Dance the Pain Away: 5 Songs to Assuage Your Bailout Blues

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In 2005, Mountain Goats frontman John Darnielle released a terrific little song called “Dance Music,” which chronicled the harrowing experience of growing up. The point of the song was that, when times get really hard, it’s easy to find escapist comfort in dance music. In moments of chaos, Darnielle suggests, you can use the simple pleasures of a dance track to drown out the noise—“so this is what the volume knob’s for,” he sings in one memorable line. We love this sentiment. Lately, dance music is practically all we listen to. And perhaps it’s no coincidence that 2008 has been a tremendous year for songs driven by beats. Is this how we’re distracting ourselves from the financial crisis?

In any case, the songs have come in many different forms. Some of our favorites have been wimpy synth-pop, picking up where The Postal Service left off. But we’ve also loved rap remixes (including one from a most unlikely source) and straight-up dance tracks (including one from a genre—U.K. garage—that got rescued from the grave). And then there’s dubstep, which has come pounding through our speakers thanks to a double-barreled attack by Rusko and The Bug.

Here, then, are five great beat-driven songs in descending order of toughness. If you’re going to listen to the utterly badass “Cockney Thug,” you need to get warmed up first. And maybe by that point, you’ll have forgotten about the state of your retirement fund.

1. Passion Pit—“Sleepyhead” - Things to love about this utterly addictive synth-pop nugget: the superhigh background vocals, the hand claps, the exuberant main vocal line, the whomping chorus, the fact that the band released its EP through Frenchkiss Records (the label that gave us The Hold Steady).

2. T2—“Heartbroken” - And here we were, thinking that U.K. garage was over—or, in truth, not really thinking much about U.K. garage at all. And then this song comes along, with its stuttering beat and its slinky dance-diva vocals. On iTunes, you can buy the original version on an album that also contains 14 remixes!

3. Young MC—“Know How Theme (remix)” - Here we were, thinking Young MC was over—or, um…in truth, not really thinking much about Young MC at all. There seems to be a theme here. But producers Aaron LaCrate and Debonair Samir turned this dated obscurity into a house-wrecking Baltimore club banger. The video, which tweaks Young’s appearance on Arsenio back in the day, is an old-school feast.

4. The Bug ft. Tippa Irie—“Angry” - And now we move into the dubstep portion of our program, complete with political commentary. This song lives up to its title with a claustrophobic soundscape, a hammering beat and lyrics that seem to drill into your skull.

5. Rusko—“Cockney Thug” - The hardest-core dance song we’ve heard in a long time…maybe ever. The word throb comes to mind. It’s simple, primitive and ruthless.