Hello Readers,
Today we have a very special post. The tally’s in, you are about to see the top 25 alternative
rock songs from 1995 through today.
I gave myself a few constraints to keep it interesting:
Rule 1: Its got
to be from 1995 onward
Reasoning:
There’s a ton of great stuff from before 1995, but most of the great
stuff has been decided on. As in,
critically and from fans, songs from bands like The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The
Doors, The Cure, even Nirvana are either adored or neglected. [neglected
usually by those who don’t like music… and those (lame) folks are not who I
write for.]
Rule 2: With
one very important exception, each band can only get one song on the list.
Reasoning: A
top 25 list would otherwise be filled with Wilco, Flaming Lips, LCD Soundsystem, Radiohead and The White Stripes and be somewhat boring. This also provides a constraint that is fun to debate. Why would I choose one song over another from The Strokes? That’s kind of what blogging all about.
Note: This list
does not necessarily show the ordering of my favorite bands. I compiled a list of my favorite songs
from each band. Obviously in order
to list my favorite bands I would need to judge by more than just their best
song. That being said (usually
denotes one is going to contradict themselves), these probably are my top 2(4)
bands… just not in exact sequence.
As always, if you’re my friend on facebook and have spotify,
you can listen to this playlist.
Its called “Best Songs Ever”
Abbreviated List, click for Youtube version (notes to follow):
Song: Artist:
1 FeelingYourself Disintegrate The
Flaming Lips
2 IAm Trying To Break Your Heart Wilco
3 EgoTrippin' At The Gates of Hell The
Flaming Lips
4 AllMy Friends LCD
Soundsystem
5 Comeon! Feel the Illinoise Sufjan
Stevens
6 Soma The
Strokes
7 Everythingin its Right Place Radiohead
8 OutGo The Lights Spoon
9 TheWanting Comes in Waves The
Decemberists
10 TheSuburbs Arcade
Fire
11 BlueOrchid The
White Stripes
12 Inn
Town Whiskeytown
13 TheGood Life Weezer
14 LysergicBliss Of
Montreal
15 Philosophy Ben
Folds Five
16 DeathAnd All of His Friends Coldplay
17 CoffeeAnd T.V. Blur
18 SilentSigh Badly
Drawn Boy
19 Tookout a Loan Black
Rebel Motorcycle Club
20 O.K.With My Decay Grandaddy
21 SomeoneTo Love Fountains
of Wayne
22 Obstacle1 Interpol
23 TheBest Thing Ivy
24 Walters Pinback
25 KissingThe Lipless The
Shins
Song: Artist:
1 Feelin’
Yourself Disintegrate The
Flaming Lips
Best
of Show right here. I can’t
imagine a better song. One of the
great things about music is that it can propel simple poetry into a blissful
and masterful statement. This song
isn’t too complex and only has a handful of lyrics, but the atmosphere and
simplicity underscore the message of the song. “Love…in our life…is just too valuable…to feel…for even a
second…without it.” “But Life…
without death… is just impossible, oh to realize… something is ending… within
us” Feelin’ yourself disintegrate”. I love that a band with a ridiculous
name can have such a simple and sensitive song.
2 I
Am Trying To Break Your Heart Wilco
I
discovered Wilco back when Yankee Hotel Foxtrot came out. They quickly became one of my favorite
bands (moving to all positions in the top 3 from time to time). This song in particular made me stop to
take notice. Again, this is a very
atmospheric song with an unparalleled sonic landscape. The lyrics are far more complex than
Feelin’ yourself disintegrate, but in contrast to the beauty in simplicity of that song, I find these mysterious lyrics lead to a fascination with the mysteries held within. Wilco had many
previous great songs, and many stunning songs afterwards, but I always go back
to this one.
3 Ego
Trippin' At The Gates of Hell The
Flaming Lips
I already said in the rules that I had a very important
exception to rule 2. I promise
this is the last time I break the rules (but what is rock and roll without a
little rule breakin’ right?)
There’s much debate when it comes down to The Soft Bulletin Vs. Yoshimi
Battles the Pink Robots. I
discovered The Flaming Lips with Yoshimi so that always holds a place in my heart. And when placing the best song of each
against each other, The Soft Bullitin wins. But dear reader, this was a tough choice that led me to pull
a Kobayashi Muru and win despite rule 2.
Ego Trippin’ is all about love and loss. What I see is an interesting problem… if one waits for a
specific person to return your love, one might waste all the other love around
them. Such a tragedy! This concept is so beautifully
expressed in this song. Check out
the other versions, they are also very good.
4 All
My Friends LCD
Soundsystem
That’s how it starts… we go back to your house. This song is minimalism perfected. The piano rhythm maintains pace the
entire song with the vocals and the base doing all the driving. The message is a little melancholy (as
with many songs on this list) and somewhat about growing up and leaving your
friends behind. All the songs on
the 3 proper LCD Soundsystem albums are full of win and cutting commentary on
the state of the music industry and even pokes fun at hipsters while
simultaneously becoming a hipster legend.
This song is long, but I wouldn’t mind if it went on for another 5
minutes.
5 Come
on! Feel the Illinoise Sufjan
Stevens
Finally a happy song!
This song is just full of pure joy. The beat is complex, the tone is wide open, and it just
feels like a parade. I need to know
more of Sufjans stuff, because Illiniose is full of excellent, complex, and
joyful music that celebrates the good stuff.
6 Soma The
Strokes
Soma vs. 12:51 vs You Only Live Once: The Strokes had a masterful first two
records. They were hailed as the
saviors of rock., and with the first two albums it was easy to see why. It was tight, old school, and
fresh. Julian Casablancas voice is
just perfect. The third album
included the masterpiece “You only live once” but was otherwise a
disappointment. I went with Soma
because it is pure Strokes genius and was one of the first songs I heard way
back in the early 00’s.
7 Everything
in its Right Place Radiohead
Now here was a tough choice. Every Radiohead Album has at least one masterpiece of a
song, if not more, or even the whole album! If I was to choose an album, it would be a much harder
choice (The Bends for 90’s Radiohead, perhaps In Rainbows for 00’s?). But when it comes down to one song, the
choice was clear. This dystopian
future is terrifyingly beautiful.
It often reaches the point of being my favorite song. It is my favorite song to show off my
nice sound system. Those speakers
sing from another world.
8 Out
Go The Lights Spoon
This song isn’t immediately amazing to most people. But give it a chance and it’l grow on
you. The lead singer’s voice is
incredible and their songs are deceptively simple. While I love many songs from the band, this one just has the
chill factor seconded only by Everything Hits at Once. The last minute or so of jamming takes
me to another place.
9 The
Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid The
Decemberists
So basically The Hazards of Love as an album is my favorite
Decemberists song, but I had to choose one song to represent. This one has the old school harpsichord
sound, the swelling chorus and even the heavy metal rock opera ending. This album actually got critically
panned, though everyone I’ve talked to that likes the Decemberists thinks that
the album is a masterpiece. I
agree, and want them to build another epic rock opera!
10 The
Suburbs Arcade
Fire
The Suburbs vs. We Used To Wait: This album is another masterpiece. It was hard to choose between the epic “We Used To Wait” and
The title track. In the end, each
have fantastic lyrics and build upon eachother so the choice is best left to
chance and the quarter came up heads so The Suburbs it is. This song (like the others of the very
cohesive album) is about the plight of the modern middle class American. The lyrics are hauntingly beautiful and
the melody is kind of a twisted Beatlesque number. Can’t go wrong with this album.
11 Blue
Orchid The
White Stripes
Jack White is a force to be reconed with. He’s got so much creative, innovative
energy that it was hard to choose from his career. I ended up with Blue Orchid because it represents going back
to his early roots and totally cutting out any excess and making a raw, primal
rock song. As with many on this
list, there were previous and later triumphs, but man, this song’s the stuff.
12 Inn
Town Whiskeytown
Ryan Adams voice is pure. That’s what it comes down to. His first big band Whiskeytown weren’t around too long, but
“Strangers Almanac” is pure alternative country at its best. I’m not a country fan, but I not only
tolerated the bit of twang in this record, I loved it! Again, what a voice.
13 The
Good Life Weezer
So I love Weezer, but had a very hard time coming up with a
song for the list. I realized that
it needed to be from Pinkerton.
Pink Triangle was a strong contender, but The Good Life came in to steal
the prize. As with all Pinkerton
songs, its heartbreaking, adventurously free-form and hilarious.
14 Lysergic
Bliss Of
Montreal
Of Montreal’s unbelievably catchy. The harmony’s are infectious whatever that means. One can’t help but smile when listening
to this song. After a temple of
Doomish 30 second opening, it explodes into a Beach Boys videogame on
steroids. I don’t really know what
thelyrics are about, but I don’t care, its just “bliss”.
15 Philosophy Ben
Folds Five
Although I didn’t discover Ben until the subsequent album,
he’d already had produced a masterpiece previously. Subsequent outings would see a more sarcastic and cheeky
Ben, but there’s something about the optimism here (even if he’s being a bit
facetious). And man, what an
opening lick!
16 Death
And All of His Friends Coldplay
Although its not necessarily hip to like Coldplay since they
have been uberly popular for over a decade, I had to give them the proper
credit. In the end, I had to go
with this song. What a fantastic
gentle opening section which flows into a danceable yet profound yearning
statement… This is the good
stuff.
17 Coffee
And T.V. Blur
This one came on MTV (in stark contrast to the TRL videos)
one day after school and the battle between Oasis and Blur was settled. The song could have been written by the
Kinks with its old school vibe.
18 Silent
Sigh Badly
Drawn Boy
I’ve come to love every Badly Drawn Boy album in some
way. I especially like the About a
Boy and the Fattest man in Britain soundtrack “Is there nothing we can
do”. He’s got that British lazy
genius vibe. Silent Sigh is a good
example of setting a great mood for a song. Plus its simple enough that I could teach myself the piano
part!
19 Took
out a Loan Black
Rebel Motorcycle Club
I love BRMC.
They are all about Rock and Roll and this song delivers the goods. This is nigh unto heavy metal, its
loud, its raw and the guitars tower with deep rich tones that make one say “now
that’s how its done”. Check out
the entire album “Baby 81” its my go to album for a hard rock fix.
20 O.K.
With My Decay Grandaddy
I guess a lot of my top 25 are about death… I guess it’s a
great subject for music. This one
in particular comes from Grandaddy.
I feel that it’s a strange middle aged and silicon valley’d sequel to
Weezer’s teenage angst Pinkerton.
This song isn’t heard to guess as to its meaning. Its laid out with sonic pure intent
that didn’t go unnoticed by this keen listener.
21 Someone
To Love Fountains
of Wayne
FoW are all about smart, story-driven, slice of life power
pop. They have all the towering
guitar hooks. (the lead singer wrote the title song to “That Thing You Do”) They can trace roots easily to The Cars
and Tom Petty and aren’t ashamed of trying to write the perfect pop song. “Someone To Love” is a
modern tragic love story of 2 young folks in NYC looking beyond the mark for
love.
22 Obstacle
1 Interpol
Wow, this is Indie NYC sound crafted by Interpol. This signature sound would make any
Interpol easily identifiable as such.
Yet they wrote many incredible songs. I give credit to this one as best since it’s the granddaddy
of all the others.
23 The
Best Thing Ivy
I love chill music.
These guys are related to Fountains of Wayne in that they share a
guitarist and writer. It also has
a beautiful French girl as the lead singer. Can’t deny the chillasity of this song…
24 Walters Pinback
Well crafted and tightly performed rock. That’s what Pinback is. They are kind of a successor to “The
Police” in this regard (though without the power singer). This song blows me a way. The 3 distinct sections lead into each
other until at the end everything explodes with wonderful purpose. Turn this one up.
25 Kissing
The Lipless The
Shins
Ah, the Shins.
It was tough to choose between the first three albums. This one wins because it’s the perfect
album opener. Perfect riff,
amazing vocals, and introduces the sound that would make Chutes too Narrow
Cohesive.
Well it has been a long post, hopefully you’ve enjoyed my
musings. Have a most beautiful and
blessed night (if you are reading this in the morning or afternoon, I still
hope that tonight will be most beautiful and blessed)
-James
