51. Slint - Good Morning, Captain (1991)

The entire rest of Spiderland is just one long build up for this song, one of the greatest closing tracks on any album I've ever heard. Slint were one of the first "post-rock" bands, and this album is the band at it's peak. Full of spoken word verses, sinister sounding bass lines, and of course the sudden explosions of guitars and screaming vocals that the band was so great at, this song encapsulates everything that had preceded it on the album and brought it to it's logical conclusion. Around the 6 minute mark with the first whisper of "I miss you", the song hits it's stride and then explodes into one of the best guitar riffs in indie rock history. Turn it up as loud as possible.

50. Cannibal Ox - Atom (2001)

The only Cannibal Ox studio album, The Cold Vein is definitey unique in the hip-hop world. The only word I can use to describe El-P's production on the record is chilly. It's a strange combination of some typical soul-beats with some weirdly skittering electronics thrown into the mix. Throw in Vast Aire's highly unique speak-flow, and Vordul Mega's more typical underground hip-hop style and you've got something one of a kind. It doesn't hurt at all that the entire record is amazing from front to back, and in my opinion is easily one of the top 5 to 10 hip-hop albums of the entire decade.

49. Arcade Fire - In the Back Seat (2004)

It still amazes me that to this day, 5 years after the release of this fantastically amazing album, it continues to give me the chills in a different spot every single time that I listen to it. The only way I can describe the emotional impact of Funeral is to compare it to the most wonderful, heart-wrenching movie that you've ever seen....and take the feelings you got from it and think of how those feelings would sound. When the members of this band got together to make this, they took all of the heartbreak of losing family members and created some of the most lasting emotional achievements that have ever been put to record. This song from Regine Chassagne is like the come down at the end of all the glorious highs that preceded it, and is just.....perfect. Obviously, there just aren't enough words to express how I feel about this album.

48. Fleet Foxes - English House (2008)

Unlike most heavily-hyped bands over the last few years, Fleet Foxes deserved every bit of praise they received in 2008 and so much more. Honestly, it really doesn't sound to me like there's any way that this music was created during a time that I was even alive. Actually, I really can't even figure out when this music was made. It seems to have come out of some alternate dimension where everyone speaks in harmonies.....and it's beautiful. Even if this band is unable to top the music they've made so far for the rest of their career, the Sun Giant EP and the self-titled album that followed are enough to insure that Fleet Foxes will be spoken of in reverent tones for many many years to come.

47. Mobb Deep - Survival of the Fittest (1995)

This song was featured on Mobb Deep's 1995 album The Infamous, which was released smack dab in what I consider to be the middle of the golden age of hip hop. Their first few albums were all classics, but I consider this one to be the best of the bunch, with this song specifically standing out amongst the rest. The dark piano loop creates an eery feeling, like you're walking through a city street not knowing what can come out at you at any second. The lyrics that Havoc and Prodigy spit fit this feel perfectly, speaking of how you have to fight for survival every day when living in the crime infested ghetto that they were raised in....and when you do something to survive, you have to go all the way, because there "ain't no such thing as half-way crooks."

46. Daft Punk - Too Long (2001)

The final song on Daft Punk's 2001 masterpiece album Discovery, this one is the only song that doesn't really have effects on the vocals, therefore it's probably the most straightforward pop song that Daft Punk has ever made. It's also one of my favorite songs of the decade, as you'll see on the first of December when I start my list of my 250 favorite songs of the 2000s. Daft Punk will definitely be represented on this list....look for them pretty high up.

45. Nomo - Nu Tones (2006)

Who would have thought that a bunch of white guys from the University of Michigan could have made music like this? Sounding like a great Fela Kuti song from years ago, this song sounds so much like the real thing that you'd swear it came straight out of Africa. African music in general is fantastic, and I feel like this is a good starting point if you want to hear something with more modern production.