I Need You To Listen To…

425.Song:Anthems For A Seventeen Year Old Girl

Artist:Broken Social Scene

Album:You Forgot It In People 

“Used to be one of the rotten ones and I liked you for that”. As Adam Neely said, “Repetition legitimizes”, this song repeats the same batches of  lyrics over and over and over, to the point that they become mantras. As if to force through the meaning of growing older into your brain, that you can never be that seventeen year old girl again, never yearn for the same things. “Park that car, drop that phone, sleep on the floor, dream about me”. Lyrics like that seem even more vital today, with modern smartphones and social media robbing all of us of a ton of time, of hope, of our dreams. Emily Haines sings these words through a hazy filter of distortion and vocal layerings, while Broken Social Scene slowly builds up the instrumentation towards the emotional crescendo of the latter lyrics. Listen to the different layers of vocals, listen to the hopeful higher registers, the phased lower notes, how it all combines. Lorde would later sing about  “supercuts”, music videos in your head edited to your personal perceptions, your life played out in compressed edits; this song generates them in multitudes.

424.Song:Ohio

Artist:Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young

Album:So Far 

Perhaps because it was recorded so soon after the infamous Kent State shootings that left four dead,in less than a week, with emotions running high across the nation and the social fabric coming apart at the seams, that a palpable anger seeps through here. “Ohio”’s opening riff is concentrated anguish, barely holding itself together, even as it allows for suspended moments of harmonic flight. The drums crash in softly, insistently as the bass guitar seems standoff-ish and the other guitars ring out with spring reverb. Though clearly a product of Neil Young’s unique creative impulses, the entire group performs with an energy that transcends politics and culture, placing itself high on any list of great protest anthems. As long as divisive politics divide us, the potential for violence will remain as sobering as “Ohio”. Tellingly, as the song begins its agonizing fadeout, you can hear the band pleading for answers in the background. “Why?” Why indeed.

423.Song:Losing My Religion

Artist:R.E.M.

Album:Out Of Time 

“Losing My Religion” has an emotionally amorphous edge to it. Certainly the music is very, very, precise about what it’s doing. You don’t bring mandolins into your emotionally distraught obsession song without wanting a bittersweet element. You simply don’t have drums that sound that huge without meaning for them to stampede over things without regret. Even incidental elements like those handclaps that appear later on, or those intermittent strings, betray the cynical edge underlying Stipe’s vocals. However, when he sings lyrics like “I think I thought I saw you try”, the doublebacks you have to take to make any sense of things are just one more thing on top of another. You can’t quite gather up the courage to sort things out in the act of listening to it, you can only process things the way that a factory would produce a fridge. All the elements gathered to produce a chilling effect. “Oh no, I’ve said too much/ I haven’t said enough”.

422.Song:Boys

Artist:Sky Ferreira

Album:Night Time, My Time 

There was a meme from the Netflix show 13 Reasons Why where the main character says “So you see, that’s where the trouble began. That smile, that damned smile”. Boys is that meme in song form, that is not a disparaging reference. From an album that has been described as “Blown speaker, smeared-lipstick pop”[1], “Boys”’ most shocking revelation is how sincere and warm it sounds. Yes, the soundscape is filled with harsh digital glitches and pumping distorted bass lines, yes it has the temerity to start with lyrics like “Boys, they’re a dime a dozen”, but it quickly drops any facade of aloofness and becomes an awesomely forthright banger. “Then I knew it was you (All along)/ You put my faith/ Back in boys”. Sky Ferreira sings in a low register “I knew it was you” throughout in the background, as her distorted lead vocals proclaim her love from the mountaintops.  Titanic emotions are wrestled with here, to our delight.

421.Song:The Wait

Artist:Killing Joke

Album:Killing Joke 

“Motives changing/ Day to day”. The most tragic element of mass violence is how each side will perpetuate their own reasons to continue the slaughter, all it takes is some time as they come up with their excuses. The Wait is a bruising song, with a muted guitar riff that flares up constantly, like a bad bout of arthritis, to remind us how quickly events on the ground move. Nothing about this record is untainted by anger, everything is recorded with audible venom. The bass guitar sounds like tank treads running over bodies in the street, the synth lines show up to douse them with acid, Paul Ferguson’s drums are brutalistic Stasi, keeping everyone in their place. Jaz Coleman’s vocals, bathed in either distortion or phase shifting effects, are the embodiment of that Max Headroom TV signal hijacking incident, coming in to unhinge your assumed safety and comfort with noise boosting intensity. Nothing about this song is, nor should be, comforting. Cope.

420.Song:East Virginia

Artist:Joan Baez

Album:Joan Baez  

There is an ominous quality to the way Joan Baez plays her guitar here. Keyed in A minor, the notes she picks seem perfectly poised to draw us into a western style tragedy as she goes from the Am chord to DMajor and back. It’s almost as if the subjects of the song can’t escape the world of poverty and suffering they find themselves in. Joan’s serene vocals glide over the proceedings with a cinematic flair, you can practically map out the progression of each scene on the screen in your head. “Well, in the night I’m dreaming about you/ In the day I find no rest”. The way her voice trills throughout is a treat to listen to, its dynamics couching the lyrics in a deep, dark, hole for everyone to gather ‘round. The starkness of the recording, with just a touch of reverb on Joan’s voice, allows you to actually spot some tape splices scattered throughout the recording, adding an imperfect edge to a serene nightmare.

419.Song:Sharks

Artist:Cadence Weapon

Album:Breaking Kayfabe 

Edmontonian Poet Laureate Cadence Weapon; for someone to attain such a title, you have to prove your mastery of wordplay. On this song, he proves more than mastery, nothing less than domination over the sounds and purpose of his genre will do. With a very, very, stark 8-bit inspired soundscape, harsh blips and saw waves ricocheting around the stereo field, he spits bars with a demonic flow. Consider lines like “sharking up lines from lawless resolutes/ Chip off the writers block with knives that chop against the destitute”, harnessing Shakespeare, wielding titularity, and striking a blow against ghost-written rappers. Heady stuff.  A lot of rappers using their powers for beef usually come off as either dull or joyless, the greatness of this track is how much fun you can hear him having, with almost visually perceptible smiles on fire bars “Battered by the saccharine gifts/ Stolen from affiliates, your rhyme pattern rips”.

418.Song:Enter Sandman

Artist:Metallica

Album:Metallica 

Metallica had tackled a lot of heavy topics in the lead up to their work on The Black Album: Drug addiction, mental health deterioration and the physical effects of war amputees. For “Enter Sandman”, James Hetfield wanted to tackle the Crib Death of babies. Keeping in mind their new commercial aspirations, Producer Bob Rock and Drummer Lars Ulrich advised that he tone things down. This saved this song in particular as, in a rare circumstance of addition by subtraction, Hetfield managed to twist the lyrics into a quasi-mythic parable. “Hush little baby, don’t say a word/ and never mind that noise you heard”. All that was needed for the music to feel like it was slowly pulling you into a world of darkness, which Lars Ulrich’s brooding drums and Jason Newstead’s roiling bass-line accomplish, alongside that famous opening recursive guitar riff. While many would lament Metallica’s commercial turn, few have a bad word to say about this banger.

417.Song:I Think I’m Paranoid

Artist:Garbage

Album:Version 2.0 

There’s such a warm clarity to 90’s alternative rock production, long before the loudness war robbed us of subtlety, we had the capability of allowing songs to immerse us. “I Think I’m Paranoid” has so much sonic detail packed into its mix, it is one of the great repeat listens in rock. Shirley Manson’s beguiling vocals, so powerful yet gracefully wielded, are the lynchpin on which the production hangs itself. The melodic guitar and keyboard riffs that open the song are sickly sweet, allowing for maximum impact when the volume spikes and every sonic element piles on “I think I’m paranoid/ and complicated”. Additional drums on the left, electronic blips scattered throughout, all of this in service to that heady uplift. When someone shows you who they are, listen to them; When Shirley Manson sings “Bend me, break me/ Anyway you need me/ All I want is you” amidst oceans of distorted guitars and vocal effects, believe her.

416.Song:This Land Is Your Land

Artist:Woody Guthrie

Album:This Land Is Your Land: The Asch Recordings 

“This land was made for you and me”. As a Canadian, listening through a lot of our folk recordings reveal that there is a certain je ne sai quoi that’s missing from even our best output. Gordon Lightfoot, Tom Connors, etc. Maybe it’s the lack of a defining national identity that stifles the broader mythic arcs that define American artists. With Woody Guthrie and all of the folk artists who followed, you had a real sense that they were writing about “America” , not “regionalized issue” that maybe might affect some people I know. When Guthrie sings about “This land is your land/ This land is my land/ From the california/ To the new york island” he is  singing about that national presence, the essence of yearning that made America great. Even buried within the lo-fi limitations of recording technology at the time, “This Land Is Your Land” strikes at what “we” want to be. Maybe we could glean more lessons from this song still.

415.Song:Have You Ever Seen The Rain

Artist:Creedence Clearwater Revival

Album:Pendulum 

There’s a moment in every music lover’s life where they just have to admit that CCR rules. Their astonishing burst of creativity over a mere four year span remains unmatched in rock to this day. Coming in near the end of that sunburst, “Have You Ever Seen The Rain” is a perfect little gem, an outpouring of joy precious few artists have managed to equal, let alone surpass. It’s likely to stay that way for a while too. Its strength is its simplicity. Four chords (C, Am, F, G) and an acoustic guitar as a base for the band to build a home on. Just sprinkle on some organ, no-nonsense drums and tasteful piano. Musical perfection already, but then we still have to factor in John Fogerty. Pairing this lovingly crafted ‘Suthun soundscape with his clear, concise, lyricism is pure magic. “It’ll rain a sunny day/ I know/ Shinin’ down like water”. To paraphrase Phil Ochs’ “It’s impossibly good. How can a human mind do this?”.

414.Song:One More Time

Artist:Daft Punk

Album:Discovery 

Let no one tell you that dance music is unworthy of praise. “One More Time” is as luminous an experience as has ever been blasted out of club speakers. Praiseworthy doesn’t even begin to describe its catchy wonders and impulsive explosiveness. We could start with the synth horns looped from hell and back, we could even begin with the vocals, autotuned to oblivion. I think we should listen to this track as a product of its time, right before 2001 struck with all of its attendant miseries, the future was looking brighter than ever, the joy of modern existence was coming to life on club floors the world over. Daft Punk capture some voodoo magic with this track, a jubilance that never fails to excite with its dynamics, its frenetic loops and insistent beats. Even its lyrical repetition just wants to hammer home its message “One More Time/ We’re gonna celebrate”. May its effervescent joys continue to reverberate down the timeline of joy.

413.Song:On & On

Artist:Erykah Badu

Album:Baduizm 

The genius notes for this song say that you can hear Billie Holiday’s influence loom large in Erykah’s vocals. I can certainly hear that, but what’s more is a subconscious effect buried deep within the mix. What at first seems like the delayed effects of the snare tip hits, or random distortion, is actually record noise, a short burst of dark vinyl fuzz that harkens back to the days of Holiday’s prime. So we find ourselves immersed in a sonic universe that Erykah can’t help but insist on. Deep, booming bass alongside greasy kicks and menacing pianos are all that she needs to seduce us, her voice slinking in and out of an oil slick, threatening to burst into flame. Released in 1997 amidst the peak of Trip-Hop, those dark energies are harnessed with such finesse that it feels apart from its time, adrift within and without itself. It easily earns its titularity. “The man that knows something knows that he knows nothing at all”.

412.Songs:Head Like A Hole

Artist:Nine Inch Nails

Album:Pretty Hate Machine

This song has the most sinister bass line ever recorded, it seethes rhythmically under Trent Reznor’s aggressively wrought vocals, like blood boiling up under a bandage. Trent then proceeds to rip that bandage off both metaphorically and sonically with a scathingly harsh chorus “Head like a hole/ black as your soul/ I’d rather die/ than give you control”. There’s no low end comfort in these harsh domains. Critics have since credited the parent album with giving industrial metal a more human element which, uh, sounds a bit generous given the harsh digital sound and screaming anxieties at play here. If anything, I’d credit Reznor for giving full fledged force to the notion of quality trumping aesthetics, it’s hard to argue against such an incredible display of honed aggression, especially when it gives you exactly what you desire out of it. . “Bow down before the one you serve/ you’re going to get what you deserve”.

411.Song:You Can Be The One

Artist:Late Night Alumni

Album:Of Birds, Bees, Butterflies, Etc. 

There are so many dance songs that shout out love for the sake of it, that can’t help but crowd their way into the wider culture with not a hint of subtlety to their nature. “You Can Be The One” is the antithesis of those club songs, it tiptoes on the razor’s edge of aloof beauty. You can easily imagine a music video involving the shifting city lights reflecting off of a car window, singer Becky Williams in the backseat glancing out or silhouetted against some blue lights as she sings “You can be the one I love”. That pumping bass that opens the track is our guide through the swirling soundscape, the synths glancing off of each other in the verses, string like pads and horns darting in and out like bees, every element coming together to pulse under Becky in the chorus. If most electronic songs assume that everyone is already dancing, “You Can Be The One” at least understands your reluctance. “But before you come undone/ You can call out my name”.

410.Song:Yellow

Artist:Coldplay

Album:Parachutes 

Yes, the lyrics center around a word that, as a descriptor, functions much like saying your crush has a bad case of jaundice. Yes, the guitar chords sound ungainly, messy and weirdly tuned (thanks to some digital manipulation by Pro-Tools).Yes, it all comes off as hopelessly naive. However, “Yellow” successfully captures the essences of our sincere and clumsy infatuations. It does this by centering all of that musical grime around Chris Martin’s warm vocals and sincere lyricism. “”Look at the stars/ Look how they shine for you”. In a time where the biggest streaming songs have all been perfectly produced with a harsh digital sheen, expressions of love in such an environment often come off as hollow, insincere. Unrequited love, in the last gasp of guitar based pop on the charts here, will only age better with time. Given a choice between imperfect naivety or hollow insincerity, I’ll take naivety.

409.Song:Bad Romance

Artist:Lady Gaga

Album:The Fame Monster 

I find complaints that an artist was too “overexposed” in their time have little to no relevance to the current listener, as if the writers of such drivel hope to imprint their tiresome opinions on future generations. But even if Lady Gaga was an artist who gobbled up the limelight like she wanted to physically eat the spotlights, she was in her musical element in largesse. Huge, massive, titanic synths threatened by booming drums can barely contain her whipsawing vocals. “I want your love/ Love, love, love/ I want your love” Imagine the “Love, Love, Love”’s sung like she was affecting blah, blah, blahs and you approach an understanding of her attitude. She wants to live a filthy, dirty, love and make us watch as she enjoys herself. “I want your love/ and I want your revenge” I have a sense she knew that she would take some backlash, not caring was the point. Forever made.

408.Song:Blackbird

Artist:The Beatles

Album:The White Album

The essential function of great protest anthems is how they can remain applicable beyond their initial intent. Sure, you can really get in the trenches for your cause, but to truly inspire, to cast aside the tempests of fate, you have to find something for those in the future who find you. “All your life/ You were only waiting for this moment to arise”. Paul McCartney was writing this song in the midst of the Civil Rights movement, it is understandable how specific he was in his earnestness. He happened to gift us all with this melodic, serene, gem, a song that will be played long after we are gone. Sourcing bird sounds from Abbey Road’s SFX library in the end is one of the many touches that make this song soar above its milieu. Sometimes, when listening to The Beatles, you attempt to reckon with the sheer volume of displayed songwriting talent and are left standing, content to allow yourself to “take these broken wings and learn to fly”.

407.Song:Let Down

Artist:Radiohead

Album:OK Computer

Smack dab in the middle of one of the most seminal albums ever recorded, “Let Down” is a much needed euphoric break from the dark cynicism surrounding it. Well, the music at least. The lyrics are a castration of society, droning on about how sentimentality often functions as an emotional crutch for the “Disappointed  people/ Clinging onto bottles”  and the miserable conditions they tolerate, even toast as the “Good Old Days”.  “Don’t get sentimental/ It always ends up drivel”. The music doesn’t wallow in this muck. Clumsy, uncertain seeming,  guitar picking patterns are a backdrop, their melodic highs glittering like sparks as Thom approaches something like an emotional rebirth near the end “You know where you are with/ Floor collapsing/ Floating, bouncing back”. Bright electronics even come in at the end, hovering around an acoustic guitar, granting us a rare feeling of hope that our “Hysterical and Useless” lives could have meaning after all.

406.Song:These Walls

Artist:Kendrick Lamar

Album:To Pimp A Butterfly

Kendrick Lamar’s lyrical universe is a melting pot of tension and release, of the sins we partake in to tolerate the greater inequities around us. Throwing funk, soul, jazz and hip-hop into this potent spiritual blend helped make To Pimp A Butterfly an all time instant classic. “These Walls” is its deepest cut, with darkly gorgeous synths and fluid guitars backing verse of biblical portents. Its atmosphere of paranoia is intensely gripping, refusing to let the listener go until the sonic release of the chorus’ imbue a sense of meditative calm. “If these walls could talk/ I can feel your reign when it cries/ gold lives inside of you”. I get the sense, through the lyrics, that Kendrick finds himself alone with his thoughts amongst the crowd “If these walls could talk they’d tell you it’s too late”, songs like these are an oblique method of group talk therapy for him. As they are to us all.

405.Song:Blister In The Sun

Artist:Violent Femmes

Album:Violent Femmes 

If you’ve ever hung around a drug addict, you would know how…unbelievably weird things get around them. All of the mood swings and intense paranoia that comes with the territory of trying to alleviate their sufferings. “Blister In The Sun” is one of the few songs that manages to capture the freneticism of that territory. Hyper-intense vocal whispers and stop and start drunk licks are just the start of things as singer Gordan Gano seems to be staggering from one end of the street to the other. It would be depressing if the vibe of the song wasn’t somehow so joyous, as the melodicism and deft musicianship shines forth with vigor and intensity. “I’m high as a kite/ I just might/ Stop to check you out”. It’s all so chipper, but speaks to the tragedy of what Drug addicts are chasing, an escape from their personal miseries by overindulging in their own happiness. The music representing the audible chafing against society that they perform, all for a contact high.

404.Song:BIPP

Artist:SOPHIE

Album:Product 

Don’t discount the effect of blown out eardrums on impressionable, amorphous, youth. SOPHIE allowed her identity and influences to take her to places in pop that seemed, at first glance, to be well trodden, but made them her own with complete sincerity. Beginning with seemingly off putting, repetitive, vocal blips, the drums and phasing synths that follow are the new foundations on which electronica would build upon. Hyper loud, compressed to such a degree as to leave no room for subtlety or disagreement, this is hyper-pop. Then the rhythmic vocals spark in; Marcella Dvsi allows herself to be strung along and stretched, for one melodic line to be subsumed under the  sky-high drum hits and then resumed as if nothing could stop this from happening. “I could make you feel better/ If you let me/ I can make you feel better, ooh/ If you want to”. The overall effect is revolutionary, celebratory and Loud! for the sake of it, for the better.

403.Song:All Apologies

Artist:Sinead O’Connor/ Nirvana

Album:Universal Mother/ In Utero/ MTV: Unplugged In New York

 In Utero was an album that often felt like an extended scream therapy session, with “All Apologies” needing to be taken at the face value of its title as well as its actual “own thing” as played. Accordingly, when Kurt’s voice drone’s off at the end, the rest of the band feels like detritus slagging itself off as the corpse is dragged up from the ocean of despair. So why isn’t that version listed first? There are some who would rather prefer that either Nirvana’s original recording or their Unplugged performance take this spot. Usually I would agree, but once you discover something that cuts to the bone like Sinead’s haunting take, you go with your gut. Her instinct to take things all the way down to just a guitar and her voice, with some reverb filling the space, it’s simply the right one. “I wish I was like you/ Easily amused” hits harder when that’s all you are left with. Accordingly, “All Alone is all we are” chanted over and over is complete brilliance in this context.

402.Song:Closer

Artist:Tegan And Sara

Album:Heartthrob

Much like Lady Gaga discovered a few years earlier, some emotions are too important to leave to subtlety and songwriting dynamics. Sometimes you really do need to push every setting to max, to compress every note until the headphones strain under the pressure. Tegan And Sara, a songwriting duo known beforehand for their clumsily elegant guitar based works, decided to cast away any doubts as to their aspirations. They wanted to be popstars. “Closer” is a song reaching for the stratosphere on almost every level, from its massively compressed sonics, to lyrics and vocals that can’t help but curve upwards themselves (listen to how the vocals twist on “All I want to get is a little bit closeeeer”). Even in the quieter moments in the bridge, the kick drum has top end distortion to help accentuate its impact. This being an era in music where massive stars had equally massive sounds to match, Tegan And Sara proved equal to that challenge.

401.Song:Bulls On Parade

Artist:Rage Against The Machine

Album:Evil Empire 

Rage Against The Machine had a sound that was as explosive as their name would imply. Dynamic and brutally impactful. The ability of this band to sound louder than all of the compressed-to-the-nines metal bands who came after is no small feat. Just listen to how the bass guitar lumbers and then leaps, how the drums have a distinct, napalm-like, edge to their sound. Listen to how Tom Morello’s guitars sometimes seem buried off to the side but then come out swinging with wildly frenetic lines. All of this ricocheting off of Zach De Le Rocha’s incendiary vocals “Rally ‘round the family/ With a pocket full of shells”. The Genius page notes that the 7 Inch single stated that “All sounds made by guitar, bass, drums and vocals”, this emphasis on the “organic” nature of their band dynamic is telling. Rage Against The Machine is a band defined by that very rage, their only outlet to play everything to its utmost. “Come wit’ it now”.