The 2010s…a decade where music became more disposable or
really only good for the 30 second meme that might get virality on Vine or now
TikTok which is becoming the new Vine, streaming has effectively replaced
downloads and CDs as the way the majority of people around the world are
listening to music while the popstars of the 2000s took a backseat to rappers
and the new wave of popstars with the biggest names this decade including
Adele, Taylor Swift, Post Malone, Ariana Grande, Drake and Bruno Mars.
Regardless of all that though, how was the music? Honestly,
I think its ridiculous to compare decades as each decade has equal amounts of
good and bad years eg: I have been looking at the music of the 70s and I am
finding just as much crap from that I think people forget hence they like to
romanticise about the 70s being better than the 2010s when there’s an argument
that that is not the case at all however I am getting carried away, it’s time
to talk about the ten songs that I loved the most over this 2010s
Believe me, creating this list wasn’t easy, it was agony
cutting songs that just missed out but this is best of the best from the 2010s
so for as much as I loved the gorgeously constructed “Someone Like You” by
Adele, the amazing “Somebody that I Used to Know” by Gotye and Kimbra and the
cathartic “Hymn for the Weekend” by Coldplay, they won’t be making this list.
The songs all had to chart on the ARIA year end singles
chart of their respective year and keep in mind this is just my opinion, music
is subjective so feel free to share your top ten favourite hit songs of the
decade just gone in the comments and some of these picks may not reflect the
year end top ten lists that I published especially for one year in particular.
Now all that is out of the way, let us get this show on the
road starting with a song that was my favourite hit song of last year and still
packs a smooth punch in 2020.
10. “Dancing With A Stranger” by Sam Smith and Normani
I have no regrets about putting this here, this song just
connects for me with its slinky cool smoothness with R&B vibes that are
tailor made to suit both the voices of Sam Smith and Normani. A song about not
wanting to be lonely in the wake of a relationship falling apart so trying to
find some semblance of solace with a stranger amidst the hope that the other
person returns and the instrumentation really does highlight the loneliness.
Sam Smith vocally sounds so better on this too not using the
range where they tend to sound more willowy and it works with Normani so
effectively, the lower range works with spare guitar and the other elements so
well, its almost breathtaking.
This guy is going to be appearing on my list twice, he is
the only one set to appear twice and its for good reason…
9. “Lego House” by Ed Sheeran
It took me awhile to appreciate Ed Sheeran’s 2012 smash hit,
it took hearing this on the radio in 2014 for me to truly appreciate just how
resonant “Lego House” is for me and that gentle acoustic guitar along with the
piano, it’s sheer divinity to the ears. The subject matter of the song though
is dark as Sheeran sings about the struggle of trying to fix a relationship
that seems hopelessly lost or at the point of just falling apart altogether but
Sheeran still cares enough about this girl to want to stop her from getting
hurt by him, he knows things in the relationship aren’t working and wants to
ease her pain even if he knows he will suffer himself.
What sells this song is the sincerity and emotion in the
voice of Ed Sheeran on the song, you can almost feel his heart breaking on the
track. So glad Australia made “Lego House” the hit it deserved to be,
There are three songs on this list that weren’t hits in the
USA, “Lego House” was one, this is the second of those and considering the fact
that after her breakout success in 2013/14 over the USA the fact this song
wasn’t a hit there surprised me which is why I am so happy I can put it on this
list.
8. “Green Light” by Lorde
Unlike “Lego House” where Ed Sheeran is trying to let down a
partner easy, Lorde is upset and trying to deal with her own heartbreak by
seeking the moment her own heart will allow her to move forward and on with her
life after the end of the relationship but not without taking a few pointed
shots at the guy who broke her heart referencing kissing on the dancefloor etc
and Lorde delivers with a genuine vocal intensity that maybe only Beyonce at
her most savage could match.
What I also love about this song is Jack Antonoff’s
production which sees a piano sample that helps to build into one of the most
exultant choruses of the 2010s, it’s anthemic without tilting into being corny.
If you have not heard Lorde’s 2017 masterpiece album “Melodrama” yet, I highly
recommend you do so because much like this song, it is something incredibly
special.
This next song was not going to make my top ten, in fact, I
had left it out for another song…I went back and re listened and weeeell….
7. “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars.
For a large portion of 2014-15, this song was inescapable and
meant that it was under threat of suffering from people getting tired of it but
even if I wasn’t initially a fan, I could still appreciate just how incredibly
catchy it was as Mark Ronson fused jazz, dance and 70s and 80s tropes together
to make a ridiculously memorable melody and beat while Bruno Mars is showing
off all his retro cool as he sings about being so pretty he could kiss himself and
brags he is smoother than a jar of Skippy peanut butter.
Now normally that kind of bragging from Bruno Mars or anyone
else for that matter would irk me but Bruno Mars can carry the attitude and
swagger involved with this kind of song plus “Uptown Funk has one hell of a
groove that no other song was able to match for the rest of the decade, seems
kind of ironic that “Uptown Funk” would be one of the last really fun songs in 2015
before the charts lapsed toward woke pop that was trying far too hard to be
relatable and boring hip hop trap that popular music is only now just starting
to come out of but for awhile this song brought smiles and fun for so many and
we have Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars to thank for that.
I cannot believe I’m doing this; I am not a massive fan of
this artist, she can annoy me sometimes, but you know what? When she makes a
pop song like this one, you do have to acknowledge it and praise it…yep, there
is a Taylor Swift song on this list…
6. “Style” by Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift’s singles choices are usually pretty terrible,
I wasn’t a fan of “Shake It Off” (She just couldn’t sell the message
convincingly for mine and that cheerleader aspect of the song pissed me off)
and “Blank Space” while not as annoying as “Shake It Off, it suffered
production issues but “Style” is what happens when Taylor leverages her
strengths in writing with that outrageously good melody along with a sound that
could have been jacked straight out of the late 70s, early 80s – a sound a lot
of artists are going for right now.
“Style” is allegedly about a past romantic relationship
Taylor was involved in and regardless of the stories and rumours, the song just
works so well beyond all the gossip with that groove courtesy of those synths
and a killer guitar riff that will almost always make any pop song good to
great at least to me and Taylor sells this so much better than she did on
“Shake it Off”.
I look forward to writing about “Cruel Summer” when it
hopefully makes the year end for 2020, looking forward to whatever else Taylor
has in store.
This next song gets to me a far bit and hearing it performed
live by one of the artists involved during Music from the Homefront confirmed that for me, it needed to be
here. It’s the last of the three songs not to be a hit in the USA and the only
hip hop or hip hop adjacent song to make this list…
5. “Battle Scars” by Guy Sebastian feat Lupe Fiasco
This song brings me to tears every single time I hear it
either on the radio or p, a song about over coming personal battles or labels
given by other people and inspiring people to confront the challenges they are
facing in their lives and yeah Sebastian’s vocal performance is one of his most
passionate to date, the kind of soaring range that makes you sit up and pay
attention and Lupe is on form here, he isn’t doing the whole phoned in verse on
this song, he is giving it 100% and wow, he sounds fantastic as he raps about
never really healing from the end of a relationship.
It is a very real and very honest song that dives headfirst
into holding up a mirror to itself and questioning whether Sebastian and Lupe
have overcome their battles and holding them to account, it’s real and powerful
moment when Lupe admits what he is confronting is starting to break him and
knowing what that’s like to hit that point, it’s something that does get to me
every time. I think I’ll leave it where it is as like I said previously I do
have trouble writing about this one.
I am so glad
Australia made this a number one hit like it deserved to be worldwide.
Talking about this band so high on this list feels weird,
mostly because they are making music now that is nowhere near as good as this
song…
4. “Counting Stars” by OneRepublic
Oh man, hearing this song reminds of the potential that
OneRepublic had at the time this song came out when Ryan Tedder showed he had
some personality and One Republic had this knack for song writing that took the
audience with them instead of selling out to car commercials with their most
recent releases, look at songs like this one and “Love Runs Out” (a song that
was a hit in the USA) but regardless of my thoughts on OneRepublic’s direction
in 2020.
“Counting Stars” blends folk pop, pop rock and disco with a
groove that is incredibly propulsive especially as the slow build leads to the
incredibly propulsive chorus and lyrics that play almost toward themes that
sound familiar today with laying in bed at night wondering how on earth they
are going to make ends meet and what they are going to do with their lives as
individuals and Tedder is just able to take the audience with him on this song,
he really is the star of the show here.
Terrific song! I am glad this was a hit around the world,
maybe just maybe, OneRepublic will come back to make this kind of pop rock
music again one day.
We are not done with propulsive pop songs with a lot of
energy though because…
3. “Ghost” by Ella Henderson
Who would have thought a former UK X-Factor contestant would
up so high on this list? Well here is the thing, Ella Henderson released a damn
good first album called “Chapter 1” with “Ghost” being the first single from
the album and what a song it is with its prominent guitar rollick and plenty of
momentum that really keeps the song moving with Ella Henderson delivering the song
with a passion and conviction.
The subject matter of “Ghost” is that of a relationship that
has fallen apart but Henderson knows that while it is absolutely toxic, she’s
still in love with this guy and keeps going back to him because hey true love
never dies. “Ghost” just a damn great pop song that I think way too many people
have forgotten about and while Ella’s return hasn’t quite really bore the fruit
this debut did, glad we got this out of it.
So we only have to go back a couple of years to 2017, the
year Ed Sheeran just dominated the ARIA charts (also the year I started this
blog), he released two songs at the same time at the start of the “Divide”
album cycle, one was the biggest hit of the year in “Shape Of You”, the other
was this…
2. “Castle on the Hill” by Ed Sheeran
This song never fails to make me tear up somehow with its
almost anthemic chorus, that brilliant guitar and the whole song sounding like
a U2 song maybe from the Achtung Baby era or something and the fact that ED
SHEERAN, the man responsible for boring slog like “Thinking Out Loud” and
“Photograph”, could write and release a ROCK leaning song like “Castle on the
Hill” in the midst of a time when the world’s charts were full of clunky
desaturated pop and hip hop stuck in a murky swirl of trap that mostly wasn’t
good so when this got stuck at number two behind “Shape Of You” for a few
weeks, I could scarcely believe my eyes, it was almost too good to be true
especially as Sheeran wasn’t playing to his hook up side this time.
“Castle on the Hill” sees Sheeran reminiscing about growing
up and how everyone he grew up with has handled life, some of those people he
knew have since had children and some are just barely making ends meet when he
returns home from his tours, it’s clear that Sheeran thinks of these people who
he says in the song helped raise him, it’s a song that leaves a lump in my
throat.
Heck, “Castle on the Hill” ended up being better than the entirety
of the U2 album that was released in that same year.
So here we are at the top spot, I think I have known what my
number one best hit of the decade would be for some time, this song to me is
just incredible and the only one that I felt was right to put at the top to me…
1. “Rolling in the Deep” by Adele
I love everything about this song that combines blues,
gospel and disco into one incredible song that sees a proper build through the
verses and bridge into an explosive chorus and the power of Adele’s voice is
just captivity especially as the song just starts with Adele’s vocals and spare
guitar building up with drums and a piano before hitting the chorus with Adele just
nailing it brilliantly.
It’s claimed the song was written after a relationship
breakdown where Adele was told by an ex-boyfriend that her life would be boring
and lonely if she didn’t stay with him which is pretty insulting and abusive so
this song does feel like the right message to send to that ex by Adele and what
a way to do it too!
Billboard chose this song as one of their 100 songs of the
decade and you know what? For once they got SOMETHING right as Adele was proving
to be a game changer for the music scene still looking for direction post the collapse
of the club boom in 2011, “Rolling in the Deep” and “Someone Like You” brought
soul and blues back into sharp focus on the charts at a time when people were
starting to feel the effects of the hangover from all the partying.
“Rolling in the Deep” is the best hit song of the 2010s.
