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“Young Folks” by Peter Bjorn and John – 2006
Peter Bjorn and John should have a comma in there, but I guess they like people to ask “John who? He doesn’t have a last name?” No matter, though. Their English is pretty kick-ass for it not being their native tongue. They’re Swedes! And they wrote a hypnotically catchy song featuring the most recognizable whistling solo since Otis Reading (says me… and apologies to Andrew Bird). One hell of a song. All these songs are, though.
“B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad)” by OutKast – 2000
OutKast are the kings of hip-hop as far as I’m concerned. This song blows my mind. It’s almost unfair to call it hip-hop, since it’s so many other things: gospel, funk, jungle, whatever! One thing it’s not, though, is some kind of war protest song. It’s easy to forget this song predates the War on Terror and the Iraq war. Crazy, right? Actually it sort of predates the Naughty Aughties by a bit too, as it was written in ’99 and can’t claim that it wasn’t, because Andre 3000 raps in one of his perfectly crafted rhymes, “But this’ll be the year that we won’t forget: One-Nine-Nine-Nine.” But it came out in October 2000, so the Aughties will happily take it.
“Time to Pretend” by MGMT – 2008
When I first heard “Time to Pretend,” I swore I’d heard it before. It has that familiar snare of a hook that seems like it has always existed.
“Fake Empire” by The National – 2007
A full post about The National will come soon. The National deserve a massive amount of credit. In an age when music is going in every which direction, mixing and melding, splintering and specializing, and overall becoming more electronically-oriented, this band reminded us that there will always be a place for artists who don’t do something new, but rather do something old very, very well. This is just plain good song-writing, and the National’s catalog is full of it.
“Map of the Problematique” by Muse – 2006
I’ve gushed plenty about Muse in a previous post. A half dozen other Muse songs could just as easily be on this list, but I think this track captures the grandeur of the Muse experience particularly well. If Freddie Mercury’s ghost challenged the living world to come up with someone to beat him at his own game, Muse’s Matthew Bellamy would be our greatest hope.
