#25 Hercules and Love Affair – Blind
Album: Hercules and Love Affair
Year: 2008
Antony Hegarty has a voice among the most distinctive of our generation. His quavering, delicate voice reaches ambitiously for hope on the horizon in his work with Antony and the Johnsons (a project that produced some beauty but never quite suited me). I expected Hercules and Love Affair to be just too weird – I couldn’t picture his vocal stylings atop a bed of nu-disco and dance-rock. It works because the songwriting holds up and he brings an urgent melancholy to the proceedings. Dance music with a sad undercurrent is really more co-blogger Amanda’s thing, but “Blind” is the epitome of dance plus delicate, and as a result, it (and most tracks from here on up on my list) retains its power during spin after spin.
#24 DJ Danger Mouse – What More Can I Say
Album: The Grey Album
Year: 2004
Yes, it is only a mash-up. DJ Danger Mouse technically did nothing other than a chop and splice job here, and with only two tracks as opposed to Girl Talk‘s twenty million and a half. The Grey Album is still a remarkably successful technical achievement that, at its peaks, generates genuine emotional content.
To paraphrase John Cusack in High Fidelity (regarding mixtapes), using someone else’s poetry to express how you feel is a delicate thing. On “What More Can I Say”, Danger Mouse truly manages to recontextualize Jay-Z‘s braggadocio with The Beatles‘ heartstring-tugging riff, spinning the whole thing into some alternate universe where pathos meets pride. In other words, the reality in which Kanye resides.
#23 The White Stripes – Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground
Album: White Blood Cells
Year: 2001
White Blood Cells was a breath of fresh air, in a way that rock music badly needed in the early aughts. “Fell In Love With The Girl” was two minutes of pure punk-rock desperation, and its immediacy was infinitely relatable among the wasteland of modern rock radio at the time. Second single “Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground” is the one I go back to, for Jack White‘s willingness to wield his guitar as a battering ram (the chorus) and a pleading accompaniment (the verses). Lyrical runs like “If you can hear a piano fall / You can hear me coming down the hall / If I can just hear your pretty voice / I don’t think I need to see at all / I don’t think I need to see at all” are as poetic as anything the red/white duo have issued to date, and justify the hype. As long as Jack is focused on The Dead Weather, I will be a little bit sad, because the brilliance buried in The White Stripes‘ back catalog will always make me wonder where they could go next.
#22 The Knife – Silent Shout
Album: Silent Shout
Year: 2006
The Knife have always felt more important than many other electro acts to me. Unlike others who cross over into similar sounds (Simian Mobile Disco, Junior Boys, Crystal Castles), their compositions carry a certain weight and authority, as though asking their compatriots condescendingly “Do you get this song? It’s okay if you don’t get it yet, you’ll be ripping it off in three years for your next album”. “Silent Shout” builds based on a certain quality of synth that can only be described as haunting. Lyrically, Karin Dreijer Andersson decides to give you her nightmares, relating “In a dream I lost my teeth again” and “A cracked smile and a silent shout”. She ends with the repeated refrain “I caught a glimpse, now it haunts me”. While you’d never want to listen to this song on a bright, sunny day, I’d also be hesitant to listen to it before bed or alone in a dark room. Regardless, you’ll find a place in your life for this song – its composition is simply too good. Unless, that is, you don’t get it.
#21 Sleigh Bells – Crown On The Ground
Album: Treats
Year: 2009 (Single) / 2010 (Album)
I wrote about this song not so long ago, as my top track from the Best of 2009 countdown that helped launch this very blog. To egotistically quote myself, “it is an absolute BANGER in every sense of the word. The bass is mixed high, front and center. Ditto for the treble. The chorus bears a close resemblance to a police siren. The vocals are riot grrl meets tribal chant. You can dance to this song. You can headbang to it. You can work out to it. You can definitely do things I won’t discuss on this blog to it. This is what the future will sound like. Don’t expect to get much sleep.”
