Journal

151. Why? - Rubber Traits
I love the subtle stuff going in the background of this song, especially the vocals between 1:00 and 1:30.

152. Animal Collective - Safer
Animal Collective doesn't make songs this weird anymore, unfortunately. There is so much to love here: the looping piano, the assorted screaming ("I'M ALRIIIIIIGHT!" and "Now don't get too freaky on me!"). Also, my last.fm username comes from this song, so I couldn't not include it.

153. Joanna Newsom - Sawdust & Diamonds
If you've been paying attention you'll notice that every track from Ys is on this list. If I had to get rid of one, I guess it would be this one, but that doesn't mean it's not an incredibly good song. The highlight: "I wasn't born of a whistle or milked from a thistle at twilight. No, I was all horns and thorns, sprung out fully-formed, knock-kneed and upright. So enough of this terror, we deserve to know light and grow evermore lighter and lighter..."

154. And So I Watch You From Afar - Set Guitars to Kill
Wow, this is the most in-your-face post-rock song of recent times. It will blow you away. I expect more great things to come from these guys.

155. The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
Maybe the best bassline of the decade.

156. The Knife - Silent Shout
This is such a sexy song, especially the synth solo.

157. Rilo Kiley - Silver Lining
Speaking of sexy, how about that Jenny Lewis's voice?

158. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth
Alec Ounsworth's voice, not so much. But this is an amazing song.

159. M83 - Skin Of The Night
This would be a great song to drive around at night to, especially if it's windy.

160. Bon Iver - Skinny Love
I actually prefer Re: Stacks to this, but they're both really good songs.

161. Passion Pit - Sleepyhead
When the EP came out, I listened to this song nonstop. It's funny how Passion Pit seems to be everywhere now. Manners isn't as good as Chunk of Change, but I'm glad they've gained popularity.

162. Mew - Snow Brigade
Sweet chorus, even if the lyrics are a bit stalkerish. (Much like 156, actually.)

163. Final Fantasy - Song Song Song
I can't tell whether that's pizzicato at the beginning (he didn't play this song when I saw him live), but however he does it, it's awesome. Almost as awesome as the ending.

164. Alcest - Souvenirs d'un autre monde
I think this album is slightly overrated (although the lyrics are uniformly excellent), but this track stands out. Very shoegazey.

165. Mew - Special
This song is like a rocket through me. I don't listen to Mew enough, but every time I do, I'm impressed by them.

166. Muse - Starlight
I can see how a lot of Muse fans hate this. I don't listen to it much anymore (Origin Of Symmetry is more lasting), but for a time I listened to it incessantly.

167. Dirty Projectors - Stillness Is the Move
Angel Deradoorian joining Dirty Projectors was the best thing that ever happened to them, as evidenced by Bitte Orca.

168. Oasis - Stop Crying Your Heart Out
Admittedly, Heathen Chemistry is far from the best Oasis album, but this song gets me every time.

169. Rachael Yamagata - Sunday Afternoon
Not as immediately appealing as the majority of Happenstance, but it really makes use of her smoky vocals, particularly the climax.

170. Fuck Buttons - Surf Solar
Blistering yet danceable. Fuck Buttons is one of the most original bands out there.

171. The Decemberists - The Tain (Parts I, II, III, IV, V)
Considering how popular The Decemberists are, you'd think this would be better-known. It's totally epic, even though I can't see much of a connection with the Irish mythological epic it's named after.

172. Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
When I first heard this on the radio, I scrambled to find out who this band was. I suspect I wasn't the only one.

173. Kaki King - These Are The Armies Of The Tyrannized
Very Mogwai-ish, which is a good thing.

174. Los Campesinos! - This Is How You Spell "HAHAHA, We Destroyed The Hopes And Dreams Of A Generation Of Faux-Romantics"
"We have to take the car 'cause the bike's on fire!"

175. Final Fantasy - This Is the Dream of Win & Regine
The way Owen Pallett sings "I tried, and tried, and tried to keep the crowds away" is heart-breakingly plaintive.

176. Muse - Time Is Running Out
Their danciest song, which sort of foreshadowed the direction they went with Black Holes and Revelations.

177. MGMT - Time to Pretend
Really, there's nothing I can say that hasn't already been said.

178. Battles - Tonto
Atlas is the best song from Mirrored, by a long shot, but this is much more complex. The ending is a bit slow, but there's so much going on in the first half.

179. The Antlers - Two
I pretty much knew in February that Merriweather Post Pavilion was going to be my favourite album of 2009, but in the race for second place, I didn't expect a band I had never listened to before to win. Hospice is mind-blowingly good, though. Most of the compositions are pretty expansive, but this one's really tight, and it works well.

180. Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks
The video is a bit creepy (see: the uncanny valley), but I always thought Grizzly Bear was a bit creepy anyway.

181. Spoon - The Underdog
In the wrong hands, this song could end up being pretty campy, especially the horns, but this is Spoon.

182. Dirty Projectors - Useful Chamber
I'm glad Dirty Projectors haven't lost ALL their wacky experimentalism.

183. The Mars Volta - Viscera Eyes
I wish you could love a song more than once on last.fm.

184. The Antlers - Wake
One of the expansive compositions from Hospice. Highlights: "letting people iiiiiiiiin," the "don't be scared to speak..." section, and of course the ending.

185. Animal Collective - Water Curses
Where to start? First of all, this is one of the best EPs I've ever heard. It's got three really strong tracks, and Seal Eyeing isn't bad either. But this track stands out. It's incredibly joyful (I mean, it has the lyric "I want to be like water and slip into your throat and make you feel alive and good"), and there's so much good stuff going on - the jagged synthesizer (or whatever it is) in the background during the "I don't think you know just what you're doing" section drives me crazy. It's really too bad that it would be pretty much impossible to play live.

186. Rachel's - Water From the Same Source
This song was used in the movie Hancock, for some reason. I didn't complain, though.

187. Yndi Halda - We Flood Empty Lakes
It's no Illuminate My Heart, My Darling!, but still awesome. A one-minute condensed version of this song was used in an ad for Fuel TV, and it wasn't half bad, despite being 11 minutes shorter than the original.

188. Coheed and Cambria - Welcome Home
Some seriously awesome solos.

189. Dan Deacon - Wham City
The a cappella recapitulation of the chorus near the end never fails to bring a smile to my face. The beginning is kind of reminiscent of In C.

190. Stars - What I'm Trying to Say
Ultra-catchy, and the lyrics are based on a fairly original conceit, which is rare for a love song.

191. 65daysofstatic - When We Were Younger & Better
This should be a movie soundtrack.

192. Dido - White Flag
Dido has about three good songs, and one incredible song (this one, naturally).

193. Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal
Such harmonies! I try not to think about the lyrics when I listen to this song though, because they're so depressing and the music is so calming.

194. Rachael Yamagata - Worn Me Down
Rachael Yamagata basically doesn't have any songs I really dislike, because her voice is so good, but this is her best.

195. Los Campesinos! - You! Me! Dancing!
Wow, so twee. I love the spoken-word bit at the end: "And we're all like how Rousseau depicts man in the state of nature: we're undeveloped, we're ignorant, we're stupid, but we're happy").

196. Stars - Your Ex-Lover Is Dead
"And all of the time you thought I was sad, I was trying to remember your name."

197.MGMT - The Youth
This track kind of got overlooked with the popularity of Kids and Time to Pretend, but it's my favourite song from the album. The chorus makes it a perfect youth anthem.

198. Feist - 1234
It must suck for Sally Seltmann, who basically wrote this song, to see how popular Feist has become because of it. I'm just glad it exists, though.

199. Mew - 156
My favourite Mew song. "Don't you just love goodbyes?"

200. Yeasayer - 2080
This must be the best Middle Eastern-psych-snap-gospel song I've ever heard!