A Brain in A Bottle is really really good on first listen, and this is after listening through shitty headphones.
My computer actually broke just this fucking morning so I'm kinda bummed I can't listen to the full thing yet but I sure am excited.
Glad I'm not the only one whose first thought was "oh, this sounds like Green". I mean that in a good way though, this song sounds better then most of that album (which I kinda like!)
I thought I could come up with a top 10, but that was really hard, and I'm not even sure if I'd choose the same ten if I had to try again tomorrow. anyhow, in no particular order -
Clint Eastwood, Feel Good Inc., DARE, Superfast Jellyfish, White Flag, November Has Come, All Alone, Dirty Harry, El Manana, Empire Ants.
Other special favorites of mine:
"Latin Simone" (the English version from G Sides) - I haven't heard the original version with Ibrahim Ferrer in ages, but I've always loved Albarn's vocal delivery on the sung English version. Stunning.
"Doncamatic" - Such a KILLER tune, honestly. Should've been on Plastic Beach (and released as lead single) instead of Stylo IMO
"DoYaThing" - If I recall correctly this didn't get the best reviews, but I LOVE this track. Andre kills on this, and it's just so fun
Just to clarify - it's also possible I haven't heard some of those songs just because I don't listen to mainstream radio at all, but fact is I've never even heard of over half of them!
I'd reckon a big pop hit (if that's what we're going for) was at least something someone with little musical awareness would hear about even if he lives far from the US (not to talk about someone who spends half their time reading and discussing music), so I still find that kinda odd
This may be due to this site and most of the readers being from the US, but I literally haven't ever heard over two-thirds of the songs in this list. Seeing almost every song on this list is by a radio friendly top 10 artist, It's either that they're not that big outside of the US or that in my country it takes some time for those songs to catch, if they at all do (very possible).
Anyhow, the couple songs I do know from this list are definitely not "songs of the summer", at least not what I would define as such. It also kind of saddens me to say that I haven't heard any song this year that could qualify as such, including one left out of the poll and that most commentators (myself included) posted. Which in reality kinda sucks - I would gladly vote for a "poptimist" song if it was as good as the ones we had last year (Get Lucky even tho it's got "indie cred", or Blurred Lines even), but I honestly don't feel like there was any big pop hit this year that will also stay beyond the upcoming season (except for Let It Go obvs.).
So to sum it up, my song of the summer will probably be the Pixies' Debaser, just because I saw them live last week and they were killer.
who gives a shit? What do Twitter followers have to do with good music writing?
when the writing's this good I couldn't care less if I recognize who wrote it, just be happy it's there
It sucks how underrated Maladroit is. It did have a couple shit songs, but the high points easily make up for those. And I've already mentioned it once before here, but Burndt Jamb is such a fucking jam.
I should also mention that my favorite t-shirt is a Blue Album t-shirt that I wore the fuck out of, and that I have thought about getting a =w= tattoo at least once a month for the past 6 years, but always decide against it due to fear of what terrible music they could release next.
I've been waiting so much for this writeup.
This is easily the album that changed my life when I was 14 and first heard it in the computer lab of my school. that was about 13 years after it first came out, but boy, did that shit hold up.
The Blue Album is always my first choice when people ask me to recommend them some music, my first choice to play at parties even though no one there has heard of Weezer, my first choice when I'm feeling the need to rock out or cheer up.
Even though the Weez didn't really keep their shit together in recent years, the first 4 albums (possibly with the exception of Green) are some of my favorites of all time, but Blue is always easily on top.
Just reading this article while listening to the album brought tears to my eye and made me shout at the top of my lungs at least half a dozen times so far.
What a fucking great piece of art.
I was really waiting for this feature since Tom wrote about Dookie, so kind of bummed to see this article is also mostly about Green Day. This was one of my favorite albums as a teenager. Good times.
I knew it wouldn't be on this list (and for just reasons), but Scentless Apprentice is the reason I fell in love with this band, and a song that shaped a lot of my musical taste as a teen (basically everything that was either recorded by, featuring or inspired by Steve Albini). Those scraping guitars, those blasting drums, and Cobain's screams, all still highly exciting to my ears.
I always like In Utero better anyway, so it's kind of a shame to see it's not really represented here. Still, a solid list.
Seeing English is not my first language, I'm not familiar with the expression "go to bat", but if that doesn't mean "loathe with the force of a thousand suns" then you're wrong
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