#TheTenx5 Day 50 1. Alvvays - Archie, Marry Me, 2013 12 pts In the 90s and '00s I was a devoted indie kid. A college DJ, always at concerts & indie nights, hours at the "used bin" at record stores. Then life happened & I just stopped. This song brought me back.(cont'd) youtu.be/ZAn3JdtSrnY?...

Drop a movie that traumatized you as a kid.

#TheTenx5 Day 49 2. Kendrick Lamar - “King Kunta”, 2015 While so many who look like him are made to feel “less than”, Kendrick raps about his pride for Compton, for his Blackness, and for himself. This is music made for strutting. 12 points! youtu.be/hRK7PVJFbS8?...

#TheTenx5 Day 48 3. Let's Eat Grandma - "Donnie Darko", 2018 11 pts Starts with a quiet beat looping, boring into your head. Adds layers of guitar and swirly synths & builds on itself with lyrics about alienation, cruelty, & regret. That 2 teenagers did this is a wonder. youtu.be/VBOPCOFA5P4?...

#TheTenx5 Day 47 4. Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce - “Telephone”, 2010 Call me “basic” but the bit of this song from “K-kinda busy” through to the end of the first chorus is my favorite minute-and-a-half of 2000s pop music. (Too bad to have peaked in January of 2010!) youtu.be/EVBsypHzF3U?...

Reverse Rainbow on a 5/5 difficulty, thanks English Degree! Connections Puzzle #1014 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨

#TheTenx5 Day 46 5. Wolf Alice - "Don't Delete the Kisses", 2017, UK The chorus changes from "What if it's not meant for me, love?" to "Me and you were meant to be in love". Gotta love a happy ending. youtu.be/WqxE-zppu30?...

#TheTenx5 Day 45 6. Álvaro Soler - “Sofía”, 2016, Spain ¡11 puntos! My most-played song of the 2010s. A sweet pop song I can’t sing along to without smiling. This song hit #1 in 6 Euro countries but he still hasn’t crossed over to the English-speaking world. Pity. youtu.be/qaZ0oAh4evU?...

#TheTenx5 Day 44 11 points! 7. CHVRCHES - “ Clearest Blue”, 2015, UK First 2:32 - solid dance pop tune, 8.5/10 2:33-end, when the bass drops and it turns into Depeche Mode - 10/10 youtu.be/BZyzX4c1vIs?...

#TheTenx5 Day 43 8. Billie Eilish - "Bad Guy", 2019, USA So innovative, but with a hook that feels like you've known it forever. youtu.be/DyDfgMOUjCI?...

#TheTenx5 Day 42 9. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - “My Terrible Friend”, 2011, 🇺🇸 Indie bands with boy and girl singers who use a flat affect over jangly pop? My favorite kind of music, actually. youtu.be/N13uB8FwXiI?...

#TheTenx5 Day 41 10. US Girls - “L-Over”, 2018 Art pop that’s an easy listen. Meg Remy’s ethereal voice floats over a pulsating beat and laments a dead relationship with a cold lover who has no heart. But it’s pretty. And kinda fun! 11 points. youtu.be/UrUVFwMnbfQ?...

#TheTenx5 Day 40 11. Lizzo - “Boys”, 2018, USA 3 minutes of fun, funky positivity with a groovy bass line, some cowbell, and a beat that makes you want to dance. youtu.be/HQliEKPg1Qk?...

Search your camera roll for hell

#TheTenx5 Day 39 12. Confidence Man - "Boyfriend (Repeat)", 2017, 🇦🇺 Bubblegum dance-pop with tempo changes, weird layering, and some vocal distortion: it's interesting and arty, but never pretentious. Plus it has one of my favorite fake-out endings since Suffragette City. youtu.be/gTVT7gzZ48M?...

#TheTenx5 Day 38 13. Robyn - “Dancing on My Own”, 2010, 🇸🇪 Most dance pop doesn’t make me feel sad and nostalgic, but I’ve been the one “in the corner” and this song gets it just right. youtu.be/CcNo07Xp8aQ?...

#TheTenx5 Day 37 14. Beyoncé - “Countdown”, 2011 Beyoncé slays both the diva vocals and the cool talk-singing (“Me and my boo / and my boo boo ridin’”). This song is about the pure joy of being in love. It helps to make sense of the healing she allows for on Lemonade. youtu.be/2XY3AvVgDns?...

#TheTenx5 Day 36 15. Chairlift - “Amanaemonesia”, 2011, USA Catchy 80s electro-pop for a few minutes, then an experimental, hypnotic spoken word bit? This absolute banger is my favorite thing Caroline Polachek has done. youtu.be/98XRKr19jIE?...

#TheTenx5 Day 35 16. Taylor Swift - “New Romantics”, 2016, USA The sixth single off of “1989”, this song wasn’t even included on the original version of the album. The audacity! youtu.be/J6oLIWMoeog?...

#TheTenx5 Day 34 17. Christine & The Queens - "Tilted", 2015, France youtu.be/9RBzsjga73s?...

#TheTenx5 Day 33 18. Janelle Monae - "Tightrope (feat. Big Boi)", 2010, USA Pure energy and pure joy, this song. youtu.be/pwnefUaKCbc?...

#TheTenx5 Day 32 19. Icona Pop ft. Charli XCX - "I Love It", 2012, Sweden/UK It doesn't matter where I am in real life; when this song comes on, in my head I'm on a crowded dance floor, sloshing my drink as my friends and I jump up and down and yell along to the lyrics. youtu.be/UxxajLWwzqY?...

#TheTenx5 Day 31 20. Father John Misty, “Chateau Lobby # 4 (in C for 2 Virgins), 2015 I’m a sucker for romance. youtu.be/A6NuYJ0RzRg?...

#TheTenx5 Day 30 21. Phoebe Bridgers - "Motion Sickness", 2017, USA A beautiful song about an awful relationship, full of lyrical gut punches. youtu.be/9sfYpolGCu8?...

#TheTenx5 Day 29 22. Sleigh Bells - “Rill Rill”, 2010, USA Sleigh Bells always keep it interesting. This one is prettier than most, with dreamy vocals and heavy sampling of Funkadelic’s “Can You Get to That” (see my reply to this post) youtu.be/nmFgejWZjtg?...

#TheTenx5 Day 28 23. Big Thief - “Shark Smile”, 2017, USA Big Thief tell the kind of tale popular in 60s songs: young lovers out for a drive, one dies in a crash. But the singer’s breathy storytelling evokes Springsteen more than 60s and makes this memorable. youtu.be/w1QlOfYxykI?...

#TheTenx5 Day 27 24. Fangoria - “Geometría Polisentimental”, 2016, Spain 80s synthy-dance-pop out of Spain. What Dead or Alive might sound like with a Castilian accent. (Note: they formed in 1989 and are my only Poppy clause fail!) youtu.be/xS5UhxeFzYc?...

#TheTenx5 Day 26 25. Blood Orange - “You’re Not Good Enough”, 2013, UK Evoking Prince, its soulful sound, killer bass line, and groovy beat are so funky, this break-up tune almost wouldn’t hurt. The 80s fashions and jazzercize moves in the video add to its cool. youtu.be/7gtdpnKbT10?...

#TheTenx5 HM 5/5 Future Islands - "Seasons (Waiting on You)", 2014, USA youtu.be/-5Ae-LhMIG0?...

#TheTenx5 HM 4/5 Chairlift - “I Belong in Your Arms”, 2012, USA I went back and forth between this and another Chairlift song for my main list. I ultimately decided on the other one, but I’m glad to see this one getting recognition too. youtu.be/3e8Ql9qFA2o?...

#TheTenx5 HM 3/5 The Asteroids Galaxy Tour - “Heart Attack”, 2012, 🇩🇰 So much joy and fun packed into 3 and a half minutes. This sounds like it’s on the soundtrack of a 90s-teen comedy, mixed with some psychedelic 60s and… maybe Aqua? youtu.be/ELNvmFGNLRU?...

#TheTenx5 HM 2/5 Allo Darlin' - Capricornia - 2012 The most perfect gem of early 2010s twee pop you'll hear all day. Of all the songs I added to my playlist from other people's posts, this is the one I listen to the most. youtu.be/Kr5gnNtPKvM?...

#TheTenx5 HM 1 Ariana Grande - No Tears Left to Cry, 2018, USA youtu.be/ffxKSjUwKdU?...

#TheTenx5 Day 25 26. Lorde - "Team", 2013, 🇳🇿 The first 45 seconds of this song solidifies this as my Lorde pick. I often wonder how I'd like it if the whole song were in the style of that intro. But I think it'd be like eating all icing and no cake. youtu.be/f2JuxM-snGc?...

#TheTenx5 Day 24 27. Adele - "Rolling in the Deep", 2010, UK A great tune with a killer vocal performance. I love how they left the cracks in her vocals. It sounds so raw, but is layered over production that is fresh and polished. The contrast really elevates it. youtu.be/rYEDA3JcQqw?...

#TheTenx5 Day 23 28. Solange - "Losing You", 2012 🇺🇸 Producer Dev Hynes lends this song his signature funky-disco-80s-pop sound. Combined with Solange's vocals (plus the squawks!) it's magic. There's more from Hynes - as his solo act Blood Orange - later in the countdown. youtu.be/Hy9W_mrY_Vk?...

#TheTenx5 Day 22 29. St. Vincent - "Los Ageless", 2017, USA "How could anybody have you and lose you And not lose their mind, too?" youtu.be/h9TlaYxoOO8?...

#TheTenx5 Day 21 30. John Grant - “GMF”, 2013, USA John Grant’s velvety smooth voice and the sweet melody don’t prepare you for the punch of the lyrics. youtu.be/ekFWPsXXcg0?...

#TheTenx5 Day 20 31. Mitski - “Me & My Husband”, 2018, USA Starts with a sigh, breaks your heart in under 2 and a half minutes, and ends. youtu.be/AGCL3icu9dk?...

#TheTenx5 Day 19 32. Clairo - “Sofia”, 2019, 🇺🇸 A pretty little song. Interesting fact: Clairo has stated in interviews that the song is an ode to her first celebrity crushes, Sofia Vergara and Sofia Coppola. youtu.be/L9l8zCOwEII?...

#TheTenx5 Day 18 33. Rihanna & Calvin Harris, “We Found Love”, 2011, 🇧🇧 & 🇬🇧 Featuring what is probably my favorite beat-drop of the decade (v. important; see post below) youtu.be/tg00YEETFzg?...

#TheTenx5 Day 17 34. Carly Rae Jepsen, 2012, 🇨🇦 youtu.be/fWNaR-rxAic?...

#TheTenx5 Day 16 35. Cortney Barnett - “Nobody Really Cares if You Don’t Go to the Party”, 2015, 🇦🇺 youtu.be/2ZOGlFdReMM?...

#TheTenx5 Day 15 36. Metric - “Black Sheep”, 2010, 🇨🇦 Recorded for the Scott Pilgrim film, Brie Larson’s version (see next post) is probably more popular. But I’ve loved Metric since their debut. They will make at least one more appearance when we get to #THEN0UGHTIE5. youtu.be/2w608EMt9mU?...

#TheTenx5 Day 14 37. Rosalía - "Malamente - Cap 1: Augurio", 2018, Spain Rosalía combines flamenco with pop/urban rhythms and makes music that is very "Spain" yet something very new. youtu.be/Rht7rBHuXW8?...

#TheTenx5 Day 13 38. Laura Mvula, “That’s Alright”, 2013, UK “I will never be what you want and that’s alright… Tell me, who made you the center of the universe?” youtu.be/hYjHixQ9Ns4?...

#TheTenx5 Day 12 39. The Weeknd - “Can’t Feel My Face”, 2015, 🇨🇦 A pop beat so infectious, it was nominated for a Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award, despite blatantly being about how much the singer loves cocaine. youtu.be/KEI4qSrkPAs?...

#TheTenx5 Day 11 40. Marina and the Diamonds - Oh No!, 2010, UK In a post-Chappel Roan World this could have been a huge hit. It’s dramatic but silly, deep but fun. And a straight-up bop. youtu.be/Cr-SqRWImmI?...

#TheTenx5 Day 10 41. Childish Gambino - “This is America”, 2018, USA A great song with a transcendent video. This song still finds ways to surprise me and make me think, years later. youtu.be/VYOjWnS4cMY?...

#TheTenx5 Day 9 42. Santigold - Disparate Youth, 2012, USA youtu.be/mIMMZQJ1H6E?...