HOOTIE AND THE BLOWFISH DIDN’T MAKE IT

. . . and man, is my wife steamed. But, at any rate, in the extended entry is my personal list of the top 100 songs of the last 25 years. They’re presented in reverse order, with comments on each one.

Britney Spears didn’t make it either. So who did? Well, for that, you’ll have to . . .

1. “Jeremy”–Pearl Jam: Overall, I’m not a Pearl Jam fan, not at all. But they caught lightning in a bottle with their first big hit–tell me what, if anything, you’d change about this song. Except to ask Eddie Vedder to sing the verses a little better, but that goes without saying. This mine has been claim-jumped so many times, bands have built entire careers *coughOurLadyPeace* *snCREEDiff* by ripping “Jeremy” off repeatedly.
2. “With or Without You”–U2: Maybe it’s the singer and not the song–Bono’s performance on the recording is nothing sort of virtuoso, a rare case of a rock band showing off dynamic sensitivity. But the root metaphor of ambiguity even plays out in the gorgeous music undergirding a harrowing tale of emotional fatigue.
3. “About A Girl”–Nirvana: Admit it. The first time you heard this song, you thought it was an obscuro Lennon/McCartney gem.
4. “Fight the Power”–Public Enemy: Before everything in the rap world descended into white-kid fantasies of gangstaz, there was a time when rap was the folk music of urban America–telling stories seldom told to an audience which already knew them by heart. And “Fight The Power” was its finest moment.
5. “Tear Stained Eye”–Son Volt: The finest country song of the last 25 years. And Nashville will never touch real country music like this again–it’s making too much money off vacuous, reactionary “hat acts” with nothing to say and a bully pulpit for saying it. And you don’t get to hear words like this: “Can you deny there’s nothing greater/Nothing more than the traveling hands of time/St. Genevieve can hold back the water/But saints don’t bother with a tear-stained eye.”
6. “Fell On Black Days”–Soundgarden: The best “I feel like crap, and I don’t know why” song ever written. If you don’t feel like this song a couple times a year, you’re not really human.
7. “If You’re Feeling Sinister”–Belle and Sebastian: Leaders of Britain’s short-lived “twee pop” movement, Belle and Sebastian put together intricately crafted mini-symphonies like this one about being dissatisfied with life. Includes the best line about my profession that I think has ever been written: “If you’re feeling sinister, go off and see a minister/He’ll try in vain to take away the pain of being a hopeless unbeliever.” Yeah, I spend 60 hours a week doing pretty much exactly that.
8. “Blue”–Jayhawks: A great, arm-around-the-shoulder kind of country song. After eight years of listening to it, I’m still not sure what in blazes it’s about, but it sounds great.
9. “Billie Jean”–Michael Jackson: A classic of quiet intensity. Michael Jackson may be (OK, is) a wierdo, but his singing is above reproach.
10. “Only In Dreams”–Weezer: More of an arrangement than a song, this soaring epic to shyness perfectly evokes the feelings the lyrics describe. And there’s a tremendous burst of energy that’s just like a good cry–no wonder Weezer became emo royalty.

11. “Indianapolis”–Bottle Rockets: A terribly funny country song about getting stuck in a place you’d rather not get stuck in.
12. “Surrender”–Cheap Trick: I commented on this song at my old site.
13. “Everlong”–Foo Fighters: More for that oh-so-cool bubbling guitar riff than anything else.
14. “What Do You Hear in These Sounds”–Dar Williams: A rarity, in that this is a self-deprecating and self-affirming song about being in therapy.
15. “That’s Just What You Are”–Aimee Mann: It grates on you after a while, but there’s a cool vibe running through both words and music, the ineffable something that every songwriter longs for.
16. “One Voice”–Gear Daddies: The first of many truly obscuro selections on this list. “One Voice” is an abstract, 60s-styled country song about a man whose life completely flys apart after a divorce. There’s no happy ending here, even though the music is relentlessly upbeat.
17. “Smooth”–Santana feat. Rob Thomas: I defy you not to sing along with this song when you hear it on the radio.
18. “Interstate Love Song”–Stone Temple Pilots: Nothing like invoking all the ghosts of 70s classic rock to boost a band’s career. STP got slagged as Pearl Jam wannabes when they first broke in ‘92, but guess what? STP’s had more hits. This was the #1 Modern Rock song of 1995, with good reason.
19. “Cut Flowers”–Smithereens: The Smithereens’ Pat DiNizio is a criminally underrated songwriter. This little masterpiece is the epilogue to about a million teen suicide notes.
20. “Back on the Chain Gang”–Pretenders: Nothing like chewing out people who can’t defend themselves. Chrissie Hynde wrote this one about her recently departed bandmate James Honeyman-Scott, and it’s clear that she’s a little disgusted with herself because she still loved him, even though he was self-destructing.

21. “When Doves Cry”–Prince: Not much more to say about this song that hasn’t already been said.
22. “Ain’t Even Done With the Night”–John Mellencamp: Not everybody’s favorite Mellencamp song, but it’s mine. He should recut it without the dated sax solo, though.
23. “Monochrome”–Sundays: The best song ever about the Apollo 11 moon landing.
24. “Helpless”–Sugar: Guilty pop pleasure. How could Bob Mould make agony sound so . . . desirable?
25. “More Than This”–Roxy Music: Always a joke they didn’t want you to get, Roxy Music must be laughing now that this song is becoming a jazz standard like “Satin Doll” and “Embraceable You.”
26. “Come As You Are”–Nirvana: Creepy yet propulsive.
27. “Break Your Heart”–Barenaked Ladies: I don’t watch Friends, but if I had to write the series finale, it would close with Ross and Rachel in an empty apartment, dancing together to this song.
28. “Better Things”–Kinks: From the Kinks’ arena rock period, an exuberant breakup song encouraging the addressee to take the long view.
29. “We Two”–Little River Band: Australia has sent us unending supplies of dreckmeister soft-rock bands over the years, and LRB was a repeat offender. But this song, though it has a couple tortuous lines of lyrics, is one of the better relationship post-mortems ever done.
30. “Lying Still”–Level 42: Eerie and unsettling, ever-so-slightly jazzy, worth hitting the ‘REPEAT’ button for.

31. “Don’t Dream It’s Over”–Crowded House: Hopeful and nostalgic at the same time.
32. “Human”–Human League: Should be credited to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, since they had more to do with it than the Human League did.
33. “Singing In My Sleep”–Semisonic: Captures that magical moment in a relationship when you first realize the other person is starting to truly understand you. Sheryl Crow ripped it off for “You Don’t Bring Me Anything But Down” but I think I’m the only person who ever noticed that.
34. “We Could Send Letters”–Aztec Camera: Their arrangements were typically overwrought and cluttered, but on this song from their first album, everything clicked and Aztec Camera captured the luminous sadness of forced separation.
35. “Swingin’ Party”–Replacements: Perfectly prefigured the transition from swaggering arena-rock to the uncertain, restless slacking of grunge.
36. “Every Breath You Take”–Police:Another song about which enough has been said already.
37. “Painted From Memory”–Elvis Costello/Burt Bacharach: Who knew? Elvis Costello wasn’t so “indier-than-thou” to work with a true pop music icon like Burt Bacharach, and Bacharach still had lots of great melodies inside him. End result: Costello finally gets a song to sing that’s really worthy of his great voice.
38. “Californication”–Red Hot Chili Peppers: The new-millenium equivalent of Bob Dylan’s line, “There’s something going on here, and you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?”
39. “Amarillo By Morning”–George Strait: Occasionally, they can still write ‘em like they used to. Hank Sr. could’ve (and probably would’ve) sung this song.
40. “My Mind Playing Tricks On Me”–Geto Boyz: Different from most “gangsta” rap in that they weren’t making this stuff up.

41. “Say It Isn’t So”–Hall and Oates: The last, defiant gasp of Philly soul.
42. “My Oh My”–David Gray: In which a man reacts to the effect the coarsening of the world is having on his soul. Delicate, and yet profoundly irritated.
43. “Vegetable”–Radiohead: “I wanna be different . . . just like everybody else.”
44. “Buy You A Ring”–Huffamoose: This song deserved a better fate than winding up in a JCPenney commercial, but I’m sure the boys in Huffamoose cashed their checks anyway.
45. “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong”–Spin Doctors: “Two Princes” was a bigger hit, but it was a throwaway. This song, venomous and petulant as it is, stands up well to repeated listening.
46. “Give Me One Reason”–Tracy Chapman: Just when you thought the blues were dead . . .
47. “Swan Swan H”–R.E.M. The first time you got the sense that R.E.M. was really pouring their guts out into their music.
48. “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)”–Journey: Arena-rock, sure. VH1 put Bon Jovi on their list, though.
49. “Overkill”–Men At Work: The only thing they ever recorded that doesn’t sound like a time warp to 1982.
50. “Love Song”–The Cure: Aching and strained, like how most Goths feel 24/7.

51. “Set Adrift On Memory Bliss”–PM Dawn: Sometimes rearranging is just as good as writing.
52. “Waterfalls”–TLC: I hate slicked-up R&B, but here’s a song just begging to be overproduced.
53. “All I Want”–Toad the Wet Sprocket: Organic rock?
54. “King of New Orleans”–Better Than Ezra: Maybe a little melodramatic, but an interesting character study.
55. “Hook”–Blues Traveler: Something keeps leading me back to this song . . .
56. “White, Discussion”–Live: Live is from York, PA, a conservative little town in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country. I’m sure they had lots of discussions like this when they were growing up.
57. “One”–U2: I’ve never been able to decide is this song is about AIDS or not.
58. “All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down”–The Mavericks: There isn’t enough country music that sounds like this: exuberant, upbeat party tunes that aren’t about partying.
59. “Human on the Inside”–Pretenders: As Chrissie Hynde got older, she learned that sometimes it’s better to try to be understood than it is to understand.
60. “Whiskey Bottle”–Uncle Tupelo: You want a power ballad? I got your power ballad right here.

61. “All The Way Up To Heaven”–Guster: I’ve never been sure if this song was about Jesus, or about the Heaven’s Gate UFO cult. I think it’s the former, which is a good thing, since I use this song as a prayer mantra.
62. “Black Soul Choir”–Sixteen Horsepower: This song, on the other hand, is certainly about Old Nick. A classic line: “I will forgive your wrongs, for I am able/And for my own I feel great pain/But I would offer up a brick to the back of your head, boy/If I was Cain.”
63. “Birdhouse In Your Soul”–They Might Be Giants: They always find such interesting topics to write about, you know? I mean, I never considered the inner motivations of nightlights before I heard this song.
64. “This Ain’t Living”–G. Love and Special Sauce: Even though G. Love gets his butt handed to him by “guest rapper” Roscoe, this elegiac portrait of homelessness is a must-listen.
65. “Time and Tide”–Basia: Tough and tender, and not a lost ABBA song, even though it could pass for one.
66. “Sweet Love”–Anita Baker: Another song where too much production was just about enough.
67. “Gotta Get Away”–Offspring: As restless and edgy as the narrator of the song must feel.
68. “Regret”–New Order: Wistful song about not wanting to be a rock star, with a simple little guitar lick that ties everything together.
69. Anything at all by Wesley Willis: I mean, they’re all the same song anyway, but that doesn’t mean Wesley Willis isn’t one of the most distinctive songwriters of recent years. Rock on, Chicago. 588-2300, Empire!
70. “Last Goodbye”–Jeff Buckley: Led Zepplin without the over-the-top bombast and Eastern mysticism. No wonder I like it better . . .

71. “September”–Earth, Wind, and Fire: You thought this song was older than that, didn’t you?
72. “1979″–Smashing Pumpkins: You tend to foget how many of these alterna-heroes are more children of the 70s than the 80s. This song should really be the theme to That 70s Show.
73. “If You Could Only See”–Tonic: A great chorus, OK verses, but shot through with that Ineffable Something that puts a song over the top.
74. “Adia”–Sarah MacLachlan: Epic and dramatic without being overly so. Simply a gorgeous song.
75. “Kryptonite”–3 Doors Down: Nobody ever told them you’re not supposed to mix swung and straight 8th notes.
76. “Take A Bow”–Madonna: Madonna is better at pop than at dance music, yet she continually pushes the latter rather than the former. Here she surrenders to her inner Barbra Streisand, and the end result is only the best thing she’s ever recorded.
77. “Someday”–Sugar Ray: Sugar Ray transformed itself from a hip-hop/rock act to a retro-tinged pop group, and this longing ode to a bygone friend is proof that they did the right thing.
78. “How Was I To Know”–John Michael Montgomery: on finding what you weren’t looking for. One of the more beautiful melodies on a recent Nashville tune.
79. “Follow Your Bliss”–B-52’s: Just a throwaway instrumental, but again, it’s got that Ineffable Something.
80. “Come Back To Me”–Janet Jackson: My wife thinks I’m crazy for picking this song, but it matches Janet’s vocal talents so well I had to include it. I’d say I’d like her to recut it in a more natural-sounding fashion, but she’s gotten even more processed-sounding as she’s gotten older, so I’m not optimistic about the prospects.

81. “It Must Have Been Love”–Roxette: A great song for the right singer, and what’s-her-name from Roxette was the right singer.
82. “Alive and Kicking”–Simple Minds: The 80s were a time of excess in pop music, and this song is a touch excessive, but it’s a great guilty pleasure.
83. “You Got Lucky”–Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Lowering and threatening like an oncoming storm.
84. “Somebody’s Baby”–Jackson Browne: Way more poppy than Jackson Brown’s usual oeuvre, you have to wonder if he did this movie-soundtrack song for the money, or if he just wanted the challenge.
85. “Every Day I Write The Book”–Elvis Costello: Remember the Chuck & Di video?
86. “Here’s Where The Story Ends”–Sundays: Another case where the music and lyrics seem to work at cross-purposes. The cheery, swinging arrangement belies this song that could be interpreted as a suicide note.
87. “Londinium”–Catatonia: I know what it’s like to feel the city closing in on you until you just can’t stand it and you need to see something green that isn’t a traffic light. This song captures that feeling amazingly well.
88. “Nowhere Fast”–Incubus: Like “Fell On Black Days,” another song where you’re not really human if you don’t feel like this a couple times a year. That instrumental break in the middle is always just a trip, too.
89. “Misty Morning, Albert Bridge”–The Pogues: Not really a “song” in the classic sense, but a good example of how an unusual song form can be worked to great effect.
90. “Add It Up”–Violent Femmes: Angst, before angst was cool.

91. “Creep”–Radiohead: Angst, exactly when angst was cool.
92. “Sean”–The Proclaimers: The first time you hear this song, you laugh at their Scottish pronunciation of “Tuppalo, Messisseppi,” but after a couple times through this song, you realize they had more important things to say than they said in “500 Miles (I’m Gonna Be)”. One of the better songs about parenting, in my estimation.
93. “It’s Over Now”–Neve: They weren’t punk-pop, and they weren’t a boy band, so there was no way to sell Neve as an act. But in about a dozen years, some college student/’zine publisher will unearth an MP3 of “It’s Over Now,” and eventually that will lead to a Rolling Stone cover article about “The New Melodicism.” (Hey, it happened to Big Star.)
94. “Insensitive”–Jann Arden: Interestingly, since Jann Arden is a contemporary folkie, she has high-quality background singers on her recordings. But when this song got released in ‘96, the background vocals were gone. Sometimes subtraction is addition, but not this time–I like the album version of “Insensitive” way better.
95. “She’s A Jar”–Wilco: Only for the last line. Brilliant songwriting on Jeff Tweedy’s part.
96. “Kid”–Pretenders: A kid discovers his mom’s a prostitute, and this is how Mom explains herself.
97. “The Down Town”–Days of the New: A too-cool-to-be-believed ditty from the world’s only unplugged heavy-metal band.
98. “Girlfriend”–Matthew Sweet: He was always better at picking sideman that anything else, but Matthew Sweet struck gold on this “on the rebound” sleaze-rock anthem.
99. “Pur”–Cocteau Twins: Another simply great song about parenting, this time from the point of view of a mother whose daughter is beginning to assert her independence.
100. “Hungry Heart”–Bruce Springsteen : Belongs more to the 60s than the 80s, but it makes me smile every time I hear it–so long as I don’t think about the lyrics too much.

Whew. Exhaustive and exhausting.