30. "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden

Where is the rock vocalist today with the bombast and dexterity of Chris Cornell, far, far less the songwriting chops?

What songs do you hear on the radio today where some virtuosic rocker with a pop-worthy melodic ear is on there singing about black holes and suns, and a litany of other surreal images and idea fragments? Maybe this is just a really strange song of relationship strife, and we can all just relax.

Much was made about the guitar effect on this song's verses, its calling card, maybe its gimmick. I'll tell you what, the drums are the value of admission here, the thundering, ever-thinking drums of Matt Cameron. He never takes a measure off.

Some people love labels like "grunge" to describe any heavy rock coming out in the early/mid '90s. Fine, but if you are one that likes to call "grunge," you are allowing marketers to simplify your appreciation of essential, ambitious sonic sculpture like "Black Hole Sun" in the process.

Hug a guitar today.

29. “Black Heart” by Calexico

I had a friend go see the Shins, and he came back raving about the band who opened for them, this incredible, virtuosic group from Tucson called Calexico.

We listened to their album, 2003’s Feast of Wire, and found a bold mix of modern and traditional sounds. It is an album you don’t skip songs through, filled with excellent modulations of waltzes, rock, mariachi, solo piano, both boisterous and small. Towering over the album, in my opinion, is this epic, “Black Heart.”

The song is like a dark cloud settling over the top of you. The resilient choruses are bursts of bravery. The strings go beyond excellent orchestration and become a character in this song’s panoramic southwestern landscape: Their excellent screaming and wailing finale is the cloud touching the horizon, light winking out, and your final regrets only then occurring to you.

28. “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson

That is a custom-made drum set that opens this song. As in, the materials of the set were assembled to have the unmistakable sound we all know.

Michael Jackson had the bassist play the bass line on every bass the guy owned before selecting one to be on the recording.

Every song on the Thriller album had this kind of insane attention to detail. It was like a NASA mission, for tunes.

That is why every person who sees this post knows every detail of this song. We all love the drum and bass, the keyboard, the funky guitar. We have all sung every note, even tried our hand at some of the impossible-to-imitate little embellishments he obsessively dropped everywhere.

Have we all attempted to moon walk to this song? I admit I haven't. I could maybe keep up with the voice of Michael Jackson, but the moves were best handled by professionals.

Michael Jackson wanted Thriller to be massive, successful, a crossover between cultures, all of that. It was also just one of the greatest tributes to the human imagination, with songs like “Billie Jean” an absolutely unique vibe, vision, phenomenon, memory, leap.

27. "Big Empty" by Stone Temple Pilots

Heavy, or even somewhat aggressively performed music has largely fallen out of the mainstream zeitgeist. When Stone Temple Pilots vocalist Scott Weiland died in 2015, the cultural arbiters of our time treated their rememberances of him with embarrassed bemusement, like priests trying to explain kickboxing to preschoolers.

But heavy music is like any music - eternally relevant if done well. It is brave, and bravery tends to unsettle. 

Most first wave grunge bands built their heaviness on a headbanging, moshing model. You could argue where STP fits in this chronology - they were contemporaries with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, etc. but they have been accused of appropriating those bands. But I submit that their style of heaviness is unique from those groups. "Big Empty" draws on the Led Zeppelin school of heaviness: Acoustic blues verses, astute slide guitar, drumming layered with soft rolls and ghost notes; Choruses of exultant open chords, eschewing just driving the low fifths. The middle instrumental is also of the Zeppelin school, something "Whole Lotta Love" did with a more playful attitude. 

"Big Empty" is not playful. It is earnest to the point of being mockable by those who like to poke holes. It is a Great Song. Maybe fewer can feel it today.

26. "Big Cheese" by Nirvana

One of the high points of songcraft in early, unpolished independent Nirvana:

It has a legit beginning of feedback half-steps, not just the beginning of the guitar riff. Simple but passionate verses. Groovy choruses with neat harmonies that sound more like alternate verses. Soundgarden-esque instrumentals after the choruses. A tuneful guitar solo by Nirvana standards. A true ending and not just the song being over.

With all those passages, it's the closest thing to a Nevermind song from before they made that leap. 

It's kind of a cousin to "Aneurysm," actually. It wasn't originally on the Bleach album, where it can be found now, but was a B-side on their "Love Buzz" single. It was only added to Bleach as a bonus track for the CD release after the band found popularity. Instead, like "Aneurysm," it was a more epic song that stood on its own, a breakthrough bridging two eras. "Aneurysm" bridged Nevermind and In Utero. But before that, "Big Cheese" bridged Bleach and Nevermind. Interestingly, Krist Novoselic has rare writing credits on both.

Chad Channing's drumming, aside from some basic flair in the verses, is boring. Dave Grohl's creativity would be the final missing piece for this group. "Big Cheese" shows us a time when Kurt's singing and songwriting carried the whole show. Dave Grohl's addition was like the great runningback coming in to compliment a gifted young quarterback with a 4,000-yard season already under his belt.

The thing that has always intrigued me about songs from the Bleach period is the huskiness of Kurt Cobain's voice. He sounds more like a raving, constipated lunatic than a rock star. He doesn't get enough credit for redefining his singing style as much as his songwriting for subsequent albums.

I noticed that Rolling Stone had this song ranked #58 of all Nirvana songs. Come on, Rolling Stone, get it together.