Top 500 Favorite Songs, #20-11

So close … we’ll finish just outside the top 10 today.

Playlists: Amazon and Spotify.

• #20 “Take Me Out” – Franz Ferdinand: I can’t remember who said it, maybe someone on Pitchfork, but a great description of “Take Me Out” is a song hidden within another song. Each part could have existed on its own, but would be less than the whole.
• #19 “Boy from School” – Hot Chip: The perfect dance song. Unrelenting beat, beautiful harmonies, subliminal synth line, breaks. I tend to think of Hot Chip as the logical progression of the Pet Shop Boys in the 21st century.
• #18 “Danny Nedelko” – IDLES: The newest song to crack the top 20, this is the song we need now from the band we need now. It is raw, but in its core, it is a compassionate song about people.
• #17 “Life is Sweet” – Chemical Brothers: Soaring, anthemic rave music. Tim Burgess pretty much laid the model for guest vocals on electronic songs with this. Most shocking to me, 25 years later the Chemical Brothers are still going strong.
• #16 “A New England” – Billy Bragg: Billy and his green guitar. That’s all we have here. Yet, someone, the song feels alive even after almost 40 years. Somehow, Billy wrapped but youthful anxieties, politics and folk-punk in a perfect swirl.
• #15 “The Power of Love” – Huey Lewis & the News: It is impossible for me to separate this song from Back to the Future. Do I love this song so much because its inclusion in one of my favorite movies of all time? Is it a perfect pop rock song? Can it be both? Of course it can and if you are so bitter to think that Huey Lewis isn’t good, then maybe you need to question how seriously you take … everything?
• #14 “Screenwriters’ Blues” – Soul Coughing: Talk about mood music. The narrative presented by M Doughty is so perfectly matched by the paranoia-inducing sonic landscape. It is almost more beat poetry than alternative rock, yet it still ensnares you, transports you to Reseda someday … to die.
• #13 “Holland 1945” – Neutral Milk Hotel: Their history is so odd, mostly thanks to Jeff Mangum. Yet, as strange as his music and lyrics might be, this is a nearly perfect pop song. I dare anyone to hear it and not have it stuck in their head for days. Part lo-fi indie, part punk, part mariachi? It doesn’t relent for a moment across its 3 minutes and 12 seconds.
• #12 “Under Pressure” – Queen with David Bowie: Is there a better vocal combination than David Bowie and Freddie Mercury? They could make any song work, but when they do it on a song with an absolutely classic bassline (which some of us were introduced to by Vanilla Ice … but we’ve gotten over it), you end up with one of the best rock songs ever written.
• #11 “Ana Ng” – They Might Be Giants: I don’t want the world, I only want your half.

 

Top 500 Favorite Songs, #40-21

Gettin’ close to the top!

Playlists: Amazon and Spotify.

• #40 “Down in It” – Nine Inch Nails: I don’t remember exactly when I first heard Nine Inch Nails, but I do remember going to a practice for a play and showing people my copy of Pretty Hate Machine. I got a lot of looks of “what the…?” at the time.
• #39 “Hope I Never Lose My Wallet” – Mighty Mighty Bosstones: This song is very much in the same vein of “The Impression That I Get”. Or better said, the latter is in the same vein as the former. “Hope I Never Lose My Wallet” is the finest of old school Bosstones.
• #38 “Kings of the Wild Frontier” – Adam & the Ants: Somehow, Adam & the Ants never get the due they deserve for recording some real cool music.
• #37 “Free Fallin'” – Tom Petty: This song could easily be unlistenable – insipid, boring and generic. Yet, somehow, Tom Petty reached into the song and made it unforgettable. A tale of disappointment, regret and sadness yet a pop masterstroke. Yet, somehow, a song that samples it will be coming up even higher on this list.
• #36 “Sabotage” – Beastie Boys: Few people know or acknowledge the Beastie Boys hardcore roots, but in what is by far their best song, they merge the hardcore and the hip hop masterfully.
• #35 “The Fly” – U2: Just think how people who last heard U2 on Rattle & Hum must have reacted to this. Their band had become clanking, grinding, distorted. The schism starts here and it was never healed.
• #34 “Girlfriend” – Matthew Sweet: Once we get into the top 40, you could put most of these songs in almost any order. For high school me, hearing this power pop guitar anthem and seeing the anime-themed video (on 120 Minutes I think) that went with it was pure magic.
• #33 “Jesus Built My Hot Rod” – Ministry: It is hard to really love Ministry, mostly because Al doesn’t want to be loved. So, it kind of makes sense that my favorite Ministry song is actually fronted by Gibby Haynes. Speed metal, industrial, what might become known as grindcore.
• #32 “Fallin'” – Teenage Fanclub & De La Soul: Here it is, that song that samples “Free Fallin'”. Judgement Night was many things but mostly it was a soundtrack so far ahead of its time.
• #31 “After You” – Pulp: Weird, right? The last Pulp single that didn’t even ripple in the States is this high. Released over a decade after the Pulp’s previous single, this was a tease of what a James Murphy-produced Pulp album might have been. Yet, all we get is this one masterpiece.
• #30 “Personal Jesus” – Depeche Mode: The first album I ever bought myself (on cassette!) was Violator. The foot stomping banger that is “Personal Jesus” was why. Me at 13 had never heard such a sound.
• #29 “Hunger Strike” – Temple of the Dog: Grunge was a strange time. The sound literally took over rock and roll, yet I find myself with very few true “grunge” songs on this list. Temple of the Dog wasn’t even directly one of the big players of grunge. They were part Pearl Jam, part Soundgarden, all coming from the ashes of Mother Love Bone. Yet, few “duets” seem so natural as Eddie Vedder and Chris Cornell.
• #28 “X, Y & Zee” – Pop Will Eat Itself: I have always been a sucker for British music, yet no band really personified the quest I took finding their albums in the States like PWEI. That mission was launched by the song, the ultimate Madchaster dance song.
• #27 “It’s a Sin” – Pet Shop Boys: Maybe the most important song of the 1980’s for a whole variety of musical and thematic reasons.
• #26 “Common People” – Pulp: Jarvis Cocker has always sang from the working class perspective, maybe like a disco Billy Bragg. Not only does “Common People” tackle the class differences, but it also indicts the upper crust. The song builds and builds like a mini-revolution with Jarvis leading the way.
• #25 “The Ship Song” – Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: Nick Cave might be most famous for his dark side, but it is the tender Nick Cave that sets him apart. Very few songs really make me choke up almost every time like “The Ship Song” does. The way that Nick crawls from the verse to the chorus, he’s singing up to the balcony.
• #24 “Lola” – Kinks: Is this song appropriate? Who is being wronged? Anyone? Ray Davies really skirts a fine line yet the dry wit of the song makes it absolutely captivating. A real pop anomaly.
• #23 “Johnny Mathis’ Feet” – American Music Club: Mark Eitzel really nailed a song about feeling like a failure in the eyes of a success.
• #22 “Heart of Glass” – Blondie: When I first heard this song (junior high?), I just lumped it in with all disco. This really meant I thought it was goofy and not particular good. Over the intervening 30 years, how that worm has turned.
• #21 “Losing My Edge” – LCD Soundsystem: I might have been in my mid-twenties when this song came out, but even then I got the whole “getting older is hard” thing that James Murphy nailed: “But I’m losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent … and they’re actually really, really nice.“

Top 500 Favorite Songs, #80-41

Playlists: Amazon and Spotify.

• #80 “Ballroom Blitz” – Sweet: Everyone always wonders if this was in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Answer: no.
• #79 “True Affection” – The Blow: I still feel like Paper Television could have been Give Up if it was given the chance.
• #78 “Suspicious Minds” – Elvis Presley: So, some of you may have noticed that no Beatles songs appear on this list. Or Rolling Stones songs. It’s not that I don’t like a lot of what those bands did, but they don’t elicit the same reaction of love that they do in others. Much the same is Elvis … except this song. I adore this song.
• #77 “Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side” – Magnetic Fields: When I was living in Seattle, I saw a Magnetic Fields tribute Valentine’s Day show put on by my former employer Three Imaginary Girls. A band called “For Better or For Awesome” did a punk cover of this song and it is my musical holy grail, to find a copy of that performance.
• #76 “Hey Ya!” – Outkast: So back when this song was big, you literally could not turn the radio dial end to end without hearing “Hey Ya!” It was on the urban format stations, it was on the alternative rock stations, it was on the AOR stations. It was everywhere and all for very good reason. It is a slapper.
• #75 “(This is) the Dream of Evan & Chan” – Dntel: The song that launched 1,000 sad kids.
• #74 “Blue Monday” – New Order: Ever notice just how weird Bernard Sumner’s vocals are on this song? I don’t know if he’s trying to sound as robotic as possible.
• #73 “Foundations” – Kate Nash: So, she is a little like a female Billy Bragg, right?
• #72 “Bring Tha Noize” – Anthrax & Public Enemy: What a trip. I wish I heard the song when it first came out although I likely would have had no idea what to make of it.
• #71 “A Boy Named Sue” – Johnny Cash: Most people don’t know that Shel Silverstein wrote the lyrics to this song.
• #70 “Rock Lobster” – The B-52s: Although fellow Athens band R.E.M. overshadowed the B-52s, they might be as musically important.
• #69 “I’m on a Boat” – The Lonely Island with T-Pain: I still say this is the best genre parody ever put to tape.
• #68 “You are the Light (By which I Travel into This & That)” – Jens Lekman: “Yeah, I got busted, so I used my one phone call to dedicate a song to you on the radio.“
• #67 “Night & Day” – Frank Sinatra: Cole Porter really nailed it with this song but Frank hit it out of the park.
• #66 “Brother, My Cup is Empty” – Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: This might be the ultimate Nick Cave song, especially in this free-wheelin’ live version from Live Seeds.
• #65 “Don’t Cry” – Guns ‘n Roses: I have such mixed feelings about Axl Rose, but “Don’t Cry” is epic.
• #64 “Black Metallic” – Catherine Wheel: I have always thought Catherine Wheel was better than My Bloody Valentine. Bite me.
• #63 “Please” – U2: From the unfairly maligned POP, remember, always choose the album version.
• #62 “Inner City Blues (Makes Me Wanna Holler” (Live) by Marvin Gaye: 9:06 of perfection, even if Marvin thinks it needs to restart to be groovy.
• #61 “Number Ones” – Push Kings: Pop song about pop songs.
• #60 “Kiss” – Prince: My wife dislikes this song. I, for one, cannot fathom how one could think that.
• #59 “Fake Plastic Trees” – Radiohead: I had a girlfriend in high school who used to sing this at open mic night.
• #58 “Step” – Vampire Weekend: Such a lush song, built layer upon layer: synths, harpichord, piano, reverbed Ezra, organ all set to a march.
• #57 “Scenario” – A Tribe Called Quest: Why aren’t there rap groups anymore?
• #56 “Ace of Spades” – Motörhead: I mean, come on?
• #55 “New Dawn Fades” – Joy Division: Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner drive this song off the cliff … and I mean that in a good way.
• #54 “Piazza, New York Catcher” – Belle & Sebastian: Really, this is a deeeep cut for Belle & Sebastian, but a song about baseball and the sexuality of Mike Piazza? Yes, please!
• #53 “3030” – Deltron 3030: Sci-fi hip-hop space opera with Del at his peak.
• #52 “Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo” – Jens Lekman: The ultimate Jens Lekman song, with the skiffle beat, the saxophone, the reference to rabbit farming.
• #51 “One” – U2: Achtung Baby may have a lot of cold, distant dance theme to it, but “One” is the rawest, most genuine song U2 ever recorded.
• #50 “Einfach Sein” – Die Fantastischen Vier: So, I admit, I understand like 4 words in this song. Yet, I get what it’s about, especially after watching the video. You, too, should give the Fanta 4 a chance.
• #49 “Dream On” – Aerosmith: I do pretend to do karaoke to this song too. I have little idea why I think I can handle a Stephen Tyler song.
• #48 “More Than a Feeling” – Boston: So many guitars.
• #47 “Breezeblocks” – Alt-J: This is one of the most inexplicable hit songs of the century. I mean, it’s a weird song, right? It almost tries too hard, but pulls back before it really ends up in ridiculous territory.
• #46 “Missing Link” – Dinosaur Jr & Del the Funkee Homosapien: Ok, I said Deltron 3030 was peak Del, but really, this is peak Del. The combination of Del and J Mascis, is near perfect.
• #45 “Birdhouse in Your Soul” – They Might Be Giants: This song is about a bedroom nightlight, right?
• #44 “Like a Prayer” – Madonna: I took a history of rock and roll class when I was in college. I remember some stuff about the class, but I do clearly remember that the professor extolled the virtue of this song. At the time, I was brash and thought “whatever.” He was right.
• #43 “Dirty Boots” – Sonic Youth: Everyone has their favorite Sonic Youth song, right? I love the slow build on this song so much, Kim’s growling bass, the maracas, Thurston Moore’s weird, twisting guitar line.
• #42 “Stull, Part 1” – Urge Overkill: This is a Stull cemetery 40 miles west of Kansas City.
• #41 “Leftovers” – Jarvis Cocker: If there is one song that Jarvis Cocker knows how to write, it’s ones about aging. Of course, we forget that Jarvis is older than most of the Britpop stars of his era. He turned 56 this year, only a few years younger than Bono for chrissakes!