It is about a month late to begin 'best of' lists, but in order to avoid reading Charles Dickens' "Hard Times", I am going to embark on a 4-6 part blogging spree documenting my personal lifetime 'best of' lists. First up? Top ten best songs, in my own personal and highly qualified opinion. This list is result of digging through my overcrowded i-Tunes library, rando mix CDs, my last FM account, and my YouTube history (because let's face it, as much as I enjoy jamming out to Timbaland and Nelly Furtado, I don't really feel like purchasing their one hit single together and adding to disgusting amount of money already in their bank accounts). ENJOYYYY
10. 'Stars Go Blue'- Ryan Adams
Okay, this is not even the original version (we can thank the Corr's for that stroke of brilliance) but something about Ryan Adam's unrelentingly raw voice when he sings 'dancing through the underground' makes me think back to every London Underground experience I have had and want to teleport back there ASAP.
9. 'Gagging Order'- Radiohead
Radiohead is my go-to band when I am feeling depressed, strung-out, tired, sore, annoyed, etc. Basically they just let me wallow in my funks without seeming too pathetic. 'Gagging Order' is no different. The first time I heard this track I was fighting my way through a 30 page politics term paper, highly caffeinated and high strung at approximately 3:00 AM. Thom Yorke hit me hard with 'I know what you're thinking, I'm not your property', and I remember being transported back to crevices of my brain that I never knew existed, memories that I had blocked out surfaced and came alive in vivid colors. While the initial jolt of the track has worn off, it continues to soothe me nonetheless.
8. (Disclaimer: I am cheating here because in actuality these are three separate songs on the album but I think of them all as one, plus who is counting?)
'Looks Just like the Sun', 'Pacific Theme', 'Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl'- Broken Social Scene. The first time I heard this album in full, I was 14 years old. It was summer, I had just bought it for myself for my birthday. I popped it into my CD player, sat on my bed, opened a book that I immediately closed, and just listened. It was the first time I had fallen in love. It was the first time I felt music pulsate through my every pore. It was the first time I got lost in my own head. Then this trio rolls around, and I was literally dumbfounded. To this day 'Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl' plays in my head in every major life event. I lay in bed every night, listening to this song on my head phones, falling in love over and over again with Emily Haine's voice as she croons 'used to be one of the rotten ones and i liked you for that...'
7. 'Sweet Disposition'- The Temper Trap
This song makes the list because of the memories associated with it. And because it is pretty catchy, but mostly it is because of the memories, mainly from abroad. I first heard this in Koko, a hip London club. It was a huh moment, I stood still while the people around me continued to dance and bop, float and weave. Second time: running on the treadmill in the UEA gym (gotta work my bod). Third time: making a questionable decision at Mercy (ooops). Etc. Driving in circles around a deserted parking lot. Check. Crying while looking through abroad photos. Check. You get the point.
6. 'I Am Trying to Break Your Heart'- Wilco
Everybody who knows me knows I LOVE LOVE LOVE Jeff Tweedy. This song is why. I have no words to describe my connection to this song, except that the raw emotion on top of the almost happy riffs is the perfect combination of utter sadness and satire, 'take off your band-aid cause I don't believe in touch downs'
5. 'Leavin'- Jesse McCartney.
What the heck, JM, really? REALLY. Mainly cause the thang you got behind you is amazing, girl we flying on my g-(fly) g-(fly). Pure talent, makes for some awesome car rides to and from hikes in Vincent (RIP). Plus, JM is beyond supa fly in the music vid.
4. 'Fire on the Mountain'- The Grateful Dead
I would like to thank my father for his bazillion bootlegged Dead tapes that we would groove to on long childhood car trips. This track was always my favorite, for reasons unbeknown to me back then, except that I could scream 'fire on the mountain' with Jerry, so that made me feel really cool.
3. 'Hysteric'- The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
I don't like female artists that much. I have many criticisms of them, too whiny, too pop, too fake, too redone, too lame, too country too this too that. But I have no criticisms of Karen O, my large female crush. Her style, attitude, everything, musical talent, all work for me. 'Hysteric' off if 'It's Blitz!' is to me, Karen O in her prime. This is romantic without being lovey dovey, nostalgic without making me want to cry under my bed. Her voice is real, normal, and not whiny (sorry Taylor Swift). This track makes me wish I were cool and talented enough (again, sorry Taylor) to be a female rock star. Rawr.
2. 'Fireworks'- Animal Collective
The list would have been incomplete if I failed to include an Animal Collective track. I can, have, and will continue to listen to this one 38 times on repeat in one day. While I am sure that is super annoying to my poor bathroom-mate (the walls are realllly thin, hmph) especially when I blast it at 7:45 AM Tuesday and Thursday mornings, it will never get old to me. From the opening chord to the chorus, to the rando beats to the overdubbing to the lyrics to the everythinggg, this is song is pure perfection and started my love affair with Animal Collective.
1. 'Treehouse'- I'm From Barcelona
Again, I can remember exactly where I was when I first heard this. Senior year of high school, I was tabling for banning landmines at a Casual Fiasco concert (listen to them, they are gooood), and this came on in-between sets. 'I have built a tree house, I have built a tree house, nobody can see us, it's a you and me house' was forever stuck in my head, I would sing it in the darkroom, on the tennis court, everywhereee. My dad banned me from playing it. It is just so good, so happy, so morbid, so raw. I wish that someday I will meet somebody who will write me a song like this, totally organic and meaningful in it's quirky little way.
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