100 TRACKS OF THE DECADE
We've already shared our Albums Of The Decade. Now it's time to list the 100 best tracks of the noughties, as compiled by a jury made up of NME critics.
Disagree with our choices? You can vote your own favourite tracks to the top in our Tracks Of The Decade Readers' List - and let us know what you think by piling into the debate over on the NME office blog.
NME's 100 Tracks Of The Decade was written by Tim Chester, Jamie Fullerton, Luke Lewis, David Moynihan, Hamish MacBain, James McMahon, Emily Mackay, Ash Dosanjh, Ben Patashnik, Alan Woodhouse, Martin Robinson, Matt Wilkinson.
The moment bedroom geeks took charge of the party
The second silver bullet (along with 'Boy From School') in the Putney electro-popsters' synapse-ruffling live set, 'Over And Over' is simply one of the biggest stone-cold bangers of all time. Play the understated jingly riff that opens the song at any gathering of more than two people and you've instantly got a party you'd skip your dog's funeral to attend – for at least those five minutes. The first single from the band's second (and first...
Thom Yorke and co write their best guitar song of the decade
'In Rainbows'' finest moment had actually been around for several years before its 2007 release. Although the early incarnation of the song bore scant resemblance to its finished state, the band apparently liked Jonny Greenwood's instrumental part so much that they decided to turn it into an entirely new track, but keep the same title. What 'Reckoner' does so effortlessly is show that Radiohead can still be masters of subtle, guitar-based...
Andre 3000 and Big Boi's dark, genre-twisting anthem
Chart-melting US hip-hop anthems invariably feature bonnet-busting beats, shotgun sound effects and a general tone of bigging up oneself. But one of the biggest hip-hop anthems of the decade, from Andre 3000 and Big Boi, was a very different beast indeed. BB's Uzi-fire rapping cut against Dre's feline croon perfectly over shuffling beats and heart-string piano as the pair laid out one side of the story of a custody battle between Dre and his...
The best love song of the last 10 years
The track was written by Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer Karen O as a tribute to her then boyfriend Angus Andrew, a member of Liars. She later said that the title was a reference to them both always being on tour, therefore she always felt lonely and miserable when she looked at where they were in the world in relation to each other. The "They...
A UK Number One for an astonishing 10 weeks
There are many puzzling things about this song, which was originally written for Britney Spears but rejected by her label. First, how is it that such a daft, stuttered lyric ("Umbrella-ella-ella") can sound so serious and epic? And second, how is Rihanna able to sing in such a cold and impassive voice, yet make the song sound so weirdly moving? The slick production makes it superficially an R&B; track, but the chorus is so toweringly great it...
The track that tore up the blueprint for indie rock
It’s not just that Yeah Yeah Yeahs managed to outsmart Radio 1’s profanity censors back in 2002 with ‘Bang’ and its downright rude lyrics: “As a fuck son, you sucked” and "The bigger the better”. Or that Karen O is a phenomenal frontwoman, or that Nick Zinner is a guitar maverick that makes them so great. It’s that this New York trio broke through the...
The song that sent the duo into the big league
Jack and Meg White became proper bona fide megastars on the back of this song, propelled by arguably the finest riff of the decade by anyone. Its popularity was such that football fans the world over continue to adapt the refrain to make their own particular chant. High praise indeed. Named after what Jack called the Salvation Army as a child, the song is now recognised as a proper, grade A classic. Recorded in London for about two pence, it...
If The Strokes had gone krautrock…
Sometimes a band unleash a song so staggeringly, elementally powerful, the rest of their career can only be a let-down. Like The Strokes gone evil, this clattering cut from the New York band's second album showcased the apoplectic vocals of Hamilton Leithauser, propelled by a relentless backbeat that owed much to krautrock. A maelstrom of finger-pointing rage ("You've got a nerve…"), this astonishing track represented the rancorous...
Mike Skinner's tearjerking chart-topper
The song which took Mike Skinner to the summit of the UK singles chart was a surprisingly tender, blokeish lament to lost love, but it only really took off when the lyrics were amended to lament the England football team's exit from that year's Euro 2004. The track is the emotional high point of 2004's magnificent concept record 'A Grand Don't Come For Free', and will surely be the one most remember Skinner for. AW
Pete and Carl's flawless three and a half minutes
The lead-off track from their second album showcased The Libertines' gift for combining high romance with scuffed, gutter-level realism. Hence we get the deft poetry of the first verse ("Your light fingers through the dark…") punctured by the viciousness of the second: "The world kicked back a lot fuckin' harder". Like all the best Libertines songs, this tale of an...
