Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 72

My Top 1000 Songs #472: When I Laugh

[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.]

Reaching into the darkest corners of my music collection for an undeservedly obscure track! Though "When I Laugh" appeared on the 2000 self-titled sophomore LP from the Athens, GA-based Glands, it's a pretty amazing distillation of the 90s indie rock vibe. 

And I'll admit I didn't hear it until some 20 years later, when, following the passing of frontman Ros...

My Top 1000 Songs #471: Mandinka

[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.]

When Sinead O'Connor's debut album, The Lion & The Cobra, arrived at the college station in 1987 (go WPRB!), we had the usual hipster debate among DJs. Was this one just a little too mainstream-friendly to be deemed "college radio" worthy?

But fuck it. Everybody, and I mean everybody, just wanted to play "Mandinka" every chance they got.

Live on Letterman 198...

My Top 1000 Songs #470: Do You Realize??

[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 imagine this is a divisive pick. I know a lot of people hate the song, especially those Flaming Lips loyalists who grew up with their more boisterous, noisy, acid-drenched indie rock and were taken aback by the their deliberate move into a slicker, art/prog pop style (though it brought the band a whole new audience). That pivot was most vividly realized o...

My Top 1000 Songs #469: Go All The Way

[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.]

When name-dropping the most influential acts in 1970s power pop, the Raspberries tend to be high up on the list. And yeah, they've got some great songs, though I've never thought of them in the same class as Big Star or Badfinger. (Ok, full disclosure: they're not helped by frontman Eric Carmen turning into a right-wing crank who blocked me on Twitter.)

But ...

My Top 1000 Songs #468: Michael Caine

[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.]

Madness move beyond the new wave ska of their early singles into more baroque pop (signaling where their future work would be headed--and they're still going, with a great new album just out). "Michael Caine," from 1984's Keep Moving, won me over in a way their earlier work hadn't--it's odd, still unlike much of what was being played on the radio, with a sa...

My Top 1000 Songs #438: Michael Caine

[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.]

Madness move beyond the new wave ska of their early singles into more baroque pop (signaling where their future work would be headed--and they're still going, with a great new album just out). "Michael Caine," from 1984's Keep Moving, won me over in a way their earlier work hadn't--it's odd, still unlike much of what was being played on the radio, with a sa...

My Top 1000 Songs #467: San Diego Zoo

[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.]

Beyond his flagship Magnetic Fields, Stephin Merritt has helmed myriad side projects over the years, most sticking to the general synth-based whimsical, lyrically-brilliant new wave-flavored indie rock template with various twists. My favorite is The 6ths, whose 1995 Wasps' Nests featured a who's-who of indie rock stars taking vocal leads. Plenty of great s...

My Top 1000 Songs #466: How Soon Is Now?

[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 1984 b-side (later included on different LPs depending on which side of the pond you live in) is inarguably one of the Smiths' most definitive songs, while also their least Smiths-sounding song. Johnny Marr's trademark jangly arpeggios, probably my favorite part of the band, are replaced with a swampy guitar loop with a vague Bo Diddley rhythm, relentle...

My Top 1000 Songs #465: Sink Hole

[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.]

Another withering blast of rural populism from the Drive-By Truckers, dueling guitars over a savage riff competing for space with Patterson Hood's biting, darkly funny lyrics. The banker comes to foreclose on the family farm, and you already know where his body's gonna end up.

"He thinks I ain't got a lick of sense 'cuz I talk slow and my money's spent. Now,...

My Top 1000 Songs #464: Photograph

[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.]

Perhaps George Harrison's kindest act was handing Ringo one of his finest creations (though it's credited to Harrison/Starr); indeed, I'd pick "Photograph" (from 1973's Ringo) over most of George's solo (and Beatles) catalog--with another Harrison-penned Ringo tune, "It Don't Come Easy," not far behind. It's got one of those drop-dead hooks you can hear onc...