This list of my favorite songs (sometimes singles, mostly album or EP cuts) of the '00s not on my top 100 albums is a way to broaden my coverage of the decade just past. After all, not all artists or styles are necessarily even especially concerned with the album as an artistic unit. While the albums these songs come from are not great from start to finish the way the ones already covered are, many are worth getting in full because they are only slightly flawed by one or two less than stellar tracks; however, the ranking here is of the songs, not the albums (or EPs, or whatever) they’re on. Many of the videos linked to are not official; some are fan productions barely even qualifying to be called video, an album cover and a few pictures; others are more ambitious. For variety, there are also some concert performances of songs on the list, but not in cases where the higher production values of the album versions are integral to the qualities that got those songs on this list in the first place, which also explains some of the audio-only choices.

1. “Hurt” – Johnny Cash

2. “Lost” – Mary Onettes

3. “Rakuen” – Do As Infinity

4. “Driving Through” – Jennifer O'Connor

5. “Berry Metal” – Metallic Falcons

6. “Layers” – Asobi Seksu

7. “Ai no Uta” – Every Little Thing
It may seem cheesy, even by the standards of what comes up while YouTube music video surfing, that we link to an anime-themed vid for this song -- BUT this song was used in the second InuYasha movie, so these images are fitting.

8. “Worst Friend” – Vic Chesnutt

9. “Come” – Namie Amuro

10. “Don't Stop Believin'” – Petra Haden

11. “A Few Words in Defense of Our Country” – Randy Newman

12. “Sons of the Burgess Shale” – Bell Hollow

13. “Problems” – Lee Fields

14. “Gore Veil” – The Deadly Snakes

15. “All for You” – Janet Jackson

16. “That Man I Shot” – Drive-By Truckers

17. “Caring Is Creepy” – The Shins

18. “My Little Brother”– Art Brut

19. “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” – The Darkness

20. “I Know I'll See You” – A Place to Bury Strangers

21. “Land Mine” – Jennifer O'Connor

22. “Astronaut: A Short History of Nearly Nothing” – Amanda Palmer

23. “Nutmeg” – Stephen Colbert & John Legend

24. “War Pigs” – CAKE

25. “Why Am I Still Sucking on Your Dick?” –J.H.T.
A concert performance released only on the 2005 Voodoo-EROS compilation The Enlightened Family, this is rumored to be (and sounds like) a pseudonymous Antony Hegarty (Antony & the Johnsons).

26. “Guns of Brixton” – Nouvelle Vague

27. “They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!” – Sufjan Stevens

28. “A History of Lovers” – Calexico & Iron and Wine
The achingly intimate singing and finely detailed songwriting of Sam Beam (Iron and Wine) and the colorfully multi-cultural roots music of Calexico complement each other beautifully and invigoratingly.

29. “Youth” – Matisyahu

30. “Silver>Blue” – Thurston Moore

31. “All the Lost Souls Welcome You to San Francisco” – American Music Club

32. “Oasis” – Do As Infinity

33. “Love Song” – Melt-Banana

- Steve Holtje

Mr. Holtje is a Brooklyn-based poet and composer who splits his time between editing Culturecatch.com, working at the Williamsburg record store Sound Fix, and editing cognitive neuroscience books for Oxford University Press. No prizes for guessing which pays best.