The lower part of this page is too big to be useful as anything but my personal reference. As of January 2016 I've reframed the upper part in categories and playlists. Also check out my Favorite Albums plus Hawkwind, and my girlfriend's top 100. The lists below are designed to work in sequence from the top of the page down.
Psychedelic Supernova Countdown
These are the fingerprints of my musical taste, the sonic textures that decrypt my consciousness.
This is the song I would play to convince aliens not to exterminate humanity. (If I wanted them to do it, I'd play We Are The World.)
Beautiful in the same way as the Kinks' Waterloo Sunset, but more raw and deep. The bit starting at 1:25 is like nothing before and not much since.
8. Camper Van Beethoven - June (1989)
This band briefly reached the highest level through guest violin player Don Lax. On the album the song happens to bleed into the next one...
Violin and electric guitar have never sounded this good together, and of all the songs on this playlist, this is the one that puts its beautiful sounds in the best arrangement.
About a better way of being that we lose touch with in this world, and the dream of getting it back. On lyrics sites the line is "Whistle as the wind blows
with me", which is wrong. I used to think it was "through the leaves" but now I think it's "to the
lee".
5. R.E.M. - Belong (1991)
Interpretations of this song are all over the map. I think the sea is a metaphor for the oneness of all life, to which we will all eventually return, and while modern society cuts us off from that, we can find a similar belonging with people we love. Is Mike Mills my second favorite songwriter?
This raw and luminous folk song is a good introduction to the next three...
The jam from 3:26 looms like a god over all other psych-space rock, and Dave Brock's voice can make the dumbest lyrics sound okay. I write more about Hawkwind
here.
2. Big Blood - The Rise of Quinnisa Rose (2007)
For reasons I don't understand, my favorite band's best songs don't sound good to other people, but if you're curious, check out my unfinished Big Blood page,
Ecstasy and Doom.
1. Big Blood - Song For Baltimore (2007)
A lot of the songs on this page are by mediocre bands who somehow recorded one song on a level far above their other stuff. But what if this happens to the best band in the world? Psilocybin mushrooms do shit for me compared to this song. I'm so overwhelmed by its terrible beauty that I only listen to the whole thing a few times a year.
Transition Rock Out Playlist
Camper Van Beethoven - Surprise Truck (1986)
Luminous Crescendo Countdown
These either lack the full sound of the top countdown, or they only have it for a short time. But this list has more variety, and all the songs have quiet parts and very high peaks.
Why is it, when Led Zeppelin took rock to the next level, everyone imitated them, but when they took folk to the next level, no one imitated them?
Probably the best single performance in the history of rock.
Dean Wareham sings like Adam Sandler but in this song it somehow makes an epic guitar crescendo even better.
7. Esben and the Witch - No Dog (live 2014)
Plug your computer into your stereo, watch the video and play it loud.
Normally I don't even like emo, but you never know where lightning will strike. Bear the weight of yourselves lightly and keep your eyes on the road. (Thanks Troy.)
5. The Gathering Field - Lost In America (1996)
Another 1996 song that blows away its mediocre genre, in this case heartland rock. (Thanks Patricia.)
You have to digest a lot of weirdness to hear how good this is.
3. Orphans & Vandals - Terra Firma (2009)
Like Song For Baltimore, an epic and intense song about the light beyond the veil, but this is about a suicide.
2. Orphans & Vandals - Argyle Square (2009)
About a guy's life in the city and how he wants his lover to move there. Like Monet's wheatstacks, this song takes something ordinary and makes it seem unspeakably wonderful. (Thanks Leigh Ann.)
This makes ordinary music sound like it was recorded with a cat sitting on the microphone. Every sonic texture is sharp-edged and beautiful, the mix is airtight, and the high keyboard and electric guitar, at 2:30 and again at 4:00, are brighter than the sun.
Space Lounge Playlist
Needs more songs...
Sigur Rós - Svefn-g-englar (Sleepwalkers) (1999)
My favorite foreign language song, unless you count
this.
A perfect song, with the best ever opening line, "I want to hold the hand inside you."
Cocteau Twins - Pandora (1984)
Also perfect, and much more complex.
One of their more accessible songs. If you really like it, finish the playlist with the 15 minute
A Watery Down II.
Heavenly Twee Playlist
Joanna Newsom - En Gallop (2004)
At first I thought this was all about Newsom's unearthly singing, but after hearing covers I think it's also great songwriting. Like many of my favorites it's about the feeling of a better world through the cracks of this one. "Palaces and storm clouds, and the rough straggly sage and the smoke, and the way it will all come together, in quietness and in time."
Beat Happening's early songs had a raw, innocent vibe that added another dimension to music, a whole new way to sound good. This is their timeless classic.
Along with Go See Boats, this is the song I want played at my funeral.
Second Tier
Blue Oyster Cult - Astronomy (live 1978)
Over the years they've released five different versions, but the one on
Some Enchanted Evening is on another level. The basic structure is prog rock but this wipes the floor with Genesis.
The Kinks - Strangers (1970)
By Dave Davies. Ray is the brains of the Kinks but Dave is the heart.
This makes Bohemian Rhapsody sound like children's music.
Orphans & Vandals - Metropes (2009)
Thematically this is like an old Kinks song that cynically mocks the elite, but it's darker and much more powerful. How can people compare this to the Velvet Underground without noticing how much better it is?
In the combination of sounds, this is like practice for their greatest song, Belong.
R.E.M. - Crazy (1987)
Picasso once remarked that, when he does something new, someone else comes along and does it prettier. This is much prettier than the Pylon original, but I can hear why REM always said Pylon was better than them, because it also has a weird edge that's in no other REM song.
Probably their best lyrics. "September's coming soon, I'm pining for the moon, and what if there were two, side by side in orbit around the fairest sun?"
This has even happier music and sadder lyrics than "Tom Dooley". The narrator is unreliable: his hometown is the depressing place and it's his life that's being wasted.
A perfect song that I would put in one of the top countdowns if it had more of an edge.
This is like the definition of psychedelic folk.
Band of Horses - The Funeral (2006)
Nothing else this sad rocks this hard. I would have it higher but the sound is a little too sugary. Following interpretations on songmeanings.com, I think it's about heroin addiction.
"How strange it is to be anything at all." This made me cry the first time I heard it, and for years it was my number one, but The Rise of Quinnisa Rose squashes it like a bug.
Neutral Milk Hotel - Little Birds (1998)
Live version, for years available only as a bootleg. I'm not sure whether the 2011 box set contains this or another version.
From their second album, a perfect compromise between the careful structure of their first album and the off-the-rails beauty of their third.
Big Star - Kangaroo (1975)
For years I thought this song was shit, but I finally managed to grasp the barely focused rawness that makes it great.
His greatest lyrics, including the best rhyme in English: "I lost my St Christopher now that I've kissed her." I follow Bones Howe's interpretation, that Matilda represents all the women who catalyzed the failures of homeless men.
Rex Holman was an actor who played lots of small roles in westerns, and Here In The Land Of Victory was his only album. His voice has been accurately described as Gordon Lightfoot on acid, with aggressive vibrato that turns off most listeners, but I love it! Holman is my favorite male folk singer after Bob Dylan, and this is his best written song and also the one where he pushes his voice the farthest.
Instrumentals and Jams
Yo La Tengo - Spec Bebop (1997)
Is it pronounced Space Bebop? This is the best stoner track ever, but if they could play like this, why didn't they play like this all the time?
Nisennenmondai - Mirrorball (2008)
Like Spec Bebop this is inspired by krautrock, but takes it in a different direction, toward space jazz. It's too heady to be great stoner music, but the complexity is mind-boggling.
Tight krautrock/math rock with guitars refretted for
just intonation, building up to a horn and keyboard explosion. Nothing else this trippy rocks this hard.
With inspired sonic layering and Nik Turner jamming on oboe, this is what the climax of Space Oddity might sound like stretched out to four minutes.
To paraphrase a YouTube comment, the sky just opens when you hear this.
No other instrumental is this pretty and this raw.
The Velvet Underground - What Goes On (1969 live)
The first part with vocals is nothing special, but the jam for the last six minutes is unprecedented and all-important in the history of my favorite music.
The Wedding Present - Take Me! (1989)
Basically a cover of What Goes On. This is a good thing and every band should try it.
I love Bob Dylan's voice, and somehow he also did one of my favorite instrumentals. From the soundtrack to Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.
My favorite post-rock band is almost post-human. If you put all music on a primitive-civilized spectrum, coyote packs are at one end and the other end is Mono.
Ten minutes of primal space rock with a barrage of low horns playing the same two notes over and over. This and the below are from the Rare Material double CD, the first half of which was a 1995 album called Big Band. So far these are the only classical recordings I really like, because they're droney where classical music is normally jumpy.
Moondog - Torisa (1995)
Like Invocation it's hypnotic and emphasizes the one-beat, and it also has epic high notes and gets gradually louder. These remind me of two Hawkwind songs -- Invocation is like Space Is Deep and Torisa is like Wind of Change.
The Voyager space probes recorded electromagnetic signals from around the solar system, and back on Earth these were converted into sound. Collages of these sounds were released as NASA Voyager Space Sounds, separated into ten 30 minute tracks from different places, and also as Symphonies of the Planets, with different planets blended into five 30 minute CD's. All the prettiest and spookiest stuff, mostly from the rings of Uranus, is on CD 1.
Electric Moon - anything (2010-present)
Well, they have a few early tracks ruined by vocals, but in general Electric Moon can improvise better space rock than anyone else can play. Here's an hour-long
video of one of their live albums.
Godspeed You Black Emperor - Gathering Storm (2000)
GYBE took the slow buildup to a whole new level. My other favorites include East Hastings and Moya.
Beautiful long jam with a perfect beat.
This raw psych rock jam is where my favorite band comes closest to sounding like my second favorite band (Hawkwind).
Sting's songwriting was a trick to get people to listen to the genius of Summers and Copeland, which was never better than this.
One of the deepest roots of my favorite newer jam music.
Too Many Zooz - Dima (2014)
Have you ever seen a band complain that the audience wasn't giving them enough attention? The Beatles didn't do it so nobody should. Too Many Zooz started out in NYC subways trying to earn the attention of distracted listeners, and their music never wastes a second. The whole Brasshouse Vol 1 album is great.
Moon Hooch - Bari 3 (2014)
Hash Jar Tempo - Untitled 1 (1997)
From the album Well Oiled. This is perfect mellow space rock, and ahead of its time.
Retro Remix Revue - Gerudo Valley (2009)
The best version of my favorite video game track, composed by Koji Kondo for Zelda Ocarina of Time.
Yes - Würm (1970)
The best jam in prog rock, technically not a song but the last section of Starship Trooper.
Third Tier
Windhand - Orchard (2013)
I want to like doom metal, but I haven't heard any with great vocals. Windhand's vocals are okay, and this is their best written song.
Red House Painters - Katy Song (1993)
I love the long hypnotic ending.
A weird brief epic about the eternal feminine, and a taste of the heights they'd reach on their next album.
Camper Van Beethoven - Lulu Land (1986)
Their best written song was written by David Lowery's otherwise unknown roommate, Paul McKinney. "In Lulu Land the walls are soft and dark, in Lulu Land your secret heart is in command, in Lulu Land."
Their happiest song.
Camper Van Beethoven - Klondike (199?)
And their weirdest song.
Stamey has put different versions on three albums, and the best is the one on Fireworks. Still, this lacks the depth of Stamey's icon Alex Chilton.
It took me a bunch of listens to hear that their best songs are the ones with both lead singers harmonizing on a repeating chorus.
Continuing in chronological order, this is the "hole in my head" song.
The "long goodbyes" song.
The first half is the scaffolding and the second half is the rocket.
Joanna Newsom - Sadie (2004)
"And all that we built, and all that we breathed, and all that we spilt, or pulled up like weeds, is piled up in back; and it burns irrevocably."
Best breakup song ever. Check out this awesome
analysis on songmeanings.com.
Her most popular song. Joanna Newsom's voice was my gateway to Colleen Kinsella's voice and Big Blood.
I love the verse about the birds.
Bob Dylan - Idiot Wind (1975)
My favorite song by anyone to sing along with. YouTube only has the New York version that was correctly cut from the album.
Like some of the songs at the top of my list, this is about the tension between the world of spirit (Johanna) and the world of flesh (Louise).
Bob Dylan - Girl From The North Country (1963)
On a good stereo the final harmonica solo is the heaviest thing Bob Dylan has ever played, and it draws emotion from the lyrics.
Corndolly - Come Out (1992?)
Happy lesbian love song by a forgotten Illinois band.
Best song ever about sex. "Sting me, queen me, queen sting dream me, dream queen sting me, sting queen!"
One of my favorite songs to dance to.
Beat Happening - Tiger Trap (1992)
Dire Straits - Skateaway (1980)
Their most magical song.
Their most ambitious and epic song.
Like Skateaway, this is a beautiful song about the divine feminine. It's not as precise and complex, but the whole sound on Communique has a depth that's not on any of their other albums.
Sultans of Swing has a great guitar solo, but otherwise this leaves it in the dust.
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (1991)
You have to go back to "Like a Rolling Stone" for a song that's both this good and this influential. After listening to 90's rock inspired by Nirvana, it's incredible to listen to this and hear how much better it is.
Nirvana - untitled (1993)
Eventually titled "Sappy", it was untitled in its original release (on the No Alternative compilation) and there was no title consistently attached to it from the beginning. Great metaphysical song.
Nirvana's famous live version is based on Mark Lanegan's version on which Cobain and Novoselic play guitar and bass. Lanegan is covering a Leadbelly version of an old folk song called In The Pines.
Originally from his tinny-sounding first album, Gary Numan's best written song sounds
much better live in the movie
Urgh! A Music War.
Red Fang - Wires (2011)
The best rock video I've ever seen.
Your Friend - Tame One (2014)
Taryn Miller is a promising singer-songwriter with great backing on this track by other Lawrence Kansas musicians.
Your Friend - Bangs (2014)
Her most distinctive song. If you like it, check out the band Living Hour.
The most off-the-rails performance in all of punk rock, by a band that also happened to be great musicians at their creative peak. I think of this as Song For Baltimore with the happiness reversed.
Bob Mould's best songs are the saddest, and Grant Hart's best songs are the happiest...
Galaxie 500 - Flowers (1988)
This is what reverb was invented for.
Bone Cellar - Dryrot (1994)
Great obscure Seattle band. David Gilmour can't touch this guitar solo.
The full-length version rocks like nothing else in the 90's.
The Flaming Lips edge out Neutral Milk Hotel in the category of best band worst name.
I like the KEXP live version best, and made the video with a camera toss image I found on the internet years ago.
If this counts as a country song it's my favorite.
The Velvet Underground - Heroin (1967)
It's shocking how much this song still rocks. The studio version and the 1969 live version are equally good.
The Velvet Underground - Candy Says (1968)
Lou Reed used to say this was the best song he ever wrote, and I agree. Sung by Doug Yule.
This song has never been released or even bootlegged -- you can only hear it by watching the movie
Cutter's Way, and only the first verse plays clearly. I bought the dvd just so I could extract it for the video.
The second best song title ever, after Pink Floyd's "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun".
His best lyrics and his prettiest backing music.
Of all the stuff my parents played when I was a kid, only Gordon Lightfoot has stuck.
The most mature breakup song I've ever heard.
(lyrics)
The superior Gord's Gold version of this song was cut from the CD and to this day has not been offered for sale in digital form. But it has been ripped from vinyl and it's on YouTube now.
I love the structure of this song: a simple 18 note vocal melody repeated 16 times with changing lyrics.
Violent Femmes - Never Tell (1984)
More like a collection of scraps than a song, but every scrap is intense and inspired.
Clearly inspired by Bob Dylan's Ballad of Hollis Brown.
Weird song about the ancient conflict between sedentary and nomadic culture.
Neil Diamond - Soolaimon (1970)
The catchiest song ever.
The second catchiest song ever.
The Beatles - Rain (1966)
My favorite Beatles song and Ringo's best drumming. I write more about the Beatles
here.
Did ZZ Top take their whole sound from this?
Harriet Wheeler was the hottest woman who ever recorded a great song.
Hits of the late 70's and early 80's
A Flock of Seagulls - Space Age Love Song (1982)
The guitar work is beautiful and years ahead of its time, and I love the simple structure.
Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime (1980/1984)
Not a fan of their sound, but these are great lyrics. I like the
Stop Making Sense version best.
Electric Light Orchestra - Don't Bring Me Down (1979)
Of all the ways you could combine hard rock and disco, this is just perfect.
Queen - We Will Rock You (1977)
If you could send any song back in time, this one would have the biggest effect.
Cheap Trick - Surrender (1978)
The Go-Go's - Our Lips Are Sealed (1981)
I love the raw vocal harmonies, and this is one of those songs that keeps sounding better after hundreds of listens.
The Police - Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic (1981)
If you weren't there, you can't imagine how dark and spooky this sounded when it came out. Now that I think about it, so did Hotel California.
Gary Numan - Cars (1979!)
If you graph all the popular songs that sound like this, Cars is a huge outlier in how early it is and how good it is.
Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street (1978)
Journey - Don't Stop Believing (1981)
I'm completely serious: this should be the national anthem.
Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill (1977)
It's in 7/4!
Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight (1980)
It's been played to death, but this was strange and radical when it came out. Not only the best drum break ever, but the lyrics were improvised.
Bruce Springsteen - I'm On Fire (1982)
Blondie - Heart of Glass (1978)
My favorite song when I was 13. If you want to hear something similar and more intense, check out Big Blood's "Never Let Me Go".
Blondie - Dreaming (1979)
Featuring an over-the-top drum performance by Clem Burke.
U2 - Bad (1985)
The
live version from
Wide Awake in America.
The Pretenders - Back on the Chain Gang (1982)
Donna Summer - I Feel Love (1977)
Disco has ruined popular music to this day, but it also did some really interesting stuff. No hit song has ever been this hypnotic.
INXS - Don't Change (1983)
Scorpions - Still Loving You (1984)
My favorite hair metal song.
Don Henley - Boys of Summer (1984)
I know he's a bad person and the lyrics are dumb, but I love the way it sounds.
More Third Tier
Neil Young - Helpless (1970)
Neil Young - The Needle and the Damage Done (1972)
A perfect song, and I love the unexpected quick ending.
Neil Young - Powderfinger (1979)
Screamin' Jay Hawkins - I Put a Spell on You (1956)
The songwriting is mediocre but the performance is one of the most interesting things in the 20th century. Instead of covering this, other artists should try to play their own music with this kind of craziness.
The Old 97's - Valentine (1999)
Loudon Wainwright - New Paint (1972)
Uncle Tupelo - Black Eye (1992)
The best version of Kris Kristofferson's best song.
The best classic punk song.
The second best classic punk song, and my favorite band name.
Third best classic punk song.
Flying Burrito Brothers - Sin City (1969)
The original alt-country band.
It's like a post-punk When The Levee Breaks.
Hawkwind - Infinity (1978)
"I met her in a forest glade, where starbeams grew like trees."
The live version on
Zones.
With vocals by Michael Moorcock and drums by Ginger Baker, this is space jazz! One of the first Hawkwind songs I heard, and the one that took me the longest to get.
The
Space Ritual live version.
I was heavily into Wall of Voodoo in the 80's. Later I found out they took most of their sound from the song "Machines" by Lothar and the Hand People.
Joanna Newsom's "En Gallop" is sort of a cover of this. They have the same theme, the conflict between the world of spirit and the money economy. They use the same uncommon meaning of the word "flesh" for how your body chains you to an unpleasant material world. And the riff near the beginning of "En Gallop" is almost the same riff that starts at 2:09.
Mind blowing cover of the Johnny Cash song.
The Muffs - Lucky Guy (1993)
I was obsessed with the Muffs in the mid 90's. This is the only song that made me dance the first time I heard it.
Kim Shattuck is the best screamer ever.
From their brilliant second album,
Leave Home.
This would make an awesome country song.
Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop (1976)
I didn't fully appreciate this song until I heard Yo La Tengo's instrumental version.
Willie Nelson - Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (1975)
Donovan - Atlantis (1968)
The first half is an embarrassing spoken word bit, and the second half, a fourteen syllable repeating chorus, is one of the best things ever.
A decent new wave pop song followed by an incredible drone jam.
Loreena McKennitt - Greensleeves (1991)
She's famous for music that's super-clean, but this was improvised in one take, and its rawness makes it sort of her best song.
Antenna - Snakes (1991)
There are heavy bands that have great soft and pretty songs, but how often does a soft band make a great noisy song? And why did they back away from this sound instead of pushing it farther?
The Shins - New Slang (2001)
Here's another
video showing the album cover references in that video.
Great buildup!
Have A Nice Life - Earthmover (2008)
Decent vocals followed by a nice post-rock jam.
Chris Bell - I Am the Cosmos (1975?)
To my knowledge, the only song with this brilliant symmetrical structure: first verse, different verse, chorus, solo, chorus, different verse, first verse.
The live version from
The Secret Policeman's Other Ball.
Forgotten political song about how people are tricked into believing in the system that feeds on them.
A skilled vocalist and experienced recording engineer intentionally goes over the top with every mistake he has heard bad singers make. It's easier to unlock genius by trying to be bad than trying to be good, and Mauldin accidentally gave such an interesting performance that if he hit the notes it would approach Song For Baltimore.
Top Ten Guitar Solos
1. Alex Lifeson, Rush - No One At The Bridge
The perfect guitar solo: short, carefully composed, and at the end of the song.
(video)
2. Mark Knopfler, Dire Straits - Tunnel of Love
Again at the end of the song, but with a long seductive buildup.
(video)
3. Dave Nothing, Bone Cellar - Dry Rot
Another beautiful long jam at the end of the song.
4. Buck Dharma, Blue Oyster Cult - Astronomy (live 1978)
Like the solo in Stairway To Heaven, this rises from the main song to the thundering finish, but it's longer and better.
5. Huw Lloyd-Langton, Hawkwind - The Island
The entire song is a well-crafted two-part guitar solo, combining the solos in "The 5th Second of Forever" and "Dust of Time".
6. Brian May, Queen - We Will Rock You
One more: short, tight, end of song.
7. Alex Lifeson, Rush - Bacchus Plateau
From the same album side as "No One At The Bridge", just as pretty but not as tight.
8. Steve Hackett, Genesis - After The Ordeal
So quiet that you might not notice it's the most beautiful melody in all of prog rock.
9. Elliott Randall, Steely Dan - Reelin' in the Years
Radical because it anchors the song, filling every gap where there isn't singing.
10. Don Felder and Joe Walsh, The Eagles - Hotel California
It's on every list!
11. Marc Moreland, Wall of Voodoo - Ring of Fire
Starts with a variation on the "Our Man Flint" theme and progresses into epic distortion. Incidentally, the Concrete Blonde song "Joey" was written about Moreland.