A Change Is Gonna Come is insanely good. can't argue with the top ten so far

except maybe Springsteen

I don't like his nose in that photo.

You're in luck.

'A Change is Gonna Come'. That's the fucking balls right there.

Never ceases to make me feel miserable. Scary to think what Cooke would've done next.

“Pick me up and turn me round”

#6.




Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)
(3717 Points, 20 Votes, One #1 Vote)

Release Year: 1983

Chart Peak: #62 (US), #51 (UK)

Found On: Speaking in Tongues

All Music Review: An unabashedly sweet and romantic song from a songwriter known mostly for his cynical and satirical lyrics often featuring distrustful, paranoid, psychotic, and even murderous narrators. "This Must Be the Place" sounds like the work of a writer confident in his ability to pen a song celebrating the simple beauty of domestic tranquillity -- bliss, even. David Byrne seems to take off his myriad masks, no longer acting out the characters that people many of his earlier songs, and offers a peek into his happy home. Though this being Byrne, of course there is that ever-present edge that remains; the listener is not quite sure whether to trust the singer until the end of the song, when the singer himself finally succumbs, head-over-heels in an love that is no longer in doubt. The song is the sort of happy-sounding, light-dance groove that Talking Heads bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz specialized in with their side group, Tom Tom Club. In fact, the whole band is given writing credit for the music, as they were on the bulk of the previous studio album, Remain in Light (1980). Frantz either loops his simple 4/4 beat or plays it remarkably steady. Sequenced staccato synth parts and percussion embellishments pepper the arrangement. While the band continues in the spirit of musical experimentation that was so challenging and simultaneously rewarding on the previous few Brian Eno-produced records, "This Must Be the Place" and the album, Speaking in Tongues (1983), in general sound less dense and assaulting than their immediate predecessors; the sound of the song is actually quite airy and sparse. The album proved to be the band's best-selling thus far, and the song was included on the group's best-of compilations and the commercially successful Stop Making Sense (1984). Byrne sings "This Must Be the Place" with the same amount of passion with which he delivered songs like "Life During Wartime," though now he is not singing as a survivalist or anti-government operative, but apparently, as himself -- in love and happy to be home, though not without a certain measure of insecurity and guardedness. He seems to be reluctant to give himself up completely, disbelieving that he has found such joy: "Home is where I want to be/But I guess I'm already there/I come home -- she lifted up her wings/Guess that this must be the place/I can't tell one from another/Did I find you, or you find me?/There was a time before we were born/If someone asks, this is where I'll be...where I'll be." He really digs deep vocally and emotionally for the song's climactic, "Out of all those kinds of people/You got a face with a view/I'm just an animal looking for a home/Share the same space for a minute or two/And you love me till my heart stops/Love me till I'm dead/Eyes that light up, eyes look through you/Cover up the blank spots/Hit me on the head." The bittersweet melody and freshly expressed sentiment stir the heart. Byrne successfully spins his own unique version of a love song after seeming to avoid the genre for the better part of four LPs. It is no wonder that "This Must Be the Place" could be used as a wedding song, as it was by some friends. But who would have predicted such a use for a Talking Heads song in the late '70s/early '80s? It marked the beginning of a trend for Byrne, who continued to offer his take on family life on the band's next studio album, Little Creatures (1985).

Rank in Round One Voting: #10

Ranked Highest By: phlowtron (#1)

Also Ranked By: Bruegel (#3), RoBKoZ (#4)

List has suddenly picked up dramatically after Digital Love at #15.

I'm still on page 46 btw, so it might go crap after that. We'll see

Ooh...

That's a really good song, isn't it.

Man, that Talking Heads song is one of my favorite things ever. Should've voted it higher.

Yes Talking Heads!!

i voted for that song. i did

93.1 XRT , Sheryl Crow and late period Claption are elated.

had no idea that song was so well liked

Wow, top ten is bizarre so far.

It's the Arcade Fire cover that did it.

Love it. The Stop Making Sense version is the killer.

Hate to tread on Monty's turf, but;

I think Bruegel voted for it, which then means Paves and a few others fall in line. What a boring song.

stop talking to me

haha. Montana really is the worst

“Oh, you've got green eyes
Oh, you've got blue eyes
Oh, you've got grey eyes”

#5.




New Order - Temptation
(4106 Points, 20 Votes)

Release Year: 1982

Chart Peak: #68 (US Dance), #29 (UK)

Found On: Substance

All Music Review: Here is an early example of New Order's pop songwriting prowess. Released as a single in 1982, "Temptation" hints at what was to come on their 1983 LP Power, Corruption & Lies and subsequent albums. Rebuilt from the debris of Joy Division after the band was devastated by the suicide of leader Ian Curtis, New Order released its debut LP, Movement, in 1981, which did little for the band in terms of establishing itself as a wholly different project than its predecessor. But in 1982 they released the positively ebullient pop burst "Temptation," a song that showcased a new focus on melodicism, sonic texture, and pop sensibilities. The music of Joy Division was beautiful, but it was a stark, sullen sort of beauty. While New Order continued on an introspective track, even their saddest songs glimmered with more hope than most of Curtis' bleak and fatalistic pronouncements like "Love Will Tear Us Apart." On "Temptation," New Order sounds like Up With People comparatively.

Though clearly taking steps away from their past, New Order keeps some of the elements of the former band's sound. Drummer Stephen Morris in particular plays a familiar beat, albeit one at a decidedly more jaunty tempo than on most Joy Division tracks. And the rest of the band falls in accordingly: vocalist/guitarist Bernard Sumner rains down sheets of guitar; bassist Peter Hook adds his sinuous bass, almost a reinvention of the instrument as a melodic counterpoint rather than providing the bottom register of the music; and the only member added to the remaining members of the former band, keyboardist Gillian Gilbert provides modern synthesizer textures. Morris does vary his drumming a bit in his trying to keep up with the 16th-note movement in Gilbert's Giorgio Moroder-like sequencer patterns. Thus, the drummer ends up playing something akin to rhythms found in mid- to late-'70s disco and underground New York dance music. It is a technique he would refine on the Power, Corruption & Lies album. The end product sounds like Joy Division meets Donna Summer with a bit of the tunefulness of the Cure thrown in.

Sumner's lyrics match the enthusiastic tone of the music with an ultimately uplifting feeling of triumph after a romantic breakup. After the music fades in, the singer is heard phonetically singing one of the song's hooks in a falsetto. Then the verse: "A heaven I'd get with a hope/Just like the feeling inside, it's no joke/And though it hurts me to treat you this way/Betrayed my words, I'd never heard, too hard to say/Up, down, turn around/Please don't let me hit the ground/Tonight I think I'll walk alone I'll find my soul as I go home." Another of the song's major hooks comes in the way of the songs coda: "Oh, you've got green eyes/Oh, you've got blue eyes/Oh, you've got grey eyes/And I've never seen anyone quite like you before/No, I've never met anyone quite like you before," an infectious singalong chorus. This would have been a shock to the band's old fans; Joy Division was not known for singalongs.

Rank in Round One Voting: #7

Ranked Highest By: RoBKoZ, Bobzilla (#2)

Also Ranked By: ghostfromthepast (#3), FEDEXXXPOPE (#4), (#5)

Lots of Beatles and God Only Knows coming then, I guess.

Don't forget Bizarre Love Triangle.

I probably voted for one Talking Heads song and that wasn't it.

You're pretty clueless, aren't you.

"Temptation" is a fucking amazing song. At one point I called it the second greatest ever. There may have been a brief period where I called it the greatest ever.

Really just perfect music.

Act like a man for once.

#6 for me.

“You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you”

#4.




Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone
(4182 Points, 20 Votes, Two #1 Votes)

Release Year: 1965

Chart Peak: #2 (US), #4 (UK)

Found On: Highway 61 Revisited

All Music Review: One of the most self-righteous and eloquent indictments ever committed to wax, Like a Rolling Stone filters Bob Dylan¹s indignation for pseudo-bohemian sixties¹ scenesters through his legendary wit. If Dylan¹s first incarnation was as a protest singer, Like a Rolling Stone signals the era of Dylan as court jester/verbal assassin.

Ironically, the former darling protest singer finds himself fighting a war of his own, defending his move to electric instrumentation from the attacks of a verbally violent horde of pacifists. And so it is with a single rifle-crack of the snare that Like a Rolling Stone kicks off Dylan¹s first completely electric album, 1965¹s Highway 61 Revisited. Michael Bloomfield¹s raw scale-climbing guitar is accented at every turn by (guitarist turned pianist turned organist) Al Kooper¹s triumphant and meta-influential Hammond organ riff. Together they create a circus-like jubilance, a sound that is later perfected in Dylan¹s classic double album Blonde on Blonde. Bloomfield and friends, though decidedly Œelectric¹, are able to retain Dylan¹s trademark hypnotic groove; a subtle element that propels his best and wordiest acoustic songs. The end result is a 6-minute-plus single that flourishes on notoriously time-conscious commercial radio.

Dylan says Like a Rolling Stone is distilled from a 24-page short story he wrote about a society girl turned lonely street urchin. Yet as in one theory of dream analysis, where every character is an aspect of oneself, it could just as easily be argued that there is some self-referential songwriting going on here, too. Ultimately, this band rollicks through the song with such focus and fury, and Dylan wails with such conviction, that the end result transcends logic and theory - and inspires a half-century¹s worth of musicians, writers and artists.

Rank in Round One Voting: #9

Ranked Highest By: August West, plaid is rad(#1)

Also Ranked By: elcorazon, birdistheword (#2), Chicken Invaders! (#3)

Never heard "Temptation" before. This is great.

Ha! Rolling Stone magazine was wrong again!

ahhhh, people really voted for Like a Rolling Stone?

go fuck yourself

disc one


disc two

Celebrated Summer re-up?

Best part about this thread has been Montana's new avatar.

Oh, and the fact that Heartbeats made top 20. Can we all just sit back and reflect on how wonderful this is.

well done Paves

holy shit, if you haven't heard Substance before you are in for some great times ahead

Make sure you wear mostly black and stare at your feet while you walk first. Also, shadows and the dark nooks of structures are your friend.

“I'm waiting for that final moment”

#3




New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle
(4515 Points, 21 Votes, Three #1 Votes)

Release Year: 1986

Chart Peak: #98 (US), #56 (UK)

Found On: Brotherhood

All Music Review: During the mid-'80s, New Order began to move away from the legacy of their previous incarnation as Joy Division and pursue their own dance-influenced, electronic sound. Judged as being shallow and/or inauthentic by many of their previous fans, they were often written off as a dance-pop confection. Despite this, they managed to be one of the most influential bands of the new wave era; those who looked closely at their music also realized that it was not nearly as light as it seemed. "Bizarre Love Triangle," their highest-charting dance hit in the U.S., was a perfect example of the complex and often dark songwriting that the band produced, and its macabre simplicity was stripped bare by an unusual acoustic cover produced by the Australian band Frente for their 1994 record Marvin: The Album. Separated from its synth pop beat, the song was a beautiful skeleton that helped not only propel Frente's career, but also renewed interest in the work of New Order as a whole.

Rank in Round One Voting: #5

Ranked Highest By: bunk, Duff., Man Is Matter (#1)

Also Ranked By: TaxiDriver (#3), Bobzilla (#4), Bruegel, Raj 'Substance' Exico (#5)

yeah, thanks Paves. Think "Blue Monday" is just ok and never got past that. But this song is amazing. Something else entirely.

You must be confusing them with, I don't know, Joy Division, perhaps? Sounds like you've never even listened to the song before.

You really are an unfunny dolt, Monty.

I can't tell -- is he getting fat, or does he just have weak shoulders?

Just wait till you hear #3 on this list.

Ah, so many years have passed since my early days on this board and New Order still manages to completely destroy in these polls.

Something to be proud of.

I'll post a full pic right now Waylon. Still waiting for your pic, chief......

Holy Shit. TWO NEW ORDER SONGS IN THE TOP 10? !!

Fuck yes. Is Age of Consent still to come!?!?!? I could totally endorse it at #1

God Only Knows and A Day In The Life.

Well, whaddya know.

Oh. STill!!

loving the two new order tracks in the top five

Nah, it's not better than "Bizarre Love Triangle" or "Temptation." This is a known fact.

The best New Order songs are on Substance.

“He didn't notice that the lights had changed”

#2.




The Beatles - A Day in the Life
(5118 Points, 27 Votes, Two #1 Votes)

Release Year: 1967

Chart Peak: n/a

Found On: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

All Music Review: "A Day in the Life" was one of the most complex and ambitious Lennon- McCartney songs performed by the Beatles, providing an incendiary climax for their Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. It was also the most outstanding instance in which two discrete song fragments -- one primarily by John Lennon, the other by Paul McCartney -- were combined into one to build a whole greater than the sum of the parts. "A Day in the Life" is an unexpectedly mordant coda to an album noted for epitomizing the Summer of Love. The main verses of the song are Lennon's work, a rather gloomy first-person narrative of going through the motions and observing, in a detached manner, the cruelties and absurdities of the everyday world. As the Beatles often did, the specific lyrical references are drawn from bits of news and personal experience. The death in a car crash was that of socialite and Beatles acquaintance Tara Browne (not of Paul McCartney, as would often be speculated a few years later during the "Paul Is Dead" rumors); the film about the English army winning the war was How I Won the War, in which John Lennon had acted. The dramatic tension is aided by Ringo Starr's crafty, thundering drum accents, but had it remained unembellished, Lennon's piece of the song would have been little more than a pensive, almost folky rumination. After the initial verses and Lennon's celebrated invitation to turn the listener on, however, the song mutates into something quite different, a dissonant orchestral crescendo that is simultaneously nightmarish and exhilarating. As is heard in several of Lennon's songs in 1966 and 1967, he seems largely uninterested in the outside world, and more intrigued by withdrawing into himself and the mind, whether with the aid of psychedelic chemicals or otherwise. The orchestral section suddenly ends just as it seems it can't wind itself into any higher a key, immediately followed by a basic, jaunty McCartney tune about waking up and going to work. By itself, this McCartney tune certainly wouldn't have been much. What made it effective was its juxtaposition next to Lennon's dreamier sections. The implication seemed to be that Lennon's was the dream world, and McCartney's a literal rude awakening to reality, ending when the narrator of McCartney's bit slides back into a dream. Lennon then takes over again, with haunting wordless vocals of Olympian import, ending with a brief brass fanfare before the last verse. In contrast to the opening verses, though, this final run-through is perky, with a far livelier, almost rushed rhythm, as if it was a compromise between the earlier moods of the song. Again this turns into a frightening orchestral crescendo, its dissonance unified by nothing more than a rising key, ending with what might be the most famous finale in all of rock: a momentous, echoing piano chord, sustained for almost a full minute (actually played simultaneously on three separate pianos by three Beatles and roadie Mal Evans).

Rank in Round One Voting: #2

Ranked Highest By: birdistheword, Bobzilla (#1)

Also Ranked By: The Gram (#2), The Anti-Ringo Monster (#3), thresholdofrevelation (#4)






“Well, life would still go on, believe me”

#1.




The Beach Boys - God Only Knows
(6364 Points, 28 Votes, Four #1 Votes)

Release Year: 1966

Chart Peak: #39 (US), #2 (UK)

Found On: Pet Sounds

All Music Review: The Beach Boys recorded many a gorgeous pop tune over the years but few were ever quite as transcendentally lovely as "God Only Knows." The song's clever lyrics form a first-person narrative where the narrator assures his beloved of his good intentions, climaxing with the phrase "God only knows what I'd be without you." The simple but direct and heartfelt sentiments make the lyric intoxicatingly romantic (and its mention of God raised a few eyebrows at the time). However, it's the music that really makes "God Only Knows" something special. It avoids the typical verse-chorus pop song structure to create something more personalized: It starts with two verses that weave a lovely melody higher with each stanza but maintain tension by bringing it down before it peaks, then gives way to a soaring and wordless vocal bridge, then goes through a final verse before climaxing with a gorgeous circular chorus that ends the song on a sunny note. The Beach Boys recording of "God Only Knows" brings the song's warmth out thanks to a clever Brian Wilson vocal arrangement that contrasts Carl Wilson's mellow solo vocal on the verses with multi-textured group harmonies on the bridge and chorus. Wilson adds additional ear candy with an orchestral pop backing track that layers warm horn arrangements and creamy strings over insistent percussion designed to give the song a dramatic pulse. The end result is a song that has the orchestral loveliness of a ballad but all the power and forward drive of a good pop tune. Surprisingly, "God Only Knows" wasn't a big hit and barely made it into the Top 40. However, it has grown in stature over the years: Many critics point it out as the highlight of Pet Sounds, and Paul McCartney has gone on record saying it is his all-time favorite song. It has also inspired covers by artists as diverse as David Bowie, Neil Diamond, Glen Campbell, and Olivia Newton-John. However, the Beach Boys remains the favorite of listeners everywhere, thanks to its unbeatable mixture of orchestral grandeur and open-hearted emotional purity.

Rank in Round One Voting: #1

Ranked Highest By: the, thresholdofrevelation, andystripes, The Gram (#1)

Also Ranked By: plaid is rad (#2), Midnite_Vulture (#3), farawaysoclose (#4)

Apparently I need to go back to New Order school then.

Substance doesn't have "Regret" either.

Temptation is alright, but Age of Consent is superb. I'm wondering if the vote-splitting will finally get to The Beatles.

EDIT: Guess not. Boring top two, though.

Man, I'd love to see "God Only Knows" take this but "A Day In The Life" really is quite the song.