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The Best 100 Songs of the Decade, 41-50


Alright, it's been a few weeks. The holidays, and adjusting to the new year sort of put things off-track with the countdown, but let's get back to it and finish this! Up next in our list of Matt's 100 favorite songs of the (last) decade, we crack the Top 50. Let's see what we find...


50. Blue Velvet / Lana Del Rey - 2012

 Ms Lana Del Rey enters the list with the first of four(!) songs. This one is a well-done cover of a standard classic. It has a lush and haunting sound, and the video is reminiscent of something David Lynch might do.




49. Giving Up the Gun / Vampire Weekend - 2010

This is a nice, ambling song, and the video for it is particularly cool, with lots of celebrity cameos. It's the first of five (yes, five) Vampire Weekend songs to make the list.

The official music video can be found here.



48. Naked / Dev featuring Enrique Iglesias - 2012

This song kicks ass. It may not be deep. It may not be gentle. But it's pure pop-dance, and I like it.




47. When I Was a Boy / ELO - 2015

Jeff Lynne's Alone In the Universe album is what really got me into ELO. I'd been introduced to their music while DJing at a college radio station in the 1990s, but never made it past their classic Can't Get It Out of My Head. Their 2015 album got me interested in their whole back catalog, culminating in seeing them perform live in Chicago last year. When I Was a Boy was my favorite song from that 2015 release.




46. Cameras / Matt and Kim - 2010

This is one of those songs that made me feel cooler-than-I-am while listening to it. The duo from New York have made some pretty solid music over the years, and this represents some of their best work.




45. Die In Your Arms / Justin Bieber - 2012

Perhaps my guiltiest pleasure of the decade, this song is by an artist I don't particularly care for, and features a sample from Michael Jackson. I dunno, maybe it's the utterly pleading and pathetic lyrics that draw me to it? Justin's delivery of the material is, I have to admit, pretty good here as well.




44. City of Stars / Ryan Gosling & Emma Stone - 2016

Though I was never as over-the-moon about La La Land as some were, I always liked this quiet song, with its melancholy piano riff. And, Gosling & Stone provide some decent vocals. It's not often we have good music from movies anymore.




43. The Riddle of the Model / Sing Street - 2016

Speaking of songs from movies, we have another one, this time from the Irish film Sing Street, about a young lad living in the 1980s who fancies himself the next Simon Le Bon. It's a cute movie that features several songs, our # 43 entry the best among them.



42. WTF (Where They From) / Missy Elliott featuring Pharrell Williams - 2015

Missy is awesome. 'nuff said.

You can check out the official music video here.



41. Pumped Up Kicks / Foster the People - 2010

It seemed like everyone liked this song at the start of the decade, almost to the point that it made me not like it. In the end, it makes the cut, as one of those earlier nostalgia tracks. "Better run, better run... "




And, there we go. Stay tuned for the next ten songs in short order.


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