The Listomania I make the lists, you shoot them down. Quid Pro Quo.

150. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?

When I first saw them play live, I spent most of the show thinking “holy shit, he literally does everything in this band.” I had never seen someone play lead guitar, sing, and lead a group the way Ted Leo did in 2003, right around the time this song came out on the album Hearts of Oak. And through that respect, I realized that this song just straight up kicks ass, which was honestly a rare commodity in the 00’s.

With a ripping (A.C. Slater word) guitar line teetering on the edge of feedback and overdriven vocals from either a distorted mic or long-distorted vocal chords, Ted sings a nostalgic ode to old school ska and its rabid fans (rude boys.) Listen closely and you’ll hear a series of references to classic English 2 Tone band The Specials.  Even if you know nothing about the band, you can feel Ted's need through the careful way he addresses parts of a scene he was never in.  Like Arctic Monkeys lovingly crafting an ode to trip-hop.  Scratch that actually, that would be awful.

The heart of the song lies in its calmer moments, though. Who the fuck are these people he’s talking about? Terry, Jerry?  It doesn’t really matter, it could be anyone long forgotten. It's actually members of the band, and for a brief 5-minute blast, Ted Leo succeeds in pulling us into his nostalgia and letting us feel what it’s like to yearn for the return of something that we never even had.

151. Los Campesinos! – My Year in Lists

Is this really the 151st best song of the 00’s? Maybe not, but it seemed to be the only appropriate way to start such a massive undertaking.

Every year, I make a list of my favorite songs and burn them onto CD’s for friends, family, pretty much anyone who won’t judge me. I throw in what I have been grooving hard on and research a little bit of what others have been grooving on. I get to catch up on shit I might’ve missed the first time through, and remember that stuff that comes out in the dead zone of January and gets lost in the shuffle come fall (hey, Merriwether Post Pavilion. Been a while.) More importantly, though, the exercise helps me put my year in order – not just music, but 365 days of memories, trips, heart breaks and freak outs. I pour over songs that were upgraded to Annoying Everyone Else frequency in April and remember what Spring felt like. Coming home. Some people scrap book, some people journal, some people put together family photo albums, both on AND off Facebook. I list.

So the Top 151 Songs of the Decade are a way for me to remember my decade in the only way I know how – through the music that got me through high school, into and through college, to other countries, through relationships and friendships and courtships and cruise ships. And maybe this Los Campesinos! song, from their debut Hold on Now, Youngster… from 2008 isn’t about obsessively making cultural lists. But to me, it’s about exorcise through exercise, all upbeat horns and his n’ hers singalongs, and that’s how any good decade-long list should begin – a quick high-note about favorable endings.  Here is My Decade in Lists.

Ready?