The Best Matt and Kim Songs

Matt and Kim have gone from obscurity to one of the fastest-rising indie bands in music today. The adorable guy-girl indie pop duo from Brooklyn broke through to the mainstream in 2009 by winning the MTV Video Music Award for Breakthrough Video for "Lessons Learned."

If you're a fan of indie music you're probably already familiar with their records and their energetic live performances. If you've never heard of them, chances are you're familiar with some of their songs, thanks to tv commercials.

Matt Johnson & Kim Schifino have released two proper albums, their self-titled debut and 2009's Grand. Both have plenty of highlights.

Here are the 10 best Matt and Kim songs.

10 Turn This Boat Around
"Turn This Boat Around" is one of the few slow songs in the Matt and Kim repertoire. The song is notable for its absence of drums and haunting melody. As the 8th track on Grand, the song serves as a brief rest stop in the middle of the album, before the energy picks right back up again.

9 Light Speed
"Light Speed," taken from the duo's self-titled debut, breaks their standard formula by utilizing hand claps instead of drums. The lyrics include lots of references to baseball, with descriptions of playing center field, standing on top of the dugout, foul balls and playing for the home team. Ultimately, Matt declares, "It's a good thing this is just a game."

8 Cutdown
The second track on Grand, "Cutdown" fits the typical Matt and Kim formula, with active drums and multiple synth parts. The song's simple chorus with hand claps and a "yeah" group chant recalls another indie band, Tokyo Police Club, and makes the tune one of the best Matt and Kim songs.

7 Silver Tiles
Another of the band's earliest songs, "Silver Tiles" is notable for its chorus, in which the song slows down to focus on the lyrics, "And all our hopes and all our friends / Through parking lots, it's where we've been." The song appeared on the Matt & Kim album.

6 Lessons Learned
"Lessons Learned" is one of the few tracks that features vocals from Kim, as she sings the "da-da-da-duh" chorus. MTV rewarded the song's now-legendary video, in which the couple stripped naked in the middle of Times Square during the winter, with the Breakthrough Video Award. The video inspired Erykah Badu to attempt a similar stunt on her song "Window Seat."

5 No More Long Years
"One two three four! One two three four!" Matt counts off the start of this song from the duo's debut album. The pace of the song slows to mid-tempo during the verses, when Matt's slow delivery almost makes it sound like he's rapping. The pace picks up again during the catchy choruses

4 Don't Slow Down
Pitchfork described "Don't Slow Down" as a "hipster 'We Didn't Start the Fire,'" and that description is accurate, as the track's lyrics rattle off a list of cool 20-something items: "Gardens and trash cans / Hoodies and Chuck Ts." The song also references Grand Street in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood, ground zero for New York City's hipster community.

3 Yea Yeah
"Yea Yeah" is a high-energy song, even by Matt and Kim standards. The band has been playing it live forever and it's always a crowd favorite. The one-take music video from 2006 was simple in its brilliance - the musicians played the song while off-camera individuals tossed random food items at them for three minutes.

2 Good Ol' Fashion Nightmare
"Good Ol Fashion Nightmare" has a different sound than most of the best Matt and Kim songs, as it's built more around Kim's drums more than Matt's keyboards. The drums are big and almost feel like hip hop beats, and synth strings add a nice touch to the track.

1 Daylight
The best Matt and Kim song is also their biggest hit. The irresistible, infectious "Daylight" cracked the Billboard Hot 100 and entered the public consciousness after an appearance in a Bacardi commercial. The music video is a fun, cheeky clip in which Matt and Kim sing the song in some of the weirdest places imaginable, such as inside a refrigerator, inside a dumpster, and in the back seat of a taxi.

Best Matt and Kim songs: Others
A few other songs deserve honorable mention on the list of the best Matt and Kim songs, including "5K," "Cinders" and "Spare Change."

Best Matt and Kim songs: Sources
www.mtv.com
http://www.mattandkimmusic.com/