Best Songs of 2001

As if you couldn’t tell by the first few songs on this list, I was in the throes of a TRL love affair in 2001. What can I say? I graduated from college in May of that year; pre-adult emotions were running high. More importantly, the influx of all this blatant pop into my list, which would basically come to a screeching halt the following year, speaks a lot to the power of friendly influence in one’s musical taste.

I will not call it peer pressure, because there are plenty of songs on here that I love about which I know very few others will feel the same, if they even know of the song in the first place. But it is definitely easier to get swept up in caring about something when you are surrounded by other people who care about it too.

Obviously I just explained fandom like nobody else had ever thought of it this way (alert: they have), but it is something I tend to forget about. I like to think of myself as an iconoclastic music fan, who is not easily swayed by trends or popularity. I like to think I am settled in my own tastes and can find things on my own without any help.

Both of those things may be true, but they are also patently false. I do not live in a vacuum. Not only do I take musical recommendations, I welcome them. And even now, though my list of influencers is smaller and less frequently tapped as it once was, I am still very susceptible to their power of suggestion.

Having said all that, just a rare few of the tracks featured on this list were ones I discovered after the year 2001, and most of these 100 songs came from artists I already knew, or were introduced to me by MTV and the radio (because those were still very important starting points back then), even as I spent much of my year using file sharing services as my new listening station.

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, but you get the general idea. Track notes to come eventually or maybe never.

Show Grid

Girlfriend (Remix)

*NSYNC featuring Nelly

Girlfriend

Jive

Notes
This Is Me

Dream

It Was All a Dream

Bad Boy

Notes
More Than a Woman

Aaliyah

Aaliyah

EMI

Notes
Like a Feather

Nikka Costa

Everybody Got Their Something

Virgin

Notes
Closet Freak

Cee-Lo Green

Cee-Lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections

Arista

Notes
Where the Party At?

Jagged Edge featuring Nelly

Jagged Little Thrill

Columbia

Notes
All for You

Janet Jackson

All for You

Virgin

Notes
Lady (Hear Me Tonight)

Modjo

Modjo

MCA

Notes
Don’t Falter

Mint Royale

On the Ropes

Faith & Hope

Notes
1983

The Incredible Moses Leroy

Electric Pocket Radio

Ultimatum Music

Notes
I Want the Wind to Blow

The Microphones

The Glow, Pt. 2

K

Notes
Wrong Impression

Natalie Imbruglia

White Lilies Island

RCA

Notes
Linger

Jonatha Brooke

Steady Pull

Bad Dog

Notes
Roll Me Over

Peter Stuart

Propeller

Vanguard

Notes
Mississippi

Train

Drops of Jupiter

Columbia

Notes
Just Like Gravity

CPR

Just Like Gravity

Gold Circle

Notes
Nobody Girl

Ryan Adams

Gold

Lost Highway

Notes
It’s All Made Up

Scout

This Is Next Year: A Brooklyn-Based Compilation

Arena Rock

Notes
Song

Varnaline

Songs in a Northern Key

Artemis

Notes
Media

John Butler Trio

Three

Astor Music

Notes
Free at Last

G. Love & Special Sauce

Electric Mile

550

Notes
Everyday

Dave Matthews Band

Everyday

RCA

Notes
83

John Mayer

Room for Squares

Aware/Columbia

Notes
Samaritan

The Long Winters

The Worst You Can Do Is Harm

Barsuk

Notes
Impossible Love

Daniel Johnston

Rejected Unknown

Gammon

Notes
Johnny Appleseed

Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros

Global a Go-Go

Epitaph

Notes
Life on a Chain

Pete Yorn

Musicforthemorningafter

Columbia

Notes
Waste Your Time

Freedy Johnston

Right Between the Promises

Elektra

Notes
Directions

Jay Farrar

Sebastopol

Artemis

Notes
The Way That He Sings

My Morning Jacket

At Dawn

Darla

Notes
Moment in the Sun

Clem Snide

The Ghost of Fashion

spinART

Notes
Somethin’ to Believe In

Shawn Mullins featuring Shawn Colvin

Beneath the Velvet Sun

Columbia
Mississippi

Bob Dylan

Love and Theft

Columbia

Notes
Vanilla Sky

Paul McCartney

Vanilla Sky

Reprise

Notes
I Want Love

Elton John

Songs From the West Coast

Universal

Notes
The Lights of London

David Gray

This Year’s Love

IHT

Notes
Sing

Travis

The Invisible Band

Sony

Notes
Save Me

Remy Zero

The Golden Hum

Elektra

Notes
Evolution Revolution Love

Tricky featuring Ed Kowalczyk

Blowback

Hollywood

Notes
Don’t Mix Your Drinks

Elbow

Asleep in the Back

V2

Notes
Pyramid Song

Radiohead

Amnesiac

Parlophone

Notes
Avril 14th

Aphex Twin

Drukqs

Warp

Notes
Glue of the World

Four Tet

Pause

Domino

Notes
Breathe

Télépopmusik

Genetic World

Capitol

Notes
Destiny

Zero 7

Simple Things

Palm Pictures

Notes
Point of View

DB Boulevard

Point of View

Epic

Notes
Illuminate

Orbital featuring David Gray

The Altogether

FFRR

Notes
Fill Me In

Craig David

Born to Do It

Atlantic

2000 European release.
We Fit Together

O-Town

O-Town

J

Notes
I’ll Be Here Awhile

311

From Chaos

Volcano

Notes
Wish You Were Here

Incubus

Morning View

Sony

Notes
Chop Suey!

System of a Down

Toxicity

Sony

Notes
Tribute

Tenacious D

Tenacious D

Epic

Notes
Screaming Infidelities

Dashboard Confessional

The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most

Vagrant

Notes
At Your Funeral

Saves the Day

Stay What You Are

Vagrant

Notes
Sweetness

Jimmy Eat World

Bleed American

Dreamworks

Notes
Stay Together for the Kids

Blink-182

Take Off Your Pants and Jacket

MCA

Notes
Hey Baby

No Doubt

Rock Steady

Interscope

Notes
Dig In

Lenny Kravitz

Lenny

Virgin

Notes
Bootylicious

Destiny’s Child

Survivor

Columbia

Notes
Get Ur Freak On

Missy Elliott

Miss E… So Addictive

Elektra

Notes
Roll Out (My Business)

Ludacris

Word of Mouf

Def Jam

Notes
I’m a Thug

Trick Daddy

Thugs Are Us

Slip-N-Slide

Notes
The Whole World

Outkast

Big Boi & Dre Present…

Arista

Notes
Izzo (H.O.V.A.)

Jay-Z

The Blueprint

Roc-A-Fella

Notes
19-2000

Gorillaz

Gorillaz

Virgin

Notes
Aisle 10 (Hello Allison)

Scapegoat Wax

OKEEBLOW

Grand Royal

Notes
Short Skirt/Long Jacket

Cake

Comfort Eagle

Columbia

Notes
The Vagabond

Air featuring Beck

10,000 Hz Legend

Astralwerks

Notes
Dream On

Depeche Mode

Exciter

Mute

Notes
Where’s Your Head At

Basement Jaxx

Rooty

Astralwerks

Notes
Fell in Love With a Girl

The White Stripes

White Blood Cells

Sympathy for the Record Industry

Notes
Someday

The Strokes

Is This It

RCA

Notes
Have a Nice Day

Stereophonics

Just Enough Education to Perform

V2

Notes
California

Rufus Wainwright

Poses

Dreamworks

Notes
Imitation of Life

R.E.M.

Reveal

Warner Bros

Notes
On a Roll

The Actual Tigers

Gravelled & Green

Nettwerk America

Notes
Silver Lining

Beulah

Coast Is Never Clear

Velocette

Notes
Island in the Sun

Weezer

Weezer

Geffen

Notes
Punk as Fuck

The American Analog Set

Know By Heart

Tigerstyle

Notes
Penelope

Pinback

Blue Screen Life

Ace Fu

Notes
Everything Hits at Once

Spoon

Girls Can Tell

Merge

Notes
Caring Is Creepy

The Shins

Oh, Inverted World

Sub Pop

Notes
We Laugh Indoors

Death Cab for Cutie

The Photo Album

Barsuk

Notes
Sentimental Man

The Dismemberment Plan

Change

DeSoto
Chain

Chris Whitley

Rocket House

ATO

Notes
Piano Fire

Sparklehorse

It’s a Wonderful Life

Capitol

Notes
Don’t Be Sad

Whiskeytown

Pneumonia

Lost Highway

Notes
Question

Old 97s

Satellite Rides

Elektra

Notes
Revelator

Gillian Welch

Time (The Revelator)

Acony

Notes
Have You Forgotten

Red House Painters

Vanilla Sky

Reprise

Notes
Sunflower

Low

Things We Lost in the Fire

Kranky

Notes
Day Is Done

Charlie Hunter Quartet featuring Norah Jones

Songs From the Analog Playground

Blue Note

Notes
Fred Jones Part 2

Ben Folds

Rockin’ the Suburbs

Epic

Notes
This Woman’s Work

Maxwell

Now

Columbia

Notes
A Woman’s Worth

Alicia Keys

Songs in A Minor

J

Notes
My Endless Fall

Chocolate Genius

Godmusic

V2

Notes
Soulshine

Michael Franti & Spearhead

Stay Human

Six Degrees

Notes
Since I Left You

The Avalanches

Since I Left You

Sire

Notes
One More Time

Daft Punk

Discovery

Virgin

Notes