1,001 songs to listen to before you die...

[Hobo]

I had the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss album. I just found it all very dull tbh

[Malenko]

I've actually seen the presets live in Brisbane and it was cool, but I can safely say I've never listened to any of their albums, ever.

I like Bloc Party, but that song not so much. I like their first album a lot, and Four too. I also like them live.

It feels like the 2000s are moving really slowly. They have loads of songs from that decade in the book.

[Liam]

2 hours ago, Malenko said:

It feels like the 2000s are moving really slowly. They have loads of songs from that decade in the book.

It doesn't help that I am posting them slowly also...

[GoGo Yubari]

I have that Plant/Krauss album and while it's not amongst my favorites from that year I get it, it's got a really wide appeal. Admittedly, I don't like "Please Read the Letter" all that much if just because while I think it's a good song it's also like a minute or two too long, feels like any time it came on I'd be amazed at how many times I ended up hearing the title line. My favorites from that album tend to be more Krauss-heavy, like "Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us" which I think is excellent.

This Feist pick does feel like not wanting to do the obvious thing, "1234" is far and away their biggest song and would have been fresh in everyone's minds when this book came out, but I think they were right this time. I'd never heard "My Moon My Man" and I really liked it. I imagine that a revised version would probably switch over to the bigger song now that time's passed but I'm glad they went the direction they did.

Soulja Boy, no comment.

[Colly]

5 hours ago, Liam said:

It doesn't help that I am posting them slowly also...

I was 17-27 in that decade, if you can go as slowly as possible I'd be very grateful...

[MalaCloudy Black]

My ex-partner fucking loves Bloc Party. I got them a signed Bloc Party poster as a graduation gift one year. That's my contribution to this. >_>

That Soulja Boy song made for better memes than anything else.

[METALMAN]

I like that Soulja Boy song. It reminds me of being whatever age I was when it was big. A big group of friends from school used to hang out and drink crap vodka and watch music video channels (remember them?) on Saturday nights because there wasn't much else to do in my town, and that song was always on at the time. Nice memories.

Bloc Party's first album was one of my favourites but I rather thought they'd lost a bit of oomph by the time of Flux. Still pretty good though.

There are two Feist songs I really like but this isn't one of them. 1234 isn't either. So there you go. They are both okay. I think MMMM was only Feist song I actually knew at the time though.

[Liam]

976.      

‘D.A.N.C.E.’, Justice (2007)

Justice were another of those bands that seemed to be everywhere for a brief minute, but I can only assume either cease to exist/bash about on the peripheries once more (delete as appropriate). This is apparently not a tribute to Michael Jackson, but the lyrics kinda give things away. I appreciate the bass and the synth work and it is all very fun for the most part, yet nothing particularly exciting beyond that for me.

977.      

‘re: Stacks’, Bon Iver (2007)

I think there might have been a time when this did something for me, but the bitterness of age leaves me feeling somewhat cold to what I assume is quite a touching end to an album that I remember getting a fair bit of press. I want to reward competent songwriting that goes beyond the norm, which this does, so I’ll give it that much at least. However, the wispy vocals and simplistic instrumentation don’t excite out of context. Maybe the album as a whole would be worth checking out…I’ll probably never know.

978.       

‘With Every Heartbeat’, Robyn featuring Kleerup (2007)

Influenced by: La Ritournelle • Sébastien Tellier (2004)   

Influence on: The Girl and the Robot • Röyskopp featuring Robyn (2009)   

Covered by: Athlete (2007) • Girls Aloud (2008) • The Hoosiers (2008)

Now this is a song I can get behind. One of the best pop songs of this time period in my belief, ‘With Every Heartbeat’ was arguably the pinnacle of the electro-pop-females that seemed to burst into popularity around this point. The song that broke Robyn out into the worldwide mainstream (she had had over a decade of relative success in Sweden), it went to number one in the UK. As the book quotes her saying, it is a weird number one – no real chorus, a string break in the middle. Whatever it is, it is a powerful piece of pop.

979.      

‘Someone Great’, LCD Soundsystem (2007)

Influenced by: Me and Giuliani Down by the Schoolyard (A True Story) • !!! (2003)   

Influence on: Can I Be • Kid Cudi (2009)   

Covered by: Winter Gloves (2008) • Lissy Trullie & The Fibs (2008) • Banjo or Freakout (2009)   

Other key track: All My Friends (2007)

This feels a bit to me like missing the obvious (‘Daft Punk Is Playing At My House’) for a deeper cut, but as this also spiralled out of their work advertising Nike, maybe it has a backstory that makes it worthy of making the list. LCD Soundsystem were always a band I felt I should like more. This song to me lacks that heft in a dance track that I want – it all feels a bit lightweight, even if the lyrics are deeper than a lot of what they usually cover.

980.      

‘Paper Planes’, M.I.A. (2007)

Influenced by: Rump Shaker • Wreckx-N-Effect (1992)   

Influence on: Swagga Like Us • Jay-Z & T.I. featuring Kanye West & Lil Wayne (2008)   

Covered by: Ryu Maginn & Veze Skante (2007) • Rihanna (2008) • Built to Spill (2008) • Street Sweeper Social Club (2009)

I know that this is a song that many people think very highly of, and I can see why. With lyrics about the reality of the immigration experience, references to the Clash, and use in cult movies around the time give this an undoubted feeling of cool throughout. I’m not as high on it as some, if I’m being honest, though it is hard not to caught up in it the moment that laid back intro hits. A worthy inclusion, unlike some of the recent songs.

[gunnar hendershow]

The Bon Iver selection feels less like "this is THE Bon Iver song you need to hear" and more like the writers hedging that Bon Iver would remain a big deal throughout the 2010s. They were mostly right on that front. Fine with a Bon Iver song being included I supposed.

Is this the second Justice song or am I getting confused with the output of a lot of songs that were very "had to be there at that particular moment in time"? Anyway, indifferent to it with the benefit of hindsight.

The last 3 on this group I think are all very strong songs and largely hold up. We're a bit too close to them in history still to really judge but I think they capture an era well as opposed to being songs that merely seemed great at the time.

[MalaCloudy Black]

My ex was big into that Justice single. That's the only reason I know of it.

"Paper Planes" rules but it isn't my favorite M.I.A. song. 

(this is.)

[Hobo]

I can't say thats the Bon Iver song I would pick from For Emma, Forever Ago.

Which I also honestly think it is still the best album Bon Iver album.  I haven't liked anything since really. 

[MalaCloudy Black]

It's interesting to me to note which years I was super severely out of touch with music, because all I know Bon Iver from is a Kanye West song >_> 

[METALMAN]

Oh wow. These are all songs from when I was 16 so don't exactly have critical distance here.

DANCE is a lot of fun. The endless bad remixes of it remind me of club nights at university. it's a song I associate with stickiness. Not in a bad way though. This album was big but Justice continued to potter around for a bit. I remember they released an album with a much more classic rock vibe after most people had stopped caring about them. It was okay but largely pointless. First album was decent and this tune was one of its highlights. Still have most of the songs from it turning  up when I watch repeats of the various comedies/dramas from the time.

Bon Iver is alright but I don't really see the point. The only one in this set I didn't know at the time and in spite of the Bon Iver-mania that arose a couple of years later I was never really excited enough by what I heard to give this album more than a cursory listen. Maybe that was unfair of me, because I know a lot of people love it. 

With Every Heartbeat is great. I pretended to like it at the time because a girl I fancied who I thought was really cool liked the song. Now I like it on its own merits. How I've grown.

That LCD Soundsystem album Someone Great is taken from is one my favourites of 2007, absolutely loved it at the time. Someone Great is nothing more than a middling track from it though. In my opinion. Still good, and nice to see something from it here.

Paper Planes was everywhere at the time. I worked at part-time at one of those boring clothes shops that was desperate to appear cool and down with the kids at the time and my initial memories of Paper Planes are being bludgeoned to death by it there. And then it was obviously in Slumdog Millionaire. Now that there's a bit more distance from that I think this song might even be my favourite of the decade. (Certainly the album it comes from is right up there in my favourites of the 2000s). it still just sounds so fresh and full of life. Love it.

[RPS]

This may be the best 5 songs posted at a time. That probably reveals a lot about me and tells you my age.

Paper Planes and With Every Heartbeat are top songs of all time contention. 

[GoGo Yubari]

First group in a good while where I don't think you can argue with any of them being in the book itself and it really comes down to questions of song choices/how many songs if you want to split hairs, and for the mid-'00s that's real good!

"D.A.N.C.E." is the song I know Justice for, it still gets airplay on Seattle's indie radio station so it's never really fully left my head and I don't mind that. Justice definitely seemed to be The Next Big Thing and then disappeared without me noticing it, kind of felt like they were meant to be the next Daft Punk but then Random Access Memories proved there wasn't much need for a next one of them yet. 

Like Cloudy I think with Bon Iver my mind immediately goes to collaborations with Kanye West, then probably "Skinny Love" after that (though I prefer a cover by Birdy over the original). I do know this song, it immediately clicked when I played it that this is on at least one curated playlist I sometimes listen to when going to bed. It's very good for that, mind. I could see myself enjoying it as a song on an early-morning driving playlist and in fact, fuck it, I might as well just add it to one of those. Anyway, I don't think you can really snub them from a book like this, they're pretty important to the indie rock landscape of the late '00s.

Yeah this Robyn song rules. I've never gotten fully sucked into Robyn's orbit but that's purely down to me just never thinking to put on one of her albums, for whatever reason, even though every song of hers I know I tend to really like. Definitely a great rep for that wave of mostly-European electro-pop too.

LCD Soundsystem are another band where I like a lot of their stuff when it comes on the radio but I just never latched on to them at their peak and there was something about the hype around them that kept me at arms length. This is a good song, anyway. Glad it's in here. It's probably one of the first LCD Soundsystem songs that would pop into my head if you asked me to come up with one, probably behind "North American Scum" and "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House."

"Paper Planes" is probably going to go down as one of those songs that just works as a sound cue for an entire moment in time. It just is that mid-to-late '00s period to me, it can come on and I'll just start thinking about 2008 and where I was and what my days were like. In some ways that's to its detriment just because it becomes too big to touch, but I'm never not going to be happy to hear it.

[Liam]

981.      

‘Mercy’, Duffy (2008)

Influenced by: Stand By Me • Ben E. King (1961)   

Influence on: Choo Choo • Diane Birch (2009)   

Covered by: OneRepublic (2008) • The Fratellis (2008) • John Mayer (2008)   

Other key tracks: Rain on Your Parade (2008) • Rockferry (2008) • Warwick Avenue (2008)

I feel Duffy will be a divisive choice, but I always enjoyed what I heard from her. I appreciated the older sounding take on pop/soul that clearly channelled earlier decades, whilst I also like anyone who has something of a unique voice especially when compared to successful pop acts of the time. Her overall story is a sad one – you do wonder how successful she could have continued to be off of the back of a debut that sold in excess of 6 million records.

982.      

‘Sabali’, Amadou and Mariam (2008)

A Malian couple who crossed paths with Damon Albarn of all people for this single, Amadou and Mariam had produced music for some years before charity involvement with Albarn saw them bring him in on their 2008 album ‘Welcome to Mali’. The added electronic elements add a hypnotic feeling to things, whilst Mariam’s voice is given a chance to shine over and above Amadou’s guitar work. A curio perhaps more than a song you have to have to hear…but it is a pretty good song, that’s for sure.

983.      

‘Divine’, Sebastien Tellier (2008)

A very, very odd choice. Eighteenth place in the Eurovision Contest and with the book then saying it went to Number 4 in the Swedish charts doesn’t exactly suggest that this is a world beater of a track. However, having the concept of Eurovision covered within the book is a nice touch, whilst the inclusion of this song seemingly looked to celebrate the musicianship compared to your standard Eurovision entry, so fair enough. Add a member of Daft Punk on production and there are enough quirks to make this an interesting, if largely unworthy, addition.

984.      

‘Mykonos’, Fleet Foxes (2008)

Influenced by: Suite: Judy Blue Eyes • Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969)   

Influence on: Wild Honey Never Stolen • J. Tillman (2010)   

Covered by: Rock Paper Scissors (2008)   

Other key track: White Winter Hymnal (2009)

This sounds like a song I feel that I’ve heard before, though that might be as much about the song’s ability to hearken back to other notable acts who largely put vocals at the forefront of their sound. I really liked the first part of the song, though I was less fussed by the second part where more noise gets thrown at the listener. It does build well to this, but I was just enjoying the brooding, moody opening section a lot. I don’t know whether this deserved a spot or not…I enjoyed it thought.

985.      

‘Time To Pretend’, MGMT (2008)

Influenced by: Overpowered by Funk • The Clash (1982)   

Influence on: One More Time to Pretend (MGMT vs. Daft Punk) • Immuzikation (2008)   

Covered by: Kaiser Chiefs (2008) • Digital Leather (2009) • Paolo Nutini (2009)

I never really liked MGMT the way that some people did, but I can see the appeal. Jangly synths, spacey vocals – I do get it. This apparently caused a furore due to the lyrical content, though as with most things that cause outrage, the controversy just drove the sales. I’m surprised ‘Kids’ didn’t make the list (…unless it comes later). This somewhat marks a time period where I was pretty meh about music in general, so it does very little for me.

[gunnar hendershow]

Okay Fleet Foxes and especially MGMT capture that particular era extremely well. Just a mountain of memories to both, I think "Time to Pretend" captured the feelings of a lot of people in my age cohort especially.

Not very familiar with the rest and I'm going to wager they're much more the "wishful thinking" inclusions we've seen in other posts from this decade. Or the world music inclusions which strike me more as "the one song from this country I've really liked" than a critical assessment.

It's admittedly not easy to figure out exactly what will hold up or what will have stylings that are seen in other music for years to come. I don't think that really counts for Duffy though given everything she went through and her basic retirement from music.

[GoGo Yubari]

I totally missed the actual lifespan as a pop song for "Mercy" in and of itself and instead became familiar with it as a song people on singing competition shows loved to pull out, I guess because it a) is a good vocal showcase and b) was at that time a newer song that sounded like an older song so it covered a lot of bases. It's fine! I don't know if I think it's divisive to include it, seems plausible enough.

Amadou and Miriam's an interesting enough one. Good story, good enough song, in general Africa didn't wear out its welcome as a place to pull foreign language tracks from in the way "here's another soft pop song from France/Italy/Spain" did.

Some people really swear by that Sebastien song as a Eurovision entry. If Kats were still on EWB maybe I could get some better context on it, but it didn't feel to me like either an undeniable enough pop song or appealingly weird enough to be a fun meme/novelty entry.

Echo damshow's feelings about MGMT and Fleet Foxes. Don't know if "Mykonos" would be my Fleet Foxes selection but I think it's very defensible.

[MalaCloudy Black]

21 minutes ago, damshow said:

Okay Fleet Foxes and especially MGMT capture that particular era extremely well. Just a mountain of memories to both, I think "Time to Pretend" captured the feelings of a lot of people in my age cohort especially.

haha yeah definitely sweats

seriously though, I dunno any of these. I listened to the MGMT song and I recognize it from ads and being on a playlist my brother has on his phone, but it's never a song I went out of my way to listen to after hearing it the first time. Pretty catchy tho.

[METALMAN]

huh.

Mercy isn't a bad song by any means but it was overplayed so much I never need or want to hear it again. I worked in a supermarket and then a high street clothes shop in 2008 and that song has very supermarket and high street clothes shop vibes.

I like most of what I've heard by Amadou & Mariam but not so into this genre crossover thing we have here. I'm sure it can be done well but I don't think this is doing it well.

That Divine one is fine, I guess. But why?

Mykonos is fine. I like that Fleet Foxes album but Mykonos never stood out to me. 

Time To Pretend is one of those that really brings memories back. The summer before I started university, the last serious time I spent with my group of friends from school. It's all very tied up in that and I don't think I could consider it in a objective manner. But it's a meaningful song for me because of all that stuff.