Part One: 100-81
100. ‘The Funeral’ by Band of Horses (2006)
Band of Horses never quite lived up to the epic theatricality and baroque poetry of their debut single – but they managed to stand out in the midst of the 2000s “landfill indie” era. The feeling of dread that hangs over the first verse is real, until the explosion of guitars that finally lets you exhale.
99. ‘Star Guitar’ by The Chemical Brothers (2002)
Pure rave music. You can listen to this song sober, and you’ll enjoy it, but let’s be real – it’s not designed for you. This is a trip, perfectly crafted to slowly take a sticky-floored warehouse full of strangers from a floating collective dream into a meltdown of ecstatic euphoria.
98. ‘Tribute’ by Tenacious D (2001)
“This is the greatest and best song in the world” – so begins a bonkers story of hitchhiking, an encounter with a rock music loving demon, and the writing of the best song in history of the world. Pure gold storytelling and Jack Black’s full-throated commitment has seen it endure as a millennial favourite – just imagine if they could remember the actual song they wrote on that fateful night.
97. ‘DENIAL IS A RIVER’ BY Doechii (2024)
In recent years, Doechii has established herself as one of the best storytellers in rap – funny, unpredictable, dynamic, and endlessly engaging. Here, she and her therapist alter-ego dissect a wild time in her life that includes a dropkick ex, her musical breakthrough, drugs, partying and drugs.
96. ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’ by Gotye & Kimbra (2011)
A remarkable and unlikely surprise hit, Gotye and Kimbra’s weirdo xylophone-heavy break up tune blew up across the world and became the rare Australian song to win at the Grammys. Remains one of the most beloved and acclaimed Australian songs of the 2010s.
95. ‘Get Low’ by Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz (2002)
Lil Jon will get the party started – by any means necessary. His particular brand of crunk is an attack, his voice an incessant growl, his cadence volatile and hyperintense. And yet, it’s goddamn irresistible. It’s 11pm and you don’t know if you should call it or kick on… and then Lil Jon’s roar makes the decision for you.
94. ‘Islands’ by The xx (2009)
The xx arrived in a beautiful haze of dream pop, a miasma of shadow and light. Their unique brand of minimalistic indie electronica was universally acclaimed. ‘Islands’ is both gorgeously romantic, and a dark-edged meditation on co-dependency: “I am yours now, so now I don’t ever have to leave”.
93. ‘Cry Me A River’ by Justin Timberlake (2002)
Justin Timberlake was always destined for greater things than NSYNC – and ‘Cry Me A River’ put him firmly on the track to superstardom. Over one of Timbaland’s most ambitiously bizarre production jobs, Timberlake channelled juvenile relationship drama with Britney Spears into a vicious falsetto, and officially broke out of his boy band era.
92. ‘Duality’ by Slipknot (2004)
Arguably the most volatile, explosive and influential heavy metal band of the 2000s, bringing an energy, brutality and legitimate terror to a genre in desperate need of CPR. ‘Duality’ is the nine piece group at their most complex, and no less ferocious.
91. ‘Oldie’ by Odd Future (2012)
The ultimate posse cut, a 10-minute group freestyle, joyous and chaotic and spontaneous. Odd Future was a collective of young and exciting rappers brought together by Tyler, The Creator, and introduced the world to wunderkind Earl Sweatshirt and soon-to-be-iconic Frank Ocean. This song is an overflow of juvenile creative energy, pure fun.
90. ‘Float On’ by Modest Mouse (2004)
Isaac Brock throws his voice around wildly, like an out-of-control rally car swerving through dense forest. But the volatility is by design: this is a song about accepting that things are going to happen outside our control, and all we can do is bask in the brightness to be found in the chaos.
Stat Attack – What’s Your Flava?
Genre, especially in this explosive century of constant musical evolution, is a silly thing to try and define. But using the genre categories I loosely used in my book, ‘Shoulda Been Higher’, I was pleased that this list shook out with a pretty good spread of musical stylings:
By my count, there are 30 pop songs on the list, 23 rock (including hard rock and heavy metal), 22 hip hop, 14 electronic, and 11 other (think folk, country, jazz and, you know, anything else).
89. ‘Delilah (pull me out of this)’ by Fred again… (2022)
One of the best electronic albums of the 2020s, Actual Life 3 by British producer Fred again… was a revelation in the post-COVID lockdown world, a call to crawl out of our depression caves and dance again. ‘Delilah’ is the best and most propulsive track on the album, a swirl of synths and beats grounded by a dreamy, delicate vocal sample.
88. ‘Can’t Let Go, Juno’ by Kishi Bashi (2016)
One of the most tragically underrated indie musicians of the 2010s, ‘Can’t Let Go, Juno’ is a stunning example of an artist at the pinnacle as a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, as well as his remarkable versatility and range as a vocalist. It’s indie pop at its most gorgeous and heartbreaking.
87. ‘Dynamite’ by BTS (2020)
The greatest boy band of all time, with their biggest hit, a banger with an astonishing 2 billion streams on Spotify. In the dark, dark months of 2020 COVID lockdown, the South Korean megastars BTS gave us a bright, beautiful gift full of colour and energy and good vibes. Proof that K-pop could be a global, mainstream, crossover juggernaut.
86. ‘Everything In Its Right Place’ by Radiohead (2000)
Radiohead are a band defined, in many ways, by reinvention. ‘Everything in Its Right Place’ is the perfect avatar of that experimental bent. Following the success of Ok Computer and Thom Yorke’s subsequent mental breakdown, they shifted radically from alt-rock into complex electronica, alienated a bunch of their fans, and cemented their legacy as one of modern history’s most unboxable music groups.
85. ‘The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows’ by Gang of Youths (2017)
Over the last decade, Gang of Youths released three perfect albums and placed themselves squarely in the conversation among Australia’s greatest rock bands. This is their masterpiece – poignant and gorgeous, epic and sweeping, seismically cosmic and deeply personal, that sweeps into a cathartic crescendo. Incredible.
84. ‘Video Games’ by Lana Del Ray (2011)
It's a little trad-wifey, but Lana Del Ray has always been as much an aesthetic as a musician and it’s established on her sultry debut, a dreamy, dark-edged love ballad. Tumblr was on it early – her smoky vocals, unique style, her slow jazzy pop that sounded nothing like what was on the radio. Only in recent years has really got her due as one of the decade’s finest and most influential songwriters.
83. ‘Welcome To The Black Parade’ by My Chemical Romance (2006)
For a certain set of millennials, who came of age in tight black jeans and swooped fringes, those opening piano notes are transportive – to the peak of mid-2000s emo, where Gerard Way was a bleach-blonde Pied Piper leading a parade of misfit youth to some glorious promised land.
82. ‘360’ by Charli xcx (2024)
2024 was the year of Brat Summer – for months, lime green was everywhere and there was nothing but Brat (and then Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat). After years as an indie pop “if you know you know” darling, Charli xcx broke out into the mainstream, and reshaped it in her image.
81. ‘Innerbloom’ by Rüfüs Du Sol (2015)
Geez, has any Australian song that has aged as well as ‘Innerbloom’? It’s the kid everyone ignored on the playground, and now it’s ripped, confident and has a really sick car. This 9-minute blissful slow build of synths and atmosphere has become arguably Australia’s most beloved electronic dance tune.