82

82. Torches - Foster the People (2011)

Alternative

If we were making a list of the best songs of the decade, it would be nearly impossible to make an argument against including “Pumped Up Kicks” in the Top 10. It’s a song about a trouble teenager having fantasies about shooting up his school. No one in their right mind would have predicted that it would become the mega-hit that it became. But here we are, nearly 10 years later, still hearing it with regularity, still singing along with the macabre lyrics and snapping our fingers. It’s hard to wrap your head around how a song with lyrics like these could become a global smash hit. If anything, it’s proof that you can make a hit song out of absolutely anything, as long as it has an infectiously catchy melody.

In many ways, Torches set the tone for the decade to come. Its influences are no secret, with dreamy, MGMT-vibes dotting the landscape of the album. Borrow as it may from a handful of alt-indie groups that found success in the second half of the 00’s, it also carved out a new groove in alternative music and managed to unite the free expression of indie, the energy of rock and the accessibility of pop into a purely distilled product. It’s an album made by inner-kids, for inner-kids and it goes down smooth, like a Capri-Sun on a warm, summer day.

*image; cover art for the album Torches by the artist Foster the People