I Need You To Listen To…

350.Song:Doo Wop (That Thing)

Artist:Lauryn Hill

Album:The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill 

One thing that strikes you reading the credits list for this song is how singular a vision Lauryn Hill had. Writer: Lauryn Hill, Producer: Lauryn Hill, Arranger: Lauryn Hill. Even the legion of background singers are all her, requiring her voice to jump around the octaves at a dizzying pace, and affecting different modes of speaking/singing. Virtuosity is the term for these types of talents, and Lauryn Hill just is the only person who could have pulled this song off. Her instincts are on point for the soundscape; that piano sounds like alternately like a twinkling shower of sparks or a whiskey-soaked barroom Paeon; that warm, punchy bass that sounds like it could only have found a home here; those slinky horns that chime in on occasion. All this in service of a feminist R&B anthem that will sing to the souls of women for a very long time to come. “Girls you know you’d better watch out/ some guys, some guys are only about/ that thing, that thing”.

349.Song:Better Off Alone

Artist:Alice Deejay

Album:Who Needs Guitars Anyways? 

You can hear it, at exactly 30 seconds in, the crowds of hands reaching towards the heavens, a cathedral of noise. The breathtaking suspension as each note rings out, the synthetic choir doing its best to keep up with the momentum, the drums finally completing the holy conception, allowing us to breathe in and start dancing. Then Judith Pronk’s voice comes in, asking “Do you think you’re better off alone?”, eventually answering with “Talk to me, ooooh, talk to me”, as if to taunt you into your only course of action. The best dance songs have almost always felt like an invitation to dance, rather than a mere acknowledgement of the act, rather like how a priest will ask if you have anything to confess. The main synth riff even starts dropping notes near the end, faltering before the gates of grace as if to ask you to play it again, to revel in our shared communion in the halls of trance. “Do you think you’re better off alone?”.

348.Song:The Man Who Sold The World

Artist:Nirvana/ David Bowie

Album:MTV Unplugged In New York (Live)/ The Man Who Sold The World 

When listening to David Bowie’s original it is hard to escape how mystical and otherworldly his recording is, like he was communicating with a true eldritch force. Kurt Cobain singing “You’re Face, to face/ With the man who sold the world” is spooky, but on the level of a man who clearly has nothing left to lose pointing a gun at…well. I am desperately trying not to place too much emphasis on the ultimate tragedy of Kurt’s life, but when you listen to, truly digest, his catalogue, It is impossible not to view it through the ghastly lens he focused on himself for us. His halting performance, pitchy at some points, hauntingly beautiful at others, is probably the ultimate coalescence of his talents. “For years and years I roamed/ I gazed a gazeless stare” Whatever you wish to divine from Nirvana’s formidable oeuvre, you can start your journey here and decide on whether or not to continue. “Oh, no. Not me/ We never lost control”.

347.Song:Check The Rhime

Artist:A Tribe Called Quest

Album:The Low End Theory

 One thing that strikes me as I watch music videos for a lot of Rap songs is how much of a celebration of community they can be. Seeing the crowds of people cheering Q-Tip and Phife Dawg as they trade bars just makes the act of listening present itself in a new light. These two rappers from Queens, New York still sound as fresh and vibrant as they were revolutionary upon release. Hearing them go back and forth over that Minnie Ripperton sample, their voices couched in a warm tone throughout, is a real treat. “It was I, the Abstract/ and me the five footer”. The Sampled horns from the Average White Band (seriously!) provide all of the raucousness to get the block party started, flitting in and out as needed. Maybe the act of bringing all of these samples together was the main point of this era of rap, to celebrate shared musical experiences and tie them together with the call-and-response playfulness displayed here.

346.Song:In The Air Tonight

Artist:Phil Collins

Album:Face Value 

Among many things that strike me when perusing the lyrics sheet are how many refrains of “Oh Lord” there are. The other is how all of the delayed, shifted, vocals seem to suggest two people holding on to a shocking secret, one that strikes an especially deep emotional wound. Maybe this is why the initial drums sound like popped painkiller bottles. Sure, the lyrics are vague to the point of existential angst, you can read into the ever-shifting forms of Phil’s performance whatever you need to, it will always all come to a head with that famous drum solo. Pounding in suddenly and with ferocity, the huge sound contrasts sharply with the subdued dynamics exhibited elsewhere in the song. “I’ve been waiting for this moment/ All my life”. Those guitars that slash in, bubbling up like blood from a wound at some points, lingering like thunderous echoes at others, speak to the emotionally charged , frothy, momentum that makes this song shine.

345.Song:Somebody Loves You

Artist:Betty Who

Album:Take Me When You Go 

Coming out in the era of maximalist pop, it’s astonishing that Betty Who’s glorious outburst of anthemic power-pop got lost in the shuffle. Good thing I serendipitously stumbled across it for this playlist then, eh? Opening with halting synth chords, Betty Who’s serene vocals bubble in like champagne “Who’s around when the days feel long?/ Who’s around when you can’t be strong?”. The bass line and drums froth in to join the fracas, but with the precision that pop demands. “Somebody misses you when you’re away/ They wanna wake up with you everyday/ Somebody wants to hear you say/ Ooh, somebody loves you”. Then the chorus kicks in with its ricocheting “you”’s, leaving the listener in a state of suspended bliss as the verse plays out. The enormous synth swells feel like the champagne glass about to froth over, spilling joyous noise out on the dancefloor. A stupendous anthem for the “taken for granted” people in life.

344.Song:The Game Of Love

Artist:Santana Feat. Michelle Branch

Album:Shaman

For a solid decade, Santana had figured out a formula for hit singles that still allowed his distinct talents to shine. This had arguably already borne its full fruits with 1999’s Supernatural and the smash hit “Smooth”, but for my money I’d bet on “Game Of Love” being his legacy defining song. Before you do a spittake, yes, I am aware of his already formidable catalog of influential albums and singles, hear me out. While the “formula” for hit songwriting was reaching its apex around the time of this song’s release, Santana’s sound is so distinct that it elevates the structures surrounding him. Add in a game Michelle Branch singing serene high notes on “So please tell me/ Whyyyyyyy” and then transitioning to lush harmonies with “It just takes a little bit of this/ A little bit of that”. Sometimes, rarely, you get an artist on a tear that only needs something to play off of, to remind us of their greatness by sheer force of contrasting will.

343.Song:Can’t Feel My Face

Artist:The Weeknd

Album:Beauty Behind The Madness 

It’s about cocaine. That’s it, that’s the whole point of the lyrics. Cocaine. Say it again! Cocaine. There are a surprising number of contenders for this playlist that referenced Cocaine in one form or another, none of them carried the feeling of ecstasy that the drug is supposed to give you through to its logical conclusion like “Can’t Feel My Face”. It even opens like The Weeknd just huffed a big bag of blow, with fuzzy synths dancing all around the stereo field before he starts singing, then they subsume themselves under his voice. Like the drug is still coursing through his veins and about to pop off. “And she’ll always get the best of me/ The worst is yet to come”. But the worst is definitely not to come in this absolute top-tier banger. Indeed, the chorus leaves all doubt behind as he sings “I can’t feel my face when I’m with you/ But I Love it!”. Even when he finds himself slurring his vocals, clarity always comes back “But I love it”.

342.Song:Cecilia

Artist:Simon & Garfunkel

Album:Bridge Over Troubled Water 

I will note briefly here that both “Cecilia” and “Mrs. Robinson” begin in much the same way, with acoustic guitars playing forcefully around some bongo accompaniment. That “Cecilia” is on this playlist and not “Mrs. Robinson” is testament to how consistently sustained its energies are. “Cecilia” does not flag after a strong opening chorus, doesn’t descend to what is essentially a shootout between flagging verses and, again, a very strong chorus. This is the whole shebang, a complete encapsulation of everything that made Simon & Garfunkel great at their peak. From that opening “‘Cilia, you’re breaking my heart/ You’re shaking my confidence daily”, through to the extended instrumental fadeout, this song carries its abundant momentum forward with aplomb. The soundscape even has room for sonic details to be audible, rather than overpowered by events, and it exudes a warmth that most folk rock has to fight tooth and nail to achieve. Effortless.

341.Song:Come On In My Kitchen (Alternate Take)

Artist:Robert Johnson

Album:Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings 

Playing, as it does, through a thick screen of static and distortion caused by its primitive recording quality, Robert Johnson still sounds momentous, as vital on this record as his influence would demand. Modern music would simply not be the same without this man, but this song isn’t here merely because of that, no, the song is the thing and what a thing it is. Wounded, lamenting, soul rending, Johnson’s mournful singing and insistent guitar leave their mark the better part of a century later. “Ah, the woman I love/ took from my best friend/ some joker got lucky/ stole her back again”. With his voice peaking the microphone, you can practically hear the wind creaking through the boards, the strings of the guitar straining to interpret the alchemy of Johnson’s playing style.This most ancient of musical titans, the man who sold his soul for immortality and got his wish. Not a bad deal, all things considered, for us at least.

340.Song:My Generation

Artist:The Who

Album:My Generation 

“People try to put us down (Talkin’ ‘bout my generation)” As time goes on, this song remains as exciting and fresh as when it first appeared. Part of that has to do with Keith Moon refusing to take any prisoners on the drums (no wonder, he often detonated or destroyed his kit during performances), Pete Townshend’s apt knack for guitar hooks and John Entwhistles’ bass guitar histrionics. The main reason though is the sheer novelty of  Roger Daltrey’s stuttering vocals. As the story goes, he found himself in the studio to record, bereft of rehearsal time and either trying heroically to keep up with the rest of the band or simply to keep himself from going too far forward. As a musician who has had to alter parts of my own performance to fit in with the cacophony around me, I deeply respect the creative aura that Daltrey finessed out of key syllables “Why don’t you all fff-fade away”. Producer Shel Talmy knew what he was hearing and kept it. Heh.

339.Song:Comfortably Numb

Artist:Pink Floyd

Album:The Wall

It’s funny to hear the discourse surrounding this song after decades of perceptions of Prog-Rockers as a particularly LSD-raddled generation [1]. Guys, Pink Floyd has gone on record stating that this is about Roger Waters being administered morphine for stomach cramps. To be absolutely fair to our current crop of armchair songwriters, this song apes the best stoner anthems to a tee. From the way the guitars and keyboards seem to be drifting through the consciousness like the fleeting inspirations of the mind on ether, to the delayed vocal effects that open the lyrics “Hello (hello hello), Is there anybody in there?”. From the screams of agony after “Just a little pinprick”, to the strings that sound like the torrents of ideas that come to the uplifted mind. If it’s not about heroin, then it is doing a damn good job of aiming adjacent to it. The truly epic feel of it all, like someone being set free from earthly considerations, doesn’t help, nor should it.

338.Song:No Scrubs

Artist:TLC

Album:Fanmail 

Of all the late 90’s to mid 00’s R&B power girl songs, this might be the uncontested best. Astonishingly, its lyrical themes have proven even more durable in the age of dating apps and rampant social media discourse. I’m not saying that they were never relevant, I’m being very deliberate with my language here, “Even more” is the key phrase. We live in interesting times to say the least. I think what separates this song from the pack is how tight, how concise it is. There are no superfluous intros, no obsession with weirdly placed sound effects in the production, nothing inessential. All killer. The vocal harmonies especially are rhythmically tight, never hanging out in the background trying to steal the spotlight. As time goes by its very distinct, very dry production may start to age it horribly, but its lyrical themes threaten to stick with us, like an earworm, for longer than we’d like. “No, I don’t want no scrub/ A scrub is a guy that can’t get no love from me”.

337.Song:This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)

Artist:Talking Heads

Album:Speaking In Tongues 

Can you base a whole song off of one single, unchanging, guitar riff? A riff that strikes a grand total of 6 notes, grouped in three two-note chords? David Byrne thought he could pull it off as a concept, even swapping musicians in the band off of their usual instruments to generate a feeling of naive simplicity (hence, “Naive Melody”). Other elements come crashing in over the guitars and bass riff, like those awkwardly stumbling synths that sound like they would rather be somewhere else, or those insistent drums that never falter from their assigned behaviour. The lead guitar element even manages to sound as if it is contemplating an idea of love wholly incompatible with reality. How does all of this nervousness coalesce into a coherent, nay vital, work? Perhaps you can listen to Byrne’s squeaky vocals as the harmonies come together on “Cover up, say goodnight”, and find some comfort there.

336.Song:Souvenir

Artist:boygenius

Album:boygenius EP

“Dreamcatcher in the rearview mirror/ Hasn’t caught a thing yet” There’s a wounded quality to the songwriting of boygenius’s members, like every possible emotion is being filtered through their voices. When they combined into this folk/indie supergroup, those talents coming together not only felt completely natural, but lent the proceedings on “Souvenir” an air of funerary inevitability. Every instrument is recorded with such warmth, from the acoustic guitars through to the bass guitar and vocal harmonies. First Julien Baker, Then Phoebe Bridgers, then Lucy Dacus are given their own verse, each allowed to heal or grieve on their own terms. “When you cut a hole into my skull/ Do you like what you see?/ Like I do?”. The composition slowly adds elements in, each coming in so organically that a ghostly feeling is conjured, like you are being led to a personal catharsis, unable to avoid what needs to happen.

335.Song:Bizarre Love Triangle

Artist:New Order

Album:Brotherhood 

Sure, this song’s heavily sequenced, digital instrumentation sonically dates it, but they also lend it an arch charm that few songs with obsolescent production values have ever captured. Its iconic synthetic string swells are the perfect example of a song teetering on the edge of oblivion, the digital bass that opens things is so uniquely large and clumsy,  only for the chorus immediately afterwards to uplift all of this to top tier status. Bernard Summer’s vocals, in said chorus and in the rhythmic verses, do much to humanize the stark sounds surrounding his impeccable lyrics. “There’s no sense in telling me/ The wisdom of the fool won’t set you free”. While the shorter single version is what most people are likely to be familiar with, I actually recommend the album cut. Its harsh bass intro creates a striking contrast with the beauty that the band successfully conjures from the digital ether.

334.Song:Wolf Like Me

Artist:TV On The Radio

Album:Return To Cookie Mountain

The appeal that the myth of the werewolf has for humanity is the shared fear of unleashed primal desires, unconstrained by flesh or rationality. So, in other words, Love. Starting off with a guitar that audibly aches to be set free, drums that pump blood throughout the monstrous form, Tunde Adebimpe’s vocals seem to be begging to be set loose, straining against the scaffolding of the songwriting form. “My mind has changed my body’s frame/ But, God, I like it”. So it goes that when things slow down in the bridge, an image of a brooding menace comes to mind as Tunde’s voice harmonizes itself into multiple forms, as if fighting with and against his own instincts. This culminates into an explosive finale, as if the werewolf is brooding itself into a berserker rage until it finally cuts loose. The song ends on every aspect of the soundscape collapsing, exhausted, back into the fragile, human form. “We’re howling forever, Oh-oh”.

333.Song:Ace Of Spades

Artist:Motorhead

Album:Ace Of Spades

One thing you can never accuse Lemmy of aiming for is a subtle edge to his music. Nothing but raw, blunt energy here. Coming from an era of music production where the recording process should have polished its edges down to a crystalline sheen, the guitars here all scream bloody murder, sawing their way through the proceedings deliberately, not letting such matters as clarity stop their heedless momentum. Producer Vic Maile allows Lemmy and the rest of Motorhead all the space they need to run riot. The drums, the bass, Lemmy’s cigarette-marinated voice. It all smashes into and around each other, like a car crash you can’t look away from. That a guitar solo manages to pierce through this veil of chaos is a major miracle. At one point the drummer, Phil Taylor, ecstatically starts banging his drumsticks together. Given the wall of noise, dredging detail out of this is a rewarding process, precisely because it makes you work hard for it.

332.Song:Diamonds Are Forever (Main Title)/ Diamonds From Sierra Leone

Artist:Shirley Bassey/ Kanye West Feat. Jay-Z

Album:Diamonds Are Forever/ Late Registration 

Shirley Bassey had already made an all-time Bond anthem with Goldfinger, but I guess she had to have a thing for the aura of charismatic elegance that the franchise could exude. For arguably the worst Bond movie, she swooped in to save the day here with this bombastic performance. Her silken tones glitter like diamonds against velvet, every volume shift a chance for her to ping off of John Barry’s electric orchestration. Playing almost like a call and response at some points, the horns flaring up cautiously, she simply radiates the type of brilliant energies that only a Bond theme could capture. Kanye West would later use the song as the basis for his screed against conflict diamonds and the bling culture that enabled their trade. He and Jay-Z do all that they can to match Shirley’s voluminous presence, but if you want a show of force, a performance that will shine forever, go with the original.

331.Song:I Wanna Be Your Dog

Artist:The Stooges

Album:The Stooges

The guitars that open this song sound like a pack of dogs ripping the entrails out of a fresh kill, slashing with such kinetic energy buried in their distorted tones that you wouldn’t be surprised if your headphones caught fire. Contained as they are in the left speaker, they are left to inflict their damage on society as ably as they can. At least this gives the rest of the band a chance to shine. Iggy Pop’s direct vocals find themselves in the center, colliding against Dave Alexander’s blunt bass guitar and Scott Asheton’s proto-punk drums, singing lines like “And I lay right down in my favourite place/ Now I wanna be your dog”.  Producer John Cale plays Sleigh Bells in the right speaker, piano for emphasis on the left, which is an odd musical choice for a band that has often been called the “Godfather’s of Punk”, but, much like The Dude’s carpet, it ties the whole thing together. Supremely menacing and raucously energetic, like it’s training us for a stated purpose…

330.Song:Geyser

Artist:Mitski

Album:Be The Cowboy 

Love is an act of worship. Understanding it brings us a whirlwind of contradictions and, paradoxically, clarity about our relations to it. As an emotion, things are heady enough, but Mitski, in less than two and a half minutes, brings us closer to something resembling absolution. The way she begins with slow organs, adding sickly sweet guitars and jarring audio glitches,  before unleashing with a “Geyser” of distorted bass, swirling strings and horns, is nothing short of a masterclass in songwriting structures. “You’re my number one/ You’re the one I want”. That sense of clarity I mentioned earlier applies to her vocal performance, it never leaves our view, always soaring above the noise like an unattainable goal. Very fitting, given the lyrics, which are vague to the point of confusion, but her forceful presence powers through any misgivings, helping us reach an understanding, of us, of our dreams and loves. “Cause you’re the one I got”.

329.Song:Already Lost

Artist:Rainer Maria

Album:Catastrophe Keeps Us Together 

“Lay down all  those instruments of navigation/ Cause we’re already lost” is a clumsy way to open up a song about a relationship falling apart at the seams. Navigating the emotional ordeals of love is something that even the world’s great poets have had trouble reckoning with “Already Lost”’s emo genre trappings allow us to tackle things head on and find some sense of resolution amidst it all. Listen to how Caithlin De Marrais’s vocals break through the churning guitars and swirling synthetic strings, crystal clear among the maelstrom of noise. The warm bass lines keeping us steady throughout as the drums crash and bang their way along the undulating waves of Verse-Chorus-Verse. “I waited up all night/ and my thoughts were of desolation” would be super bleak, if the next lines weren’t so beautifully cathartic “but the best part of waiting up all night/ was in the morning when/ I didn’t feel a thing”.

328.Song:Welcome To The Black Parade

Artist:My Chemical Romance

Album:The Black Parade 

Emo as a genre was widely mocked in its time, disregarded as a medium of importance, of any use for sorting through the full spectrum of human emotions. Time has proven those naysayers wrong, not just because, of course, that songs like “Welcome To The Black Parade” tackle the headiest of possible subjects in death, but also because the genre’s muscular rock trappings have aged like a fine wine. If it helps, consider WTTBP an equivalent to “Bohemian Rhapsody”, in conception even if the details differ, even if there is more tangible joy in this song than the latter. Starting with Gerard Way recounting his character’s most precious memory, the piano notes and parade-ground drumming all build up to a rapturous sonic release as the verse guitar riffs kick off. The emotions don’t plateau there though, the chorus, with its excitatious “your memory will carry on/ We’ll carry on”, is life-affirmingly jubilant. Now get parading, you emo freaks!

327.Song:Fade Into You

Artist:Mazzy Star

Album:So Tonight That I Might See 

“Fade into you/ Strange you never knew”. Here is a song whose vibe is eternal, where you can barely imagine a world without it inhabiting some background space in your mind, forever holding an aerial view of your mental safe space. Drifting along at a 6/4 pace, tambourines and sparse snare drums keeping you grounded as Mazzy Star’s vocals lilt in “I wanna hold the hand inside you/ I wanna take the breath that’s true”. Those electric guitar slides dancing around the flowery acoustic guitar bed grant “Fade Into You” the air of an eternal slow dance, the spotlight focusing in on the one couple that matters. Taylor Swift, among others, would crib its atmospherics for a song of her own (“Sad, Beautiful, Tragic”), speaking further to its uniquely potent, reverential, spell.  If, while listening to this song,  you find yourself swaying side to side, just embrace it, everybody gives in in the end.  “Fade into you/ I think it’s strange you never knew”.

326.Song:A Hard Day’s Night

Artist:The Beatles

Album:A Hard Day’s Night 

Of all of The Beatles’s early work, pre-Revolver, “A Hard Day’s Night” goes the furthest to capturing their appeal. Opening with an explosion of a chord, a G11 Suspended Fourth, the band rushes headlong through the rest of the running time, barely pausing for breath. “It’s been a hard day’s night/ I should be sleeping like a log” . Famously birthed from a Ringo Starr quote, the film that this song was made for also portrays the chaotic energies that The Beatles were in the process of mastering, of a band furiously throwing everything at the creative process and succeeding beyond anyone’s expectations. But it was also forward looking, with a super dense mix of percussion and jangly guitars underpinning the vocal harmonies, as well as some chordal modulations thrown in, this song anticipated the full creative flowering of the group’s ambitions later on. Until then we had this joyous outburst; as Roger Ebert once wrote “Oh, what a lovely spring”.