That's refreshing.

Well it is and it isn't, it seems that are like four different pockets of fans who all voted for the same group of forty songs and those are enough to pull songs up into the low hundreds. Can't say all of the songs in the past 50 are really considered by consensus to be among the boards favourite 200 more that 4 or 5 people really dig them. Obviously that happens in every poll it just seems to be more obvious in this one.

It's like we've done a vote on the best grunge singles, the best early Britpop, Madchester, shoegaze, hip-hop and just tossed them in willy-nilly and I thought we'd get past that once we got in the top 200. It's a sign of the way that the genre's really fractured over this period so for that reason it's a proper snapshot but it's a scattershot countdown because of that.

Good points...I suspect we'll see much of the same with the next decade.

In my opinion, "Would" encapsulates everything that was invigorating about grunge at the time, yet stands out among all the other music from the era as something completely unique. It's a weird little song, such a strange departure from the metal of Facelift.

I hate the intro to Would? The first ten seconds are just awful. Rest of the song is great though.

Sometimes everything is wrong


#1.



R.E.M. - "Everybody Hurts"

Year: 1992

US Chart Position: #1

UK Chart Position: #87

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #12 (all-time)

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #2

Ranked Highest By: elastico (#1)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: the board's #2 album of the 90's

I can tell you for free that charted in 1993 at #7 in the UK and #29 in the US.

it's mostly in the toilet. bill, plz delete the early 90s

(except for rave and all the stuff that won't show up here)

but seriously, alt rock ladies and gentlemen! And to think, people consider it a golden age.

Easily one of the stupidest things you've ever said, yes.



examples plz. I at least hope you don't mean "Would?"

shame about the no rave though, yeah

I'll take your brain to another dimension.

Do you just hate awesome bass intros in general?

"there's a void where they should be ecstacy" (I probably got that song up to #673 or something!)

uh...examples: Would is actually pretty solid. Third--tier REM singles, "backwater", "the only one I know", (they're fine and all, but...), pearl jam-- basically everything mitchell complains about. I think we've agreed on most everything throughout this era's lists.

"Backwater" is pretty great. What's wrong with "The Only One I Know"?

hahahahahaha Indigo Girls.


I actually laughed when I saw that on the list.

they're fine, but they don't seem like they should be in the top 175 or so singles of a 10-year period.

probably not, but they don't seem bad enough choices to me to necessitate a decade-bombing.

Anyway, I do kinda hate the Indigo Girls single, but I understand that for the type of music it is it's probably exemplary, so I don't begrudge its placement on the list.

(drum roll)


#154.



Smashing Pumpkins - "Cherub Rock"

Year: 1993

US Chart Position: #23 Mainstream Rock / #7 Modern Rock

UK Chart Position: #31

Acclaimed Music Ranking: n/a

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #304

AMG Says: "It's appropriate that Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin starts off this song with a circus drum roll, it being the lead track to the Siamese Dream album. Like all the rest on that record, "Cherub Rock" was actually recorded by himself and Billy Corgan alone, Corgan believing that the other members weren't yet up to his dreamed-of standards. Whatever the rationale, as a twosome Corgan and Chamberlin created a brilliant single -- while others from Siamese Dream would end up breaking the band into the big time, "Cherub Rock" smokes with searing passion and performance. In part this has to do with the lyrics, a wickedly hilarious slam against what Corgan considered small-minded indie rock culture (a sentiment pretty much returned in kind) couched in his preferred metaphor-via-obsessive self-focus. If it was just this it might not have amounted to as much, but with a dramatic, rushed intro, a blasting, flowing central riff with overdub on top of overdub ( Butch Vig's production skills are clear throughout) and a Mick Ronson-in-overdrive solo on top of everything else, "Cherub Rock" does just that. It rocks, and rocks hard."

Ranked Highest By: Thresholdofrevelation (#4)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Siamese Dream

weird sentence.

PS: 'Can Be Most Easily Found On' typo.

How can I explain away
Something that I haven't done
And if you can't trust me now
You'll never trust in anyone


#153.



Sugar - "If I Can't Change Your Mind"

Year: 1993

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: #30

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #33 (year), #330 (decade), #1793 (all-time)

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #448

Ranked Highest By: jdubs3 (#6)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Copper Blue

"IICCYM" is one of the most boring songs on the album. I didn't even know it was a single.

Jdubs3? Kinda shady. I'd disallow any list by someone with 11 posts...who hasn't posted since making a list.

Son I'm 30
I only went with your mother 'coz she's dirty


#152.



Happy Mondays - "Kinky Afro"

Year: 1990

US Chart Position: #1 Modern Rock

UK Chart Position: #5

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #12 (year), #86 (decade), #669 (all-time)

Ranked Highest By: MitchellStirling (#7)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Pills n Thrills & Bellyaches



yeah, we're not going to be doing this

in all seriousness though are we going to see "Everybody Hurts" at some point?

way to ruin my life forever guys

Nothing else behaves like me


#151.



Guided By Voices - "I Am a Scientist"

Year: 1994

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: n/a

Acclaimed Music Ranking: n/a

AMG Says: "By 1994, the opening of the radio airwaves to new and interesting bands that had sprung up in Nirvana's wake had already all but seized up into a steady trickle of neo-heshers playing the same angsty drivel. Therefore, when "I Am A Scientist" started showing up on the radio late that year, it sounded like the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" of lo-fi, the song that was poppy and catchy enough to kickstart not just Guided By Voices but Pavement, Liz Phair, Sebadoh and any number of other cool but culty bands into the musical mainstream. For better or worse, it didn't happen that way, but "I Am A Scientist" still sounds awfully fresh. So minimal and so simply recorded that you can actually hear the room's ambient noise click on just before Robert Pollard's vocal track starts, the song rides on a simple but elegant bassline, restrained drums and perfectly distorted guitars, no element taking precedence over the others. For a lo-fi song, it's awfully well-balanced and listenable, and it's one of the most mature and elegant melodies of the group's career."

Ranked Highest By: Turd Ferguson (#2)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Bee Thousand

the fuck

I can't wait to see the song that is 151 places better than "I Am a Scientist", seriously.

Oh in your council home he jumped on your bones
now you're taking it time after time


#150.



Suede - "Animal Nitrate"

Year: 1993

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: #7

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #11 (year), #102 (decade), #765 (all-time)

Ranked Highest By: Dano (#8)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Suede

song rules

better than "IAaS" though? Hmm.

Blasphemy

true, my mistake

it's the most boring song on the album.

Singles list was impossible. Every time I tried I kept forgetting stuff and had to start over.

I'll do it next time if I can clear up a solid two days of free time.

That's why you write it down. They have pencils for that.

You are about to witness the strength of street knowledge


#149.



U2 - "Mysterious Ways"

Year: 1992

US Chart Position: #9 / #1 Modern Rock / #1 Mainstream Rock

UK Chart Position: #13

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #41 (year), #359 (decade), #2090 (all-time)

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #470

AMG Says: "The Edge's slinky, wah-wah guitar lights the way throughout U2's funky, sexy "Mysterious Ways," a Top 20 song for the band in early 1992, pulled from the album Achtung Baby. Structured like a gospel chant, the song maintains its deep groove with the assistance of some chunky guitar riffing, a persistent percussive beat, and what sound like spontaneous vocal bursts by Bono in the R&B tradition (while the background, "It's alright it's alright it's alright," keeps it moving. By the line "she sees the man inside the child," Bono takes it even higher). The middle instrumental break plays around with a turntablism-esque, "Planet Rock"-like orchestral sting. Though not initially intended to evoke the East, the band's accompanying video and stage presentation of the song featured a belly dancer, giving the song an exotic flavor. But stripped of its after-the-fact imagery, "Mysterious Ways" is just plain fatback R&B, delivered U2 style."

Ranked Highest By: Musicgurl (#5)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Achtung Baby

The great thing is that if you don't want to write things down, you can just type them into your computer's "word processer."

"I am a Scientist" is the one song I regret forgetting the most. Should have made my 100.

and then when you're almost done and you realize "oh shit I forgot to put '[insert song] in my top 50," you have to rework everything and it's bad times by far.

GDB, please be sure to note this exception in the audit




or better yet, a spreadsheet program such as "Excel." So you can sort & resort when you keep adding things & changing your mind.

A line that injected a sense of danger back in to British pop music not really evident since The Sex Pistols.

What a bunch of bullshit. I put together my 75-84 singles list in like 20 minutes.


admittedly i was asleep during the deadline for this poll though, whoops.


It's the worst bass intro I've ever heard in my life. It sounds like a guy rubbing his bass guitar up against his tummy.

I'm not knocking AIC here, most people know I'm one of the bigger advocates of that band here but c'mon, awful ten seconds of music right there.

You know, I thought you were kind of joking at first, but, seriously? Your excuse for not making a list is that it's just too hard to do? That's fucking funny.

Not finding it too hard to point out what things are too low though.

yeah you tell em mitch

Well if you so clearly know what songs you think should be much higher then then a list can't be that hard to do.

What, you want it higher?

"Would?" might be the best lead bass line in any rock song.

Absolutely. It's the best part of the song, by far.

Dumb thing to say when people like Peter Hook and Simon Gallup are alive.

You are about to witness the strength of street knowledge


#148.



N.W.A. - "Straight Outta Compton"

Year: 1988

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: n/a

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #9 (year), #84 (decade), #550 (all-time)

Ranked Highest By: Diesel (#26)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Straight Outta Compton

I waited for the joke
It never did arrive
The words I thought I'd choke
I hardly recognize


#147.



Afghan Whigs - "Gentlemen"

Year: 1993

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: n/a

Acclaimed Music Ranking: n/a

Ranked Highest By: Musicgurl (#4)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Gentlemen