My Top 100 Favourite Songs 2010-14 Edition: #1 (+ more!)

We’ve finally arrived at the end of this listing. It may have taken a lot longer than I ever expected to (it should have only been 100 days!)  but we got there! I hope you’ve enjoyed this listing and I’m sure you want to know what my favourite song has been over the Last Half Decade. Before we get there, I’d just like to recap the whole listing from #100 to #2…

#100: Madness – Muse
#99: Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites – Skrillex
#98: Neat Little Rows – Elbow
#97: No Reflection - Marilyn Manson
#96: Explain My Heart - Saul Williams
#95: I'm in the Mood... For Beards - The Beards
#94: She's Not Gone Yet But She's Leaving - The Fratellis
#93: Shotgun - Limp Bizkit
#92: Can't Rely on You - Paloma Faith
#91: Blue Blood Blues - The Dead Weather
#90: Rebellion - Linkin Park (feat. Daron Malakian)
#89: Paradise – Coldplay
#88: Sing - Ed Sheeran
#87: Mein Land – Rammstein
#86: Elephant - Tame Impala
#85: Love Turns to Hate - The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster
#84: On Top of the World - Imagine Dragons
#83: G.D.F.R. - Flo Rida
#82: Evil Eye - Franz Ferdinand
#81: Little Monster - Royal Blood
#80: Blurred Lines - Robin Thicke
#79: Brendan's Death Song - Red Hot Chili Peppers
#78: Go Kindergarten - The Lonely Island (feat. Robyn)
#77: The Negative One – Slipknot
#76: Royals – Lorde
#75: Government Trash - Death From Above 1979
#74: Survival – Eminem
#73: Sick Bubblegum - Rob Zombie
#72: Gentleman – PSY
#71: Go Right Ahead - The Hives
#70: These Days - Foo Fighters
#69: Word Crimes - Weird Al Yankovic
#68: One for the Road - Arctic Monkeys
#67: Nightmare - Avenged Sevenfold
#66: Princess of China – Coldplay (feat. Rihanna)
#65: Kill the Power – Skindred
#64: Where's Your Car Debbie? – Slaves
#63: Suit and Tie - Justin Timberlake (feat. Jay-Z)
#62: Stevie – Kasabian
#61: Narcissistic Cannibal – KoRn (feat. Skrillex and Kill the Noise)
#60: Bad Girls - M.I.A.
#59: Devil in I – Slipknot
#58: Tighten Up - The Black Keys
#57: QWERTY – Mushroomhead
#56: Radioactive - Imagine Dragons
#55: Dibby Dibby Sound - DJ Fresh vs Jay Fay feat. Ms Dynamite
#54: Came Back Haunted - Nine Inch Nails
#53: Gangnam Style – PSY
#52: Warning – Skindred
#51: Bassline Junkie - Dizzee Rascal
#50: Fat Around the Heart - King 810
#49: Supremacy – Muse
#48: Bridge Burning - Foo Fighters
#47: Never Never – KoRn
#46: Sandpaper – Fozzy (feat. M Shadows)
#45: Out of the Black - Royal Blood
#44: Eez-eh – Kasabian
#43: Sweet Sour - Band of Skulls
#42: Berzerk – Eminem
#41: Santo Domingo - Jon Fratelli
#40: Talk Dirty - Jason Derulo
#39: 99 Percenters – Ministry
#38: The Vampyre of Time and Memory - The Queens of the Stone Age
#37: Right Now – PSY
#36: Panic Station – Muse
#35: Figure it Out - Serj Tankian
#34: Lonely Boy - The Black Keys
#33: Low Hangin' Fruit - Tenacious D
#32: Days Are Forgotten – Kasabian
#31: Figure it Out - Royal Blood
#30: It Gets Worse - Mindless Self Indulgence
#29: Karma - Jamie N Commons
#28: Get Up! – KoRn (feat. Skrillex)
#27: Snap Out of It - Arctic Monkeys
#26: Hey – Slaves
#25: Thrift Shop – Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
#24: Megatron - Crazy Town
#23: If I Had a Tail - The Queens of the Stone Age
#22: House of Pain - Hot Action Cop
#21: Howlin' For You - The Black Keys
#20: Something From Nothing - Foo Fighters
#19: Thieves - Limp Bizkit
#18: Jack Sparrow - The Lonely Island
#17: Do I Wanna Know? - Arctic Monkeys
#16: Blame it on the Boom Boom - Black Stone Cherry
#15: Black Skinhead - Kanye West
#14: Baby We're Refugees! - Jon Fratelli
#13: The Island - Pt II (Dusk) – Pendulum
#12: Dance - Saul Williams
#11: Ain't No Grave - Johnny Cash
#10: Niggas in Paris - Jay-Z and Kanye West
#9: Smooth Sailing - The Queens of the Stone Age
#8: Rap God – Eminem
#7: Custer – Slipknot
#6: I Just Had Sex - The Lonely Island (feat. Akon)
#5: Killem All - King 810
#4: Jungle (Remix) - Jamie N Commons and the X-Ambassadors (feat. Jay-Z)
#3: Uptown Funk - Mark Ronson (feat. Bruno Mars)
#2: Bangarang – Skrillex (feat. Sirah)

Okay so my favourite song over the Last Half Decade is…

#1 “The Hunter” by Slaves
Released: 17/11/14
Album: Are You Satisfied?

If you know me well, chances are high you probably had an inkling that this would be #1 on my list. And you know what? I actually debated putting it lower in the list because of the fact that it was an obvious choice for me. But when it comes down to it, there is only one song that stands out to me as above and beyond anything else released over this five year period.

I absolutely love this song. I absolutely love this band. I’m so happy I got to see them last month, they were incredible. I love the riff, I love how the song builds up, the video is pretty cool too, it’s discretely catchy and it’s… just… so… cool. I’m not a massive punk rock fan but with Slaves making garage rock merge with punk (a formula done by other bands, I’m not saying they’re the first) they have something that does sound raw and passionate and it packs a massive punch. I do encourage anyone who likes British rock, or punk, or garage rock a listen to this band. Seriously they’re one of the coolest new bands out there, and this is their biggest hit to date, and, clearly in my opinion, the best too.

Here's the video if you want to hear it!

And that’s it! Many thanks for putting up for my long periods of absences in the making of this listing. I’ll probably do a Top 100 Favourite Music Singles of the Decade of 2010-19 in the year 2021 or something. Here’s some nerdy stats of my listing if it appeals to you:

Annual breakdown of music singles:
2010 – 9
2011 – 21
2012 – 16
2013 – 27
2014 – 27

First and last singles on the list in chronological order:
First: “Sick Bubblegum” by Rob Zombie – released 11^th January 2010 (#73)
Last: “Megatron” by Crazy Town – released 17^th December 2014 (#24)

Artists with Two Entries:
Coldplay (#66, #89); Imagine Dragons (#56, #84); Jamie N Commons (#4, #29); Jon Fratelli (#14, #41); King 810 (#5, #50); Limp Bizkit (#19, #93); Saul Williams (#12, #96); Skindred (#52, #65); Skrillex (#2, #99)

Artists with Three Entries (maximum cap):
Arctic Monkeys (#17, #27, #68); The Black Keys (#21, #34, #58); Eminem (#8, #42, #74); Foo Fighters (#20, #48, #70); Kasabian (#32, #44, #64); KoRn (#28, #47, #61); The Lonely Island (#6, #18, #78); Muse (#36, #49, #100); PSY (#37, #53, #72); The Queens of the Stone Age (##9, #23, #38); Royal Blood (#31, #45, #81); Slaves (#1, #26, #64); Slipknot (#7, #59, #77)

Albums with Two Entries:
48:13 by Kasabian (#44, #62); Are You Satisfied? by Slaves (#1, #26); Brothers by The Black Keys (#21, #58); Memoirs of a Murderer by King 810 (#5, #50); (Mylo Xyloto by Coldplay (#66, #89); Night Visions by Imagine Dragons (#56, #84); The Path of Totality by KoRn (#28, #61); Psycho Jukebox by Jon Fratelli (#14, #41); Turtleneck and Chain by The Lonely Island (#6, #18); Volcanic Sunlight by Saul Williams (#12, #96)

Albums with Three Entries:
…Like Clockwork by The Queens of the Stone Age (##9, #23, #38); The 2^nd Law by Muse (#36, #49, #100); .5: The Gray Chapter by Slipknot (#7, #59, #77); AM by the Arctic Monkeys (#17, #27, #68); The Marshall Mathers LP 2 by Eminem (#8, #42, #74); Royal Blood (#31, #45, #81)

I thought I’d do a Mixtape Playlist so if you wanted to listen to the “Best Of” in one go, you can do now this way. I’ve set a cap of only one song per artist. Not familiar with my Mixtapes, here’s a description of what one is:

A Mixtape is a playlist of a certain genre, band or era. The list is generally 80 minutes long, the same length of a blank CD, with further recommendations if some of the songs aren't to your taste. Remember kids, downloading is wrong!

The Best of The Last Half Decade (2010-14)

1.       Uptown Funk - Mark Ronson (feat. Bruno Mars)

2.       Jungle (Remix) - Jamie N Commons and the X-Ambassadors (feat. Jay-Z)

3.       Black Skinhead - Kanye West

4.       I Just Had Sex - The Lonely Island (feat. Akon)

5.       Rap God – Eminem

6.       The Island - Pt II (Dusk) – Pendulum

7.       Bangarang – Skrillex (feat. Sirah)

8.       Niggas in Paris - Jay-Z and Kanye West

9.       Dance - Saul Williams

10.   Ain't No Grave - Johnny Cash

11.   Baby We're Refugees! - Jon Fratelli

12.   Howlin' For You - The Black Keys

13.   Do I Wanna Know? - Arctic Monkeys

14.   Smooth Sailing - The Queens of the Stone Age

15.   Something From Nothing - Foo Fighters

16.   The Hunter – Slaves

17.   Blame it on the Boom Boom - Black Stone Cherry

18.   Thieves - Limp Bizkit

19.   Custer – Slipknot

20.   Killem All - King 810

And here are your five alternatives:

1.       House of Pain - Hot Action Cop

2.       Megatron - Crazy Town

3.       Thrift Shop – Macklemore and Ryan Lewis

4.       Get Up! – KoRn (feat. Skrillex)

5.       It Gets Worse - Mindless Self Indulgence

I’ve also made this Mixtape on YouTube, you can view and listen to it there if you want by clicking here!

And… that’s the end! Thank you all so much for reading and following this listing. Check out the Music tab above for anything else on music I’ve covered over the last five or six years on this website if you haven’t already. It’s nearly Christmas so I’ll take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

If you missed #2 go here - or go back to #100 by going here.

For the latest updates on my work, including all my latest radio shows, follow me on Facebook and Twitter here!

My Top 100 Favourite Songs 2010-14 Edition: #8

#8 “Rap God” by Eminem

Released: 15/10/13

Album: The Marshall Mathers LP 2

Well what a fucking song this is!! I’m sure if you like Eminem you’ll know EXACTLY why this song is not only on this list but, as high on this listing as it is. If you ever, EVER doubted that Eminem somehow lost pace or lost his ability to sling mud verbally at anyone and everyone then listen to this. This song is Eminem on form. This song is Eminem in a nutshell. This song is possibly the best song he’s ever produced. Period. In my opinion anyway. Honestly, Eminem pulls all the stops here to tell everyone that he is a Rap God, he is still the best in the business at what he does and he doesn’t give a fuck if you think otherwise. And that “supersonic speed” rap towards the end of the song… insane. According to Wikipedia it’s 6.5 words per second! He truly is a Rap Bot, Rap Bot!

Here's the video if you want to hear it!

If you missed #9 go here.

For the latest updates on my work, including all my latest radio shows, follow me on Facebook and Twitter here!

My Top 100 Favourite Songs 2010-14 Edition: #42

#42. “Berzerk" – Eminem

Released: 27/8/13

Album: The Marshall Mathers LP 2

For a long time I preferred "Berzerk" to Rap God. Does that mean "Rap God" is higher on my list? Clearly, but you'll have to find out how high it got.

"Berzerk" was the first song I'd heard off the Marshall Mathers LP 2 album and I liked it straight away. I love how Eminem likes to use rockier sounds in his music, and the samples from Billy Squier and The Beastie Boys are just awesome. And you just knew that Rick Rubin was behind the track as soon as you heard it. In fairness the sequel to the Marshall Mathers LP does a grand job generally and "Berzerk" was definitely one of the highlights of the album and is one of Eminem's most kick-ass tracks he's ever done.

Here's the video if you want to hear it!

If you missed #43 go here.

For the latest updates on my work, including all my latest radio shows, follow me on Facebook and Twitter here!

My Top 100 Favourite Songs 2010-14 Edition: #74

#74. “Survival" – Eminem

Released: 8/10/13

Album: The Marshall Mathers LP 2

Recently I've been going the gym a lot for... reasons. And this is one of my favourite songs to work out to. I dunno what it is but it's just such a good song to get pumped up to. You feel ready to take on the world and that's all you need for a good work out song.

Anyway, Eminem is on top form in this song. And this album for that matter. When Eminem announced a sequel to "The Marshall Mathers LP" I was intrigued. It's one of my all time favourite hip hop albums and to even compare a sequel to the original it had to be good. And while it's not as good as the original, it's a damn fine effort. And "Survival" is one of the best songs on the album, simply put. Eminem raps really well here, and, being a rock fan, hearing a cool guitar riff and some nice drums as a beat is a big plus from me.

Here's the music video if you want to hear it!

If you missed #75 go here.

For the latest updates on my work, including all my latest radio shows, follow me on Facebook and Twitter here!

My Top 100 Favourite Music Videos: #23

#23: "Knights of Cydonia" - Muse
Release Date: 2006
Director: Joseph Kahn
Fun Fact: There's LOADS of references in the video to other movies, at least 16 movies in fact, including Star Wars, The Matrix, Planet of the Apes and many, MANY more!

Joseph Kahn also directed "Without Me" by Eminem, which got to #42 in my list, as well as many MANY videos. Check out this list for all the amazing videos he's done!

What to say about this video? It has so much going on in it, and it suits the song so perfectly. I heard this song before I saw the video, when I got the "Black Holes and Revelations" album, and I always imagined what the video would look like. You just know, listening to the song, that it's going to be a western inspired video, but because Muse love sci-fi and space and shit so much, you weren't quite sure how they'd include all of that into the video.

Well... you can't be disappointed. The amount of sci-fi in the video is insane considering it's a spaghetti western themed video. And it looks just so damn great, and the way they work the band into the video is fantastic too, being jukebox holograms from the future... if that make sense! I just love this video so much, it truly is one of my favourites of all time and it's definitely my favourite Muse video.

Here is the video for your enjoyment!

Click here to see #22 on the list or here for #24!

My Top 100 Favourite Music Videos: #42

#42: "Without Me" - Eminem
Release Date: 2002
Director: Joseph Kahn
Fun Fact: The song got to #1 in at least 13 countries!

This is definitely Eminem's best video when it comes to comedy, it's just from start to finish, a barrel of laughs with many parodys, some at his critics and others just generally flung at other people.

I remember seeing the video when it came out and it was the first time I really paid attention to Eminem as an entertainer as well as a rapper, because while previous videos were good, this one set the bar and frankly, it's never really been beat when it comes to the amount that's been jam packed into one music video. Everything from the cartoon strip to Dr Dre as his hero sidekick, to stroking a bald head, to dressing up as Bin Laden is top quality here and you sometimes forget how damn good this video is until you watch it again.
Note: This is the fourth and last video from the year 2002 in this list.

Here's the video for your enjoyment!

Click here to see #41 on the list or here for #43!

My Top 100 Favourite Music Videos: #53

#53: "My Band" - D12
Release Date: 2004
Director: Philip Atwell
Fun Fact: The song/video mocks and references a few different songs - "In Da Club" by 50 Cent, the songs "Superman" and "Lose Yourself" by Eminem himself and, most hilariously, "Milkshake" by Kelis - yes - this is the "My Salsa" segment at the end!

Oh god, THIS video. I just absolutely love this video, it's just so funny and it was during a period where Eminem's ability to produce great quality comedy in his hip hop was ever present. Of course, this is D12, and while they do mock the idea that Eminem is "the lead singer of the band dude" there's so much truth to the fact that all the attention is on Eminem and rightfully so - he was the reason why D12 did so well, whether they like it, don't like it, but definitely mock it, it's the truth.

I didn't realise a few things about this video until checking out the research on it - as mentioned above, the hilarious "My Salsa" outro is actually based on the smash hit "Milkshake" by Kelis! I had no idea! Did you? The other thing is when Bizarre starts stripping, he is wearing a shiny outfit with his nipples covered only by nipple tassles, this is parodying the infamous wardrobe malfunction with Janet Jackson in the Superbowl only a month earlier. This is just one heck of a funny hip hop video, one of the funniest ever created, for sure.
Note: This is the first and last video from the year 2004 in this list.

Here's the video for your enjoyment!

Click here to see #52 on the list or here for #54!

My Top 100 Favourite Music Videos: #76

#76: "Forgot About Dre" - Dr Dre and Eminem
Release Date: 2000
Director: Philip Atwell
Fun Fact: The song won a Grammy award, and also won Best Rap Video at the MTV Video Music Awards!

Maybe it's just me but I think people have forgotten how hilarious this video is. Just the whole segment when Dr Dre and Eminem are drunk (or high? unsure), give a woman crap while crashing their car and setting a house on fire is great. The best parts are Eminem falling over a bin, having to pull his trousers up, and then taking part in the news report wearing a disguise goatee (see below) before ripping into the news interview anyway. It's just a fantastic part of the video, the rest of the video is actually relatively basic, but just that 90 seconds or so of footage made me laugh so hard when I first saw it all those years ago.

Here's the video for your enjoyment!

Click here to see #75 on the list or here for #77!

The Mercyside 100 2014

Hi everyone, this is my first post in nearly eight months. For the last two years I've been calculating all my play counts on my personal media player, to see what songs I listen to the most. And then at the start of the year I reveal what 100 songs I've listened to the most. Last year I revealed The Mercyside 100 2013, which was done in seven parts in great detail on this website and as seven DJ shows on my Mixcloud account.

This year I did The Mercyside 100 2014. Instead of 7 parts, I decided to cut it to four parts. So each of the four parts revealed 25 different songs, in reverse order of how often I played them.

You can listen to these four DJ shows on the links below:

Part 1: #100 to #76
Part 2: #75 to #51
Part 3: #50 to #26
Part 4: #25 to #1

I'm not going to go into great detail on this website, like I did last year. But what I will do is reveal to you what the 100 songs were, in reverse order. So if you don't want to find out this way, listen to the shows linked above!

So, in reverse order, here are is The Mercyside 100 2014! These are 100 songs I played more than anything else last year.

So, what was the most played song of the year for me? Here it is...

#1: Snap Out of It - Arctic Monkeys ("AM", 2013)

So there we go! I hope you choose to listen to the shows because they are much better to listen to rather than just see them as words on a screen. Music is for the ears after all! But if not, I hope you find some interesting entries in here, and if so, check them out on Youtube if you would rather do it that way than to listen to the actual shows! If there's something on this list you've not heard before and you end up really liking, let me know, comment below! I'd be happy to have gotten you into a song or an artist you've not heard before!

"Blue text"
Just in case you haven't listened to the shows, the songs in "blue" were "Songs of the Month". Basically, those tracks where played more than any other track, on a particular month of 2014. Here's the list in order, with Youtube links attached:

January 2014: Talk Dirty (feat. 2 Chainz) - Jason Derulo
February 2014: Royals - Lorde
March 2014: Bad Blood - Beck
April 2014: Snap Out of it - Arctic Monkeys
May 2014: Rap God - Eminem
June 2014: Energia - Russkaja
July 2014: Jungle (Remix feat. X Ambassadors and Jay-Z) - Jamie N Commons
August 2014: Handy - Weird Al Yankovic
September 2014: I Will Survive - Cake
October 2014: Howlin' For You - The Black Keys
November 2014: Something from Nothing - Foo Fighters
December 2014: Uptown Funk - Mark Ronson (feat. Bruno Mars)

Multiple Artist Entries

Here's a list of artists with more than one entry in The Mercyside 100 2014:

4 Entries - Eminem, Nine Inch Nails, The Queens of the Stone Age, Weird Al Yankovic
3 Entries - Arctic Monkeys, The Beards, Foo Fighters, Imagine Dragons, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Kasabian, KoRn, Rob Zombie
2 Entries - Beck, Disturbed, Justin Timberlake, Ministry, Muse, Skrillex, Slipknot, Trent Reznor

Multiple Album Entries

Here's a list of albums with more than one entry in The Mercyside 100 2014:

4 Entries - "...Like Clockwork" by The Queens of the Stone Age
3 Entries - "AM" by the Arctic Monkeys; "Mandatory Fun" by Weird Al Yankovic; "The Marshall Mathers LP2" by Eminem; "Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor" by Rob Zombie
2 Entries - "48:13" by Kasabian; "The Beards" by The Beards, "Night Visions" by Imagine Dragons; "The 2nd Law" by Muse

Here's some charts showing you how often songs appeared by the year, or decade...

Also, FYI, 43 songs on this list were not singles, which means that 57 of them were!

So that's the end! I'll be doing a huge website project very soon so stay tuned for that, to keep upto date with what I'm doing it's best to follow me on Facebook, link is below! Take care!

For the latest updates on my work, follow me on Facebook and Twitter here!

Noughtie: My 100 Favourite Songs of the Decade (Part 3)

Overall Favourite Artists | Best of 2000 | Overall Least Favourite Artists | Best of 2001

Where Are They Now? | Best of 2002 | Best New Artists | Best of 2003 | My Guilty Pleasures
Best of 2004 | My Favourite Riffs | Best of 2005 | Underrated Artists | Best of 2006
 My Favourite Albums | Best of 2007 | Best Videos | Best of 2008 | Most Important Artists
Best of 2009 | 100 Favourite Songs of the Decade | 100 Most Important Songs of the Decade

To view part 1, click here.

To view part 2, click here.

Welcome to Part 3. Look below if you’ve missed the first two parts. This is the biased listing, looking at my personal favourite tracks of the decade. Let’s continue from #80 - #71.

#80. “Gold Lion” – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Released: 21/3/06

Album: Show Your Bones

It’s always been a debate for me, what was the better song, “Gold Lion” or “Turn Into”. I always liked “Gold Lion”, but not really loved it, where as I always had a soft spot for “Turn Into”. Yet as time went on, the roles started to reverse, I now prefer the first single off the album to the second. It’s always been seen that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs started to mature and tweak their sound starting from this band, and their attempts have made them a more popular, if not more indie sounding band rather than a gritty post-punk, art-rock band. Regardless, I like this band and this is one of their better songs.

#79. “Bitches” – Mindless Self Indulgence

Released: 4/4/00

Album: Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy

Bitches is a very simple song, by this silly yet awesome band called Mindless Self Indulgence. Little Jimmy Urine talks about how “bitches” know how awesome he is at whatever he does. It’s a very silly song with silly lyrics but I love the music, I love the typical MSI style and sound that goes with this song. As I said it’s simple, stupid. But it’s still a great song, and it’s MSI at their immature best.

#78. “Spitfire” – The Prodigy

Released: 4/4/05

Album: Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned

Exactly five years after MSI released “Bitches”, The Prodigy released “Spitfire”. It’s not important but an interesting observation on my part. Anyway! Spitfire is one of the most popularly played dance tracks of the decade, especially in clubs. This song was huge when it came out, it’s probably The Prodigy’s biggest hit of the decade. Juliette Lewis, like in “Hotride”, provides the vocals for the song, and does a great job. This is one of those dance tracks that just have to be played LOUD. The bass is just fantastic to listen to when done appropriately.

#77. “Fix Up, Look Sharp” – Dizzee Rascal

Released: 18/8/03

Album: Boy In Da Corner

Dizzee Rascal’s second single was the song that turned heads really, “I Luv U” set the tone for his rise, but this definitely made people seek this young alternative rapper out. His “propa Cockney” skills, penetrating “The Big Beat” which is sampled in the back ground, a fantastic song to sample may I add, really made people think we had a rising British star on our hands. And since then, this young lad Dizzee has continued to rise to be just that, a very good, promising young British artist. The sky is the limit for this man.

#76. “Bad Things” – Jace Everett

Released: 27/9/05

Album: Jace Everett

Full credit has to go to Gary Calamar, the man in charge of True Blood’s music direction and chosen tracks, for Jace Everett’s slow rise in popularity. This song barely surfaced anywhere back in 2005 when it was released. However Gary Calamar liked it, bought/downloaded the song and three years later whilst playing his music on random, heard it again. He loved it and decided to use it as the main theme for True Blood. The rest is history. It’s a brilliant track, and as someone who is not too huge on country music, it just sounds so good.

#75. “Red Flag” – Billy Talent

Released: 11/9/06

Album: Billy Talent II

Yep, so on the five year anniversary of the horrific 9/11 attacks, Billy Talent release this fantastic track. There’s no connection, just another odd observation I noticed whilst writing. This is the only Billy Talent song on this listing, it’s probably their best single, but I do like their stuff, despite the many similarities they may have with a lot emo bands. I make a good exception to Billy Talent as musically, they’re a very good band, and put a good amount of modern punk into their stuff. Red Flag just sounds great, and the video is very good too, which you can see below.

#74. “Paper Planes” - MIA

Released: 11/2/08

Album: Kala

I haven’t seen Slumdog Millionaire. It’s one of those films that I’d like to see, yet don’t have much urgency to do so. Yet this song was played a lot around the time the film came out, and I listened with intrigue to it mostly. I never knew who MIA was and I never knew the name of the song. But when I was doing some research on the decade of music that I’m currently talking about, this song was chosen as one of the highlights of the decade, in many difference forms of music journalism, that’s freelance, magazines and also on satellite television. I saw the name of the song pop up a few times and then remembered what the song was. After that, I really started to like it, and listened to it a lot. I still play it quite often now; it’s a great little track by the alternative rapper. Kudos to her.

#73. “Lose Yourself” – Eminem

Released: 22/10/02

Album: Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture 8 Mile

“Lose Yourself” for me, is possibly Eminem’s greatest rap. I wasn’t too keen on the song when I first heard it; I thought it was okay, but nothing special. But then the more I hear it, the more I love it, the rapping, the lyrics, it’s great stuff by Eminem. He really put a lot of effort into the song, it’s sound, and wanted to make a good quality, completely non-controversial rap song to help with his film. He succeeded in doing that greatly, and “Lose Yourself” is the end product.

#72. “30-30/150” – Stone Sour

Released: 1/8/06

Album: Come What(ever) May

I’m not the greatest Stone Sour fan in the world, I much prefer Slipknot’s musical direction personally. However this song is very good, and is a good favourite to listen to in clubs as well. The funny thing about this song is the amount of speculation around about the origin of the song’s title, no one really knows in honesty, and Corey Taylor has been relatively cryptic about it.

#71. “No You Girls” – Franz  Ferdinand

Released: 6/4/09

Album: Tonight: Franz Ferdinand

An underrated Franz Ferdinand song in honesty, I find it quite disappointing that Franz Ferdinand haven’t been able to maintain their popularity as the decade wore on. Their songs, as I said before have been of decent, consistent quality and I thoroughly enjoy their music. This is the second single from their third album, and it’s probably the most popular song off it, but it never got into the Top 20 in the charts, which in contrast to earlier material is a disappointment. But it’s a great track, one of their best singles, in my opinion. 

Here we go one part gone, another to come tomorrow. Here’s a quick wrap up, because… well… because I can! See you tomorrow I hope!

To view part 4, click here.

To view part 5, click here.

To view part 6, click here.

To view part 7, click here.

To view part 8, click here.

To view part 9, click here.
To view part 10, click here.