226. "Objects of My Affection" by Peter Bjorn and John

"I laugh more often now, I cry more often now,
I am more me."

What confidence to engage in emotions. Artists are emotional base jumpers. We live for the yin and yang, the happy and sad, the light and dark. We explore and report. It is unethical to ignore the full continuum.

It's not recommended for everyone, like any other adventuring profession. The landscapes can be dangerous. Also, it doesn't pay well.

Plus, after all that work, you have to pull all this insight into satisfying forms, or nobody will pay attention. 

This song is an excessively beautiful form. First of all, listen to the overloaded melody lines. The words are crammed into the phrases with increasingly hilarious desperation. The melodies are already long and busy, and they still barely do the job to fit all the words they want to sing. The song swirls like the creative emotion that produced it.

There was one excellent summer that Peter Bjorn and John owned with this song and many others from their album Writers Block. Jill and I camped the hell out of it. May it be fondly remembered.

225. "Norwegian Wood" by The Beatles

This is the song that probably finished the Beatles for good. They had been perfectly nice boys before that "Rubber Soul" album, always good for a fun dance and a rousing Ed Sullivan performance, big smiles, dashing suits, impish but impeccable behavior.

Then they had to go and record an album so... unusual. Yes, it's true, most of the songs were still just good, old rollicking Beatles tunes. 

But there was one, that one, that... unusual one. With the unusual instrument. And the strange little waltz beat - but it this was no waltz to dance to! And the strange little melodies, and that little chorus, with those odd harmonies. 

They had been writing all these delightful regular songs... then our boys from Liverpool had to go write something like that and set such a spotty new example. And of course, it was just the begging of writing music that was even more disappointing. What a shame. I miss those old Beatle lads.

Signed, Father McKenzie.

224. "North American Scum" by LCD Soundsystem

The entire second LCD Soundsystem album, Sound of Silver, is an exercise in the funk/dance potential of the triplet. "North American Scum" is probably the fullest exposition of its potential. This song moves like so little else moved at the time it was released. It is a key example of the style of music that mainstream pop radio has assimilated in its quest to win back some cred after the dark days of Brittney.

Of course, no mainstream pop song is going to take on subjects of North American identity and the telling minutiae of cultural differences between North America and Europe, such as how long parties last. No mainstream pop song will let such ugly singing happen in a radio single, from the strident, stammered verses to the squealed choruses. It's obnoxiously resplendent.

In a line, it's one of the coolest recordings of all time, any time. Let's dance.

223. "Nobody's Fault But My Own" by Beck

To me, this will always be THE Beck song........

This is one of my boys' favorite songs. When they hear the slow strums begin, they tell me what's coming. A long time ago, I talked with them about what the phrase meant: "Nobody's fault but my own." It's song about admitting when you did wrong, about how it makes you feel, about how you can apologize, make things right. It's a challenge I try to praise for them.

People can suspect what they want about Beck's spirituality. He grew up in a Scientologist family and married a Scientologist. But as his albums should make clear, his true religion is Musician. He is a creator, one of the most gifted we will ever know. He fully understands artifice, the strategies of persuasion. And that includes the stories of our spiritual gurus. He is a guru all his own. 

The words of this song are Ecclesiastical in weight, with better wordplay:

"Who could ever be so cruel,
Blame the devil for the things you do
It's such a selfish way to lose
The way you lose these wasted blues
These wasted blues"

And: 

"When the moon is a counterfeit
Better find the one that fits
Better find the one that lights
The way for you"

There is unsurpassable power in the melodies of this song. The exquisite drones of sitar and strings impute the import of this message. When the refrain returns in harmony at the end, I am ready to be saved.

222. "No Rain" by Blind Melon

Give the right melodies to the right voice, with words that galvanize our thoughts, add a shaker, and anything can happen.