Wow. A list of Psychobabble’s
100 Favorite Songs of the 1990s. That’s so cool. It’s totally not like
everyone else in the entire universe hasn’t already listed their 100 favorite
songs of the nineties. Like anyone cares. Whatever. Lists are wack, but I don’t
know… music is pretty cool. I mean, not when they’re like “Oooh, look at me!
I’m a big rock star! My hair is so big and I screw so many groupies!” That is
so eighties. But when they…I don’t know… kind of don’t care so much, I guess
I’m kinda like, “That’s pretty cool. I don’t care so much either.” It’s like
sometimes I think Kurt Cobain is singing about my life, you know? I don’t know what the fuck Bob Pollard is
singing about half the time, but Guided by Voices rock so hard because Bob is
like a forty-year-old schoolteacher or something, so it’s so ironic that he’s a
rock star. And then there’s all the “Women in Rock” (I put that in quotes to
show what I really think of the
mainstream media’s “labels”) like Liz Phair, Tanya Donelly, Mary Timony,
Juliana Hatfield, PJ Harvey, and like, all the others. They are sincerely hella
cool. Sincerely! I’m not even being ironic about how totally dope they are.
Don’t think I’m not being ironic? Oh well. Whatever. Nevermind. Then here’s your mom’s 100 favorite songs of the
nineties.
100. “Over the
Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox” by Guided by Voices
So we get started the way every party must get started…with
a chant of “GBV! GBV! GBV!” Then Bob Pollard is all like, “Rock and Roll!” Then
he’s like “This song does not rock,” which is so cool, because sincerely
admitting that you rock is so lame! But the real irony is that “Over the
Neptune” really does rock! It rocks like Cheap Trick (and not lame Cheap Trick,
like “The Flame”). Then “Over the Neptune” morphs into “Mesh Gear Fox” like
that cop in T2 morphs into water or
whatever, and guess what…it stops rocking but it remains awesome as Guided by
Voices get all psychedelic. It sounds like your dad’s best records… and Uncle
Bob is like your dad’s only cool friend.
If you like that jangly sound from back in the day, then you
will freak out over this totally retro tune from Matthew Sweet. Everyone thinks
that “pop” means garbage like Ace of Base or those losers who sing the theme
from Friends. Rachel’s hair is fugly
and pop is Matthew Sweet.
98. “Is It Like Today”
by World Party
God’s a total fugazi, but who cares? World Party’s depiction
of how God must be reacting to how we are totally fucking up the environment is
still really deep. And this song sounds like The Beatles, and even though Paul
is goofier than Ringo, The Beatles are still “groovy.”
97. “Love Your Money”
by Daisy Chainsaw
So far, the songs on this stupid list have been really
retro. Get ready for the present, yo, because Daisy Chainsaw have those grungy
guitars that are currently the shit. But they’re not all slow and boring like
Eddie Vedder. Daisy Chainsaw’s “Love Your Money” speeds along like some speed
metal song that isn’t totally about Satan or whatever. Daisy Chainsaw is all
like “I love your money!” which is so ironic because no rock band this good
really wants your money. That’s like something Axl Rose would be thinking. That
asshole totally wants your money.
96. “Fake Fight”
by Team Dresch
Team Dresch doesn’t even know what money is! They are
completely real…a raging queercore band bent on bringing the truth about the
Christian Right and the Patriarchy and all that stuff to the masses, but even
when they get all political like on “Fake Fight”... get this…THEY STILL ROCK! Thoroughly
and sincerely. Plus, Donna Dresch isn’t even the singer of the band! She’s the
guitar player, but she shreds so much that they named the band after her! That
is so badass.
95. “Tom Boy” by
Bettie Serveert
Bettie Serveert is crazy too, because there’s no one in the
band named Bettie Serveert. Bettie Serveert is Dutch for “Bettie serves” which
is some sort of tennis thing. That’s so cool even though jocks are assholes.
“Tom Boy” is cool too. Carol van Dijk can get away with being completely passionate
without a trace of irony because she is so awesome, and she’s singing about how
she gets shit for being a tomboy, which is completely righteous. Wake up,
dicks! It’s the nineties and girls don’t have to be all frilly dresses and shit
anymore!
94. “9 Fingers on You”
by Shudder to Think
Things are getting pretty political and heavy, so let’s pull
it back for a little palate-cleansing nonsense from the kings of nonsense.
“Girl you gotta hustle for your muscle machine” Craig Wedren sings over a
jackhammer riff worthy of Led Zeppelin. He can get away with those cock rock
poses, though, because he sings like the ghost of Tiny Tim.
93. “Lounge Act”
by Nirvana
Alright, kids, here’s the band you’ve been waiting for.
Nirvana is the band of the nineties,
but if you’re expecting “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, you’ve got another thing
coming. Like, that’s the Nirvana song your grandma likes. “Lounge Act” is way
better. Krist Novoselic’s bassline is the bomb.
92. “Sunday” by
The Spinanes
Listening to Nirvana is like being thrown into a wind tunnel
wearing nothing but your flannel and ripped Toughskins. The Spinanes are like
gusts of fresh, honeysuckle-scented April breezes. Rebecca Gates is at her
breeziest on “Sunday”. Drummer Scott Plouf plays drums like a master melodist…
and he barely ever even uses his tom toms!
91. “Thera” by
Versus
Now we’re going down to NYC, because Versus is rocking The
Academy tonight. Their debut album, The
Stars Are Insane, is a killer indie rock album that gets started with the
moody “Thera”. Richard Baluyut and Fontaine Toups’s vocal chemistry is as
awesome as their names. Best use of augmented fourth chords ever.
90. “Shadowtime”
by Siouxsie and the Banshees
OK, so Siouxsie and the Banshees is a band from the
eighties, but thanks to the recent invention of instant nostalgia, we can now
all agree that the eighties were “totally tubular to the max.” And Siouxsie
Sioux is pretty much a goddess and “Shadowtime” is pop perfection.
89. “Number One Blind”
by Veruca Salt
Oh wow. The Spice Girls are sooo feminist because they say “Girl Power!” while flashing the
peace sign in hot pants. For some real woman
power, check out Louise Post and Nina Gordon. They crank their Les Pauls to
well above 11 on “Number One Blind” and blow back Baby Spice’s pigtails like she’s
that guy in the Maxell ads.
88. “Black Letter Day”
by The Cardigans
Now we’re going to bring down the energy a bit for a
cocktail lounge vibe with those saucy Swedes, The Cardigans. However, it’s not
all winky irony with Nina Persson and the gang, as “Black Letter Day” explores
depression to a smooth rhythm for weeping into your martini. And the rest is
silence.
87. “King” by
Belly
Time to stop weeping, fart knockers, and time to catch a
buzz with the exhilarating title tune off of Belly’s sophomore CD. When Tanya
Donelly starts wailing “I want to see you naked!” it is full-bore excitement
and not for the reason you think it would be, perv.
86. “Shimmer” by
Throwing Muses
Before becoming a Belly, Tanya Donelly was a Muse, but this
entry on our list is from the era after Kristin Hersh’s slightly older sister
departed Throwing Muses. “Shimmer” is no less exciting than “King”, but it’s
more of an “I’m going to bite your jugular” brand of excitement than “King”’s
romantic elation.
85. “Stars N’ Stripes”
by Grant Lee Buffalo
Sounding like you don’t give a shit is the way of the
nineties, but Grant Lee Phillips couldn’t sound like he doesn’t give a shit if
he tried. “Stars N’ Stripes” is Exhibit A. He starts the song sounding as
disaffected as Lou Reed. But once he breaks into that angelic falsetto, the
passion pours in and transcendence is right around the corner.
84. “My My Metrocard”
by Le Tigre
The biggest technological development of the 1990s is not up
for debate. It was a little yellow and blue card that replaced those old timey
tokens prehistoric people used to ride the subway under NYC. No one knew this
better than Le Tigre, who sings the praises of tooling through Giuliani-era
(“He sucks!”) New York to a beat fit for frugging at the Vincent Van Go Go.
83. “Ballad of Big
Nothing” by Elliott Smith
Elliott Smith could make music as wispy as a whisper, but
with “Ballad of Big Nothing”, he really locates the “big.” His drums go boom
while his acoustic guitar licks never sounded so muscular. He almost sounds
happy. Being happy is totally lame, but since it’s Elliott Smith (and since he
only sounds happy; the lyrics are
totally unhappy), it’s all good.
82. “Turn on the
Water” by Afghan Whigs
Afghan Whigs don’t sound very happy on “Turn on the Water”.
Greg Dulli wants to be drowned or something, which must mean he wants to fuck
and hate himself because that’s pretty much what he always means. The rhythm is
a maelstrom. The piano is pouring rain.
81. “X-French T Shirt”
by Shudder to Think
Dulli is scary on “Turn on the Water” because he’s clearly
out of control. Craig Wedren is scary on “X-French T Shirt” because he’s in
such total control. You can feel the intensity of his creepy gaze as he repeats
“Hold back the road that goes so that the others may do what that you let me in
just to pour me down their mouths” for pretty much forever. And he does it all
while sitting in a dumbwaiter. That’s awesome.
80. “Late in the Day”
by Supergrass
Supergrass track down some Beatles outtake that didn’t make
it onto Anthology 3 and pass it off
as their own song. That’s OK because they nail the Abbey Road vibe so perfectly and because none of The Beatles can sound
as metallic-voiced as Gaz. Plus he sings it while bouncing on a pogo stick,
which is almost as cool as singing in a dumbwaiter.
79. “Karma Police”
by Radiohead
Man, what’s with these bands? Wake up, everyone! It’s the nineties and The Beatles were a bunch of
old hippies from the sixties!
Nevertheless, Radiohead make the most awesomely futuristic music of 1997 while
also channeling the band your mom calls “The Fab Four.” “Karma Police” is
pretty Magical Mystery Tour-esque.
That means it’s awesome.
78. “Lay It Down”
by Magnapop
Finally. A band that sounds like they don’t even know The
Beatles existed. Magnapop don’t get psychedelic or whatever. With “Lay It
Down”, they just fucking rock out. The way Linda Hopper pours out the lyrics on
the chorus is utterly cool and completely effortless. The way Ruthie Morris
slams out the chords that lead into the chorus is like a cinderblock swinging
into your face.
77. “Step on Me”
by The Cardigans
The Cardigans are known for their cool and lightness, but on
“Step on Me”, they rock as hard as they ever had. The palm-muted chords sound
like something from one of those Black Sabbath songs The Cardigans love so
much. However, the harmonic changes and little psychedelic touches like the
leslied guitar lines are—once again—totally Beatles.
76. “No Outlet”
by Juliana Hatfield
Juliana Hatfield’s first solo album would be one of the
nineties’ great pop albums if it didn’t rock so much. And Hey Babe does some of its hardest rocking on “No Outlet”. I love
it when an artist drops the album title in a song that isn’t named after the
album, and I get chills every time Juliana breaks that lulling, droney guitar
break by sneering “Hey babe, there’s something I can keep.”
75. “Sing Along”
by Grant Lee Buffalo
Grant Lee Phillips plugs in his acoustic guitar and lets the
feedback wail, building a firewall of sound that overwhelms “Sing Along”. His rundown
of how fucked up the development of American industry and culture was will
shake you out of your Clinton-era complacency.
74. “Johnny Sunshine”
by Liz Phair
Liz Phair’s debut album/masterpiece is full of great
conventional pop songs full of filthy language, but it also has some pretty
out-there song structures too. “Johnny Sunshine” is the best of both worlds;
stitching together a pounding hard rock onslaught and a dream pop freefall that
each would have been more conventional if presented as separate tracks.
73. “Blood Makes
Noise” by Suzanne Vega
No longer living under the second floor, Suzanne Vega built
an industrial building complex with her fourth and finest album. “Blood Makes
Noise” was the second and most commercially successful single off of 99.9F°, possibly because of its
better-than-NIN clatter and its HIV-era lyric captured the zeitgeist in a Zima
bottle.
72. “Dog with Sharper
Teeth” by Daisy Chainsaw
Time to rev that chainsaw up again with an even toothier
track from KatieJane Garside and her psycho-pixie compadres. The stop-start
structure makes me rabid and the riffing is so metal that it would make Dave
Mustaine cower behind his mega-cheesy BC Rich.
71. “Velouria” by
The Pixies
But as far as psycho-pixies go, no one is more psycho or more
pixies than The Pixies. They are the four collegiate kids who are responsible
for 90% of what makes nineties music boss. Granted, their very, very best days
ended with the eighties, but they still managed to make some magnificent music
on their final two albums, the first of which included this popsterpiece about
a velveteen dream girl. And not even Black Francis knows what a shastasheen is.
70. “Lazy Flies”
by Beck
We all knew Beck was an era-defining wiseass and ironist
when he had a hit with the somewhat annoying “Loser”. When he slipped out Mutations sans fanfare, a dedicated few
discovered something else: the guy is a flat-out great songwriter. Everything
on the album is spectacular, but “Lazy Flies” with its surreal apocalyptic
imagery, waltzing sea shanty melody, and thunderous arrangement is particularly
special.
69. “Pendulum” by
Guided by Voices
By far the finest song on this list that references a band
called Cat Butt is “Pendulum”. The most upbeat song on Guided by Voices’
doom-laden concept album Same Place the
Fly Got Smashed should have been a massive pop hit. If you can resist its
chorus, you deserve to get smashed.
68. “Baby Britain”
by Elliott Smith
While most artists who mine life’s darkest, most miserable
stuff compliment their lyrics with abrasive or depressive music, Elliott Smith
matched his tales of substance abuse and sadness to rainbow pop worthy of Revolver, the album he name drops on the
divine “Baby Britain”. I still haven’t gotten used to that unique sweet and
sour mix, and it makes XO sound both
fresh and disturbing even after 98 spins of the disc.
67. “Pony St.” by
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello also deals with substance abuse on “Pony
St.”, but his lyric is tongue-in-cheek enough that his use of clear pop isn’t
quite as unsettling as Elliott Smith’s. The opening track of Brutal Youth, a semi-reunion with The
Attractions, is also a rocking testament to a band that Declan can never
replace (although he does replace the seemingly irreplaceable Bruce Thomas with
Nick Lowe on “Pony St.” and the bass work is still the shiznit).
66. “Kiss Them for Me”
by Siouxsie and the Banshees
The once terrifying Siouxsie and The Banshees went full
top-40 ready pop on Superstition. As
a whole, the album is their least interesting, but its two main singles are
slamming enough to both make this list. Siouxsie Sioux and the guys nailed the
dark pop on “Shadowtime”, and with the big hit “Kiss Them for Me”, they made a
dance floor smash with a wildly funky Bollywood vibe.
65. “Come As You Are”
by Nirvana
Nirvana was so awesome that they could take a riff that had
already been used to perfect effect by both The Damned and Killing Joke and
make it perfect one more time. Cobain made the creepily climbing riff all his
own by soaking it in chorus effects and overlaying it with the catchiest tune
on Nevermind.
64. “Parklife” by
Blur
Those nineties kids have the brooding down pat, but man, sometimes
they need to lighten up! Good thing there’s Blur cracking wise about all those
zeroes going zombie-style through life, and it’s a good thing Damon Albarn had
the good sense and great taste to get Quadrophenia’s
Phil Daniel’s to deliver the cheeky, cheeky monologue that draws guffaws
between Albarn’s triumphant choruses. ‘Ava cuppa tea, ya wanka!
63. “She’s Crushing
My Mind” by Team Dresch
If any questions remain regarding Donna Dresch’s way with
six strings, the intricate arpeggios of “She’s Crushing My Mind” put them in
the grave. But this is not all technical prowess. The chorus’s bone-powderizing
power chords fulfill all the mightiness Rock & Roll promises.
62. “Sensational
Gravity Boy” by Guided by Voices
Before GBV went full hi-fi at the end of the nineties, they
made some tentative gestures toward it after hitting their lo-fi peak with Alien Lanes. However, a number of
circumstances led them to shelve the relatively high fidelity recordings they’d
been making with Kim Deal in the producer’s seat. One of these tracks was
“Sensational Gravity Boy”, which sneaked out as inauspiciously as possible on
the Briefcase compilation. What the
fuck, Bob? Such ignominious treatment for such an instant pop classic! You can
totally hear Kim Deal singing along on the chorus, and Kim Deal is all that and
a bag of smokes.
61. “Texarkana”
by R.E.M.
In the nineties, R.E.M. went from college rock darlings to
pop megastars, which led to Michael Stipe getting permanently drunk on the
spotlight. That thing with the T-shirts at the MTV Video Awards was goofy, but
let’s not be too hard on the guy. Plus, R.E.M. had another Mike who always
seemed pretty cool even when he looked like a science nerd who’d just raided
Elvis Presley’s closet. Mills sings lead on the two R.E.M. jangle monsters that
made it onto this list, and the brooding “Texarkana” also supplies Mills’s sweetest
bass line.
60. “Graffiti” by
Throwing Muses
Though their level of success obviously doesn’t compare to
that of R.E.M., Throwing Muses were another eighties college band who finally
started getting some wider play in the nineties. A few years before Throwing
Muses broke through with University,
they released their very best album, The
Real Ramona, which contained their very best guitar riff. It holds
“Graffiti” together like a supernatural magnet. The song’s only flaw is that
it’s riff deserves to go on a lot longer than two and a half minutes. But I
guess that’s why the Baby Jesus installed a “repeat” button in your CD player.
59. “Sick & Tired”
by The Cardigans
Here’s an early indication that the sunshine spewing
Cardigans were capable of the moodiness they’d later puke on Grand Turismo. Grumbling at the starting
line of their very first album, “Sick & Tired” manages to take twee things like
Nina Persson’s voice and a flute and make them depressants. Bengt Lagerberg’s
drumming is the crispest thing this side of a cornflake.
58. “The Garden”
by PJ Harvey
OK, “Sick & Tired” is moody for The Cardigans. But I’d
never imply that that crew could do moody like PJ Harvey does moody. She
creates one of the moodiest tracks of a very moody decade with this slow burn
from the underrated To Bring You My Love.
Polly Jean doesn’t break out the vocal pyrotechnics like she does on a track a
little further up this list, but she is just as intense when holding steady as
she does on “The Garden”. Steadiest of all is one of the most phenomenally
mesmerizing rhythm tracks on disc.
57. “Pat’s Trick”
by Helium
“Pat’s Trick”
begins the sadly short-lived career of one of the nineties’ very best bands.
Everything about this track is just so damn dirty:
from the lyrics (“…it’s dirty and I’m so dirty too”), to guitars and bass that
sound like they just stepped out of a mud bath, to Mary Timony’s super-sexy
delivery which one might mistake for a come on if she didn’t clearly want to
slash your face with a broken bottle.
56. “Kid’s Allright”
by Bettie Serveert
Hey you, latch-key kids! Don’t worry! Sure you have to
contend with a lack of proper adult supervision and roving bands of baseball
bat-wielding bullies. But according to Bettie Serveert, everything will be
completely satisfactory. Any young person who couldn’t quite decode how Kurt
Cobain was voicing her generation could head bang along with “Kid’s Allright”
without a lick of confusion.
55. “Deeper Into
Movies” by Yo La Tengo
A big, black wave envelopes you and drags you into a
netherworld where the only light beams from a Pauline Kael-approved movie
screen. For sense-stuffing, body-transcending, power murk, Yo La Tengo’s
“Deeper Into Movies” has no contemporary peer.
54. “Lies About the
Sky” by Shudder to Think
Before he completely committed to writing songs that make less
sense than Twin Peaks, Craig Wedren
whipped off this crystal clear and stunningly stinging repudiation of Biblical
myths. The lie is the existence of heaven. The truth is the fury, poetry, and
dizzying harmony tapestries of “Lies About the Sky”.
53. “Thru and Thru”
by The Rolling Stones
Here’s one for your fucking dad. He probably heard “Love Is
Strong” then went right to Tower Records and bought the Voodoo Lounge CD and was all like, “Hey, kids! Have you heard the
new record by The Rolling Stones? It completely rocks! You should listen to it
with ‘the old man’!” And you were like, “Whatever, dad. Mick Jagger is an
ancient mummy and hearing him sing about his mummy cock in ‘Love Is Strong’ is
fucking gross.” But Keith Richards is cool because he did tons of drugs and is
literally incapable of dying. He sings “Thru and Thru”, which is a really weird
song that doesn’t really have a chorus. It just kind of builds and builds until
it gets super intense, and you have to admit that it is amazing even though The
Rolling Stones are older than Methuselah.
52. “We’re the Same”
by Matthew Sweet
With 100% Fun,
Matthew Sweet made his third convincing bid that he is America’s pop savior in
a row (well, at least the United States’. Canada is on America, and so is
Sloan). While the album had a bit of a grungy feel as a whole, “We’re the Same”
is as clean and jangly as the best of the freshly scrubbed Girlfriend. Its melodic sweetness makes the tearful lyric hit all
the harder…
51. “The First Part”
by Superchunk
…but it don’t hit like this! Superchunk are as indie as a
self-pressed 7 inch, but they are capable of rocking harder than Creedence
Clearwater Revival. I have that big punch in the face you ordered, and it is
called “The First Part”.
Jane’s Addiction can rock pretty fucking hard too, but it’s
when they simmer down that they are most alluring. “Then She Did” is more than
eight minutes of alluring simmering. Perry Farrell does right by his mom with a
truly moving lyric about his difficult upbringing. Dave Navarro’s guitar lick
is elegant and gorgeous. The way Stephen Perkins’s drums kick in with the
string arrangement is as mighty as almighty Zeus.
49. “Near Wild Heaven”
by R.E.M.
When we last left Mike Mills, he was keeping it real with
the ominous “Texarkana”. “Near Wild Heaven” is the flipside…breezier, sunnier,
and more harmonious than any Mama or Papa. And that includes you, Cass! All twelve strings of Peter
Buck’s Rickenbacker sounds like they’re playing themselves.
48. “I’ve Been
Waiting” by Matthew Sweet
No, no, no! Don’t stop jangling now! And no jangling par-tay
is complete without Mr. Sweet. “I’ve Been Waiting” is so romantic that no one
could ever use it as their wedding song because no marriage could ever live up
to it. They should just choose “At Last” instead…especially if they want to
look like totally unoriginal dicks.
47. “20% Amnesia”
by Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello was like a totally old man by the time he
recorded the ironically titled Brutal Youth. But he screams like it’s
still 1978 and he’s still merely middle-aged on the vitriolic “20% Amnesia”.
One does not necessarily think of “heavy” as an Elvis-friendly descriptor, but
“heavy” certainly applies to the skull-crushing “20% Amnesia”.
46. “The Sky Lit Up”
by PJ Harvey
Elvis works himself up into a good froth on “20% Amnesia”.
He does not, however, sound like a banshee who just exploded out of the sun to
kill the Earth with her banshee wails. Only PJ Harvey sounds that way, and she
sounds like it on “The Sky Lit Up”. This song sounds like the apocalypse. Assuming
the apocalypse will last less than two minutes.
45. “Cupid’s Trick”
by Elliott Smith
And the venom keeps spilling! But while Elvis and Polly Jean
sound like they just went postal, Elliott Smith seethes with near silent
intensity leaving the livid volume to the instrumental accompaniment. Allegedly
written in a heavy chemical stupor, “Cupid’s Trick” seems to defy
interpretation. Its writer couldn’t even remember what it meant! Anything this
intense can only mean nothing and everything.
44. “Conjure Me”
by Afghan Whigs
Afghan Whigs also know a thing or two about intensity.
Guitars scream in torment. Drums rattle like they’re being punished for doing
something very naughty. Piano hammers like someone’s running a short distance
race on the keys. Greg Dulli splatters everyone within a mile with his saliva.
Everyone’s head caves in.
42. “Psychic Pilot Clocks
Out” by Robert Pollard
Bob Pollard rarely projected the illusion that he makes
sense as convincingly as he does on “Psychic Pilot Clocks Out”. “Live it up
before you pass away”? OK, I get what that means. “Don’t be defensive, not with
me”? Got that one too. “I feel life passing on by us”? Oh, who can’t relate to
that? “Light me, blood clot, I’m a child of light”? Alright, now you’re
starting to lose me, Bob. No worries, though, because every moment of this song
sounds like the clearest intergalactic transmission to the depths of my soul.
Hey, that could be a line from a Robert Pollard song!
42. “As We Go Up, We
Go Down” by Guided by Voices
Robert Pollard’s great gift is his ability to boil
everything that makes a pop song perfect down to its absolute essence. He
doesn’t need professional recording quality. He doesn’t need a slick band or
voice. He doesn’t even need two whole minutes! Everything wonderful about pop
is squeezed into the teeny tiny “As We Go Up, We Go Down”. He even manages to
fit in some shocking misanthropy (“I speak in monotone, ‘leave my fucking life
alone’). But then he gets right back to bopping up and down.
41. “Red House”
by Shudder to Think
If you’ve got a hankering for some bopping without the
nastiness and with a bit more timeage, take a trip to Shudder to Think’s “Red
House”! Originally cut for the lo-fi Funeral
at the Movies E.P., the guys rerecorded it with increased slickness and
power for their crazy bid for pop stardom, 50,000
B.C. Alas, it was too good for all the chumps wagging their empty heads to
“Semi-Charmed Life”.
40. “Sweet Adeline”
by Elliott Smith
More perfectly crafted misery from XO! A great acoustic guitar line. A great melody. A great choir of
harmonizing Elliott Smiths. Some huge, Ringo-channeling drumming, and
Paul-channeling one-man bandery. Yup, Elliott recorded everything himself and
he’s a better band than pretty much all the other bands that are actually
bands.
39. “Running Off with
the Fun City Girls” by Guided by Voices
Guided by Voices bury another absolute classic where barely
anyone can hear it. The gnarly “Running Off with the Fun City Girls” ended up
tacked to the end of the Japanese edition of Mag Earwhig! despite being the best thing on a CD packed with
superb songs. For a guy who acts like a great, big, high-kicking rock star,
Robert Pollard made some moves that suggest he’s happiest underground.
38. “The Wedding Is
Over” by Shudder to Think (with Lena Karlsson)
In 1998, Shudder to Think gathered together a bunch of contemporary
stars to record a soundtrack for a movie no one saw and even fewer people
liked. Too bad few people heard the soundtrack, because it’s off the hook. It’s
best song does not feature any of the most well-known guests, which included
Liz Phair, Jeff Buckley, Billy Corgan, and Nina Persson, as well as some old
guys who could still pass as cool like Robin Zander and John Doe. The prime cut
features a seriously obscure singer named Lena Karlsson, as well as an
intoxicating A.C. Jobim vibe and what may be the best line in lyrical history:
“Don’t worry about your soul when you’ve got alcohol”.
37. “Ocean of Wine”
by Helium
The Dirt of Luck
was all muddy noise and sludge-monster imagery. Mary Timony cleaned up her act
with The Magic City, a sparklingly
produced prog-pop album. Whereas The Dirt
of Luck lurched from a hellish bog, The
Magic City marched regally through fantasyland, and no track captures its
prevailing feel better than “Ocean of Wine”. Timony’s over-effected guitar riff
during the long vamp that finishes the song is one for the ages.
36. “Rise & Shine”
by The Cardigans
The Cardigans often matched their sunny, sunny sounds with
cloudy sentiments. Not the case on “Rise & Shine”, Jack! Nina Persson’s
smiling voice, the beautiful guitar arpeggios, the
skipping-through-a-heather-field drumming, and the sing-out-loud trumpeting are
musical Seratonin. Next time you’re feeling down, pop this in the CD tray and
quit your whining!
35. “Bled White”
by Elliott Smith
Well, I guess that last bit of advice was a little glib.
Certainly a guy like Elliott Smith was not going to cure his serious problems
with a mere pop song, otherwise he might have met a happier end after recording
the shimmering “Bled White”. Wait. No he wouldn’t, because those lyrics are
still a big downer.
34. “Serve the Servants”
by Nirvana
I hate to keep invoking The Beatles, but the return to the
kind of pop they wrought really is what makes nineties rock so wonderful. Even
Kurt Cobain admitted to their influence often and convincingly. The Beatles’
cheeky use of seventh chords is all over “Serve the Servants”, which sounds a
bit like “Nowhere Man” played through a speaker that some grunge puppy just
shoved the headstock of his Fender Jaguar through.
33. “Alec Eiffel”
by The Pixies
There have been thousands of great pop songs about
pioneering civil engineers. The very best of them all is Black Francis’s
tribute to the guy who designed that great big phallus poking up from Paris.
The synthesizer makes “Alec Eiffel” sound like one of those sci-fi themed
numbers on Trompe le Monde. The
rhythm makes it sound like Dick Dale. The repeated chorus that ends the track
makes it sound like a voyage to heaven.
32. “Call All
Destroyer” by Cornershop
Best song beginning ever? Some mucking about. A taste of the
tune through a transistor radio. Then a hi-fi drum fill breaks through the
crackles and we are off to the races with Rock & Roll as elemental as
“Twist and Shout” or “Louie Louie”. Then it all stops short with Tjinder Singh
speaking the album’s title. Might be best song ending ever too.
31. “6’1”” by Liz
Phair
Liz Phair’s line about how Exile in Guyville is her track-by-track response to Exile on Main Street only holds a little
water, but she almost pulls off the ruse with her album’s opening track. The
riffing is pure Keef. The “I’m towering and you’re lame” lyric is a pretty
valid response to the “I can’t get a boner!” song that begins Main Street. Even without the
provocative Stones connections, “6’ 1”” would still be a fierce and inspiring
Rock & Roll song, and it’s as great a way to begin one of the nineties’
best albums as “Rocks Off” was a great way to begin one of the seventies’ best.
30. “Texas” by
Magnapop
There’s something magical about “Texas”. It doesn’t have
Magnapop’s usual punk propulsion. It is airy, spacious, jangly, comforting.
Even without caring memos like “I want to take you on a trip so far from
everything”, “Texas” would still be a uniquely comforting pop song because of
the tender performance and the strength and sympathy of Linda Hopper’s vocal. I
want this song to be my mom.
29. “Nine Straight
Lines” by The Push Kings
I hope I haven’t used up all my allotted Beatles comparisons
yet, because no song on this list deserves it more than The Push Kings’ “Nine
Straight Lines”. Actually, this may sound more like Wings than Macca’s first
band. And shut up about how Wings sucked. Your face is the one who sucks! And
“Nine Straight Lines” is amazing, retro, Paulie pop at its best.
28. “Flax” by
Versus
The final track on their rarities comp Dead Leaves is Versus at their most intense. The track begins its
slow burn with a tightly wound shoegaze rhythm before breaking out of its
wallflower shell with a wall of squall. So you’ll be all like, “(mumble) no one likes me (mumble)” for the first two and a half
minutes. Then when the feedback breaks in, you’ll be like “I’m a human
supernova!” until Liz Phair sends you a cease and desist memo.
27. “Big Space”
by Suzanne Vega
Non-B.C. Rich guitars made a big comeback in the early
nineties, but the very beginning of the decade was still hung up on such
eighties accoutrement as the synthesizer, and synthesizers are all over Suzanne
Vega’s Days of Open Hand. Fortunately
she and co-producer Anton Sanko used them with impeccable taste, and the spacey
atmosphere of her third album is impossible to imagine without all the Fairlights.
Synths are perhaps used to best effect on the spacious, magical “Big Space”.
The bridge (“All feeeeeeling…”) tingles the spine.
26. “What Jail Is
Like” by Afghan Whigs
Greg Dulli is a cur, a bounder, a scoundrel. Yet his wounded
dog delivery of “What Jail Is Like” almost makes you feel sorry for him for
being stuck in a dead end relationship. Oh, boo-hoo, Greg! The elegant piano
line helps complete the illusion that he isn’t a cur, bounder, and scoundrel
unworthy of your sympathy.
25. “Don’t Stop Now”
by Guided by Voices
Alright, kids! We’ve entered the last quarter of Psychobabble’s 100 Favorite Songs of the
1990s! Should we stop now? No, we should not. We should listen to Guided by
Voices. They say, “don’t stop now” too! And they say it with one of their most
extraordinarily gorgeous songs. “Don’t Stop Now” has a heart-squishing melody,
a harmonium, and a cello! It references a real rooster named “Big Daddy” that was
a close, personal friend of Guided by Voices! It coins the timeless phrase
“King Shit and the Golden Boys”! It is yet another example of why Robert
Pollard deserves to be discussed in the same breath as Lennon, McCartney, and
Wilson.
24. “500 Up” by
Sloan
Sloan is Canada’s greatest pop band. There isn’t even a
competitor. However, their first album attempted to mask the natural pop gifts
of Chris, Patrick, Jay, and Andrew under an extra-fuzzy blanket of My Bloody
Valentine feedback. One of the few exceptions is the thrilling “500 Up”, which
is the album’s best indicator of the direction Sloan were preparing to go in
with Twice Removed. It’s a rush.
23. “Seeing Other
People” by Belle & Sebastian
You know what’s an underrated influence on pop songs? The
“Peanuts” theme. But every pop song that sounds like the “Peanuts” song is
awesome. Throwing Muses’ “Walking in the Dark” is awesome, and so is Belle
& Sebastian’s “Seeing Other People”. Of course, the lyric about sexual
initiations takes on disturbing overtones when you picture Linus and Peppermint
Patty in the situations Stu Murdoch describes. That blend of airy, innocent,
fairy-like music and sex is one of the things that make Belle & Sebastian
so fascinating.
22. “Sexy S” by
Belly
Belly’s debt to pop’s past becomes explicit on “Sexy S”. The
“S” stands for “Sadie”. The debt should be clear to anyone who’s ever heard
“The White Album”. But while John Lennon’s song was a tumbling, piano driven
ballad about untrustworthy gurus, Belly’s song is a thunderous rocker drunk on
guitar-pedals. If your head doesn’t reflexively bop along with the shimmying
chorus, it might be time for a new head
21. “Gentleman”
by The Afghan Whigs
Afghan Whigs’ macho nastiness gets a sort of anthem in the
title track of their masterpiece. Greg Dulli’s slobbering posturing might have
been insufferable if it wasn’t enveloped in such a vertiginous, slashing riff
that herks and jerks all over the bedroom floor.
20. “Everything
You’ve Done Wrong” by Sloan
You know what band sucks? Chicago. They suck. But Sloan’s
“Everything You’ve Done Wrong” is proof that Chicago could have been amazing. “Everything
You’ve Done Wrong” sounds like the most amazing Chicago song never written. The
horns. The bouncy beat. The from-the-diaphragm vocals. Those are all Chicago
signatures. The only signatures it’s missing are the crappy material and crappy
Peter Cetera. In his place is Patrick Pentland, who is great. And Chris
Murphy’s bass does an uncanny impersonation of McCartney’s Hofner.
19. “Ray Ray Rain”
by Bettie Serveert
A lot of critics complained that indie darlings Bettie
Serveert got too big and polished on their second CD, Lamprey. Those critics are dicks. Lamprey is a fabulous album, and “Ray Ray Rain” is a spectacular
single. Name me one hit song that is catchier than this. Didn’t think you
could. Name me one lyric in a sunshiny pop song that is cooler than “Spiders,
snakes, and lizard heads; tell the tale, we’ll all be dead”. You can’t do that
either. Name me an intro that is as glorious as Herman Bunskoeke playing the
chorus melody on his bass and Carol van Dijk kissing the microphone. Strike
three.
18. “Cannonball”
by The Breeders
Kim Deal takes the classic pop song, smashes it with a
sledgehammer, and puts the pieces back together in a pot-reeking mosaic. “Cannonball” is a bunch of disparate
shards that don’t belong together. Josephine Wiggs’s Bootsy bassline. Kelley
Deal’s Tiki slide guitar. Kim Deal’s garage-brewed power chords. Lyrics about
who knows what. A special spotlight for mic feedback. Yet “Cannonball” became
one of the signature alterna-pop
hits. It just goes to show that a stellar tune is a stellar tune no matter what
angle you shoot it from.
17. “Subspace
Biographies” by Robert Pollard
1998 was just two years shy of the millennium. We all knew
that the year 2000 would bring with it cities in space, Mars cars, Martian
romances, and computer-generated devastation. Bob Pollard launches us into that
brave, new, future with a rocket called “Subspace Biographies”. The verses are
a build up to the blast off of a chorus loop as euphoric as a trip to the moon.
16. “Jane of the
Waking Universe” by Guided by Voices
The Planet Pollard vibe continues with this awe-inspiring
pop chant from Mag Earwhig! “Jane of
the Waking Universe” is almost all chorus. When you have a chorus this good,
you don’t need anything else.
15. “Don’t Have Time”
by Liz Phair
I’m not sure “Don’t Have Time” has a chorus at all. Liz
Phair started her career making masterfully simple traditional pop songs.
There’s nothing traditional about this shifty number buried on the soundtrack
to John Singleton’s heavy-handed Higher
Learning. It goes from a sort of tick-tocking toy rhythm to a dead stop to
an edgier thrust before bursting open with a skeleton-smashing drum fill and a
thousand shrieking birds. There’s nothing else quite like “Don’t Have Time” in
Liz Phair’s catalog. There’s nothing like it in anyone else’s either.
14. “People Are
Leaving” by Robert Pollard (with Stephanie Sayers)
A musician named Stephanie Sayers made a tape of a
one-woman-band instrumental and sent it to Bob Pollard. He overdubbed his own
lyric about the deaths of some friends and put it on his second album Waved Out. The result of this unusual collaboration
is probably Pollard’s most emotionally affecting recording. Sayers’s piano and
guitar work is stunningly beautiful and palpably sad. Bob honored that work
with contributions that will pull your heart out and chop it into haggis.
13. “The Lines You
Amend” by Sloan
Sloan punch out some tight, hand-clapping funk, and Jay
Ferguson jives all around it, dropping personal snapshots of a friendship that
ended in suicide and references to Ringo Starr’s “Photograph”. “Photograph” is
an amazing song. “The Lines You Amend” is even better. Chris Murphy’s bass
pushes the rhythm along, pulls away sneakily, and slides right back into the
groove. This track is as cool as pop gets. The lyric is as personal as it gets
without ever slipping into maudlin mode. Perfection.
12. “Tractor Rape
Chain” by Guided by Voices
The nineties are nothing if not mopey, and the pain
continues with a song sad in lyric and tune. Bob Pollard’s knack for nonsense
and unsavory vocabulary peaks with the heart-stomping “Tractor Rape Chain”, a
shimmering, lo-fi wonder that evokes the grand-scale tragedy of environmental
destruction and the small-scale misery of a dying relationship. Sussing what
he’s on about might be a fool’s errand, but no matter the meaning, the song’s
emotional weight comes through in the delivery.
11. “The Stars of
Track and Field” by Belle & Sebastian
Stuart Murdoch directs a musical mini-movie to begin his
masterwork, If You’re Feeling Sinister.
Even though it’s a sport movie, and sport clearly sucks, complex themes of
doubt and sexuality make this a much better sport movie than Space Jam. Production so textural you
can touch it is one part Village Green
Preservation Society and one part Louvre.
10. “Teenage FBI”
by Guided by Voices
Nose picking is the great American pastime, and former-teacher
Robert Pollard wrote the ultimate tribute to this time-honored sport in a little
number about a time when his students caught him digging for gold in class. An
abbreviated, lo-fi version of “Teenage FBI” appeared on the 1997 EP Wish in One Hand, but the song reached
its full potential when stretched to an epic three minutes, polished up by
producer Ric Ocasek, and given lead-track status on the greatest CD of the
nineties. There are those who would say Do
the Collapse is a terrible, overproduced sell-out. Those people are turds.
9. “Not Too Soon”
by Throwing Muses
Kristen Hersh was the queen Muse, but her sister Tanya was
more than a mere sidekick. In fact, the best song on the best Muses album is
the work of the future Belly queen. “Not Too Soon” is as brilliantly bouncy as
Belly’s best and as aggressively tuneful as a merry-go-round.
8. “Feed the Tree
(Single Mix)” by Belly
Even better than Tanya Donnelly’s “farewell” composition for
Throwing Muses is her “hello!” composition for one of the biggest “alternative”
bands of our decade. After hearing “Feed the Tree” for the first time, I
basically put away my Beatles and Stones records for a year, elated that I
could finally enjoy some music from my own generation. Belly’s sweet ride led
me to discover nearly every song on this list. “Feed the Tree” is still as
great a pop song as it was that first time I heard it on NY’s WDRE in 1993. The
single mix is definitely the way to go since it gives us a few more rounds of
that elating chorus than the more concise album mix.
7. “Money City
Maniacs” by Sloan
As soon as those air raid sirens rev up, you know you’re in
for something serious. This is the kind of getting-down-to-business hard rocking
that most nineties bands were too self-conscious to attempt sans irony. Sloan
says, “Fuck irony,” and slams out the power chords like they’re discharging
A-bombs by the dozen. Had this song been about the kind of stuff that one
usually sings about while playing this kind of music (cocks), it would be
bullshit. But it’s about spraying Coca Cola on some sleeping guy. That is the
antithesis of bullshit.
6. “Auditorium/Motor
Away” by Guided by Voices
“Motor Away” is about a much more typical Rock & Roll subject
than “Money City Maniacs” is. It’s about hopping in the car, crying “Later,
potatah!” to your lame-ass town, and never looking back. This is the best car
song ever written. You read that right. It’s better than “Little Deuce Coupe”,
“Little GTO”, “Hey Little Cobra”, “Little Red Corvette”, and the one or two car
songs without “little” in the title. And the lead in it gets from the
ruthlessly taut “Auditorium” makes the open-road release of “Motor Away” 100
times more exhilarating.
5. “Slow Dog” by
Belly
While we’re on the topic of exhilarating, there’s the
second—and oddly, least commercially successful—single from Belly’s first CD.
Maybe alternative station DJs were reluctant to embrace a song about dog
murder. Fair enough. However, the roadrunner delivery of the track sweetens its
decayed subject matter. “Slow Dog” is musical dizziness of the most
intoxicating variety.
4. “Waltz #2 (XO)”
by Elliott Smith
Everyone’s mom had it real rough in the nineties. “You’re an
asshole!” Person A would say. “So’s your mom!” Person B would retort. But no
one’s mom got it worse in public than Elliott Smith’s. He called his mother out
for her bad choices, some of which impacted him horrifically, in “Waltz #2
(XO)”. Yet he also did so with a beautiful tune and an enchanting pop production.
The “I’m gonna love you anyhow” chorus must have at least softened the blow of having
so much dirty laundry hung in public (or maybe it just twisted the knife a little more). This is the power of the pop song. If
something’s bugging you, you turn it into extraordinary music, and Elliott
Smith is extraordinarily bugged on “Waltz #2 (XO)”.
3. “Mockingbirds”
by Grant Lee Buffalo
Grant Lee Buffalo’s tactile sound and knack with old-timey acoustic instrumentation make “Mockingbirds” soar. But the MVP is vocalist Grant Lee Phillips, who explores both ends of his amazing range, dipping down into
his well of soul on the verses and taking wing with a feathery falsetto on the
chorus. His voice is in league with the best there is: Smokey Robinson, Van
Morrison, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Paul McCartney… the best. If there was
an episode of Celebrity Death Match
that pit him against Thom Yorke, he might have played “Mockingbirds” on Thom’s
spleen. And Thom York is amazing.
2. “In Liverpool”
by Suzanne Vega
Man oh man. It took every ounce of self control not to
invoke the “B” word again with those last two songs, both of which sound like
“White Album” outtakes. But, come on! This one is actually called “In
Liverpool”! So I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna break the seal. “In Liverpool” sounds
like The Beatles! Half the songs on this list sound like The Beatles! The
Beatles were great! Writing a song that sounds like The Beatles guarantees that
the song will be great! “In Liverpool” is great! It has a Lennon-esque melody
and Abbey Road arpeggios! It
references The Beatles’ hometown! But it also has marvelous Mitchel Froom
industrial percussion, and a pure-poetry Suzanne Vega lyric that recalls rainy
Sundays and Quasimodo. That’s it. I promise I will now, officially, stop
comparing songs to Beatles songs. I promise!
1. “Paranoid Android”
by Radiohead
The greatest song of the nineties accurately predicted where
we’d end up in the coming century: a computerized society would leave us empty
and vulnerable in the worst way. So “Paranoid Android” is a cynical product of
an ironically less cynical time, though even Thom Yorke may not have been
cynical enough to predict just where the Internet’s fabric of lies and easy
access would leave us today. It is also harrowing, dramatic, and packed with
great stuff melodically, instrumentally, and productionally (that’s a word!). One
may argue that “Paranoid Android” is not the greatest song on OK Computer, but there’s nothing else on
the CD that gives you more bang for your buck. Plus there’s Jonny Greenwood’s
mega-riffage, Phil Selway’s tom-tom machine gunning, and Thom’s
angel-to-a-sneer dynamics. “Paranoid Android” leaves me flawed, stunned,
shaken, stirred and feeling a whole lot more human than I felt before it
started. More irony! The nineties were ironic! Have I managed to make that
clear by now? Yes? No? Whatever. Nevermind.
Peace out.
