220. Jewel — “Intuition” — I admit it; I think this song is catchy. I also like how Jewel was doing a parody of sell-outs and got wrongly criticized by people who didn’t understand that it was a parody, but then later sold out by selling this song to a ladies’ razor commercial.
219. Michelle Branch — “Sweet Misery” — Heartbreak has rarely sounded so pretty.
218. Tonic — “Mean to Me” — Whiny or awesome? I’ll go with the latter.
217. Camera Obscura — “My Maudlin Career” — Most bands get self-referential on their second album; CO waited till their fourth. And in typical Tracyanne fashion, even though the lyrics are maudlin, the song is flat-out beautiful.
216. Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson — “Say Say Say” — Sorry, “The Girl is Mine” fans. This catchy number gets my vote as the superior Mac-and-Jack collaboration.
215. The Wallflowers — cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes” — It gets the nod over the original due to a more muscular bass line and the creative use of Godzilla roars among the backing instrumentation.
214. Modest Mouse — “Float On” — Most songs on this list are about things going wrong, but this song nicely captures that feeling when things are going OK.
213. Marvelous 3 — “Grant Park” — Part of Butch Walker’s continuing effort to rewrite ’80s rock history as being even cooler than we remember.
212. Bruce Springsteen — “Long Walk Home” — You can find new meanings on each listen. My favorite line is the Lennon-esque “No flag flying over the courthouse/ No certain things are set in stone.”
211. Keane — “This is the Last Time” — “This is the last time you fall on me for anything you like/ You one last line/ You fall on me for anything you like/ And yes, make everything all right/ You fall on me for anything you like/ And I know I don’t mind.” It doesn’t make literal sense, but I get what Tom Chaplin is saying. And I know I’m probably hearing the lyrics wrong, but whatever.
Comments
more CO i see. very nice…
i knew that you would pick the wrong Paul/MJ collabo.
how dare you not choose Bowie. i’m disgusted w/ you… seriously
Keane. nice. Tim RIce-Oxley (the writer) has a new band. “Mt. Desolation”. you should check it out…# Posted By chance | 7/12/10 2:15 AM
I knew you’d be disgusted with me, so I made sure to look up the Bowie version on YouTube before I posted this chunk of songs. Played it back-to-back with the Wallflowers’ version. Jakob and the boys just brought it to a new level. That’s not a slight against Bowie, it’s a compliment to the Wallflowers. On “The Girl is Mine,” they just tell each other “the girl is mine” over and over. It’s kind of cute, but “Say Say Say” has more depth to it. It was a close call, though. I’m kind of surprised you support the one from the MJ album over the one from the McCartney album, since you are a big Beatles fan.# Posted By John Hansen | 7/12/10 2:23 AM
I’m going to agree with you John on the Macca/MJ duet. I think its the better song plus the video was funny. Very 80’s MTV. Another Tonic song?# Posted By Matt | 7/17/10 12:18 AM