Lately I’ve been thinking about songs that I don’t necessarily think are works of genius but that I just love anyway because of something I can’t quite define, because of, pardon my vagueness, the way they sound. Nearly always, it’s something beyond my powers of musicology to discern what it is about these songs that gets me, but it’s not the lyrics, the melody, any one thing I can put my finger on, but something about the overall sound of the song. Thus I’ve come up with my Sonic List. While I’ve found some themes running through the list – handclaps, rhythmic guitar riffs or just a hot riff in general – overall I can’t find anything that connects them. Can you? What’s on your Sonic List? Here’s a starter list that, assuming you all are enjoying this, I’ll keep adding to. You might also notice that several of these songs have been used in commercials, so maybe it’s not just me – and yes, a great many of these tunes are very poppy. Maybe “catchiness” is another catchall for what I’m looking for here, but “sonic”-ness has always been the way I’ve thought about it and I think there’s a subtle difference between the two.
I’ve tried my best to leave off songs that were more about the lyrics, the content if you will, but sometimes it was hard to tell where content and sonic-ness separated. I tried to imagine the songs without the vocals, or with gibberish in place of the words. That’s when Scott Walker (“World’s Strongest Man”), Nico (“These Days” et al), Glen Campbell (“Wichita Lineman”), Johnny Cash (late covers of “Hurt” and “I Hung my Head”), Magnetic Fields, Smiths, The Cure (a bucket o songs) and, as I make my way down my itunes list, a seemingly infinite number of others got scratched.
All in all, looking at it now, it’s not a list I’m terribly proud of. In fact, this isn’t a post I’m terribly proud of. It’s just become the kind of big vague mess I teach students not to make. But it’s a vague mess I’ve now spent most of my Friday on, so . . . . One of my best and oldest friends, who I’ll call Tom because that’s one of his names, recently commented (forgive the paraphrase, Tommy) that one of my most Jamie-ish characterstics is that I manage to think about something both too much (brooding) and not enough (lacking depth or reason) at the same time. Methinks this post is the perfect example.
So, then, what I’ve ended up with here is a bunch of songs that that SOUND GOOD to me. If nothing else, perhaps the list will be food for your musical thought and maybe even your collection.
If we could parse what makes a number catchy to each of us, well, the magic and mystery of music would disappear. I notice there’s little or no country, jazz, or punk, for what that’s worth, and there are a lot of sweet hooks, or grooves – oddly, the same stuff that my mom used to call “too repetitive” for her in much of my favorite music.
It occurs to me that I should make this into a public itunes list. I’ve never tried that. Perhaps I shall.
(I first wrote the above with six songs in mind, then made the mistake of going into itunes., thus I give you . . . )
THE SONIC LIST
(XXXXXX) = especially sonic
(DID) = a song that I consider not just sonically awesome but also one of my favorites ever, among my desert island discs.
“Gut Feeling” – DEVO (XXXXXXXXXX) (DID)
“Public Image Ltd” – Rise (XXXXXXXX)
“Can You Get to That” – Funkadelic (DID) (XXXXXXXXX)
“Amsterdam” – Peter Bjorn and John (XXXXXXXXXX)
“Mr. Brightside” – The Killers (XXXXXXX)
“Sweet Emotion” – Aerosmith (XXXXXXX)
“Kashmir” (duh) – Led Zeppelin (XXXXXXX)
“Nobody’s Fault” – Led Zeppelin (XXXXXXX)
“When the Levee Breaks” – Led Zeppelin (XXXXXXX)
“Lust for Life”- Iggy Pop (XXXXXXX)
“The Equator” – (& so much else of TNT and other albums) – Tortoise (XXXXXXXXX)
“Blue Bossanova” – Bossanova (XXXXXX)
“Cars” – Gary Numan (XXXXXXXX)
“Ambulance” – TV on the Radio (DID) (XXXXXXXXXXXX)
“Move On Up” – Curtis Mayfield (XXXXXXXX)
“Charmed Life” – Mick Jagger (XXXXXXX) (yes, folks, a post-2000 Jagger solo effort makes the list!)
“Again with the Subtitles” – Yppah (XXXXXXX)
“He War” – Cat Power (XXXXXXXX)
“Pack yr Romantic Mind” – Stereolab (XXXXXXXX) (DID)
“Flourescences” – Stereolab (XXXXXXXX) (DID)
“Cinnamon Girl” – Neil Young (XXXXXXXXXX)
“(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thing” & “Let Me Go” – Heaven 17 (XXXXXXXX)
“Freedom” – George Michael (XXXXXXXX)
“Cantamilla” – Tranquility Bass (XXXXXXX) (the version i managed to google is NOT the song as I know it at all, fyi)
“I Can’t Go for That” – Hall & Oates
“16 Military Wives” – The Decembrists
“Come Undone” – Duran Duran
“Everybody’s Happy Nowadays” – The Buzzcocks
“Where is My Man” – Eartha Kitt
“Waterfalls” – TLC (in part because it can’t be those lyrics, in fact something is managing to overcome them.)
“Good Life” – Inner City
“Beyond Belief” – Elvis Costello
“New Amsterdam” – Elvis Costello & the Atrtractions
“Clean Money” – Elvis Costello & the Atrtractions
(While I adore dozens of songs from the first five EC albums, these three pass the sonic test)
“This Year’s Girl” – (& nearly all of “This Year’s Model) – Elvis Costello & The Attractions
“Someday” – The Strokes
“Jimmy” – M.I.A. (didn’t put “Paper Planes” because well, sonically, it’s largely a Clash remix and, oddly, didn’t put the cCash because I don’t think “Straight to Hell” quite fits the bill)
“Nipple to the Bottle” – Grace Jones
“Maps” – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
“Take Me Out” – Franz Ferdinand
“American Woman” – The Guess Who
“Hey St. Peter” – Flash and the Pan
“Race for the Prize” – The Flaming Lips
“Found a Job” – Talking Heads ( and lots of others, but so many of them have content it’s hard to separate out from the sonickness)
“Radio Free Europe” – R.E.M. (because it can’t be the lyrics on that record, right, as no one knows what they are.)
“Pure Morning” – Placebo
“Float On” – Modest Mouse
“Heaven or Las Vegas” et al, – Cocteau Twins
(Tracks by Kanye West and Shwayze and Lupe Fiasco were on and off and on and off this list for reasons mentioned elsewhere)
“Breathe” – Telepopmusik
“Making Plans for Nigel” – XTC
“Here Come the Girls” – Ernie K Doe
Pinback is a very sonic band
“Love Train” – The O’Jays
“Wonderwall” – Oasis
“Rip It Up” – Orange Juice
“Dreams Never End” and so many of the early singles – New Order
“Living Too Late” – The Fall
“Epic” – Faith No More (just the chorus, I can’t stand the verses)
“Moody” – ESG
“The Boys are Back in Town” – Thin Lizzy
“Pick up the Phone” – The Notwist
“Hells Bells” AC/DC and Dandy Warhol versions
“Alice” “1969” (and other early singles) – Sisters of Mercy
“Big Exit” – PJ Harvey
“You Got yr Cherry Bomb” – Spoon
“Action” & “Fox on the Run” – Sweet
“President Chimp Toe” – Fila Brazillia
“Drink to Moving On” – Grand National
“Groove is in the Heart” – Dee Light
“Days to Come” – Bonobo
“The Horror” – RJD2
“Feel Good, Inc” – Gorillaz
“I Wish” – Skee-Lo (yes, even without the lyrics)
“Higher Ground” – Stevie Wonder
“Wildcat” – Ratatat
“Lady” – Modjo (that’s right, I said it!)
“Ghetto Rock” – Mos Def
A ton, from “New Life” right up to “Can You Feel a Little Love” – Depeche Mode
“Everlong” – Foo Fighters
“She Wolf” – Shakira (hmmm, maybe there should be another list, of booty shakers or some such)
“Say No Go” – De La Soul
“Pretty in Pink,” “We Love You,” and just about anything on the first two albums by Psychedelic Furs, so very sonic
“Set Adrift on Memory Blips” – PM Dawn
“Pop Life” – Prince (DID)
“Barracuda” – Heart
“You Said Something” – P. J. Harvey (DID)
“Walking with a Ghost” – Tegan and Sara
“Heroes” – David Bowie (DID)
“Be Thankful for What You’ve Got” – William DeVaughn
“None Shall Pass” – Aesop Rock
“Sweet Home Alabama” – Lynyrd Skynyrd (a band I have no use for any other song by)
“Takin’ Care of Business” – BTO
“She’s the One” – The Beta Band
“West End Girls” – Pet Shop Boys (and, to a lesser extent, “Inner City Pressure” – Flight of the Conchords)
“Use Me” – Bill Withers
“Autumn Sweater” – Yo La Tengo
“ Flagpole Sitta“ – Harvey Danger
“Pass the Courvousier” – Busta Rhymes
“Sure Shot” – The Beatie Boys
“Mad World” – Tears for Fears (an example of a band who I don’t think have many good songs, and fewere still that hold up, but that have a sonic quality (a riff? A hook?) that keeps me coming back
“Wot” – Captain Sensible
“That’s Entertainment” – The Jam
“I Found That Essence Rare” (and just about every song on “Entertainment’) – Gang of Four (DID)
“In an Aeroplane over the Sea” & “King of Carrot Flowers” – Neutral Milk Hotel
“Anthems for a seventeen-year-old girl” – Broken Social Scene
“All for You,” “That’s the Way Love Goes” – Janet Jackson, At this point, I realize there’s no Michael on here. I love a great number of Michael Songs, but here’s where “catchy” or booty-shakin’ just isn’t quite the same as sonic-ally enticing. There’s something about the production of this particular song, the thump of it, the up-front vocals . . . .
“Under my Thumb” – The Rolling Stones (DID)
DEVO – just about the entire album “Freedom of Choice”
“Mongoloid” – DEVO
“Satisfaction” – DEVO
“Love Will Tear Us Apart” – Joy Division
“Trick Me Twice” – Kelis
“ Kissing the Lipless “ – The Shins
“The Bottle” – Gil Scott-Heron
“Headache” – Frank Black
“How Soon is Now” – The Smiths
“Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth” – Clap Your Hand Say Yeah
“Soon” – My Bloody Valentine
“Six Foolish Fisherman” – Minotaur Shock
“Girl/Boy Song” – Aphex Twin
“Don’t Tell Me” – Madonna
“Holiday” – Madonna (DID)
“Milkshake” – Kelis
(Also, the incredible piece of sonic perfection that’s the mash-up of the two preceding songs. Find it, download it, get it!)
“Street Hassle” – Lou Reed
“Mr. Sand Man” – The Andrews Sisters
“This is the Way” – Devendra Banhart (Much of DB is hard to put here because of the content issue, but this song, dang, it just sounds so sweet.
“Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie” (et al from the first album) – Joanna Newsom
Neptunes vs. Timbaland instrumental track I downloaded once with no title that I know of
“Love Action” – The Human League
“Take Your Mama” – Scissor Sisters
“Take Me Away” – Ween
“Start Choppin” – Dinosaur Jr.
“Electic Feel” – MGMT
Girl Talk – Just about every track on “Night Ripper” and “Feed the Animals,” each of which consist of pieces of so many different songs it’s hard to figure how to categorize them
That’s it. Hope you had some fun.
