the sunday superlative - 3/29/09

This Week: Catharsis!



Everyone hits rough patches. It's all part of life's rich pageant. One of the most miraculous things that music can do for a person is provide an outlet for all of those negative emotions. Sometimes it may take a while to find the right outlet, that one song that just does it for you, but rest assured when that happens that the song will immediately become part of you and never leave.

Such is the way of these three songs, each of which has stood the test of time (my history with all of these dates back to middle school, and I haven't lost an ounce of love for any of them) and have snugly found their place among my favorite songs ever. In other words, yeah, this is probably the most "legit" Sunday Superlative post in a long time, in that it really is showcasing what I believe is some of the most exemplary, powerful music I have heard. Of course, everyone is different and I can't guarantee that anyone else will find these as deeply cathartic as I do. I could never stop you from trying, though.

The Cure - "Disintegration" (mp3|7.63MB)
For those of you who may not have gotten the memo, The Cure's Disintegration is far and away, without question, my favorite album of all-time. There's no competition. What they accomplish with those 72 minutes is gorgeous, shattering, and utterly perfect. And yet, as tremendous as every song is, not a single one has ever been as viscerally powerful for me as the title track. Extremely few songs can lay claim to having brought me to tears. Even fewer can boast of having that effect on me pretty much every single time (in fact, we may have just narrowed it down to this song). The secret ingredient is a mystery even to me: it's eight solid minutes of swirling, drone-dance hell with Robert Smith wailing some of his most painfully personal lyrics ever, and somehow it just works (the closest analogy I can think of is Of Montreal's similarly wonderful "The Past Is a Grotesque Animal," on which this must've been a huge influence). More than that: it transcends. It becomes by some force of nature a receptacle for all of the misery and depression and suffering in the world, and in the process emerges as one of the most powerful pieces of music ever set to tape.
(from the 1989 album Disintegration)

Nine Inch Nails - "Mr. Self Destruct" (mp3|4.12MB)
Trent Reznor has always been very hit-or-miss with me. Some of his songs are great, while others just seem to miss the mark entirely. When he hits, though, he has the power to hit hard. "Mr. Self Destruct" is an exceedingly abrasive song, and I have no doubt that's what gives it such an overpowering force. When I am inhumanly, furiously mad, there is no greater song in the universe. It strikes all the perfect nerves: Reznor's bitterly antagonistic lyrics, the frenetic, chugging rhythm that gets punctuated with bursts of vicious screaming and noise, the eerie and murderously calm eye of the hurricane wherein you're still pissed as fuck and want to kill something but are disturbingly relaxed about it. By all accounts, it is an anger spell in musical form. It is the only song I can think of that has ever managed to capture every nuance of that particular emotion, and for that I cannot give it enough credit. No, this isn't the sort of thing I can freely listen to at any time (or even often), but when I can it's nothing short of sublime.
(from the 1994 album The Downward Spiral)

Tears for Fears - "Shout" (mp3|5.96MB)
Tears for Fears' place in the grand scheme of rock music is not something that should ever be underestimated. No, they never made a great album, and yes, their output worthy of "required listening" can pretty easily be consolidated into a list of about a half-dozen songs, but ... have you heard those songs?! They're better than not only the majority of 80s pop music, but the majority of music in general. "Shout" is a fine example. Of their myriad hits, this is probably the most famous and recognizable, but it possesses a startling power that is conspicuously absent from almost all other mainstream music. It's an angry song, but it doesn't express that anger with screaming and waves of corrosive noise like plenty of others -- Mr. Reznor included -- would. Instead, it opts for a steady, gradual crescendo that begins as relatively composed and ends almost like some great war cry. When that searing guitar comes in at around 4:30, I just want to raise my fists to the sky and do exactly what the song tells me to. Maximum volume required.
(from the 1985 album Songs from the Big Chair)

The end! I'll try my hardest to be back next week, possibly with something a little cheerier. We'll see. Take care, folks.

the sunday superlative - 11/02/08

I agree with Lea. Peter Gabriel sounds hot. At least until you hear "Kiss That Frog." Then the illusion just kind of dies.

Anyway.

This Week: Grab Bag: 80s Pop



I'm tired. I didn't sleep last night, so I have actually been up for about 36 hours. (My father, as it turns out, makes some ridiculous snoring noises when he sleeps. After a couple hours of struggling with it, I just gave up, left the hotel room, and read/did homework in the lobby 'til morning.) If you've ever done this involuntarily, you know how not-fun it is, especially if ten of those 36 hours are spent in airline purgatory. So what I'm saying is, I apologize if I'm not witty or on my game this week. I'm frankly surprised I'm even conscious.

But! My devotion is to my craft, and I suppose my craft is blogcasting. This week I'm introducing something that'll pop up from time to time: the grab bag. It is exactly what it sounds like: a random selection of songs with a loose unifying theme. So really, it's more or less what I have been doing, except with a cooler-sounding name.

One of my favorite genres is 80s pop music. It's almost a guilty pleasure, except I have no problem admitting I love it. Lots of mainstream pop songs from that decade were exceptionally well written pieces of music. Over the years I have amassed a large stockpile of favorites, so you can expect to see many, many more in the weeks/months to come. Lucky you. Let's start with these three, all of which I might take over just about anything I've posted in the last couple weeks. Dead serious. I love this stuff.

The Fixx - "One Thing Leads to Another" (mp3|3.79MB)
There are songs that often completely unintentionally evoke a very specific time and place. For my high school graduation present, my dad bought me my very first car. As I was taking the car off the lot and driving it home, this song came on the radio. I cranked it way up and, feeling like a total badass, put the pedal to the metal. So, you see, this here song by The Fixx holds a very special place in my heart. It's one of those that can put me in a good mood pretty much no matter what. The unfortunate thing is that there's really not much to say about the song itself. It's an uptempo, energetic little ditty that's amazingly catchy, addictive, and easy to listen to. And while nothing can quite recapture that same emotional high I felt that fateful afternoon, the song works as a great flashback. I turn it on, take the volume up, and just let the dumb grin spread across my face. That's the way to do it, if you ask me.
(from the 1983 album Reach the Beach)

New Order - "True Faith" (mp3|5.37MB)
One of the unquestionable "holy trinity" of 80s New Order songs ("Bizarre Love Triangle" and "Blue Monday" rounding out the triad, of course), "True Faith" is really the only evidence necessary to cement these guys' importance in the budding synth/dance-pop scene. Rumor has it that the band just wrote this song so that they'd have something new to release as part of their singles-to-date collection Substance (which, together with the simultaneous Joy Division archival of same name, represents a pinnacle in compilation-making). This amuses me, because these made-specifically-for bonuses tend to be total throwaways. Perhaps inadvertently, New Order created arguably their best track ever (personally, there are a couple others I like more, but I know people who swear by this one -- and it is fantastic). The band's primary talent was twofold: they could either create an awesome dancefloor number or they could create a swoon-worthy pop song. Very rarely did they achieve both at the same time; "True Faith" still stands some 21 years later as the time they balanced both sides of the scale just right.
(from the 1987 compilation Substance)

*Tears for Fears - "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" (mp3|3.83MB)
Everyone has a song that almost preternaturally seems as if it was written for them. No matter what is happening in life, that song's lyrics seem to morph perfectly to fit the myriad of new situations being experienced. For me, that song has always been Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," probably among my three-to-five favorite songs of all-time (no kidding). Though I've been exposed to the song my whole life, I first "noticed" it when I was in 8th grade, and I was struck even then by how the lyrics seemed to perfectly sum up what I was feeling. Six years later my life is not a thing like it was in 8th grade, but that sensation is still as strong as it ever was. Like the most loyal friend, those same lyrics seem to have shifted themselves such that they still mirror exactly my thoughts and emotions as I journey through life. That supreme connection, which is only strengthened by the wonderful vocal harmonies and the gorgeous, flawlessly written melody, is what the true power and beauty of music is made of. When people speak of music as a religious experience, it's responses this great they're referring to: extremely rare, perhaps, but spiritually moving in ways too profound to be adequately described. What a song this is.
(from the 1985 album Songs from the Big Chair)

That's all for this week's Sunday Superlative. However, it might interest you (or bore the crap out of you, depending) to know that Lea has beseeched me to fill in on Friday Five duties for the next couple weeks while she contends with Real Life Stuff. So you'll be seeing me again sooner than you might think.

Actually not. 'Cause I told you the Friday Five thing already. So it'll be pretty much exactly when you might think. My "ominous" needs work.