Best Songs of 2000

Fifteen years after the fact, even I, maker of this list and fan of these songs, cannot fully comprehend how insanely eclectic this list truly is. Most astonishing might be the fact that I was listening to a very large chunk of these 100 tunes back in the year 2000.

So yeah, this list includes old dudes Steely Dan alongside not-old dudes SoulDecision, and plenty in between. This was a year smack dab in the middle of the teen pop craze, at the height of America’s (paying) music consumption craze, and at the tale end of my college experience. So maybe that explains why there is so much rap, hard rock and and R&B here—genres I have always loved, though to varying degrees, and less and less as the years move on.

Like most things from our college years, some of these songs might seem embarrassing now that I look back. And truth be told, apart from the exercise of making this playlist, there are a few songs on here I would not be able to say that I have heard all that much in the past decade and a half. But when I revisit them, I do not so much as cringe, but remember who I once was, and what I once liked. And that, really, is the point of these lists of mine. (Or at least the ones, like this, with which I can draw upon actual memory and experience.)

So, too, does this process allow me to find hidden gems from a past that I never actually lived, then place them alongside the familiar. It causes a temporal shift that I cannot help but love; sure, these songs were all released in the same year, but their connective tissue is more about how I have lived with them. And I continue to live with these tunes, every last one of them. Each time, fusing new memories with those from my past.

For these year-end lists, I like to undertake the seemingly impossibly task of creating an hours-long mix. The order you see below represents that effort, which you can listen to via Spotify. Sadly all 100 tracks aren't available in either case, but you get the general idea. Track notes to come eventually or—particularly if last year's un-annotated lists are a sign of future action—maybe never.

Show Grid

All the Dirt

Mike Doughty

Skittish

self-released

Notes
Johnny Go Riding

Damien Jurado

Ghost of David

Sub Pop

Notes
I Love the Unknown

Clem Snide

Your Favorite Music

Sire

Notes
Flake

Jack Johnson

Brushfire Fairytales

Enjoy

Notes
Baby Seat

Barenaked Ladies

Maroon

Reprise

Notes
Hate to Say I Told You So

The Hives

Veni Vidi Vicious

Epitaph

Notes
Jesus Came From Outta Space

Supergrass

Supergrass

Capitol

Notes
Go Let It Out

Oasis

Standing on the Shoulder of Giants

Epic

Notes
Again

Lenny Kravitz

Greatest Hits

Virgin

Notes
By Your Side

Sade

Lovers Rock

Epic

Notes
World Looking In

Morcheeba

Fragments of Freedom

Reprise

Notes
Mixed Bizness (Cornelius Remix)

Beck

Mixed Bizness

Geffen

Notes
Playground Love

Air

The Virgin Suicides

Astralwerks

Notes
Fall in a River

Badly Drawn Boy

The Hour of Bewilderbeast

Twisted Nerve/XL

Notes
The Pull

The Microphones

It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water

K

Notes
Svefn-g-englar

Sigur Rós

Ágætis Byrjun

Pias America

Notes
Flat Beat

Mr. Oizo

Flat Beat

Mute

1999 worldwide; 2000 U.S. release.
The Scrappy

BS2000

Simply Mortified

Grand Royal

Notes
The Influence

Jurassic 5

Quality Control

Interscope

Notes
Gravel Pit

Wu-Tang Clan

The W

Loud

Notes
Oooh

De La Soul featuring Redman & Pharaohe Monche

Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump

Tommy Boy

Notes
Humble Mumble

Outkast featuring Erykah Badu

Stankonia

La Face

Notes
Didn’t Cha Know

Erykah Badu

Mama’s Gun

Motown

Notes
Plenty

Guru featuring Erykah Badu

Jazzmatazz Vol. 3: Streetsoul

Virgin

Notes
The 6th Sense

Common featuring Bilal

Like Water for Chocolate

MCA

Notes
Tell Me

Slum Village featuring D’Angelo

Fantastic, Vol. 2

Good Vibe

Notes
Promise

Jagged Edge

J.E. Heartbreak

So So Def

Notes
I Wish

R. Kelly

TP-2.com

Jive

Notes
Dance Tonight

Lucy Pearl

Lucy Pearl

BMG

Notes
Request Line

Black Eyed Peas

Bridging the Gap

Interscope

Notes
Rock DJ

Robbie Williams

Sing When You’re Winning

Capitol

Notes
Don’t Tell Me

Madonna

Music

Maverick

Notes
Long Way Around

Eagle-Eye Cherry

Living in the Present Future

Polydor

2000 European release. U.S. release arrived in 2001 as Present/Future.
Hey, Man!

Nelly Furtado

Whoa, Nelly!

Dreamworks

Notes
Ooh It’s Kinda Crazy

SoulDecision

No One Does It Better

MCA

Notes
Bye Bye Bye

*NSYNC

No Strings Attached

Jive

Notes
Never Gonna Come Back Down

BT featuring Mike Doughty

Movement in Still Life

Nettwerk America

Notes
Slingshot

On

Shifting Skin

Sony

Notes
You Miss the Point Completely I Get the Point Exactly

Harvey Danger

King James Version

Sire

Notes
Chemical

Joseph Arthur

Come to Where I’m From

Real World

Notes
Life Is Bad

Shelby Lynne

I Am Shelby Lynne

Mercury

Notes
To Be Young

Ryan Adams

Heartbreaker

Bloodshot

Notes
Airline to Heaven

Billy Bragg and Wilco

Mermaid Avenue Vol. II

Elektra

Notes
Baby

Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise

Time to Discover

RCA

Notes
One and the Same

Everlast

Eat at Whitey’s

Tommy Boy

Notes
Poor Girl

Supersuckers featuring Eddie Vedder

Free the West Memphis 3

Koch

Notes
Hanging by a Moment

Lifehouse

No Name Face

Dreamworks

Notes
Sleepwalker

The Wallflowers

Breach

Interscope

Notes
Things Have Changed

Bob Dylan

Wonderboys

Columbia

Notes
4th Time Around

Chris Whitley

Perfect Day

Valley

Notes
Hard Time Killing Floor Blues

Chris Thomas King

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Mercury

Notes
Something She Said

Béla Fleck & The Flecktones

Outbound

Columbia

Notes
The Lighthouse’s Tale

Nickel Creek

Nickel Creek

Sugar Hill

Notes
My Antonia

Emmylou Harris featuring Dave Matthews

Red Dirt Girl

Nonesuch

Notes
Waste

Dave Matthews

Sharin’ the Groove

Mockingbird Foundation

Notes
Dirt

Phish

Farmhouse

Elektra

Notes
The Cedar Room

Doves

Lost Souls

Heavenly

Notes
High Speed

Coldplay

Parachutes

Parlophone

Notes
3 Libras

A Perfect Circle

Mer de Noms

Virgin

Notes
Change

Deftones

White Pony

Maverick

Notes
Hemorrhage (In My Hands)

Fuel

Something Like Human

Epic

Notes
One Armed Scissor

At the Drive-In

Relationship of Command

Grand Royal

Notes
You’re No Rock N’ Roll Fun

Sleater-Kinney

All Hands on the Bad One

Sub Pop

Notes
Simple Kind of Life

No Doubt

Return of Saturn

Interscope

Notes
Waiting

Green Day

Warning

Reprise

Notes
Teenage Dirtbag

Wheatus

Wheatus

Columbia

Notes
Ride Wit Me

Nelly

Country Grammar

Universal

Notes
What’s Your Fantasy

Ludacris

Incognegro

Disturbing Tha Piece

Notes
Big Pimpin’

Jay-Z

Vol. 3 … The Life and Times of S. Carter

Roc-A-Fella

2000 single release.
Stan

Eminem

The Marshall Mathers LP

Interscope

Notes
Demons

Fatboy Slim featuring Macy Gray

Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars

Astralwerks

Notes
Scratched

Etienne De Crecy

Tempovision

V2

Notes
These Things

Looper

The Geometrid

Sub Pop

Notes
A Long Walk

Jill Scott

Who Is Jill Scott? - Words and Sounds Vol. 1

Hidden Beach

Notes
Untitled (How Does It Feel)

D’Angelo

Voodoo

Virgin

Notes
Two Against Nature

Steely Dan

Two Against Nature

Giant

Notes
That’s Just How That Bird Sings

The Twilight Singers

Twilight

Columbia

Notes
Hallelujah

Rufus Wainwright

Shrek

Dreamworks

Notes
Easy Way Out

Elliott Smith

Figure 8

Dreamworks

Notes
Company Calls

Death Cab for Cutie

We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes

Barsuk

Notes
Hyperspace

Nada Surf

The Proximity Effect

Elektra

Notes
Indian Summer

Sunday’s Best

Poised to Break

Polyvinyl

Notes
Paper Thin Walls

Modest Mouse

The Moon & Antarctica

Epic

Notes
Freediving

Nigo featuring Ben Lee

Ape Sounds

Mo’ Wax

Notes
Getting Better

Gomez

Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline

Virgin

Notes
Letters From an Occupant

The New Pornographers

Mass Romantic

Matador

Notes
I’m Gonna Make You Love Me

The Jayhawks

Smile

Columbia

Notes
I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow

The Soggy Bottom Boys

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Mercury

Notes
Sister, Do You Know My Name?

The White Stripes

De Stijl

Sympathy for the Record Industry

Notes
Porchlight

Neko Case

Furnace Room Lullaby

Bloodshot

Notes
Hey Porcupine

Josh Rouse

Home

Slow River

Notes
Silver & Gold

Neil Young

Silver & Gold

Reprise

Notes
Parting Ways

Pearl Jam

Binaural

Epic

Notes
You on My Mind in My Sleep

Richard Ashcroft

Alone With Everybody

Virgin

Notes
Turn

Travis

The Man Who

Epic/Independiente

Notes
The Mess We’re In

P.J. Harvey featuring Thom Yorke

Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea

Universal

Notes
Optimistic

Radiohead

Kid A

Capitol

Notes
Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

David Gray

White Ladder

ATO

Notes
One

Johnny Cash

American III: Solitary Man

Universal

Notes
Beautiful Day

U2

All That You Can’t Leave Behind

Interscope

Notes