Transmogrifier and Thirdmango Present: Top 100 Songs

[ContinentalOp]

Originally Posted by Thirdmango

80.
Joe Hisaishi, Summer (6:26)

Available on: Kikujiro Soundtrack (1999)

Comments: This song is beauty. I grew up with a dislike of most classical music because of my mother being a classical violinist. However this song is the best song I've ever heard to come from any sort of classical genre. It works especially well with the movie Kikujiro and is the only movie soundtrack song to appear on my list as well. It's too beautiful not to be on the list.

Songs by this artist on my computer: 1

Years this song held the most power over me:2005-Present

YouTube link

Fantastic choice. But only one Hisaishi song on your computer? Check out Joe Hisaishi Meets Kitano Films if you haven't already. It includes Summer and about five or six equally great tunes.

[transmogrifier]

79.
Rrrrrrright, Deerhoof (3:57)

Available on: The Runners Four (2005), Track #20

Other possible contenders from this artist for this list: My Purple Past, Twin Killers

Comments: I had a hell of a time choosing my favourite Deerhoof track; to me, their sound is so singular, spazzy and all-consuming, the idea of individual tracks seems beside the point. I’d fluctuate between wanting to put five songs on the list to wanting just leave them off, even though as a band they would easily be in my Top 10 when taken as a whole. However, a little time spent deeply immersed in their rock candyland and I finally realised that it was a song that may represent the signature Deerhoof sound that resonated the most. Rrrrrrrright starts with a few strums of weedwacker guitar, feedback bleeds in, which heralds the drums and the simple sexy bass. After 47 seconds, the song stops cold, as if to wonder which fork in the musical path to take next. As it turns out, it decides to throw Matsuzaki and her impeccably ill-fitting girly vocal stylings and mostly nonsensical lyrics. That keeps them busy until 1:50, upon which time the song suffers a mini-breakdown, starts trying to communicate in morose blips and bleeps for 20 to 30 seconds, after which the low-key drums try to bring the original tune back to life; a wall of guitars join the effort, and with 40 seconds remaining Matsuzaki is back and the whole song tumbles carefree into a joyous cacophony of a finish. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Deerhoof.

Highlight @ the fact that these guys make almost an album a year of this stuff

Key Lyric: “Ka-ka ka-ka”

Songs by this artist on my computer: 99

Listen to this: after consuming 10 pounds of confectionary.

Download
YouTube (live)

[Sven]

Mooooooooooooooooore.

[Thirdmango]

Yeah, I was going to mention it's Finals Week which is why I haven't updated. Final Today, Final and Big Project tomorrow.

[transmogrifier]

Originally Posted by Sven

Mooooooooooooooooore.

Tonight, maybe.

[transmogrifier]

78.
Maggot Brain, Funkadelic (10:20)

Available on: Maggot Brain (1971), Track #1

Other possible contenders from this artist for this list: Who Says a Funk Band Can’t Play Rock?!

Comments: It’s a long-arse guitar solo, courtesy of a funk band. Soulful, groovy, the perfect background music to pretty much anything. I’ve been meaning to delve deeper into Funkadelic and Parliament more than I have, but until then, this song will always be reverberating around up inside my head, dragging me through the day, plating the mundane with flecks of sonic awesomeness.

Songs by this artist on my computer: 16

LastFM Wisdom: “Quite frankly, I can't get enough of this sh!t...” classawatts

Download
YouTube (live)

[transmogrifier]

77.
The Spectacular Commodity (For Eiko and Koma),
Glenn Branca (12:41)

Available on: The Ascension (1981), Track #2

Comments: Starts off ominously, clanging like a possessed church bell, and then builds off that into a minimalist masterpiece of squall, the whole song a headlong race upwards, upwards, a true stairway to heaven.

Highlight @ 7:21, urgent, insistent, piercing, unstoppable

Songs by this artist on my computer: 16

Description from Someone Smarter than Me: “Slabs of dissonance result as guitar piles on guitar, then matters emerge into this strange swaggering repeated figure, very menacing, heavy...and the drums start to bash. And then we're into some driving rock-noise soundtrack music for car chases, craziness...then triumphant fanfares of distorted strings!” Unsung

Listen to this: on your iPod for the last 12 minutes of your first ever marathon.

Download

[Boner M]

I would like to see more of this 'last.fm wisdom'.

Great list. Branca + Maggot Brain; you know your guitar shit.

[Thirdmango]

79.
David Bowie, Life On Mars (3:53)

Available on: Hunky Dory (1971), Track #4

Comments: I admit, I didn't know about this song until the movie Life Aquatic, but I fell in love with it because of that. I haven't yet gotten to the point where I'm into Bowie, but this song was definitely my first and I listen to it too much.

Songs by this artist on my laptop: 3 (Many more on my other computer.)

Years this song held the most power over me:2007

YouTube link

[Thirdmango]

78.
Blur, Coffee & TV (5:59)

Available on: 13 (1999), Track #3

Comments: This is one of my favorite music videos ever. The light airy rhythm with the nice vocals is what first drew me to this song. I became a Bluraholic for a while there, but this song stayed pretty constant on my favorite of their songs. It goes a little wacky and yet still keeps the same foundation. Not my favorite album by them, but it is my second favorite song of theirs.

Songs by this artist on my computer: 27

Years this song held the most power over me:1999-2002

YouTube link

[Thirdmango]

77.
The Offspring, All I Want (1:54)

Available on: Ixnay On The Hombre (1997), Track #10

Comments: As a 15 year old kid this song was the shit. As one of the only songs I really knew the meaning of the lyrics to I once tried to impress a girl by taking these lyrics and using them as my own, it failed of course as it was much to angsty. Still as this was pretty much the only punk song I got into in my high school years, this one had my aggression on full.

Years this song held the most power over me: 1997-1998

YouTube link

[Thirdmango]

76.
The Seatbelts, Bad Dog No Biscuits (4:09)

Available on: Cowboy Bebop (1998), Track #4

Comments: I love super jazz music like this. This music was perfect for Cowboy Bebop and I loved this song so much that I used it in a movie I made during a fight scene. This song pumps me up quite a bit and makes me so happy that this kind of music is still made.

Songs by this artist on my computer: Very Many

Years this song held the most power over me:2000-2009

YouTube link
Live Version

[Thirdmango]

75.
The Gorillaz, Feel Good Inc (3:42)

Available on: Demon Days (2005), Track #6

Comments: I love the concept of The Gorillaz, and I already love Damon Albern. Oh and I love when rap and rock mix, especially when it's done right like in this song. The mystery that is apparent in the music is just brilliance.

Songs by this artist on my computer: 39

Years this song held the most power over me:2005-2009

YouTube link

[Thirdmango]

74.
Jethro Tull, Aqualung (6:37)

Available on: Aqualung (1971), Track #1

Comments: I love songs which shift and this one has it all over the place. For some reason I completely forgot this song existed when I was really getting into music, and only recently did I find it again. I know how weird it seems to forget about such a famous song, but somehow I did. This whole album is amazing, but this song is by far my favorite.

Songs by this artist on my computer: 44

Years this song held the most power over me:1996, 2009

YouTube link

[Thirdmango]

73.
The Beatles, In My Life (2:28)

Available on: Rubber Soul (1965), Track #11

Comments: It was PBS that made me fall in love with this song, long before I actually liked the Beatles, PBS would play this song in between their BBC programing late saturday nights, and that's when I fell in love. I still don't love The Beatles to the extent that most do, but this song and one other later to come I just can't get over the brilliance of.

Songs by this artist on my computer: Many on the computer I don't have turned on.

Years this song held the most power over me:1991-94

YouTube link

[Thirdmango]

72.
Led Zeppelin, Over The Hills And Far Away (4:50)

Available on: Houses Of The Holy (1973), Track #3

Comments: To finish off this classic rock trifecta is my sentimental favorite of Led Zeppelin's songs. I was pretty well obsessed with this song in high school. Now that I've gotten to the point where I've over done The Zep, this is one which still doesn't get old.

Songs by this artist on my computer: 25 on this one, most of their songs on the other.

Years this song held the most power over me: 1999-2000

YouTube link

[Thirdmango]

71.
Kings of Convenience, I'd Rather Dance With You (3:29)

Available on: Riot on an Empty Street (2004), Track #8

Comments: I got into a big dance phase, and I found this song during that phase. This is a nice dance song though the rest of the album isn't. However I found this album relaxes me quite well and I play amazing poker whenever I listen to it, so it's stayed in heavy rotation since I got it for that reason, so I listen to this song a lot and I haven't yet gotten sick of it.

Songs by this artist on my computer: 12

Years this song held the most power over me:2005-2007, whenever I play Poker.

YouTube link

[D_Davis]

Originally Posted by transmogrifier

78.
Maggot Brain, Funkadelic (10:20)

Originally Posted by Thirdmango

79.
David Bowie, Life On Mars (3:53)

Originally Posted by Thirdmango

78.
Blur, Coffee & TV (5:59)

I like these choices. Blur is awesome. Bowie is incredible. And Maggot Brain is great.

[transmogrifier]

76.
Clear Island, Liars (2:38)

Available on: Liars (2007), Track #9

Comments: Easily Liars most poppy song, this is almost seems like three driving pop-rock songs stitched together into a Frankenstein monster approximation of what radio-friendly should sound like.

Highlight @ 2:20, song goes quiet....and you think it's all over...

Key Lyric: "Dirty clouds got rough/and they're banging back and forth throwing lightning at us"

Songs by this artist on my computer: 52

Listen to this: just before you are about to deliver a big presentation about the folly of Germany's march into Russia during WW2.

YouTube (live)
Download

[transmogrifier]

75.
Better Be Home Soon, Crowded House (3:10)

Available on: Temple of Low Men (1988), Track #10

Comments: Melodic, melancholy, imminent break-up song. a gorgeous way to close the album, even if it is supremely pessimistic. Nothing complicated in the set up here - simple acoustic guitar to start, band joins the party after the first verse, and Neil Finn lets his otherwise pretty functional voice soar a little.

Highlight @ 0:24 when the lyrics below are sung for the first time

Key Lyric: "And I know I'm right/For the first time in my life..."

Songs by this artist on my computer: 94

Listen to this: 2am in the morning, lying on your back, in an empty bed, ceiling splashed in the dull yellow stain of a streetlight outside, the oppressive weight of silence smothering everything.

YouTube

[transmogrifier]

74.
Nights of the Living Dead, Tilly and the Wall (3:55)

Available on: Wild Like Children (2004), Track #2

Comments: Melodramatic, 'our generation sucks but if we act like mindless sheep and rock out together in some sort of protest against a non-specific threat, it'll be alright' chant that is a winner of sheer single-mided catchiness, with the sprinkling of profanity, which could have been a cheap shock tactic, but it is an effective summation of teenage shorthand, a scattershot approach to an ill-defined problem. And you know, sometimes, I just want to fuck it up as well.

Highlight @ 0:45 when the girls join in on the vocals

Key Lyric: "gas station parking lot prostitutes/Tried to fix their hair in our rearview mirrors"

Songs by this artist on my computer: 33

Words of Wisdom: "I say we do fuck it up with more than 40oz, a fresh pack of smokes, and a banana harmonica." - JM-huggies (LastFM)

YouTube (live) - caution: many white people dancing badly

[Spaceman Spiff]

Is that Ralph Fiennes at number 75?

[transmogrifier]

73.
Secondo Coro Delle Lavandaie, Roberto de Simone (6:27)

Available on: La Gatta Cenerentola (Cinderella the Cat) (2004), Track #15

Comments: This is a song from an Italian opera that "tells the story of Cinderella sung in an obscure Neopolitan dialect. [Roberto de Simone] discovered this sort of pagan culture which had not been affected by Catholicism, and still existed as a matriarchal shepherding community". I first became familiar with this song through the cover by Japanese all-girl spazz rock band OOIOO (titled "Umo"), not ever realizing that it was a cover in the first place until I stumbled across the original in the netherworld of random-click music blog surfing. Its propulsive, urgent flurry of energy is almost primal in its drama, a howl against the world. Pagan drums!

Highlight @ the way the drums interact with the mechanical distractions (horns, rattles etc) in the background

Key Lyric: Um......

Songs by this artist on my computer: 1

Listen to this: in a thunderstorm in the mid-afternoon, in your underwear, alone in your lounge

YouTube
Mp3 Download

[transmogrifier]

72.
Waiting for the Great Leap Forward, Billy Bragg (4:35)

Available on: Workers Playtime (1988), Track #11

Comments: Don't know much about Billy; I found this song on the soundtrack for the British movie Face, a soundtrack I only bought because Damon Albarn was in the film, and I was on a bit of a Blur kick at the time. I love the structure of this song, the way it rolls into the verses, slowly building up steam until the chorus and alternating lines kick in.

Highlight @ 3:00, when Billy's rollicking commentary of a society in a state of miscommunication suddenly receives backing from a chorus of plaintive youths.

Key Lyric: "The revolution is just a t-shirt away"

Songs by this artist on my computer: 12

Listen to this: as you walk into town from your flat, ready to meet your mates for a night on the town, a couple of months short of your graduation, with no job lined up on the other side.

YouTube
Mp3 Download

[Winston*]

Waiting for the Great Leap Forward is so good.

"In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune, but this is reality so give me some room!"

[transmogrifier]

71.
Chaos of the Galaxy/Happy Man, Sparklehorse (4:30)

Available on: Good Morning Spider (1999), Track #8

Comments: A poorly tuned radio, crackling and indistinct. But whatever lies beneath that cloak of static is intriguing, magnetic. You lean forward, twiddle the dial, try to allow the notes and lyrics and emotion to bloom into full aural colour. The great thing about this song is that it takes this idea completely literally, confronting the age-old problem of balancing art with commerce head-on, explicitly and fearlessly. Mark Linkous wasn't able to fight off his demons, but here they perversely allowed him to deepen and fortify a perfectly good pop-rock tune with a shimmering dissatisfaction at the demands of the commerical rock success gods.

Highlight @ 1:55-2:30 the bottom drops out of the song, and then the song breaks through again

Key Lyric: "If I had more, more would be laid at your feet"

Songs by this artist on my computer: 29

LastFM Wisdom: "this song is genial, when finally it starts" glimvania

YouTube