312. "The Tourist" by Radiohead

Let's end the entire gigantic OK Computer album with a single xylophone chime. Perfect.

But first, before we go, let's just remind everyone that every single song to the last on this album is unmissable.

The directness in the lyrics is something I kind of miss now with later Radiohead songs. Thom Yorke has gone more abstract in a lot of cases. OK Computer brings up compact, concrete situations: A car crash, a politician, a star-crossed couple, a robot feeling fitter and happier, a guy who doesn't like surprises, and in their last track, a tourist.

What is the one thing you can tell a tourist, one of those super zealous tourists with postcards falling out of their pockets? "Hey, man, slow down!"

The song approximates the speed of rapture we should take in this one, long sightseeing trip.

And then, chime.

311. "The Suburbs" by Arcade Fire

The bass line dinks around just like the bored kids in the song.

Over it is an ominous four-chord strum.

You're not sure how, but by the end, a full complement of astutely layered instruments have soared overhead. You could've sworn you were alone a second ago, now you're under their watch.

The singing is a husky intonation in the verses, a soul-echoing warble in the chorus. It is as unique as the personality of this singer, who stirs my love. His oddness, his gutsy challenge, makes me his friend.

You may not notice, but the lyrics are a rarely attempted brand of poetic sci-fi, depicting a militarized future world of inter-suburb warfare. As with the best terrestrial sci-fi, so much is alien, and yet there are normal things - here, these bored suburban kids whose childhoods are recognizable even as they mature into something incomprehensible.

There are few songs with truly good lyrics. Most are mush. Songwriters face a challenge of fixed meter in what they write, and most are more musician than wordsmith. It's like asking an opera singer to give an emotive acting performance. It's forgiven.

But then this song quiets down in the middle for one last verse, and there comes a series of lines with such weight, such timing, such a shocking closing phrase with its personal, maybe even religious undertones:

"So can you understand
Why I want a daughter while I'm still young?
I want to hold her hand
And show her some beauty before this damage is done
But if it's too much to ask, if it's too much to ask
Then send me a son"

310. "The Stars of Track and Field" by Belle and Sebastian

Such an odd song, taking awesome detours in its melodies and chord developments. You're not really sure where the song is going until it's there.

The lyrics calmly tweaking the godlike status of elite athletes are exceptionally detailed, down to the terrycloth underwear.

309. "The Song Remains the Same" by Led Zeppelin

By the time of their fifth album, Led Zeppelin were established living musical legends with nothing left to prove. So they went and invented things to prove with music pulled from somewhere that was not previously physical reality. The Houses of the Holy album was a new row of elements on the musical periodic table.

The lead track on the album is "The Song Remains the Same." That title was given to a song that was more unlike a typical rock "song" than anything that had preceded it. It's closer to an orchestral composition with its development of ideas.

In fact, the four songs comprising Side A of Houses of the Holy fit pretty closely with the traditional concept of a classical symphony. "The Song Remains the Same" stands as the first movement, in something close to the typical sonata-allegro form. The second track, "The Rain Song," is exactly the type of adagio you'd get in a symphonic second movement. The legendary "Over the Hills and Far Away" as the third movement doesn't conform to a minuet or scherzo, but third movements tend to be the most flexible in style, and the song’s middle development does hit a notable scherzo-like three-beat. "The Crunge" is a textbook rondo for the fourth and final movement.

I've never heard anyone describe Side A of Houses of the Holy as an attempt at a rock symphony, but the structure seems to speak for itself.

"The Song Remains the Same" is one of the most impressive, complex songs a rock band has taken to time and effort to compose. The studio production is almost negligible; there are no super special effects calling attention to themselves. The magic is in the notes being struck. The 12-string guitar part is worthy of lore. The extended instrumental sections and especially the guitar solo represent the high water mark of Jimmy Page's ideas. John Bonham's drums are dynamic and irreplaceable; their flying pace creates a strange sense of heaviness in a song that is far more psychedelic in tone otherwise. There's not really any standard genre descriptor I can come up with to describe this song's effect. I can't even think of a practical purpose for the song beyond being a necessity for the ear.

The lyrics are some of Robert Plant's finest abstractions, glints of meanings reflecting in a hall of guitar mirrors.

308. "The Sign" by Ace of Base

The album named after this song has gone 9 times platinum. And people outside of my generation probably have no idea how huge Ace of Base was for a sliver in time.

This electronic-reggae number is just the best. I think you can be the hardest of hardcore and still let yourself hum along with this thing.

Here's what I’ve noticed about the European/British pop culture: Even in their most mainstream stuff, there is this current of edgy intelligence. In movies, even things that match up most accurately with kids Disney films in American culture -- I'm thinking of things like Bend It Like Beckham -- use impressive camera and editing flourishes that draw attention to themselves. A TV show like the Office delved into dicier psychology than its simpler Americanized counterpart. In music, there are groups like Ace of Base, who enjoyed working with minor chord shades even in major key dance tunes and delighted in melodies of ambition and originality. And it opens up our minds.