Decade Songs - 90 to 81

Some surprising names in this, bands you'd expect to see in the top 20, but first we'll start off with a great gimmick...

90. Poppy - I'm Poppy
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:06
UK release date: 14th February 2017
UK chart position: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 10
Gigs this decade: 0

I first discovered Poppy on a random Spotify playlist, on the train home after a night shift last July, which it turns out was exactly the best time to fall down the rabbit hole of the Church of Poppy.  Poppy is an object your best friend an AI that gains sentience and has evolved over four albums, three EPs and half a dozen other tracks into...well, she's evolved into exactly the sort of thing you'd expect an Artificial Intelligence robot to evolve into after reading the internet. This track is vastly different to her latest, but is a good starting point, showcasing the innocence and naivety that the character had when starting out.

89. Nina Nesbitt - Chewing Gum
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:19
UK release date: 5th February 2016
UK chart position: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 13
Gigs this decade: 3*

It's been fun watching Nina evolve over the last decade as well. While it's not been as severe a jump as Poppy, the Scottish songstress has gone from a starry-eyed teen to developing a harder edge. She's moved out from the Ed Sheeran comparisons, through label disputes, to a position where it feels like she's making the music that she wants to make. This track, slotting neatly into the 3:30 maximum length of a pop song, sees Nina kicking back against a boy for casually discarding her.

*We've got tickets to see her in Camden in December, so this number may increase before decade-end.

88. Miley Cyrus - Younger Now
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 4:08
UK release date: 18th August 2017
UK chart position: 54
Last decade's chart: 58
Listens as at 8th October: 13
Gigs this decade: 0

A drop of 30 places from the last decade chart, but don't let that fool you - this isn't Miley's last appearance in this chart. When I compiled the last list, Dolly Parton's goddaughter was scandalising the world by wearing some short denim shorts in the video for Party In The USA - ten years hence, and the outrage seems rather quaint compared to her current tabloid headlines! (If there's a theme of evolution to this entry it's purely by coincidence.) We will revisit Miley twice more, once directly and once by one of her songs being covered, and she very nearly had another entry because of her Black Mirror character Ashley O!

87. Jenny and Johnny - Big Wave
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:53
UK release date: 9th August 2010
UK chart position: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 24
Gigs this decade: 1

The first time we see Jenny Lewis in this chart, but obviously not the last. This was the lead single from the album that she did with her (then) boyfriend, which is a great summer album. The track shares a name with a lovely drinkable golden ale too!

86. Demi Lovato - Cool For The Summer
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:34
UK release date: 1st July 2015
UK chart position: 7
Listens as at 8th October: 3
Gigs this decade: 1

Ah, Demetria. I don't think we could sit and have a drink together without falling out with each other, but this is a proper banger. The best bi-curious summer song since Katy Perry's track in 2008 (which reached number 56 for that decade's chart), it's a good enough track to let me overlook her habits of taking shots at Taylor Swift on Twitter, or having been in Glee. The piano chords running through the track really let the song breathe, having the music recede to just her vocals and the instrument before bursting forth for the finale. It's not going to be the last time we encounter Max Martin's fingerprints during this chart!

85. Garbage - Automatic Systematic Habit
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:18
UK release date: 14th May 2012
UK chart position: N/A
Last decade's chart: 15
Listens as at 8th October: 30
Gigs this decade: 5

Wow, ten years ago it was a shock when Garbage didn't make the top ten, now they're bumping along with ex-Disney stars and bands that lazily get compared to Paramore. My listening to the band has halved in this decade compared to the last (and the 00s weren't properly recorded until 2005, so that's not a complete total either) despite two new albums - the records just haven't clicked with me, to the point where I left their 2016 gig at the Troxy halfway through because I was feeling too maudlin. I haven't made it through their Tiny Little Birds album in its entirety either. This is the best track from their first album of this decade, a punchy number reminiscent of the first album.

84. Against The Current - Another You (Another Way)
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:23
UK release date: 17th February 2015
UK chart position: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 23
Gigs this decade: 1

I got sent this track by my brother, who (accurately) assumed that a female fronted pop-punk band would be up my street after a discussion about We Are The In Crowd, who include an older sibling to an ATC band member in their roster. This is one of those anthemic tracks that sound good on record, but absolutely great being belted out during the encore of a fantastic gig by a band at the top of their game.

83. VersaEmerge - Fixed At Zero
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:41
UK release date: 13th July 2010
UK chart position: N/A
Listens as at 8th October: 24
Gigs this decade: 1

Oh look, another female fronted rock act. Quelle surprise. I heard about these guys from Alice, a friend I made at a Paramore gig in 2010. I downloaded the album to listen to on the train to London and an hour later, when I got off at St Pancras, as soon as I'd passed through the barriers I immediately found a seat and bought tickets to see them in London four days hence! Sadly after that they had some label issues and only released a pair of EPs before splitting, but their influence is still shown on other bands in the scene, two of which we will see later - one who wrote their first album with a Versa member, and another whose name could almost be an anagram...

82. The Subways - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:00
UK release date: 21st April 2012
UK chart position: N/A
Last decade's chart: 48
Listens as at 8th October: 9
Gigs this decade: 3

I don't know that I'll ever be able to listen to The Subways with unbiased ears. The band have introduced me to so many people I call friends (as well as indirectly to my wife), not just in the Young For Eternity era in 2005 but even nowadays. They're one of my most listened to artists. This track, from the Money and Celebrity album, is a three minute long blast of energy that doesn't let up from start to finish!

81. Charli XCX - Break The Rules
YouTube // Spotify
Track length: 3:23
UK release date: 19th August 2014
UK chart position: 35
Listens as at 8th October: 35
Gigs this decade: 3

Following on from track 92, and with a popular soundtrack song to carry on the momentum, Charli launched Sucker with this as the lead single. It hints at the heavier side of Charli's music, but with all of the edges sanded off in a much more radio friendly manner. The Sucker era seems to have enabled her to find a niche that works for her - she's a big enough name that a songwriting credit for her will give a song extra cachet (as we'll see in the 30-21 entry) and also gives her the freedom to make music that she wants, such as the electropop of the newer era.

Next time...artists from Australia, Albania, Norway and Boston, two viral hits, and an Oscar winning actress.