50 Great Songs from 2000-Now

As compiled by looking back through years of my WFMU playlists, coming up with a bloated list of over 100 songs that I regarded as special or just particularly good, and then recklessly paring it all down over a bottle of judgment-clouding Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. How's that for proven and trusted methodology?

It made more sense to compile a list of singular tracks, what with recent history having relegated the full length album to the dustbin of cultural relevance. There's no declaration of completeness to this rundown, nor are the songs ranked in any kind of meaningful order. Expressing a personal aesthetic through music (a practice I first honed via teenage mixtape making, and then later expanded upon as a programmer at WPRB and WFMU) continues to hold a lot of appeal for me, so in a nod to the home-crafted C-90s that once banged around the floor of my car, I've compiled the first ten songs on this list into an MP3 mix for your auditory enjoyment.

[Listen]

Assuming you like a few of these selections, perhaps you'll be inspired to check out numbers 11-50 on your own.

There are no covers included here, no remixes of other work, and no reissues of any kind. This list comprises only music that was first released between 2000 and today. Enjoy!

1. Cobra Killer - High is the Pine [Das Mandolinerorchester]
2. Jad Fair & Teenage Fanclub - Behold the Miracle [Words of Wisdom and Hope]
3. Dalek - Ever Somber [Absence]
4. Risto - Nina, Olen Palasina [Summers and Smiles of Finland]
5. The Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Which Way to Go [Primary Colours]
6. Speaking Canaries - Menopause Diaries [Get Out Alive]
7. Kid 606 - Spanish Song [Resilience]
8. Big Blood - Adversaries & Enemies [Sew Your Wild Oats]
9. Brother JT - That's What They All Say [Not my Life]
10. Golden - Nikki [Golden Summer]
11. Einsturzende Neubauten - Youme & Meyou [Perpetuum Mobile]
12. Reigning Sound - Reptile Style [Time Bomb High School]
13. Six Organs of Admittance - Hazy SF [Golden Apples of the Sun]
14. Shadow Huntaz - Fasho [The Vampire EP]
15. Enablers - Pauly's Days in Cinema [End Note]
16. Jason Forrest - War Photographer [Shamelessly Exciting]
17. Boom Bip - Closed Shoulders [12"]
18. The National - Mistaken for Strangers [Boxer]
19. Pedestrian - the Toss & Turn [The Toss & Turn EP]
20. Celibate Rifles - Salute [Beyond Respect]
21. Curse ov Dialect - Buckaroo Banzai [Untitled EP]
22. Jesu - Old Year [Conqueror]
23. Sole - Selling Live Water [Selling Live Water]
24. Starlite Desperation - Go Kill Mice [Go Kill Mice]
25. Bellrays - Too Many Houses in Here [Grand Fury]
26. The Streets - See if they Salute [n/a]
27. Nas - Get Down [God's Son]
28. Oddateee - Are You Rican? [Halfway Homeless]
29. Sparks - Perfume [Hello Young Lovers]
30. Jonathan Kane - Sis [February]
31. Circle -  Alta Rautatammien [Guillotine]
    
32. Warlocks - Baby Blue [The Phoenix Album]
33. Carla Bozulich - Steal Away [Evangelista]
34. Jeffrey Lewis - Anxiety Attack [City & Eastern Songs]
35. The Fall - Theme from Sparta FC [Country on the Click]
36. Entrance - Grim Reaper Blues [Prayer of Death]
37. Spectre - Love [Psychic Wars]
38. Mars Ill - 2 Steps [The Blue Collar Sessions]
39. Ron Franklin - City Lights [City Lights]
40. Mike Wexler - Pneuma [Sun Wheel]
41. Wedding Present - Interstate 5 [Take Fountain]
42. Citay - Eye on the Dollar [Little Kingdom]
43. Michael Franti & Spearhead - Oh My God [...And all the Pieces Matter: Music from The Wire]
44. Steve Earle - The Galway Girl [Transcendental Blues]
45. Tin Hat Trio - Bill [The Rodeo Eroded]
46. Bruce Springsteen - Girls in their Summer Clothes [Magic]
47. The Bug feat. Warrior Queen - Poison Dart [Poison Dart]
48. Busdriver - Unemployed Black Astrognaut [Fear of a Black Tangent]
49. Prisonshake - We've Only Tasted the Wine [Dirty Moons]
50. Kurt Vile & the Violators - Hunchback [The Hunchback EP]

[Stereo/headphones image by Flickr user Thrift Store Addict. Licensed via Creative Commons]

Comments

[jeff]

solid list. good picks.

[jen]

wow, I have a lot of work to do. thanks for the head start on 1-10!