December 2012
2 posts
4 tags
83. I charm you and tell you of the boys I hate,...
“The Dark of the Matinée” Franz Ferdinand Franz Ferdinand — 2004
The list of competitors for the prize of Sexiest Song About Boarding School is not long. But Franz Ferdinand walks away with it easily in these four short minutes. “The Dark of the Matinée” never exactly comes out and says anything about sex, exactly — it’s all anticipation, tense...
3 tags
84. MORE THAN EVER HOUR AFTER OUR WORK IS NEVER...
“Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” Daft Punk Discovery — 2001
10 PRINT “DANCE DANCE DANCE”
20 GOTO 10
RUN
August 2012
1 post
3 tags
85. Got a brand new face for the boys at MTV
“Freedom ‘90” George Michael Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1 — 1990
Pop music is, largely, an arena of falsehood and deception. We know this, and yet it mostly goes without comment: these young people, conscripted into service to sing and dance at the command of their corporate overlords, all for the entertainment of the masses. Sure, it’s rough, but they get to...
June 2012
2 posts
5 tags
86. That's what makes my life so fucking fantastic
“The Fear” Lily Allen It’s Not Me, It’s You — 2009
When I was in kindergarten, I had to write a short essay — if you can call six sentences scrawled by a five-year-old an “essay” — about What I Wanted to Be When I Grew Up. If memory serves, I wanted to play baseball for the Los Angeles Dodgers, basketball for the Lakers, hockey for the...
4 tags
87. Verbal pocket play is as discreet as I can...
“Galaxie” Blind Melon Soup - 1995
The thing I love most about Mad Men — hang on, I’m going somewhere with this — is the way that most episodes and plots end up illuminating its Great Theme: the seemingly endless gap between Who We Are, Who We See Ourselves As, and Who We Want to Be. The characters suffer in the gap between those three points, and every oasis in...
April 2012
11 posts
3 tags
88. Could it have been just anyone, or did it have...
“I Don’t Want to Be Alone” Billy Joel Glass Houses — 1980
Resignation is not something that comes up very often in pop songs. People triumph, people are defeated, but rarely do they just give up and go with the path of least resistance. Especially not in love songs, where fate and romance are always supposed to win the day.
Billy Joel didn’t get the memo. “I...
4 tags
89. Without me, you're only you
“Midlife Crisis” Faith No More Angel Dust — 1992
It’s not everybody who can just create an entire genre of music from thin air. It’s even fewer who can watch as that genre rules pop culture for the better part of five years, while you lounge in obscurity, your contribution ignored as your misbegotten copycats trash your genius and rake in millions.
It must have...
4 tags
90. And I could see for miles, miles, miles
“Holocene” Bon Iver Bon Iver, Bon Iver — 2011
If the technology existed that would let you turn old, dusty letters and faded photos into musical waveforms, the result would sound a lot like “Holocene,” I think. It’s the sound of old friends laughing, of now-dead relatives wishing you a Merry Christmas, of fondly-remembered loves whispering.
Justin Vernon...
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91. Let me make you a present of song as the wise...
“Thick as a Brick” Jethro Tull Thick as a Brick — 1972
People react to disagreeable criticism in all sorts of ways. Some artists ignore it. Some use it as fuel for their creative fire, as a challenge to better themselves and their art. Some people use it as an excuse to become spiteful and mean spirited. If it’s Axl Rose, he might challenge you to a fight. It varies.
...
3 tags
092. Why would you lie about how much coal you...
“Oxford Comma” Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend — 2008
It’s quite probably the only song to mention the United Nations, obscure punctuation terminology and Lil Jon in the lyrics. The clash of references and styles could easily be read as a jab at the song’s target: an insufferable snob, using pretentious grammar correctness and an exaggerated bank account to try to...
5 tags
093. Every single door that I've walked through...
“The Chamber of 32 Doors” Genesis The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway — 1973
So five very British former art school students decide to make a double-disc concept album in which the protagonist is a Puerto Rican street hoodlum who likes to spray paint subway cars. That sounds like the setup for a Christopher Guest movie, but it’s what happened when Genesis created The Lamb...
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094. And the droning engine throbs in time with...
“The Chauffeur” Duran Duran Rio — 1982
Nobody did spooky quite like ’80s pop groups. Maybe it’s the way the darkness contrasts with the pastel, wind-blown image we all have in our heads of those early MTV days. And maybe they were just on to something: spooky just works better when it’s glitzy and glossy. Whatever the reason, if I’m building a Halloween...
4 tags
095. Ladies, if you love your man, show him you...
“Countdown” Beyoncé 4 — 2011
Love songs are tricky. Too detached and distant, the listener is left cold. Too syrupy and gushing, the listener gets diabetes. The only solution, then, is to plow so far into sap that you break through the barrier and reach transcendence.
It also helps if you’re a brilliantly talented singer and you have about a trillion ideas you and your...
4 tags
096. What's it gonna be, boy? Yes? Or no?
“Paradise by the Dashboard Light” Meat Loaf Bat out of Hell — 1977
This song could never be written today.
And not just because it’s eight and a half minutes long, or because it’s operatic and constructed from styles that went out of fashion well before it was written. It could never be written today because it’s too straightforward.
A 21st century artist...
Anonymous asked: loving the list so far dude! Keep up the good work!
5 tags
097. Are you trying to tempt me? Because I come...
“Down Under” Men at Work Business as Usual — 1981
Fried-out Kombi: a broken-down van. Specifically a VW Kombivan, popular among hippies in the ’60s and ’70s.
Zombie: pot. Obviously.
Vegemite: Australian fermented yeast spread. Popular in Australia, largely based on dares, I think.
Chunder: Australian slang for the act of vomiting.
Men at Work: one of the most...
March 2012
4 posts
5 tags
098. I'm nine hundred and ninety-nine thou short...
“Ante Up (Robbin Hoodz Theory)” M.O.P. Warriorz — 2000
There are few simple, unbeatable pieces of advice in this world. The most well known, of course, is “Never get involved in a land war in Asia.” But only slightly less well known is, “You want big money, kidnap that fool!”
Gangsta rap has never been a genre that relied too much on subtlety, but the...
099. I wonder, what went wrong with our love?
“Runaway” Del Shannon Runaway — 1961
This was 1961, you understand — the Beatles weren’t to release their first album for another two years, and wouldn’t set foot on American soil for three. Pop music was supposed to be sweet, and light, and charming. But “Runaway” — while packing not a small amount of sweetness and charm — is dark....
4 tags
100. I'll be anything you ask, and more
“1901” Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix — 2009
It’s a lament for a lost age — Paris at the start of the twentieth century — but nostalgia never sounded this forward-thinking. Hearing it pop up everywhere from video games to car commercials never diminished its appeal one bit.
I know this song backwards and inside-out. The band released the separated tracks to the...
3 tags
One, two, three, FOUR
So this is a simple exercise.
I’m counting down my Ultimate Playlist. That’s what it’s called in my iTunes library, anyway. It’s a list of my Top 100 — my 100 favorite songs.
I’ve found that these things are more fun and more illuminating when you force some kind of structure or restriction on yourself, so I’ve only allowed one song per artist....
