Top Ten List Commemoration #9
April 28, 2008 | Contributed by Caleb Knox
When Cory asked me to write this column a few months back, I couldn’t believe it. My reaction was something to the effect of, “Are you kidding me? I don’t think anyone can actually do that list justice.” Yet here we are, three weeks from the end of the school year, and I’m giving you the Top Ten Songs of 2004-2008.
First of all, this list is useless if you can’t listen for yourself. For your convenience, I’ve posted a link to a YouTube video of each song as it is on the album. Some of them are official music videos, while others are just set up by fans so that people can hear the song for free. I also have to give you a caveat – I realize this list is every bit as subjective as my Top Ten Albums lists are at the end of each year. These are songs that I love desperately, but I realize that not everyone will enjoy them as much as I do. If you disagree with me, that’s great! Post your suggestions in the comments. I will admit right up front that there are a couple of genres that I have missed. Specifically, I can’t stand country music and I don’t think there were very many great rap songs in the past four years. Again, if you think one of them deserves to be on this list, write it in the comments. Prove me wrong.
One final note before we dive in – It’s an absurd idea to try and narrow your iTunes library down to the ten best songs of any era, especially a full four-year span. It is absolutely insane. But I have to recommend it – read this column, agree or disagree with me, and then go make your own list. I’d love to see it, and hopefully we can all discover some great new music together.
Anyway! On to the list!
10. The Decemberists – Sons & Daughters (unfortunately, I could only find a live version. It still gives a pretty good impression of the song, though)
The closer to The Decemberists’ 2006 album “The Crane Wife” is the opener to my list. It really is the perfect closer; from its mandolin-led ensemble of acoustic instruments to the way it builds and its final, hopeful refrain, repeated as if the choir is trying to convince itself: “Here all the bombs fade away.”
9. The National – Start a War (I have to apologize for showing you scenes from The Notebook; it was the only way I could get the studio version)
This song rumbles like an earthquake, and lead singer Matt Berninger’s voice and melancholy lyrics are at the epicenter. The quiet intensity of this song makes the speaker’s broken relationship all the more poignant, and the progression makes his admission even more heartbreaking: “You were always weird, but I never had to hold you by the edges like I do now.”
8. The Rocket Summer – So Much Love
I will always remember where I was when I heard this song for the first time. I was driving back from Best Buy after picking up The Rocket Summer’s third full-length album, 2007’s “Do You Feel.” I had anxiously unwrapped the album in the parking lot and flipped it on. “Do You Feel” opens up with some immediate rocking, and I knew after one track that this disc would be Bryce Avery’s finest hour. He didn’t disappoint. The next track, “So Much Love,” is everything you could ask for in a fun summer song – a sweet horn solo, a gigantic piano lick, and some inspirational, simple, and somehow profound sing-along lyrics. Above all, though, it’s just a blast. You can imagine Avery jumping around the studio, yelling at the top of his lungs: “You look like the songs that I heard my whole life coming true!”
7. The Killers – When You Were Young
When I first heard this song, my first thought was, “Yeah, this is pretty good. But it doesn’t sound like The Killers.” I was right about one part. The Killers listened to a lot of Bruce Springsteen before recording 2006’s “Sam’s Town,” and The Boss’ influence shines through (especially in lead singer Brandon Flowers’ performance). What I was wrong about, however, was how much this song would grow on me as I kept listening to it. This would have been hands down the best straightforward rock and roll song of this period, if not for the song coming in at number five.
6. Gwen Stefani (feat. Akon) – The Sweet Escape
Every couple of years, there is a new undeniably catchy pop song that captures the ears and hearts of America’s music critics. Not just pop music consumers either; these songs are loved by snobbish elitists and 13-year-old girls alike. There were a few great ones to choose from in this time period (including Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack” and Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone”), but “The Sweet Escape” was the finest. Akon is pretty dispensable on this one, but Gwen Stefani’s use of a sweet retro-sounding sample and some 1930s-era horns proved that she was more than just B-A-N-A-N-A-S.
5. Foo Fighters – Best of You
Believe it or not, Foo Fighters have been at it since 1995. In their tenth year, they released an album called “In Your Honor.” More than any other song on this list, I have to implore you to watch the video. It perfectly sums up the themes that must have been running through Dave Grohl’s head while writing this song – joy and angst, agony and ecstacy, passion and pain, despair and hope. This song expresses more raw emotion than most of today’s rockers would dare to write about, and it does the job in four minutes and sixteen seconds.
4. Sufjan Stevens – Chicago
This seems about right for the best song on the best album to be released during my college career. “Chicago” charmed indie rock fanatics and soundtrack composers alike (see “Little Miss Sunshine”), and it made a genuine low-level celebrity out of Sufjan. There are so many highlights on his 2005 album, “Come On, Feel The Illinoise,” that it was difficult to choose one. But with the xylophone intro, soaring strings section, and Sufjan’s softly warbling voice directing it all, “Chicago” was the biggest and best of them all. It seems to be the least likely line for an anthem, but there it is: “I’ve made a lot of mistakes.”
3. Band of Horses – The Funeral
When Band of Horses first recorded this song, singer/guitarist/songwriter Ben Bridwell didn’t even want to put it on their debut album, 2006’s “Everything All The Time.” Bridwell thought “The First Song” or “The Great Salt Lake” would be the radio hit. But it was this one which, like “Sons & Daughters,” is remarkable for its simplicity. “Every occasion, I’ll be ready for the funeral,” Bridwell chirps over crunching guitars and crashing cymbals. If only every song about loss could be this reverent while simultaneously expressing so much anguish.
2. Arcade Fire – Rebellion (Lies)
Arcade Fire are an enigma, and they like it that way. This song is partially about hiding “underneath the covers,” but also about exposing the mythology of parents’ rhetoric. The themes that seem melodramatic on much of their 2004 album “Funeral” actually work to great effect here. The thumping heartbeat of the song, coupled with ornate instrumentation and the growing urgency in Win Butler’s voice make this song one to remember – and, perhaps as important, one to play really, really loud.
1.The Format – If Work Permits
Nate Ruess has just about the most distinctive voice in indie rock, and he makes use of it at all volumes here. Starting out with the sound of crickets and a finger-picked acoustic melody, Ruess unfolds two stories: one about an abused friend who becomes scared of love, and one about the speaker’s roller coaster relationship. As the song builds and unfolds, so do the stories. The moral? Any kind of love means making yourself vulnerable, but that doesn’t mean you have to be afraid.
Thanks for listening! I hope you’ve enjoyed this read as much as I’ve enjoyed all of the lists that Cory has written so far. Stick around next week for the tenth and final Top Ten list of this series; it’s going to be a good one.
Comments
7 Responses to “Top Ten List Commemoration #9”
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To be honest, the main reason I asked Caleb to do this list was if there was anyone at the school who had background knowledge about the music industry, it would be him. I felt this would be a good chance for him to gain some experience in this field.
And as far as country goes, get used to it because I spoke to Jesus last week and he said it’s all the rage in heaven. And not the dumb, watered down “American Idol” country either–the good stuff. Here’s a few examples just in case anyone gets curious:
“Life ain’t always beautiful” Gary Allan
“Some People Change” Montgomery Gentry
“All My Friends Say” Luke Bryan
“Good Directions” Billy Currington
The only country song I think I would put up a fight for deserving to be on a generic Top Ten list though is “Find Out Who Your Friends Are” with Tracy Lawrence, Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney. Kind of like the song suggests, Mr. Lawrence (one of the country legends) wrote this song as his career was winding down, only to have buddies McGraw and Chesney offer to do the song as a trio. Plus it has the three components every country song needs: a story, a fiddle, and an average-joe theme.
By the way, George Strait last week added to his own world record with his 56th song to reach #1 on Billboard’s lists with “I Saw God Today.” Fifty six different songs. How does anyone ever get that creative?
I agree with “Chicago” for sure, most everyone, even non-sufjan fans like myself can completely buy into it.
I’m not capable of making a similar list, but I do know of some noteworthy songs.
“Jesus Christ” by Brand New
“Skinny Love” by Bon Iver
“Wolves” by Phosphorescent
“Landlocked Blues” by Bright Eyes
Oh, I gotta go to class, maybe I’ll come back to this…
My vote for a Sufjan song is, hands down, “Casimir Pulaski Day.” “Chicago” is catchy and all (and has a phenomenal intro), but nothing can match the sweet, unsuspecting, ultimately Job-like lyrics of CPD. Seldom do we find songs about this subject matter which are original. I don’t mean to be melodramatic, but honestly the last three words of the song are the most devastating (but somehow faithful) lyrics of any song I can think of. Here’s a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGEMx3TKxNc.
I echo Nathaniel’s suggestion of “Landlocked Blues.”
Maybe OkGo’s “Million Ways to be Cruel” deserves mentioning. Good lyrics, catchy, great simple video. I like it, anyway.
Hey, “Land Locked Blues” is a great song; thanks for pointing me that direction. I’m not convinced that it belongs on this list, but it takes a while to truly digest a song.
When that horn part comes in toward the end, it’s pretty glorious. I need to listen to more Bright Eyes.
I’m glad at least one of the two albums I bought between 2004-2008 made the list (Crane Wife, the other one was Picaresque.)
Personally, I prefer “Perfect Crime #2″ and “Summersong” on Crane Wife, though those are both fairly gimmicky songs, so I understand how Sons and Daughters got the nod.
Yes, everyone should listen to more Bright Eyes. Also, not a song, but my favorite album of the last four or forty years is Jack’s Mannequin’s “Everything in Transit.”
I’m not going to make a list (not just yet, at least) but here are 5 of my favorites from 2004-2008…
“I’ll Believe in Anything” by Wolf Parade
“Wake Up” by Arcade Fire
“Fever Dream” by Iron & Wine
“1234″ by Feist
“Cosmia” by Joanna Newsom (from Ys Street Band EP)