Artwork by Adam Sarpalius
As 2009, and the decade come to a close, PMA will be looking back at our favorite songs of the last ten years. We will update a list with 75 empty slots until we reach that song that changed everything. You can keep track of this list by keeping an eye on this page. We make these lists in hopes that you guys will chime in the comments and share your favorite musical moments of the noughties.
Unsurprisingly, an Arcade Fire song would wind up as a top 10 track of the decade. The question is: why “Wake Up”? The case could easily be made for “Tunnels,” “Rebellion (Lies),” “Power Out,” “Intervention,” you name it. So what makes “Wake Up” the defining Arcade Fire track? The sixth-best song of the last ten years?
I journeyed by ferry to an Arcade Fire concert on Randall’s Island (in NYC) a few years ago. The ferry ticket was round trip, so as Win Butler and company concluded their tour-de-force performance, my friends and I sprinted toward the small boat, trying to make sure we caught the first one back and didn’t have to wait until 1 A.M. to get home. “Headlights Look Like Diamonds” was the encore, the soundtrack to this scramble, and as we approached the ferry we found a massive line to get on. We would have to wait a while. Sad, depressed, but ecstatic about the show, we discussed how brilliant the band had been. And as the perfect emotional coda for the night, off in the distance, barely visible, Arcade Fire yelled loud enough for us all to hear: “OHHHHHHHH, OH, WOAH-AH-OH-OH.” I didn’t need to actually see the stage to know what was happening. The band was completely in sync and one of the best songs of all-time was softly ringing in my ears.
“Wake Up” is an epic that can lift you up when down, fill your heart with happiness when it needs it, give you that kick, that sense of urgency to get going. Arcade Fire is known as both an important band and a band that revels in their own self-importance. No song feels more important than “Wake Up,” pushing for young people, the same people who fueled the indie rock movement the band captivated, to wake the hell up.
Before everything on Sam’s Town revealed that The Killers were pretty much a better-than-average Springsteen cover band, “All These Things That I’ve Done” was an interesting, unexpected epic on an album of otherwise straightforward synth-dance-pop.
It’s the 2005 GRAMMYs and a young, new rapper has taken the stage. He’s Kanye West, and a quick Google check tells me he nearly died in a car crash and had steadily built his reputation over the past year. As with most rap artists, I gave West one performance to sell me. And with a majestic, theatrical, over-the-top performance of “Jesus Walks,” ultimately his greatest song, West did more than that. He wowed me, shocked me, recreated a music video in a live setting before my very eyes. He had more passion than any other musician I’d ever seen, rapped every lyric like it was his last, rose from the ashes with wings as if he truly believed he was Jesus.
When I initially heard “Brothersport,” before the rest of Merriweather Post Pavillion had been released, I was hooked for about a minute. But then that wacky noise kept whining; the song went into some weird place I didn’t expect. I quickly dismissed it as “typical Animal Collective,” which, until this year, I had a hard time getting into.
Remember when the other day, you relaxed to the calm grooves of 
I’ve been listening to a lot of happy music this month. That’s a trend I don’t want to end just yet, and it’s a trend that Wolf Gang perpetuates with excellent single “The King And All Of His Men.”
![latest pmaCAST](http://i46.tinypic.com/1zeh9v9.jpg")
