My Favorite 100 Songs

[Kurosawa Fan]

Very cool list so far. I like everything on the list I've heard, and will check out the stuff I haven't. Though, I have to agree with the consensus thus far that Ruby Tuesday is just okay. Not a bad song at all, but I'd take "She Smiled Sweetly" or "Who's Been Sleeping Here?" from that same album before that one.

[Spinal]

90.


Song: "I'm Not Afraid"
Artist: Fleming and John
Album: Delusions of Grandeur
Year: 1995

Video

Ben Folds once called these guys The Carpenters of the 90s with Led Zeppelin's rhythm section. Maybe that inspires ridiculously high expectations, but it sort of gives you an idea of their peculiar blend of sweetness and hard-driving rock. I don't really know why they never got popular. Perhaps they were too square for the hipsters and yet also too weird for the mainstream. But they've got some killer songs, solid musicianship and a wonderfully flamboyant vocalist. This song is a bit like being on a smooth riding roller coaster.

[Spinal]

89.


Song: "19/2000"
Artist: Gorillaz
Album: Gorillaz
Year: 2001

Explosive video.

They may be a gimmicky band, but what a great gimmick. Of course, the videos with their deadpan humor are some of the best around. But the music is great too, blending rock, pop, punk, hip-hop and more. I like this track best, with the way the beepy electronic riff gives way to Damon Albarn's too-cool-for-school vocals and eventually the infectious childlike chorus.

[Horbgorbler]

I prefer the cover of it in Children of Men; can't remember the artist now.

Franco Battiato, FWIW. Fetus is a great album.

Huh, "19/2000" is one of those songs I know but didn't know I knew. Still like "Clinton Eastwood" best, though.

[Spinal]

Still like "Clinton Eastwood" best, though.

It's a toss-up really.

[Spinal]

88.


Song: "Land of Confusion"
Artist: Genesis
Album: Invisible Touch
Year: 1986

Satirical video.

I'm not a Genesis fan and I am certainly not a Phil Collins fan. But I have to give credit where credit is due. This is a haunting song that effectively evokes the fears and frustrations of the modern age in which there are "too many people making too many problems." The verses with their despair and worry open up beautifully into an optimistic chorus that asks us to work for a better tomorrow. A little bit corny? Maybe. But also anthemic. The witty video doesn't hurt either.

[Spinal]

87.


Song: "Pat's Trick"
Artist: Helium
Album: The Dirt of Luck
Year: 1995

Dirty video.

Steeped in 90s irony, Helium is a band with a lead singer (Mary Timony) who sounds like she has inhaled whatever the opposite of helium might be. The video linked above places her in a bright pink dress on a cutesy set of rotating flowers. It makes for a humorous juxtaposition with Timony's murky sound and cutting lyrics (sample - "This one is wilted/It looks like you/'Cause it never grew"). Timony's delivery is mostly deadpan, but that just makes her reach for the high note at the end of the chorus all the more glorious.

[Sven]

Totally digging it. Lots of these songs are blasts from the older-sister-influenced past.

[Spinal]

Lots of these songs are blasts from the older-sister-influenced past.

:|

[

Show Spoiler

]

[Melville]

Song: "Bye Bye Love"
Artist: The Everly Brothers
Album: The Everly Brothers
Year: 1957

Awesome. Though I prefer the Simon & Garfunkel cover.

[Spinal]

Awesome. Though I prefer the Simon & Garfunkel cover.

Fair enough. It's also quite good.

[Spinal]

86.


Song: "All For Swinging You Around"
Artist: The New Pornographers
Album: Electric Version
Year: 2003

Bouncy video.

I'm a sucker for bright, exuberant pop songs like this that inspire hot chicks in tight tank tops and pajama bottoms to stop what they are doing and shake what their respective mothers gave them (see video above). This is the kind of song you might hear at an outdoor summer party where everyone is two or three drinks in and feeling confident and attractive. Then this song kicks in and upshifts everyone from 'having fun' to 'blissed out'.

[krazed]

Love the Lush pick, good Stones song though not my favorite, you've got Metallica's best and a fine Springsteen track along with some stuff I haven't heard in ages.

Yahoo music + spinal!

[Spinal]

85.


Song: "Epic"
Artist: Faith No More
Album: The Real Thing
Year: 1989

Stormy video.

When this song first started to get played regularly on the radio and MTV, it stood out as utterly bizarre to me. And at the same time, I found it irresistible. This was a couple years before Nirvana and if you had heard anything like it at the time, then you were far cooler than I was. All of the musicians in the video looked like they belonged in separate bands and lead singer Mike Patton wrestled with the song like he was trying to fight off a psychotic episode. Even today, nearly 20 years later, I still think the song sounds refreshingly strange with its punky aggression ultimately giving way to a transcendent final passage worthy of the song's title.

[krazed]

85.


Song: "Epic"
Artist: Faith No More
Album: The Real Thing
Year: 1989

Stormy video.

.. it stood out ...I found it irresistible... anything like it at the time...

There's not enough "it" in this description. I still have yet to find what "it" is.

[Spinal]

There's not enough "it" in this description. I still have yet to find what "it" is.

It's it. What is it? It's it.

[ledfloyd]

There's not enough "it" in this description. I still have yet to find what "it" is.

it depends on what your definition of "is" is.

[Spinal]

84.


Song: "Magic Carpet Ride"
Artist: Steppenwolf
Album: Steppenwolf the Second
Year: 1968

Psychedelic video.

Full of swagger and boastfulness, this song does a great job of conveying what it is like to possess a full reservoir of rock star cool. The lyrics ask the listener to envision lead singer John Kay drifting on a "cloud of sound" and drifting up into the stars. Before we have a chance to think skeptically about his bold claims, he lunges into the chorus with a quick "Well ..." and we are already off on this magic carpet ride. Hypnotic, seductive and the antidote to any number of Nancy Reagan 'Just Say No' pleas.

[Sven]

Your last two, FNM and Steppenwolf, have raised my spirits. Epic, particularly, is immense.

[Boner M]

That was the first time I'd heard Helium, been meaning to check 'em out for a while. Great song.

[Spinal]

83.


Song: "The Dancer"
Artist: PJ Harvey
Album: To Bring You My Love
Year: 1995

Somber video.

The grand finale of her masterful 1995 album, this song is a great example of how Harvey was attempting to stretch herself as a vocalist during this period of her development. She put down her guitar and instead opted to focus exclusively on singing. In fact, I did not see her play a non-percussive instrument until the second time I saw her perform in 2001. Against better judgment, I can rarely resist the temptation to sing along on the high-pitched 'ahhhs' in the middle of the song. The results are not pleasant; but I'm having fun, so suck it pitch police.

[Sven]

Spinal, New Pornographers video link is the Helium song.

[Spinal]

Spinal, New Pornographers video link is the Helium song.

Fixed. Thanks. I knew I would do that at some point.

[Spinal]

82.


Song: "You Got It"
Artist: Roy Orbison
Album: Mystery Girl
Year: 1988

Video? You got it.

This is Orbison's last hit, peaking in popularity in the wake of his 1988 death. Apparently, the footage in the video is taken from his only public performance of the song, at an awards ceremony in Belgium. It doesn't soar to vocal heights like some of his other tunes, but it has a superb melody and still has plenty of thrilling flourishes from Orbison's incomparable voice.

[Spinal]

81.


Song: "Carrie Anne"
Artist: The Hollies
Album: Evolution
Year: 1967

Ingratiating video.

Don't be fooled by the beaming smiles of the boys in the band as they sing this song. If you follow the lyrics, they are really quite nasty to poor Carrie Anne, asking indelicately if anyone can play her game. Barabra Moss apparently wasn't listened too carefully, as she named her future actress daughter after the song's presumably slutty title character. But that's not what's important. What's important is that the song has a killer melody, groovy harmonies and causes one's mind to wander, considering what exactly a game of 'Janitor and Monitor' would be like.