Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 31

My Top 1000 Songs #850: Hallelujah

[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.]

Probably goes against the intentions of this list to include a track I'd probably be perfectly content never hearing again. Indeed, few tracks these days are as difficult to assess objectively as musical works given their vast cultural baggage. A go-to for lending emotional heft to popular media dating back to Shrek and The West Wing and Watchmen and probab...

My Top 1000 Songs #849: Wynona's Big Brown Beaver

[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.]

Never been much of a Primus fan myself. Never owned any of their records. Their brand of 90s alt.rock, infused with prog chops and some metal, was always a bit too abrasive. Oh, sure, some of their singles were fun, when they popped up on the alternative rock station or MTV, and I couldn't help but admire their virtuosity, most obviously frontman Les Claypo...

My Top 1000 Songs #848: Fun To Be Happy

[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.]

Breaking another one of my not-so-hard-and-fast-after-all rules--in this case, my rule against including instrumentals, 'cuz, c'mon, rock & roll, lyrics matter. But this one's way up on the shortlist of instrumental tracks I absolutely adore (see also Brian Eno and Yo La Tengo and Uncle Tupelo; see also the Grateful Dead).
"Fun To Be Happy" is a jittery litt...

My Top 1000 Songs #847: Mumbo Jumbo

[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.]

I've talked before about--and covered in my book--how Squeeze's East Side Story is on the short-list of records which truly changed my life, at least from a musical perspective. (You can read that book excerpt in my write-up on the record's opening track "In Quintessence.") So, yeah, I could keep going back to the well, but I'm going to show a little restra...

My Top 1000 Songs #846: Your Heart Is An Empty Room

[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.]

I vacillate on whether Death Cab For Cutie's 2005 LP Plans is my favorite record of theirs; it's situated between the breakthrough of 2003's Transatlanticism and the stunning breadth of 2008's Narrow Stairs , and I could pretty much go with any of those. Plans is certainly loaded up with killer tracks. And while there may be more obvious fan-faves there, I h...

My Top 1000 Songs #845: From Time To Time

[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.]

By 1994's Carnival Of Light, Ride had moved from the noisy shoegaze of their earlier work to a more melodic, psychedelia-tinged Britpop that was unafraid to freely borrow from the Stone Roses. It's not a record I play much these days, but "From Time To Time" is a dense, magical track I still find personally meaningful. Sonically, there's a garage band vibe ...

My Top 1000 Songs #844: Another Girl, Another Planet

[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.]

I was introduced to Britain's Only Ones, and their killer late 70s skinny-tie single "Another Girl, Another Planet," by the Replacements, who frequently covered it live; I finally heard the original a few years later when it showed up on a fantastic 1993 Rhino Records compilation of UK Power Pop.
I did eventually pick up the Only Ones' self-titled 1978 LP, w...

My Top 1000 Songs #843: Chaise Longue

[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.]

Any time you pick a fairly recent song/album for list of all-time favorites, you're assuming some risk of buyer's remorse. Particularly if said song is an absurdly silly novelty track.
So, yeah, I'm sure I'll look back on this in five years and wonder, what the hell was I thinking?
But it's no exaggeration to say I've played the YouTube video about 100 times ...

My Top 1000 Songs #842: In The Square/The Letter

[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.]

I've vacillated on whether to count this gorgeous ditty off the Pretty Things' underappreciated 1970 stylistic smorgasbord  Parachute  as a proper stand-alone song. That record, pivoting from late 60s psychedelia on its first side to the harder-rocking direction the band would take in the 70s on the second, kicks off with a wonderful medley of interwoven tune...

My Top 1000 Songs #841: New York, New York

[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.]

Paying earnest tribute to Ryan Adams can be a bit thorny these days. There's the whole problematic aspect to his personal life--and while I try to separate the artist from the art, whether it's Roger Waters or Morrissey or Van Morrison or Ken Stringfellow or whomever, it can't help but creep in. Beyond that, his fashioning himself as America's answer to Gui...