Here are my 100 favorite songs

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Okay, these are my ten favorite songs, fuck what anyone thinks.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

#10 A Favor House Atlantic - Coheed and Cambria


This song is called "Bye Bye Beautiful" everywhere but in the US and that is so clearly the better title for this song than the awkward nonsense they chose for the US release, but we aren't ranking songs by their titles.

Having heard this song a million times, it wasn't until the first few hundred thousand until I picked up on the underlaying guitar part that starts in a few places in the song, but initially at 0:21. Christ that has to be fun to play. Some of you play guitar. Tell me that is or is not fun to play, please, I'm asking here.

I like a lot of their songs, but I just love two of them, this one and another one in the top ten.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

#9 South Side of the Sky - Yes



This song is off their album Fragile, which came out three years before I was born. I have seen Yes in concert a few times and they usually play Roundabout and Heart of the Sunrise from Fragile. I don't have a memory of them ever playing this, what I feel is their best song.

When I got into Yes I bought all their CDs through the BMG and Columbia House CD clubs and it is my understanding that a lot of those CDs had shitty mixes. The version that I linked to above SEEMS a lot clearer; you can hear every note Steve Howe is playing on guitar whereas I have a memory of it being muddy as shit in my copy of Fragile downstairs. It still kicked ass and does so now.

That is Chris Squire singing the 'La la" part. You have to be a really good bassist to get away with that.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

#8 The Letter - Acceptance



The best song on my favorite album.

"We'll see if I start coming clean
You'll see that I'm still missing
I can't deny
Somehow you're seeing it
So you're the one who took the fall
And it's bringing us together"

That's why I like pop punk, I guess, because while a lot of it is fluff, it makes the moments where the universal truths being told are being told in a way that means so much more because the standard of most of it is so low.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

#7 The Suffering - Coheed and Cambria



I reserve the right to say that there's better lyrics in the six songs that remain, but if the best lyric on the list is from this song - specifically, "Listen well: will you marry me? And are you well in the suffering?" then I can live with that.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

#6 Passover - Joy Division



While this is a great song, I think one of the reasons I have it so high is because it's at least conceivable that four guys who knew each other could come up with something this great.

Ian Curtis's vocals are unique in all of rock, but you can at least think that maybe you could find a guy who could sing like that. The drumming by Stephen Morris seem like a normal dude could follow along. It's not superhuman like the average Stuart Copeland drumming on a The Police song. And the guitars and bass are really haunting, but that's where, when I really think about it, that Passover just sort of draws you in because when it all comes together by the end, with the guitar playing this soul-bearing keen of suffering, well, we've all been fooled, regular people can't make music like this.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

#5 Shimmer - Fuel



While I imagine this is slightly tolerable if it comes on the radio for most of you, what it represents to me is that for seven years there wasn't anything new in music that I could find that I enjoyed. Nirvana hit the radio in my hometown in 1991, I think. I was not into them. I was perfectly happy living on Planet Eighties. I still don't like Pearl Jam, Jane's Addiction or Alice in Chains. I do kind of like Soundgarden (I discovered Fell on Black Days after making the list, otherwise it would be on the list) but unless you were actually loathing music for seven years when I was, I can't explain it to you.

So when Shimmer started getting play again, it was like regaining a sense. I could look forward to what was new in rock or alternative or whatever genre this is.

I love the "Oh wow wow" part at 2:45, of course. If you've made it this far I hope that was obvious.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

#4 Wait for Me (Live) - Daryl Hall and John Oates



I heard this version off their greatest hits before the studio version - the guitar soloing of G.E. Smith (I presume it's him, he was their guitarist when this came out) at the beginning takes the song to a different place. The studio record sounds limited and sedate in comparison. The live performance made it so that I definitely went out and caught them live 25 years later, but still, I did.

The last half of this song is the best vocalist in the history of the world making it up as he goes along.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

#3 Fall at Your Feet - Crowded House



Whoa, I had no idea they made a video for this! I get to enjoy this for the first time. At this point Crowded House went from a threesome to a four piece because Neil Finn's tolder brother Tim joined. Neil Finn is the single most talented guy in music in my opinion, and when Tim Finn - who I know nothing about, except that he was one of the main creative forces in Split Enz and he seems like a lunatic with crazy eyes) joined it was awesome because Tim Finn has an edge to him. Which I will grant you is not necessarily obvious in this song.

I don't think this song is particular penetrable in meaning to people unless you are the guys that wrote it. Oh! They all come together at the end of the video. How very nice.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

#2 Everytime You Go Away - Daryl Hall and John Oates



There is a line in Necrotic Drift about how the protagonist and his girlfriend have initiated a break up with each other nine times and the current score is that she is leading him in breakups six to three. The essence of that was autobiographical, as most of that game is. This song isn't one that offers comfort or the blues the first time or even the second, but it eventually starts to capture the feeling of what it's like. In the end they leave, in the end they always leave and it's another example of Daryl riffing at the end.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

#1 Don't Dream It's Over - Crowded House



This was the one song in this list I actually wanted played at my wedding. Our DJ did not play any of the songs we requested, which I am sure as we look back to this thread is considered a "smooth move" by most of you.

This is my favorite song in the world, I think it's the best song ever made and I probably always will.

Sing it with me.

[pinback]

Nice job.

[Flack]

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Thanks, fellas.

The important thing to remember is that this counts as a "project finished." It may be the only thing I finish this year, but dammit, it's over.

[Jizaboz]

I’ve watched this thread biting my tongue at some entries but yes sir.. good job.

I tease my GF with #1 on your list every time she crosses the line. “Hey now HEY NOW” then “The dreeeeam is overr” in an extremely annoying tone haha

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I’ve watched this thread biting my tongue at some entries but yes sir.. good job.

This fascinates me. Many others have made vague comments - why? Is this not a place where we can bust on each other? You're not going to offend me. The whole thing about ranking songs fascinates me and I'd like to describe what I learned:

- I have a limited vocabulary to discuss (over the Internet) why I think a song is good or bad.
- Nothing will ever, ever change someone's mind on a song, whereas with a game I can be told I am missing an instruction or control or something
- It is easy to dismiss a list because the first few songs are not one a person likes and then assume the rest are like that

I dunno. If I were finishing things regularly I'd hit the top 100 games up again after ten more years of games, but I have three things I gotta do first. But I think it's safe the music threads did not generate as much discussion and personal attacks as the game ones have.

[pinback]

That's probably why. What's to discuss? You like that song. Someone else doesn't. Oh well.

I will say that bringing up One Of These Days prompted me to get seriously into the Meddle album, which had the following effects:

1. It's now my second-favorite Floyd album, behind Animals.
2. It reinforced my opinion that Andrew Lloyd Weber is a fucking plagiarizing hack, and should be in hail.

[pinback]

Jail. Also hail.

[Billy Mays]

This list was like a turd that won't flush, no offense.

[I C J]

This list was like a turd that won't flush, no offense.

Why would I take offense at the comparison of a two-year project finally completing to an unflushed turd?

The important thing is that we know where we stand - you saw the idea and shat out possibly the most cringeworthy collection of tinnitus-inducing horseshit the world has ever seen. You thought you could post with the big boys but you couldn't, you were humiliated and we make fun of you to this day for your inability to put a plan together and execute it. Your taste in music may be the most immature of anyone currently on the Internet and when you do pop in with comments, it's along the lines of how "Roy Orbison was the greatest vocalist of all-time."

No offense!!