The best 250 songs of the noughties: 50-41

250-226 | 225-201 | 200-176 | 175-151
150-126 | 125-101 | 100-76 | 75-51
50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11
10-4 | 3-1

50. Flogging Molly - Drunken Lullabies
It’s energetic, it’s fun, and it’s a bloody good old time, innit? If you listen to it, you’ll get it, so do it.





49. GlassJaw - El Mark
Yes, another B-side. Now, I’m not saying that GlassJaw albums are bad, but what I am saying is that they don’t compare in comparison to ‘El Mark’, which is why I was utterly chuffed to see them play it at the last GJ gig I was at. It’s chaotic, it’s full of ebullient vitality and energy and it’s got a fantastic swagger to it. No other GlassJaw song matters as much as this one, no matter how much people insist that this song isn’t as good as the rest of their output, that will never change. Skip to the beat, eh? [Unfortunately, unable to find this on the internet! You'll just have to trust me!]

48. Alexisonfire – Accidents
I’ve heard this song about a billion times; the amount of times I’ve played ‘Watch Out!’ in my house, plus the amount of times I’ve been in other folks houses when it’s been on, plus they’ve played it every time I’ve seen them live, plus the cathouse unders was rather fond of it to equals a fucking billion. Yet, I don’t think I’d ever get sick of it. No matter how bloody brilliant ‘Crisis’ and ‘Young Cardinals/Old Crows’ are, my heart will always have a soft spot for the perhaps slightly juvenile and messy ‘Watch Out!’ as I was at that age when it came out, when I was exactly the same. Those were simpler times, and times which I look back on fondly. And with every ‘Whoa-oh-oh’ in the song, I feel a little more youth in me pop back out, as if I never entered my twenties. Ach well, it’s not like I fucking changed much eh?

47. Take A Worm For A Walk Week - Side Effect
This is true chaos at it’s best. Take A Worm For A Walk Week are nutters. The best and most incredible nutters I know, as only truly exceptional nutters could write this brilliant little song. It’s almost got a swagger underneath all the noise and craziness, and it uses that and an almost recognizable refrain to become a shiny diamond in the rough. Truly inspired. [Another one I'm unable to find! Trust me! Or better yet buy the album!]


46. Muse - Knights Of Cydonia
Now this is about as far from Take A Worm For A Walk Week as you can possibly get. Sure, it’s polished and it’s all about the guitar wankery, but who ever said that was wrong, and probably has an arrow in their eye right about now, as they don't have SENSE. Where was I? Oh, aye. The intro to this song is unquestionably incredible. It merges spaghetti western soundtracks with the futuristic sound that Muse have honed so well over the years, before giving it the rythym of a horseback ride. Now for the flavourings; add some brass, throw on Muse’s brilliant signature vocals and a fucking stupendously good chorus section, and your laughing all the way to the charts. The song is a work of pure genius, and it’s just a shame that it comes at the end of such a disappointing album ‘Black Holes And Revelations’.

45. The Hives - Hate to say I told you so
And then it happened. The Hives hit the big time and ‘Hate To Say I Told You So’ shot out of the speakers like a rocket. Bringing a raw punk energy to a generation of indie rock was one of the best things to happen in the noughties. After this, the world was a little bit better, I feel.



44. Feeder - Just A Day
Could this song be home to the best video of all time? Very possibly. Not only was this Feeder at the height of their game, it was also their last release with drummer Jon Lee. The song itself has such raw power and fun channelled into it that it started life as a song on Gran Turismo 3 (Video games: where songs go to die), then crept up to B-Side status on ‘Seven Days In The Sun’ (B-Sides: where half decent songs go to be forgotten). Thankfully, the world spoke up, and the clearly incredible song got released as a single (Singles: where songs can live forever). The internet collaboration with fans for the video surely helped the song solidify it’s place in history and became more than just a stepping stone in the career of Feeder. Without a shadow of a doubt, Feeder’s best song.

43. Outkast - Hey Ya
If it were in doubt, this was the party song of the decade. Put it on, everybody go crazy, and do the triple clap at least once. It’s a sensation. What more need I say? Perfect production, incredible sound, superb pop.




42. City And Colour - The Girl
Wow. I don’t think there’s much more I can add. ‘The Girl’ is an undeniably incredible love song from Dallas Green. If there was one thing I was sure of when I heard that the Guitarist from Alexisonfire was starting a solo career its that the music could never sound this good. I was put in my place by the insanely good ‘Sometimes’, but ‘Bring Me Your Love’ really took the biscuit. Filled with incredibly heartfelt, honest and warm music, Dallas Green perfected an already beautiful sound to be so much better. ‘The Girl’ is not only the best example of this, but Green’s best track to date.

41. Jose Gonzales – Heartbeats
Everyone can relate to this song. Not only is it a cover of the wonderful ‘The Knife’ track, but it was also featured on the most awe-inspiring advert ever made. Although it did truly show that advertising has no power… did you buy that TV? No, me neither. All that aside, the song was just incredible. So stripped back, so relaxing, yet so heart-wrenching and powerful. While this is indicative of José Gonzales’s music, this is the cream of the crop.


More very soon!
Carl