BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

Post by Live in Phoenix »

Holy shit, I thought Vince Clarke had to be the one singing "Situation." Anyway, unusually strong vocals for what is usually a revenge of the nerds genre.
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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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BleuPanda wrote: Mon Jul 19, 2021 3:25 pm 110. Yazoo – “Situation” (1982)
from the album Upstairs at Eric’s
I remember the first week this was in the clubs in 1982. I was DJing at a club in Jersey City playing oldies in the lounge with the dance music being played in the back of the club by another jock. A guy I knew from the band "The Colors" came to the club and stayed in the back part dancing, and he was really into this record. They had to play "Situation" like 5 times that night. That's how hot it was right out of the box.

Tommy Cookman was the guy I knew, the lead singer. They were being produced by Clem Burke of Blondie.

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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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BleuPanda wrote: Mon Jul 19, 2021 1:50 pm 119. The Beatles – “A Day in the Life” (1967)
from the album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Despite the many iconic songs The Beatles recorded, “A Day in the Life” still feels like an easy choice for their all-time best.
That does seem to be a general consensus among the younger Beatle fans (under 55), the ones who did not experience them when they were current. But I can tell you back in like the early 70s it was nowhere near the top of the list of Beatles favorites among us who were there at the time. "Hey Jude" always came out atop the polls, along with "She Loves You" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and several other big hit singles.

It's #23 on my own Beatles list. I'm a bigger fan of their regular rock and roll stuff than I am of the more progressive things.


1. Can't Buy Me Love
2. I Feel Fine
3. Revolution
4. It Won't Be Long
5. A Hard Day's Night
6. Come Together
7. Ticket To Ride
8. She Loves You
9. Eight Days A Week
10. Penny Lane
11. Nowhere Man
12. All My Loving
13. Hello Goodbye
14. Please Please Me
15. Savoy Truffle
16. Tell Me Why
17. All I've Gotta Do
18. Rain
19. I'll Cry Instead
20. I Saw Her Standing There
21. All You Need is Love
22. Twist And Shout
23. A Day In The Life
24. I Want To Hold Your Hand
25. You're Going To Lose That Girl
26. Love Me Do
27. Rock And Roll Music
28. Don't Let Me Down
29. You Can't Do That
30. I Should Have Known Better
31. Glass Onion
32. I'm A Loser
33. This Boy
34. Help!
35. She's A Woman
36. The Ballad of John and Yoko
37. Get Back
38. Something
49. We Can Work it Out
40. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
41. Roll Over Beethoven
42. Run For Your Life
43. Revolution I
44. The Night Before
45. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
46. Day Tripper
47. Let It Be
48. Across The Universe
49. Here, There And Everywhere
50. I'll Be Back
51. Paperback Writer
52. And Your Bird Can Sing
53. From Me To You
54. Any Time At All
55. Magical Mystery Tour
56. Getting Better
57. Hey Jude
58. Lady Madonna
59. Back in the U.S.S.R.
60. Birthday
61. Yes it Is
62. Good Day Sunshine
63. It's Only Love
64. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
65. Strawberry Fields Forever
66. With A Little Help From My Friends
67. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
68. Maxwell's Silver Hammer
69. Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby
70. No Reply
71. Here Comes The Sun
72. Baby's In Black
73. Yesterday
74. Drive My Car
75. There's A Place
76. Dizzy Miss Lizzy
77. Thank You Girl
78. When I Get Home
79. You Like Me Too Much
80. In My Life
81. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
82. Little Child
83. I'll Get You
84. Misery
85. Kansas City
86. Do You Want To Know A Secret
87. I'm Down
88. Another Girl
89. Girl
90. You Won't See Me
91. Words of Love
92. Things We Said Today
93. She's Leaving Home
94. Lucy in The Sky With Diamonds
95. Got To Get You Into My Life
96. Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite
97. I'm Only Sleeping
98. Every Little Thing
99. I Want To Tell You
100. Hold Me Tight
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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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BleuPanda wrote: Fri Jul 09, 2021 1:02 pm 178. Neil Young – “Heart of Gold” (1972)
I just accidentally discovered this version. I don't like it much, the Neil is a favorite for me. What do you think, Panda?

It's only from a couple of months after Young's version.

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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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107. The Beach Boys – “God Only Knows” (1966)
from the album Pet Sounds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0lj3WX_5ps

Like most of The Beach Boys’ greatest hits, the complexity of “God Only Knows” is often overlooked in the popular conscious. Brian Wilson has a phenomenal talent to make dense instrumentation and odd key choices appear effortless. There are well over a dozen instruments features on this track, and they all play a key part while fusing into a cohesive Wall of Sound. You can pick out the sleigh bells and clip-clop percussion if you pay close attention, but it is just as easy to let these stray sounds meld into one. From the beginning, The Beach Boys were celebrated for their close vocal harmonies; with “God Only Knows,” they successfully applied that close arrangement to a massive soundscape.

This colossal backdrop serves to heighten the vocal performance. Carl Wilson sings alone for the first minute, but then other voices rise together during an interlude. The song then sets back into Carl alone; with how iconic “God Only Knows” is for its harmonies, its striking how much of this consists of a lone voice. The finale is just that grandiose, with Carl Wilson, Brian Wilson, and Bruce Johnston singing in rounds, each vocalist seemingly struggling to outdo one another and get in the last word. Few popular songs have ever achieved such seamlessly intricate design.
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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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Hymie wrote: Tue Jul 20, 2021 9:04 pm
BleuPanda wrote: Fri Jul 09, 2021 1:02 pm 178. Neil Young – “Heart of Gold” (1972)
I just accidentally discovered this version. I don't like it much, the Neil is a favorite for me. What do you think, Panda?

It's only from a couple of months after Young's version.

It feels way too dramatic for a song that should sound understated and vulnerable. Not that a cover can't explore, but this feels less like someone trying to find new meaning as much as it is trying to cash-in on the popularity of the original by making it more stereotypically pop-friendly.
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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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BleuPanda wrote: Tue Jul 20, 2021 9:26 pm
Hymie wrote: Tue Jul 20, 2021 9:04 pm
BleuPanda wrote: Fri Jul 09, 2021 1:02 pm 178. Neil Young – “Heart of Gold” (1972)
I just accidentally discovered this version. I don't like it much, the Neil is a favorite for me. What do you think, Panda?

It's only from a couple of months after Young's version.

It feels way too dramatic for a song that should sound understated and vulnerable. Not that a cover can't explore, but this feels less like someone trying to find new meaning as much as it is trying to cash-in on the popularity of the original by making it more stereotypically pop-friendly.
That's a good analysis. Also trying to create the "soul" version, as I'm sure Neil never got played on any of the black stations of the day. In the early to mid 50s there were many hit songs that had separate pop, R&B and country versions that were all hits with their segments of the listening audience.
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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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106. Johnny Cash – “Hurt” (2002)
from the album American IV: The Man Comes Around

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AHCfZTRGiI

Key lyrics:
“Everyone I know
Goes away in the end”

It has been said enough times at this point to no longer be a bold statement – the greatest song Johnny Cash ever recorded was his cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt,” released less than a year before his death. This was not an easy achievement. Cash had already recorded three songs that could compete for the title of greatest country song ever, by any artist. And though Cash had been making cover albums for nearly a decade by this point, none of his other covers received anywhere near the same attention. The choice of Nine Inch Nails was not as shocking as it might sound, as Cash had already covered Tom Waits and Nick Cave at this point.

The simple strength of “Hurt” is how it reconstitutes the meaning of the original song. Johnny Cash takes the perspective of a suicidal young man and transforms it into the regretful tale of an old man nearing death. This is what every cover song wishes it could be, casting new meaning with the same words. It does not seek to replace or imitate but rather coexist with the original, exposing a universal element to Trent Reznor’s desperate emotions. But Cash simultaneously creates something rare, a piece by an artist all too aware of his impending death. He sings with so much emotion, his voice trembling with age. His version of “Hurt” is among the most poignant pieces of art about mortality.
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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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105. R.E.M. – “Nightswimming” (1992)
from the album Automatic for the People

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-YHU6BwPR0

Key lyrics:
“And what if there were two
Side by side in orbit
Around the fairest sun?”

Hot off the success of “Losing My Religion,” R.E.M. seemed at a loss over what to do next. The resulting album embraced those scattered thoughts, resulting in one of the finest records of the 1990s. Perhaps we got lucky – mainstream rock was embracing grunge at this point, and R.E.M. would soon follow that trend and never recover. Songs like “Nightswimming” painted the band as anything but scene chasers. Many of the songs off Automatic for the People tossed aside a traditional rock instrument or two, but this particular track leaves no traces of the genre. Instead, a piano leads against a string arrangement.

“Nightswimming” is a minimalist ballad, and an unbelievably pretty one at that. Though not shouting out rage like his contemporaries, Michael Stipe suitably bares all as his words hint at skinny dipping. But this is not a provocative song. Rather, Stipe is conjuring a place where the truth is overwhelmingly present. It is altogether bittersweet, a reflection on a moment of finding oneself while also realizing how much has changed in the intervening years. With such a minimal sound, Stipe reveals himself to be a true vocal powerhouse. Yet it is the piano that keeps drawing me back. It seemingly rolls over itself in an endless loop, suggesting infinite interpretations of our memories. “Nightswimming” is nostalgia in musical form.
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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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104. The Who – “Won’t Get Fooled Again” (1971)
from the album Who’s Next

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHhrZgojY1Q

Key lyrics:
“Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss”

The Who were far from the first rock band to use a synthesizer, but the two big tracks off Who’s Next feel like nothing which came before. With Terry Riley referenced by the title of the first track, The Who openly shared their inspiration. They did not work the synthesizer in as just another rock instrument, but instead used it as an atmospheric backdrop. As such, “Won’t Get Fooled Again” plays two distinct parts at once. The ever-present synthesizer showcased the potential for the new instrument outside of dedicated electronic pieces, while its largely atmospheric presence allowed the more traditional rock elements to go all-out. Even with the synthesizer lightly floating about, “Won’t Get Fooled Again” goes as hard as classic rock gets.

The extended outro is the stuff of legends. The synthesizer takes lead for an extended break, all other instruments dropping out. After a chaotic six and a half minutes, this creates an unusual moment of levity. Then, Keith Moon rockets in with a phenomenal drum solo. While the synthesizer had been kept at a distance throughout, this combination reveals an unexpected versatility; the hard and soft sounds complement one another, exaggerating the other’s strength. Then, Roger Daltrey gives what just might be the most cathartic scream in all of rock history. “Won’t Get Fooled Again” is a genuine hard rock epic.
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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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103. Sharon Van Etten – “Your Love is Killing Me” (2014)
from the album Are We There

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rbnJ6nYKFQ

Key lyrics:
“Break my legs so I won’t walk to you
Cut my tongue so I can’t talk to you
Burn my skin so I can’t feel you
Stab my eyes so I can’t see”

There is something colossal about the slowly thundering drums that open “Your Love is Killing Me.” For Sharon Van Etten, nothing less than an earthshattering rumble could do justice to the toxic relationship that inspired this track. The lyrics during the chorus are just as extreme. She lists off several methods of self-harm she would be willing to take just to silence her misplaced love. Among a sea of violent break-up songs, “Your Love is Killing Me” holds a visceral edge by taking the language of threats and turning it inward. This is a woman driven so far to the breaking point that she would sooner hurt herself than give her lover permission to do any more harm.

Her vocals do justice to the torment within every line. The way she cuts short the phrase “stab my eyes so I can’t see” just to stretch out that final word, to emphasize the harm while erasing his presence, is riveting. Even worse is when she modifies the third chorus, twisting that phrase to suggest she will now blind herself to his harm instead. Few songs have so perfectly summarized the dangerously intoxicating nature of love. After absolutely eviscerating this man, she admits an urge to stay simply to avoid the pain of being without love. Few artists have reduced themselves to such a vulnerable state, yet Sharon Van Etten shows just as much strength through her powerful performance – though the lyrics reveal no clear ending, we can tell she escaped.
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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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102. FKA twigs – “Cellophane” (2019)
from the album Magdalene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkLjqFpBh84

Key lyrics:
“All wrapped in cellophane, the feelings that we had”

A true sense of vulnerability is difficult to achieve. Lyrics alone are rarely enough. There needs to be something raw in the performance to truly strike at our hearts. FKA twigs has spent most of her career crafting complex soundscapes and modifying her voice, but she stripped that all away for “Cellophane.” Much of the track is supported by nothing but a slow, distorted piano. As she reflects on a relationship, she can do little more than ask why she was never good enough. It’s the type of torment anyone who has been broken up with can understand. The following lines then get a little more personal, noting the unwanted attention she received in the spotlight. Her words paint a cruel picture of a relationship torn apart by outside pressure.

FKA twigs’ voice is as delicate as glass. It is fitting that, at the exact halfway mark as she drops the title of the track, a short burst of electronics rises and shatters around her. The instrumentation subtly begins to creak and groan during the final minute, yet her voice remains centered. She offers no relief as she closes the song with a wispy lament. “Cellophane” is a raw piano ballad, its singular burst of energy enough to help sustain FKA twigs’ incomparable grief.
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101. Curtis Mayfield – “Move On Up” (1970)
from the album Curtis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z66wVo7uNw

Key lyrics:
“Take nothing less
Than the supreme best”

Few songs rocket immediately into life like Curtis Mayfield’s “Move On Up.” Frantic conga drums kick things off, keeping up an inimitable energy throughout. The percussion alone would be enough to make this a classic. What the horns lack in insistent energy is made up for in optimistic blasts. While Mayfield sings, the horns chime in like enthusiastic punctuation. Between the verses, the horns get increasingly wild. Through the lyrics, Mayfield promises a better life is possible. In a hectic world, “Move On Up” asks us to take a deep breath and recognize the positive changes. It is a celebration of what could be.

In an unusual move for popular music, the full version of “Move On Up” closes out with an extended instrumental section. Mayfield recognized the sheer velocity of the instrumentation and lets it run itself out. Nine minutes of this could seem excessive, but this is nine minutes of reassurance and bliss. This is a bright and shiny vision of a better tomorrow, so joyous it can make you forget fifty years have passed without much changing. But even if that better world never arrives, it is music like “Move On Up” that helps us carry on with heads held high.
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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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100. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – “Bellbottoms” (1994)
from the album Orange

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlTqcshkmc8

When we talk about great works of art, there is an overemphasis of the influencers at the expense of the experimenters. Those who arrive first garner more attention than those who perfect. In many cases, the originators are exceptional – no one would follow directly in their footsteps if what they stumbled upon did not work. But what always captures my attention are the artists who, seeing the ever-evolving music scene, fuse together such a specific sound that it denies the possibility of influence. Bands like The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion exist at a very specific extreme – “Bellbottoms” may be classified as a punk blues song, but that reads as an approximation. Too much is going on here to be meaningfully classified.

“Bellbottoms” is a song in motion. The opening very much evokes the downtempo expectations of a ‘punk blues’ track, though a gliding string backdrop hints at the impending sonic insanity. This is not exactly an instrumental piece, but Jon Spencer works more as an announcer than a vocalist. About a third of the way through, the bassline picks up a bit more intensity as a wall of screaming takes over, only for the music to stop entirely as Jon Spencer addresses the audience. From this point on, the song erupts into a psychotic jam session, always ramping up its frenetic energy. After a certain point, genre indicators lose meaning – “Bellbottoms” is the traditional rock arrangement distilled into a raw force. Blues Explosion is an apt name, as “Bellbottoms” feels like a musical Big Bang using blues as the spark.
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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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99. Pigbag – “Papa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag” (1981)
non-album single

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omYKI8RJaIg

Dance-punk is an odd genre to discuss. The names that usually come to mind, such as LCD Soundsystem or The Rapture, would perhaps be better labelled as dance-punk revivalists. At the same time, the name might as well be a retronym. The stray tracks that make up the early hits in the genre feel more like one-offs than a unified sound – prominent post-punk bands like Gang of Four and The Clash simply strayed close to dance music occasionally, while bands more explicitly committed to the style like ESG and Liquid Liquid never had more than a few hits. As such, a song like “Papa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag” gained new meaning over time. Like “Bellbottoms,” it merges half a dozen stray sonic elements. However, you can see connective tissue stretching between Pigbag and so many odd future acts.

“Papa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag” is far more than just dance and punk. This is a track dominated by conga drums and ska-style horns. Though it frequently returns to the same definitive riff, there are also several breakdowns and unpredictable turns. The sax and horns occasionally skitter around each other, creating a riotous discord. Linking this all together is one of the grooviest basslines in rock. In fact, its link to punk might be the most tenuous element of its existence. But even as a pure instrumental, this rocks the DIY aesthetic, its chaotic patterns suggesting a group who simply picked up a bunch of instruments without too much practice and went all out.
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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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98. Orange Juice – “Rip It Up” (1982)
from the album Rip It Up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoqoxCr4054

Key lyrics:
“I hope to god you’re not as dumb as you make out
I hope to god (I hope to god)
And I hope to god I’m not as numb as you make out
I hope to god (I hope to god)”

“Rip It Up” is a quintessential New Wave song that could easily fade into the pack – it is a song that plays so well to its genre that it risks being labelled generic. But there is a coyness in its presentation, both in its instrumentation and vocal delivery, that has slowly grown on me over the years. The electronic bass that opens the song, the first hit to use a 303, is bubbly, almost queasy. The odd inflection of the 303 would become a definitive element within electronic music, but “Rip It Up” is among the rare tracks to combine it with otherwise traditional instruments. This creates a layer of artifice that makes “Rip It Up” as off-putting as it is enticing.

Edwyn Collins’ vocal stylings are similarly uneasy. There is a certain bravado to his voice, and several lines find him rapidly descending to a guttural bellow. Backing vocals mix so well at certain points that Collins sounds thrice as large. These backing vocals occasionally split apart as well, a contrast suggesting these voices are many and one at once. The effect is something illusory, made all the more confounding by the relative accessibility of the overall sound.

Not everything that defines “Rip It Up” is unusual – the saxophone solo is traditional yet stellar. But the overall bounciness of this track refuses to take off; as Collins sings about the sinking feeling of falling for someone, the song simply warbles. Orange Juice make all these odd choices to create a sonic simulation of love-struck anxiety.
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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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BleuPanda wrote: Thu Jul 22, 2021 5:50 pm 99. Pigbag – “Papa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag” (1981)
non-album single
I like this one a lot, and in a VERY similar style, also from 1981, this below is my favorite record of the 1980s.

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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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97. Big Star – “Thirteen” (1972)
from the album #1 Record

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pte3Jg-2Ax4

Key lyrics:
“Would you be an outlaw for my love?”

Mocking our early teenage years comes easy. It is a time dominated by pubescent discoveries and big feelings too complex to express in our childhood vocabularies. Most people I know would rather erase these particular memories than linger on them. Big Star, on the other hand, wrote a loving ode to this awkward moment of growing up. With a melancholy tone, Alex Chilton retraces the mundane details of a first love. It is with utmost respect that he reflects upon misguided declarations. Though his narrator knows little about making a relationship work, Chilton remembers the dire passion of youth. Our first loves are almost doomed by design, but Big Star capture the numbing gravitas of going through it.

“Thirteen” benefits greatly from specific imagery. Lines about getting tickets for the dance put us in the moment, bridging any distance created by Chilton’s age as a vocalist. A line where he asks his love to share his opinion about The Rolling Stones to impress her father is profound in its depiction of childhood innocence and misunderstandings. Others might look upon these memories with embarrassment, but Big Star frame it as an essential part of the human experience.

The structure of the song is essential to its nostalgic atmosphere. The simple acoustic guitar adds an air of innocence, while short bursts of harmonies draw out the emotion. The guitar solo halfway through keeps down to earth, simple and clean in its effect. Throughout, there is an ever-so-subtle change in tempo, suggesting a growing unease in the narrator. “Thirteen” is a stunningly graceful depiction of an awkward but defining time in our lives.
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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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96. Nick Drake – “Pink Moon” (1972)
from the album Pink Moon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgHdUeMHTwc

Key lyrics:
“And none of you stand so tall
Pink moon gonna get ye all”

“Pink Moon” is almost too simple. Other than a brief piano, this short song is nothing more than Nick Drake and an acoustic guitar. At the same time, it feels impenetrable – what, exactly, is a pink moon, and does it present a threat or enlightenment? The energy is positive if not quite optimistic; is Drake awaiting this change, or has he blissfully accepted the end? Nick Drake is a complex figure, but what I know for certain is the comfort I find in this piece.

Nick Drake has an unusual warmth in his voice, even as he mumbles through the delivery – I cannot parse the first line without checking the lyrics. Though lacking the chamber folk complexities of “River Man,” “Pink Moon” still feels like it’s coming from an alternate timeline. Here, he is a mad prophet who has seen too much from the other side, delivering a message we cannot grasp. And though it is clear he has journeyed to a dark place, there is peace in his company.

That brief piano does a lot of emotional lifting. It is lighter than air, a moment of pure beauty in a song otherwise lost within so many conflicting emotions. At a little over two minutes, “Pink Moon” is straight to the point and a testament to the value of ordinary folk music. Nick Drake was a man who struggled with direct expression, and “Pink Moon” reveals how much can be said through the sound of music. No clear words are necessary for “Pink Moon” to make me feel something enormous.
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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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95. Spiritualized – “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space” (1997)
from the album Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB7E1D_3Na4

Key lyrics:
“All I want in life’s a little bit of love to take the pain away”

“Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space” starts simply enough. At first, Jason Pierce sings along to a low tempo take on “Pachelbel’s Canon.” But as he repeats this opening line, another version of his voice comes in singing Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” The crinkling audio and a satellite beep suggest this second voice is an astronaut drifting in space. A wider array of instruments get added as we enter a third verse, where yet another voice is layered atop the others. The three vocals weave in and out of the forefront, helping form a dizzying, hypnotic experience. Buried deep beneath everything else is yet another verse which never takes the center stage.

The massive layering here conceptually sounds like it should create a cacophony. But due to its strong mixing, “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space” operates as a monolithic round. This is the rare song that captures the magic of The Beach Boys’ greatest hits, a wall of sound and human voices that works despite everything suggesting otherwise. Each layer is crisp enough that you can follow its trail deep inside, yet everything works better together.

Spiritualized are doing a lot more than showing off their technical capabilities. By combining baroque with classic rock and space age ambience, their choice of references suggests timelessness. This is not one love song but every love song at the same time. Sometimes, falling in love feels so immense that nothing can represent it alone. This song condenses all of time and space to suggest that love can be bigger than life.
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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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94. The Flaming Lips – “Do You Realize??” (2002)
from the album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zYOKFjpm9s

Key lyrics:
“Do you realize
That you have the most beautiful face?”

There are a handful of songs that simply roll over my emotions every time I listen. “Do You Realize??” is a prime example, a song that begins as a loving address only for the narrator to become overwhelmed by our place in the universe and the fleeting passage of time. There are plenty of love songs and plenty of existential songs about death, but “Do You Realize??” manages the impossible task of covering both grounds at once. The curvature of the song is essential to its message; by opening and closing with the same line, The Flaming Lips make a grand statement. At first, there is a suggestion of insignificance – how can anyone think about love when everything is ultimately so meaningless? But right at the end, love is given as the answer to make all these big ideas bearable.

“Do You Realize??” starts loud, almost celebratory. For the first several lines, Wayne Coyne really plays up the love song aspects. The transition into deathly topics does not occur as a bomb drop but instead a shuddered whisper. At its highest moment, Coyne says nothing beyond the title – words cannot capture the heightened state of pondering everything at once. As he then repeats his deathly pondering, many of the instruments grow quiet, leaving us floating with his words. What ultimately blows me away is the flurry of emotions this sends me. Even in the times when it has reduced me to a sobbing mess, there has always been a sense of hope underlining it all.
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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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93. Four Tops – “Reach Out I’ll Be There” (1966)
from the album Reach Out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EaflX0MWRo

“Reach Out I’ll Be There” stands among Motown’s biggest hits. It also stands out among that selection due to its unusually rough edge. The lyrics here could make a standard pop tune, but the production suggests anything but. Levi Stubbs sings with a sense of desperate urgency, and this song pushes his voice to a breaking point. As he shouts these seemingly comforting phrases, the tone takes on a dire edge, as though his love is dangling so precariously that this might be their last chance.

Holland-Dozier-Holland reached a high with this song. The trio fused together numerous distinct styles, intentionally evoking Bob Dylan by forcing Stubbs into his strained shout while taking disparate genre influences to separate the verses and chorus. As the song shifts from a minor to major key, it generates tension instead of relief. This is another love song at an extreme, simulating the panic of uncertainty as you watch a lover stumble. “Reach Out I’ll Be There” absolutely oozes with unease.

Though changing up the Motown sound, this is far from a deconstruction. The Four Tops were excellent performers, and the backing harmonies bring this together. Like an inversed “Where Did Our Love Go,” the backing vocalists lend an air of hope to counter Stubbs’ desperation. The chorus is a masterwork, balancing the tension perfectly. The lead vocals could have suggested something a whole lot darker on their own – a man shouting his love tends to be a scary sight. But the bliss of the harmonies reinforces his good intentions. The construction of this song appears as precarious as a house of cards, yet the final result is an unforgettable and haunting classic.
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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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92. Kraftwerk – “The Model” (1978)
from the album The Man-Machine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFq2pU21cNU

Key lyrics:
“It only takes a camera to change her mind”

Throughout their career, Kraftwerk have made songs about roadways and trains and robots and pocket calculators. It should come as no surprise that their one hit with a human subject is somehow among their coldest productions. “The Model” is a light take on the stalker genre, framed as a photographer who can’t forget a model who has since hit it big. Kraftwerk’s typical vocal monotony grows genuinely uneasy while discussing a human woman.

The central synth-line bubbles up and down with every word, dominating a wide space between each line. This interplay between voice and synthesizer is a definitive turn. Before The Man-Machine, their work could be classified as an early form of general electronic music. They featured vocals, but largely as atmospheric scene setting rather than a lead part. While shifting their focus to a person, it is clear that Kraftwerk turned to a more human sound. With the structure of a dance track, “The Model” helped lay the foundation for synth-pop.

Their more strictly electronic sensibilities linger on this track, the sections between verses going off on extended tangents before returning to the central structure. “The Model” acts as a rare, distinct bridge between two eras - but it plays to the best of both worlds. The instrumental sections suggest curiosity about the ever-changing world, while the vocals capture a sickening idea of how little changes about human nature as technology evolves. It is detached, but only to highlight the crudeness of the narrator. There is a bright and shiny world outside, but some have nothing better to do than lust after someone they will never see again.
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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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BleuPanda wrote: Sun Jul 25, 2021 4:16 pm 93. Four Tops – “Reach Out I’ll Be There” (1966)
from the album Reach Out
No key lyrics for this one?
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91. Stevie Wonder – “Living for the City” (1973)
from the album Innervisions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc0XEw4m-3w

Key lyrics:
“His father works some days for fourteen hours
And you can bet he barely makes a dollar”

“Living for the City” is Stevie Wonder’s sprawling, dystopic epic. The lyrics tell of a poor young black man who tries to escape the south, only to find similar hardship in the city. The early verses paint a stunning image of his family, the promise of the city acting as a beacon of hope. The middle takes a sharp turn, as the man arrives and is subsequently framed and arrested. Wonder’s vision of America is as bleak as they come – for black people, there is no safe haven. The closing verse is a desperate plea – this can change, but we must act swiftly and with care.

The instrumentation matches the massive narrative scale. Wonder himself played all the instruments and delivers all the vocals aside from the spoken interlude. Wonder really shows his vocal chops here, adding layer upon layer during the bridge until he is a one-man funk collective. His vocals beyond the interlude section find him singing with a hoarse croak, elevating the already desperate lyrics to a true nightmare. The layered vocals surrounding this sequence help form an incomparable climax.

The electronic soundscape similarly casts this as a key moment in popular music. Wonder suggests the same monolithic, futurized version of modern life that Kraftwerk would soon embody. For “Living in the City,” this glossy production is a sinister lure – the extended spoken sequence absolutely shatters the illusion, revealing all the grit hiding just beneath the surface. By briefly shedding his typically uplifting nature, Wonder managed to craft a poignant masterpiece.
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Re: BleuPanda's Top 250 Song Project

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90. TV on the Radio – “Wolf Like Me” (2006)
from the album Return to Cookie Mountain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1-xRk6llh4

Key lyrics:
“Baby doll, I recognize
You’re a hideous thing inside”

As I have dived through these favorite songs of mine, a consistent thread has been high audio clarity. No matter the genre, most bands want their listeners to make out the specific sounds. “Wolf Like Me” exists in murkier water. Each element of this song is mixed closely together, and the guitar feedback adds an element of light static that blurs the line between sounds. In this form, TV on the Radio make it difficult to look at “Wolf Like Me” as anything but a cohesive whole. This is like an inverted Wall of Sound, using an ever-present noise to reduce the soundscape. Even on the finest speakers, this song refuses to shake the aesthetic of a poorly-tuned radio.

The song beneath this distortion is suitably grimy. The singsong vocals are difficult to discern without close attention, especially with several unusual phrases thrown into the mix. The few lines that can be picked up on with ease paint a lusty picture. More important than the words is their ceaseless delivery, like listening to a madman ramble.

Despite all these noisy layers, “Wolf Like Me” still falls into a distinct groove. With the guitar playing like white noise, the other elements take a more central part. With our attention forced to the rhythm, this operates as a most unlikely dance song. The bridge is essential, the static momentarily fading while the vocals maintain an uneasy edge. This sets up for an even messier finale as the distortion returns with more intensity. “Wolf Like Me” plays dirty, a peculiar track that nevertheless keeps pulling me back to parse its bizarre construction.
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89. Paul Simon – “Graceland” (1986)
from the album Graceland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH5WVmaZFNE

Key lyrics:
“And she said losing love
Is like a window in your heart”

The rhythm on “Graceland” is bouncy in a way I have rarely encountered. Nearly every song creates a sense of motion, of course, but most work in a predictable manner. “Graceland” is not a particularly complex song, but the irregular clap every other bar creates a back and forth energy. It matches the subject matter perfectly, like riding a bus over a bumpy road. On an album experimenting with world music, “Graceland” might just be the most ordinary song – yet it acts like a thesis statement, treating Elvis Presley’s estate like the heart of American music before contemplating other hearts. This is the song where Simon perfects his own craft to justify stepping beyond.

Though the central arrangement is standard, the choice of instruments sets it apart. Little details are added throughout – the bit that always hits me is how part of the percussion sounds like cannon fire after the second verse. There is an incomparable fullness to this sound as everything comes together.

Though featuring beautiful lyrics, Paul Simon manages to say a lot through absence. Outside of a few mentions of Memphis, Tennessee, there are no explicit details of the location. Simon therefore forces a double meaning, making Graceland a literal and spiritual place. He has no need to clarify that his holy land is the estate of a rock star; should it not be obvious his religion is music? Though weaving a tale about pilgrims, this is truly a celebration of music itself. Even as a lover leaves, Simon knows music will be his saving grace.
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88. Brian Eno – “Needles in the Camel’s Eye” (1974)
from the album Here Come the Warm Jets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SWrIB75vc8

Key lyrics:
“Why ask why?”

As a producer, Brian Eno helped shape the modern music scene. Working with acts like David Bowie, Talking Heads, and U2, he assisted in forming larger than life soundscapes. His own career is a bit more obscure. He is perhaps best known for popularizing ambient music during his later career, but he kicked things off in the glam scene. But even then, Brian Eno feels less like a rock star than a producer trying to push the boundaries of popular music. “Needles in the Camel’s Eye” certainly has the vocal hallmarks of a glam song, but the mixing pushes it into uncharted territory.

The dense instrumentation is relentless; listening to “Needles in the Camel’s Eye” is like drowning in sound. Though Eno is a perfectly capable vocalist, he mixes himself like just another instrument. While playing to the very specific glam aesthetic, Eno instead lays out an aggressive prototype to his ambient developments. He simply accomplishes this while using plenty of guitars and bass. The multi-layered sound makes it difficult to discern every individual piece, resulting in a singular focus like rock had rarely seen before – where bands like The Beach Boys kept every detail of their Wall of Sound crisp, Eno seeks to overwhelm.

As such, “Needles in the Camel’s Eye” can be an unpleasant experience at first. It honestly took me ages to properly digest any of Eno’s early solo output. But, over time, I have come to appreciate him as a man who views music as a sonic playground. “Needles in the Camel’s Eye” is such a striking deconstruction of glam rock that I find myself returning to it more often than most traditional works in the genre.
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87. Mitski – “Your Best American Girl” (2016)
from the album Puberty 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_hDHm9MD0I

Key lyrics:
“Your mother wouldn’t approve of how my mother raised me
But I do, I finally do”

“Your Best American Girl” starts so quietly that I instinctually pump up the volume before processing what song came on. This is an effective enough trick that two other songs in my top 100 do the same. Yet the quiet beginning here plays a more meaningful part in the context of the lyrics. With a Japanese mother and American father, Mitski struggled to find her place in the world. This quiet beginning is an elegant method of representing her sense of lacking a voice.

As the song progresses through the first two verses, the volume slowly grows louder. Her lyrics focus more on her lover than herself, only undercutting her place in the relationship. The instrumentation plays a huge part, starting off with an acoustic guitar alone. The drums come in right as she closes out the first verse. After a slow build, Mitski skips directly to the payoff with the chorus. The acoustic guitar is replaced with a grunge-worthy electric riff. Continuing to play with volume, Mitski briefly pulls back for the bridge, only to again unleash a wall of noise upon us.

The slight turn in lyrics is just as powerful. At first, Mitski only thinks she approves of her mother. By the end, she firmly asserts her approval. “Your Best American Girl” is all about finding one’s voice, and every inch of it reinforces that idea. Yet after all this noise, Mitski saves her final punch for the quieting outro. She again expresses her doubt, the acoustic guitar returning to close everything out. This is a powerful anthem for self-acceptance, but Mitski acknowledges that true acceptance is a process.
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86. Kendrick Lamar – “King Kunta” (2015)
from the album To Pimp a Butterfly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRK7PVJFbS8

Key lyrics:
“I swore I wouldn’t tell
But most of ya’ll sharing bars
Like you got the bottom bunk in a two-man cell”

Kendrick Lamar is among the most socially-minded hip hop stars, but that does not mean he is above the occasional rap braggadocio. “King Kunta” finds him returning to the industry criticism of “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe,” this time turning his sights on certain unnamed contemporaries. This captures the bombastic sound of “Backseat Freestyle,” but where that earlier song was ironic, Kendrick uses it here to absolutely drag his targets across concrete. When Kendrick steps back to boast, you know he means it – though he has more meaningful topics to explore, songs like “King Kunta” show he can play the game better than anyone.

The production here is top-notch, built around a slick funk groove. Female back-up singers add a playful quality, echoing certain phrases to emphasize the mocking nature. After the opening minute, Kendrick rarely falls into a comfort zone, letting the instruments rise with each verse. As this reaches a high point, it immediately shifts gears entirely, the backing music sounding as though it is being funneled through a distant jet. When the familiar groove returns, it is cut down by a gunshot. After another interruption, Kendrick finally lets it play out through the end. Kendrick will give us what we want, but he knows to make us wait for it while dazzling us with the unexpected.

The whole of “King Kunta” is so musically-minded that I almost neglected the excellent lyrics. Though Kendrick Lamar can churn out heartfelt narratives on par with Bob Dylan, his playful songs showcase his ability to turn a phrase. From the wordplay of ‘sharing bars’ to the complex references, “King Kunta” is such an effective boast because Kendrick plays from a higher level.
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85. Kate Bush – “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)” (1985)
from the album Hounds of Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp43OdtAAkM

Key lyrics:
“Let me steal this moment from you now”

“Running Up That Hill” is a love song of a different caliber. Kate Bush, though apparently happy with her lover, deeply wishes to swap places so they can better understand one another. No matter the power of love, she suggests the gender roles of our society create an impenetrable barrier. In classic Kate Bush style, she turns to mysticism over a direct discussion. This vision sets the stage for a grandiose piece.

A sustained note kicks things off, serving as a heavenly backdrop throughout the song. The opening pairs a synthesizer with a drum machine. A simple arrangement, but the synth-line is striking, introspective and playful as it warbles. Kate Bush begins running immediately out the gate, layering her voice to both echo and harmonize. The song subtly evolves from there. The layered vocals grow frantic as the synth changes tone. After the bridge, an actual drum set kicks off and a guitar joins in. Both of these elements are sparsely used, popping in only to emphasize a phrase here and there. The backing vocals become a ghastly wail throughout the last two minutes. Though Bush set the scene with a bombastic electronic presence, the true strength in “Running Up That Hill” is how that bombast allows the other elements to slowly grow to life.

Kate Bush has been an enduring figure because she crafts song as flashy as they are understated. The electronic elements immediately date this, but the complex arrangement similarly marks it as a high point for the era. “Running Up That Hill” reveals that showing age can be its own form of timelessness – there is power in the ability to immediately conjure a bygone era.
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84. Daft Punk – “Around the World” (1997)
from the album Homework

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwDns8x3Jb4

Repeat a word enough times and it loses all meaning. Over the length of “Around the World,” the title is said well over a hundred times. To Daft Punk, this phrase is merely another note to play. A calculated choice, this monotonous, robotic phrase dominates our attention. Like a pair of master illusionists, Daft Punk are using the art of misdirection. By keeping us so focused on this one part, their subtler shifts are allowed to wash over us. “Around the World” perfectly balances the fine line house music necessitates – to be infectiously danceable to a fault and then shift gears just enough to hold our attention.

Not the vocals but the bass defines this song. Michel Gondry perfectly captured the feeling in the iconic music video. A prolonged ascent leads into a rapid fall, only for the process to repeat as though moving ever upwards. The other instruments skitter around this central bassline. The trick here is that Daft Punk are constantly dropping the instruments in and out. “Around the World” captures what separates good DJs from the merely passable. By relying on the same segments throughout, “Around the World” has a singular identity. But Daft Punk are also exploring how different combinations work together, spending just enough time with one mix before shifting into the next.

“Around the World” has held up over the years because it plays well in two settings. As a club hit, it is the perfect type of song for zoning out and dancing – few basslines are this slick. But for those of us listening intently at home, those slight changes make an engaging experience.
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83. Le Tigre – “Deceptacon” (1999)
from the album Le Tigre

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjNln9mXuTI

Key lyrics:
“Wanna disco? Wanna see me disco?”

It is probably clear by now that I have a soft spot for dance-punk. Yet of all the dance-punk acts I love, few lean into the punk side like Le Tigre. Formed by Kathleen Hanna after her earlier band Bikini Kill fell apart, she carried her riot grrrl energy into the electroclash scene. Like other pre-2000s dance-punk acts, it is unclear whether there was any direct link between Le Tigre and its predecessors. Part of the fun of early dance-punk is how organically bands stumbled into the sound; a punk band simply has to toy with disco and it seemingly comes in a recognizable form.

Kathleen Hanna is an unsung master of punk vocals. “Deceptacon” contains disarmingly bratty delivery, a type of rough mocking that can turn any song into a sonic assault. Yet she also suggests a playful side – her vicious lines are clearly tearing into someone specific. The song is played at a frenetic speed, yet the minimal soundscape leaves a chill atmosphere. This leaves room for the guitar to occasionally shred to life, an uncommon presence that dominates any moment where it appears.

The simple yet fast beat makes this a perfect club song. Hanna’s vocals work just as well on the dance side of things. She quotes a largely forgotten doo-wop spoof, her rhythmic delivery taking a purely sonic form. These bursts help emphasize the beat. “Deceptacon” is true to punk and dance in equal measure, a surprisingly rare feat despite an entire genre forming around this combination.
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82. Future Islands – “Seasons (Waiting on You)” (2014)
from the album Singles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5Ae-LhMIG0

Key lyrics:
“You know, when people change
They gain a peace, but they lose one too”

“Seasons (Waiting on You)” feels like the little indie song that could. The lead single off Future Island’s fourth album, “Seasons” seemed destined to obscurity. This sparse synth-pop sound might have been too understated to initially draw an audience. Future Islands took an appearance on David Letterman and absolutely ran with it. Before anyone knew the song itself, Samuel Herring upsold it on live TV. He sung with death metal growls, exaggerating the already heightened emotions. With Herring’s unusual dance and frankly bizarre vocals, the Letterman performance went viral. By the end of the year, outlets like NME and Pitchfork were calling it the song of the year.

The actual recorded version is effectively subdued. This is synth-pop at its most minimal, a few whirring electronic bits that kick the song off and then tone down almost immediately. As the synthesizer drifts from note to note, the guitar keeps up a wall of constant strumming. This is not a complex song by any measure, but the simple arrangement allows Herring to soar over it. Though lacking the iconic death metal growls (but still featuring a raspy edge), his natural performance journeys through several strong emotions. At once, he portrays grief and the sense of hope that follows. This is ostensibly a break-up song, but Herring tears through the very essence of the human experience.

The Letterman performance did not shape my own opinion – I actually watched it for the first time this morning, though knew what to expect having already seen the band live. But that performance did kick off the hype that led to my awareness of its existence. It’s a numbing realization, to know how many bands must be sitting on something great, only needing a spotlight to turn their way.
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81. Talking Heads – “This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)” (1983)
from the album Speaking in Tongues

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9gK2fOq4MY

Key lyrics:
“Home is where I want to be
But I guess I’m already there”

Talking Heads are rarely a band to wear their hearts on their sleeves. From “Psycho Killer” to “Burning Down the House,” the majority of their songs linger at an emotional distance. Even the highly resonant “Once in a Lifetime” is a bit esoteric in its meaning. “This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)” is an outlier in its ordinariness. David Byrne sings from the heart, individual phrases still surreal but all capturing the warmth of a long-time love.

The simplicity is embedded into the song’s creation. To guarantee a sense of mundanity, Talking Heads handed off their instruments to one another. Through their inexperience, they play more for comfort than to impress. As David Byrne sings about looking for a place he has already found, every inch of this song is already familiar. Yet everything is played at such an understated pace that the repetition warms instead of annoys. This captures not the butterflies of falling in love but the contentment of knowing you have someone to rely on.

Despite its relative simplicity, “This Must Be the Place” stills feels quintessentially Talking Heads. David Byrne’s delivery is among his most powerful, while the little riffs they do manage fit neatly into their particular brand of New Wave. If all Talking Heads songs were this stripped down, they would get boring fast. Their general oddity is what makes “This Must Be the Place” feel so necessary among their body of work. After so many albums with cold exteriors, this song is their human heart.
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80. Bruce Springsteen – “Atlantic City” (1982)
from the album Nebraska

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-LIEr43_wk

Key lyrics:
“Well now, everything dies, baby, that’s a fact
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back”

Nebraska finds Springsteen at his most bare, the instrumentation as sparse as his subjects are heavy. If “The River” represented crushed hope, “Atlantic City” is a place where hope was never allowed to form in the first place. The opening line finds the right balance between the specific and absurd; only those in Philadelphia had any reason to know Philip Testa until Springsteen referenced his death. The nickname “Chicken Man” immediately spins this song as a local myth – Springsteen is going full folk here.

The mere existence of Nebraska is one of those lucky incidents in music. Springsteen was trying to work on his next album and recorded a few demos to show his band. A few found their way onto the future album, Born in the U.S.A., but Springsteen was convinced to keep the sparse instrumentation for others. Nebraska is essentially a demo reel, capturing Springsteen’s energy in its rawest form.

But even in demo form, Springsteen crafts a grand soundscape with “Atlantic City.” Though he plays alone, there are several layers. The acoustic guitar is played with great force, while a harmonica pops in after the chorus. A mandolin subtly joins the mix, adding a hollow, ghostly tone. Springsteen mixes in shouted vocals, an angered echo underpinning his more subdued lead. The chorus is a desperate plea, the words carrying a tiny hint of hope cut down by his anxious delivery. Springsteen has written plenty of songs about trying to escape a bad situation, but none so convincingly suggest impending doom like “Atlantic City.”
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79. A Tribe Called Quest – “Can I Kick It?” (1990)
from the album People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D_JwgIM-y4

Key lyrics:
“Boy, this track really has a lot of flavor”

While hip hop was starting to lean more into gangster imagery, A Tribe Called Quest popped onto the scene to deliver the last great burst of golden age goodness. Built around a sample of Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side,” “Can I Kick It?” is a low tempo jam. Though featuring little more than that sample, a simple beat, muted scratches, and a bit of background chanting, the mixing creates a musical journey. Just take the first verse, where everything but the beat drops out as Q-Tip raps. Halfway through the verse, the Lou Reed sample slides back in. This verse is followed by a wall of scratching and disparate samples. A similar structure occurs during Phife Dawg’s verse, though the Lou Reed sample plays in small bursts through the first half. “Can I Kick It?” makes the most out of a small set.

Then you get to the rhyme scheme. During Q-Tip’s verse, he rhymes with the same vowel sound every line, but subtly shifts the closing consonant. Each line hits with emphasis from the previous. Phife Dawg follows this with an even stronger two-syllable scheme. As far as pure rhyming goes, this is among the best music has to offer. The laidback presentation makes this all easy to digest, as if the Tribe really just wants to show off. But just to make sure everyone is playing along, the chorus is a simple yet effective call and response. This is a party song through and through, a vital dose from an era when hip hop was all about fun.
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78. Joy Division – “Atmosphere” (1980)
non-album single

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EdUjlawLJM

Key lyrics:
“Your confusion, my illusion
Worn like a mask of self-hate, confronts and then dies”

“Atmosphere” is a difficult song to digest, impossible to separate from Ian Curtis’s suicide. This song was released as a single soon after and feels uncomfortably like a self-requiem. Even without this exterior knowledge, “Atmosphere” hits with unusual gravity. The drums give a sense of stumbling over and over again, one of the most striking beats in all of rock. Outside of Ian Curtis’s tragic life, a sad truth about Joy Division is that the other members often get overlooked despite forming New Order. Curtis’s vocals are powerful, but Stephen Morris gives “Atmosphere” and so much of Closer its weight.

Of course, “Atmosphere” is among their best tracks because Ian Curtis delivers the strongest vocals of his career. The range he shows during the third verse is mesmerizing, with the penultimate shout of “don’t walk away” coming across as a most despairing demand. Every line in this song is extended, Ian Curtis inching out every last drop of emotional vulnerability.

Despite the dark atmosphere, “Atmosphere” is not without hope. Bernard Sumner’s keyboard comes in after the first verse and gives a meditative touch. When discussing the works of suicidal artists, it is key to remember that they were still alive while making their art. If Ian Curtis had not committed suicide, this would be remembered in a very different light – a depressed man finding his voice and speaking up. Though Curtis did not win his battle, his works have lingered in the popular conscious for his ability to so perfectly express what is rarely said. In my darkest times, songs like “Atmosphere” remind me I am not alone in my troubles.
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77. Björk – “Hyperballad” (1995)
from the album Post

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kye1TOlAWWw

Key lyrics:
“I imagine what my body would sound like
Slamming against those rocks
And when it lands
Will my eyes be closed or open?”

Though layered in complexities, “Hyperballad” might just be Björk’s most straightforwardly beautiful song. Like many great Björk songs, it fuses together a string section and electronic elements to create something both classical and futuristic. The big difference is that “Hyperballad” largely lacks the tension between these distinct sounds. Both are used to make something positively uplifting. There is a hint of conflict with the heavy bass that opens the song, but a spurt of electronic beats during the chorus puts the mood at ease. The central contrast here is between the meditative verses and the joyous chorus, but they work together in perfect harmony.

The lyrics are evocative, seemingly counter to the majestic soundscape by line but making a beautiful whole. This is a violent song, finding Björk tossing objects over a cliff and ultimately imagining throwing herself off as well. She is invoking the ‘call of the void,’ those nightmarish considerations which cross our minds solely as reminders of their own possibilities. But she finds reassurance in these dark thoughts, recognizing her actual place in the world as far more comforting. “Hyperballad” finds happiness in the absence of darkness.

“Hyperballad” is also a strong slice of early electronic-infused pop music. The beats that dominate the chorus are ready for the dancefloor, a pulse-pounding rhythm that suggest Björk is being carried away by thoughts of her lover. Yet while celebrating love, Björk focuses exclusively on moments of being alone. Just like the quiet ballad and electronic pop sections support each other without intersecting, Björk finds strength through love even on her own.
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76. Wilco – “Jesus, Etc.” (2002)
from the album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efq95Pfqt5U

Key lyrics:
“Our love is all of God’s money
Everyone is a burning sun”

Though the apparent 9/11 references were entirely incidental, the song being written before that day, “Jesus, Etc.” perfectly captured the spirit of America in the following years. This is Americana at its most melancholic, picturing skyscrapers packed together while the people inside could not feel further apart. The narrator comforts someone overwhelmed by this idea, of a place so dense yet cold. And his words are comforting, positing each and every one of us as a sun, first setting but then burning. Though we may feel as though we are drifting alone, we burn bright enough to make it through.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot captures a band in transition. Though Wilco started as an alternative country band, Jeff Tweedy wanted to push the group in bold new directions. The resulting album feels like a tour of possibilities, somehow managing a unified sound while each individual part takes a distinct direction. “Jesus, Etc.” is the sad violin song of the bunch, and its success is one of simple beauty. Wilco took an underutilized instrument and crafted a bold song around its potential in an uncommon style. All a great song needs sometimes is the right instrument.

The key to “Jesus, Etc.” is how ordinary the violin sounds with the rest of the instruments. Much of the popular music that uses this instrument is doing so to create an elevated sound, to suggest something classical. The part in “Jesus, Etc.” is clearly written by a guitarist, focused more on forming a central riff. This down-to-earth structure captures the violin in a rare light, causing the whole song to shine with it.
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75. The Jesus and Mary Chain – “Just Like Honey” (1985)
from the album Psychocandy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EgB__YratE

Key lyrics:
“Walking back to you
Is the hardest thing that
I can do”

The noise pop sound of The Jesus and Mary Chain borders on paradox. As the band sifts through heavy guitar feedback, they somehow capture an understated calm. Part of this is in the droll vocal stylings of Jim Reid, singing half-energetically as if a chaotic force isn’t brewing behind him. Another part is the “Be My Baby” drums that open the song, casting a steady beat that overpower the noise in its own way. This is another engineering success story, the mix putting these elements at the same level and letting them interact in seemingly contradictory ways.

While writing about The Cure, I mentioned that their dark edge gives a heightened sense of sincerity to their fluffier pieces. “Just Like Honey” works on a similar level, but The Jesus and Mary Chain captures sonic unease with loving sentimentality in the same breath. The feedback operates like butterflies in the stomach, a flittering sickly feeling. It’s a love song, sure, but one in which the narrator knows his love is not good for him as he desperately clings anyway.

If anything, “Just Like Honey” cites “Be My Baby” to declare itself the logical conclusion of Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound. The Jesus and Mary Chain are asking whether a cascade of instruments is necessary, or could simple guitar feedback simulate the constant presence? The answer appears to be yes – no matter how noisy, the feedback takes a backseat to the typical song structure. “Just Like Honey” is an ordinary pop song grimed up for the 80s alternative scene.
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74. David Sylvian and Ryuichi Sakamoto – “Forbidden Colours” (1983)
from the album Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence OST

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1YkHJJi-tc

Key lyrics:
“I’ll go walking in circles while doubting the very ground beneath me”

“Forbidden Colours” is an exemplary film track, a bombastic scene-stealer that should be on the same cultural level as “My Heart Will Go On” or “I Will Always Love You.” Alas, the film to which it is attached was destined to obscurity, so it never received its moment in the spotlight. The song is the vocal version of the main theme, which itself has become a minor Christmas classic. Sakamoto’s ambient soundscape suggests an introspective wintry mood, like walking through the snow-blanketed woods. It captures the best qualities of modern Japanese film scores – Joe Hisaishi, the composer for most of Miyazaki’s films, had been inspired by Sakomoto’s earlier band, and “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” could just as easily have appeared in one of those majestic films.

Like Julee Cruise’s “Falling,” David Sylvian’s “Forbidden Colours” recontextualizes a gentle theme into a love song. In this case, the song oozes with tension. Taking its title from a Yukio Mishima novel, Sylvian evokes homoromantic desires without so much as mentioning his love’s gender. One can read shame in the lyrics, considering Sylvian’s insistent use of ‘my love’ to refer to this other person. There is a crisis of faith, which Sylvian matches with crushing passion. Few songs so perfectly capture the tragedy of falling for someone you are not allowed – though less taboo in this era, Sylvian’s powerful vocals echo so much unspoken historical grief. The result is something ageless. Though the instrumental version is meditative alone, it transforms into something altogether haunting and otherwordly when paired with Sylvian.
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73. Fleetwood Mac – “Go Your Own Way” (1976)
from the album Rumours

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ul-cZyuYq4

Key lyrics:
“If I could, maybe I’d give you my world
How can I when you won’t take it from me?”

Rumours hits harder than pretty much every other breakup album because it captures both sides. “Go Your Own Way” finds Lindsey Buckingham casually lashing out, all while ex-lover Stevie Nicks is forced to sing along. Though the verses cut through Nicks specifically, the chorus is a classic burst of catharsis for everyone involved. Despite breakups causing a flurry of emotions, many songs reduce this to sadness or anger. “Go Your Own Way” instead captures the flippant glee of telling an ex to sod off, but not with so much force as to suggest they saw nothing of value in their relationship. Rather, this is the lonely cry of someone who felt like they weren’t getting what they deserved, grinning through their pain just to show they can move on.

Part of the appeal is that Fleetwood Mac were doing this soft rock sound right as punk was taking off. But in spite of their lighter music, Fleetwood Mac suggested something just as raw in their emotions as those young men did with their simple instrumentation. If the punk movement was largely a rejection of artifice, Fleetwood Mac made an unlikely companion to the era.

“Go Your Own Way” is also a structural masterpiece. The heavy acoustic strumming of the verses plays perfectly against the cohesive gliding of the chorus. In lieu of additional verses, the last two choruses are divided by two guitar solos. Despite the emotional complexity, Fleetwood Mac do not fall back on lyrics; there really aren’t many lines on this track. Instead, they let the instruments do the talking. And though these solos might not have the sonic intensity of a hard rocker, they express heavy emotions.
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72. Elton John – “Your Song” (1970)
from the album Elton John

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT3D1Cu6g10

Key lyrics:
“I hope you don’t mind, I hope you don’t mind
That I put down in words
How wonderful life is while you’re in the world”

Though Elton John has had a long and illustrious career, nothing hits quite like his breakthrough single. “Your Song” is about as perfect as a traditional love song can be. The lyrics are sincerely effective, any sense of sentimentality cut down by Elton’s delivery of humbling lines. As he begins a metaphor about a sculptor, he laughs and stops himself. There is a sense of self-awareness about this song, which adds to the sincerity as Elton belts out the heartfelt chorus. This is a song that has brought me tears of joy, and even when I find myself between relationships, it remains a striking reminder of the power of love. No declaration of love hits me as hard as those key lines above. The fact this was written by a teenager and performed by a closeted man only reinforces the sense Taupin and Elton tapped into a universal idea.

The arrangement allows Elton’s vocals to remain front and center. During the opening, the piano takes up most of the soundscape, with the gentle strum of a guitar adding light punctuation. This is a song that swells as Elton gets caught up in his emotions. The second verse adds percussion, giving a rising sense of motion. “Your Song” is an exercise in how to subtly expand a quiet ballad into a showstopper. Though Elton is practically shouting by the end, there is no sense of detachment from that quiet opening. The lyrics are phenomenal, but the steadily rising emotional delivery makes “Your Song” a true masterpiece.
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71. John Cale – “Paris 1919” (1973)
from the album Paris 1919

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5YHqWqhFkU

Key lyrics:
“She makes me so unsure of myself”

Though consistently overshadowed by Lou Reed in the popular sphere, John Cale’s solo career deserves just as much attention. “Paris 1919” lacks the aggression of Cale’s work with The Velvet Underground, but his sense of exploration remains. The Beach Boys and The Beatles had already made great strides in establishing baroque pop, but John Cale dived deeper into the baroque side of the equation. Where songs like “Eleanor Rigby” and “God Only Knows” sounded like modern pop with classical instruments, “Paris 1919” sounds like a bona fide period piece. It is a song that feels particularly difficult to place, too elaborate for the time of its setting but showing no signs of the 1970s either. Like Nick Drake’s “River Man” or Vashti Bunyan’s “Diamond Day,” “Paris 1919” is a portal to an alternate realm where popular music took a distinct turn somewhere far in the past.

Picking apart any individual element is difficult. No instrument comes off as particularly complex in its arrangement, but the simple volume of instruments is the striking point. Just as the song seems to be settling into a familiar groove, it trails off into a brief ambient atmosphere. Despite the difficult lyrics, the whole piece comes off as a celebratory parade. Cale keeps a sing-song cadence, descending into a string of ‘la la las’ during the chorus. Though the total soundscape is something massive, Cale’s vocals turn this into an accessible and catchy tune. “Paris 1919” is pure atmosphere, showcasing a magical ability for music to transport us to another time and place.
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70. Phoebe Bridgers – “Kyoto” (2020)
from the album Punisher

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw0zYd0eIlk

Key lyrics:
“I wanted to see the world
Then I flew over the ocean
And I changed my mind”

There are few things in life more underwhelming than achieving a lifelong dream and realizing little has changed. With Bridgers’ depressive lyrics, the horn-heavy “Kyoto” feels like an inverse of Sufjan Stevens’ “Chicago.” Both songs take the idea of visiting a distant city as an act of self-discovery, but where Sufjan found freedom, Phoebe Bridgers gets caught up in the anxiety of her home life. It is a simple yet blunt realization – our inner demons cannot be escaped through physical movement.

After the first verse, the song shifts gears almost exclusively to her abusive father. She finds herself in a contradictory bubble, hating him but also fearing for him. Her specific imagery paints a stark picture of a man who halfheartedly tries to connect, and Bridgers sounds frustrated with herself for returning that same energy. “Kyoto” so perfectly captures the pressure to try and relate to family members, no matter what they have done. Changes in phrasing between the two choruses are so vital, linking the two central thoughts together.

With all these depressing ideas, the fact “Kyoto” comes off as such an uplifting song is a testament to its vibrant soundscape. The instrumentation grows increasingly dense and energetic as it progresses; while Kyoto did not provide the easy answers Bridgers desires, she has at least learned something. “Kyoto” in many ways feels like a rejection of her signature brooding. Instead of stewing in her disappointment, she has grown from it. She may end the song by repeatedly calling herself a liar, but the self-awareness of that statement shows room for change that no visit to a city can provide.
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69. Arctic Monkeys – “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” (2005)
from the album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYpn8yUnX_c

Key lyrics:
“Stop making the eyes at me
I’ll stop making the eyes at you
What it is that surprises me
Is that I don’t really want you to”

Arctic Monkeys may have arrived at the tail-end of the garage rock revival era, but they kicked off their career with one of the most iconic songs of the movement. “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” is about as frantic as rock comes, thrash-worthy despite never sounding anything close to metal. The lyrics suggest little more than lusting after cheap sex but add to the sickly barroom feel the band thrives on. Further, the numerous references help play up the bawdy delivery, a sonic encapsulation of young men trying to work their way into bed by being a tiny bit clever.

“I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” is really as straightforward as that. Few bands, whether punk or otherwise, have truly tapped upon the fast but simple ideology Ramones established quite like Arctic Monkeys on their debut hit. This is one of those rare modern rock songs that preys upon some primal appeal. The clanging guitar and Alex Turner’s harsh delivery lend this the skeeviest atmosphere, one of those songs that so perfectly simulates a mood that you somehow embrace the negative associations. It calls up memories of young men visiting clubs for the first time, as confident as they are completely out of their element.

Despite never being one of those young straight men, “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” speaks to me. The rawness of Arctic Monkeys’ performance captures a universally recognizable passion. One can only hope to feel this intense about anything.
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68. Primal Scream – “Higher Than the Sun” (1991)
from the album Screamadelica

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpvccejvVng

Key lyrics:
“Hallucinogens can open me or untie me”

Most bands try to be clever while talking about drug use, leading to a world where any song that might be about drugs is assumed as such. “Higher Than the Sun” cuts straight to the point, directly referencing hallucinogens before Bobby Gillespie rambles about spiritual enlightenment. This track takes itself so seriously that it could have been laughable, but Primal Scream bring the sonic elements to back up its grandiose claims. Even today, there are few songs that sound anything like this. “Higher Than the Sun” blends together psychedelia, ambient, and downtempo electronic to make something distinct among its many parts. It opens with a series of slow explosions and expands into a collage of stray sounds, chanted woos sounding like tripped out owls which cast the whole experience as a trek through a neon forest.

The effect this song has had on me is hard to describe. I have never done drugs nor do I care to try, but the pure sonic ambience of this track pulls me in like nothing else. Though I don’t have synesthesia, this song manages to bring to mind a specific and hallucinatory array of colors. I can count the number of songs that have consistently had this effect on one hand, so “Higher Than the Sun” belongs to an elite group. As such, this is one of those cases where I have no idea whether this song speaks to anyone else in the way it does me. Whatever the case, the mesmerizing soundscape on display here is essential.
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67. The War on Drugs – “Red Eyes” (2013)
from the album Lost in the Dream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LmX5c7HoUw

Key lyrics:
“I would keep you here, but I can’t”

The War on Drugs are obvious about their influences, “Red Eyes” being the best heartland rock song this side of Bruce Springsteen. But to command a familiar sound decades after it is established requires a finer touch. Though this captures the propulsive energy of an escape song, The War on Drugs balances a soft ambience atop their traditional rock arrangement. Those opening notes suggest something colossal, setting a tension for the building wall of sound to capitalize upon. Few songs expand so convincingly.

The song opens with a sustained synth, followed by a simple pairing of drums and guitar. The opening suggests a mellow piece, with several moments where the guitar pulls back, leaving just the quiet synth and a heavy beat. But then Adam Granduciel leads into the chorus with an explosive shout, the hardest hitting exclamation in music since the end of “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” The lead guitar picks up a heavy riff while a handful of instruments add to the wall. Granduciel’s vocals become so layered they border on incomprehensible. Right as everything takes off, “Red Eyes” takes an extended bridge, again reducing itself largely to the beat and muted ambience. The various instruments are slow to ramp up again, but the effect is like kicking the dust up while barreling down a country road.

“Red Eyes” is not a song I liked at first. It is a slow build without so much a payoff as a steady flow. But the more I listened, the more I fell into its unique rhythm. Though easiest to compare to Springsteen, the true success here is its subtle touch of dream pop. Granduciel’s “woo” is the finest of wake up calls, effortlessly bridging two wildly different genres.
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66. Mitski – “Nobody” (2018)
from the album Be the Cowboy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qooWnw5rEcI

Key lyrics:
“Give me one good movie kiss
And I’ll be alright”

Some songs just come out at the perfect time in your life. Be the Cowboy dropped right before I asked for my divorce, and “Nobody” took on the role of an immediate comfort jam. Worse yet is the more universal role it has taken on amid the COVID-19 pandemic – the opening lines referencing being so lonely as to open a window in the hopes of hearing passing strangers feels all too relevant. Like “B.O.B.” during the early 2000s, “Nobody” feels disarmingly prescient.

Even without that strange coincidence, “Nobody” first clicked because it so expertly captures the feeling of loneliness. In the first half, Mitski asks for an ‘honest’ kiss; this turns into a ‘movie’ kiss by the second. Even a simulation is better than the nothing she has. The chorus is legendary in its simplicity, taking on one word but delivering it in so many different ways. By the end, each syllable of ‘nobody’ is dragged out until it no longer feels whole. This is a cry of absolute despair.

Naturally, such a dire theme is paired with much happier music. The song opens with a skittering drum pattern, immediately casting this as an indie disco jam. Mitski plays this up throughout the first half, all the sonic dissonance of a New Wave track. There’s even a double-clap during the second verse to really drill it in. But then we get to the extended chorus, where Mitski repeats ‘nobody’ for an entire minute. The music just keeps rising, the disco beat morphing into an aggressive anxiety attack – “Nobody” is no longer playing at New Wave irony, suggesting Mitski can no longer force the façade. This is an expertly aching song, dangerously catchy enough that I keep returning despite all the pain.
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