75 Days, 2 Lists, 1 Giant Waste of Time

[Idioteque Stalker]

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75 Days, 2 Lists, 1 Giant Waste of Time



Idioteque Stalker: In Spring 2007, after finishing my last favorite songs list, I promised myself I would update it four years later.

quido8_5: Everything in It’s Right Place was #1. Spoiler: It was a good list.

Idioteque Stalker: It was alright.

quido8_5: So good, in fact, that when IS told me about his new list I decided to copy him. This time around, we decided to fully exploit social networking. All our posts will be published on Twitter, Facebook and our website thisisalist.com. This allows you greater flexibility when digesting it and us greater torpidity when creating it. As such, we’ve put restrictions on the commentary.

Idioteque Stalker: Out of respect for our new found allegiance to all things social media, our comments will be tweet-sized, increasing or decreasing by one word with every subsequent song.

quido8_5: The number of words for each of my entries will coincide with the song’s position. For instance, when Shania Twain’s “Man, I Feel Like a Woman” lands at 1, I will write 1 word about it. A difficult, but rewarding experience. Today’s entry will have 75 words.

Idioteque Stalker: And mine will be the opposite: My #1 will have 75 words while today’s entry will have only 1.

quido8_5: ...i.e. the easy way.

Idioteque Stalker: Only if you’re insecure about your #1.

quido8_5: or really confident.

Idioteque Stalker: Anyway, just so you know what you're getting yourself into, I’ve recently found myself drawn to the psychedelic, moody and/or just-plain-odd end of the pop spectrum.

quido8_5: And I seem to dig polar ends of said spectrum, with penchants for sparse works or grandiose themes. Either way, my central tendency is toward honesty, whether it’s lyrical or instrumental.

Idioteque Stalker: Just so you know, I've disqualified any song that made my list last time around. Marcel Duchamp told me to do it:

"I force myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste." - MD

We hope you enjoy.

[Idioteque Stalker]

75. "No Awareness" - Dr. Octagon

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?

[quido8_5]

#75
$20 by M.I.A.


Oh my God, that trick stole that hook? And so I wrote the album off for around two years. Unsurprisingly it was this beguiling, undeniable anthem that brought me back. Smart, eclectic and totally badass, $20 is probably the best distillation of what made MIA such a force. It is also one of the biggest songs I have ever heard, filling stadiums or headphones with equal depth. That hook on that artist… :sigh: sounds amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d59AI12xgwo

[Skitch]

What the hell is going on here? This thread is suspect.

[Derek]

What the hell is going on here? This thread is suspect.

2 posters listing their 75 favorite songs in one thread. What's not to get?

[Skitch]

2 posters listing their 75 favorite songs in one thread. What's not to get?

Nevermind me, then. :pritch:

[Idioteque Stalker]

FYI, it's been a long while for quido (pretty sure he was a member before the days of rep), but I post occasionally and am sure there are some people around who might remember my list from four years ago.

And the thread title is somewhat of a joke. We're not trolls. :P

[Ezee E]

Well I dig the first song enough that I picked it up. Looking forward to it now.

[Idioteque Stalker]

74. "Monk Time" - The Monks

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Furious, prescient.

[Derek]

74. "Monk Time" - The Monks

Furious, prescient.

Yup, love Monks. They're nuts.

[Glass Co.]

Like/love every song so far. Great start. "No Awareness" has been stuck in my head more than only a handful of songs.

[Idioteque Stalker]

Derek's probably seen this, but here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5iI0__9S1c) is a short video of the Monks on German tv in '65. :eek:

I'm curious as to what part of No Awareness could get stuck in your head, Glass Co. Nothing in that song makes sense to me.

[quido8_5]

With nearly 10 minutes of distorted guitars and slightly disaffected vocals, Godsend shouldn’t be the unrepentant appeal to tenderness that it is. Yet from the first few lines, the sense of immediacy is both charming and disarming. Trading traditional pop patterns for interweaving lines and layered sounds, it's a taciturn and imprecise thing anchored by its resolute simplicity. Embellishing absolutely nothing, the statements are so guileless they penetrate with familiarity and warmth. Plain and beautiful.

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[Idioteque Stalker]

73. "Love Song for the Dead Che" - The United States of America

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Psychedelic love.

/Morricone

[quido8_5]

I was 11 when I heard my Dad singing this to himself. His soothing baritone was impressive, but could not match the aching swagger of Jerry Lee Lewis. Giving the song a victorious desperation, the “Balls 'Afire” guy plays the fool with unparalleled strut. Even Hank Williams’ original doesn’t reach such plaintive heights, probably because he wasn’t such a screw up. Getting hen-pecked never sounded so cool or, as a result, painfully oblivious.

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[Thirdmango]

As of an hour ago I had never heard of The Monks, now I've heard about 8 of their songs and I love them. Thank you muchly.

[quido8_5]

What is Billie Jean really about? It sounds like a dance song, reads like a public service announcement and feels like the morning after. Thanks to the timeless hook(s!) and impeccable production, we never have to ask these questions. Instead, we can enjoy the peerless confidence of pop’s preeminent prince at his precisionist best. Whether grooving, growing up or, ironically, making babies, Billie Jean might really mean whatever we want it to.

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[Idioteque Stalker]

72. "Time Vampires" - Flying Lotus

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Light dubs to this.

[quido8_5]

“The Beauty and the Beat” has some of the most appropriately titled songs of the last decade- Promised Land is no exception. Victorious, beautiful and optimistic; it's the triumphant conclusion to Edan's idealistic conception of musical positivity. A dense landscape brought to life by a vivid mix of innovative sampling and evocative imagery; it is rap as poetry and poetry as sublime. It’s not milk and honey, but beauty and colors.

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[Idioteque Stalker]

71. "Reflections After Jane" - The Clientele

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Jangly ballad exploits major sevenths.

[quido8_5]

There is angsty music and then there is Kiss Off. Frustrated, brittle, confrontational, it embodies the satisfaction buried just below the surface of teenage dissatisfaction. Years before Emo wallowed in self-righteousness, Violent Femmes raged through emotions with the giddy disregard of youth. The result was more catharsis than melancholy. Much like the masochistic discontentedness of adolescence, Kiss Off is insular, self-absorbed and a whole lot of fun. Sing it loud.

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[Boner M]

gr8 lists.

[Idioteque Stalker]

70. "Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime" - The Field

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Slow grindin' at the pearly gates.

[Idioteque Stalker]

69. "Ping Pong Affair" - The Slits

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Cool, erratic song structure. Dub groove kills.

[quido8_5]

33, 34, 35, 34, 68, 27, orange, 82, sixtyten, 5, 7, fifty, 6. Forget defying logic, Boards of Canada create their own logic. It operates off half-remembered childhoods and the collective unconscious. It’s propelled by persistent beats and beautiful splashes of melody. It drenches familiar things in a thick fog of atmosphere, rendering them strange and alluring. Somehow inspiring, sinister and nostalgic, just listen and it’ll all make sense.

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[Idioteque Stalker]

68. "Dayton, Ohio - 1903" - Randy Newman

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Simple piano ballad sells melancholy nostalgia without irony.

[quido8_5]

The Reality: Three MCs swapping lines like lyrical acrobats, rhyming with the ferocity of punks and acerbic wit of New Yorker cartoonists. Paired with the Dust Brothers’ deft sampling and craftiness, it’s precision that puts brain surgeons to shame.

The Feeling: Three of your buddies free-styling on the stoop.

The Bottom Line: It’s about everything, nothing and something. So deftly made it gives serious weight to pop-culture minutiae.

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[Idioteque Stalker]

67. "Otha Fish" - The Pharcyde

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Makes me wish I liked Sublime. Chill/Desperate vocals.

[quido8_5]

68. "Dayton, Ohio - 1903" - Randy Newman

Simple piano ballad sells melancholy nostalgia without irony.

Interesting pick. It replaces the black humor and tragedy of what would've been my pick, Louisiana, 1927, with simple observations. In fact, it's lack of humor is conspicuous. Do you think there's any sense of satire in it?

[quido8_5]

Being successfully sentimental is a hard, basically impossible task. I say basically because of this song. Unflinchingly beautiful and melodramatic, the slow build sweeps us into a world of adolescent concerns, dominated by budding romances and transient popularity. If adolescence has its own logic, this is the gushing soundtrack, so doe eyed and gorgeous it turns petty concerns into grandiose moments. It shouldn’t work, but it does.

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*As a Side Note: So far this is is definitely winning the "Soundtrack to Most Undergrad Film Projects featured on YouTube" award

[Idioteque Stalker]

Interesting pick. It replaces the black humor and tragedy of what would've been my pick, Louisiana, 1927, with simple observations. In fact, it's lack of humor is conspicuous. Do you think there's any sense of satire in it?

I feel the satire, if there is any, is implied by the role Newman takes in the song: an old man reminiscing about a golden age or realized American dream. Even though the song by itself is sincere, Newman forces himself to engage with stereotypes by choosing a year long before his birth. But you're right about its conspicuous lack of humor. Maybe that's why it sticks out to me.

And someone should make one of those side-by-side comparison videos of "Louisiana, 1927" and "Sail Away."

[Idioteque Stalker]

66. "A Place In My Heart" - Erlend Øye

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Immaculate mixture of pretty chimes, heartfelt lyrics and rhythmic complexity.

[quido8_5]

Dog Got a Bone

As traditional a ballad as indie rock ever saw, “Dog Got a Bone” hits some universal and indescribable nerve. Balancing traditional and progressive tendencies, it knits an unconventional story with sparse instrumentation and aching melody. Indeed, the slow burn-and-build conveys little lyrically but reveals an entire narrative musically. As the narrator reluctantly pines, it’s not the loneliness of desperation, but the loneliness of possibility.

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[quido8_5]

Anthrax

Let’s clarify one thing: This isn’t anti love song, this is an anti love song, song. Lyrically, it’s a treatise on the careless exploitation of love in song and, like much of the album, an appeal to think logically instead of emotionally. It’s great intellectual stuff and I suggest you read it (http://www.lyricsfreak.com/g/gang+of+four/anthrax_20057748.html). Honestly, though, does anything need to be said outside of that piercing guitar?

jd3UiGZBTOU&feature=related*

FYI, I couldn't find a clip with the Entertainment! LP version of the song. If you don't own that album, though, you should buy it immediately.

[Russ]

Gang of Four's Anthrax would be a standout on anyone's Top Whatever list. Kudos.

[Idioteque Stalker]

65. "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass" - Nick Lowe

(Mediocre quality)
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I just can't figure out why this song isn't a classic.

[KubrickLoveChild]

So far I love both lists, I just can't quite tell which one is more my speed. Too soon to tell, I suppose. I loved the Broken Social Scene pick the most so far. Awesome lists.

[Idioteque Stalker]

64. "Master of None" - Beach House

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Quiet but soulful, the alto vocals slip through chimes like hipster runoff.

[quido8_5]

So Long, Marianne

Maybe it’s unfortunate that Cohen is primarily remembered as a lyricist. Consider So Long, Marianne. Both joyous and melancholic, it’s the tune’s sweet melody and perfect arrangement that rounds out the poetic verse. His imagery certainly weaves an intriguing tale, but it’s the equally detailed and purposeful instrumentation that makes this song great. Catchy and deep, it’s the perfect vehicle for an adventurous poet.

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[Idioteque Stalker]

63. "Toilet Tisha" - Outkast

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Bet Sly heard something like this during a particularly bad trip in '74.

[quido8_5]

Cocoon by Bjork
Most love songs are bloated with metaphors and hyperbole, so it is unsurprising that Bjork would strip away all façade and create a brutally honest ode as simple as it is stirring. Replacing opulent statements for simple appreciation, she proves that sometimes safety, security and contentment are more awe-inspiring than grandiosity and spectacle. Intimate and soft, Cocoon embodies the warm sensation of love.

*Video is NSFW
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[quido8_5]

Baba O'Riley by The Who
They don’t make ‘em like this anymore. Swinging for the bleachers, Baba O’ Reilly represents the “fuck it let’s rock” ethos better than any other stadium sized banger. Stuffed with hooks, it’s a dizzying feat of musicianship that it works so well. Actually, it’s boldness paints Classic Rock with an idyllic sheen. Fact is they never made ‘em like this. Just once.

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[quido8_5]

61 - On the Nature of Daylight

Music is seldom as evocative as it is here. Cinematic without sacrificing simplicity, it gathers weight through a few intertwining, yet beautifully expressive lines. Building textures and melodies with persistent grace, Max Richter may owe much to his minimalist forbearers, but he nonetheless creates something uniquely moving. Like some forgotten dream, On the Nature of Daylight is illusive, fleeting and bittersweet.

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[quido8_5]

#60: Dead Dogs 2 by cLOUDDEAD (Boards of Canada Remix)

It's violent and somehow seductive, it's visceral and saccharine, it's ugly and somehow gorgeous; it's the most twisted fun you will have listening to any song on this list and it's about roadkill. Matching cLOUDDEAD's schizophrenic vocals and pitch-black humor, BoC's remix races like a fever dream, creating a mini-phantasmagory in 5:12. It is infectious in more ways than one.

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[quido8_5]

#59: A Case of You by Joni Mitchell

There's so much to be said for unapologetic romantics. As Joni Mitchell's voice soars with plaintive honesty toward the end of this song, though, the feeling speaks for itself. Sketched with vivid details and colored with metaphor, it's Mitchell's tremulous delivery that sells A Case of You. Gathering power from delicacy and strength from vulnerability, it's a timeless statement.

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[D_Davis]

#60: Dead Dogs 2 by cLOUDDEAD (Boards of Canada Remix)

It's violent and somehow seductive, it's visceral and saccharine, it's ugly and somehow gorgeous; it's the most twisted fun you will have listening to any song on this list and it's about roadkill. Matching cLOUDDEAD's schizophrenic vocals and pitch-black humor, BoC's remix races like a fever dream, creating a mini-phantasmagory in 5:12. It is infectious in more ways than one.

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Amazing song - like the original more though.

The album is a masterpiece.

[quido8_5]

Amazing song - like the original more though.

The album is a masterpiece.

Yeah, it was certainly a toss up for me. I love the original's use of dynamics, but I'm a sucker for melody and that piccolo (?) gets me every time. Plus there's the "Day in the Life" nod that puts it over the top. Either way, the album's lack of recognition has always confounded me.

[D_Davis]

Either way, the album's lack of recognition has always confounded me.

I will never forget the first time I heard it - in Tower Records, in Seattle at the old Down Town/Queen Ann location.

Blew my mind.

I was like, is this Ween doing hip hop?

IMO, cLOUDDEAD and crew breathed new life into the dying corpse that was hip hop at the time.

[quido8_5]

#58: I Was a Lover by TV on the Radio

I could write pages about this song’s artistic statement. I could extol the musique concrete aesthetic, herald the innovative leap it was in modern pop music or gab about it still being like nothing else I’ve ever heard. I could go on and on intellectualizing I Was a Lover, but here’s the bottom line: It kicks major ass.

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[quido8_5]

#57: Your Hand in Mine by Explosions in the Sky

It's freshman year. I'm in my dorm locked in heated battle with technology, fighting for all mankind. Ok, so I'm playing Tetris and listening to this song. However, the cinematic sweeps make small things seem massive and imbue anything with weight. Of course, they also make the massive seem small by speaking volumes with simple wordless beauty.

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[Marley]

^^
Too low! :lol: Great pick though, that is probably my favorite song, ever.

[Idioteque Stalker]

62. "Eventide Fire a Disaster" - Barrington Levy

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Sounds like the emotional peak of the saddest protest jam ever. Shame and disgrace.

[Idioteque Stalker]

61. "Tears In the Typing Pool" - Broadcast

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Such delicacy, and just the right amount of reverb. Why can't all harmonies glisten so?

[Idioteque Stalker]

60. "Milk It" - Nirvana

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Where grunge reaches sublimity: meandering, noisy, frightening, like a drunk lumbering down a crowded city street.

[quido8_5]

56)

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Dark Parts by Perfume Genius :

There's a kid I sometimes see riding the A-train downtown. He is kind of well put together, but he has this vague expression on his face. I've talked to him once. Sounds like he's in serious pain. But, he told me that it's all OK because he's making it. I told him to listen to Dark Parts.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5WNqvdIfJ8

55)

http://www.inflexwetrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/WuTang+Clan.png

Da Mystery of Chessboxin' by Wu-Tang Clan:

Here is the plan of assault for one of the most aggressive, vitriolic and cathartic songs in the last couple of decades: have two body hits in the first two verses, have Raekwon slap you, ODB soothe you and Ghostface rearrange your brain. Get your ass on the ground, walk away and open a 40.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJk0p-98Xzc&feature=kp

Note: Idioteque, it is your turn like three turns ago.

[quido8_5]

54)


Look at Me by John Lennon :

I've started singing this to my daughter, lately. She's our first, so I'm trying to find suitable lullabies. This is plaintive, sincere and beautiful. It's full of disquieting thoughts and painful questions, yet it's strangely reassuring. It's just pretty enough to belie the unsettling material. My guess: she's telling her shrink in 21 years.





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4sxpaV0lR0

[Russ]

Do a YouTube search for Ian Dury's Lullaby For Franci/es. If I had a young daughter, I'd be singing that to her every night.

[D_Davis]

Do a YouTube search for Ian Dury's Lullaby For Franci/es. If I had a young daughter, I'd be singing that to her every night.

What a great track!

If I had young (any) kids, it'd be a steady stream of the Lullatones.

https://lullatone.bandcamp.com/

[quido8_5]

Do a YouTube search for Ian Dury's Lullaby For Franci/es. If I had a young daughter, I'd be singing that to her every night.

Hell yeah. Don't know if I'll be able to play the actual track because that whole "don't wake the baby shit" is for real. When she's going to sleep, if she hears a sweet reggae beat... that's it.

[quido8_5]

53) Get Me Away from Here I'm Dyin' by Belle and Sebastian
You know we don't stand a chance. The sensitive people, the hopeless romantics, the people who take Motown for gospel, the ones who find redemption in stories. Whether we really are special or we're just teenagers. It doesn't matter. We really are dying here and, sad fact, we always will be.

52) The Weight by The Band
My dad used to get drunk and listen to this with me when I was ten. A metaphor so on-the-nose it's unbelievable. Yet, it's true. What lends The Weight particular power is the eternal, circular nature of it's message. Stated with Amazing Grace simplicity, it nails addiction at its most base, pleasurable and corrosive.

51) The Rat by The Walkmen
The Rat doesn't pretend to be anything it's not. From the first burst of drums, guitar, and strung-out vocals one thing is clear: this is a mothafuckin' breakup song. Replete with fluctuating volumes and taciturn vocals, it's the kind of romantic breakdown we all inevitably have, piped through the uninhibited voices of something else.


50) Party Life by Jay-Z:
I recently compared Jay to Frank Sinatra and realized there isn't a competition. As Hov points out, he really is in a different league. Only a joint this smooth could match Jay's unique braggadocio. He's talking shit and it's the truth. Crass, confident and smooth: welcome the party life.

[quido8_5]

49
People II 2: Still Peoplin'? by Andrew Jackson Jihad
Let's get one thing out of the way from jump: I am a huge believer in the innate evil of human nature. Doesn't mean we can't be good, but it does mean we have to try a little bit. Jackson Jihad somehow conveys this bleak assessment with a crooked smile and an awkward wink. The entirety of 2011's cynical and hilarious Knife Man works better as a piece; however, this song will probably be a good lipmnus test for the album.

Using the darkest of humor, Sean Bonnette and Ben Gallaty make their point obtuse and confrontational. Here's a sample of the truth they lay down:

But when your Hustler subscription and your Xanax prescription make you feel lonelier instead
You don't want to hear about all the starving children.
You don't want to be told it's all in your head.
'Cause if it's all in your head, that's terrible.

And it gets better, trust me. Paired with a euphonious strum and sing-a-long melody, the entire song seethes with social disgust and valid criticism. It's the kind of song that is NSFW because it'll make your co-workers feel bad about themselves. Which they should, because (remember the whole preternatural evil thing?) we should all feel bad.

Yet, I don't want to nail this down as an insensitive or uncaring song in any way. The final message is probably optimistic. No one has it any better and no has it any worse, you're your own irreplaceable human soul with your own understanding of what it means to suffer. And that's a huge bummer.

48
Fistful of Love by Antony and the Johsons
With each passing year, this song collects additional weight and importance. Beyond the operatic virtuosity of Hegarty's voice, the saccharine pain in every syllable and the masterly arrangement, Fistful of Love is a statement of defiance. How often do brass and wood winds sound this lovely, defiant and exultant? This song represents everything there is to love and mourn in Antony's oeuvre, the optimistic realist relaying lines so honest they might as well be sarcastic.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgwp-iQenn4

47
Two Blue Lights by Songs: Ohia

There's always something lurking in the corners of Jason Molina's music. Here, though, it's not the dark and unknown that's unsettling, but what's starkly lit by spotlights. Two spotlights, to be more precise.

The song is a study in duality: the headlights of a bus and the dim light of the moon, diesel fuel and the damn taste of the earth, and then there's this:

There's a dead archer in the tower/ you can't hear it/ but you can tell.
When the bells ring twelve times in hell/ the bells ring twelve times in this town as well.

This may be Chicago or it may be Casterly Rock, doesn't matter, the real struggle isn't bothered by exterior context, but what's within.

46
Shook Ones Pt. II by Mobb Deep
Before production became an idle in hip-hop, artists relied on straight-foward elegance. Shook Ones Pt. II , the cornerstone of Mobb Deep's brutal and unflinching masterpiece The Infamous, is a study in verbal assault. It's casually intimidating, walking through all the reasons one should most certainly not fuck with Mobb Deep, while providing a particularly ominous backing track that is equally influenced by Herbie Handcock and John Carpenter. Like the message of the album, the hook of Shook Ones is simple: no flash, no bullshit and no flourish; just fair warning.

45
96 Tear Drops by ? & the Mysterians
Oh come on, what can anyone write about this song that isn't implied by that impossibly cool organ and barely-there vocal performance? This is the fucking 60's and did you see the band's name? Yeah, that's right, makes almost too much sense, right? So, if that's our starting point and it's understood that everyone in the band was dropping acid and rocking bowl-cuts then we can safely assume this song was created in no less than two takes at the end of a prolonged break up with a British model who, if it's not Twiggy, could totally be Twiggy.

And, thus, this perennial break up song that can't be bothered to make sense and doesn't have the time to be subtle. Shit's going down, just ask ? & the Mysterians .

[quido8_5]

44
Light Up My Room by Barenaked Ladies

Listen, if we're going to drift down memory lane and get all sentimental and what not, why not do it to the most crisp and velvety soft-rock ever made? Look, most of us grew up in the 90s and Barenaked Ladies really meant something. In retrospect, the guitar sweeps are ridiculous and the lyrics are (like most 90s rock) ambiguous; however, there's that wonderful sense of misty adolescence that can't be denied. Irredescent and unique, Light Up My Room is some dystopian Zanadoo where we're all penniless and content sitting with our family and loving one another.

43
Sad Skinhead by Faust
Disorienting in the best kind of way.

42
Hey Mama by Kanye West

Picking one song for Kanye West is the problem with making lists. The most consistent artist of the last decade*, West is as prolific as he claims to be. Which, as we all know, is saying something. Yet, for all his grandstanding, my favorite track remains this wonderfully humble and sentimental piece from his poppiest album.

Hey Mama isn't meant to be flashy, it's designed as a simple thank you note to the most important person in Mr. West's life: Donda West. Gratitude for both the good and bad times is communicated with equal parts love and appreciation. What's more, there are few West tracks that attain the heights of production excellence (sorry, Kanye, but Jon Brion produced the shit out of this album), complementing the simplistic honesty of the lyrics reflected in an opulent and ebullient composition.

If nothing else, any time one chooses to send this song to their much beloved and inevitably neglected-feeling mother, major points will occur. Another outcome may be tears-of-joy at this verse:

Seven years old, caught you with tears in your eyes
Cuz a *#%# cheatin, telling you lies, then I started to cry
As we knelt on the kitchen floor
I said mommy Imma love you till you don't hurt no more
And when I'm older, you aint gotta work no more
And Imma get you that mansion that we couldn't afford

I mean, c'mon. Sheer tears.

* IMO. Although, if you disagree, please take a moment to reflect on the following:

We Don't Care (2004)
Jesus Walks (2004)
Slow Jamz (2004)
Through the Wire (2004)
Heard 'Em Say (2005)**
Touch the Sky (2005)**
Gold Digger (2005)**
Good Life (2007)
Flashing Lights (2007)
Everything I Am (2007)
Robocop (2008)
The Joy (2010)
Power (2010)
All of the Lights (2010)
Devil in a New Dress (2010)
Runaway (2010)
*%#**s in Paris (2011)
Clique (2012)
New Slaves (2013)
Blood on the Leaves (2013)
Bound 2 (2013)

** All concurrent on the album.

[quido8_5]

41

Damage by Yo La Tengo
Separating. Breaking up. Divorcing. Who the hell knows the extent of emotional investment Ira Kaplan has in this song's relationship, it doesn't really matter. The frankness of his delivery, the shimmering stabs of feedback and, most devastating for me, this line:

Feeling like a kid again, my eyes are glued to the floor/
I say mumbled goodbye as you walked out the door.

It's one of the most arrestingly sad songs I've ever heard. Expressing itself sonorously to help make the bitter pill easier to swallow, Yo La Tengo slowly unpack the events, capturing the sense of melancholy that is unavoidably experienced in a separation. If it weren't such a pleasant song to listen to, it'd be really difficult to listen to. As it is, the sweet spot at the nexus of pain and love is something that we need in sad songs.

So crank that motherfucker.

40

Pilot Jones by Frank Ocean

It's hard for me to overstate the personal value of this song to me. Coming at a time when a ton of uncertainty was happening in the life of my family (including a death and two baby girls, one for me and the other for my twin brother), there was something utterly comforting in this song. It sounds like we can all use a Pilot Jines and Ocean's nonsensical lyrics are perfectly supported by the immaculate production.

Somewhat tangentially, I was so rooting for this to be the song my daughter was born to and, as she was crowning, the crescendo receded and Ocean mumble-whispered, "and if I got a condo on the clouds then I guess you can stay at my place." It was pretty fucking special.

[quido8_5]

39) Jambalaya (On the Bayou) by Hank Williams
Few things are more charming than a good country ballad. While this song gets instant inclusion for it’s role in The Last Picture Show, it also has redeeming southern qualities that are as ingrained as sweet tea, racism and moonshine. Speaking of moonshine, Jambalaya embodies inebriated memories. With it's deep Cajun roots and blissful instrumentation, the song creates a southern Eden found mostly in sharing meals, gentile dancing and gumbo. Given that all participants must surely be three-sheets by the time this song takes place, the setting Hank Williams creates is equally bucolic and alluring. All hazy strings and twangy vocals, On the Bayou takes a standard tune and endows it with a sense of place through timeless lyrics and good ole’ fashioned charm. That it’s difficult to interpret said lyrics and, yet, still totally understand what Hank’s saying is a testament to the power of Country music.


38) Touching Something's Hollow/A Eluardian Instance by Of Montreal
Nothing really begins or ends on Of Montreal's divisive and brilliant Skeletal Lamping . Like Finnegan's Wake it's an unending loop that is enjoyable, albeit in a masochistic fashion. Yet, these songs* offer a little bit of a rallying cry. Beginning with an abrupt existential pause after three relentlessly Dionysian songs, Touching Something's Hollow offers the first glimpse at Kevin Barnes' Apollonian beauty. After hearing about all kinds of sexual deviance, the honesty and desperation of this songs' lyrics are arresting.

Why am I so damaged, girl?/
Why am I such poison, girl?
I don't know how long I can hold on/
if it's gonna' be like this forever.

It's the kind of emotionally immature thoughts we don't admit, even to the closest of friends- maybe even to ourselves. It's just at the bottom of the cycle, just before the last key of Touching Something's Hollow has resolved, that the utterly optimistic hook of A Eluardian Instance comes in like a hit of MDMA. Everything returns to neon hues. We're once again young and independent and going to beaches we never did and meeting fucking mountain goats**. The memory reel runs backward and hindsight is 20/20, so everything is coming through like you just got new glasses.

If Touching Something's Hollow is an ugly portrait of the bottom, A Eluardian Instance is a beautiful fever dream of the clouds.

* I'm bending the rules a little here because each of these could certainly be considered independent tracks; however, listening these together provides such a wallop that I've always considered them two sides of the same coin.
** Which, in that state of youthful idealism, who knows how much any of this song is accurately remembered.


37) Angel from Montgomery by John Prine (Performed Dave Matthews etc.)
I could not hate myself more for including this, especially so high. At the same time, I'd be lying if I didn't claim this as a favorite. A particularly personal favorite, in fact.

I'm not sure how I came upon this live track, performed just before Matthews must have took his last hit and passed out, but it's a lovelorn track that's difficult not to love. Like the surely deadbeat protagonist, Matthews' performance rests on torpid vocals and breezy technical proficiency. While the words coming out of his mouth are venomous ( How can someone go out in the morning/ come home in the evening/ they got nothing to say ), it's delivered with such a thick brogue, with just the right amount of sweetness, that it feels pleasant to forgive the shortcomings.

Dave Matthews never had anything to say, really. But, when he was covering other people, it played up all of his skills: taste, skill and charm. A generation of bros learned how to manipulate people while listening to DMB for good reason, Dave Matthews knows what he's talking about and is willing to fake-it-till-he-makes-it. In his own music there's a veneer of sentimentality; however, for the man himself, it's bare-bones honesty that works best.