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, party songs

#386 We Are Young- Fun

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I need to get my story straight/
My friends are in the bathroom getting higher than the Empire State.

Fun’s “We Are Young” does a great job of capturing the party lifestyle of young twenty-somethings, where the ultimate thing you can do for a friend is help them get home when they are drunk or high. In this world, relationships might not be the best in an objective sense (He did give his girlfriend a scar, but nevermind), but it sounds fun in a certain light.

We Are Young Meaning
Fun

In “We are Young”, we progress through the author’s night from when everyone starts getting high– to the end, when everyone can barely walk home. In between, he party’s hard because all his friends are in town and because “we’re young so let’s set this world on fire.”

Fun’s “We are Young” hits on so many levels. First it is fun (lowercase ‘f’): It isn’t trying to be preachy; it is just a day in the life. Those songs are okay too. Great production: the tone of the song matches the lyrics really well, and the beautiful Janelle Monáe sings the part of “the girlfriend”. The song sounds like one big party- which is what the song is about. And like any good party song it has a great use of percussion: the drums in the intro verse and chorus are especially good.

We Are Young Lyrics

Give me a second I
I need to get my story straight,
My friends are in the bathroom getting higher than the Empire State.
My lover she’s waiting for me just across the bar,
My seat’s been taken by some sunglasses asking about a scar, and
I know I gave it to you months ago,
I know you’re trying to forget,
But between the drinks and subtle things
The holes in my apologies, you know
I’m trying hard to take it back.
So if by the time the bar closes
And you feel like falling down, I’ll carry you home-

Tonight, we are young.
So let’s set the world on fire,
We can burn brighter than the sun.

Tonight, we are young.
So let’s set the world on fire,
We can burn brighter than the sun.

Now I know that I’m not
All that you got. I guess that I, I just thought
Maybe we could find new ways to fall apart.
But our friends are back,
So let’s raise a tab,
‘Cause I found someone to carry me home.

Tonight, we are young.
So let’s set the world on fire,
We can burn brighter than the sun.

Tonight, we are young.
So let’s set the world on fire,
We can burn brighter than the sun.

Carry me home tonight (Na na na na na na),
Just carry me home tonight (Na na na na na na).
Carry me home tonight (Na na na na na na),
Just carry me home tonight (Na na na na na na).

The world is on my side,
I have no reason to run.
So will someone come and carry me home tonight.
The angels never arrived,
But I can hear the choir,
So will someone come and carry me home…

Tonight, we are young.
So let’s set the world on fire,
We can burn brighter than the sun.

Tonight, we are young.
So let’s set the world on fire,
We can burn brighter than the sun.
So if by the time the bar closes
And you feel like falling down,
I’ll carry you home tonight.

Songwriters: Jeff Bhasker / Andrew Dost / Jack Antonoff / Nate Ruess

2010s songs, contentment

#377 Wonderful (The Way I Feel)- My Morning Jacket

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Took a long time to get here/
But if it would have been easy, I would not have cared.

My Morning Jacket’s “Wonderful (The Way I Feel) is about a change of mindset that leads to an improvement of feeling.  While most songs emphasize an external event that accompanies new happy feelings, this song focuses on the internal changes of the narrator. Kind of like an agnostic’s version of being born-again. There are not necessarily any new external events, though he notes it “took a long time to get here” and it wasn’t easy.

Wonderful (The Way I Feel) Meaning
My Morning Jacket

The song matches his new mood. The rhythm of the song sways casually. The song is not overly produced: in the beginning there is a simple acoustic guitar part that is lightly finger-picked, and strings are added halfway through.

The song also seems to indicate a change of lifestyle that has come with this new revelation. He seems to want to travel to a simpler place where there is no disease and lawlessness. A place that would help support his new-found peace of mind.

Wonderful (The Way I Feel) Lyrics

It matters to me.
Took a long time to get here.
But if it would have been easy,
I would not have cared.

Like a tropical forest;
Like a cop on the beat,
When all is in order,
You get lost in the heat.

I feel so wonderful
Wonderful, wonderful the way I feel.
I feel so wonderful
Wonderful, wonderful the way I feel.

Doesn’t matter to me,
I can take it or leave it.
I can learn from way back when
And still live right now.

With the sun on my shoulders
And the wind at my back.
I will never grow older,
At least not in my mind.

I feel so wonderful
Wonderful, wonderful the way I feel.
I feel so wonderful
Wonderful, wonderful the way I feel.

I’m going where there ain’t no fear.
I’m going where the spirit is near.
I’m going where the livin’ is easy
And the people are kind- a new state of mind.

I’m going where there ain’t no police,
I’m going where there ain’t no disease.
I’m going where there ain’t no need
To escape from what is-Only spirits at ease.

Songwriters: Jim Edward Olliges Jr.

2010s songs, death

#368 Death With Dignity- Sufjan Stevans

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I forgive you, mother, I can hear you/
And I long to be near you.

“Death With Dignity” is a delicate song sung by Sufjan Stevans and performed with a ukulele and later a piano. In that, it is an unlikely combination. Combined with his wistful voice it makes for a poignant experience.

The song seems to be about his mother, who has died. Perhaps there were things left unsaid at the time she passed, we don’t know. What we do know is that Stevans thinks of her death in spiritual terms in an effort to comfort himself and understand his mother and the world. He hopes that she’ll be with him now: though perhaps she won’t be the wild mare who did as she pleased—perhaps in spirit.

Death With Dignity Meaning
Sufjan Stevens

He hears a bird sing and wonders if the bird sings for the dead just like he does. He seems to see her ghost in the window, but he seems to invite it. He looks forward to the time when he can rejoin her. Overall, the song is one of hope and rejoicing. There is a spiritual world where there will be a re-connection between the two of them but also there seems to be a place that his mom is now where her spirit is living.

Death With Dignity Lyrics

Spirit of my silence I can hear you, but I’m afraid to be near you
And I don’t know where to begin
And I don’t know where to begin

Somewhere in the desert there’s a forest, and an acre before us
But I don’t know where to begin
But I don’t know where to begin
Again I lost my strength completely, oh be near me tired old mare
With the wind in your hair

Amethyst and flowers on the table, is it real or a fable?
Well I suppose a friend is a friend
And we all know how this will end

Chimney swift that finds me be my keeper, silhouette of the cedar
What is that song you sing for the dead
What is that song you sing for the dead
I see the signal searchlight strike me, in the window of my room
Well I got nothing to prove
Well I got nothing to prove

I forgive you mother I can hear you, and I long to be near you
But every road leads to an end
Yes every road leads to an end
Your apparition passes through me, in the willows and five red hens
You’ll never see us again
You’ll never see us again

Songwriters: Sufjan Stevens