2008年 12月 20日 土曜日 17:58
The other day , my external hard drive finally arrived in the mail. I’d been planning on getting one for at least a year, and I actually picked out the one I wanted when I was home in August, but for whatever reason I didn’t get around to actually buying it until this Monday. I bought it so I’d have a place to put all my music files, as they’ve been clogging up my internal hard drive for some time.
It’s worked fine (to delete all your music files while hoping that the one on your external h.d. will work is to know fear) but it had an unintended consequence—since I copied rather than directly moved all my files onto the e.h.d., they’re technically different files. Because of this, all the listening data iTunes had stored up vanished.
Thankfully, I foresaw this so I tried to save a bit of that data. Knowing that stuff is really fascinating—if you have no life, that is—and I didn’t want to lose everything iTunes knew about my listening habits since July 2, 2005, the day I got my computer. I saved some of the information, and I decided that I’d put part of it—my most listened songs—on last.fm as a kind of repository of my favorite music from between July 2005 and October 2008. So here goes: they’re in order of most listened, and I set the cutoff at 25 listens (which is what the last 2 have). The way iTunes works is pretty different from last.fm, it records what you listen to only after you’ve finished the song, so there is no pretense to accuracy in this, especially since it’s also not tracking what I listened to on CD, the internet, vinyl or the radio. Still, it’s kinda fun:
1. “Since I Left You” The Avalanches added 3/28/06 7:00 PM last listened 9/6/08 7:15 PM
It’s not at all surprising to me that this would be the song I’ve listened to the most in the past 40 months—it might be my favorite song. It’s just so full of life, so ecstatic just to be music. It’s as if Brian Wilson and DJ Shadow collaborated and came up with something better than either was capable of on their own (if that's possible).
2. “Angel Gone” Beat Happening added 1/23/08 12:36 PM last listened 9/18/08 2:20 PM
Probably the last song Beat Happening will ever record, a single released in 2000, it nails everything that made the band great—vocals both coy and angry with rudimentary yet perfect guitar and drums accompaniment. When Calvin brings the song back after it sounds like it’s over he kills every time.
3. “The Perfect Kiss” New Order Low-Life added 12/8/05 4:02 PM last listened 9/20/08 1:05 PM
Also maybe my favorite song. I wouldn’t pretend I could describe it.
4. “Freak Scene” Dinosaur Jr added 5/29/07 last listened 10/4/08 5:00 PM
Nathan blogged about Dinosaur once and mentioned how it sounds like J Mascis crams 500 different hooks into this song, and that sounds right to me. The poppiest Dinosaur songs—this one, “The Wagon”, maybe “Not You Again”—get the noise to pop ratio right in a way Sonic Youth never even did. I’d bet everyone has a “Sometimes I don’t thrill you/Sometimes I think I’ll kill you/Just don’t let me fuck up will you/Cuz when I need a friend it’s still you” relationship in their life.
5. “Waterloo Sunset” The Kinks added 12/8/05 3:49 PM last listened 5/27/08 2:34 PM
A perfect and melancholy pop tune from a man who wrote a lot of perfect songs in his day. I’m fascinated by it, obviously, but it’s always seemed as if it could be slightly better.
6. “Volver A Comenzar” Café Tacuba added 11/13/07 3:21 PM last listened 8/27/08 2:32 AM
I believe I already waxed poetic about this one. It’s fucking incredible.
7. “Crumble” Dinosaur Jr added 5/2/07 3:16 PM last listened 10/9/08 2:11 PM
From the first second on, you know something’s a bit different about the reunited Dinosaur. There’s honesty rather than obfuscation (which, deep down was always about honesty itself). But it seems to me that J’s guitar here matches his voice uncannily.
8. “This Charming Man” The Smiths added 12/18/05 6:20 PM last listened 12/16/07 11:00 PM
The song that hooked me on The Smiths. It’s all there—Johnny Marr’s lighter than air guitar, Moz’s charmingly troubled persona.
9. “We're Not Alone” Dinosaur Jr added 5/2/07 3:18 PM last listened 9/20/08 1:16 PM
The second of many songs you will see from “Beyond”. It personifies “Ear bleeding country” pretty darn well.
10. “Midnight In A Perfect World” DJ Shadow added 1/27/06 last listened 7/31/08 2:22 AM
I’ve already overused the word “perfect” but I’ll go ahead and say it—“Midnight In A Perfect World” is a, uh, perfect song in a way that only two other songs I’ve ever heard are (those being the first song on this list and The Beach Boys' “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”). The noise that begins the track—I don’t know what it’s a sample of and I couldn’t possibly begin to describe it—is just fascinating. Everything else is in the right place too—from the massive drums to the piano to the vocal. Just perfect.
11. “After Hours” The Velvet Underground added 5/16/07 7:26 PM last listened 9/15/08 5:15 PM
The sweetest, most coy track you’ll ever hear; also one of the best—Lou was right to give it to Mo. Loser anthem? The blueprint for all subsequent twee music? Best Velvets song?
12. “Stuck Between Stations” The Hold Steady added 11/1/06 10:30 PM last listened 9/15/08 5:34 PM
Part of me doesn’t believe that this is only the twelfth most listened to track on my iTunes. It was nothing new for Craig and the boys, but I know that at least my world was rocked by their Springsteen-with-more-balls approach, and this was my introduction to them. I think a lot of other people’s were too.
13. “Saliva” MF Doom added 12/5/05 6:57 PM last listened 2/3/08 11:39 PM
I’m slightly embarrassed that this would be the single most listened to hip-hop song on here—it’s far from my favorite, and the only thing that really accounts for it is how obsessed with it I was in Fall 2005. Shit, it’s not even the best song on the Viktor Vaughn album, though it is a lot of fun.
14. “Kiss Me On The Bus” The Replacements added 3/21/06 4:46 PM last listened 3/29/08 4:00 PM
Hard to ride a bus without thinking about this one. Again, far from the best Mats song, but a lovely one at the same time. The jaunty guitars and youthful eagerness get it just right.
15. “Girlfriend In A Coma” The Smiths added 12/18/05 6:27 PM last listened 10/5/08 2:22 AM
Really not that different from the last song—I’ve actually always thought of Moz and Westerberg as different sides of the same coin (with Morrissey being a sort of more literary Westerberg). Not a second too long; Marr’s guitar (and those violins) steal the song.
16. “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space” Spiritualized added 2/18/07 5:30 PM last listened 9/25/08 10:06 PM
Painfully beautiful, painfully honest.
17. “I'm In Love With A Girl” Big Star added 9/19/05 11:10 PM last listened 7/9/08 2:40 PM
One of the most disorienting experiences in my life (which is right) was hearing this song in a Heineken commercial. One of Alex Chilton’s most vulnerable vocals—and this man sings most of “Third”—it’s always reminded me of Elliot Smith.
18. “Almost Ready” Dinosaur Jr added 5/2/07 3:15 PM last listened 10/6/08 5:29 PM
The sound of Dinosaur roaring back from extinction, somehow better than ever. J Masics is gonna give being happy a try—he really is—but he’s not quite ready just yet. See, he’s almost ready. Let’s hope however ready J gets, he never stops obliterating every song he’s on with the multi-tracked attack of his guitar.
19. “This Is All I Came To Do” Dinosaur Jr added 5/2/07 3:17 PM last listened 9/20/08 12:54 PM
Wouldn’t have sounded out of place on “Green Mind”. A duet between J and his guitar.
20. “Been There All The Time” Dinosaur Jr added 5/2/07 3:18 PM last listened 9/20/08 1:10 PM
Dear J, Lou & Murph
Please record another album.
Love, Aaron
21. “Suedehead” Morrissey added 10/24/05 10:29 AM last listened 10/2/08 10:47 AM
The eerily precise piano and percussion are kind of unnerving, but in a good way. You have nothing to be sorry for, Stephen; I eagerly await your autobiography.
22. “Lie Down Here (& Be My Girl)” Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds added 4/3/08 10:11 PM last listened 10/5/08 2:31 AM
Maybe the manliest song I have ever heard? Seriously, all the guilt my liberal arts education has instilled in me about being a man just evaporates when I listen to this track. The guitars howl furiously, and the piano bit seems to sneer at them. Nick Cave grumbles about how sexually frustrated he is. Nothing else could possibly matter when this song is on.
23. “Pristine Christine” The Sea Urchins added 3/9/07 3:12 PM last listened 9/26/08 4:31 PM
The Sea Urchins wanted to make a great pop song so badly I think they just willed it into being. More homemade-sounding than most, but as good a pop tune as you will ever hear.
24. “Boys Don't Cry” The Cure added 12/1/05 10:28 AM last listened 9/11/08 1:42 AM
The Cure’s best-ever single. It’s just so…sunny.
25. “Gold Soundz” Pavement added 8/20/07 5:28 PM last listened 9/21/08 12:19 PM
Snaking guitars lurch back and forth as Malkmus lays down one of his best vocals ever—as always it’s not about anything, except for this time it is. The meaning’s in the voice, not the words. This = rad.
26. “The Seed (2.0)” The Roots added 11/17/05 3:47 PM last listened 2/15/08 11:23 AM
I would play this a lot because I knew Emery (my roommate freshman year) loved it—the striking thing about this song is how well everything works except for Black Thought’s vocals.
27. “Stay Another Season” The Avalanches added 3/28/06 7:01 PM last listened 7/24/08 1:32 AM
Not a mind-blowing song or anything, and probably this high on the list because it comes immediately after “Since I Left You”. It uses the vocal sample from that track to make a sort of tropical sounding tune. The structure of the song might be the most interesting bit—there’s essentially two parts, with the first breaking down right as the second gets built up.
28. “Feel” Big Star added 9/19/05 10:59 PM last listened 4/8/08 4:52 PM
I’m not very sympathetic to the ‘rockist’ school of criticism, which in caricatured form would maintain that rock music got the formula right during the 60s and 70s and that all subsequent developments are stupid, but “Feel” is, to me, proof that they might actually be right.
29. “Seguir Siendo” Café Tacuba added 12/4/07 2:47 PM last listened 8/22/08 11:57 AM
30. "Tengo Todo" Café Tacuba added 12/4/07 2:48 PM last listened 8/22/08 12:00 PM
Together, these two songs form an absolutely gorgeous suite. The piano and vocals that introduce the song foreshadow the darker, more introspective themes of the record. When the guitar kicks in the vocals start doing this excellent cascading thing, and when “Seguir Siendo” transitions into “Tengo Todo” the tension is almost unbearable until the rhythm kicks in. Beautiful harmonies on “Tengo Todo”.
31. “Touch The Sky” Kanye West ft. Lupe Fiasco added 10/11/05 4:44 PM last listened 9/17/08 5:53 PM
Exhilarating, better even than its fantastic source material, fellow Chicagoan Curtis Mayfield’s “Move On Up”. Production-wise a nice middle ground between the good but conventionalish “College Dropout” and the too-icy electro-isms of “Graduation” and the new one. Some nice, and not too self-absorbed verses; Lupe kills.
32. “Accordion” Madvillain added 7/2/05 4:15 PM last listened 9/29/08 11:25 AM
Ridiculously good—as an MC I swear to god MF Doom plays with words so brilliantly it puts him in the company of the greats of Western Literature (which is true of the whole album). The woozy beat blends left-field and listenable expertly. Fucking genius; this actually is my favorite hip-hop song.
33. “Common People” Pulp added 1/16/06 11:33 AM last listened 7/5/08 12:09 PM
Would be a good song title for a track about Common fans. Also a devastating class critique and maybe the best single of the 1990s.
34, “Family Affair” Sly & The Family Stone added 5/23/07 2:29 PM last listened 9/30/08 10:32 PM
The sound of a man losing his mind, albeit in an incredibly and darkly funky fashion.
35. “Teen Age Riot” Sonic Youth added 9/12/06 1:18 AM last listened 10/4/08 1:25 PM
Sometimes a band’s most well-known song is actually their best song too. Squalls of guitar like you wouldn’t believe.
36. “Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)” Talking Heads added 10/7/05 3:52 PM last listened 8/28/08
Paranoid, awkward and funky at the same time.
37. “This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)” Talking Heads added 3/24/08 3:32 PM last listened 9/22/08 11:25 AM
A really special song in the Talking Heads catalog, I think. It’s rhythmically and melodically very simple—hence the tile—yet all the more poignant for being so. Beautiful lyrics too—about looking around you and realizing that maybe, for once, things aren’t all that bad. Maybe they’re even good.
38. “Impossible Germany” Wilco added 4/2/07 2:31 AM last listened 10/9/08 11:56 AM
Pretty like Wilco had never been before. A lot of people thought “Sky Blue Sky” sounded complacent, but they just missed the point—it wasn’t complacent but content, a perfectly valid subject for pop music. It’s always gorgeous when the three guitars begin playing with and off each other in the final third of the song.
39. “Autumn Sweater” Yo La Tengo added 10/11/05 10:43 AM last listened 7/24/08 1:03 AM
Drone-y and dreamy. Delightful.
40. “Fireworks” Animal Collective added 9/11/07 2:43 PM last listened 9/10/08 1:34 AM
Already wrote about this one too.
41. “Two Hearts In 3/4 Time” The Avalanches added 3/28/06 7:02 PM last listened 7/24/08 1:39 AM
Another brilliantly constructed pop tune. The drums sound like they’re made of 1s and 0s and the samples coalesce almost psychedelically.
42. “Gila” Beach House added 12/19/07 11:20 PM last listened 8/26/08 1:13 AM
Music for dark, sleepless nights. The lyrics don’t matter, but everything else does, from Victoria LeGrand’s deep, well-enunciated vocals to the somewhat more substantial than usual drum machine to the plaintive haze of the guitar and keyboard.
43. “Cat Walk” Beat Happening last listened 8/16/07 4:11 PM added 9/13/08 1:26 AM
One of the great things about Michael Azerrad’s “Our Band Could Be Your Life” is how it argues that Beat Happening were maybe the most revolutionary punk band of all time. If you didn’t like the childish affectations or amateurish musicianship you could go fuck yourself. Most of America, including the underground, chose to, but that doesn’t mean Azzerrad isn’t right.
44. “September Gurls” Big Star added 9/19/05 11:09 PM last listened 2/26/08 5:38 PM
In an alternate universe where things are as they should be, this is the most popular song ever. But here on Earth-Two it’s just a great pop song with great guitar and great vocals from a great pop band.
45. “Little Fury Things” Dinosaur Jr added 5/12/07 1:39 PM last listened 9/6/08 7:28 PM Alternative & Punk
The song begins with an anguished amalgamation of sound, tosses in some alienated lyrics and generally rules. A strong argument that the guy who invented effects pedals deserves a Nobel, or if not him J (or Kevin).
46. “Kilo” Ghostface Killah feat. Raekwon added 3/28/06 11:49 AM last listened 10/2/08 10:08 PM
There’s no way the guy who wrote the kids song sampled here could imagine what nefarious use it would be put to. The beat isn’t straightforward, hard to pin down but great, as Ghost and Rae prove, to rap over.
47. “Everyday Is Like Sunday” Morrissey added 10/24/05 10:25 AM last listened 10/6/08 3:35 PM
Some days it really does seem like every day is silent and grey, and those are the days “Everyday Is Like Sunday” sounds best. Stephen Street does his best Johnny Marr, and it’s a pretty good one.
48. “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” Neil Young added 9/28/05 4:42 PM last listened 5/27/08 6:53 PM
Dirty, countrified and grouchy/pensive. Neil Young has written more perfect songs than most people will ever listen to, but this is up there.
49. “Starfish And Coffee” Prince added 12/12/06 9:01 PM last listened 9/20/08 2:43 PM
If you know what this song’s about, like ABOUT about, I urge you to let me know. Until then, I’ll just dig on its absurdly poppy pep. This isn’t the only time Prince would show his debt to Lennon/McCartney, but it’s the best. My favorite Prince song on my favorite Prince album.
50. “I'll Still Be There” Razorcuts added 3/9/07 3:18 PM last listened 6/27/08 2:22 PM
In the same universe where “September Gurls” is the most popular song ever jangle-pop dominated the 1980s and “I’ll Still Be There” topped charts on both sides of the Atlantic. A gem of a love song.
53. “Center Of Gravity” Yo La Tengo added 10/16/06 8:32 PM last listened 9/15/08 4:54 AM
It’s always sounded sort of Brazilian to me. There’s almost nothing to it—wood blocks, bass, guitar and the Ira-Georgia harmony—but it’s so sweet I almost swoon.
51. “A Magazine Called Sunset” Wilco added 10/9/05 3:15 PM last listened 8/22/08 9:12 PM
The direction—avant-pop more pop than avant—they could’ve taken after “Summerteeth”; so catchy it makes you wish they had. That they released it on a low-profile EP suggests the band needs help picking out singles.
52. “Stockholm Syndrome” Yo La Tengo added 10/16/06 8:30 PM last listened 8/24/08 2:35 AM
If there was a genre called anxiety-pop this would be its banner song. YLT at their best are so songwriterly—every component adding to the melody without calling undue attention to itself—and this song is them, with the always great James McNew on vocals, at their songwriterly best.