I Need You To Listen To…

50.Song:Wish You Were Here

Artist:Pink Floyd

Album:Wish You Were Here

The fact that this song opens with AM radio transmissions, with all the crackling and hissing audio that accompanies it, is such a perfect way to immerse the listener in an air of isolation and nostalgic grief, that pointing it out borders on cliche. Yes, of course, we all know this was written as a tribute to ex-Floyd Syd Barret as he descended more and more into madness, but sometimes you need to emphasize certain germane facts to get a point across. “So, so you think you can tell/ Heaven from hell”, the whole band coming in, shearing off the radio sonics to uncover the crystal clear audio of a band grieving for what was lost but unafraid of what’s to come, the point is made, beautifully. “Did you exchange/ A walk-on part in the war/ for a lead role in a cage?”. There’s no drowning in sorrows, only a calm acceptance of certain circumstances. The point is emphasized at the end with synthesized winds blowing the band out of reach of memory.

49.Song:Good Vibrations

Artist:The Beach Boys

Album:Single 

“I don’t know where but she sends me there” Is it too much if we have three straight heavily-studio-constructed epics in a row? Certainly enough has been written about the innovations and structures of each that picking the superior one has been a hard fought battle in my head. After much pondering, I chose this most concise of epics; A crisp 3:36, barely over the average pop-radio length at the time and to this day. A richer listening experience is hard to find, even amongst the songs listed higher. Brian Wilson had a lot of creative demons wrestling inside his head, but the one defining feature of his music is how much joy he wrestled out of his dreamings, polishing it into crystal clear reality. To this day the joy inherent to the performances on display here is stunning to behold. Each sonic detail builds upon itself and the songwriting structures, until we have something approaching perfection. “Good, good, good, good vibrations”.

48.Song:Maps

Artist:Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Album:Fever To Tell 

Back in audio school, a teacher was showing us the songwriting craft. For a demonstration he asked us if a drum intro could be a hook, the answer was no, drums aren’t a hook. “Maps” came out during an explosion of indie rock, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs representing more of an art-rock take on things with screeching guitars and somersaulting yelps from its singer Karen O. Finding something relatable on their debut album would have been a mighty chore were it not for this explosively intimate gem. The rapidly picked guitars that open events sound like a downpour of raindrops (tears?) until the drums pound their way in. Brian Chase’s drums anchor everything with emotionally charged rhythmic stops, crashing cymbals and that distinctive opening lick. For sure, songwriting isn’t an exact science, but declarative statements of negativity are rarely helpful. Yes, former teacher, Drums can be the hook that pulls a listener in and keeps them there: “Maps” is proof.

47.Song:Young Blood

Artist:The Naked And Famous

Album:Passive Me, Aggressive You 

“The mood it changes like the wind/ Hard to control when it begins” not a single lyric has ever captured the sense of changing tides as well as this one. Released in the golden age of indie rock, where bands weren’t afraid to go as loud as their ambitions would lead them, “Young Blood” is a tempest leading the listener towards serene clarity. Alisa Xayalith’s vocals fight for space amongst the enormous cascading synth lead and stadium-sized drums, but she leans on every syllable like it’s the last one she’ll ever sing. Even when things go quiet, you can’t escape the feeling of teetering on a knife’s edge “You keep my secrets hope to die/ Promises, swear them to the sky”. The bass-synth that roils throughout keeps that tension simmering, allowing the choruses to explode, soaring above the listener even as lines like “The bittersweet between my teeth” hark to the emotional bloodletting this lyrics sheet conceals beneath the sonic maelstrom.

46.Song:The Thrill Is Gone

Artist:B.B. King & His Orchestra

Album:Live In Cannes 

The original studio recording is fine on its own merits, indeed, B.B. King sounds almost the same singing in either take. The difference is a matter of a few precious bars, all that stands between a staggered, weary existence is a drum intro of almost stunning banality. I first heard this song from the speakers of a stereo in my room, teasing its way quietly to my ears to avoid waking my grandparents in the next room. It was the version collected on the B.B. King Gold CD, initially from the Live In Cannes recording. I later spent years tracking down that take, always coming up short on those damn drums. Finally, due to the modern miracle of streaming services, I found my muse. The stark difference between the immediacy of the live track, and the more “lively” intro of the studio recording, was more than enough for me to declare that “the thrill is gone” from the latter. Only settle for the best when it comes to the King. 

45.Song:Fight The Power

Artist:Public Enemy

Album:Fear Of A Black Planet 

How does Flava Flav’s presence make Public Enemy such an incendiary force in rap? Especially when compared to his partner Chuck D’s more powerful vocal charisma, that booming voice that cuts through the mixture that the Bomb Squad has cooked up. How does this man, chiming in with his “Hey”’s and “People, People”’s, contribute so much to this roiling atmosphere? I find myself thinking of the old position of Court Jester in royal courts. A comic presence who would come together at the right moment to speak truth to power, as Flava does when he goes off on Elvis “Motherfuck him and John Wayne”. He is a force multiplier, because such a scattershot comic presence coming together with Chuck to sing “Fight the power” hits with enhanced vigor. The entire song sounds like it is a city on the verge of catching fire, much like in the film it originally appeared on the soundtrack for, Do The Right Thing. “Bum-rush the show”.

44.Song:everything i wanted

Artist:Billie Eilish

Album:Single

Billie Elish claims that this song was born out of a nightmare, and boy, does it sound like it. How it achieves this is a major production accomplishment by Finneas, her brother/musical partner. Just listen to the way the buried, booming, background kick drums are accompanied by low pass synths, how the soundscape seems to boil with understated tension. Even the ghostly opening piano chords, delayed and volume shifted, almost lo-fi, set us up expertly for Billie’s entrance. Lightly tinged with reverb at key moments, her vocals are mixed prominently, giving us an acute sense of claustrophobia as she guides us through her dreamscape. The second verse is where the magic reaches its full realization, when almost all of the accompaniment fades away, leaving us with nothing but the drums and Eilish “I tried to scream/ but my head was underwater”. Speaking to something primal, this song leaves us stunned by life’s anxieties.

43.Song:Live Forever

Artist:Oasis

Album:Definitely Maybe 

As Liam Gallagher sings “Maybe I just wanna fly/ Wanna live, I don’t wanna die”, there is no hint of the cynical rebuttal to grunge’s worst tendencies that this song was written to be. There is only a steadily progressing melodic movement towards serenity. His voice being buried under all of that reverb, struggling to break through, as if reaching a hand towards a drowning man, can’t help but overcome its meta adversities as he reaches his falsetto “You and I are gonna live forever”. The rest of the band is mixed in such a way as to resemble an enveloping fog, pierced through by a sunbeam whenever clarity hits. Noel Gallagher’s guitar solo pierces through this sonic overcast, reaching as high as the chords will let it, relenting only to allow Liam to repeat the verse, before returning in the outro, grimmer, but supportive of the key change, of life’s whims intersecting with our dreams. “We’re gonna live forever”. Life affirming? Definitely maybe.

42.Song:Hound Dog

Artist:Elvis Presley

Album:The Essential Elvis Presley 

There has been a recent trend towards crediting the success of many popular songs to their original recordings rather than the takes that made it big; “Hound Dog” has fallen victim towards that mentality. However well-intentioned these efforts might be, we must all remember that The King turned this song into a generational anthem, and no one else has equaled his take, before or since. His producers managed this by combining elements of many previous takes, yes, for instance taking the rhythms of Freddie Bell and The Bellboy’s version and having Elvis ape Big Mama Thornton’s bellowing bluesy vocals. But The King is the King for a reason, the way his voice digs into the beat, bouncing off of and around his rhythm section, the controlled nature of his snarls on “Well you said you was high classed/ Well that was just a lie”, it all adds up to a real bop of a track. Rid yourself of historical baggage and enjoy great music for what it is.

41.Song:God Save The Queen

Artist:The Sex Pistols

Album:Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols!  

We all know how preposterous it was to call the Queen of England a “Fascist Regime”. Johnnie Rotten himself would eventually denounce this aspect of “God Save The Queen” as “stupid”. This whole song is misguided, crass, mistaking youthful angst as righteous fury; it is also a masterpiece. Producer Chris Thomas, with game assistance from engineer Bill Price, saved this song, the album it came off of, and thus unleashed musical forces that persist to this day. Chiseling precision rage from the solid slab of pulsing anarchy that were the Sex Pistols is nothing short of miraculous, especially since Sid Vicious could barely play his instrument, necessitating his replacement in almost every song on the album but this one, his pummeling bass lines perfectly compliment the slashing guitar chords and crashing drums. This song is forever proof that rage, however badly misplaced, has its place in art. “No future/ No future for you”.

40.Song:Through The Fire And Flames

Artist:Dragonforce

Album:Inhuman Rampage

There comes a time for any music lover to crave something deeply unserious, to yearn for the sheer act of being while songs like “Through The Fire And Flames” pop their eardrums. This isn’t the realm of guilty pleasures, as that implies that you should be ashamed to like it. No, this song is the push over the cliff that metal, as a genre, has aimed for since its British New Wave Of Heavy Metal roots. I am certainly not ashamed to be carried along on its tsunami waves, surfing astride its glistening structures. So we find ourselves at the 3:40 mark of the song, with “Whoa-oh-oh”’s hyping us up for the glorious release to come; A guitar solo of face-melting, propulsively explosive proportions. If not important, in the same sense of most of the songs around it on this playlist, it certainly is one of those joyous outbursts that thoroughly demands and deserves your attention. “And endlessly, we’ll all be free/ Tonight”.

39.Song:The Sun Always Shines On TV

Artist:a-ha

Album:Hunting High And Low 

“I fear the crazed and lonely looks the mirror’s sending me these days” The music video is stark, gothic, black and white. Is this the same band that gave us the propulsive joy of “Take On Me”?; it even opens with the death of the protagonist of that video. A wall of doll face masks appears at an oblique angle, mannequins scattered around the band as they perform inside a cathedral. The drums seem to be in open rebellion against the gothic synths, crashing through the mix with violent, precision, intensity. Those rumbling digital bass lines offer up a compellingly dark atmosphere for Morten Harket’s gorgeous vocals to cut through, trying his best not to have an emotional breakdown. While the ideal of television that the lyrics reference may be old hat, the struggle brought to life here, the personal made intensely universal, will ring true forever.  “I reached inside myself today/ thinking there’s got to be some way/ to keep my troubles distant”.

38.Song:Stairway To Heaven

Artist:Led Zeppelin

Album:Led Zeppelin IV

When we talk about era-defining works, we usually aren’t talking about songs that, quite literally, sound like ten years of musical trends encapsulated into a concise runtime. Yet, here we find ourselves ascending “Stairway To Heaven”’s musical structures; to find a plateau where you can oversee all that is to come and find it wanting in comparison. The 70’s, a decade that saw the full flowering of progressive rock, soul’s assuredness and jazz’s intricacies, the birth of heavy metal’s galloping momentums, the soft-spoken flutters of singer-songwriter pop; it’s all here, in embryo. The lyrics are seeped in folklore, telling a story of “a lady we all know”, but who we wish we didn’t. Robert Plant’s magnificent voice bellows high over Jimmy Page’s multi-dimensional guitars and John Bonham’s savvy drums. The recording quality is so crisp, that people in a hundred years will still be able to clearly perceive its glorious aspirations.

37.Song:Street Fighting Man

Artist:The Rolling Stones

Album:Beggars Banquet 

“Hey, said my name is called disturbance”. We are starting to approach an era in time where the social struggles of the 60’s will soon become as alien to us as the Pre-WWI era was to hippies. As the Boomer generation dies off, their particular circumstances will fade, leaving only the permanent record that is their protest anthems to shout across time to us in our shared struggles. “Street Fighting Man” is the sound of mass protest given form. Its famous acoustic guitars, recorded on a home tape recorder -provenance unknown- sound like flaming undercurrents, threatening to spark off a conflagration all by themselves. Charlie Watt’s drums boom with precision, his snares exploding through the mix with reverb. Mick Jagger’s incisive lyricism and rollicking vocals are the center onto which the instrumentals cascade down around. “‘Cause summer’s here and the time is right/ For rising in the street, boy”. 

36.Song:Runaway

Artist:Kanye West Feat. Pusha T

Album:My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy 

As a symbol of largesse, of staggering artistic excess, “Runaway” will serve quite nicely. It can only be described as a colossal monument  to Kanye’s massive ego. Coming off of Yeezy’s equivalent to Sgt Peppers, it is an ode to the douchebags that seemingly make all of the most exciting art. To make it, Kanye assembled an all star cast of backing singers and a veritable buffet of the choicest samples available. The “Look at ya’s” that cascade around the stereo field are just a hint of what is coming, the piano that stands tall through the whole track is a suitable riff for the king of rap to find himself engrossed in  “Let’s have a toast for the jerk-offs/ That will never take work off” . Booming bass roils underneath it all, sounding for all the world like a boiling cauldron of tension, the very tension that is bespoke to genius, of the accomplished versus the assuredly yet to be. Here is a masterwork that earns every second of its massive runtime.

35.Song:Living For The City

Artist:Stevie Wonder

Album:Innervisions

As the travesties of Jim Crow era racism start to leave our living memory, the record keeping that is soul, blues and folk music will continue to be powerful representations of the battles won and still to be fought. “Living For The City”, in particular, is an epitaph to the forlorn hopes never attained because of rotten circumstances. Its signature TONTO synth sounds are as grim as they are warm, as crisp as they are graven, the perfect accompaniment to Stevie Wonder’s forceful presence. Reciting how many sacrifices were often required for any social movement, let alone basic living, for black people in the southern US, he successfully illuminates just how cruel it is for the struggle to continue despite the dreams being attained by a lucky few. When he drops his voice to sing in a growl, you can immerse yourself in this song’s many litanies. “I hope you hear inside my voice of sorrow/ And that it motivates you to make a better tomorrow”.

34.Song:(Don’t Fear) The Reaper

Artist:Blue Oyster Cult

Album:Agents Of Fortune 

“We can be like they are”. Death is the one thing that comes to us all, the endpoint to any conceived narrative about ourselves, our place in the universe and the very atoms that compose the song of reality. “Romeo and Juliet/ Are together in eternity/ 40,000 men and women everyday” This is why “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” will stand the test of time, perhaps even more than songs placed higher on this playlist, it connects all of us, welcomes us into the loving embrace of death. It does this by bedding the cosmic lyricism in a warmth of arpeggiated electric guitars, pillowy drums, and lush vocal harmonies. The occasional melodic licks accentuate the structures, allowing the eventual guitar solo, which sounds like a person’s last rallying cry before the end, to shine. Eventually, everything comes together in one final flurry, the guitars pumping their chords in unison, the cowbell steady throughout, as the song fades out on “Come on baby/ Don’t fear the reaper”.

33.Song:Luv (Sic), Part.2

Artist:Nujabes

Album:Luv(Sic) Hexalogy 

The late Nujabes had a short career before his passing in 2010, but his body of work, on the seminal soundtrack for Samurai Champloo and in the production and sampling fields, was influential enough for him to inspire the entire genre of lo-fi hip hop. Drawing on trip and chill-hop influences, and collaborating with Rapper Shing02, “Luv (Sic), Part.2” is a masterpiece about the joys of creation. Just listen to the way the jazzy horns weave their way around Shing02’s musings on life and love, to the dreamy pianos that underpin the ever shifting wordplay. “The Rhymes will heal because I believe in music…/The beat plus the melody’s the recipe/ Your vibe surely brings out the best in me”. The giddy momentum interplays with lines like “Imagination brings bliss at no cost, when I blink blink I receive at no loss”, which interlocks with buzzing horns and record scratches, to bring out the dreamy luminosity of Nujabes’ musical genius.

32.Song:This Is America

Artist:Childish Gambino

Album:Single

Some people will insist that “This Is America” only succeeded because of its iconic music video. I say that these people have never sat down and listened to it. Submersed in the off kilter musical kaleidoscope that Childish Gambino presents as America, a paranoia fueled hellscape, is a buried celebratory air. Celebratory of what America could be if not wracked by its inherent contradictions and personal miseries writ large. This is the fuel for the gospel hooks, the “we just want to party”’s, if only the country would let them. We are stuck with Gambino, his schizophrenic staccato jibes, jungle drums and squirrelly synths. Seriously, allow yourself to be consumed by the roiling bass lines, Gambino’s ramblings and the sheer weirdness on display. It sounds like nothing else ever released, a propulsive mess that thoroughly earns its place in the canon. A truly magnificent piece of dissident art. “This is America/ Don’t catch you slippin’ now”.

31.Song:Helter Skelter

Artist:The Beatles

Album:The Beatles (The White Album)  

One thing missing from the modern musical landscape are full-on creative rivalries. “Helter Skelter” emerged out of such a rivalry with The Who. Paul McCartney, upon hearing their song “I Can See For Miles” being described, by Pete Townshend, as “The loudest, rawest, dirtiest and most uncompromising song”, McCartney took that as a personal challenge. The result is a sonic rollercoaster, nothing sounds like it even sixty years later. Here is a song whose compressed echoes have rippled through music since. Sudden, rising triple tracked vocals, screeching guitars, pummeling bass guitar, rapturous drums (“I’ve got blisters on my fingers” screams Ringo as the song fades back in) and a clearly on edge Paul singing above it all. “Coming down fast/ from miles above you”. Ian Macdonald, in the book Revolution In The Head, notes that “Few have seen fit to describe this track as anything other than a drunken mess”. Messy, yes, but essential.

30.Song:Respect

Artist:Aretha Franklin

Album:I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You 

Among these top 100 entries, this song might contain the most infuriating lyrics of all time, might is the key word here. Near the end of this soul classic, an anthem so tightly produced that mistakes seem unfathomable, Aretha Franklin’s enormous vocal presence fades at a critical moment. The volume on her track drops almost precisely on “Take care of TCB”. This mixing error, this most inconsequential of goofs, has caused most people to hear “Take out TCP”. Ironically enough, TCB is an acronym for Take Care of Business. This causes a world of difference between interpretations of the song: Wait a minute. “Take out TCP” leaves us with Rese! A nonsense word in any context, let alone this female empowerment anthem, beloved by basically everyone who hears it.”. Aretha’s voluminous presence has powered through any cynical takes on the song, especially in spite of that mixing error, we can “Respect” her for that at least.

29.Song:Go Your Own Way

Artist:Fleetwood Mac

Album:Rumours  

Love can prove to be more of a Trolley Problem than a straightforward affair. Do I choose between half-hearted devotion, the fear of dying alone propelling my answer, or freedom untethered to expectations, even though that will surely end with no one very happy? “Loving you isn’t the right thing to do” thus ends up as concise a lyric as possible for describing this situation, it conceals a universe of fragile possibility. A song borne famously out of relationship drama within the band finds Fleetwood Mac harmonizing gorgeously “You can go your own way, [go your own way]”, the mixture propelling us forward among the jangling guitars as everything comes together on “Way”, Lindsey’s “Go your own way” after sounding like someone calling out towards a fleeing lover in a taxi. This chorus, a most famous amongst famous choruses, drives us towards an understanding, if not a happy one, then certainly a final one.

28.Song:Sympathy For The Devil

Artist:The Rolling Stones

Album:Beggars Banquet

You have to admit, starting off a song asking you to identify with Satan himself via a samba beat is devilish indeed, a genre whose entire remit is to seduce you through danceable grooves. The snare hits panned to the left, congas to the right, Mick Jagger’s weird “Yeow’s”, all this just to set up “Please allow me to introduce myself”. Reciting a litany of sins and catastrophes makes it seem more like one of those Ancient Greek epic poems rather than a slightly dark rock song. The key to it all is the lyric “Pleased to meet you, hope you guessed my name/ but what’s confusing you is just the nature of my game”. “Just the nature”. Knead on that sourdough for a bit.With Keith Richards playing bass guitar, replacing the more clinical Bill Wyman, the entire groove feels like it is ever-shifting underneath the listener, like a moral floor that can’t quite find purchase beneath our feet. If not quite sympathy, then the Devil has certainly earned his due here.

27.Song:Everlong

Artist:Foo Fighters

Album:The Color And The Shape 

There’s a shapeless quality to this song that intrigues me the more I listen. Yes it is very much a Verse-Chorus-Verse structure, but the way that Dave Grohl finds himself subsumed by the mix, to the point of an unintelligible bridge, speaks to some emotional bloodletting, some confused otherness, I just can’t place its effect. The music video kind of proves my point, as it too is a barely coherent dreamscape, the visuals directly clashing with the rhythms of the music.This deliberate disconnect disorientates the viewer, leaving us stranded in an unfeeling reality. This would be too much for most songs, but “Everlong” strikes the right balance of playing in and around our emotional outlets. With a bath of guitar distortion covering every inch of the stereo field, Grohl’s vocals alternate between soothing, shoegazey, verses and anthemic choruses. Leaving us with enough hope to carry on, “you gotta promise not to stop when I say when”.

26.Song:Heroes

Artist:David Bowie

Album:Heroes 

Music production has its very own peculiarities. You have to possess the capability to really convince people that what they are hearing, devoid of visual or physical stimuli, is sincere. This is why great music is a form of alchemy, magic borne aloft on air pressure waves. Tony Visconti sensed that “Heroes” needed something to elevate its narrative of doomed lovers. David Bowie, a singular talent on his own, was fighting for space within this famously dense mixture, Visconti decided to make him fight even harder to be heard. By slowly moving the microphone backwards from Bowie as the song progressed, he forced him to start screaming to come in as clear on the channel. This caused the equivalent of a dolly zoom effect in audio, hyper fixating us on the dark star at the center of this swirling guitar maelstrom. “We can be heroes, just for one day”, we hear him howl,  for each listen, we can dream of being heroes as well.