SPIN's 20 Best Songs of Summer

Arcade Fire, Gucci Mane, Dom, Robyn (clockwise from top left)

When defining the "Song of the Summer," people often refer to the so-called "undeniable" track that at first seems utterly loathsome, but after it's been blasted into the cosmos 10,000 times, we're all supposed to happily recline on our metaphorical beach blankets and submit to being ravaged, again and again and again. This is the Stockholm Syndrome theory of pop, the idea the radio is still some kind of useful monoculture adjudicator that permits us all to commune as a nation by being held captive like delirious 10-year-olds at a little-monster pool party.

But what about escaping from all that captivity?

These days, most of us create our own playlists, switching from the radio (commercial or satellite or Internet) to iPods to other listening gizmos, and as a result, the variety of songs emanating from our vehicles (or bedrooms or headphones) is far greater than before, though for some reason overly customized SUVs do tend to crank Drake's "Find Your Love." So as the season ends, SPIN's list of 2010's Best Summer Songs is not a survey of the undeniable (sorry Taio Cruz). It's a mixed bag of what we embraced, willingly, without being subjected to excessive force.

Start our countdown below:

• Les Savy Fav

  "Let's Get Out of Here"

  The ideal ooh ooh anthem for getting in your busted-ass, registered-out-of-state car and speeding far away from the urban boho clusterblog that dutiful bands like Les Savy Fav have attempted to rock during the past decade, despite the endless barrage of '80s kitsch, tragic synths, ironic headbands, and you'll-work-for-me-one-day boat shoes.

  LISTEN:
  

• Snoop Dogg feat. Kid Cudi

  "That Tree"

  "That Tree," huh? Considering these doobie bros' historic inhalation rate, this one's gotta be about blazin' up, right? And when Snoop jabberwocks over Diplo's stuttering EKG beat, it's, like, pass the kush, bro-dogg. But then, "little buddy" Cudi croons the organ-pumping, gently swaying chorus, which remarkably turns out to make one of the most heartfelt cases for family over hoes to ever grace a summer jam. Go figure.

  LISTEN:
  

• Das Racist

  "You Oughta Know"

  Riffing off Billy Joel's '70s-pop cacciatore "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)"—as well as Dipset's similar mixtape sample—the absurdist Brooklyn rap duo go full-bore Cheech and Chong ROTFLMAO, updating the timeless advice, "You should never argue with a crazy ma-ma-ma-ma-man," to apply to that all-too-familiar plague of "white dudes on the Internet." Their sun-is-shinin' axiom: "A rich interior world is a joy to own." Palabra.

  LISTEN:
  

• M.I.A.

  "XXXO"

  After a New York Times writer fabricated M.I.A.'s preference for radical-chic comestibles, mainstream media creeps and online dweebs alike decreed that Maya Poppins was no longer the magical nanny of the hipster pop diaspora. Regardless, this delightfully woozy rinse of Gaga dance-googoo sounded bewitching on a sticky July night.

  LISTEN:
  

• The Black Keys

  "Tighten Up"

  The Keys' breakthrough single has a remarkable lightness of step, as if the bloozy wails and guitar flares just blithely sauntered over and pulled up a chair, inviting you to whistle along. So you did, grinning like a guileless goof. Then you might've noticed how drummer Patrick Carney's syncopated byplay was on some Art Blakey shit.

  LISTEN: