30 "best" songs of the '00's.

So at the start of the year my brother-in-law Brett asked me to complete my top 30 songs released between 2000-2009. He's a man of lists, and regularly updates and reshuffles his top songs of all time and completed his list ages ago. I've found it considerably harder than he did, i think. I started this project back then, and have come back to it several times across the year. I think that being younger than him in that decade has put me at a significant disadvantage . I turned 15 five days into 2000, finished high school in 2002, lived at Halls 2003-2005... These were my formative years, particularly when it came to listening to music. It was here that i found bands that i loved, had several 'firsts' that were soundtracked by potentially dubious tracks. So this list was hard.
So what finally triggered me to sit down and complete it? (besides being home alone on a Saturday night?). Groovejet came on my ipod as i walked home. And i realised i still love that song. And that's all it took. I decided to take a more simple approach to picking my list. Stopped pouring over ARIA charts for the decade and simply thought "what are my favourite songs on my ipod? which of those were released in that decade?" When i thought of it that way it was as simple as sorting my itunes by most played and double checking some release dates. I gave up on the idea of holding on to the nostalgic value of some songs just because i heard them a lot or they backed some significant moments... So here it is. 


Mel's totally incomplete Top 30 Songs 2000-2009


1. Hands Down - Dashboard Confessional. 


I'll say this now, Dashboard are going to appear more than once. I love them. They're my favourite band. This song still makes me sing out loud. And you kissed me like you meant it.... My best gig moment was when Chris laughed at something i shouted out when they were here back in 2006. (pity the video is a bit crap). 

2. Hey Ya! - Outkast.


2nd Year Richo was my favourite year at Richo. First semester especially. It's hard for me to pinpoint a better 6th months stretch of my entire life. Many a night at The Nott or at Dooley's was spent dancing to this song. Many instances of someone yelling 'Shake it like a polariod picture Mel' across the courtyard. It, in it's opening bars, reminds me so acutely of Liz Mohr and Jake Singer-Beilin, by far my favourite and most cherished Americans. Not a single other song makes me want to be 19 and at Halls so much. 

3. Swear It Again - Westlife
Let me repeat, i was 15 when millenium changed! But if you asked me to pick my favourite turn-of-the-millenium Boy Band, it wasn't N*Sync, wasn't BSB or even 5ive. Nope, i was a Westlife girl. I think it was 1999 that there was a breakfast-music show called AMV (all music video). They showed music video's (duh) between 6am and 9am and i really have to thank them. Not only did they introduce me to Westlife, but also to David Gray and Morcheeba's Rome wasn't built in a day. Songs and Bands that certainly weren't being played on Sun FM. This is my favourite Westlife song, and i'm lucky that it scrapes into this list. It was released in November 1999 in the UK but it's official release date for Australia isn't til March 2000... 

4. State of the Union - David Ford.


David got a mention in my Top Covers list. He's amazing. I love him. It was hard picking my favourite song off this album, part of me thinks it's a proper album, songs that are well matched with each other and progress from one to the next. Not an album of singles. But here is the best. Try stopping me from singing and heroin tastes like icecream. (album version is spectacular (and he say's preach on with the message of 'go fuck thy neighbour', go find it, coz i can't on YouTube)

5. Last Night - Motion City Soundtrack
As with Yellowcard and Dashboard, picking my favourite MCS song was incredibly difficult. Do i go with Lets Get Fuck Up And Die which was the first song i heard of theirs and the one that started the infauation or do i go with an album track that i truly cherish? I went with the latter. Last Night is from Even If It Kills Me which would be up there with my favourite albums of all time. You can often find me walking to or from work belting this song out. 


(um. so all the versions on YouTube are shit. So although Last Night Holds the #5 slot, you're getting the Lets Get Fucked Up and Die Video.... )

6. Way Away - Yellowcard.


Another case of 'oh god, Keeper or Way Away?" I don't like the feeling of including multiple entries by the one band in such an already limited list! But i will. I went with Way Away, one of Yellowcard's earlier songs because it's been with me for so long. I ran up and down the stairs of the car parks of Monash to this song when i was angry and angsty. Even now on my runs if i need to push myself for 3:40 i will seek this song out. 

7. Human - The Killers.


Much like Hey Ya! is associated with Liz and Jake, Human is associated with Adam and Ney and those blissful months that felt like an extended summer. An incredibly vivid memory of walking through Moomba on a bright Sunday with Ney explaining to me how this song was titled, and then him belting it out.

8. The Middle - Jimmy Eat World


Does a song sum up teenangst and help to allay it more than The Middle does? Class of 2002, represent. 

9. These Days - Powderfinger. 


Winner of the 2000 Hottest 100 and my favourite Powderfinger song. Bathe in my mainstreamness. 

10. Groovejet (if this ain't love) - Spiller (ft. Sophie Ellis Bextor)


I still love this song. Sign that it belongs in this list... Again thanks to AMV for giving me this song, i dunno if i'd have ever heard it if it wasn't for that. 

And the rest....
11. Bruised - Jack's Mannequin
12. G.I.N.A.S.F.S - Fall Out Boy
13. Ten Days - Missy Higgins
14. London Bombs - Eskimo Joe
15. Chocolate - Snow Patrol
16. Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
17. Rome Wasn't Built In A Day - Morcheeba
18. Crazy in Love - Beyonce
19. Warning Sign - Coldplay
20. This Modern Love - Bloc Party
21. The Other Side - David Gray
22. Push the Button - Sugababes
23. Sew My Name - Josh Pyke
24. The Brilliant Dance - Dashboard Confessional
25. Times Like These - Foo Fighters
26. The Conversation - Motion City Soundtrack
27. SexyBack - Justin Timberlake
28. Poker Face - Lady GaGa
29. Let Go - Frou Frou
30. Valerie - Amy Winehouse




Special Mention: Tribute - Tenacious D. That was the class of 2002's song. Every year the year 12 class has to rework a song to be 'their' song to perform at the end of year assembly. Our class had picked Tribute but days before we had to perform it the people who were in charge of writing it had given up. Me being a stickler for traditions knew we had to perform something, and by god it had to be good. So i sat Cameron Scott Perry (the second boy i ever kissed) down and forced him to finish it with me. And it was good. And everyone loved it.