Aaron's Best of the Decade: #80-71

#80
Dizzee Rascal - I Luv U
Album: Boy In Da Corner
Year: 2003
Grime's big break-through hit to date is a delicious-sounding piece of British hip-hop. The futuristic squelches of bass and the burbling synths encapsulate everything jarring and addicting about grime's sound, while Dizzee tears through the track, tossing off diatribes about (what else) girls.

#79
Raekwon - House of Flying Daggers (f/Inspectah Deck, Ghostface Killah, Method Man)

Album: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Pt. 2

Year: 2009

Raekwon the Chef had been hinting for years that the sequel to Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, a classic from the Golden Age of the Wu, was in the pipeline. Nobody could have guessed that anything from the album would be this fresh - while he brought the gritty sound of Staten Island throughout, "House of Flying Daggers" enlists the heavyweights of the W and turns into a posse cut on par with Wu-Tang's best.

#78
Cold War Kids - Hospital Beds

Album: Robbers and Cowards

Year: 2006

The Cold War Kids are not a great band. I am not particularly anticipating their next release, and I find some of their topical, Christian-influenced stuff boring. However, they came out firing on a trio of EP's back in 2006 that dropped a few memorable tracks, none better than "Hospital Beds." The song milks flawless guitar-keyboard interplay and fantastic vocal melodies to create a piece that threatens to break out into a full-blown anthem at any moment. It never does, which makes it even better...

#77
Florence + the Machine - You've Got The Love

Album: Lungs

Year: 2009

This song threatened to move up my list after I saw Florence + The Machine live at Seattle's Showbox at the Market last week. Since it only came out at the tail end of 2009, I'll leave it here and let posterity tell the true story. Pretty little Florence Welch lets her voice out of hiding and wails an absolute show-stopping soul-rock hybrid that can't help but tug on your heartstrings.

#76
Gnarls Barkley - Crazy

Album: St. Elsewhere

Year: 2006

Yes, it was heavily overplayed. I completely agree. I can't defend America's need to play it on rock, rap and pop stations ubiquitously for the better part of 2006-07. But some kernel of me remembers the winter-spring of 2006 when I heard that DJ Danger Mouse (a favorite of mine from The Grey Album) was teaming with Cee-Lo (a favorite from Goodie Mob and his underrated pair of solo albums) for a whole album, and the advance single had started making rounds in the clubs in England. When I first hunted it down via the power of the internet, all I could think was how original it sounded. Nobody was making pop or art music like this, and I just wanted to dance to it. Soon enough, everyone was dancing to it, and that's not such a bad thing.

#75
Phoenix - Lisztomania

Album: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Year: 2009

Not a surprising entry, but a necessary one. Phoenix really did hit a home run with their re-tooled sound on Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix and "Lisztomania" is the track that sealed the deal for me. Persistent and catchy, it epitomizes the sound of 2009.

#74
Madvillain - Rhinestone Cowboy

Album: Madvillainy

Year: 2004

The name Madvillain is still whispered around hip hop blogs, always with the hope of a sequel. The combination of MF Doom's sick associative wordplay and Madlib's completely out-of-left-field beats left everyone wanting more. "Rhinestone Cowboy" barely sound like a song, more a performance over a backdrop like you've never heard in hip-hop, and the lyrics are indeed a work of art. You try thinking of a rhyme as sweet as "fine chrome alloy" with "rhinestone cowboy." Can't be done.

#73
Gym Class Heroes - Cupid's Chokehold

Album: The Papercut Chronicles

Year: 2005

Gym Class Heroes pull a sweet sample out of "Breakfast in America" by Supertramp and craft a neo-romantic ode to a special lady. Switching between absurdly modern quirks ("She even got her very own ringtone") and grade-A cheese ("If I had to choose between her and the sun, I'd be one nocturnal son of a gun"), these guys are just too adorable to resist.

#72
The Decemberists - Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect

Album: Castaways and Cutouts

Year: 2002

Way back, before The Decemberists had (inexplicably) become wildly popular for their obscure, verbose sea shanties, there was Castaways and Cutouts. Their debut album was scattered but thoroughly unique, and after sifting through the various styles they were trying on, I was hooked by the relaxed beauty of "Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect." It is achingly wistful, and I can't help but appreciate wistfulness expressed with an excellent vocabulary.

#71
Cut Copy - Lights and Music

Album: In Ghost Colours

Year: 2008

An album I expected to enjoy mostly as a guilty pleasure (and I thoroughly did) kept coming back to me. I'd make a new mix CD for my girlfriend's car, or put together a playlist for a party, or just want to chill out to some electronic music, and every time I would find myself including "Lights and Music." I still can't pinpoint why it stands above the legions of Euro-trash electronic artists sporting a near-identical aesthetic, but every piece of its composition just falls into place beautifully as the beat and bass chug along unerringly.