I Need You To Listen To…

400.Song:Da Mystery Of Chessboxin‘

Artist:Wu-Tang Clan

Album:Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) 

The appeal of The Wu-Tang Clan was the very real threat that their implied lifestyle would imperil their future, creatively and mortally. The result is that the groups best work has them flying through the material with a lassez fare, yolo, intensity. “My peoples, are you with me, where you at?/ In the front, in the back, Killa Beez on attack”. “Da Mystery” has an atmosphere of dread dripping off of every sample. The drums are abyssal wardens, the bass lines seem to froth up from the depths, briefly subsiding then coming right back up. Of course, each of the Wu-Tang get their verses and every-single-one is a fire set of bars. Ol’ Dirty Bastard has the most distinct verse as his voice careens from syllable to syllable like he owes them rent. “The flow changes like a chameleon” Masta Killa raps as the song nears its conclusion, ending on its signature “Five Deadly Venoms” sample “When properly used, it’s nearly invincible”. As they were.

399.Song:There She Goes

Artist:The La’s

Album:The La’s  

Jangly dream pop such as this runs the danger of coming up insubstantial, of sacrificing sonic warmth for fey aspirations. “There She Goes” comes very, very close to that danger point. What, with its lyrics that are vague to the point of abstraction, to its guitars that betray an air of “let’s go precisely here and nowhere else” sort of vibes. What saves this song and makes it essential are two things, the rhythm section that provides much needed warmth and propulsion, and the cinematic gliding aura that lead singer Lee Mavers provides. As he coos “There she goes again/ Racing through my brain”, you can’t help but feel carried along, borne aloft on the winds of soothing melody. Chris Sharrocks’ Drums and John Power’s voluminous bass boom with intent, allowing the guitars to jangle with glistening momentum. “But I just can’t contain/ This feelin’ that remains”. Sure, it may or may not be a love song, but you will fall in love with it nonetheless.

398.Song:As Time Goes By

Artist:Dooley Wilson

Album:Casablanca (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

 Dooley Wilson must have felt invigorated as he played this song in the celebrated classic film Casablanca. You can certainly feel his joy emanating from the record, even despite the grime of ancient recording technology that haunts it still. “You must remember this/ A kiss is just a kiss”. A curious thing happens as we listen, at around :47 Dooley becomes subsumed under the pianos, his voice peeking out from behind a glittering curtain of reverb. This is the exact cutoff point in the film, where Humphrey Bogart’s Rick Blaine comes up to stop Dooley from playing it. Perhaps the dreamlike atmosphere this creates was intentional, as if the filmgoers were being asked to conjure up their romantic fantasy as to how the song would have continued. Either way, this allows “As Time Goes By” to have a haunting quality to it, as love’s tragic yearnings almost always do in the end. “The fundamental things apply/ As time goes by”.

397.Song:Just A Friend

Artist:Biz Markie

Album:The Biz Never Sleeps 

As with many gimmick “One-hit wonders”, this is a song that should not work. Biz Markie rapping clumsily over a twinkling piano, the lyrics exceedingly simple to the point of disbelief, and then he sings off-key as he belts out the chorus. How the heck is he charming everyone? To figure out why this tune is as beloved as it is, I think we have to dive deep into the roots of rap. Sampling itself is an act of aural wallpapering, of decorating your vibes with the cribbed charisma of previous generations. Hip-Hop is representative of combining that potency with the symbolic pulse of the broader culture. So when Biz Markie belts “Oh baby you/ You got what I need/ But you say he’s just a friend” everyone relates and joins in in an act of collective angst. So he barrels through our cynicism to speak to our hearts “So please listen to the message that I send/ Don’t ever talk to a girl who says she just has a friend”. Preach brother, preach.

396.Song:Overcome

Artist:Tricky

Album:Maxinquaye 

Who knew that adjusting the volume on a drum fill could be so disturbing? Taking a break from his work with Massive Attack, iconic trip-hop innovators, he retreated into the studio with his muse Martina Topley-Bird to record the dark and shifting Maxinquaye, from which “Overcome”, itself a remake of the song “Karmacoma” from the group’s record Protection, stands out as its peak. Martina’s vocals, silky smooth and punctuated by staccato breaths throughout,  tie all the abyssal energies buried within the lo-fi mix together. It seems that every trick in the book was used to craft this oppressive atmosphere, phase shifting, distortion and scads of samples circling around the groove like a pack of vultures. The result is a spooky fluidity, like someone indistinctly following right behind you and breathing softly. Don’t believe me? Try listening to it on a dark urban street and tell me if you keep your earbuds in.

395.Song:Read My Mind

Artist:The Killers

Album:Sam’s Town 

Is it a terrible impediment if, to this day, no one can really say what this song is really about? I ask because I’ve encountered a ton of artists who never seem to be able to pin themselves down, or worse insist on being maddeningly obtuse in an attempt to come across as clever. The Killers at least have always worn their hearts on their sleeves. Even with lyrics as imprecise as “The stars are blazing like rebel diamonds cut out of the sun”, we get the gist, if not the detail. Oh, what a gist. This epic in miniature is one of those gleaming “what?”’s that allow other artists to fill those pesky details in for themselves. Maybe this is why supergroup boygenius covered them, Phoebe Bridgers being precisely the type to adore such formless vibes. Even if we can’t decipher the clearest of intentions, that gist of longing to escape, of latching on to whatever imagery possible in the hope of finding ourselves, grasps firmly the ideals of hope and never lets go.

394.Song:You Shook Me All Night Long

Artist:AC/DC

Album:Back In Black 

One of the funnest anecdotes about Back In Black, the album, is that it was so well recorded that audio engineers would supposedly use it to sound test their recording studio spaces. This raucous, explosive, downright disgracious, walloper of a tune used to help audio nerds finesse their techniques. Awesome. From a band that mastered the art of lyrical excess, and absolutely nailed their choice for a replacement for Bon Scott, this is a song that embodies the forward momentum that would carry AC/DC Mach II through the 80’s. Angus Young’s guitar bristles with energy, halting itself near the moment of climax often, only to cut loose in the gut busting solo. Brian Johnson’s rough vocals sound like the flame running down the wick, speeding us toward the dynamite as he rips out lines like “Working double time on the seduction line/ She’s one of a kind, she’s just a-mine, all mine”.  Finesse and audacity, rolled into an epic firecracker of a song.

393.Song:Sit Down

Artist:Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Album:The Decca Singles, Vol.1 

Some things are just ordained. Consider the serendipitous placement of this earliest of rock tunes next to the most raucous possible rock band. That Sister Rosetta Tharpe comes off as energetic and talented as she does, both as a guitar player and songwriter, next to the more modern hard-rock of AC/DC, is a major miracle. Unburdened by the grime of ancient recording technology by sheer force of dynamics and performance overpowering the recording hiss, Sister Rosetta unleashes rollicking guitar licks. The lyrics touch on her gospel roots “Well I just got to heaven and I can’t sit down” and emanate joy to a degree that can’t be denied. The quiet-loud dynamics of her guitar mastery, juking and jiving along her considerate verses, allow the energies contained within to soar. Even more than 80 years after its recording, I suspect this outburst of barely concealed glee will continue to find rotation in the great jukebox in the sky for a long time to come.

392.Song:Rosyln

Artist:Bon Iver & St. Vincent

Album:The Twilight Saga: New Moon: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

One of the tangible feelings that the Twilight series of movies captured was the chilled aura of the Pacific Northwest. Hearing the wind, breathing the air, as it winds its way through the trees. The creeping fog banks enveloping the soul. They also had a killer soundtrack, as Rosyln demonstrates here. Embodying everything I just mentioned, Bon Iver’s falsetto vocals are ghostly, interweaving with the acoustic guitars and St. Vincent’s more assured, warm, performance. The occasional electric guitar whispers accent the atmosphere of creaking timbers and dew laden leaves. Upon singing “Wings wouldn’t help you/ Wings wouldn’t help you”, the sense of airily drifting through some tragic romance becomes undeniable. Like a feather constantly being thrown back into the sky they whimper “Won’t, won’t, won’t, won’t, won’t let you talk me…down”. Then the music comes in on a final pile-on, a release of tension as the wind dies down.

391.Song:The Magic Number

Artist:De La Soul

Album:3 Feet High And Rising 

“Three forms the soul to a positive sum/ Dance to this fix, and flex every muscle”. One thing missing from a large swath of modern hip-hop is the feeling that people are really enjoying what they are creating. In other words, a sense of joy. De La Soul was an outfit that exuded happiness, like they couldn’t help but create the most exuberant hip-hop possible. “The Magic Number” is their upbeat masterpiece, rolling along with an ecstatic momentum that only the Beastie Boys could hope to match. “Three is the magic number”. Each member of De La Soul gets their verse to shine, with generous samples accompanying them from a dizzying array of sources. This heavy sample usage had prevented a large swath of hip-hip from this era of music from being available on modern streaming platforms, but now that we are finally getting access we can all find ourselves being carried along its joyous momentums.

390.Song:Adore

Artist:Amy Shark

Album:Night Thinker EP 

The guitars open off kilter, slightly out of tune, the sound of a bonfire crackling in the background as partygoers faintly cackle, then Amy Shark describes her walk home after, delirious from being in contact with her crush.“I’m just gonna walk home kicking rocks at parked cars”.  It’s quietly cinematic with its imagery, evoking some of the better teenage romance films of the 80’s. “I want the entire street out of town just so I can be alone with you…I adore you”. She sings with such a lackadaisical energy, so laid back, an energy of woozy infatuation is generated. The clumsy way the drums boom in, the millennial oooh’s in the background, double tracked lead vocals on select words “found by you”, there’s only one way this song can be described, perfectly imperfect. Precious few songs have managed to capture the giddy intensities with which we adore each other, here is one that does.

389.Song:Brand New Colony

Artist:The Postal Service

Album:Give Up 

Is it a coincidence that the main synth riff for “Brand New Colony” sounds like an off-kilter Mario theme? Does this allow for the empathetic lyrics to find some deeper symbolic meaning for the gaming generation? If you are like me, you are constantly imagining a music video in your head of Mario finally professing his love and appreciation for Princess Peach. If you are not, you are probably still finding a lot of warmth and infatuation within Ben Gibbard’s fantastically romantic lyricism. “I’ll be the phonograph that plays your favourite albums back/ As you’re lying there, drifting off to sleep”. That rhythmic synth riff envelops the soul as much as it does the soundscape, those electronic drums feel like they are teetering on the edge of lucidity as the cymbals softly clash together. Volume levels for everything fluctuate as the bridge buries the strings in low-pass filters. “Everything will change/ ooh ooh”.

388.Song:This Is How We Do It

Artist:Montell Jordan

Album:This Is How We Do It 

“This is how we do it/ it’s friday night/ and I feel alright”. “This Is How We Do It” feels like a never ending block party given musical form. Listen to the background, crowd noise is present almost everywhere, the horns seem like they are beckoning even more people in, the bass genuinely feels like it is being blasted out of street level speakers. Still, there is an underlying sense of menace to the atmosphere, “all the gangbangers forgot about the drive-by”, implying that the celebratory air is never far from a funeral. It’s hard not to be carried along with Montell Jordan’s charismatic energies regardless of those undertones “I’m kinda buzzed and it’s because (This is how we do it)”. Oddly, this is the second song on this playlist thus far that has been featured in the video game Saints Row IV. Seeing the main villain partying so gleefully along with the Saints gang, an alien who killed literally everyone, serves as a nice metaphor for this song’s appeal.

387.Song:Painkiller

Artist:Judas Priest/Death

Album:Painkiller/Sounds Of Perseverance 

In the long history of virtuoso drum performances, no song has ever opened quite like “Painkiller”. Travis Scott’s pummeling blast beats and nuclear snares make for one of the heaviest metal tracks ever all by themselves, but we still have the rest of the band to account for. Right before going on a decade-long hiatus from Judas Priest, Rob Halford lent his stupefying vocal presence to this howler of a song, one that still gives symphonic death metal wailers a run for their money. “Faster than a bullet/ Terrifying scream” Of course, being a heavy metal song, the shreddings and string maulings of Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing excite, their dual guitar attack aging preposterously well against the total output of metal guitar freaks since. That glorious opening riff, bluesy and muscular, keeps us centered until the incendiary, laser-like, solo threatens to sear the listener with its sheer velocity. “This is/ the painkiller”.

386.Song:Dance Of The Dolls

Artist:Moral

Album:And Life Is… 

Here is a song that I don’t wish to oversell, on this playlist of bangers is one of the starkest, potentially most underwritten, songs ever released. I am willing to bet a lot on you having heard nothing else like it. It opens as it means to continue, with an arpeggiated synth line so basic and yet so oddly compelling, and then Hanne Winterberg’s vocals coming in cold, clinical. With lyrics that lean on symbolism spare enough to evoke the band’s nordic origins “you dream of being something else/ than an exhibit”. One verse, that’s all you get, then wordless vocals swooning and moaning for the rest of the runtime. It’s so cold and isolating, especially with the reverb bouncing around the soundscape. Discogs lists them as either a “Cold Wave” or “Minimal Synth” band, either descriptor works but Cold Wave in particular helps me reckon with such an intensely impersonal, yet icily intimate exhibit. May it haunt your music listening days.

385.Song:Me And Mrs. Jones

Artist:Billy Paul

Album:360 Degrees Of Billy Paul 

If you’ve ever felt like you had dirty laundry that you didn’t want aired, there are a surprising amount of pop songs available for you to vent your compromised emotions to. Extramarital affairs are cowardice of the heart given form, so it’s no surprise that “Me And Mrs. Jones” is a perfect anthem for such confused situations . After all, it’s hard to feel bad about how things turned out when the strings sound this sentimental, the reverb filling out the stereo field as if everyone involved had had their say in the matter. Billy Paul’s soothing vocals function like that bottle of wine you corked out so you could deal with the “thing going on” that he sings about. “We both know that it’s wrong/ but it’s much too strong/ To let it go now”. This song was a massive hit, so maybe a lot more of us are cowards than can be safely admitted, thus the purpose of the song is forever assured, etched into our collective soul. “We’ve got a thing going on”.

384.Song:Long Snake Moan

Artist:PJ Harvey

Album:To Bring You My Love 

I’ve been lingering on “Long Snake Moan” for a while in my head, mostly asking what purpose purposefully stringing the listener along as they wait for the chorus to appear serves? I am acutely aware of the sexual metaphor, I’m just in supreme awe of the constructed thing I am listening to. If any song sounded like it was born in a swamp, it’s this one. Those powerfully mixed guitars that slash and froth, bubbling with a fiery intensity that makes this song, and its parent album, ideal listens in hot, humid, environments. PJ Harvey’s vocals sound like she is a cat in heat, barely containing her pleasured wails as the chorus erupts “You oughta hear my long snake/ Moan”. The question I asked in the beginning seems answered with aplomb, but I still feel there’s a deeper layer to it. As if accessing the climax of physicality is more of a spiritual experience than we allow ourselves to think; “Hell’s Low/ God Above”.

383.Song:God Is A Woman

Artist:Ariana Grande

Album:Sweetener 

Sex is a hard topic for music to meaningfully explore, since any song that tries to be “sexy” quickly becomes meme fodder or fades into the background of our hyper-sexualized pop culture landscape. Ariana Grande tackles this in a way that, to me, makes the most sense, she simply overawes the listener with stylistic expressiveness. Here is a song that crams Rock guitars, trap beats, Gospel style choral vocals and the abyssal beats of Trip-Hop into a concise, mature, package. Ariana raps, whispers, and croons, building tension until the chorus’ subdued release. Unlike other pop-starlets who do the “Good girl gone bad” trope, Grande seems to sincerely believe in her sense of earned divinity. She demands and receives, this is not a conversation, it is a submission. “When all is said and done/ You’ll believe God is a woman” . Note: This was originally recorded by Camilla Cabello but never released officially, thus Ariana reaps the rewards.

382.Song:Wind And Walls

Artist:The Tallest Man On Earth

Album:There’s No Leaving Now 

“In all these riots of broken sound” Kristian Matsson’s voice breaks, perhaps speaking to how love and purpose can be found in music, on the dancefloor, in little moments of overstimulation. In a song written entirely in verbose metaphors, often reminiscent of a young Bob Dylan’s compositions, the warm acoustic guitar chords flutter through sweet constructions like “singing songs of rivers tied to accidents within” or “So lay it on the plains where there is time, there is love, there is rest”. The slide guitars that ring out throughout emphasize the shifting dreamscapes that The Tallest Man On Earth conjures out of the ether, allowing his charismatic presence to drift through the verse-chorus-verse structures and land with aplomb on lines like “So when I get there you trust me son, and just leave/ I’ll catch up”. If any song ever suggested a gust of autumn wind, with the leaves swirling up all around you, this is it.

381.Song:Sicko Mode

Artist:Travis Scott Feat. Drake

Album:ASTROWORLD

“Sicko Mode” is three great songs smushed together into one headlong mini-epic. Starting off with a fake-out Drake solo “goin’ on you with the pick and roll/ Young la flame, he in sicko mode” before shifting to the main Travis Scott show. Showcasing a flow that suggests a man wrestling with an alligator, the rough scales of the animal evident in the texture of his verses “was off the Remy, had a Papoos”. The extended middle section finally subsumes itself in Drake’s darker sonic universe, minor key synths and droning bass underlying his cigarette smoke flows “Had me out/ Like a light/ Like a light”. All credit to Scott, he joins in and holds his own within Drake’s climes, having the last word on how to achieve “Sicko Mode”. Bearing all the hallmarks of bling rap, but pairing that lyrical excess with trap beats, “Sicko Mode” finds us being regaled with the sonic talents of Drake’s production instincts and Scott’s gnarly capabilities on the mic.

380.Song:Rolling In The Deep

Artist:Adele

Album:21 

“Rolling In The Deep” has all the subtlety of a looming threat. “You’re gonna wish you/ Had never met me” accompanies Adele in the chorus, a deep well of lower end acoustic guitars linger in the intro and the drums sound like they are ready to take the subject out back and beat them half to death. That this song doesn’t come across as a narcissistic stalker anthem is testament to Adele’s enormous presence, and her knack for timely gusto “Think of me in the depths of your despair/ Make a home down there, as mine won’t be shared” (Those drums storm back in here, like a posse forming a shield). “Rolling In The Deep” is soaked in 70’s style pop production, which is probably why it enjoyed such massive crossover appeal, but it absolutely wouldn’t have succeeded as much without Adele. Her powerful sax-like vocals attack each note like it’s the last one she’ll sing, or rather the last one her ex-lover will ever hear. Remind me not to piss Adele off.

379.Song:The Curse Of Millhaven

Artist:Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Album:Murder Ballads 

Murder Ballads, the album, is a very, very, dour experience. Definitely not an experience you’d enthusiastically recommend to people unless you are heavily goth or off of your medications. “The Curse Of Millhaven” would seem to add to that reputation, what with its lyrics being the POV of a little girl (played by Nick Cave, of course) murdering her way through a small town. “All God’s children/ They all gotta die”. It is also brilliant, often wickedly funny through sheer force of personality, and a manifestation of musical chaos from the opening crash of notes and cymbals. The sheer contrast of Nick Cave’s usually cavernously deep vocals going off the deep end, as he role plays a psychotic blonde orphan, provides one of the most jarring experiences in rock. The gall of it all, the murderously hilarious energy that Cave throws into lyrics like “I’ll sing to the lot/ now that you got me going”, as a chorus goes “la-la-la-la” alongside,  is a real treat.

378.Song:Solsbury Hill

Artist:Peter Gabriel

Album:Peter Gabriel 1: Car 

When Peter Gabriel left Genesis, a band that helped him indulge in some pretty out there concepts musically and lyrically, it somehow freed him as a solo artist to indulge even more in flights of fancy. “Solsbury Hill” is the sound of that full flowering, almost nearly quite literally. Those acoustic guitars flutter to the 7/4 beat, the drums bouncing along, the kick drum so pillowy it might as well be stuffed with feathers, even Gabriel’s voice finds itself drifting along like a gust of wind giving every musical element its impulse to flight. When he sings “My heart going boom, boom, boom” there is no going back, you are as hooked to the concept as he was to the joy of creation on his own terms. The synth French Horn riff and flutes tether us to each bar, allowing the rest of the instruments to gaily play around with the 7/4 measures, and Gabriel’s halting lines something to pin his hopes on with each line “Grab your things, I’ve come to take you home”.

377.Song:Tops Drop

Artist:Fat Pat

Album:Ghetto Dreams

A rap aficionado acquaintance once said to me “The East Coast had Biggie, The West Coast had Tupac, and The Gulf Coast had Fat Pat”. Given the tragic arcs of their lives, they all died by the assassin’s bullet, that comparison has a haunting quality to it that has stuck with me ever since. Perhaps Fat Pat understood the game he was playing, as “Tops Drop”, while on the surface being a bling-rap adjacent diddy, has a sinister edge to its music. Just listen to the underlying synths, the way that the constant droning line has a funeral tint to it, slithering alongside Fats lyrics like the mythical Nidhogg. It is his constant companion, even clearly audible when other synth lines try to clamber in to give a neon edge to the proceedings. Only in the chorus, where he doesn’t sing the hook, does it leave us. But the context wouldn’t matter if the song was forgettable, Tops Drop is a game banger, a suitably enticing deep cut, immortality achieved by other means.

376.Song:A Thousand Miles

Artist:Vanessa Carlton

Album:Be Not Nobody 

The very moment that the glittering main piano riff hits your ears is the moment you let go of your cynical tendencies. It is a riff that instantly defines the way it interacts with your heartstrings and Vanessa Carlton’s vocals “Makin’ my way downtown/ Walkin’ fast, faces pass, and I’m homebound” duh-duh-duh-duhduhduh-duh. This song came from an era in pop music where having an orchestra on hand seemed mandatory and cliche’, but the presence of the strings fills out crucial gaps in the melody and enhances the rhythmic strikes of the piano keys. Producers Ron Fair and Curtis Schweitzer knew what they were doing here, giving Vanessa Carlton enough space for her soprano-ite vocals to shine while giving the proceedings an epic air that only the best ballads can achieve. After all, if someone is willing to walk a thousand miles, they are surely in the kind of love about which such actual epics would be written.