Are We Having Fun Yet? ILM's Top 100 Tracks Of The 00's

I’m inviting trolling by saying this but I think one of the pieces of writing I am proudest of was a capsule for “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” back when Pitchfork did its 00s list.

The Thin White Duke remix of Mr. Brightside has aged like a tuna fish sandwich left in the sun.

My favorite remix of "with every heartbeat" is the Rory Philips one, I might even prefer it over the original one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4PkNtla-8o

Björk - Pagan Poetry odd but gripping. ended too soon. one day i will actually dive further into her body of work
Radiohead - Idioteque i was ready to shit on this like i do everything by radiohead but i actually enjoy this. this is how highly rated a radiohead tune needs to be in order to be listenable. i like what's going on with the percussion in the back half. well done radiohead
Friendly Fires - Paris (Aeroplane Remix) i like this whenever i hear it but forget all about it within seconds of it ending. i heard it in a hip overpriced coffeeshop a few months back and thought "isn't this that friendly fires remix" but had to shazam to be sure. ppl who pretend this is the only worthwhile thing with friendly fires' name on it are sad and wrong
LCD Soundsystem - Losing My Edge insufferable
Girls Aloud - Biology a total thrill, so much going on but so immediately inviting
Cortney Tidwell - Don't Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up (Ewan Pearson's Objects In Space mix) completely astonishing. i first heard this when i was new to ilm reading the countdown to the 05-09 poll, where iirc it barely placed. i think it was the first among a few records i found thru ilm that basically opened up a new world of dance music to me. i've played it in the presence of a handful of friends and acquaintances, none of whom have responded with the raves this track should elicit -- a reminder that most friends and acquaintances have shit taste. last several minutes following the enormous climax are necessary btw
Three 6 Mafia - Stay Fly iconic, also excellent production
Battles - Atlas gimmicky but i still like it
M.O.P. - Ante Up delivery is unique and immediately commands attention but generally don't think there's much special abt the song, can't help but wonder if they have plenty of other tunes just as strong
Daft Punk - One More Time i think the first daft punk song i heard, shortly after the success of dance gimmicks like eiffel 65 signaled the possibility of adding a proper club anthem to top 40's rotation every once in a while. still my favorite daft punk tune. romanthony's vocals are so uplifting and the lyrics are wonderful too
The Rapture - House Of Jealous Lovers abominable
Dizzee Rascal - I Luv U didn't hear this until years later after i'd heard other generally lesser dizzee rascal tunes. pretty tremendous
Burial - Archangel wtf zzz
OutKast - Hey Ya! deserved its utterly complete conquest of the musical world
Missy Elliott - Work It glad it missed the top 10 since it was immediately thought to be a shoo-in. however i do love this song. i remember the girls at a middle school mixer getting on the tables and dancing to it which seemed a bit scandalous
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps without a doubt one of the most overrated songs in history
Kylie Minogue - Love At First Sight shocked this placed at all, much less this high/higher than the usually indomitable "can't get you out of my head". not complaining at all tho! really a wonderful blissful tune, you can really feel the stars coming out etc.
The Juan Maclean - Happy House dfa could be good... launch me into spaaaaaace
OutKast - B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad) i respect this more than i actually want to listen to it but it's also hard to deny how good it is
Broadcast - Come On Let's Go no idea what this is. nice enough but haven't the slightest idea what about it warrants any placement at all much less this high
M.I.A. - Paper Planes great in its way + i'm glad it became a mainstream hit but it's also much less interesting than a large number of other m.i.a. singles (incl from the same album) and i feel like ppl need to be reminded that the reason it was a hit was literally a stoner comedy trailer
Annie - Heartbeat i was gonna lauch into a rant about how 15 years later apparently poptimism amounted to little more than remembering a couple of twee-adjacent fluffy tunes by annie while tossing aside and forgetting scores of brilliant singles that actually pushed pop-as-populism forward in part by actually fighting their way into the popular consciousness. but this is better than i remember it being and the arrangement is fairly lovely
Missy Elliott - Get Ur Freak On in retrospect it seems so weird that a song sounding like this was as big as it was but at the time it seemed completely natural, like we'd been waiting for this forever and it was only a matter of time. missy had always had personality for lightyears and it shines thru amazingly here
Daft Punk - Digital Love too high? lol. however it's a definitely a great track and as mentioned a million times the guitar solo is ace. if there was gonna be another daft punk song placing other than "one more time" i'm glad it was this one
The Knife - Heartbeats unsure why this song continues to be thought of as being so great. it's nice but not very inventive and even as a straightforward pop tune it doesn't offer that much. sorry but the incessant hype has been wrong on this one for ages.
Amerie - 1 Thing i wish this result weren't so predictable. great song but also overrated to a degree i previously thought impossible

as usual the upper reaches of the results tend to be the least interesting part especially since they're so predictable that everyone can start placing bets and be somewhat right. overall the poll was good but honestly the results compared to more contemporary ilm polls and other broad canonization exercises like pazz/jop should lay to rest the myth that poptimism remains alive here, or anywhere else, regardless of how much we handwring about it every time a bad thinkpiece appears on the internet following a positive beyoncé review. the truth is that we too find most pop, including the hits that we were holding up as shining beacons of populist progress at the time, to be entirely disposable. can you imagine telling those stylus magazine people after "promiscuous" came out and their contingent collectively freaked out about it that 'well actually the most poptimist place on the internet 13 years from now will officially determine that it wasn't even among the top 100 for the decade :)'? or that the only act apparently immune from suffering the convenient scapegoat of 'vote-splitting' would be fucking lcd soundsystem? sad!

the joke result of system of a down placing so high would honestly have been the poll's biggest triumph but of course it was fake :(

i was gonna lauch into a rant about how 15 years later apparently poptimism amounted to little more than remembering a couple of twee-adjacent fluffy tunes by annie while tossing aside and forgetting scores of brilliant singles that actually pushed pop-as-populism forward in part by actually fighting their way into the popular consciousness

This x 1,000

forgetting scores of brilliant singles that actually pushed pop-as-populism forward in part by actually fighting their way into the popular consciousness

what do you have in mind? (so I can try and shoot this down before my lunchbreak ends...)

Was Brandy’s “What About Us” nominated? That was an aggressively modernist pop track.

What About Us still sounds like the future. Pretty sure I voted for it.

I should’ve voted for it. Guess I overlooked it on the nominations.

What About Us is so great, but I gave Talk About Our Love my Brandy vote.

i *wanted* to vote for "what about us"!!! again, only fifty places

terrified tbh

― american bradass (BradNelson), Sunday, October 13, 2019 8:52 PM (one week ago)

I'm still terrified now that the results are in... and I didn't even participate

I'm listening on Spotify and have wrote 1-20 words for each song. I might post my opinions on html playground

lol go for it!

i once had a dream that I ran to heaven on a treadmill and a full orchestra playing "Stay High" was marking the way
this is your annual reminder that DJ Paul has an Oscar

don’t get Jon Stewart started

I thought "What About Us" had a shot but it only got 3 votes (including mine). It feels like one of those roads not taken for popular music

It was on my list when it was hovering around 70 to 80 songs, but not much beyond that. Brutal cutting stuff down.

I scrolled up from the end and assumed that was someone's ballot - over half of the -149 list are considerably better than 70% of the top ten, WTF.

So 1 Thing is #1 and there are two Missy Elliots in the top 12 but my top vote to Let me blow ya mind did not suffice to make it crack the top 100 ? Y'all don't know what's good.

we fought that good shit in our ear

There were some errors with the spacetime continuum and the post office, same old story they said

I only voted for 3 records because knowing more than 3 records is for people who correct you're grammar innit

1) Buffalo, USA, 2001

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YTzWu2ys2s

Voted for the wrong DarandLand track but who cares, it all happens in midfield for hydrated ballers

2) Miillwall, UK, 2002

The Fish Brothers And Eastend - We All Shout The Millwall Song. No record of this on the internet. Never heard it. The stuff dreams are made of, don't wake up offside

3) Rhyl/Paris 2001

is a secret

how much cred does this gain you?

cred is outlawed by canton overseer

Feeling that one

Oops that was supposed to go on the other thread not the results thread, sorry!

Huh, we should prolly do the 2010s this sooner or later.

it'll be great whenever someone gets around to running it

just noticed Losing My Religion is in place of Losing My Edge on the Spotify playlist

My favourite discovery from this poll was the Johnny Boy song. Love that song!

just noticed Losing My Religion is in place of Losing My Edge on the Spotify playlist

― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Monday, 10 May 2021 09:06 (thirty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

o no woops

I hear that you and your band have sold your turntables and bought mandolins

i heard...you and your band...laughing

― flopsy bird (voodoo chili), Friday, 18 October 2019 15:03 (one year ago) link

Ha!

i was there in the corner, i was there in the spotlight

still think the 10s need to digest a little more before we do 'em

My favourite discovery from this poll was the Johnny Boy song. Love that song!

This might actually be true for me too.