1,001 songs to listen to before you die...

[METALMAN]

Just realised we passed 1992 with no Would I Lie To You by Charles & Eddie which is utterly outrageous. Obvs had to step aside to make way for the umpteenth dull American alt rock band that can’t play their instruments or form a basic melody and takes pride in both of these things because they are ironic.

[GoGo Yubari]

Honestly, this book does a kind of bad job with the '90s. It's only going to get weirder too, I think.

Anyway, "End of a Century" is the best of what I think are the big four from Parklife (that, "Girls and Boys," "To the End," title track). I was happy to see that get in, I think it plays to Blur's strengths the best.

[Liam]

801.      

‘7 Seconds’, Yossou N’Dour featuring Neneh Cherry (1994)

This has a sneaky outside bet to be one of my favourite songs of all time, which kinda feels weird to say. It falls into that category of tune which I sometimes forget about – it falls outside of the ‘usual’ music I listen to – but it is so good and every reintroduction is an enjoyable moment. The vocals from both are really strong, the incorporation of multiple languages is effective and promotes Dour’s cultural identity alongside this song that explores the innocence of the first seconds of life. There is a moody and sultry feeling to the overall tune that I’ve always really dug, creating an overall package that I’ve never failed to enjoy.

802.      

‘Live Forever’, Oasis (1994)

Influenced by: Shine a Light • The Rolling Stones (1972)   

Influence on: Club Foot • Kasabian (2004)   

Covered by: The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (1997) • Joe Dolan (1999) • Counting Crows (2000) • MGMT (2009)

I was always more of a Blur man in the moment and a Pulp man after the fact, but Oasis were definitely a band who knew how to put together (or steal the main parts of) a catchy tune or two. ‘Live Forever’ is quite low down on my list of their songs – it is always one that it takes me a little while to remember, even though it is very indicative of what they offered. This being their first top 10, it isn’t overly surprising that it ends up on the list ahead of some other choices, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see more stuff from them pop up at some point.

803.      

‘Cut Your Hair’, Pavement (1994)

Influenced by: So You Want to be a Rock ’n’ Roll Star • The Byrds (1967)   

Influence on: Could You Wait? • Silkworm (1997)  

Covered by: Airport Girl (2003)  

Other key tracks: Gold Soundz (1994) • Grounded (1995) • Shady Lane (1997) • Stereo (1997)

This seems to make the list as an example of a band who were touted for big things but never quite realised their potential. Having been touted as the ‘next Nirvana’ of all things, the lyrics for ‘Cut Your Hair’ were the band’s attempts to get their head around the musical merry-go-round as they were thrust into the limelight. It is a fairly decent alternative rock/pop song, though it doesn’t do much more than that for me. The singer/writer even stated that the song wasn’t quite the anthem they needed in order to push the band further into the public conscious, so I’m not alone in feeling a little nonplussed.

804.      

‘All Apologies’, Nirvana (1994)

The book does very specifically list the Unplugged version of this song, whilst the song had been kicking around in some form or other since 1990, putting paid to suggestions it acted somewhat like a suicide note considering it came at the end of ‘In Utero’. It is definitely one of my favourite Nirvana songs as it best realises the more accessible sound that Cobain was able to achieve whilst still retaining the rawer edge that made it appeal to alternative music fans. The Unplugged version is a good version of a good song – not much more I can add about that choice.

805.      

‘Hurt’, Nine Inch Nails (1994)

Surely this is all about the impact the song has at the end of ‘The Downward Spiral’ moreso than the quality of the individual song? Not to knock it – it is a good song – but it is the spiral that the album takes you on and this as the end point that makes it so effective as a piece of music. As I’ve said before, I write these as I listen to them, and maybe the opening has somewhat underplayed the power within the song. The emotion is so raw, the lyrics so bleak, the tone so unrelenting even without the usual sonic assault that NIN were known for. Maybe it deserves a fair bit more credit than I gave it.

[gunnar hendershow]

"7 Seconds" is a splendid song. The rest are decent to good songs by artists who all did songs that were much better. "Cut Your Hair" is the recognizable Pavement song, sure, but they're an odd group in that a lot of their songs felt like they were all really close to being classics. Anyway I wouldn't pick this song from their catalog as something you absolutely must hear.

Oasis really had those pop hooks down in a way that Blur and Pulp didn't. But catchiness will only get you so far which is basically how I view Oasis when compared to other Britpop groups. Their songs often feel almost lacking in a substance that can be found elsewhere.

Nirvana are a great band and they have so many incredible, off-the-wall influences coupled with Cobain's almost innate pop sensibilities. "All Apologies" is pretty depressing and the Unplugged version even moreso. It's what gets played in all the montages talking about his suicide. It's forever a tragedy we lost Kurt Cobain so young but, eh, I don't like the songs that have been explicitly repurposed as reminders of what we lost.

"Hurt" is kind of in the same vein. I really enjoy NIN and Downward Spiral is a brilliant album, with the perfect song to close it. But this isn't really the NIN song you have to hear. Johnny Cash may have actually done it better. But unlike "All Apologies" at least Trent Reznor beat his demons so this song doesn't carry with it even more added weight.

[RPS]

I get Hurt is an interesting song, but Closer is a much better song and more representative of Nine Inch Nails. I can distinctly remember the first time I ever heard this song. The song never gets old and I have probably listened to it thousands of time. It is the perfect mix of dance and rock music- I cannot think of another song that even gets closer (hehe) to achieving the pure audio bliss that Reznor achieves here. And it is all the basis for Trent Reznor to tell you he wants to fuck you like an animal and get closer to God. 

[Skummy]

yeah, I like "Hurt", and seeing NIN play it live on the With Teeth tour will always stand out as a spine-tingling memory for me, but I don't recall anyone really talking about it as a great Nine Inch Nails song before Johnny Cash did his version. "Closer", "Terrible Lie", "Piggy" or "Head Like A Hole" feel more fitting.

"All Apologies" is a great song, but I grow wearier and wearier of the MTV Unplugged session as I get older. It's not indicative of who Nirvana were, and really feels like a conscious effort to try and shape the band even more as "Kurt Cobain + Friends", with Kurt in the role of a singer-songwriter more than a frontman. It's telling that it wasn't really seen as anything special until after his death.

I absolutely can't stand Oasis. Never could.

[gunnar hendershow]

11 minutes ago, Skummy said:

yeah, I like "Hurt", and seeing NIN play it live on the With Teeth tour will always stand out as a spine-tingling memory for me, but I don't recall anyone really talking about it as a great Nine Inch Nails song before Johnny Cash did his version. "Closer", "Terrible Lie", "Piggy" or "Head Like A Hole" feel more fitting.

"All Apologies" is a great song, but I grow wearier and wearier of the MTV Unplugged session as I get older. It's not indicative of who Nirvana were, and really feels like a conscious effort to try and shape the band even more as "Kurt Cobain + Friends", with Kurt in the role of a singer-songwriter more than a frontman. It's telling that it wasn't really seen as anything special until after his death.

I absolutely can't stand Oasis. Never could.

Yeah this articulates a lot of the post-mortem around Nirvana that bugs me. Like, I'm not disputing Cobain was a truly special, singular talent but the media framing of the band has been all built around the struggles of Kurt Cobain. We're supposed to feel sad that he's gone, obviously, but it's so heavy-handed in the way the Unplugged session is used to constantly drive that point home.

I think it's why I went through a phase where I kind of distanced myself from Nirvana. I was like "they can't possibly have been as great as I'm being told to believe they were". Then you hear them live, listen to their studio albums, or watch interviews with them and you're reminded that as much as MTV, et al attempted to deify Cobain in death they were truly a phenomenal rock band and not simply the vehicle of this tortured genius singer-songwriter.

And, man, I just really fucking hate the endless exploitation of Kurt Cobain's death at the expense of ever celebrating his life.

[METALMAN]

7 Seconds is cool. I had no idea that was Youssou NDour!

I don’t really like Oasis but I can get along with Live Forever. It packs in plenty of hooks and does its job. 

Pavement! The first of these mumbling alt rock 80s/90s bands that I actually like! Although Cut Your Hair is nothing special. It is quite quintessential though, so I can understand why it’s here.

Completely agree with Skummy on Nirvana Unplugged. I know there was a bit of a cult around this idea in the 90s, that playing your songs quieter or with your eyes closed or at a slower pace somehow made them more “raw” or “meaningful”. For my money it just made them more boring. You can’t really separate Nirvana from the noise. The noise is what made them great. The version of All Apologies on In Utero is great. The unplugged version has the musicality and excitement of a pig snuffling in the dirt for acorns.

I never really got into Nine Inch Nails. That might have been because I first discovered them in the mid 2000s when they were making songs that sounded a bit like Linkin Park and I was never able to shake that perception. Hurt is okay and I get why people think it is good, but it still sounds a bit like Linkin Park to me. 

 

[Skummy]

7 minutes ago, metalman said:

Completely agree with Skummy on Nirvana Unplugged. I know there was a bit of a cult around this idea in the 90s, that playing your songs quieter or with your eyes closed or at a slower pace somehow made them more “raw” or “meaningful”.

I don't know if I've remembered this correctly, but my understanding is that Nirvana Unplugged was a bit of a non-event - MTV were pissed off that Nirvana were being difficult by refusing to play the hits, and doing all these weird Meat Puppets and Vaselines covers instead, so didn't really plug it that hard or play it on repeat as often as other episodes. After Cobain died, it was pretty much never off the air, and it was released posthumously as an album basically because people were hungry for Nirvana material - that it was Nirvana material that also cast Kurt Cobain in the role of troubled folkster only added to it.

The performance of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" is, for Kurt's vocals, admittedly brilliant, but it's really functionally identical to Mark Lanegan's version. And that's the thing with the covers, or even the reinterpretations of Nirvana material - they're not really doing anything special with it, just playing it quieter. 

 

Overall, it's just the posthumous reimagining of Nirvana as The Kurt Cobain Show that bugs me. They always fought against that during his lifetime, and if you listen to live recordings they were an absolute force - because they were a tight band, and because they were noisy and loud, and had a great rhythm section. They weren't just Kurt Cobain + Two Others, but outside of Everett True's excellent biography of the band, you'd never know that from the discourse around Kurt Cobain after the fact.

[RPS]

It is interesting to me having grown up always listening to Nirvana to see how Kurt Cobain has been idolized. My father was a huge Nirvana fan. I put on Nevermind a month ago and I knew every song despite not listening to it for 5+ years. My father constantly played Nevermind. However, my father did not really like the MTV set and would never play it. Part of it was my dad is not a fan of acoustic sets. But he would always make comments about the glorification of Kurt Cobain and his death.

I have no real hot takes on Nirvana - I like them, but I think their significant in music is vastly overrated and the focus on Kurt Cobain is unnecessary. The interesting things about Nirvana are the guitar, bass and drums in my opinion. Take a song like Breed - the guitar, bass and drums are out of this world. I find that the case with every Nirvana song. Kurt is a really good front man, but the band as a unit is exceptional. 

[GoGo Yubari]

I like Unplugged but I do echo the sentiments about the mythmaking surrounding it being frustrating. In a lot of ways it felt like the band was using it as a roadmap for people who checked it out to listen to other stuff they might not have heard and I like it, sometimes I'm in the mood to hear those songs but quieter, but it's really just a neat acoustic set rather than something that really reflects the band. Also, I don't really like the Meat Puppets (I listened to the album that the songs they cover here are on for 1001 Albums last month and had a real bad time), so that's a problem. If they were committed to just two spots for Nirvana I'd probably have used the second on "About a Girl," though I do like both versions of "All Apologies" and I get why they went the way they went.

"Hurt" instead of "Closer" is also not the call I'd have made, yeah. In a lot of ways much of the '90s rock choices feel like "you've heard _______ but maybe you haven't heard _______," like they know the age of the audience that was going to buy the book upon release (it's like ten years old now) and who they might be buying it for.

[RPS]

39 minutes ago, GoGo Yubari said:

I like Unplugged but I do echo the sentiments about the mythmaking surrounding it being frustrating. In a lot of ways it felt like the band was using it as a roadmap for people who checked it out to listen to other stuff they might not have heard and I like it, sometimes I'm in the mood to hear those songs but quieter, but it's really just a neat acoustic set rather than something that really reflects the band. Also, I don't really like the Meat Puppets (I listened to the album that the songs they cover here are on for 1001 Albums last month and had a real bad time), so that's a problem. If they were committed to just two spots for Nirvana I'd probably have used the second on "About a Girl," though I do like both versions of "All Apologies" and I get why they went the way they went.

"Hurt" instead of "Closer" is also not the call I'd have made, yeah. In a lot of ways much of the '90s rock choices feel like "you've heard _______ but maybe you haven't heard _______," like they know the age of the audience that was going to buy the book upon release (it's like ten years old now) and who they might be buying it for.

Spoiler but... there are three Nirvana songs! 

[GoGo Yubari]

Oh! I'm up to 1999 myself so I'm pretty sure I know which one it has to be. More on that in 2021 then, probably.

[Liam]

In a perfect world, I'd have wrapped this all up in a year. I still could...yet my wife is due to give birth on Monday/Tuesday, so my priorities might be somewhere else for a little while.

I appreciate all of the discussion btw. Adds colour to what are my largely generic comments about music.

[Malenko]

Congrats!

[RPS]

20 hours ago, GoGo Yubari said:

Oh! I'm up to 1999 myself so I'm pretty sure I know which one it has to be. More on that in 2021 then, probably.

I'm excited for the late 2000s because if people are perplexed by some of the 90s picks... Just everyone wait!

[gunnar hendershow]

7 hours ago, Liam said:

In a perfect world, I'd have wrapped this all up in a year. I still could...yet my wife is due to give birth on Monday/Tuesday, so my priorities might be somewhere else for a little while.

I appreciate all of the discussion btw. Adds colour to what are my largely generic comments about music.

Congrats!

Take your time. Nobody ever finishes their EWB projects anyway.

[Colly]

15 hours ago, Liam said:

In a perfect world, I'd have wrapped this all up in a year. I still could...yet my wife is due to give birth on Monday/Tuesday, so my priorities might be somewhere else for a little while.

I appreciate all of the discussion btw. Adds colour to what are my largely generic comments about music.

This is one of the best topics we've had in yonks and it doesn't work at all without the amount of graft you've been putting in. Take your time and don't worry about it.

And congrats!

[METALMAN]

15 hours ago, Liam said:

In a perfect world, I'd have wrapped this all up in a year. I still could...yet my wife is due to give birth on Monday/Tuesday, so my priorities might be somewhere else for a little while.

I appreciate all of the discussion btw. Adds colour to what are my largely generic comments about music.

How exciting! 

Also, nobody's ever named a child after me before. Just saying.

[Liam]

806.      

‘Black Hole Sun’, Soundgarden (1994)

Influenced by: Tomorrow Never Knows • The Beatles (1966)   

Influence on: Blown Wide Open • Big Wreck (1997)   

Covered by: The Moog Cookbook (1996) • Judith Owen (2003) • Rachel Z (2004) • Copeland (2006) • Tre Lux (2006) • Peter Frampton (2006)

I’ll preface this by saying that Chris Cornell probably sits second on my list of favourite singers of all time, nestled in behind Mike Patton. When I think about that, it does surprise me in some ways as I’ve never been the hugest fan of all the bands he has been attached to. I’ve liked a number of songs individually, yet rarely spent too much time on Soundgarden/Audioslave’s albums. Pushing that aside, this is probably the ‘best’ Soundgarden song – overplay has probably lessened its impact, but it is the one that most fully realised their poppier sensibilities alongside their noise. I’m not sure it would sit high in a Soundgarden fan’s list of top songs due to the aforementioned overplay, but for many it is THE Soundgarden song.

807.      

‘Interstate Love Song’, Stone Temple Pilots (1994)

Influenced by: I Got a Name • Jim Croce (1973)   

Influence on: My Own Prison • Creed (1997)   

Covered by: Hootie & the Blowfish (1998) • Velvet Revolver (2007) • Brad Mehldau (2009)   

Other key tracks: Plush (1992) • Lounge Fly (1994) Vasoline (1994) • Sour Girl (1999)

I love this song personally, but when your main ‘influence on’ is a Creed song, I can see why people’s mileage will definitely vary. Whatever thoughts are about STP and Scott Weiland, this to me is just a really good rock song with lyrics that speak to a tortured man battling his demons. The issues of their debut and suggestions they were a Pearl Jam rip-off or grunge wannabes aren’t completely put to bed by this song, yet it is enough of a departure to show they had some chops of their own. I’m also a pretty big fan of Weiland’s voice and he carries his end of the bargain throughout the song, moving from raspier rock to a croony chorus.

808.      

‘Waterfalls’, TLC (1994)

Influenced by: Waterfalls • Paul McCartney (1980)   

Influence on: Stole • Kelly Rowland (2002)   

Covered by: New Mind (2000) • Steve Poltz (2003)   

Other key tracks: Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg (1992) • Creep (1994) • Diggin’ on You (1994) • No Scrubs (1999) • Unpretty (1999)

This is one of the earliest songs I remember knowing. I would have been around eight at the time, so I’m sure I knew songs before this but there a few that I have such a distinct memory of hearing on the radio from time to time. More emotional than sexy when compared to their other songs up to this date, ‘Waterfalls’ presented TLC as a potentially more mature act who had a wider emotional reach, whilst lyrics about not getting involved in ganges and practising safe sex showed them trying to be role models for their young fans. Guest vocals were provided by CeeLo Green apparently, something I very much had no idea about. A song of my childhood that is good anyway, but gets the old nostalgia bump that is for sure.

809.      

‘Cornflake Girl’, Tori Amos (1994)

Influenced by: Hounds of Love • Kate Bush (1985)   

Influence on: Fidelity • Regina Spektor (2006)  

Covered by: Jawbox (1996) • Tripod (2007) • Imogen Heap (2010)   

Other key tracks: Sister Janet (1994) • Daisy Dead Petals (1994) • All the Girls Hate Her (1994)

A song that I have been aware of by name, yet I’m pretty sure I’ve never actually listened to it. This feels very otherworldly, from the jangly percussive moments to the higher pitched chorus vocals, whilst the lyrics tackle weighty issues such as female genital mutilation and how women can let other women down in society. Notwithstanding what could be a challenging topic, this is quite enjoyable all in all, with some excellent piano throughout.

810.      

‘Hallelujah’, Jeff Buckley (1994)

There is a debate that could be thrown out there that ‘Hallelujah’ as a song is one of the best of all time. That it has been covered so many times, with lyrics that allow myriad different takes and interpretations, only serves to bolster that potential theory. This was my first version of the song and the one that still retains its place as my favourite. It is a showcase for Buckley’s voice, sitting amongst a number of other excellent songs on ‘Grace’, one of my personal favourite albums of all time. However, the kudos also needs to go to Leonard Cohen, for creating a song that feels so timeless and moving.