Top 100 - My Favourite Songs of the 2010's

Second post of Music Week and the first truly massive one of the month. See, when it comes to songs, there are so many I have fallen in love with this decade. Frankly, too many. As such, I am going all in and talking about 100 songs from the past decade. I've been a little tricksy when it comes to release dates with these, as some songs released as singles in 2009 may make it due to their album being released in 2010, whereas other singles have made the cut when their albums were released in 2020. I've also not restricted the list to singles, because I want to keep my choices broad and nobody buys singles anymore anyway. As one final stipulation, I have decided to allow remixes in, on the condition that their original song came out this decade and that the remix is there instead of the original, artists are getting no easy double dip from me.

Talking about most of these songs is difficult, because music, more than almost any art form for me, is so much about the emotion. I can tell a well made song and a poorly made song but the actual discussion of specifics is tricky for me because I was never taught specific aural analysis skills. As such, the discussion underneath each song will probably be a weird mix of me describing the song and then talking about a story or memory that is inextricably tied with the song. Get ready for a lot of that and please try not to roast me too much for my awful taste in music. Fortunately, music can be so easily shared and I've made a playlist of all the songs in this list, in their order (what Spotify counts as "1" is my "100", as should become clear). It isn't necessarily intended to be listened to as a proper playlist because there will be serious emotional whiplash throughout, but hopefully hearing the songs as you read will let you understand my thought process a bit better or make you go "oh, that's the song he's talking about".

Now that I've got all that said, I guess we get started? The list could change wildly depending on my emotional state at any time but for now, how about we start with...

100. Wait by M83

Sublime and gentle and surprisingly overwhelming, Wait sounds like how you feel when your heart gets broken.

99. bad guy by Billie Eilish

Hate it if you want, bad guy has a swagger I find totally irresistible, a projection of immense and exaggerated confidence from a place you wouldn't expect.

98. Cruel Summer by Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift is at her best (in my opinion) when she leans into being hopelessly romantic and the first time I heard her sing "I love you ain't that the worst thing you ever heard?", I knew Cruel Summer fit the bill.

97. The Morning by The Weeknd

The fact that this song featured in Uncut Gems isn't the reason I love it, though I admit that as soon as I saw that film, I knew The Morning had secured a place on this list.

96. Wildest Dreams by Taylor Swift

Again, it's Taylor being hopelessly romantic, though this time with a grand, Hollywood-esque scale. I fall for it every time.

95. Cool for the Summer by Demi Lovato

I couldn't name a single other Demi Lovato song but Cool for the Summer works for me because it embraces a really fun, flirtatious vibe. It has a slight edge, but never in an off putting way, also winning me over with that killer riff.

94. Now That I Found You by Carly Rae Jepsen

This is what Carly Rae Jepsen does best: it's breezy pop brilliance with a message about love smuggled in there. It is simply very very joyous.

93. There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back by Shawn Mendes

This is where we start hitting the guilty pleasures. I think I like There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back because of the escalation of that chorus but it's not a song I think about, because I'm too busy dancing.

92. Oh, What A World by Kacey Musgraves

When I was in Florida, this is one of the songs I would often have on as I was watching the sunset. It makes me feel floaty and free, like I am in a very magical slice of the world indeed.

91. Golddust by DJ Fresh

Even I can't resist a good club banger. Golddust was great when it came out at the start of the decade, it's just as great ten years on.

90. Good as Hell by Lizzo

Good as Hell is a song that sounds great, but that is elevated by the wonderful message of self love at the center. I know I'm not the demographic but it still makes me feel good as hell too.

89. Red by Taylor Swift

Red came at that weird time when Taylor was moving from Country to Pop, but it finds itself in a sweet spot between the two that I keep going back to.

88. Blinding Lights by The Weeknd

Jumping in right at the end of the decade, Blinding Lights is just a pure banger. It has a beat I bop my head to every time, paired with the soothing vocals of The Weeknd and a soaring chorus to become an unstoppable smash.

87. Give Me Everything by Pitbull, featuring Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer

Mr Worldwide has had a hell of a decade and it started with what remains one of his most well known hits, as well as containing the brilliant idea to rhyme Kodak with Kodak. What I'm saying is that yes, it was an early example of the genius I loved him for.

86. Changing by Sigma and Paloma Faith

When Paloma Faith broke onto the music scene, she didn't seem like an artist who would ever make a club banger. This decade, she's made quite a few, this one with Sigma being the euphoric peak.

85. Lonely Weekend by Kacey Musgraves

I love Lonely Weekend because it nails the feeling of loneliness without ever succumbing to a feeling of misery. It feels like a song perfect for those blue sky days that the album cover shows, where however you feel, there isn't a cloud in the sky.

84. Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Rey

I hate Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby and as a huge fan of the original novel, I feel it does an immense disservice to the story. However, I have to give it credit for creating Young and Beautiful, a stunning ode to the impermanence of love that feels like the one moment where the film understands the source novel.

83. Mine by Daniel Olsen, Johnathan Eng and Linnea Olsson

When I played it last year, Sayonara Wild Hearts made me swoon endlessly. I could have picked any track from the concept album/video game hybrid but Mine is the one that played in my head longest afterwards, as well as being from my favourite level.

82. Love Myself by Hailee Steinfeld

Love Myself is a playful song about self love and "self love" and I admit I didn't take it seriously at first. It took an absolutely delightful scene from Blockers to convert me and finally, I got the hype. It is empowering and fun and silly in ways that only pop music can be.

81. Blame by Bastille

Once upon a time, Pompeii could have made it way up this list, but Bastille are a band I have appreciated less as the decade went on. The exception is Blame, a song that rocks hard and has a superbly Lynchian music video to boot.

80. Why Am I Like This? by Orla Gartland

The appeal of this song is obvious from the title alone. Everyone, whether lost teenager, lost adult or anywhere in between, has asked themselves the question "why am I like this?" and with this song, Orla Gartland nails the casual self loathing many of us live with, while also comforting her listeners.

79. when the party's over by Billie Eilish

when the party's over encapsulates the feeling of spiralling into a period of sadness in a way I love. It is so confident and self-assured, even before you consider that it's a 17 year old singing. Dismiss Eilish's work as juvenile if you want, you'll only be missing out.

78. Holocene by Bon Iver

I do not understand why Holocene works. I don't. I simply do not have the knowledge of musical structure to pick it apart. All I can say is that it breaks me down so well, with angelic vocals, a slow rise and a gentle guitar that says "I forgive you".

77. 1 Night by Mura Masa, featuring Charli XCX

Steel drums are not in enough pop songs. I'll be the one to say it, I don't mind, because we could do with more songs that sound as good as 1 Night, with it's percussive bubbliness.

76. Blow Your Mind (Mwah) by Dua Lipa

That's right, a Dua deep cut. Of all the songs on her debut album, this is the one I like the most, brimming with an attitude I love. Basically, the song says that if you're not on board, get out the way, the party is happening. After hearing this song, I don't know how you couldn't be on board.

75. Montage by Andy Hull and Robert McDowell, featuring Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe

Though recently adopted by eBay for their adverts (the bastards), Montage was originally from that film where Daniel Radcliffe plays a farting corpse. It's a song whose acapella weirdness perfectly captures the beautiful insanity of the film it comes from.

74. Beautifully Unconventional by Wolf Alice

I remember hearing this song for the first time in The Ram, the pub on campus at my Uni. As such, it embodies the start of the move to adulthood, my own time to flourish into something beautifully unconventional. Still waiting to fully get there but it's alright, we're working on it.

73. King by Years and Years

King is a song that takes me straight back to the end of secondary school and our "after prom". Its debauchery looks antiquated by my standards now, but it was another moment where I felt like my life was changing for the better and King brings me back to that field.

72. My Type by Saint Motel

Another song many people probably just associate with adverts but what My Type rarely seems to get credit for is its surprising humour. The title is literally a punchline, that the type of the singer is anyone with a pulse and who is breathing. Few songs take as much joy in being as throwaway as this.

71. POWER by Kanye West

The first time I ever heard POWER was in a mission on Saints Row: The Third. It's a stupid game and the mission is just as stupid, asking you to skydive into a penthouse apartment and beat a lot of people up but paired with POWER, it carried a swagger. I've grown addicted to the songs swagger and have fallen in love with some of the funnier wordplay in the latter half of the song, all because of that unforgettable beat.

70. Nobody To Love by Sigma

At my prom at the end of sixth form. I remember being one of the few people left on the dance floor (mainly because I was one of the few still too young to drink) and moshing out to this song with some friends from my classes. Even now, when this plays in a club, I drag my cohort to the floor and demand they mosh out with me.

69. Shallow by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper

A Star is Born is a pretty good film. The performances are great, it looks perfectly nice, but it is a little uneven, with the first half being much better than the second half. Part of the reason for that is that the first half climaxes with Shallow, a song that genuinely made me cry when I heard it through those cinema speakers. I still get goosebumps whenever I hear it.

68. Drink About You by Kate Nash

As well as being a song about romantic mistakes and the tendency we British have to hit the sauce, Drink About You is a Kate Nash song and I am therefore instantly soft on it. It's the most rocking song she's made in a while, though still being firmly on the side of pop.

67. Pretty Shining People by George Ezra

With Pretty Shining People, I am immediately transported to the summer of 2018, where I would put this on as I sat outside, around the time I first read Slaughterhouse-5. It's one of the humbler memories songs on this list conjure, but it's such a sweet one that I always grin a little when I hear it.

66. Don't Start Now by Dua Lipa

Were I able to, I would put the entirirty of Future Nostalgia on this list, but it coming out in 2020 means that is impossible. Fortunately, Don't Start Now came out as a single last October and can therefore shimmy its way onto the list, with swagger and attitude and a breathy sexiness. It was a sign that Dua Lipa was still overflowing with musical talent after a whirlwind few years.

65. Feel It Still by Portugal. The Man

Feel It Still is another one of those songs that takes me back to first year of Uni, a song with a swagger that I believed I was close to occupying. Needless to say I wasn't, but the song remains just as cool all these years on, having lost none of its charm.

64. Firestone by Kygo, featuring Conrad Sewell

Many (and I mean, many) a time after a night out, my housemate Luke and I have crashed in the kitchen, eaten carbs to soak up the alcohol and played this song to each other. I liked Firestone a lot before we started doing that, but doing so managed to mythologise it completely. All I hope for is more Firestone nights in the future.

63. Sorry by Justin Bieber

I was one of those teenagers at the start of the decade who hated Justin Bieber, pretty much because everyone else was doing it. Looking back, I see that was clearly me buying into a weird anti-hype and while he only seems to have become more of a dick as he has grown up, Bieber at least now has the grace to do so while releasing good music, the apex of which is Sorry.

62. There for You by Martin Garrix and Troye Sivan

My brain tells me that there should be some story around why I like this song so much. Some event, some time period, some location that has rooted it in my heart since then. But no, I think There For You is just a really good pop song, one I am always trying to sneak onto pre-drinks playlists.

61. Timber by Pitbull, featuring Kesha

I think Timber is the most well known Pitbull song at this point, which is educated guesswork entirely based on the fact it seems to played in every club I ever enter. Despite that, I am yet to grow bored of the song, falling head over heels every time I hear the line "This biggity boy's the diggity dog" and screaming "TIMBER" at the tops of my lungs without fail.

60. Kids by OneRepublic

Kids says absolutely nothing insightful about our world. It is simply a song nostalgic for a time that has long gone by, yet it still acknowledges how wonderful the feeling of now can be, a song that does all that while having an electric chorus. If you've never heard it, one listen will show you what you're missing.

59. Fake Happy by Paramore

One of those wonderful Paramore songs that is an upbeat pleasure with lyrics about being sad all the time, Fake Happy just hits the spot for me. Sometimes, having to go out and see people can be miserable and this is a song that understands that, while also refusing to make you any sadder than you already are.

58. Lonely Boy by The Black Keys

When your housemates say that a song reminds them of you, that should usually be a positive thing. When the song is called Lonely Boy, it stings just a little, but I'm having such a good time listening to the actual song that I don't let it get me down too long.

57. Digital Witness by St. Vincent

With her album St. Vincent, St. Vincent was rallying against the horrors of modern society and this song that features lines like "People turn the TV on, it looks just like a window" demonstrates that with crystal clarity. It has staying power though for featuring the awesome guitar work that St. Vincent has become famous for.

56. Famous by Scouting For Girls

I can't argue this as a serious piece of music. Famous is bubbly and slightly trashy and all about wanting to be famous for absolutely nothing, an attitude I despise. However, I had to have a Scouting for Girls song on this list and Famous always brings a smile to my face because it is bubbly and slightly trashy with a real joy that you simply have to admire.

55. Nobody Speak by DJ Shadow and Run The Jewels

One of the best movie going experiences I had last decade was seeing Booksmart with a group of friends from my course, all of whom I miss dearly. Of the many wonderful songs on that soundtrack, Nobody Speak became the one that I loved most, as soon as I heard that killer guitar riff. It has an incredible bounce and also makes the bold move of opening with the line "Picture this, I'm a bag of dicks", I just love it and its energetic lack of self-doubt.

54. One Kiss by Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa

Ah, the summer of 2018. When I went abroad with my friends for the first time. When it seemed like England might actually win the World Cup. When I finished first year of university and would often walk into my kitchen to find flatmates on the sofas and dancing to this song. It was a glorious time and though this song takes me back to that time, I would also argue this song helped create that time.

53. Meet Me in the Woods by Lord Huron

The lyrics to Meet Me in the Woods convey a sort of hopelessness and to an extent the melody does too, but it has an inexplicable life to it. When I saw Lord Huron live, this was the stand out song, bringing both energy and melancholy to my life.

52. Small Bump by Ed Sheeran

Once upon a time, Ed Sheeran felt like a real person. Perhaps that's just me speaking from a nostalgic time when I was young and less cynical about things like this, but a song like Small Bump confirms my feelings. It's one man and his guitar, singing tenderly about a child he and his girlfriend were going to have, taken too soon by a miscarriage. It's gentle and understated, but that's why it stands out even more among Sheeran's recent output.

51. Sunflower by Post Malone and Swae Lee

I don't think there has been a promotional song for a movie this good all decade. Not only was Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse one of the best films of recent years, it also brought us this bop, one of my favourite songs to walk to. If I'm ever having a bad day, I put this on and within thirty seconds, light has returned to my world. It is simply wonderful.

50. White Teeth Teens by Lorde

Do not expect this entry to be the last from Lorde. White Teeth Teens uses a slightly abstract metaphor of the titular teens, painting Lorde and the listener as people simultaneously scared of and admiring of the group. They're a metaphor for the cool kids, the people we all wished we could be at some point, but it's a metaphor that I could listen to forever with that fantastic drum beat under it.

49. Graffiti by CHVRCHES

Synth music and Scots. As CHVRCHES keep proving, it's a really good combo. Like many of the songs on this list, Graffiti is an ode to a love and a life we know is fleeting, as well as an attempt to capture it in a more tangibly physical form. You can hear a tinge of loss in the vocals but the wonderful work on the music around it means that it always feels joyous.

48. Into You by Ariana Grande

For years, I didn't really get the appeal of Ariana Grande. "Former Disney child actors" is not a subset of music I'm particularly interested in and for a long time, Grande did nothing to disprove that. Nothing, that is, until Into You. Into You is a song that screams maturity, a song that sounds delightfully ravenous. It is a wholehearted embrace of sexuality in a way that never felt forced and though Grande has not made a song I like as much as this since, I am now somewhat converted.

47. Empty Room by Arcade Fire

Opening with a violent attack on a violin, Empty Room announces itself as a frantic song even before the guitar and drums come in to join it. Like seemingly everything Arcade Fire have ever touched, the lyrics are tragic, about shouting out for someone when they're clearly not there, but the breathless pace that the song sets means you never have enough time to mourn. The present is all we know, but I love that the present gets to sound this good.

46. Higher by Carly Rae Jepsen

Emotion was such a good album that, a year later, Carly Rae Jepsen released an album full of cut songs and one of those songs can still qualify as one of the best of the decade. That song is Higher, a simple enough song about how this particular love is greater than any that have come before, but Jepsen infuses it with her usual upbeat pop production to create another undeniable banger.

45. Time of Our Lives by Pitbull, featuring Ne-Yo

Pitbull is one of the great philosophers of our time. No, really, come back! I believe that Time of Our Lives captures the dual appeal and philosophy of Mr 305 perfectly. On the one hand, it features the hilariously crude line "I'm always like a squirrel, looking for a nut" which makes me laugh whether I hear it working out, walking or in a club. On the other, it features the line "Every day above ground is a great day, remember that", an upbeat reminder to just enjoy the weird world we live in. Whether you like Pit for his silly lyrics or upbeat vibes, Time of Our Lives is the song for you.

44. Katy On a Mission by Katy B

Katy On a Mission is one of those songs that came out at the start of the decade, disappeared for a bit and then, in the last few years, launched itself straight back into my consciousness. For whatever reason, it is the song I hear when I imagine house parties, even though I have been to house parties and this song almost never gets played. There just exists a swagger to this song that sounds like how I wish I looked to other people in social situations. That sounds overly complicated, so just listen to the song and enjoy.

43. Fever To The Form by Nick Mulvey

I first heard Fever to the Form when I watched the TV show Lovesick. It's an excellent show, I highly recommend it, but it comes at a real low point for our characters. At a similar time to watching the show, I found myself in a situation that was romantically complicated in my real life and somehow, this song moved across from the show and into my life. For a while, it reminded me so intensely of that dark time that I would struggle to listen to it but now, with enough distance and understanding behind me, I can appreciate it for what it is; a beautiful, beautiful song.

42. Ain't It Fun by Paramore

Often, the real world sucks. I don't have to tell you that right now, we're in the middle of a global pandemic and on the precipice of a recession, but it can get overwhelming a lot of the time. The refrain of Ain't It Fun is a reminder of how much the real world sucks but also, it is a weirdly comforting song. This world sucks, but it can be great. Get your head out of that bubble and start to appreciate the beauty that is around us all the time and maybe you'll find that actually, it can be fun. That said, I do disagree with the lyric about it being good to be on your own, that stings a little.

41. Cut To The Feeling by Carly Rae Jepsen

You know in movies where a character is walking down a street and there's a song playing and they're in love or something and then they start grinning and spinning around lampposts and shit? Cut to the Feeling is a song that feels like that, with the titular feeling apparently being joy and the speed with which Jepsen can get us to it being utterly sensational. Perfect bubblegum pop in every way.

40. Waste A Moment by Kings of Leon

At one time, Waste A Moment was tied to a weird moment for me. I was on a train, having a text conversation with my girlfriend at the time and very worried that we may be about to breakup over a stupid joke I made. In the moment, I felt sick and whenever I listened to the song again, a bit of that feeling came back. However, over the years, as I've told the story of that relationship, I have been able to change the memory. Now, the memory that this song gets is me, regaling my friends with an absurd story, a story they always laugh at because they can never quite believe it. Ironically, Waste A Moment has become tied to all those moments with friends that I never feel I have wasted.

39. The Night We Met by Lord Huron

We'll get one thing out of the way immediately: I heard this song when I watched 13 Reasons Why. At the time, I liked the show and while it has absolutely nosedived since, The Night We Met managed to survive the plane crash. It is a beautiful, folksy little song about a relationship in its dying moments. I love so many of the lyrics in this song but the ones that always get me are "I had all and then most of you, some and now none of you", because they are lyrics to understand what it's like to fall out of a relationship with someone you have not fallen out of love with yet. Despite myself, I can't help but love it.

38. She by dodie

There are two things I love about She. The first is the guitar that ambles its way through the song, playing a melody that reminds me The Yawhg, one of my very favourite games. Any reference to that game, accidental or deliberate, will always soften me to something. The other thing I love though is that this is the rare tale of unrequited love that not only comes from a female perspective but also a queer perspective. So often songs like this are by men lusting after women and finally, that dynamic is altered. With this song, dodie shakes off any stink of the label of "YouTuber music", especially when she sings lyrics like "But to her, I taste of nothing at all". If you can break my heart with lyrics like that, I am on board.

37. The Suburbs by Arcade Fire

Even before I finally accepted The Suburbs as one of the best albums of the decade, I was willing to concede that the title track was excellent. It is one of those songs that I struggle to adequately explain the power of. Perhaps it comes from the way it opens with a musical simplicity, before slowly mutating into a more complicated, layered beast, mirroring the emotions of suburbs. At the outset, they seem perfectly wholesome and pleasant, but something about prolonged contact makes them turn toxic, slowly ruining your life. That is, the location of the suburbs does that. The song The Suburbs is wonderful, its strength only grows and I could listen to it for years.

36. I Took A Pill In Ibiza - Seeb Remix by Mike Posner and Seeb

I have gone on (and warning, will continue to go on) about the power of pop songs that sound upbeat but are actually horribly depressing. Though not my favourite example, I Took a Pill in Ibiza is probably the best example, being a club banger about how much the club lifestyle sucks. Some of these lyrics hit shockingly deep, especially considering they're from the guy who wrote Cooler Than Me. I challenge you to hear "I get along with old timers because my name's a reminder of a pop song people forgot" and not feel at least a little bit empty inside.

35. This Girl by Kungs Vs. Cookin' On 3 Burners

No real analysis here, no story, I just think this song is awesome. Anytime, any place, if you put this song on then I will be up and I will be dancing. All empty hollow music could do with sounding this good.

34. Everything Now by Arcade Fire

In case you didn't know, I'm not a big fan of capitalism, specifically late capitalism. Late capitalism is the mutated, broken cousin of capitalism that we live under today, in which death is an industry, in which a single person could be a trillionaire, in which homelessness is kept down by logistical fudging as opposed to actual structural change. I have to fill you in on all of this so you understand why I love Everything Now so much, a pop song about the emptiness of our consumptive lifestyles, where we "pledge allegiance to everything now". This is a pop song about the emptiness of late capitalism and the one time I heard it in an actual club, it tore the roof off the place. More pop songs about the vacuous void of society please!

33. Black Skinhead by Kanye West

Yup, another shock entry from Kanye. Black Skinhead is immediately notable for that incredible beat, making this another song I just love to walk to. That beat alone fills the song with a bounce and absolutely killer energy, but of course Kanye is here to do more than that. Here, his lyrics are more barbed than I've ever heard them, making reference to popular culture and the way its depiction of black characters can damage the community. I have never heard a song that is primarily a man screaming at you, that I liked anywhere near as much as this.

32. Get Lucky by Daft Punk, featuring Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers

Remember 2013? Back then, it seemed like Get Lucky was totally inescapable, not least because the other big song of that summer was Blurred Lines and everyone was starting to realise the really creepy and intensely gross implications of that song. I am sure that for many, that overplay has absolutely killed this song but with it disappearing from radios, I stopped listening to Get Lucky. A year went by. Then two. Three, four years went by and then, by chance, I heard the song again. After all that time away, hearing the song again was like being hit by lightning. It filled me with energy and power and since then, I've been unable to shake it. Though very different to anything Daft Punk have done before (or since, the little there has been), Get Lucky never feels like a betrayal of their style, merely an augmentation that allows for more grooving.

31. Your Type by Carly Rae Jepsen

I have lived the lyrics of Your Type so many times. Not to start a pity party but I am very good with becoming infatuated with people and very bad at either getting them to realise it or reciprocate it. With this song, Jepsen manages to speak for me, about the agony of never being able to be considered more than a friend, but the thing that is incredible about this song is that it really sounds like she means it. These words aren't hollow, it sounds like there is actual pain in her voice, begging to be wanted by the one person who doesn't want her. Even for people who have never experienced this, it would be a wonderful song, but for me it is excruciating, in the way only truly excellent songs can be.

30. The Mother We Share by CHVRCHES

I feel like it was maybe a bad idea of CHVRCHES to make The Mother We Share their first single, seeing as it's an incredibly high bar to clear, one they've sadly yet to beat. Fortunately, that's only a problem because of how excellent this song is. It has awesome synth music paired with Lauren Mayberry's angelic vocals, all over some banging drums. Again, it is one of those songs whose appeal I find it hard to actually verbalise but if you ever put this song on around me, I am going to get up and dance.

29. Ribs by Lorde

In gothic literature, there's a concept called "the sublime". It's when something (usually something natural) is so big that it fills you with a mix of awe and terror. With its exceptional existentialism, that is exactly what Ribs does. As well as having Lorde's consistently brilliant vocals, Ribs has lyrics about the joys of youth, yet with an awareness that even as we sing this song, our youth is ending. As she says in the second verse "It feels so scary getting old" and though never driving me to a point of genuine despair, Ribs manages to make me come to terms with the impermanence of life in a strangely comforting way.

28. Can't Hold Us by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, featuring Ray Dalton

Pretty much the whitest rap song ever made, I am clearly the audience for Can't Hold Us. It takes the attitude and exuberance of rap music but applies it to something so vague that absolutely anyone can enjoy it. This is one of those songs that I love to attempt (and often fail) to sing along to, which I even did at a karaoke night while in LA, scarring the other poor guests. Not only is the rapping entertaining, there is a moment in the second verse that is absolutely incredible, where a brass section is introduced into the song. It takes what was already a fun rap song and turns it into an absolutely killer track that will get all people (though mainly white people) on their feet. Can't Hold Us is just very, very fun.

27. Drunk by Ed Sheeran

Opening with "I wanna be drunk when I wake up", it's clear at once that Drunk is a song that sings about the oxymoronic experience of drinking: the joys and highs that getting drunk can bring, often accompanied by the spectre of whatever it is you're trying to get away from. Weirdly, this song became something of a drinking anthem for my group of friends and while they all seemed to enjoy it being played, it served as a reminder to me not to take it so far all the time, to slow down and not launch into self-destruction. Of course, that doesn't always happen, but those are the experiences this song is a testament to. It is what Sheeran does best, singing about small and relatable things.

26. Slow Disco by St. Vincent

Most of MASSEDUCTION is quite angry, fulled with powerful electric guitars and screams from the top of St. Vincent's lungs, but Slow Disco is a refreshing break from that. It is one of the closing tracks on the album and beautifully tells the story of the pleasure leaving can have. On the surface, it seems like such a simple lyric but "I'm so glad I came, but I can't wait to leave" always has an incredible hold over me, as does "Slip my hand, from your hand, leave you dancing with a ghost". It is a total change from almost everything else on the album but it is a testament to Annie's writing skills that her lyrics never make it feel like a forced tonal shift.

25. Midnight City by M83

It is a scientific fact that you can't resist the chorus of Midnight City. It bounces so very high, able to bounce even higher as the song goes on because it lets the verses take a slower, more downbeat tone. M83 are a strange band and write strange music, but Midnight City is instantly accesible. Even if you don't understand what they lyrics are saying, you understand how that synth and saxophone combo makes you feel and it makes you feel really, really good, evoking the past while allowing you to feel how incredible the present is. I love M83 and I don't think it would be a controversial statement to say this is their best song, an irresistibly upbeat banger, with tendrils of sorrow creeping in at the end.

24. Futile Devices (Doveman Remix) by Sufjan Stevens

This song is the main reason that remixes are allowed on this list. The original version of Futile Devices is great, nothing wrong with it, but when remixing it as part of the soundtrack for the wonderful Call Me By Your Name, Sufjan Stevens completely stripped it back. I know this is controversial but it is my favourite of his songs that he did for the soundtrack, coming at a pivotal low point for Elio and containing enough emotional complexity that you don't feel like the film is lecturing you on how to feel. There isn't much point me talking further about this song, because it's power is entirely aural. As Stevens himself sings, "Words are futile devices".

23. Seek Bromance by Tim Berg (Avicii)

Before he adopted the name Avicii, Tim Bergling released music under a shortening of his actual name, making said name the most with the wonderful Seek Bromance. It's weird, because I am a big proponent of bromance as a concept, I'm involved in a lot of bromantic relationships myself, but the lyrics don't really speak to that. It's a vague repetition that "I will get to you the love you seek and more", which I suppose could be taken as a platonic, bro to bro plea, to always be there for each other. None of that matters though because, as he would later prove as Avicii, this is a man who knew exactly how to construct a perfect dance hit, which Seek Bromance certainly is. It has a bouncing beat that has moments of downtime, only placed so that the euphoric peaks can feel even more ecstatic. If you're making a slightly empty song that is amazing to dance to, this is the way to do it.

22. Someone In The Crowd by Emma Stone, Callie Hernandez, Sonoya Mizuno and Jessica Rothe

For a long time this decade, I stood by the statement that I do not like musicals. There were one or two exceptions but consistently, it was a genre not for me. That stance ended when I saw La La Land four times in cinemas. Immediately, the film swept me away and I've been in love ever since. Fans of the film all have their favourite songs (Another Day of Sun and Mia and Sebastian's Theme are close runners up for me) but Someone In The Crowd immediately stole my heart. The song has this incredible energy, a belief that anything in the world is possible, if for just one night. There's the brief dip down in the middle eight where the song takes a quiet moment before suddenly, it explodes out at the end again, into another burst of ecstasy. At a time where my taste in films was very cynical, La La Land and Someone In The Crowd brought a heavy dose of sincere pleasure into my life.

21. Levels by Avicii

When Avicii died in 2018, it felt like the end of an era. Music doesn't sound the way it used to when Avicii first released Levels, but it can be easy to forget that music didn't sound like this before Levels. It is a terrific dance song that abandons lyrics almost entirely (excluding of course the brilliant Etta James sample) and just uses its beats to create one of the most intensely danceable anthems of all time. Levels builds and builds and builds, climaxing in a way that sounds the same as the start of the song, yet somehow carries twice the power. Avicii's death was tragic, but there is at least comfort that as his legacy, he left us songs that are eternal.

20. Reflektor by Arcade Fire

The title track and opener of Arcade Fire's fourth album is a real change of pace from the work they had done before. Sure, certain songs of theirs have had danceable qualities before but on Reflektor, this was the band creating a deliberate disco vibe for the first time, meaning you could not feel total shame for requesting Arcade Fire at a party. Only to a certain extent though, as this remains through and through an Arcade Fire song. At seven minutes, it is sprawling and ambitious, which is before even considering the lyrics about humans losing the ability to properly connect with each other in the digital age. It sets the stage for a wonderfully ambitious album and stands up on its own as a single, being a funky, Caribbean-inspired song that you can dance to or have an existential crisis to just as easily. That's all I ask for from a song and Reflektor certainly delivers.

19. Los Ageless by St. Vincent

Alongside Pills, this is the most targeted St. Vincent's attack on middle class America gets on MASSEDUCTION. The appeal of Los Ageless is immediately clear, with a thumping drum beat pulling you in, soon accompanied by Annie's terrific guitar riffing, but as it reaches the chorus, we find a terrific poignancy. It is a chorus that expands on its own ideas in real time, moving from "how could anybody have you?" to "how could anybody have you and lose you?" before climaxing in "how could anybody have you and lose you and not lose their minds?". The tone successfully navigates feelings of bitterness, a strange sense of compliment and then a delirium. As an extra bonus, the song was featured in Bojack Horseman, which probably bumped it up the list a bit.

18. Hold On, We're Going Home by Drake and Majid Jordan

Um, I have no real explanation for this song being here. I don't particularly like Drake's music, music which seems to have largely gotten lazier as the decade progressed (just look to Toosie Slide if you don't believe me). With that said, Hold On, We're Going Home is immaculately produced. That beat is an instant head-nodder, whether it's your first or fiftieth time listening to the song. It's also where Drake manages to channel a real sadness with his voice. He sounds geninely vulnerable, something he hasn't sounded in anything else I've ever heard from him. It also plays into the vibe of "hopeless romance", in that it depicts a relationship that seems slightly fractured, but which neither party really wants to exit. Simply, it is a song that I respect so much because it is entirely out of my personal taste and yet still won me over.

17. Savior by St. Vincent

Yup, back to St. Vincent, sorry. Like I said on Tuesday when discussing the album that Savior is from, it is an album all about relationships, control and sex, which is never better epitomised than in this song. Very literally, it is a song about roleplay and how St. Vincent's nameless partner wants to put her in outfits and roles she feels uncomfortable inhabiting. It strikes a worryingly personal nerve for me for reasons anyone who knows my love life will immediately recognise, but it also contains a universality. Relationships break down because of poor communication or uncomfortable compromise and that is what the roleplay stands in for, for deeper rooted problems in this relationship. There's also a slightly helpless tone with the chorus, which is just St. Vincent singing "please" over and over again. She is on her knees begging for something better from this relationship, but no longer in the way the start of the song implied. If you want to explore sexual dynamics through your music, this is pretty much the gold standard.

16. Fourth of July by Sufjan Stevens

This decade, I don't think a sadder song has been produced than Fourth of July. It is a relentlessly sad song, not in a melodramatic way, but through its gentle lack of compromise. I'm no expert but I think there are only ever about two instruments at one time on this song, never playing too loud or for too long. Instead, Stevens' lyrics are prioritised, lyrics that discuss in intimate detail the death of his mother. Again, there is so much sadness in the song, especially through almost childlike lyrics like "Did you get enough love, my little dove?". That childlike mourning is juxtaposed with very adult realities like "The hospital asked, should the body be gassed", lyrics that only emphasise the intense reality of this moment and these feelings. Throughout, death is constantly highlighted, with a refrain of "We're all gonna die", a refrain that moves me near to tears each time it appears in the song. Complex production in a song is admirable, but as Fourth of July proves, sometimes a simple song with lyrics straight from the heart can't be beat.

15. The Man by The Killers

An extreme change of pace now, to the song personification of the phrase "Big Dick Energy". The Man is the kind of song that is rarely made anymore. Though it veers closer to pop than rock, it is a song that knows its rock roots and absolutely blows the doors off the room with its swagger. This is not a song about a relationship in the usual way, this is a song about the egotistical relationship with Man and himself and lavishes this relationship with sarcastic praise, over-hyping him with lyrics like "USDA, certi-fied lean" that will always bring a smile to my face. Again, this is a top notch walking song, the kind of song that you can play and feel like there is not a problem in the world you can't handle. Despite the impressive vocals of Brandon Flowers, it's also a very fun karaoke song, as long as you're drunk enough to try and emulate his swagger. Fortunately for me the one time I tried, I was.

14. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) by Arcade Fire

The jewel in the crown of Arcade Fire's terrific The Suburbs is Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains). It is the thesis statement of the album, drawing in all the themes into one five minute banger, full of as much joy and heartbreak as the rest of the album. There's a crushing feeling in the opening line "They heard us singing and they told me to stop, quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock" but also exuberance when the line "We rode our bikes to the nearest park" emerges, accompanied by a rocking synth. As a whole though, it is a song about how suburbia sprawls and consumes the world, something you only start to understand when you find yourself at a high vantage point in pretty much any American city. Late capitalism is a grinding machine, keeping us in place through the grease of the cogs and Sprawl II is both an acknowledgement of that and a fearful glance at it, while also making room for joy. Suburbs can be some of the most miserable places in the western world, but they contain joy and this is a song about finding the joy in our weird little dystopia.

13. Kiss Me by Ed Sheeran

We'll keep this one quick. Kiss Me is an almost embarrassingly sappy ode to that special person in your life and for me, it's tied to two special people in particular; my mates Will and Ben. In a totally platonic way, we have many a time found ourselves shuffling around the room, arm in arm, singing this song to each other. Real emotions are gross and scary of course, I'm a bloke and so have been instructed to feel this way, but there's something about this song that liberates that fear. It allows space for openness and for me, that's why I love it so much. I completely understand no one else having that connection though, so don't think about Kiss Me being so high on the list for too long.

12. Hard Times by Paramore

Even before the drums come in, the first few seconds of Hard Times will have you doing a little boogie at how upbeat and fun they are, but the mood changes when the lyrics come out. Weirdly, this is a song that seems to celebrate hard times, those times in our life when we want to be buried in a hole in the ground and not come out until the world seems a little better. Initially, that adds a melancholy vibe to this infectiously upbeat song, until you realise that in an even stranger way, this is a song about survival. Paramore are celebrating not the hard times themselves, but the ability we have to make it out of them alive, maybe even a bit stronger. Once you read the song as that, it becomes an anthem to surviving the shit stuff life throws at you and as a teenager, most of the world feels like that. That said, I feel like this song is so good it has the power to make it through into my adult years too.

11. Gimmie Love by Carly Rae Jepsen

Like Your Type, another Jepsen song from earlier on in the list, there's an element of Gimme Love that is about unrequited love, but it feels more buoyant in its pining. The message of the song is simple, it's all in the title: please give me love. If there was any emotion that epitomised my teenager years, it would be that, a plea to be wanted by the people I wanted to want me. It also has this superb helplessness, as there are hints swirling through the song that this love isn't totally unrequited. Popular culture is getting better at this, but female desire is consistently underrepresented and in this fun pop song, that you can't help but sing along to, we get that. It is a plea to be wanted, one of the most human pleas that exists.

10. No Money by Galantis

There is no good reason that No Money is on this list. There are even fewer reasons that No Money should be at number 10. Such is the power of music though, it has the ability to bypass all cognition and reason, getting a direct line straight to the heart, which is what No Money does so well. If I hear this song, I have to dance, it's simply a rule. If I'm on a chair, I'll shake around in it. If I'm walking, I'll put a little spice in my step. If I'm out drinking, I will shake off every inhibition, drag out all my friends and dance my heart out to it. Despite the central message seeming to be mean-spirited and totally against so many of my beliefs, the music itself is just too good to resist. If you don't believe me, give the song a listen, I beg. If it doesn't brighten your day up, I don't think anything will.

9. Runaway by Kanye West, featuring Pusha T

As soon as you hear that piano play, you know this is a different Kanye than we've ever heard before. A bassier, more familiar beat soon follows it, but we are told as soon as the song begins that this is different. And it is. Here, in a manner more pronounced than ever before, Kanye is laying his flaws out on the table. Runaway is a song whose chorus and titular command is all about Kanye begging his partner to leave because he knows he is going to hurt her. As a biographical admission of being a dickhead, it is one of the most moving I know, a tragic self-analysis of a man who knows his worst flaws better than even his cruellest critics. While toasting the douchebags, assholes and scumbags of the world, there is an unshakeable feeling that Kanye means himself, something that his never more soulful delivery seems to confirm. Even the cruder moments, like the Pusha T verse, don't bother me at all, because the piano that lured me in so well has remained consistent throughout. It feels like a weird admission from Kanye that no, he's not a good person, but he can at least deliver great music still. And yeah, with Runaway, that becomes an unavoidable fact on both ends.

8. Homemade Dynamite by Lorde

Good God, I adore this song so much, it feels like a part of me. With Melodrama, Lorde still discusses the problems and emotions of teenage life, but the age of those teenagers has moved up to the levels of "almost adults". To be 19 or 20 and considered an adult is terrifying, but that's the glory of Homemade Dynamite, it celebrates the terror, the damage that power could cause, but also the paradoxical beauty that our own self-annihilation conjures. Two things are particularly notable about the song for me. First is the end of the middle eight, where Lorde makes a little explosion sound effect with her mouth, such a sweet and human touch. The second bit is the entire second verse, a verse that turns a potential car crash into a mythic event. Teenagers have such little joy in their lives and as such, we do horrible stuff like mythologise our own demise. Except, due to the perspective Lorde perfectly creates, we see how beautiful that mythology is. With all the "broken glass sparkling", there is nothing else we can say but "I guess we're partying". Lorde just gets it, every time, yet this still isn't the best song she's written.

7. Slow Burn by Kacey Musgraves

Slow Burn is an incredible song. It immediately evokes the country music that Kacey Musgraves became famous for with its guitar and sweetly simple lyrics, but allows that feeling to evolve over the course of the song. It is also an impossible song to write about, it is perfect beyond my comprehension, so I suppose I'll use it as an excuse to tell a story instead. While I was in Florida, I would often have moments of lowness, where I felt very alone. I eventually discovered that my way of coping with these feelings was to walk around the campus, go up to the tallest car parks and watch the sunset. During these walks, Slow Burn was probably the song I listened to the most, a song that perfectly encapsulates the feeling I had of living in a dream world. All these months later, I can barely believe all of that happened to me, but when I listen to Slow Burn, I feel the truth. Of course it happened and though there were lows, weren't the highs worth it? Slow Burn exists for me as the climb out of those lows and up to those highs and its simple beauty pushes me to the brink of tears every time.

6. Green Light by Lorde

After impressing the world with Pure Heroine, Green Light was the single Lorde used to introduce Melodrama to the world and as far as first impressions go, good luck getting better than this. Green Light lyrically makes perfect sense to me, a song that feels as open for analysis as anything I've studied at university. It's a song about emerging from a relationship and being ready for that signal to move on, only that signal is a lot harder to come by than you first hoped. As ever, Lorde's lyrics are on point, particularly "Well those rumours they have big teeth", and her delivery turns merely great lines into iconic battle cries. Aurally, it is also immaculately crafted, using the bridge between verse and chorus to switch the song up and change into a thumping battle drum, begging to be let go. Whereas the songs from Pure Heroine didn't connect with me immediately, Green Light was a sure sign that I was going to fall head over heels with Melodrama and just as the song promised, I did. The pain of being stuck in love with someone you hate has never sounded so good.

5. Dawn Chorus by Thom Yorke

This is the last entry based on anything related to films, I promise. Last year, Paul Thomas Anderson released a short film called Anima, a short film starring and featuring music made by Thom Yorke, the front man of Radiohead. The film is exquisite, one of the best uses of 15 minutes of your time and features Yorke following a mysterious woman around a dystopian future. The first ten minutes are full of Buster Keaton-esque slapstick comedy and physical performance, but then Dawn Chorus starts playing and everything suddenly gets very transcendent. Yorke and the woman (played by his current wife) take each other by the hand and run through the night and though their futures seem uncertain, there is a power within this song that seems to insist they will be just fine. What makes the song and moment even more heartbreaking is that this is a song Yorke wrote about his previous wife, who died tragically young. It's about how the beautiful dawn chorus of birds has become, without her, a "bloody racket". Everything about this song is intensely overwhelming for me, making me feel feelings that I cannot adequately vocalise. To understand its power, I can only recommend listening to it yourself or, even better, watching the short film. Unlike the chorus Yorke refers to throughout, Dawn Chorus is about as far from a bloody racket as it's possible to imagine.

4. The Less I Know The Better by Tame Impala

The first time I ever heard The Less I Know The Better was in a pre-drinks in my first year of Uni. A guy played it who I wasn't sure on at the time but, as evidenced by the fact we're living together this year, it turns out Matt and I get along pretty well. All of that is a pre-amble to say that this song is one of the most definitive of my time at university. Not only has it been played often enough that it's closely tied with countless different kitchens, but the lyrics of the song sadly speak to my love life during uni. It has been a barren time for me, purely because I don't have the confidence to tell people how I really feel, which has led to me getting into many situations where I find out far too much I didn't want to know about someone whose relationship with me I wish was different. I'm being vague to spare both them and myself the embarrassment but as well as being an utter bop, this song reminds me that it's better to say what's on your mind, rather than remain silent and have your heart broken again and again by finding out what they did with who. 

3. New York by St. Vincent

New York was the first St. Vincent song I ever heard and despite being radically different from most of her other stuff, it has remained my favourite. There is something so beautifully mournful about this song and I really admire the way it is able to look back at a past relationship without bitterness. The end of a relationship is a time for change, a time after which nothing can be the same again, and it's okay to mourn that. But don't get angry or bitter. Appreciate what was, acknowledge that what is going to be, will be different. As well as the wonderful piano throughout the song, the primary power comes from the refrain of "You're the only motherfucker", which changes slightly every time. First it's "who can handle me", then it breaks down into "who can stand me", before softening into "who forgives me". It perfectly charts the journey from a performed arrogance to show how unaffected you are, into a deep despair, before realising that you aren't enemies at all. On an album that often plays around with deep emotions, creating unconventional aural spaces, New York is the simplest song and also the one I most often return to.

2. Perfect Places by Lorde

It was tough working out which Lorde song would beat the others, but something about Perfect Places hits all the right spots for me. It opens on a compelling beat, before immediately going into the kind of lyrical honesty Lorde is beloved for. If you listen to Perfect Places casually, you'll probably assume it's a song about how being a teenager is agony and we're all trying to escape to our own perfect places. In a way, it is that, but with the final lines of "What the fuck are perfect places anyway?", it becomes clear that these perfect places are a myth, a myth that adults have sold us. This is our life and if we have to dance, screw and drink ourselves numb to get through it, so be it. Poorly dance your sorrows away to the hypnotic mood of this song, Lorde seems to be inviting. The upbeat tempo of the song means that even as the sad lyrics wash over you, you find yourself taken to your own kind of perfect place, although that drops away for the final few seconds. It's a quiet piano and Lorde's voice, bringing you back down to reality and letting some of the air out of your dream. If Green Light is the perfect opening track for Melodrama, then Perfect Places is the perfect end. I consider Lorde one of the best artists of the generation and I can only hope that this decade, she somehow finds a way to top Perfect Places, difficult as that may be.

1. Style by Taylor Swift

I guess I should explain myself. Before I go any further, if you find yourself seriously doubting my choice here then I suggest you listen to Style, because you either haven't heard it before or haven't taken it seriously enough. See, Style is the logical conclusion to my argument that Taylor Swift makes her best music when she's hopelessly romantic, because Style is both of those aspects to a tee. Not only does she fetishise the romance in the song to the point that it becomes the titular style, that which never goes out of style, but she is also self aware enough to sing that "I should just tell you to leave 'cos I, know exactly where this leads but I, watch us go round and round each time". Swift is singing about the kind of romance that definitely isn't going to last forever, but the joy is in how aware she is of that. Style works so well because it is an ode to a fleeting, intense and physical kind of love, the kind of love that comes with the exquisite screams of "JUST TAKE ME HOME". Finally, it is a Taylor Swift song that throws off the shackles of teenage country star and embraces the adult pop star, creating the kind of pop song that is so bulletproof it can and should weather decades.

As I have changed over the decade, Style has remained as I first found it; utter perfection.

There are almost too many memories associated with Style for me to list, but I'll do my best anyway. The first time I heard it was in the strange summer between secondary school and sixth form, a time when the future seemed uncertain. Then, I felt far more mature than I was and Style was a song that didn't make me feel bad for that, it helped me create a version of reality in my head that made the shittier parts of reality more tolerable. At Uni, there are many an evening where, drunk out of our minds, I have sung this song with Emily, my Swiftie flatmate, the both of us mentally dedicating the song to the illicit affairs that neither of us have ever had. And then, most recently, I sung this song when I was in Los Angeles on New Years Eve. By this point, I had had quite a few drinks and so, after a more normal choice for karaoke, I decided to go in with Style. Something about the way Taylor Swift sings this song makes me feel weirdly confident and, up on that stage, singing the best song of the decade to a bunch of strangers, I felt like I could take on the world. Here I was, ending the decade with one of my favourite songs, only imagining how much Henry in 2010 would be blown away if I told him I was spending the end of the decade in Hollywood. As I have changed over the decade, Style has remained as I first found it; utter perfection. The only thing about it that you could possibly argue has changed about it is that my love has only crystalised into an even stronger form. And now to end on a group sing-a-long of the chorus: "YOU GOT THAT JAMES DEAN, DAYDREAM, LOOK IN YOUR EYEEE..."


If you read that and wondered "Wow, so many artists came up a bunch, Henry really has a type", I thought I would collate all the artists who came up three or more times here. In a way, I guess they're my "artists of the decade" but please don't reduce my taste to such a simple statistic, not that that will stop anyone of course:

Kacey Musgraves - 3 songs
Pitbull - 3 songs
Dua Lipa - 3 songs
Kanye West - 3 songs
Paramore - 3 songs
Ed Sheeran - 3 songs
Taylor Swift - 4 songs
Carly Rae Jepsen - 5 songs
St. Vincent - 5 songs
Lorde - 5 songs
Arcade Fire - 5 songs


Next week is books! I'm an English Lit student so I guess no pressure on that front, be sure to pop by on Tuesday and see what an awful job I have done yet again!