Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 18

My Top 1000 Songs #960: Opened

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Unlike the Breeders' breakthrough second album Last Splash, which had some fully-realized and obviously enduring songs, 1990's Pod feels more like Kim Deal tossing off some rough sketches for tracks Frank Black wouldn't let the Pixies record. Of course, these are some pretty great sketches, given a prickly, dry production by the late Steve Albini, a chance ...

My Top 1000 Songs #959: Rill Rill

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

File this one under "songs I wouldn't normally listen to by bands I don't necessarily love, but I inadvertently hear at the gym or on the radio or tv and somehow end up really liking." (See also this or this or this.)

Anyway, the single off Sleigh Bells' 2010 debut Treats is probably more of a groove than a proper song, based around an inspired sample from F...

My Top 1000 Songs #958: The Edge Of Forever

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

The Dream Academy are probably best remembered for "Life In A Northern Town," the opening track on their 1985 self-titled debut; it's a track that, though very much of the 80s, has a sort of ethereal, timeless quality all its own. The second track on the album, though, is about as 80s as it gets, from the keyboard tone to the production, an album that simpl...

My Top 1000 Songs #957: Sometimes

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

While Firehose's 1986 debut was pretty solid, their second LP--1987's If'n --confirmed that they were a legit great indie band in their own right, far more than simply the remnants of the Minutemen soldiering on without their legendary frontman. The lead-off track, "Sometimes," feels like a lived-in classic rock chestnut, something that you could imagine bec...

My Top 1000 Songs #956: If You Know What I Mean

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Neil Diamond has followed a complicated trajectory in my life--from guy-my-parents-liked-whose-music-I-was-compelled-to-hate; to guilty pleasure I could secretly enjoy as long as I maintained a sense of snarky irony; to respectable songwriter who, despite all the schlock, could craft some songs I couldn't help but respect and even appreciate.

That contradict...

New Releases: The Waterboys

The Waterboys are that rare band--ok, more like frontman Mike Scott and a revolving cast than an actual band--where I'm far more interested in their recent work than their "classic" early years. The sound of their 80s records, blending Scottish folk and U2/Alarm-styled post-new-wave arena-ready bombast, didn't always click for me (ok, obvious exception with 1985's "The Whole Of The Moon," one of the greatest songs of all time). I mean, it wasn't bad, and I enjoy those albums when I hear them, bu...

My Top 1000 Songs #955: Lust For Life

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

F*ck it, I'm gonna get cute with some back-to-back "Lust For Lives." (Ok, it's not the first time.) Though they only stuck around for a couple albums, San Francisco's Girls had that brief moment where it felt they might be one of those next-big-thing acts, at least here in the Bay Area. I loved 2009's Album (not the only time a band had tried that trick), a...

My Top 1000 Songs #954: Lust For Life

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

This one's admittedly hard to enjoy as just a simple song these days, inevitably conjuring up its associations with everything from Trainspotting (where the song's disjointed drug and degradation references make sense) to cruise ship commercials (where they make--maybe--less sense?). Still, it's tough not to still get a little rush out of the title track fr...

My Top 1000 Songs #953: Vincent Van Gogh

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

There's always going to be a twinge of disappointment hearing the first (and essentially only) album by the original Modern Lovers, an album as surprising and thrilling today as it must've been upon its (belated) release back in 1976, and then reconciling yourself to the entirely different music Jonathan Richman had already begun to produce by then and has ...

My Top 1000 Songs #952: Monsters And Angels

SoCal/UK-hybrid band Voice of the Beehive meshed the late 80s women-helmed indie pop of acts like The Primitives and Darling Buds with some colorful B-52's-styled quirkiness. "Monsters And Angels," off their 1991 sophomore LP Honey Lingers, skipped out on the quirk, opting for a more straightforward 60s girl-group sound, complete with reverberating Phil Spector-indebted wall-of-sound production. It's relentlessly tuneful, nothing fancy but made a lasting impression. Sometimes a great pop song is...