So a few weeks ago I made a series of blogs about my Decade of Music project in which I talked about my favorite songs, favorite music videos, etc. from the past 10 years of downloading songs. Well, I want to make sure that some of my pre-2010 songs get some recognition, so let’s spend this blog talking about all the music I had prior to my project!

This review/summary is going to be a lot more succinct, but I figured it was only fair to do one. After all, a good number of my favorite songs are from pre-2010, and they deserve to et noticed. So let’s do a short and sweet little review, shall we? In this blog, I’ll talk about 1) my top five pre-2010 songs and 2) my top five pre-2010 music videos.

A quick note before we get started: prior to my Decade of Music project, I did not keep track of when I acquired songs or anything like that. I just accrued them without record. So these songs could be from 2009, they could be from 2006, they could be from prior to that. I know that probably doesn’t matter to anyone, but it’s worth saying that I didn’t keep good records prior to the project.

Alrighty, enough rambling. Ready? GO!

The Top Five Pre-2010 Songs
Ranked from fifth most favorite to most favorite.

5. O Magnum Mysterium by Morten Lauridsen
Picking #5 was hard, but I’m going to have to go with this song. I’ve mentioned it on here before, but we played an “arranged for band” version of this in concert band in spring of 2007. That year (that semester, mainly) was kind of like a personal “Age of Enlightenment” for me, where I really felt an urge to learn and be connected with the world through knowledge and philosophy. I remember playing this in the Admin building and feeling so…amazed by all that we knew about the universe and how much there was still to learn about it. I don’t know, it’s hard to describe the feeling. But this song still brings me back to that wonder, and I love it.

4. Lights and Music by Cut Copy
This was an iTunes freebie back in 2007 (remember when that was a thing? BRING IT BACK, ITUNES). The best thing about this song is the chorus (1:20). More specifically, that synth in the chorus. Y’all know I’m a sucker for a good synth.

3. Sleepyhead (Jazzsteppa Remix) by Passion Pit
If you look a bit further down the page, you’ll see Sleepyhead is my #1 song (obviously). I have acquired a lot of remixes of the song, but this is definitely the best. I judge a remix of Sleepyhead by what they do with the chorus, and this is the only remix whose chorus rivals the original one (1:20). It’s a different vibe, but I love it so much. I found this remix in September of 2009, so it just missed the project cutoff.

2. Call on Me by Eric Prydz
THE BEAT IS SO GOOD *wild screeching* and there’s so much energy. I actually can’t remember where I found this song (MySpace maybe?), but I’m very glad I did. Fun fact: it’s actually based on a sample of “Valerie” by Steve Winwood, and apparently Winwood liked it so much that he re-recorded his vocals of “Valerie” so they’d fit “Call on Me” better. Nice.

1. Sleepyhead by Passion Pit
Of course Sleepyhead is my #1, where have you even been? This song missed the Decade of Music cutoff by less than a year (February 24, 2009 was when it was an iTunes freebie, because again, that’s the kind of stupid nonsense I remember forever) and it will forever be associated with Vancouver/UBC, because it came out right before I went up there for a weekend tour of the campus for grad school. But regardless of that, it’s still my #1, and the reason is the chorus (1:20). Such. A. Good. Chorus.

The Top Five Pre-2010 Music videos
Ranked from fifth most favorite to most favorite.

5. The Riddle by Gigi D’agostino

My friend Jacob introduced me to this amazing song one late summer night in 2008 over MSN Messenger and everyone I show it to loves it. The music video is really fantastic as well and captures the funkiness of the song really well.

4. Symphonies by Dan Black

(Can’t find the non-Kid Cudi version on YouTube and this original is so much better)
I really love the different movie credit/openings styles as a music video idea. I think it’s super creative.

3. Pork and Beans by Weezer

Oh look, meme references. But done well. If this doesn’t make you nostalgic for that era of the Tubes, then you did not waste enough of your life on the internet in the late aughts.

2. Get Over It by OK Go

So basically every other OK Go music video is way more grandiose and insane than this one, but this is my favorite of all of their vids. I don’t know why. I think I like the simplicity and how it still has that OK Go “feel” to it in all the visual lyrics/puns. Also, it’s a banging good song.

1. Call on Me by Eric Prydz

A young Justin Trudeau goes to an aerobics class with a bunch of ladies and everyone exercises suggestively.
(You can’t tell me that guy doesn’t look like Trudeau.)

I was going to add a bonus “top memories” category, too, but it would be way too hard to pick a top 5 or even a top 10 for that, since these songs span the whole pre-2010 portion of my life. So I think I’ll stop here.

WOO!