Artist: Feist
Song: The Bad In Each Other
Album: Metals
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Why this song is awesome:
This song is like heroin! Feist really raised the bar for herself with this one, especially this:
We had the same feelings / At opposite times.
When a good man and a good woman / Can’t find the good in each other / Then a good man and a good woman / Will bring out the worst in the other / The bad in each other
Isn’t that just bloody heartbreaking?
Artist: Metric
Song: Hustle Rose
Album: Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?
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Why this song is awesome:
Emily Haines always sounds like she’s whispering right in your ear. The way she sings this, I get shivers:
If you’re looking for something life-like / Hit a sardine nightclub / If every surface you touch is cold / Never go home / He says, “I can’t feel a thing, my dreams are so tight / Why wouldn’t I stand in line tonight?”
Artist: Brand New
Song: Jesus Christ
Album: The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me
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Why this song is awesome:
That’s one helluva album cover, and one helluva line:
Do you believe you’re missin’ out / That everything good is happening somewhere else? / But with nobody in your bed / The night’s hard to get through
Artist: Them Crooked Vultures
Song: Gunman
Album: Them Crooked Vultures
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Why this song is awesome:
This lyric is just dripping with attitude:
It don’t matter / Don’t try to explain / You’re just another dog to be trained / Choke chained
Josh Homme could look you straight in the eye and tell you he’d just eaten everything in your fridge and taken a dump in all your shoes and you’d still think he was the coolest motherfucker alive.
Artist: Scars On Broadway
Song: Chemicals
Album: Scars On Broadway
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Why this song is awesome:
It’s hard to imagine that Daron wasn’t on some sort of hallucinogen when he wrote this song. There’s only one way to describe how he sounds as he sings/gargles Like we were LOVAAARRRRRSSSSS, which is deranged. But it’s a delightful kind of deranged. Like a serial killer with the personality of Ellen DeGeneres.
Best lyric:
“I grabbed your ass under the covers.”
Artist: Spiritualized
Song: Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
Album: Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
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Why this song is awesome:
This is probably my favourite love song ever. Especially that warbly, gorgeous voice singing these lines:
I will love you till I die / And I will love you all the time / So please put your sweet hand in mine / And float in space and drift in time
If this song doesn’t give you that warm and fuzzy feeling inside, then you’re probably made of stone. And that’s pretty amazing, because stones are usually inanimate.
Artist: Mr. Bungle
Song: Sweet Charity
Album: California
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Why this song is awesome:
I always picture this song playing in the hallways of some tropical insane asylum to mellow out the patients.
And this slight lyrical shift is a really clever way of showing how the line between religious and crazy is often paper thin:
Save me / The heavens have opened / I’m coming home / Sweet charity
Save me / The asylums have opened / I’m coming home / Sweet charity
I’m home free…
Artist: Dimmu Borgir
Song: Gateways
Album: Abrahadabra
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Even if you don’t like metal, just listen to that fantastic insanity in the girl’s voice around 1:30. And the fierce guitar riffage right afterwards.
Dimmu Borgir are the closest thing to what a Castlevania: The Movie soundtrack would sound like if it were real. When I hear this song, I feel like I’m running through a burning castle with a battle-axe chopping demons and roaring like a beast.
And the melody and lyrics here are EPIC:
Be the broken or the breaker/ Be the giver or the undertaker/ Unlock and open the door/ Be the healer or the breaker/ The keys are in your hands/ Realize you are your own source of all creation/ Of your own master plan
I don’t even think English is these guys’ first language. Damn.
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Extra Credit:
Check out this great live performance of Gateways by the KORK orchestra - even if you’re not digging the crazy Norwegian Black Metal, you can probably still appreciate how intricate, exciting, and epic the orchestral arrangement is.
Artist: Gogol Bordello
Song: Ultimate
Album: Super Taranta!
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Why this song is awesome:
I laughed out loud the first time I heard this:
If we are here not to do / What you and I wanna do / And go forever crazy with it / Why the hell we are even here?
And the award for Most Grammatically Incorrect Song Intro goes to…
I’ll give him a break though, ‘cause I absolutely love how he sounds: like a crazy, drunk Ukranian pirate celebrating all the booty he just pillaged across town.
That, and all the gold.
Artist: They Might Be Giants
Song: Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
Album: Flood
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Why this song is awesome:
This song makes me feel like an adventurer, searching the deserts of Egypt for ancient loot.
I can picture it now. I’d be screaming “ALE-LE-LE-LE-LE-LE-LE-LE” from the top of the sand dunes. Then I’d take my Ali Baba sword, chop a camel and drink its milk straight from the hump.
An hour later, I’d find myself enthusiastically shaking hands with a smiling cactus as fruit punch begins to pour from my fingertips. Then I’d begin to feel lightheaded and happy like I’d just sucked in a blimp’s worth of helium. The rest would just kind of go black.
Moral of the story: do not drink straight from the hump.
