TOP FIVE R.E.M. ALBUMS
1. New Adventures In Hi-Fi
2. Life's Rich Pageant
3. Reckoning
4. Automatic For the People
5. Up
(As comic book guy would say: "Best. Band. Ever.")
1. Paranoid Android
2. 2+2=5
3. Sulk
4. The Bends
5. Life in a Glasshouse
(The Bends album would have been enough, but the universe is indeed expanding) [edited recently: bumping "Stop Whispering" for "2+2=5," the alarmingly fantastic opener of Hail To the
Thief]
TOP FIVE NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL SONGS
1. Holland, 1945
2. Song Against Sex
4. Gardenhead/Leave Me Alove
5. Engine
(Put down the beer, Jeff, and write a third album)
TOP FIVE PUBLIC ENEMY SONGS
1. War at 33 1/3
3. Bring the Noise
4. Give It Up
5. Can't Truss It
(Remember when rap music meant something, and was actually fun to listen to?)
TOP TEN BELLE & SEBASTIAN SONGS
1. This Is Just a Modern Rock Song
2. Dirty Dream #2
3. Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying
4. I'm Waking Up To Us
5. Legal Man
6. The Boy With The Arab Strap
7. I Fought In a War
8. Mayfly
9. The State I Am In
10. Lazy Line Painter Jane
(Their EPs often have better songs than their LPs. It's one band to be a completist with; I am) [recently updated to include ten songs -- this band is too fucking good (and prolific) to limit to five]
TOP FIVE CATHERINE WHEEL SONGS
1. Delicious
2. Mad Dog
3. Heal
4. Black Metallic
5. Goodbye
(Fuck it, just go buy Adam & Eve)
TOP FIVE RILO KILEY SONGS
1. A Better Son/Daughter
2. Plane Crash In C
3. The Execution Of All Things
4. Teenage Love Song
5. Pictures Of Success
(A little-known L.A. band, but they're awesome; Neutral Milk meets Death Cab, sprinkled with Grandaddy. "A
Better Son/Daughter" is a miraculous tear-jerker, and the best song released this year by anyone)
TOP FIVE PAVEMENT SONGS
1. Here
2. Date with IKEA
3. Summer Babe (Winter Version)
4. Type Slowly
5. Father To a Sister of Thought
(Afterthought: Preston School of Industry is better than Steven Malkmus solo)
TOP FIVE SPIRITUALIZED SONGS
1. Stay With Me
2. Stop Your Crying
3. Broken Heart
4. Don't Just Do Something
5. Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
(Live At Albert Hall 2-CD set is a must)
TOP FIVE PULP SONGS
1. Pink Glove
2. A Little Soul
3. Common People
4. I Want You
5. TV Movie
(Wish they had retired before the release of the mediocre We Love Life, but it doesn't detract from
20 years of some of the best Brit-pop ever)
TOP FIVE BUILT TO SPILL ALBUMS
1. Perfect From Now On
2. Perfect From Now On (listen to it again, especially "I Would Hurt a Fly")
3. Ancient Melodies of the Future
4. There's Nothing Wrong With Love
5. Keep It Like a Secret
(So good they actually scare me. Stop it, Doug, it's creepy.)
TOP FIVE MAGNETIC FIELDS SONGS
1. I Think I Need a New Heart
2. All My Little Words
3. With Whom To Dance
4. Grand Canyon
5. Busby Berkeley Dreams
(I could do top 69 songs and not run out of clever, beautiful, self-deprecating tracks to recommend)
TOP FIVE DIVINE COMEDY SONGS
1. Gin Soaked Boy
2. If...
3. The Pop Singer's Fear of the Pollen Count
4. Perfect Lovesong
5. In Pursuit of Happiness
(There's no pop song in history I like more than "Gin Soaked Boy")
TOP FIFTEEN PHIL SPECTOR SONGS
1. Da Doo Ron Ron
2. Then He Kissed Me
3. River Deep-Mountain High
4. Black Pearl
5. You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'
6. I Wish I Never Saw the Sunshine
7. To Know Him Is To Love Him
8. Baby, I Love You
9. Unchained Melody
10. I Love How You Love Me
11. He's a Rebel
12. Love Is All I Have To Give
13. (Today I Met) The Boy I'm Gonna Marry
14. Be My Baby
15. He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)
(Difficult to overstate the importance of the greatest record producer music will ever know; a writer, a
composer, a director, and a genius. The Stanley Kubrick of the mixing board)
TOP FIVE NIRVANA SONGS
1. Lithium
2. Rape Me
3. All Apologies
4. Love Buzz
5. Son of a Gun
(What? No "Teen Spirit?" MTV has taken care of praising that song enough, thanks)
TOP FIVE JAMES SONGS
1. Laid
2. Lost A Friend
3. Ring the Bells
4. Sit Down
5. Fred Astaire
(Always the misfit younger brother to the Brit-pop movement; what's everyone complaining about?)
TOP FIVE BEASTIE BOYS SONGS
1. Lookin' Down the Barrel of a Gun
2. Sabotage
3. So Whatcha Want
4. Futterman's Rule
5. Rhymin' and Stealin'
(I don't really listen to them anymore -- Hello Nasty was awful -- but Paul's Boutique remains
one of the top albums of the '90s)
TOP FIVE VERVE SONGS
1. History
2. Velvet Morning
3. The Drugs Don't Work
4. Never Wanna See You Cry
5. On Your Own
(Richard Ashcroft's solo album Alone With Everybody is even better than the first two Verve
albums)
TOP FIVE BLINK 182 SONGS
1. Dammit
2. Going Away To College
3. Don't Leave Me
4. The Rock Show
5. First Date
(OK, I can see I've got some explaining to do. Criminally ignored by indie-cred hipsters, and one of
the few great bands embraced by the undiscriminating teen public, Blink is a genius band I'm going to have to defend in a
long essay format one of these days)
TOP FIVE CHEMICAL BROTHERS SONGS
1. The Private Psychadelic Reel
2. Block Rockin' Beats
3. The Test
4. Leave Home
5. Hey Boy, Hey Girl
(And props to Cameron Crowe for using "Where Do I Begin" in Vanilla Sky; in fact, he also used R.E.M. and Spiritualized. Hold me, Crowe, I love you)
TOP FIFTEEN OASIS SONGS
1. Don't Look Back In Anger
2. Slide Away
3. I Hope I Think I Know
4. Magic Pie
5. Go Let It Out
6. What's the Story, Morning Glory?
7. Fade Away
8. Fuckin' in the Bushes
9. Cast No Shadow
10. D'You Know What I Mean
11. Whatever
12. She Is Love
13. Live Forever
14. Little By Little
15. The Masterplan
(Fifteen, not because they're really all that great, but because they're so consistent -- the difference
between #1 and #15 is about three millimeters)
TOP FIVE GREEN DAY SONGS
1. Church On Sunday
2. 2,000 Light Years Away
3. Walking Contradiction
4. Minority
5. She
(Also, like Blink, deserving of a little explanation: I'm a way-latecomer to this band, and I only started
to like them when I saw them put on a jaw-droppingly good live show in April, 2002 -- song #1 is also one of my favorite rock
songs in years)
TOP FIVE WILCO SONGS
1. Ashes of American Flags
2. Kamera
3. Outtasite (Outta Mind)
4. I'm the Man Who Loves You
5. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
(Yes, I've heard their other albums, but the fact that four of these five are from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
should tell you what to buy the next time you're record shopping)
TOP FIVE PUSH KINGS SONGS
1. Number Ones
2. Honey Come Closer
3. Pop Phenom
4. We Don't Have To Say Goodbye Forever
5. The Minute
(A now-defunct indie pop band from Boston-San Francisco-L.A.; you've never heard of them, but go get
Feel No Fade)
TOP FIVE BLUR SONGS
1. The Universal
2. Song 2
3. Tender
4. There's No Other Way
5. To the End
(A really good band with a really good, solid career; it's just if you listen to too much of them it gets
annoying. Special props to #1 for its music video that pays homage to A Clockwork Orange)
TOP FIVE LIZ PHAIR SONGS
1. Polyester Bride
2. Whip-Smart
3. What Makes You Happy
4. Never Said
5. Nashville
(R.I.P. Liz -- how I loved ye so; how I yearned for years, and three albums, for the woman on whom I had
a passionate, mammoth crush; how destroyed I was to discover the lengths to which you have tarnished your once perfect
reputation...all good things must come to an end)
TOP FIVE ICE-T SONGS
1. The Hunted Child
2. New Jack Hustler
3. Fly By
4. It's On
5. Midnight
(Second only to Chuck D in lyrical skills and vocabulary; best of all, he leaves women and gays alone --
incredible for a rapper with gangster songs)
TOP FIVE MOBY SONGS
1. Natural Blues
2. God Moving Over the Face of the Waters
3. Move
4. Next Is the E
5. Honey
(You wanna see a killer live show, look no further than the Moby)
TOP FIVE PEARL JAM SONGS
1. Smile
2. Better Man
3. Low Light
4. Yellow Ledbetter
5. Long Road
(It's hard to consider Pearl Jam without their hype, fan base, Vedder's politics, and their long, curious
career. But try; on music alone, they've shown an insane growth in songwriting skill, and there are few choruses in
'90s American rock music as singularly enthusiastic and thrilling as the one in "Smile")
TOP FIVE CYPRESS HILL SONGS
1. Hand on the Pump
2. Break 'Em Off Some
3. Cock the Hammer
4. Tres Equis
5. Lightning Strikes
(Sputtering towards irrelevance these days, but those first two albums were loaded with pot-fueled delights:
comic, fast, exciting, clever, and endlessly listenable)
TOP FIVE BELLY SONGS
1. Slow Dog
2. Super-Connected
3. Judas My Heart
4. Feed the Tree
5. Silverfish
("Slow Dog" is another one of those desert island rock songs, probably my favorite dance-around-in-your-room-alone
infectious pop hooks ever)
TOP FIVE PIXIES SONGS
1. Here Comes Your Man
2. UMass
3. Head On
4. Debaser
5. Where Is My Mind?
(OK, one's a cover and one's in Fight Club, but these are the five songs by a band full of great songs that I want to listen to over and over)
TOP FIVE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN SONGS
1. Far Gone and Out
2. Head On
3. Sometimes Always
4. Taste of Cindy
5. I Love Rock and Roll
(Speaking of "Head On"... JAMC seems to be a cult band but there's no reason they shouldn't be more mainstream;
awesome Spector-influenced hooks and sexy/crunchy guitar feedback makes them one for the library)
TOP FIVE WEDDING PRESENT SONGS
1. Kennedy
2. Jet Girl
3. Brassneck
4. Dare
5. silver shorts
(As if they weren't enough, frontman David Gedge has continued with Cinerama, another great band)
TOP FIVE SUEDE SONGS
1. Trash
2. Another No One
3. The 2 Of Us
4. Electricity
5. Lazy
(If only they hadn't ruined their rep by releasing the truly awful LP A New Morning; but their
B-sides are known for being as good as the album tracks so check out Sci-Fi Lullabies)
TOP FIVE BECK SONGS
1. Loser
2. Lost Cause
3. The Golden Age
4. Nitemare Hippy Girl
5. Jack-ass
(You ever heard the criticism that Beck is too flippant and comical to take seriously, usually from people
who haven't heard Sea Change? Pretty amusing, isn't it?)
TOP FIVE TRASH CAN SINATRAS SONGS
1. Obscurity Knocks
2. Easy Read
3. Only Tongue Can Tell
4. Got Carried Away
5. Circling the Circumference
("Long in the tooth/ And short on wisdom/ And up to here with the ache"..."And the itch to get rich quick/
Has never been so hard to reach/ With my hands tied behind my back"..."The pearly gates' crasher/ The king's new clothes
hanger/ Skeptical sucker/ Straight man gone solo/ Drunk or canned laughter/ I'm sorry, what was the question again?"
Edited to add #4, off their new album Weightlifting)
TOP FIVE PLACEBO SONGS
1. Every You Every Me
2. You Don't Care About Us
3. 36 Degrees
4. Scared of Girls
5. Special K
(With honorable mentions like "Slave to the Wage," "Bruise Pristine," "Burger Queen," and "Nancy Boy," this
is a band with 3 albums worth of adrenaline-pumpers coated in that sharp nasal howl of Brian Molko which grows on you the
more you listen)
TOP FIVE ALL-TIME SONGS TO GET YOUR BLOOD PUMPING
1. The Raveonettes - "Do You Believe Her"
2. Public Enemy - "War at 33 1/3"
3. Green Day - "Church On Sunday"
4. The Wedding Present - "Kennedy"
5. DJ Wildchild - "Renegade Master"
(Warning: do not listen to any of these songs within two [2] hours of attempting sleep; these five upbeat
tanks of rocket fuel will put hair on your chest -- even if you're a lady -- and urge you to break any glass nearby)
TOP FIVE CLASSICAL PIECES
1. Beethoven's 9th Symphony
2. Dvorak's New World Symphony
3. Rossini's The Silken Ladder Overture
4. Bach's Air in G
5. Pachelbel's Canon in D
(What? No Mozart? Blasphemy! I realize five pieces is pathetic considering I'm including the boroque-classical-romantic-impressionist
periods [and I gave 15 spots to friggin' Oasis], but rules are rules)
TOP FIVE COUNTRY SONGS
1. Johnny Cash - "I See a Darkness"
2. Chip Taylor - "Angel of the Morning"
3. Dwight Yoakam - "Bury Me" (acoustic)
4. Floyd Cramer - "Last Date"
5. Hank Williams - "Long Gone"
(God damn, I hate country. Conventional wisdom understands that it just simply sucks -- obvious, moronically
simplistic lyrics, ear-piercing yodels, predictable, unchallenging song structures, and detestable celebrities like Brooks
and Jackson that make you wanna hurl; but every rough has its few diamonds, and I'm open-minded enough to identify at least
five country songs I can stomach)
TOP FIVE SUGAR SONGS
1. If I Can't Change Your Mind
2. Gift
3. Needle Hits E
4. Helpless
5. Explode and Make Up
(Bob Mould's post-Husker Du 1990s band that sounds a little dated today but still has a healthy supply of
power-pop)
TOP FIVE SMITHS SONGS
1. Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
2. Ask
3. The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
4. Girlfriend In A Coma
5. Bigmouth Strikes Again
(I've been told "Girlfriend In A Coma" and "Ask" are the worst Smiths songs, and that I'm not a real fan
if I like them; screw that -- "How Soon Is Now" is awful and if liking that song makes me a 'real fan,' then that ain't what
I wanna be)
TOP FIVE TRAVIS SONGS
1. Slide Show
2. Turn
3. The Cage
4. "20"
5. Flowers In The Window
(The Man Who might be their only solid album ever, but Fran Healy's soft Brit-pop holds up better
than Starsailor or Coldplay)
TOP FIVE CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL SONGS
1. Travelin' Band
2. Fortunate Son
3. Someday Never Comes
4. Lodi
5. Down On the Corner
(CCR are probably my favorite classic rock band; John Fogerty isn't just a fantastic songwriter, but
he's got a damn good singing voice too)
TOP FIVE ASH SONGS
1. Girl From Mars
2. Kung Fu
3. Shining Light
4. Envy
5. Jesus Says
(There's no other band with whom I'd rather have watched the Spain-Ireland 2002 World Cup game in a crappy
Hollywood motel at 4:00 am)
TOP FIVE DELGADOS SONGS
1. If This Is A Plan
2. Pull The Wires From The Wall
3. The Arcane Model
4. The Past That Suits You Best
5. Child Killers
(A class act from front to back, The Delgados are simply one of the best bands working right now; their entire
catalogue is pretty great, so these five are just the beginning)
TOP FIVE GUILTY PLEASURES
1. blink-182
2. Sir Mix-A-Lot
3. Paul Oakenfold
4. Hole
5. Pearl Jam
(First of all, I'm not too keen on the phrase 'guilty pleasure' anyway -- if you like it, then you must think
it's good in some way, so cop to it -- but nevertheless these are the 5 bands I'm likely not to mention when asked what music
I listen to... so I put them up on a website for the entire world to see?)
TOP FIVE GRANDADDY SONGS
1. Jed's Other Poem (Beautiful Ground)
2. He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot
3. Now It's On
4. Laughing Stock
5. So You'll Aim Toward the Sky
(What's there to say about these brilliant and witty songsmiths? Some people think The Sophtware
Slump is the American OK Computer, others say it's Built To Spill's Perfect From Now On; they're
both right)
TOP FIVE CARDIGANS SONGS
1. Communication
2. Feathers and Down
3. Lead Me Into the Night
4. Explode
5. Carnival
(I've never heard Emmerdale, actually, so maybe there are some old gems on there; otherwise, the
3/5 showing for Long Gone Before Daylight proves this album needs to get some domestic distribution, and fast; and
as you can tell, I like their quiet stuff a ton better than the upbeat pop)
TOP FIVE PRINCE SONGS
1. When Doves Cry
2. Soft and Wet
3. Sign O The Times
4. Purple Rain
5. Kiss
(He sure holds up better than Michael Jackson, doesn't he?)
TOP FIVE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS SONGS
1. The Bleeding Heart Show
2. The Laws Have Changed
3. From Blown Speakers
4. Twin Cinema
5. The Body Says No
(Only two albums into their hopefully lengthy career, so expect this list to evolve
with each successive release; UPDATE: and now it has! [sadly removed: "Letter From an Occupant"])
TOP FIVE LUCKSMITHS SONGS
1. T-shirt Weather
2. Untidy Towns
3. The Golden Age of Aviation
4. There Is a Boy Who Never Goes Out
5. Great Dividing Range
(It's OK that you have no idea who The Lucksmiths are -- somehow this Australian twee-pop trio have avoided
all press; when they came to L.A., they couldn't even book a club show and had to play a free in-store; but the lyrics
are as whip-smart witty as anything from the Trash Cans to Divine Comedy (not to mention movie-pun titles like "The Year of
Driving Languorously and Edward, Sandwich Hand"), and the toe-tapping melodies are Belle & Sebastian's innocent little
sisters)
TOP FIVE DECEMBERISTS SONGS
1. I Was Meant For the Stage
2. July, July
3. Los Angeles, I'm Yours
4. California One Youth and Beauty Brigade
5. Song For Myla Goldberg
(Salon says that listening to The Decemberists is like cheating on Neutral Milk Hotel; this is exactly right -- but although sex
with the mistress is exciting and new, no one will be as loyal, brilliant, necessary, and timeless as the wife; that said,
if the wife isn't putting out lately, you gotta get your action from somewhere)
TOP FIVE ELVIS PRESLEY SONGS
1. Suspicious Minds
2. A Little Less Coversation
3. Always On My Mind
4. Love Me Tender
5. Can't Help Falling In Love
(Well, I guess I like fat '70s Elvis better than skinny '50s Elvis, but at this point does it really matter?)
TOP FIVE BEATLES SONGS
1. Let It Be
2. Hey Jude
3. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
4. Across the Universe
5. Hard Day's Night
(By definition this is the most overrated band of all time, simply because their reputation is nothing short
of supernatural; but I'll take a dozen of the bands they influenced over this moderately tolerable foursome that fluctuated
between bubble-gum idiocy and pretentious psychadelic wankery -- a few good tunes here and there, the rest can go fuck themselves;
in fact, The Who's "I Can't Explain" is a better Beatles song than anything the Beatles did)
TOP TEN ROLLING STONES SONGS
1. Sympathy For the Devil
2. She's a Rainbow
3. Gimme Shelter
4. Paint It, Black
5. As Tears Go By
6. Torn and Frayed
7. Can't Always Get What You Want
8. Get Off My Cloud
9. Wild Horses
10. Rocks Off
(Now that's more like it; Quentin Tarantino thinks that no matter what, everyone can be placed in one of two categories: either you're an Elvis person or a Beatles person,
one or the other, pick one and that says everything there is to say about you -- when asked if I'm an Elvis or a Beatles guy, I
say I'm a Rolling Stones man)
TOP FIVE GOTH SONGS
1. Front 242 - "Welcome To Paradise"
2. Wolfsheim - "Once In a Lifetime"
3. Siouxsie and the Banshees - "Peek-a-Boo"
4. The Chameleons - "Swamp Thing"
5. Beborn Beton - "Another World"
(I'd probably like this music more if I was a suicidally depressed lapsed Catholic girl with an abusive
step-father, but these five tracks -- the #1 being a bit of a cheat as an 'industrial' song rather than 'goth' but come
on -- sound pretty good no matter how dysfunctional your family or how many hours of sunlight you get per week)
TOP FIVE CURE SONGS
1. Plainsong
2. In Between Days
3. Friday I'm In Love
4. Killing An Arab
5. Just Like Heaven
(Now you see why I didn't include The Cure in my goth list; except for #1 -- one of the most awesome songs
ever -- I prefer Robert Smith's poppier stuff, for better or worse)
TOP FIVE WHO SONGS
1. I Can't Explain
2. Baba O'Riley
3. The Real Me
4. The Kids Are Alright
5. Love Ain't For Keeping
(While I was doing this list and listening to things like Tommy, I realized that rock operas are,
for the most part, tragically awful endeavors and should never, ever, ever make a comeback; please God, no more rock operas,
thank you)
TOP FIVE CRACKER SONGS
1. Euro-Trash Girl
2. Take Me Down to the Infirmary
3. Get Off This
4. Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)
5. I Want Everything
(Remember these guys? Apparently David Lowery and the gang are still making music, but everyone stopped caring
after Kerosene Hat -- that makes perfect sense of course, as it could also stand in as their greatest hits
album, but "Euro-Trash Girl" is an Anthem In C-Major, a note-perfect epic ballad that will be Lowery's crowning stamp on music
history no matter how many Camper van Beethoven records I don't own)
TOP FIVE NEW ORDER SONGS
1. True Faith
2. Age of Consent
3. Crystal
4. Primitive Notion
5. Round & Round
(I put off doing this list for a long time because, save for "True Faith," my favorite New Order songs vary
from month to month, so tomorrow there could be several different tracks on here; but it's worth mentioning that of a ton
of synth-pop bands from the '80s, New Order is the one with dozens of songs that still hold up -- a remarkable timeless consistency
that has cemented their reputation as the kings of New Wave [he says as he includes two songs from the 2001 album Get
Ready])
TOP FIVE VELVET UNDERGROUND SONGS
1. Heroin
2. I'll Be Your Mirror
3. Pale Blue Eyes
4. Sister Ray
5. Sweet Jane
(They predicted punk, they inspired R.E.M., they encapsulized Warhol, and they proved to the world that a
rock band could be delicate and abrasive at the same time -- Also: best band name of all time)
TOP FIVE RAMONES SONGS
1. Do You Remember Rock 'N' Roll Radio?
2. I Wanna Be Sedated
3. Judy Is a Punk
4. Rock 'N' Roll High School
5. Sheena Is a Punk Rocker
(The Sex Pistols were probably more "punk," but that's just because they were dumber than their American
counterparts -- The Ramones, as the above titles indicate, played punk *rock*, and rock they did, whether it be with Phil
Spector for months or some kid for a few hours; and they influenced a host of great American punk rock bands all
the way through Rancid and blink-182; it's up to you whether that's good or bad -- what's not up for debate is how perfect
these hooks are; there's a reason all five of these were big hits)
TOP FIVE CAMERA OBSCURA SONGS
1. Happy New Year
2. Suspended From Class
3. Keep It Clean
4. Number One Son
5. Eighties Fan
(The Splenda to Belle & Sebastian's sugar)
