186. "Little Lies" by Fleetwood Mac

The pentatonic scale is God's Gift to pop music. This song exploits this theoretical truth with almost a flagrant ambition. It is potentially illegally catchy.

It's weird, but my enduring memory of this song is hearing it playing on a crackling six-inch PA speaker in the locker room of the little YMCA in Minot, North Dakota, when I was 6. My 4-year-old brother and I were just hanging around bored, waiting for our parents to finish their workout together as they attempted to save their marriage with sweat.

Even then, I became so curious about how the song sounded, I just sank into it, let my brain run away.

185. "Lisztomania" by Phoenix

I enjoy how this song is musically dark but bright in terms of sound quality. The verse singing phases are so long, leaping great intervals and finding so many great ideas in the process.

The drumming throughout is very fun, but maybe the best part of the whole song is where the drums cut out, leaving a three-measure bridge progression. When the drums re-enter to accent the chords, the cymbal is so deep and ringing. Such a beautiful sound. 

How can this song no longer be new? Time is merciless. Ask Franz Liszt.

184. "Listen To the Music" by the Doobie Brothers

A fun, funky, positive song about music curing the blues. An effective, if ancient, remedy. I can sing along to those harmonies endlessly, they are so good.

183. "Limo Wreck" by Soundgarden

I dance to this song. And grunge really was just a dance craze at its core.

When my hair used to reach my waist, the dark mess would paint the air like an anti-sparkler forming 15-notch circuits tracing the abstruse beat of this song.

I love these sounds. The guitar phrasing in the verses is nicely asymmetrical and hits about every excellent half-step interval possible, with a few wide-gap jumps thrown in to keep you twitching. The choruses unleash goddamned hell. 

The vocal by the late, immensely great Chris Cornell is an accomplishment. The high notes cannot be fully perceived by our ears, the way we have never really cast our eyes effectively on the sun. I don't think its greatness could be fully appreciated while Cornell was alive, not even by a slavish Soundgarden freak like myself. Like Don Quixote, only when he is gone do we realize the immensity of our loss.

One of the top classics of the Soundgarden discography.

182. "Like Dylan In the Movies" by Belle and Sebastian

Swift, flowing, sweet major-key verses become roiling minor-key choruses with ease. The many voices and instruments of the band add their measure to a thick fabric.

My favorite part is the middle bridge, with a great drop in dynamics and wonderful vocal rhythms, until the vocals hold on a long crescendo that refuses to resolve, then finally veers into a chorus with an awkwardly near-interval chord change.

The lyrics are vague except for a cool reference to the old Bob Dylan concert film Don't Look Back. The album to which this song belongs - If You're Feeling Sinister - is full of portraits of characters defined by varying forms of inner sin and redemption.

Such a charming, excellent song.