out too.
Upon even further reflection, I think that this commercial really epitomizes the paradoxes that are implicit with the Individual Revolution. With the ease that exists in spreading music around, is anything really ours to call our own anymore? How can any of us call ourselves individuals if we are all using the same product making the same experiences? Is this shift all in our heads?
We may have to wait another decade to really find out.
Favourite Lyric: “Sweetheart, bitter heart, now I can’t tell you apart”
Track #12
Broken Social Scene – Cause = Time
Album: You Forgot It In People (2002)
A song that builds on the previous themes that I mentioned. The pursuit of something to intimately call your own.
In our age of hyper-mass-media we are all a little lost. What is there to believe in for a long time? I mean people who were overjoyed at the Inauguration in January are now ready to throw Obama under the bus. How is that belief?
To be honest, I think that every generation has struggled with this at some point or another. It is rather naive to think that we are the first ones to be confused about the nature of life and the universe. We are not the first ones to wonder what it takes to be happy in this day and age, and we are not the first ones to think that our parents just don’t understand the confusion.
But you know what? That doesn’t make it any easier to go through these same emotions.
And whenever I am wrestling with that bit of insecurity, I let Kevin Drew take me away for five minutes and thirty seconds of rock infused insecurity. As he says “They all want to dream a cause” I know I’m not alone in my thoughts.
That both comforts and terrifies me.
Favourite Lyric: “Cue immortal child like times/Separation is divine”
Track #13
Album: Fight With Tools (2007)
This is probably the most arrogant song in a very arrogant decade. And not surprisingly for those of you who know me, I have little trouble identifying with it.
With it’s numerous claims that get more and more grandiose as the song progresses, and a rhythm to match it. This feels like a perfect anthem for “Generation M-E”. We feel like we can do anything, anything that we want, when we want it. From childish claims about riding a bike with no handlebars, to being an intellectual, all the way up to being able to guide a missile by satellite, the protagonists in this genuinely believe that there is nothing that can’t be done. Deep down inside, don’t we all like to believe that?
After a slow, steady, and borderline epic build the song reaches its crescendo. He believes that he can end the planet in a holocaust. The individual has reached its maximum potential and danger.
One question remains: is it a metaphor or a warning?
Favourite Lyric: “I can keep rhythm with no metronome”
Track #14
Album: College Dropout (2004)
This song feels like a perfect compliment to “Handlebars”, especially with the benefit of hindsight.
In one you have an artist that is relatively unknown going on about their own limitless power in a bombastic ego trip. In another you have the most brash and cocky star of the decade going on about his submission to a higher power in a truly humble fashion.
Somewhat surprising in our secular society, Jesus has played a huge role in the shaping of this decade. From books like The Da Vinci Code, to the rise of evangelicalism in the US. He has been everywhere a good 2000 years after his death. I’m unsure if this is to counter the rise of the individual or perhaps to complement it. Faith in a higher power really is the most personal thing that someone can have, and yet it has been routinely paraded around by people with a microphone or a wiki.
All through this decade there has been a debate as to whether or not religion is a force of good or a force of evil. I myself lean towards the former, and apparently I’m in the same company as Kanye. Insecure, unsure, doubting, but damn proud to admit it.
Favourite Lyric: “I want to talk to God but I’m afraid because we ain’t spoke in so long”
Track #15
Album: The Grey Album (2004)
Alright, so this song really stretches the definition of a single. But isn’t that fitting since it fits into a genre that really stretches a lot of our musical definitions? Is this song rap, hip-hop, rock, pop, alternative, or indie?
To be honest, it’s a little bit of all of them. And that’s what makes it so amazing.
Of course, this song isn’t the first mash-up, and certainly not the most famous of them, and it probably isn’t even the best. But I think that it may be the best example of one.
This song takes two of the weaker parts of the original works and really and truly recreates them. I found “Encore” to be boring on The Black Album and “Savoy Truffle” and “Glass Onion” are two of the weaker tracks on The White Album but it truly makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts.
Not that long ago, back when music could still be a physical thing, people could be truly defined by the collection of albums they had. If they were a punk, their collection was full of songs by The Sex Pistols and The Clash, if they were a metal head they would have Pantera and Metallica, if they were a rapper they would have Run DMC and NWA. Never, except in the strangest of individuals would someone have both a Jay-Z album and one by The Beatles. One from the streets of Brooklyn, another from the bars of Liverpool. Two things that couldn’t possibly be more incompatible.
And then the 21st Century happened.
Before we used to let our music define us, now we can define our music. This is a powerful, powerful difference. Music is so accessible that now it is not at all uncommon to have Jay-Z and The Beatles on the same iPod. In fact, I think it would be a challenge to find an iPod that doesn’t have songs by those two artists.
It was only a matter of time before they became one and the same. And I think that we are all the better for it.
Favourite Lyric: “The rest of y’all know where I’m lyrically at/Can’t none of y’all mirror me back”
Track #16
Album: Franz Ferdinand (2004)
It’s not often that a song can cross genres while simultaneously redefining both of them, but this one can sure do that. You can confidently pump your fist to the beat and tap your toes to the rhythm. This song is both rock and dance, and everything in between.
My most vivid memory of this song was when I saw these guys perform in Belfast. They were promoting their second major album You Can Have it So Much Better. The electric guitars were put away and they said “This song is about a girl named Eleanor” and they played “Eleanor Put Your Boots On” which definitely mellowed out the raucous audience. Then the acoustics go away and calmly we hear “This song is called…Take Me Out”. The arena was sent into an absolute frenzy of anticipation as the opening chords played and we never looked back from there.
That’s what makes this song so great, it is full of anticipation. It starts out slowly, but you know there is no escape what is going to happen. It breaks into a great dance part, then you can’t wait for it to slow down. Finally it does, only to go out with a bang. Sounds to me just like the very act that the song is all about.
Favourite Lyric: “I know I won’t be leaving here, with you”
Track #17
Album: Future Sex/Love Sounds (2006)
Really, who saw this one coming? N’Sync represent so much of what is wrong about music in the late 90s, and yet one of their members can represent so much of what is right about the 00s. This song is cocky, self-assured, and unapologetic.
In an era where everyone is a celebrity, this song really makes you feel like one. When you dance to it you feel like the whole world is watching every move that you, and you alone are making as you are changing everything. It really makes you feel like everything before it was worthless, and it is the beginning of a new era. A sexy, sexy era that you are ushering in.
I find it nearly impossible to listen to this song and not bust a move in some way. Hell, I’m doing it right now as I type. A solid three years later and it still doesn’t stop. And judging from the volume of every dance floor after this song starts, I’m not alone in that one.
Favourite Lyric: “Them other boys don’t know how to act”
Track #18
Flo Rida featuring Kesha – Right Round
Album: R.O.O.T.S. (2009)
I’ll fully admit. Objectively this is by far the worst song on this list, but damnit I don’t care. I love it all the same. As usual, my connection to this song remains the context in which I heard it.
There I was in my first year of full-time teaching and I am sitting at assembly and a PowerPoint starts and with this song in the backing. I lean over at a student and ask if it is appropriate for school (taking it as a euphemism) and she answers “Uhhh I don’t think that there is any swearing in this song”. I chuckle a bit and go back to listening.
It didn’t really do much for me to be honest.
But then I couldn’t escape it. No matter how hard I try. When you work with teenagers you are stuck with their music, like it or not. Eventually this song really started to grow on me, and I found myself starting to have my head spin right round when I go down, down.
This song made me have to pay attention to what kids are listening to these days, even if I don’t like it at first.
Favourite Lyric: “That body belongs on a poster”
Track #19
Album: Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003)
Could there be a more perfect song to define this decade? If there is, I sure haven’t heard it.
…seriously.
At first listen, I found yourself fixated on the hook and shaking things like a Polaroid Picture. However, at second and subsequent listens I started to want things in my Caddie. Eventually after countless listens both on and off the dance floor, the pure and total heartbreak really started to resonate with me.
Make no mistake about the joyous beat, this is a sad, sad song. And that’s what makes it such a perfect song to define this decade. Irresponsible and flighty at first, but deep and conflicted on the inside, with a pinch of promiscuity, a bit of name dropping, and a few downright lies thrown in for good measure (note: Polaroid Pictures should not be shaken) and it sounds like the past ten years to me.
It is a bucket of contradictions and not at all what it seems like at first, and lord knows its not alone in that respect this decade.
Track #20
Rihanna featuring Jay-Z – Umbrella
Album: Good Girl Gone Bad (2007)
When people look back to make fun of the 00s the same way we look to mock the 80s or 90s today this will be the first song that comes to mind. As strange as that sounds, that’s not meant to be an insult in anyway. It’s meant to be the highest of compliments. It probably is the most iconic and well recognized song of the decade, with a great deal of staying power.
This is the song that really made Rihanna turn from just another songstress to superstar. As she infuses every word with a sense of urgency and sexuality. The lyrics feel like a mixture of fleeting and timeless. At first they seem like they will fade like so many girl-pop songs have before, but in the end they feel like they will “be here forever”. Especially as she makes the word “rainnin’” fill your ear drum for ever.
This song has been covered and remixed countless times but it always feels like it is lacking something, and that something is the Rainman to the songstresses Little Miss Sunshine. Jay-Z’s addition to this song can’t be understated either. Often times it feels like rappers either try to steal the spotlight or make meaningless cameos that add nothing to the song. That seemingly is not the case here. He raps for only 32 seconds but he really makes it feel like the most important 32 seconds he’s ever rapped. Instead of drowning her out, she brings her up to his level in the stratosphere, well above the rain clouds.
On a personal note, in May 2008, I got to see Rihanna live at the Molson Ampitheatre, from the cheap seats (i.e. the lawn) and well it had been rainnin’, rainnin’. So when she started this song, simultaneously the whole lawn started to dance with their Umbrella-ella-ellas. Needless to say it was one of my more surreal moments of the decade that I won’t soon forget.
Favourite Lyric: “Come on let the rain pour, I’ll be all you need and more”
Track #21
Album: Deep Cuts (2003)
A perfect bridge between the sublime of the past five songs and the serious of the remaining tracks. This really is a song that showed me how good electronic music can be. Sure it is known for its erratic and shallow nature, but it is not bound by that in any way, shape or form.
This makes the song itself such a perfect allegory. The characters in the song go for a one night stand and it ends up developing into something more, even if it is just for a moment. Just like this song, you can find something meaningful in places you least expect it.
This is one of those beautiful songs to listen and reflect on some special person about. Because chances are once you strip past the synthetic distractions, you’ll find something that matches your own experiences.
Favourite Lyric: “One night to speed up truth”
Track #22
LCD Soundsystem – All My Friends
Album: Sound of Silver (2007)
I’m going to be honest here: I used to skip past this song when listening to the album.
I bought Sound of Silver for it’s great dance tracks like “North American Scum” and loved the more ambitious tracks like “Someone Great” and “New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down”. But this song just didn’t quite connect with me the way it was with other people in 2007.
When I first heard this I was confident (probably a little bit too confident) and I knew exactly where all my friends where. So the message of this song just didn’t quite connect to me immediately.
But now, after having my bravado shaken, and moving halfway around the world. This song rings loud and clear with me.
Because it helps me ask a question that I’m probably too scared to ask on my own: where are my friends?
Favourite Lyric: “Yeah, I know it gets tired only where are your friends tonight?”
Track #23
Album: Fever to Tell (2003)
In a decade where we saw the rise of some incredibly pretentious music, it is fitting that one of its best songs is one of its simplest. Karen O and crew are able to create a classic and make it seem effortless.
The heart-piercing chorus hits like a ton of bricks and never leaves. It brings back memories not only of every heart break I’ve ever had, but of every heart break anyone has ever had. It’s nice to know that there are still some collective experiences in this day and age.
Favourite Lyric: “Wait, they don’t love you like I love you”
Track #24
Album: Illinois (2005)
A few years ago I decided to make members of my family mixed CDs for Christmas. This was the second song on the playlist that I made for my mother. Later she told me that it took her repeated listenings to get past this song and hear the rest of the CD, because this track always made her cry.
At first, I didn’t quite get it. I always thought of this as a happy song. But that’s what makes it so beautiful, it’s a song for everyone and it can mean just about everything. Each time I hear this it means something else.
Right now, for me, it is a song about growing up. Like youth it is ambitious, broad, and feels like it lasts forever. It is impulsive enough to drive to Chicago and fall in love, but it can admit a mistake and grow. But maybe it means that to me because that’s what I need it to mean right now. Two years ago it meant pure joy to me, and maybe later it may mean heartbreak.
Favourite Lyric: “If I was crying/In the van, with my friend/It was for freedom/From myself and from the land”
Track #25
Album: Boxer (2007)
What have we been doing for the past ten years?
Does any of it matter?
Has it all been just a waste of time?
This may not be the most popular song of the decade, it may not be the happiest, it may not be the saddest, it may not be the grandest, hell it may not even be the best. But for me this is the song of the decade. Because it dares to ask those incredibly daunting questions.
Of course, it never answers them. But that’s what the next ten years are for.
Favourite Lyric: “Tiptoe through our shiny city with our diamond slippers on”
And that concludes my own personal playlist. Check back in 2019 for the next one!!!
