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The Best 100 Songs of the Decade, 81-90


We're back with the next round of songs in my countdown of of the Top 100 songs of the decade! Check here for the first ten songs.

Hope you find these next few at least interesting. Here goes.....



90. Somebody Who / Au Revoir Simone - 2013

This is the first of three artists who make the end-of-decade list who I discovered via the Twin Peaks revival from 2017. This wasn't the Au Revoir Simone song that was featured in the show, but it's my favorite of theirs. Boppy, moody and fun.



89. R U a Freak / Snoop Dogg - 2015

I'm not a fan of most rap music, but have always had a soft spot for Snoop Dogg. And, this breezy ditty from a few years ago is fairly innocuous tune.



88. Ong Ong / Blur - 2015

Let's be honest -- Blur's heyday was in the '90s, and their output since has been, to put it mildly, varied. Still, this was the most hummable tune from their only studio album of the decade (and their most recent release of new material to-date), so it gets a place in the countdown.



87. Sad Night, Where Is Morning? / The Ocean Blue - 2013

The first of two songs on the list by the jangle pop band from Hershey, Pennsylvania, as well as the first of many artists who made the Top 100 songs that I've seen in concert (many of them this year). The Ocean Blue were introduced to me by Ashley, as they were one of his favorite bands in the '90s. This song was my favorite track off of their Ultramarine album, which had been their first release in fourteen years.



86. Heart To Love / Passenger - 2018

This is another of Ashley's favorite musicians. I'd never warmed to Michael David Rosenberg's (aka Passenger) style, until this song. It's got some good energy dwelling within its sadness.



85. Glass of the Microscope / Yeasayer - 2012

I was drawn to this song because it was different. Some seven years later, I can still appreciate it, though find its soundscape to be both compelling and cold. Regardless, it's distinctiveness is its strength, and it may be the most unique track out of all 100 songs on the list.



84. Swish Swish / Katy Perry featuring Nicki Minaj - 2017

This is a difficult one, as I can't deny digging it when it was first out (it made my top 10 songs of that year), but it's also part of that modern cattiness that I so detest. And Nicki Minaj... oi. Still, there's something about it I kind of like.



83. Let Somebody Love You / Boy George & Culture Club - 2018

Ah, nostalgia. I clearly this band being a thing back in the '80s, and it's nice that they're back together, recording and touring (they're the second band on the list I saw in concert this year). This song isn't a classic, by any means, but I admire its upbeat positivity. Oh, and look for Boy George to return, on his own, later on in the countdown



82. Wow / Beck - 2017

I have fond memories of the summer of 1994, and part of that includes the prominence of Beck's song Loser during that time. Two decades later, he's still making good music, and Wow is the first of two tracks off of his Colors release that makes our Top 100 list. I particularly like the bit where he talk-sings, including the lyric, "My friends, your friends." The video's a strange one, though. Yikes.



81. Shallow / Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper - 2018

I feel like last year's version of A Star Is Born was a cultural touchstone. So many people, from a variety of backgrounds, seemed to like it. And the moment in the movie when Gaga and Cooper sing this song was electric (their performance at the Oscars wasn't bad, either).



And that's the second round of Top 100 songs of the decade. I'm excited to share these tunes with you, as they've all meant something to me during the last ten years, and music is a gateway to the soul.

Hope you stick around for the next ten!


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