Category Archives: 2010s songs

The best 500 songs from the 2010s. Lyrics, meanings and interpretations from your favorite musicians. Adele, Halsey, Sara Bareilles, Grouplove, Sia, The 1975, Harry Styles. Find out our highest ranked music acts of the 2010 decade. It was a great decade for music.

2010s songs, conservation

The Seed- AURORA

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You cannot eat money, oh no

“The Seed” by Norwegian singer AURORA is characterized by her signature ethereal and haunting sound.  AURORA’s sound in “The Seed” might be described as a sweet mix of The Knife, Sia and Enya.

The lyrics delve into themes of personal growth, self-acceptance, and the power of the human spirit. “The Seed” addresses issues such as conservation and anti-materialism in a way reminiscent of the activism of the 1970s.

Aurora The Seed Meaning
Aurora

“The Seed” features a blend of electronic and acoustic instrumentation, with Aurora’s voice soaring over a bed of pulsing beats and atmospheric synths. The song’s chorus is particularly striking, with Aurora’s vocals building to a crescendo as she repeats the refrain “You can’t eat money”. The contrast between the softness of the verses and the anthemic chorus is distinctive.

“The Seed” can be interpreted as a call to embrace one’s own unique identity and to nurture the seed of potential within oneself.  The song’s message of self-acceptance and self-love is both personal and universal, resonating with anyone who has struggled to find their place in the world or to live up to their full potential.

the seed
Aurora

“The Seed” stands as a powerful reminder of the resilience and beauty of the human spirit, and our inescapable connection to nature and our physical environment.

The Seed Lyrics

Just like the seed,
I don’t know where to go.
Through dirt and shadow, I grow.
I’m reaching light through the struggle.
Just like the seed,
I’m chasing the wonder.
I unravel myself,
All in slow motion.

You cannot eat money, oh no.
You cannot eat money, oh no.
When the last tree has fallen,
And the rivers are poisoned.
You cannot eat money, oh no.
You cannot eat money, oh no.
You cannot eat money, oh no.
When the last tree has fallen,
And the rivers are poisoned.
You cannot eat money, oh no,
Oh no…

Suffocate me…
So my tears can be rain.
I will water the ground where I stand.
So the flowers can grow back again.
‘Cause just like the seed
Everything wants to live.
We are burning our fingers,
But we learn and forgive.

You cannot eat money, oh no.
You cannot eat money, oh no.
When the last tree has fallen,
And the rivers are poisoned.
You cannot eat money, oh no.
You cannot eat money, oh no.
You cannot eat money, oh no.
When the last tree has fallen,
And the rivers are poisoned.
You cannot eat money, oh no,
Oh no…

Feed me sunlight, feed me air,
In a place where nothing matters.
Feed me truth and feed me prayer, (dancing around a shooting star)
And every cell remembers.
Feed me sunlight, feed me air, (that have taken us this far)
I see images of killer whales.
Feed me truth and feed me prayers. (sleeping in a desert trail)
Dreaming of a parallel world where nothing ever hurts.
Dreaming of a parallel world where nothing ever hurts.

You cannot eat money, oh no.
You cannot eat money, oh no.
When the last tree has fallen,
And the rivers are poisoned.
You cannot eat money, oh no.
You cannot eat money, oh no.
You cannot eat money, oh no.
When the last tree has fallen,
And the rivers are poisoned.
You cannot eat money, oh no,
Oh no.

written by AURORA

2010s songs, death

Elephant- Jason Isbell

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There’s one thing that’s real clear to me/
No one dies with dignity…

Jason Isbell’s “Elephant” may be one of the most emotionally moving songs you will ever hear. Elephant will disturb you. Can this make for great music? Yes. If a song can evoke any feeling in you that is a success. The point of art (if there is one) is to try to convey a feeling from one person to another through a particular medium.

Elephant Meaning
Jason Isbell

Elephant discusses how we deal with our friends dying. Dying is really the only thing to talk about, but at the same time, time is short, and what is there really to say? Nothing will change the fact that the end is near. So, we dance around the elephant in the room and don’t mention the change in our dynamic. Is this the best way to handle a loved one dying? Probably not. But what is the alternative? Addressing the elephant is an equally bad alternative. Who wants to talk about the fact that soon your friend will be gone?

Elephant is in the country and blues tradition. Isbell’s voice is rightfully restrained. The sound is stripped down to just a guitar, background piano and Isbell’s voice. You could imagine a lesser singer ruining this song by adding unwanted vocal runs which distract from the lyrics and the somber tone.

Elton John’s Last Song and Death Cab for Cutie’s What Sara Said are two other fine songs that deal with death. None are sing-alongs, but each is emotionally moving in their own way.

Elephant Lyrics

She said, “Andy, you’re better than your past”
Winked at me and drained her glass
Cross-legged on a barstool, like nobody sits anymore
She said, “Andy, you’re taking me home”
But I knew she planned to sleep alone
I’d carry her to bed, sweep up the hair from her floor

If I’d fucked her before she got sick
I’d never hear the end of it
She don’t have the spirit for that now
We just drink our drinks and laugh out loud
And bitch about the weekend crowd
And try to ignore the elephant somehow
Somehow

She said, “Andy, you crack me up”
Seagram’s in a coffee cup
Sharecropper eyes, and the hair almost all gone
When she was drunk, she made cancer jokes
Made up her own doctors’ notes
Surrounded by her family, I saw that she was dying alone

But I’d sing her classic country songs
And she’d get high and sing along
She don’t have a voice to sing with now
We burn these joints in effigy
And cry about what we used to be
Try to ignore the elephant somehow
Somehow

I buried her a thousand times, given up my place in line
But I don’t give a damn about that now
There’s one thing that’s real clear to me
No one dies with dignity
We just try to ignore the elephant somehow
We just try to ignore the elephant somehow
We just try to ignore the elephant somehow
Somehow
Somehow

Song by Jason Isbell

2010s songs, depression

Funeral- Phoebe Bridgers

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Jesus Christ, I’m so blue all the time/
And that’s just how I feel.

Phoebe Bridger’s song “Funeral” is the setting for an in depth look at the life of someone experiencing depression. The narrator is going to a funeral for someone her own age, and she feels genuine sorrow for his/her family. However, the more immediate sensation she is having is of being overwhelmed by depression.

She realizes the absurdity of it. “How can I feel sad when these parents lost their kid?” But the realization that she is acting and thinking irrationally does not alleviate her symptoms—she is still down. Part of her blues may be brought on by her relationship with the kid who died, but overall, we get the impression that this just exasperated an already exhausted mind. It appears that she has suffered with depression (or “the blues”) for some time and she imagines she always will.

With “Funeral”, Bridgers’ stands in a strong tradition of women folk singers like Joan Baez, Karen Dalton, Bridget St. John, Janis Ian, and The Indigo Girls. Each of these women were great at singing the blues and their tradition rivals that of the men of folk music.

Funeral Meaning
Phoebe Bridgers

The sound in “Funeral” is straightforward—simple vocals with a picked guitar and fiddle. Bridgers’ voice sounds pleasantly clear. The only deviation from the traditional folk formula is the interesting introduction. It sounds like something you’d hear from a French avant-garde artist like Yann Tiersen. This adds a bit of color to an otherwise repetitive music genre.

Funeral Lyrics

I’m singing at a funeral tomorrow.
For a kid a year older than me.
And I’ve been talking to his dad, it makes me so sad.
When I think too much about it I can’t breathe.

And I have this dream where I’m screaming underwater.
While my friends are all waving from the shore
And I don’t need you to tell me what that means,
I don’t believe in that stuff anymore.

Jesus Christ, I’m so blue all the time.
And that’s just how I feel.
Always have and I always will,
I always have and always will.

I have a friend I call.
When I’ve bored myself to tears.
And we talk until we think we might just kill ourselves,
But then we laugh until it disappears.

And last night I blacked out in my car.
And I woke up in my childhood bed.
Wishing I was someone else, feeling sorry for myself,
When I remembered someone’s kid is dead.

Jesus Christ, I’m so blue all the time.
And that’s just how I feel.
Always have and I always will.
I always have and always will.

And it’s 4 A.M., again,
And I’m doing nothing.
Again.

Written by Phoebe Bridgers