5. "A Day In the Life" by the Beatles

Let me tell you a bit about the life of John Lennon. His parents were never together, and he and spent much of his childhood being partially raised by his mother, mostly raised by others in his extended family, especially his aunt. His mom was in and out of his life, but she bought him his first guitar at age 14. At age 17, just as they were starting to reconnect, his mom was hit by a car and killed. He had been playing in a band with a kid in town named Paul McCartney. Paul's mom had passed away too. Together, they poured their disoriented lives into their music.

John played guitar well enough, but not fantastic. What he could really do was sing, and lead a group - and write songs using just the basic guitar chords he taught himself. He made those basic chords count over and over.

The insanely beautiful verses of "A Day In the Life" consist of the most basic open chords you can play on a guitar: G - b - e - C - e - a

Those chords had existed for thousands of years before John Lennon came along.

Five years deep into his run as part of the biggest band in the world, this kid from Liverpool took those chords and put his ominous, exhausted voice over the top of them, and created a song that was the musical equivalent of landing on the moon.

4. "1901" by Phoenix

I can still picture driving summer 2009 through the forest and granite of upper Michigan, looking out over Lake Superior under a brilliant sun, hearing this shiny song glinting in all its newness.

The long, winding verse melodies are so fun to sing.

3. "50/50" by the Strokes

It's a coincidence that #2 was by Julian Casablancas and #3 is also by him, performed by his band the Strokes.

But it brings up a good point about the way I'm going about this. There are going to be a good number of songs by the same people. There are plenty of fantastic songs, but I'm trying to think of the ones that have repeatedly and profoundly spoken to me. Many of them were formative in how I learned to write and play music. I'd like to think they're songs I could have on repeat for eternity and not lose my goddamned mind. Some songwriters produce more of these than others.

To this song. 

For the last song, I said Julian Casablancas is great for both his aggressiveness and his pop ear. This song covers the aggressiveness. This isn't overproduced "heavy" music with echo chamber drums; this is a lo-fi blitz. I grit and punch my fist up.

2. "11th Dimension" by Julian Casablancas

I have strong beliefs about the songwriting talent of Julian Casablancas. He has an economy and a control that are amazingly melded to all the sounds he creates. He is often called a Television imitator. I've listened to Television. He is better than Television. Television can't reach his aggressiveness or his pop catchiness, depending on the song. I think many music aficionados in the early aughts disliked him because he was handsome.

"11th Dimension" shows off the tuneful side of Casablancas's songwriting. It is a wall of electronic sounds, all bouncing to a funky beat. I've always been impressed with how his singing jumps such wide intervals with staccato attack. The big bridges are well-earned explosions.

Some great lines in this:

"I live on the frozen surface of a fireball
Where cities come together
to hate each other in the name of sport"

"I got music coming out of my hands and feet and kisses"

By the way, the first verse is an odd five lines, the second is an odd three lines, and rhyme is almost nonexistent. I just love little bits of ugliness like this, especially in such a pretty song.

1. "4th of July" by Soundgarden

You will probably hate this song. The tuning is arcane, putting the fuzzy guitars in an almost unintelligibly low register. But the chord progression is brilliant. The singing melody is one of immense imagination. The high notes are almost stupidly high. The song epitomizes Chris Cornell's trademark shriek.

The lyrics form an abstract, apocalyptic landscape. Cornell specialized in nearly nonsensical dark, psychedelic lyrics, but in this song, he unloads one of his most striking concrete images in a key closing line: "Down in the hole, Jesus tries to crack a smile beneath another shovel load."