I'm Into CB's 51 Best Tunes of the Aughts

Bearing in mind that I was 10 years old in 2000, this list is obviously biased, definitely skews guitar, and totally invalidated by personal feelings towards the songs selected. Below are--IMO--the 51 best songs released in the first decade of the 21st century, with a description of why each song was included using the fewest words possible.

1. Interpol - PDA :: guitars from heaven, rhythm from the thunderclouds, motorik revelation [editor's note: aaaalmost a haiku, totally unintentional]
   
2. The Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies) :: it's all momentum, carrying you up. "scare your son/scare your daughter"
3. Andrew Bird - Imitosis :: the truth, salsa style
   
4. Sufjan Stevens - Chicago :: a hook that swells swells and until it's too big, and evaporates, leaving only its warm ether behind
   
5. Wolf Parade - Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts :: new genre: sad robot indie-rock, "god doesn't always have the best goddamn plans does he?"
6. Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out :: 00:57
   
7. Women - Shaking Hand :: an exhaltation of the tumble, the chime, the shimmer, and the mumble
   
8. Gorillaz - New Genius (Brother) :: old soul LP from another planet/cautionary tale from beyond the grave
   
9. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - The Skin of my Yellow Country Teeth :: = 6 hooks/minute + atonal/astonishing vocals
   
10. Karl Blau - Spin Around :: menacing forrest-jazz freakout
    
11. Radiohead - There, There (The Boney King of Nowhere.) :: just watch the video
    
12. The Strokes - Take It or Leave It :: two notes make this the best garage rock song of the decade
    
13. Spoon - The Way We Get By :: statement of intent, hint of things to come, made piano vamp cool again
    
14. Radiohead - Dollars & Cents :: like the capital relation it maligns, it envelopes everything around you with a menacing/appealing sheen
    
15. Beck - Gamma Ray :: impossible to not make that "i'm swimming" dance to
    
16. Air - Playground Love :: impossible to separate from the film, so just watch the trailer
    
17. TV on the Radio - The Wrong Way :: new genre #2: indignant robot soul
    
18. The Walkmen - The Rat :: one of only a few songs in history to make a hook out of a fill
    
19. Hot Chip - Over and Over :: []sexy []unsexy dance-party (check one)
    
20. St. Vincent - Marrow :: sexy factory music
    
21. The Rakes - Auslandmission :: cinematic punk rock from a post-Berlin-wall Europe
    
22. Deerhunter - Never Stops :: shimmering jangle-kraut-pop, cryptic/instantly classic chorus
    
23. Voxtrot - Mothers, Sisters, Daughters and Wives :: 3 pop-songs in one, sung by you (yourself) in 9th grade
    
24. LCD Soundsystem - Losing My Edge :: an indictment/ode to my generation of music consumers and a crash course in music that, once you put aside the the snark, you really should listen to...
    
25. Tokyo Police Club - Citizens of Tomorrow :: hand-clap sci-fi
    
26. Why? - A Sky for Shoeing Horses Under :: vibraphone at the end of the world, "looks like a good sky to die under"
    
27. Sunset Rubdown - Stadiums and Shrines II :: from the first pounding note the finest performance of Spencer Krug's astounding catalog
    
28. Vivian Girls - I Believe in Nothing :: best listened to whilst speeding freezing rainy northern-California highways
29. The White Stripes - Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground :: Jack White displays some atypical lyricism over an honestly subtle beat from Meg
    
30. LCD Soundsystem - Tribulations :: "everybody makes mistakes / but it seems it's mine that always keep on stingin,'" guitar solos in dance music are always a good idea
    
31. Times New Viking - Teenage Lust! :: golden-age-GBV-calibre lo-fi with a healthy injection of wistful Casio nostalgia and aching angst
    
32. Innaway - Threat Hawk :: sun-blasted desert-rock with a keen ear for melody
    
33. Blur - Caravan :: the best music sounds like the last transmission from a lost, sinking submarine
    
34. Chemical Brothers - The Boxer :: stuttering synths and an anthemic chorus elevate this to more than another club stomper
    
35. Beirut - Nantes :: a sepia-toned postcard of a song with brass lines that shimmer like childhood summers
    
36. Okkervil River - For Real :: the song that most successfully apes "Creep's" drop-the-guitar moment this decade, primal screams from a pasty-faced paisley crooner
    
37. Doves - Black and White Town :: impossibly defeated, undeniably uplifting
    
38. Phantom Planet - Big Brat :: a distorted blast of brilliant pop-punk from those dudes who did the OC theme
    
39. Autolux - Sugarless :: soon to be included on Music for Plane Crashes, Vol. 1
    
40. Animal Collective - Leaf House :: remember when Animal Collective played real instruments? Me too... : (
    
41. Hot Chip - The Beach Party :: Yacht-party electro-pop for smoky seasides
    
42. The Hives - Hate to Say I Told You So :: beat the Strokes to the garage-rock punch in 2000, unfortunately ahead-of-their-time by about a year
    
43. Bowerbirds - La Denigracion :: lilting accordion-driven Parisian troubadour pop
    
44. AC Newman - Miracle Drug :: all hook, no fat, "thank you for your interest young man"
    
45. Born Ruffians - This Sentence Will Ruin/Save Your Life :: a yelpy energetic distillation of late-teen angst
    
46. Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood :: a masterpiece of horror-hop, you weren't alive in 2001 if you don't know Del's righteous rhymes by heart
    
47. Dog Day - Sleeping on Couches :: glowing throbs of distorted jangle-pop guitar with the sad knowledge that every summer is hotter than the one before it
    
48. Weird War - AK-47 :: hip terrorists
    
49. Figurines - The Wonder :: just plain catchy, reminds me why bass is important
    
50. Jimmy Eat World - Pain :: biggest modern-rock radio guilty pleasure
    
51. Phoenix - 1901 :: vocal acrobatics, disco beats, meaty synths, pop for the new millennium