The 100 Best Songs of the Year

21 "SexyBack" [Song]
Justin Timberlake
Probably the jam that drove Britney back to the gym. Justin brings sexy all the way back like a grown-ass man, in sync with Timbaland on a spaced-out Prince-style funk fantasia.

22 "Tell Me Baby" [Video]
Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Chili Peppers mix socks-on-dicks-era crunch with a comforting pop sweetness that bursts into Hendrix-style flames when John Frusciante steps up.

23 "Fidelity" [Video] [Song]
Regina Spektor
Russian-American Brooklynite breathes as much heartbreaking meaning and inflection into individual syllables as most singers give entire words.

24 "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live" [Song]
Bruce Springsteen
Springsteen honors New Orleans' fight against nature and FEMA with an uplifting version of this Depression-era ballad, updated with heated new lyrics.

25 "When the Sun Goes Down" [Video] [Song]
Arctic Monkeys
"I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" got more attention, but this was the fan favorite for a reason: a humble song about hookers on the dreary side of town that somehow turns into a singalong.

26 "Province" [Song]
TV on the Radio
Gorgeous: Brooklyn band blends voices with guest David Bowie, bouncing off a wall of guitar feedback and burbling synth.

27 "Capillarian Crest" [Video] [Song]
Mastodon
Nobody gets heavier than Mastodon -- the metal guitars hit you like you're playing buck-buck with Fat Albert.

28 "Level" [Song]
The Raconteurs
A fever dream of sludgy keyboards, a doubled guitar part that'd make Boston blush and snarling traded verses between singers Jack White and Brendan Benson. What's not to like?

29 "Smiley Faces" [Song]
Gnarls Barkley
Cee-Lo plays a wise R&B loverman amid a groove that sounds like Motown funk with dance-club appeal and a dash of psilocybin.

30 "Over & Over" [Video] [Song]
Hot Chip
The genius late-night punk-disco club banger of the summer, all pumping bass and postcoital synth throbs and filthy guitar. We think it sounds like ZZ Top, but then we've never heard it sober.

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