Man the production on Nevermind sucks.

So you have time to post in every "best albums/singles" thread...scanning your posts- theyare limited to only making lists. This=shady.

Hip Hip

Neverending maze, drift on numbered days
Now your life is out of season


#100.



Metallica - "Master of Puppets" / "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)"
(438 Points, 5 Votes)

Year: 1986

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: n/a

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #9 (year), #129 (decade), #774 (all-time)

Ranked Highest By: Saskadelphia (#2)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Master of Puppets

Hey GDB, what's the policy of ranking if there is a tie score in points? Just curious.

whichever shows up first in the spreadsheet. Usually either alphabetical or reverse alphabetical.

Slackmo has the right idea here. "When I Come Around" is by far the weakest of the these three. The order of quality of Green Day singles from Dookie is in the order they were released chronologically.


Spreadsheet? nerd.

I GOT A MESSAGE TO YOU
I KEEP IT IN MY HEAD


#99.



Pavement - "Trigger Cut"
(442 Points, 7 Votes)

Year: 1992

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: n/a

Acclaimed Music Ranking: n/a

Ranked Highest By: Pavement Ist Rad (#8)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Slanted & Enchanted

Dude? Just try to do this with pencil and paper.

That's my favorite track off of S&E. Great song. I sing-along to it everytime i hear it, or sometimes when I'm not hearing it I'll belt it out, but i always mumble the parts i don't know, like the line after "electricity and lust" and the one after "it's full of rocks and sand"


it was a joke, dear.

When you are alone you are the cat, you are the phone
You are an animal


#98.



They Might Be Giants - "Don't Let's Start"
(447 Points, Seven Votes)

Year: 1986

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: n/a

Acclaimed Music Ranking: n/a

AMG Says: "In retrospect, it's clear that "Don't Let's Start" just had to be They Might Be Giants' first single; since the early '90s alternative rock explosion, there's been any number of much weirder songs (including their own "Birdhouse In Your Soul") that were big radio and MTV hits. Buoyed by an incredibly catchy stop-start guitar riff and a hooky drum machine fill that shows up a couple times per verse, the song has an irrepressible energy. It's one of the few songs where John Linnell actually sounds as if he's having a good time, even when singing lines like "Everybody dies frustrated and sad and that is beautiful," and the chorus is so instantly memorable that it's still conceivable that a Top Ten cover could be made some day. The 1997 compilation Then: The Earlier Years includes the very different demo version from 1984, which plays at about half-speed and includes only the chorus and the "I don't want to live in this world anymore" bridge. The remixed version on the 1987 single and the 1991 compilation Miscellaneous T is completely identical except that the electronic percussion fill has a tiny bit of echo added."

Ranked Highest By: Coolrock & Freddie Freelance (#21)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: They Might Be Giants

I tried to listen to this band but I think they suck.

Just love Don't Let's Start...so quirkily wonderful....and the start of a likewise similar career....

Yeah, it's a great tune. Although "Ana Ng" is better.

Tell me your troubles and doubts
Giving me everything inside and out


#97.



Simple Minds - "Don't You (Forget About Me)"
(448 Points, Eight Votes)

Year: 1985

US Chart Position: #1

UK Chart Position: #7 / #100 in '88

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #12 (year), #203 (decade), #1158 (all-time)

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #401

Ranked Highest By: Bobandbob (#4)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: The Breakfast Club

Pretty much the greatest song ever. Good to see this in the top 100.

Probably the only Simple Minds most of us have heard, somehow i don't think this is right.

Probably the most cheaply recorded single on the list


#96.



Orbital - "Chime"
(449 Points, Six Votes)

Year: 1990

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: #17

Acclaiemd Music Ranking: #13 (year), #87 (decade), #681 (all-time)

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #161

Ranked Highest By: The Good Dr. Bill & Undo (#2)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Orbital

listening to Cornershops' 6AM Jullandar Shere right now...thought I forgot to put it on my list but it's '95. That and Brimful Of Asha will rank highly on that list for me!

"6 AM Jullandar Shere" is a real good song, yeah.

And it sticks like a broken record
Everything sticks until it goes away
And the truth is, we don't know anything


#95.



They Might Be Giants - "Ana Ng" / "Snowball in Hell"
(454 Points, 8 Votes)

Year: 1989

US Chart Position: #11 Modern Rock

UK Chart Position: n/a

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #26 (year), #244 (decade), #1356 (all-time)

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: Would've been #891

AMG Says: "Dedicated to one of the shortest female names in existence, "Ana Ng" was the first single and leadoff track from They Might Be Giants' second album, 1988's Lincoln. The jerky stop-start syncopation in its main riff made "Ana Ng" one of the most guitar-driven songs in the group's early oeuvre, although it's a little too tense and geeky to be called an aggressive rocker. Still, there's a certain authority in the heavy, stomping rhythmic accents, one that's striking in relation to the group's typical persona, but which isn't quite separate from it. The chorus has a lighter feel, but the rapidly skittering, distorted synth maintains the song's forward drive, with a tambourine-like rhythmic effect. Also subtly important to the arrangement's textures is John Linnell's accordion, which either fills in the spaces left by the noisy guitars, or plays in unison for extra emphasis. The lyrics are typically playful, seemingly free-associative, and full of obscure references (i.e., the DuPont pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair). The first verse actually sounds like an oblique meditation on American imperialism in the Far East, with an image that recalls the old wives' tale about being able to tunnel straight through the earth to China; in this case, though, the tunneling is done through a globe with a bullet, which leaves an "exit wound in a foreign nation." The lyrics' syntax is elongated and convoluted, as one prepositional phrase after another gets tacked on; it's a subtle expression of the group's sense of humor, as is the repetition of the line about everything sticking like a broken record (broken records skip and repeat the same thing over and over...get it?). And to top it off, the chorus is all about how the singer and the title character have never met, and probably never will, since they're getting old. The total package is a masterpiece of pop absurdism."

Ranked Highest By: BobtheSquid (#5)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Lincoln

Speak of the devil. But that wasn't my No. 1 pick. I had it at No. 5.

and we know there's even more TMBG to come...sorry Dan....

I'm glad those two TMBG singles made it without my having to vote for them, if that makes any sense.


And I find it curious that a Pavement single that makes the top 100 didn't make either Paves' or Pink's best o' Pavement mixes.

Throw down your umbilical noose
So I can climb right back


#94.



Nirvana - "Heart-Shaped Box" / "Milk It" / "Marigold"
(457 Points, Eight Votes)

Year: 1993

US Chart Position: #4 Mainstream Rock / #1 Modern Rock

UK Chart Position: #5

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #4 (year), #34 (decade), #300 (all-time)

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #114

AMG Says: "According to Michael Azerrad's book Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana, shortly after Courtney Love first met Kurt Cobain, she made him a gift of a heart-shaped box, filled with tiny toys, seashells, and pine cones. While no one can say for sure if the song "Heart Shaped Box," from Nirvana's album In Utero, was intended to offer a glimpse inside Cobain and Love's sometimes stormy relationship (in the same book, Cobain told Azerrad his initial inspiration for the tune was a report about children with cancer), it certainly seems to be about two dysfunctional people torn between emotional need and deep-seated hatred. A woman is preying on a man's weakness as he's drawn into her "magnet tar pit trap," but he can't hide his own unwholesome attraction to her, declaring "I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black" and begging to climb up her "umbilical noose." The song makes clear the man is as much to blame as the woman for this state of affairs, and the chorus even parodies his weakness, declaring, "Hey/Wait/I've got a new complaint." The song married its often morbid images with a slow, deliberate melody that made inspired use of the then-standard Nirvana formula of quiet verse/loud chorus, and while Kurt Cobain's voice and guitar were the song's obvious focus, the intelligent support of bassist Krist Novoselic and percussionist Dave Grohl was especially evident in this performance, made all the more intense by Steve Albini's stark production."

Ranked Highest By: Coolrock (#3)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: In Utero

Really fucking awesome song and video.

I prefer the non-single tracks off of that album though. Like the first two tracks.

That closeup of Cobain gives me the fucking heebie jeebies.

It really isn't. They've got a pretty outstanding back catalogue. I'm not enough of a SM completist to really do it justice, but a mix is in order.

Especially considering it's a song they didn't even write. I know it's always galled Jim Kerr that that was the song that made them famous in America.

Most stuff off New Gold Dream is better

Betcha some folks are missing that Paul Simon run, now.

Same here.

Exploding pianos & dead fish


#93.

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Faith No More - "Epic"

Year: 1989

US Chart Position: #9

UK Chart Position: #37

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #5 (year), #70 (decade), #462 (all-time)

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #63

AMG Says: "Faith No More made an incredibly unlikely mainstream breakthrough in 1990 with the defiantly odd single "Epic," a melange of funk, white-boy rap, crunchy Black Sabbath metal, and faux- classical keyboard/piano work. Boosted by MTV's heavy rotation of the equally bizarre video, which ended with images of a fish flopping around on dry land and a silently exploding piano, "Epic" hit the Top Ten on the pop singles chart nearly a year after the release of the album from which it was drawn, The Real Thing. While bearing passing resemblances to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and speed metal band Anthrax's foray into rap, "Epic" was very much of its own personality, and at bottom sounded like little else in heavy metal. It didn't really aim to be a seamless hybrid of differing genres; instead, the song derived its impact from the band's ability to leap from one sound to another virtually at will, creating a wild, intoxicating unpredictability. Vocalist Mike Patton, on his first album with the band, projected that same quality with his assortment of growls, wails, nasal warbling, and guttural, barely comprehensible rapping. Even written out, the lyrics don't make an incredible amount of sense, frequently alluding to "it," without ever explaining what "it" is (in fact, the chorus simply consists of the band shouting, "It's it!," while Patton rasps, "What is it?" in response). But in the end, this only adds to the weird world of the song, its personality already a strange amalgamation of the bandmembers' clashing musical personalities (which would unfortunately fracture the band in a few short years). "Epic" integrated all of it into something utterly distinctive; it sounded as though Faith No More could throw together just about anything they wanted and make the results compelling."

Ranked Highest By: Velocity (#18)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: The Real Thing

'marigold' might be my favorite 'vaner song.

You do not want to believe
You are sleeping


#92.



The Smiths - "The Boy With the Thorn in His Side" / "Rubber Ring" / "Asleep"
(468 Points, 7 Votes)

Year: 1986

US Chart Position: #49 Dance

UK Chart Position: #23

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #39 (year), #412 (decade), #2145 (all-time)

AMG Says: "Effortlessly catchy and charming in its delicate depiction of love, "The Boy With the Thorn in His Side" might have been too optimistic when it was released as a single in September 1985. It's difficult to fault the song's sculpted optimism, but much of the press felt that Morrissey and Johnny Marr were treading upon ground they'd already worn out. Fans seemed to express a similar lack of interest, as the song didn't fare as well on the charts as most Smiths singles. After The Queen Is Dead appeared in June of 1986, this once-thorny A-side began to make more sense. The staccato jangle of Marr's guitar would only appear on a handful of the album's other songs. The band explored and experimented and reached new emotional and musical peaks across the other album tracks. "The Boy With the Thorn in His Side" was just one piece of the puzzle: a throwback recorded just before the Smiths reached full maturity. Comparing the song's somewhat basic arrangement against that of its album peers "Cemetery Gates," "I Know It's Over," and "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" suggests that it might have benefited from just a bit more compositional refinement. Indeed, Morrissey's vocals seem to clash with the underlying music as if the singer wasn't even listening to the music when he was singing. The fact that Morrissey hums and moans for a full minute near the song's end doesn't exactly add to replay value. Still, "The Boy With the Thorn in His Side" is a veritable singalong classic for its all-out catchiness. That doesn't mean it's a favorite of most die-hard fans."

Ranked Highest By: Big Pink & MitchellStirling (#3)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: The Queen is Dead

Hooray for The Smiths!

boo for The Smiths' worst fucking single

Hope you guys were voting for the b's on that one

What I meant


#91.



Dinosaur Jr - "Freak Scene"
(473 Points, 8 Votes)

Year: 1988

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: n/a

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #2 (year), #40 (decade), #283 (all-time)

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #358

AMG Says: "The opening track to Dinosaur Jr.'s third album, Bug, remains one of the brightest moments of the post-punk era. Predating Nirvana's breakthrough hit, "Smells Like Teen Spirit," by three years, "Freak Scene" hinted at the latent potential of the then-burgeoning indie rock scene. Kicking in with a simple three-chord progression -- with the tempo up and drums punching through a wash of open, high-hat cymbals and warm, fuzzed-out bass guitar -- the melody of the song is instantly infectious. Singer J. Mascis relates the state of a messy relationship in a humorously frank, laid-back style: "Seen enough to eye you/But not enough to try you/Dig you much too much to fry you." The band soon breaks into a crunching dynamic workout, with pounding tom-toms and bursts of guitar releasing tension, then veering into a softer, acoustic-driven section, then building again, taking the whole thing up a notch. Mascis is one of those rare guitarists who seems to have the ability to voice emotion while soloing, using the instrument to convey a message that verbal language just can't translate. This can be heard in many Dinosaur Jr. songs and seems to occur twice in "Freak Scene." As the words begin to fail him, the frustration mounts, finally just letting the guitar do the talking: "So fucked/I can't believe it/If there's a way I wish we'd see it/How the words just can't conceive it/What a mess just to leave it." This is followed by a guitar solo. The last verse is both humorous and oddly touching; as the music breaks down to a single guitar, our narrator comes to the realization that these two misfits are stuck with each other, "Sometimes I don't thrill you/Sometimes I think I'll kill you/Just don't let me fuck up will you?/'Cause when I need a friend it's still you/What a mess," followed by a guitar solo. "Freak Scene" is the perfect assimilation of several musical genres, blending pop melody, the crunch of metal, and punk attitude with a dash of acoustic folk and classic rock guitar leads filtered through Mascis' soon-to-be hip, slacker aesthetic. Perhaps hindered by J. Mascis' unconventional vocal drawl, the song would never break into mainstream radio in the U.S., but would receive considerable attention in Europe, and the U.K. in particular, foreshadowing The Year Punk Broke in 1991."

Ranked Highest By: Falling and Laughing (#26)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Bug

Let's clarify this once and for all: no fish was killed in the making of this video. (the piano, however...)

I expected that this would be higher, and not just because I love it.

If this bows out at #96, then I'm pretty sure we won't be seeing "Out Of Space," "Charly," "Energy Flash," or any more dance music at all.

highly unlikely

Leave it up to me while I be living proof


#90.



Wu-Tang Clan - "C.R.E.A.M."

Year: 1993

US Chart Position: #40 / #32 R&B / #8 Rap / #1 Dance

UK Chart Position: n/a

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #15 (year), #151 (decade), #1096 (all-time)

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #47

Ranked Highest By: Nic (#8)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Enter the Wu-Tang: The 36 Chambers

"Shakespeare's Sister"? "Ask"? "Girlfriend in a Coma"?

definitely all better. You wouldn't want to know what I think the only contender to "Thorn"'s crown is.

Sell yourself short
But you're walking so tall


#89.



Husker Du - "Makes No Sense At All" / "Love is All Around"
(474 Points, 7 Votes)

Year: 1985

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: n/a

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #7 (year), #152 (decade), #904 (all-time)

AMG Says: "While the primal blast of Black Flag's early releases sounded the clarion call for what would become the hardcore punk revolution, SST, the label founded by Black Flag leader Greg Ginn, ironically gave a voice to a number of important bands would take the faster-and-louder esthetic into new and unexpected directions. Black Flag became the first real link between punk and metal, Minutemen fused hardcore with arty funk and jazz accents, Meat Puppets added a Southwestern psychedelic accent to their speedy thrash, and most notably Hüsker Dü took the bruising rhythms of hardcore punk and found a way to graft them onto pop tunes. "Makes No Sense at All," from the band's fifth album, Flip Your Wig, was perhaps the group's greatest fusion of punk and pop; Bob Mould' s lyric was a short-tempered rant against some nameless significant other who apparently has a number of control issues, and his guitar had all the fuzz-drenched downstroke of his work on Metal Circus or Zen Arcade. But with Mould and Grant Hart taking over production duties for the first time, the wall of guitars sounded less like noise, and took on the reverberant grandeur Roger McGuinn's ringing 12-string brought to the classic Byrds' recordings. Just as importantly, Hart's backing vocals had evolved into actual harmonies rather than mass ranting, and his drumming had calmed down (and slowed down) just enough to give the song a pulse that could inspire something more calming than a furious skank. And Mould had, quite simply, written one of his best melodies, capable of containing the furious energy of his guitar style while still offering a potent melodic hook that made the most of the band's psychedelic undertow. While Zen Arcade and New Day Rising proved that Hüsker Dü were capable of writing songs rather than rants, "Makes No Sense at All" showed that the group could write a power pop anthem worthy of either the Buzzcocks or the Raspberries without abandoning their personality in the process. While SST released "Makes No Sense at All" as a single (backed with a jokey but tuneful cover of "Love Is All Around," the theme from The Mary Tyler Moore Show) and produced a video that received a smattering of MTV airplay, it's interesting to imagine what might have happened to Hüsker Dü if a song with such potential had been released a year later, after the band had signed to a major label who could have promoted it to mainstream radio."

Ranked Highest By: Diesel (#3)

Can Be Most Easily FOund On: Flip Your Wig

Defintely meaning not really. I'm not even considering the b-sides like that Twinkle cover.



I think i've guessed now.

A chance encounter you want to avoid
The inevitable
So you do, yes you do
The impossible


#88.



Elastica - "Connection" / "See That Animal" / "Blue (Donna's Four-Track Demo)" / "Spastica"
(474 Points, Six Votes)

Year: 1994

US Chart Position: #53 / #40 Mainstream Rock / #2 Modern Rock

UK Chart Position: #17

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #12 (year), #72 (decade), #595 (all-time)

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #428

Ranked Highest By: Dano (#4)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Elastica

Ugh, what's with all the TMBG songs?

stay tuned...more to come...I know I voted for two of them...Don't Let's Start and the one to come

That's right, this has gotta be the greatest record of the year


#87.



M/A/R/R/S - "Pump Up the Volume" / "Anitina (The First Time I See She Dance)"
(475 Points, Ten Votes)

Year: 1987

US Chart Position: #13 / #8 R&B / #1 Dance

UK Chart Position: #1

Acclaimed Music Ranking: #8 (year), #51 (decade), #348 (all-time)

AMG Says: "Though label affiliates pressed for more, the only release by M/A/R/R/S was this 1987 single, an early hip-hop/dance crossover hit that doesn't seem as surprising in hindsight but still hasn't lost its edge. Four mixes of the title track are included, plus a bonus AR Kane B-side, "Anitina.""

Ranked Highest By: Birdistheword (#27)

Can Be Most Easily Found On: Machine Soul: An Odyssey Into Electronic Music

"somb needs women"

Mars needs guitars.

Was there ever a time like this?


#86.



Disco Inferno - "The Last Dance" / "D.I. Go Pop"
(478 Points, Seven Votes)

Year: 1993

US Chart Position: n/a

UK Chart Position: n/a

Acclaimed Music Ranking: n/a

Rank on Our All-Time Singles List: #124

AMG Says: "Disco Inferno's teaser for the astonishing D. I. Go Pop album (as with all the threesome's other singles, it contained nothing from an actual album) captured the band perfecting the low-key, crisp sound that characterized their more accessible numbers and their total, uncompromising extremism. In other hands, the title track itself would have been a pleasant post-punk slice of energy, something which could have been recorded by New Order, Echo and the Bunnymen, or perhaps even the Field Mice. Here, though, limits are pushed just enough. Crause's voice sounds just alien enough with subtle distortion -- the samples he triggers with his guitar -- rather than the lovely, echoed chiming itself -- help carry the song. Wilmot's bass and Whatley's drums are very much to the fore, disturbing the expected mix as a result. "The Long Dance" serves up a fine, slightly extended take on the same, while "Scattered Showers" rides a soft, lovely combination of acoustic guitar, piano, and samples, growing thicker and more involved with time, all treated with the combination of intimacy and distance the band excels in. The jaw-dropper is "D. I. Go Pop" itself. After a pleasant radio announcer sample, an incredibly messed-up loop of sound -- the band is in it somewhere, but not as much as all the other strange noises and notes crammed into the music -- serves as the bed for a perversely simple but completely uneasy listening melody. Crause delivers his lyrics with a slight urgency, but no more, over the bedlam."

Ranked Highest By: Pavement Ist Rad (#3) (also ranked #5 by Falling and Laughing)

Not Available on Amazon.com

Still waiting for that second 4AD #1.