My 25 Favorite Songs of the Decade: 2010-2019

I started out trying to keep this to 20, like I did last decade, but there were some vital entries that were going to get relegated to the "Honorable Mention" section, and I couldn't abide that. Turns out that even though album listening is out of vogue, there are more songs than ever! And even as I move into middle age, I still love lots of them. That's heartening!

I had two kids this decade, which definitely affects some of these choices. Not because I started listening to Barney or Raffi or whatever, but because I still play what I like in the car, so John (born in 2010) and Rory (born in 2012) are exposed to it. There are songs that probably wouldn't have made this list, except that one or both of them kept requesting that I play it over and over. I'll put an asterisk (*) next to the ones my kids love and demand. Of course, there were songs that they adored that DIDN'T make the list and I grew to loathe, such as three-year-old John's constant demand that I find "Light 'em Up, Daddy! I want Light 'em Up!" on the radio. In contrast, we have an adorable video of him singing "You Belong With Me" on the fireplace mantle.

As usual, Honorable Mentions are in no particular order:
Chvrches: "Get Out," "Clearest Blue," and "Recover," The Maine: "Heaven, We're Already Here" and "Flowers on the Grave," The Struts: "Primadonna Like Me*,"Only Just a Call Away," and "Put Your Money on Me*," The Wombats: "Turn," "Emoticons," and "Lemon to a Knife Fight," Weezer: "Da Vinci," "Mexican Fender," "L.A. Girlz" and their cover of "No Scrubs," Strumbellas: "Spirits," Robyn: "Dancing on My Own" and "Call Your Girlfriend," Selena Gomez: "Come & Get It," Lorde: "Team" and "Green Light," Katy Perry: "Teenage Dream," "Firework," "TGIF," "Roar*," and "Never Really Over," Kate Nash: "Do Wah Doo," Waxahatchee: "Be Good" and "Takes So Much," Flo Rida ft. David Guetta: "Club Can't Even Handle Me," Pink: "Raise Your Glass," Lupe Fiasco: "Show Goes On" and "Things I'd Never Say," Bruno Mars: "The Lazy Song," Christina Perri: "Jar of Hearts" and "A Thousand Years" The Black Keys: "Lonely Boy" and "Little Black Submarines," Grouplove: "Colours," "Tongue Tied," "Itchin' on a Photograph," and "Ways to Go," Kanye West: "All of the Lights," Walk the Moon: "Anna Sun," The Killers: "Runaways," Paramore: "Still Into You," Pearl Jam:"Sirens," Kendrick Lamar: "HUMBLE," Bastille: "Pompeii," Kodaline: "All I Want," Rachel Platten: "Fight Song*" (would've made actual list, but I now associate it with Hillary Clinton somehow losing an election to Donald Trump), Jason Derulo: "Trumpets," M83: "Wait," and "Go!*," Counting Crows: "Possibility Days," Courtney Barnett: "Pedestrian at Best," Car Seat Headrest: "Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales," Alvvays: "Archie, Marry Me," Sharon Van Etten: "Seventeen," White Reaper: "Might Be Right," Jimmy Eat World: "The End is Everything," "Sure and Certain," "Littlething," "I Will Steal You Back," Taylor Swift: "Back to December," "Story of Us," "Ronan," "22," "Everything Has Changed," "WANEGBT," "Blank Space," "The New Romantics," "Getaway Car," "Cornelia Street," and "Cruel Summer."

25. Jenny Lewis: "On the Line" On the Line (2019)

I loved Jenny Lewis when she was with Rilo Kiley, and now I'm a huge fan of her solo career. This was my favorite song between the two albums she dropped in the 2010s; it's a shame she hasn't made a video for it yet.

24. Green Day: "Still Breathing" Revolution Radio (2016)

One of my four favorite bands couldn't replicate their supernova success of the past two decades, but as this song aptly demonstrates, they haven't gone anywhere and are still capable of bursts of greatness like this fist-to-the-sky anthem. This album wasn't one of my favorites, but the tour promoting it produced one of the best shows I've ever been to, so there's that.

23. Blink 182: "Bored to Death*" California (2016)

Like Green Day, they are royalty of the pop/punk genre. Unlike Green Day, they're a shell of their former selves after Tom DeLonge left the band. Mark Hoppus can still craft a banger, though. The rest of this album is a bit of a mess, but "Bored to Death" is a top tier Blink tune. *Rory LOVES this song.

22. Taylor Swift: "Lover" Lover (2019)

I was so goddamn relieved when this tune dropped ahead of the album release. The first two singles were ok, but here, finally, was vintage Taylor. I'm still mildly annoyed by the fact that she seems to think it's rebellious to leave your Christmas lights up...until JANUARY (gasp). But the rest of it's sublime.

21. Adele: "Someone Like You" 21 (2011)

"Rolling in the Deep" announced her presence, but this is one of the best breakup ballads ever. You know you've got emotional resonance when Saturday Night Live can pen an entire sketch around how sad a song is.

20. The Maine: "Slip the Noose*" You are O.K. (2019)

 

A former student breathlessly proclaimed this on Twitter as "the best album opener ever." My first response was to (rightfully) mock her with responses like Kurt Cobain wanting a word with her from the great beyond. Then I actually listened to the song. Hot damn, she was onto something. This is a great opening salvo to a fantastic album. 

19. The Mountain Goats: "The Diaz Brothers*" Transcendental Youth (2012)

This rollicking piano tune's upbeat tempo belies the nasty underbelly of the lyrics. Which are seemingly about two scoundrel brothers attempting to evade frontier justice determined to lynch them. It's one of my kids' early (incredibly inappropriate) favorites. 

18. Billie Eilish: "Bad Guy" When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019)

 I work with teenagers, so I was aware of Billie Eilish before most of the rest of America was. I'd even heard "You Should See Me in a Crown" before her album dropped. I bought it the day it came out, and the instant the bass line of "Bad Guy" pulsed through the speakers, I knew she was onto something. It's easily the song of Summer 2019, and never before has "Duh" been used with more surgical precision. 

17. Bleachers: "Rollercoaster" Strange Desire (2014)

Jack Antonoff should probably get some kind of "Best of the 2010s" award for his contributions to the musical canon. Between fun., Bleachers, and all the songwriting/producing work he did (particularly for my girl Tay-Tay), he had himself a decade. And despite the latter half of the decade being a pretty huge downer for the more sane among us, his songs pulse with a much-needed optimism. 

16. Katy Perry: "The One That Got Away" Teenage Dream (2010)

As I wrote in my Top 10 albums post, this album was ubiquitous and produced five #1 singles. This wasn't one of them, which is probably the reason it remains my favorite; it didn't get quite the overplay that the others did. Plus, the video has Diego Luna!

15. fun.: "Carry On*" Some Nights (2012)

I guess everyone from this band got too famous to make music together, which is a shame. They have a talent for huge, harmonizing anthems. This one was often sung in our car with "carry" replaced by "Rory" when she was an infant ("Rory on, Rory on!"). I wouldn't blame anyone for wanting to punch me at this point.

14. Miley Cyrus: "Wrecking Ball" Bangerz (2013)

I couldn't find a way to post the original video, which is either a blessing/curse because it is A LOT. Song and video will be forever intertwined, but the tune stands on its own, I think. Miley's been wronged, and I am here for it. Fun Fact: On a trip to Atlanta, we stopped at a tavern called "The Wrecking Bar." You're never gonna believe this, but I annoyed the piss out of everyone that day with my bleating, pun-filled renditions.

13. Cold War Kids: "First" Hold My Home (2014)

Just a fun little alt-rock tune that perked me up every time it came on the radio, which was a lot. Imparted some good life lessons, too.

12. Chvrches: "Graffiti" Love is Dead (2018)

Chvrches probably wins my Best New Band of the 2010s award. Someone please notify them; I'm sure they'd be awestruck and humbled by the achievement. I had a tough time choosing which of their tunes I wanted on the list, but in the end I went with one of the lesser-known tracks. For a time I thought this song might be referencing a school shooting, but now I think that's just where the dark corners of my imagination take me.

11. Belly: "Human Child" Dove (2018)

If you're roughly my age, and you're trying to place Belly, yes, they are the "Feed the Tree" outfit. I maintain they are one of the most criminally underrated 90s bands. Tanya Donnelly is my favorite female vocalist ever and has my undying devotion. I commented on the Facebook post when this video was released that it was my favorite song of the past year (it really was), and Tanya "liked" my comment. I had to take a week off of school to recover.

10. Weezer: "Foolish Father" Everything Will Be Alright In the End (2014)

There's no way 20-something me appreciates this song on the same level that late-30s me did. I just love the themes of maturity and redemption and Weezer throwing their goddamn fastball again. When the titular album refrain bangs in at the end? Pure bliss.

9. Demi Lovato: "Skyscraper" Unbroken (2011)

Sure, we all want Demi to figure things out and be well. But man, as long as she's struggling, I hope she continues to belt out anthems like this one. You can feel the raw pain and her powerful belief in herself, even as she acknowledges how tenuous it can all be.

8. The Strokes: "Under the Cover of Darkness" Angles (2011)

Remember when the Strokes were going to "save rock n' roll"? That was literally what people were saying in the early 2000s. Limp Bizkit and Staind and Korn and their ilk made mainstream rock music so shitty that the Strokes seemed like saviors. Well, they made three pretty great albums and then Angles, where this is the only standout song. But what a last gasp it is.

7. Lorde: "Supercut" Melodrama (2017)

Lorde had a helluva decade. Two huge albums, and three singles that became part of the cultural zeitgeist. However, I always preferred this wistful tune to the bigger hits. It's like a mashup of all the best stuff of her other tunes. A..."supercut," if you will.

6.Vampire Weekend: "Step" Modern Vampires of the City (2013)

Just a wonderfully composed song. I don't totally know what it's about, but all the East Bay city shout-outs (Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda) are awesome.

5. Taylor Swift: "Long Live" Speak Now (2010)

I'll be honest: I could've slid this right down to #2, but I didn't wanna seem, you know, obsessive or anything. I love this song's underdog sensibility, the fantasy it keeps alive for all the kids who wanted to live the fairy tale high school existence but just got regular high school existence instead. It's a bit of a departure for Taylor, and it's her signature anthem.

4. The Struts: "Could've Been Me" Everybody Wants (2014)

Speaking of anthems, here's my favorite of the decade. This song perfectly encapsulates all the great things about The Struts: their ambition, audacity and go-for-broke ethos. They want nothing less than to be the biggest band in the world and make throngs of people wave their arms back and forth to songs just like this. I highly recommend obliging them. 

3. Sleigh Bells: "Rill Rill" Treats (2010)

This song just felt so delightfully different than anything I'd heard before, despite sampling an older Funkadelic tune. For standout lyrics, it's hard to top "Wonder what your boyfriend thinks about your braces." Effortlessly cool, it's the perfect song for driving around slowly with the top down. In fact, it's the decade's best cruising song, just after...

2. White Reaper: "1F*" You Deserve Love (2019)

This song was only released four or five months ago, but it was one of those rare times where the first time I heard it, I knew I loved it. It's absolutely the most fun three minutes you can spend. If the bouncy synth riff doesn't get you, the insanely catchy chorus bangs in, and all you want to do is drive around in a convertible 'Vette with these guys and listen to them come up with new licks on their guitars. My kids have played this song roughly 1,000 times on their own in the last few months, and I've never once felt like stopping them.
1. Taylor Swift: "All Too Well" Red (2012)

The contest was over the minute I heard this song, five tracks into the album, and kept hitting the back button as soon as it finished. Taylor is the queen of breakup ballads, and this is her magnum opus.

It's so incredible that sometimes I forget there's another whole verse after the devastating "You call me up again just to break me like a promise/So casually cruel in the name of being honest." That's such an unbelievable climax, and then she circles back to the beginning of the song with a bit of jealous triumph: "But you kept my old scarf from that very first week/Cuz it reminds you of innocence and it smells like me."

The strangest thing is that "All Too Well" was never released as a single, so it never blew up the way lots of her other tunes have. Now, of course, it's the one everyone screams for at her shows, and she acts all coy, as if she never knew people would love it so much. But I'm thinking even Taylor knew she wrote the song of the decade.

She knew it...all too well.

I'll just see myself out, thanks.