Less than three weeks remain before my personal Christmas, selection Sunday. In honor of the fast approaching NCAA basketball tournament, I thought I would undertake a project I've wanted to do for a while: ranking my favorite tournament games of all time. I've been watching the tournament for 20 years now, ever since the 1993 version which contains one of the top games of this list. It's always been my favorite sports postseason and thus the most important sporting event of the year for me. Part of the beauty of the tournament is that (almost) everyone starts out on level ground, needing to win six games to raise the trophy. That equality is reflected in the makeup of this list. Some games feature the best teams duking it out to the wire, while others have significant Cinderellas making their mark on the proceedings. Whatever the matchup, the NCAA tournament has an aura of excitement about it that isn't matched anywhere else.*
*OK, the 100 meter dash at the Olympics is probably more exciting. But that's it.
Since I am a person who has other obligations than watching basketball, I unfortunately haven't been able to see every single game of the last two decades. That means some games that aren't on the list didn't make it for this reason. I could try to objectively count down the best games, but ESPN just did that, and that would be boring. I'd rather infuse the list with my own personal likes and experiences to make it a little more interesting. Thus, Creighton dramatic buzzer beating win over Florida in 2002 and Illinois' ridiculous comeback against Arizona in 2005 didn't make the list because I didn't see them. That said, if you like basketball, I don't think you'll be disappointed by what did make the list.
#26: 2009 First Round: 9 Siena 74, 8 Ohio State 72 (2OT)
The 8-9 game is always a tricky proposition. On one hand, it should in theory be the most even matchup of the first two days. On the other hand, there is generally an absence of the Cinderella potential that makes the early days of the tournament great. Thus, the 8-9 game is often one of the least memorable. Of course, when a guy who averages 9 points a game hits a three to send the game to double OT and then another three to win, I think that deserves at least a passing mention. Ronald Moore's insane night starts this list in a great way.
#25: 2010 Second Round: 5 Michigan State 85, 4 Maryland 83
Even though Michigan State would go on to the Final Four in 2010, neither of these teams were particularly amazing that year. Also, 4-5 games tend to not be the most memorable games because they miss out on both the best teams and the Cinderellas. In spite of all that, this game makes the list because there were a ridiculous 4 lead-changing buckets in the final minute. Grevis Vazquez and Draymond Green exchanged go-ahead shots before the events in the video. What makes this even better was that there were no timeouts between the final three shots. In all my time of watching the tournament, I don't think there's ever been a crazier final minute.
#24: 2005 Elite Eight: 5 Michigan State 94, 2 Kentucky 88 (2OT)
The best Elite Eight ever gets only one representative on this list (because I was home for Easter and had to, you know, see people), but it's a doozy. While the previous entry on the list wins for best finishing sequence, this game wins for best final possession (in regulation). Kentucky missed their first two three point attempts, but Patrick Sparks was finally able to tie it at the end. Not only did his shot hang on the rim for several bounces, but it also took the refs almost 10 minutes to confirm the call. Once it was finally upheld, the teams would play another 10 minutes before Michigan State finally booked their trip to the Final Four.
#23: 1999 First Round: 14 Weber State 76, 3 UNC 74
There have been a lot of stars born in the NCAA tournament, but none have been as spectacular and as fleeting at the same time as Weber State's Harold "The Show" Arceneaux. He managed 36 points in a first round upset of the Tar Heels, and then pushed Florida to the limit with 32 more. He then left to go pro, but never played a minute in the NBA (although I did create him in NBA Live '98 on the Genesis, so there's that). The beauty of the tournament though is that we'll always have that amazing weekend when "The Show" owned the sports world.
#22: 2010 Sweet Sixteen: 2 Kansas State 101, 6 Xavier 96 (2OT)
The shame of Gus Johnson's move to FOX is that he will probably never again announce another NCAA tournament game. While I enjoy Gus announcing anything, his main strenghth is being able to slowly ramp up his excitement to reflect the increasing tension of a game. Football and soccer and whatever else he is going to announce just aren't the same. There's a couple of other Gus Johnson entries on this list, but this one might be the most ridiculous. Of course when you have a guard matchup as good as Holloway/Crawford vs. Pullen/Clemente, things are bound to be crazy. This game immediately followed Butler's upset of Syracuse, making it perhaps the best pair of Sweet Sixteen games in the same region ever.
#21: 2002 Sweet Sixteen: 5 Indiana 74, 1 Duke 73
Jay (then Jason) Williams' basketball career had a very strange trajectory. He was arguably the best guard in the nation when he won the title his Junior year at Duke. Then he suffered this tough early exit in this game the next year when he couldn't hit his free throws. His promising NBA career was then cut short by a motorcycle accident. Luckily, he has gone on to become a solid color man and analyst with ESPN. He remains one of my favorite college players ever.
#20: 2012 Third Round: 1 Michigan State 65, 9 Saint Louis 61
For the last couple of weeks, I've been tempted to write a post celebrating the awesomeness of this year's Billiken squad. Their ability to fight through the loss of Rick Majerus and still play his brand of basketball has been a spectacular tribute to their coach. What blows my mind though, is that last year's St. Louis team was even better. With senior forward Brian Conklin in tow, St. Louis was able to hang with Sparty all the way to the end in a fantastically tense affair. 1 vs. 8/9 games are often my favorite tournament battles, so this will not be the final such matchup on this list.
#19: 2005 Final: 1 North Carolina 75, 1 Illinois 70
Title games can often be anti-climactic mismatches. This one was obviously not; instead, it was probably the best pair of teams to square off in the last two decades. No fewer than six players from this game were selected in the first round of that year's draft, with all but Marvin Williams having had great and lengthy collegiate careers. Illinois missed a few chances late to turn this into a all-time classic, but it was still a thoroughly enjoyable battle for the title.
#18: 2007 Sweet Sixteen: 1 Kansas 61, 4 Southern Illinois 58
There have been a lot of great Missouri Valley teams over the last decade, but the 2007 Salukis were probably the best. Guard Jamaal Tatum and Forward Randal Falker formed a fantastic inside-outside combo on offense, while the whole team defended like crazy. Unfortunately they came up just short against a very good Kansas team, but the game was still a thrilling close one all the way to the final possesion.
#17: 2010 Elite Eight: 2 West Virginia 73, 1 Kentucky 66
This game is a little different from the others on the list in that it's notable not for its quality but for its weirdness. Kentucky, a good offensive team who was favored, missed its first twenty shots from beyond the arc. Meanwhile, West Virginia made only three point shots in the first half in spite of the fact that long range shooting wasn't their forte. Once they figured out how score two-point baskets as well they started to pull away and pulled the fairly shocking upset over John Wall and friends to make the Final Four.
#16: 2012 Second Round: 15 Norfolk State 86, 2 Missouri 84
There have been a lot of upsets in the tournament over the years...and then there is the upset. A 15 seed has triumphed over a two seed six times, but never had the gulf between the teams been as large as this game. Norfolk State entered the game outside of the top 200 in Pomeroy's rankings and probably should have been a 16 seed. Meanwhile, Missouri had been strongly considered for a one seed with its veteran backcourt. Luckily, for us non-Tiger basketball fans, Kyle O'Quinn treated us to a show with his 26 points and 14 boards, becoming the best out of nowhere star since "The Show" himself. Fun note: This was the craziest sporting event to take place in Omaha since my friends and I invented the game of Bat Darts.
#15: 2009 Elite Eight: 3 Villanova 78, 1 Pittsburgh 76
Pittsburgh has had a bit of a tortured existence over the past decade and change. They've been consistently excellent, but have never had the tournament breakthrough that they probably deserve. They came the closest to the Final Four in 2009 with Dejuan Blair, but the amazing last minute lay-up (well, it was sort of a lay-up) by Scottie Reynolds sealed their fate as runner-up yet again. Games like this make me happy that Bill Raftery exists.
#14: 2004 Final Four: 2 UConn 79, 1 Duke 78
On one hand, this game was a fantastic battle between the two best teams of the year that also featured a comeback from 8 down in the final minutes by eventual champion UConn. On the other hand, this is the game that won me my first and only bracket pool. Whichever hand you're looking at, this is one of the best college games I've ever seen. It actually featured more future pros than the UNC-Illinois game that I raved about earlier.
#13: 1997 Final: 4 Arizona 84, 1 Kentucky 79 (OT)
Arizona's miracle run to the title in 1997 is one of the most unique accomplishments in tourney history, as they defeated three one seeds along the way. The title game against Kentucky was the most exciting of all. Kentucky pushed the game into overtime with a pair of late threes, but Miles Simon and friends hit 10 free throws in the extra time to ice the title for the Wildcats. I was disappointed that Arizona edged out the upstart Providence Friars in the Elite Eight, but was still happy to see them win Lute Olson's first and only title.
#12: 2006 First Round: 14 Northwestern State 64, 3 Iowa 63
This is, in my opinion, the most underrated upset in tournament history. Sure, Jermaine Wallace's fadeaway three at the buzzer is amazing. However, what really sets this one apart (aside from the wacky court) is that Iowa was leading by so much and blew it. The majority of crazy upsets in March tend to feautre the underdog building an early lead or at least playing even the whole way. Northwestern State trailed by 17 in the second half only to furiously rally for the win. Iowa wasn't the strongest 3 seed ever, but this was still a tremendous upset. It's also my favorite game that I've ever watched alone at my in-laws house, so there's that.
#11: 2006 Sweet Sixteen: 2 UCLA 73, 3 Gonzaga 71
It's a little unfair to remember this game only for Adam Morrison breaking down at midcourt after UCLA came back to advance, as it was a fantastic clash of two great west coast teams. My personal memory of this game comes from sitting in the "Burger King room" at Lafun watching the final minutes with Ad and a bunch of other random people. Rooting interests were clearly split between people who had picked UCLA and people who had picked Gonzaga, as a different half the room leapt to their feet every time something amazing happened. I know Gus Johnson announced this game, but I think this experience was even more thrilling than hearing him scream.
#10: 1996 First Round: 13 Princeton 43, 4 UCLA 41 (the one score I didn't have to look up)
This is the final game on my list that doesn't involve a one seed. A one seed has never lost in the first round, so by the power of deduction, it would appear that I have ranked this as the best first-round upset I've seen. Bryce Drew's game winning three against Ole Miss gets a lot of love for being the prototypical Cinderella, but I personally prefer Gabe Lewullis's backdoor cut and layup because of its simplicity.
#9: 2011 Third Round: 8 Butler 71, 1 Pittsburgh 70
I love 1 vs. 8/9 games because of the high potential for massive upsets. 1 seeds are often presumed to have free passes through the first weekend of the tournament, so contests like this can be extra-special. This game is especially memorable for the final sequence where Butler looked to have hit the game winner only to have dueling fouls decide the game. However, it was already well on its way to being a classic before the end. Butler wasn't quite as good as the previous year's runner-up squad, but they were able to play the same brand of basketball, and thus took down one of the best teams in that year's tournament.
#8: 2007 Second Round: 1 Ohio State 78, 9 Xavier 71 (OT)
Another first weekend matchup with a 1 seed makes the list. Xavier came tantalizingly close to knocking off the eventual runner-up before Ohio State made a late push to win (it was a literal push by Greg Oden that went uncalled that helped the get the ball back for the tying three). In a career of memorable calls, Gus Johnson's excitement when Ron Lewis sent the game to overtime might be his finest work.
#7: 2006 Elite Eight: 11 George Mason 86, 1 UConn 84 (OT)
Before Butler and VCU made their marks on the Final Four, it was George Mason that first captured America's heart. The Patriots had a bunch of spectacular wins to get to the regional final, but none was as impressive as their defeat of 2006's most talented team, the UConn Huskies. No fewer than 6 of their main rotation would go on to play in the NBA (although Rudy Gay was the only stud from that group). Until I watched the linked highlight, I had forgotten how UConn had to fight just to get the game to overtime, which makes it an even more amazing game than I remember.
#6: 2008 Final: 1 Kansas 75, Memphis 68 (OT)
The third straight overtime game on this list is here primarily because of what might be the best shot in tournament history. Mario Chalmers' heave with two seconds remaining completed a Kansas comeback from 9 down in the final two minutes of the game. It's unfortunate for Memphis that the main reason for their loss was their poor free throw shooting, and that basic failure is part of why this game isn't even higher on the list. I didn't realize this at the time (probably because of my Kansas hate), but this Jayhawk squad might be the best team of the efficiency era. Their final .9859 rating on Pomeroy's site is the highest rating by any team in the last 11 years. The next closest team is the 2005 UNC title team with a .9797 rating, although this year's Florida squad could surpass them if they recover from their injuries in time for the tourney.
#5: 2008 Elite Eight: 1 Kansas 59, 10 Davidson 57
To get to that memorable title game, Kansas had to dispatch what was probably my favorite Cinderella of all time. Sure, Stephen Curry was the main reason for the Wildcats' success, as he was probably the greatest breakout star the tournament has ever seen. However, Davidson was far more than a one man show. Jason Richards was among the national leaders with over 8 assists per game, and Andrew Lovedale was able to add some toughness in the paint along with some scoring. Davidson did their best to push the Jayhawks to the limit, but in the end, fell one basket short of crashing what instead became the most loaded Final Four in history.
#4: 2001 Final Four: 1 Duke 95, 3 Maryland 84
This game earns its high mark for several reasons. First of all, the 2001 Duke squad is the best team I can remember watching, although there are several others that were just as good in my estimation. Secondly, we got to witness one of the greatest comebacks in tournament history (Duke was down 22 at one point), and it happened in the Final Four, no less. Finally, these teams had taken their rivalry to new heights that season and were meeting for the fourth time. Duke had already come back from a large deficit at Maryland that season, and had also won a dramatic game over Maryland in the ACC tournament. Maryland had their own success, as they had won at Duke on Shane Battier's senior night, but they still entered the contest as the decided underdog. Maryland would have to wait another year for their "one shining moment," but they managed to give the eventual champions all they could handle.
#3: 1993 Final: 1 North Carolina 77, 1 Michigan 71
My first taste of the tournament, really of all sports in general, came in the 1993 NCAA tournament. In the weeks leading up to it, I had taken a liking to the Tar Heels, for some reason long forgotten. I do remember liking Eric Montross a lot, which is quite weird in retrospect. Because of this newfound allegiance, I was estatic when the Heels got past Cincinnati and into the Final Four, where they would meet Michigan in the final. Seeing as I was 8, I don't remember knowing anything about the hype of the "Fab Five," so I went into this game a pretty blank slate in many ways. As you probably know if you follow basketball at all, Chris Webber sealed Michigan's fate when he called a timeout the team didn't have in the final second (after getting away with traveling, no less). North Carolina wasn't as talented as Michigan, but they played well together and were coached by one of the best of all time, Dean Smith. This isn't the best title game of my life, though. That distinction would instead have to go to...
#2: 2010 Final: 1 Duke 61, 5 Butler 59
There was a lot of consternation about Duke winning this title. Part of that was because everyone other than Duke fans wanted to see Butler finish their run with a win. However, there was also a large swath of people who claimed that this wasn't one of the best Duke units ever, and that the committee showed them favoritism with a great draw. I would argue strongly against both of those premeses. First, while this Duke team didn't have the star wattage of past (or future) teams, it was a fantastic team that finished the season on top of the Pomeroy rankings. Their strong .9763 rating cleared the field by almost a full percentage point. Second, Duke had to dispatch Baylor to advance to the Final Four, which might have very well been the second or third best team in the tournament that year. Duke was a very worthy champion.
Of course, the reason for this game appearing at #2 isn't Duke. It's this high because Butler came thisclose to winning an amazingly improbable title. The fact that Duke was a great team makes this game significantly more special than the 2011 final, when a hot UConn team won the title in spite of being just very good. I could go on and on about how special Butler's run was that year, but I'll let former basketball writer Kyle Whelliston take it from here as his work best summed up the joy and pain of following smaller-level basketball.
#1: 2010 Second Round: 9 Northern Iowa 69, 1 Kansas 67
Part of the joy of being a Creighton fan is that I also get to be a Missouri Valley fan by extension. The Mo Valley is special in that it is most decidely not a major conference, but is also a very strong and consistent conference. Since Tulsa left in 1996 the same 10 teams have been in the conference the whole time, and every single one has won the regular season crown at least once. The combination of solid play, dedicated fanbases, and long-running tradition make the Missouri Valley my favorite conference on Earth.
Thus, when Northern Iowa got rewarded for their great season with a terrible draw (they played also-underseeded UNLV in the 8/9 game), I was a little frustrated. Just a season earlier, Drake had taken pretty much the same formula (an amazing group of upperclassmen who only lost a handful of games) and received a 5 seed. Since Northern Iowa could actually play defense and thus was probably better than 2009 Drake, I was a little surprised that they ended up seeded so far lower. Luckily for us Valley fans, it all worked out. When Ali Farokhmanesh sank his clutch three, Northern Iowa sealed my favorite tournament upset of all time.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Friday, February 22, 2013
Music Countdown #10-8: I'm Just Being Honest
After nearly a year of sporadic posting, I have reached the top ten of my music countdown. I'll probably write full posts about some of the top songs, as there are larger themes I want to write about. However, for now I'll combine three songs into one entry. If I had to pick three songs from my list that were the least like each other both stylistically and thematically, then these would probably be the three.
#10: Dogs - Pink Floyd
During the summer between freshman and sophomore year of college, I spent 4 or 5 nights a week working at what was then a brand new Wild Oats. Other than learning a lot about meat and seafood*, I didn't take a whole lot of usable skills away from the experience. The people I worked with were nice enough and we even hung out outside of work a couple of times, but all in all it was just a regular summer job.
*Underrated: ribeye, trout, and high-quality chicken. Overrated: NY Strip and Mahi Mahi. Personal hatred developed for: scallops
Since all of that is clearly of little importance to my life now, I can confidently conclude that the most important takeaway from that experience was my acquisition of Pink Floyd's Animals. There was plenty of time to talk during the downtime, so one of my co-workers and I would often chat about music.* His ex-wife had sold his old cd/record collection, so he had slowly been building it back up. One of the first CDs he re-bought was Animals. As talkative as he was, even he couldn't muster the words to be able to describe it properly, so he brought it in one day for me to borrow. It took a while for me to get into the ten minute-plus long songs and references to British conservative activists, but once I listened to it a few times, I was hooked. I've gone on to buy a few other Pink Floyd albums and dabble in their entire catalogue on YouTube, but nothing has ever resonated with me as well as "Dogs."
*We would talk about other things as well, most notably his history. He was an ex-con (he was caught selling drugs) who used to work in food service at hotels. He had a great story about meeting Ozzy Osborne, but I can't remember it for the life of me. I guess that makes this a bad story.
The lyrical content of "Dogs" seems to be about the tolls that a life in business takes on the other aspects of living. Since I am young and don't have much world weariness in me, I have never made much of a connection with the words. However, as Ad and I have been going through The Sopranos, I've noticed how well the song fits with the overarching themes of the show. Much like the subject of "Dogs," Tony Soprano and those around him learned how to live by a different set of rules where they took what they wanted without a second thought, and as a result weren't able to function in "normal" situations. Lines such as "It's too late to lost the weight you used to need to throw around" apply to the story on multiple levels. Tony expresses occasional regret over the decisions he's made and how he is unable to change his behavior, but he also literally couldn't lose weight over the course of the series as Gandolfini grew his character larger and larger. Making this connection not only helped me to appreciate the narrative of The Sopranos, but it also helped me grow to understand "Dogs" even more.
Runners-up:
I could list several songs here, but I'll reserve this space for the only song that rivals "Dogs" in its epicness: The audacious nine-part "Shine on You Crazy Diamond." The piece manages to feature a metric ton of instrumentation (such as the organ and the saxophone) without ever sounding too complicated or overstuffed. "Shine on..." doesn't quite pack the power of "Dogs," but as an exquisite study in mellowness, it doesn't really need to.
#9: Hey Ya! - Outkast
"Hey Ya!" earned its spot on this list in part because it is one of the most catchy songs of all time.* Its popularity in late 2003 transcended the normally boundaries of popular music, as it was played as much on The River (Omaha's closest thing to an indie rock station) as it was on the more typical stations.** For an outfit that has produced a number of hits, Outkast has never quite topped "Hey Ya!" in either scope or accomplishment.
*As proof, I posted the video on here a couple of days ago, and the song is still in my head.
**If you want an indication of just how popular this song is regardless of demographic, inspect the variety of people dancing to it when it comes on during a wedding reception. In my experience, the diversity is usually only topped by "Shout," which has the inherent advantage of invoking everyone's favorite exercise: the squat.
Of course, a song isn't going to reach such lofty status as being in my top ten by merely being catchy. What separates "Hey Ya!" from your everyday breakout hit is how purposefully weird it is. Consider the following:
- It is a hip hop song that prominently features the acoustic guitar.
- The song eschews your typical 4/4 for a blend of 4/4 and 2/4 that comes off sounding like 11/8. In theory this should make it "undanceable," but the happy atmosphere of the song combined with people's willingness to dance terribly solidly refutes this premise.
- It tries to deal with complex themes like love and relationships, but then happily throws that out the window and starts coining catchphrases instead.
- It's called "Hey Ya!"
All these oddities aren't without a greater purpose. In this song, Outkast is able to accomplish nothing less than the complete nullification of pop music, which they ironically do by creating the perfect pop hit. The song attempts to deal with real issues in a clever way, but is swept away by its own breezy tone (this is clear when Andre 3000 says "y'all don't hear me, y'all just wanna dance" in the second chorus). This forfeiture of meaning can be seen as an indictment of the ability of such music to accomplish what its weightier brethren are able to. Outkast was able to pull off a nifty trick with "Hey Ya!," and as a result it is a solid ensconced in my top ten.
Runners-up:
If you want someone to discuss deep tracks from the Outkast catalogue, then I am not your man. However, I will say that I've enjoyed almost all of their hit songs, with the notable exception of the dull "The Way You Move."
#8: Two Headed Boy Pt. Two - Neutral Milk Hotel
One of the most tricky propositions in music is using an album-long metaphor to communicate one's message. However, when it is executed properly, it can be extremely rewarding. In the case of Jeff Mangum's seminal work In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, it would appear that the story of Anne Frank is used to express his feelings about desiring someone who is out of reach. While I think this metaphor works well taken at face value, what makes it truly stand out from its peers is that the story is so detailed and the emotions are so raw that it doesn't feel like a simple poetic device. Rather, the listener feels that Mangum is actually singing his heart out over the long-dead diarist. This possibility set against such well realized and emotional songwriting creates one of the most powerful albums ever created.
"Two Headed Boy Pt. Two" is the most powerful track on the album because it rides this line between metaphor and reality so well. Previous songs discuss the details of Anne Frank/mystery girl in more depth. "...Pt. Two" cashes in on this buildup by approaching the story more from the point of view of the narrator. When Mangum sings "in my dreams, you're alive and you're crying," he finds a beautiful way to express how the suffering of another is internalized in his own life. When he addresses the title boy in the final passages of the song, it almost seems as if he is defeatedly consoling himself. People are often disappointed that Mangum has yet to follow up on In the Aeroplane..., but I'm really not surprised that nothing has come about yet. I can't imagine how he would ever be able to muster the necessary emotional resonance needed to top or even approach this level of work.
Runners-up:
The entirety of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is terrific (but don't take my word for it). That said, Mangum is generally at his finest when the instrumentation is as minimal as possible. "The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. One," "Two Headed Boy," and "Oh Comely" are three of his finest tracks. All of these songs live up to my #8 song in terms of emotional impact, but they all go about their business in slightly different ways. "The King..." shows a youthful exuberance through it's overstrummed guitar, "Two Headed Boy" keeps the agressive guitar while Mangum adds more force to his voice, and "Oh Comely" is just a beautiful single take that shows off the full range of his songwriting abilities.
#10: Dogs - Pink Floyd
During the summer between freshman and sophomore year of college, I spent 4 or 5 nights a week working at what was then a brand new Wild Oats. Other than learning a lot about meat and seafood*, I didn't take a whole lot of usable skills away from the experience. The people I worked with were nice enough and we even hung out outside of work a couple of times, but all in all it was just a regular summer job.
*Underrated: ribeye, trout, and high-quality chicken. Overrated: NY Strip and Mahi Mahi. Personal hatred developed for: scallops
Since all of that is clearly of little importance to my life now, I can confidently conclude that the most important takeaway from that experience was my acquisition of Pink Floyd's Animals. There was plenty of time to talk during the downtime, so one of my co-workers and I would often chat about music.* His ex-wife had sold his old cd/record collection, so he had slowly been building it back up. One of the first CDs he re-bought was Animals. As talkative as he was, even he couldn't muster the words to be able to describe it properly, so he brought it in one day for me to borrow. It took a while for me to get into the ten minute-plus long songs and references to British conservative activists, but once I listened to it a few times, I was hooked. I've gone on to buy a few other Pink Floyd albums and dabble in their entire catalogue on YouTube, but nothing has ever resonated with me as well as "Dogs."
*We would talk about other things as well, most notably his history. He was an ex-con (he was caught selling drugs) who used to work in food service at hotels. He had a great story about meeting Ozzy Osborne, but I can't remember it for the life of me. I guess that makes this a bad story.
The lyrical content of "Dogs" seems to be about the tolls that a life in business takes on the other aspects of living. Since I am young and don't have much world weariness in me, I have never made much of a connection with the words. However, as Ad and I have been going through The Sopranos, I've noticed how well the song fits with the overarching themes of the show. Much like the subject of "Dogs," Tony Soprano and those around him learned how to live by a different set of rules where they took what they wanted without a second thought, and as a result weren't able to function in "normal" situations. Lines such as "It's too late to lost the weight you used to need to throw around" apply to the story on multiple levels. Tony expresses occasional regret over the decisions he's made and how he is unable to change his behavior, but he also literally couldn't lose weight over the course of the series as Gandolfini grew his character larger and larger. Making this connection not only helped me to appreciate the narrative of The Sopranos, but it also helped me grow to understand "Dogs" even more.
Runners-up:
I could list several songs here, but I'll reserve this space for the only song that rivals "Dogs" in its epicness: The audacious nine-part "Shine on You Crazy Diamond." The piece manages to feature a metric ton of instrumentation (such as the organ and the saxophone) without ever sounding too complicated or overstuffed. "Shine on..." doesn't quite pack the power of "Dogs," but as an exquisite study in mellowness, it doesn't really need to.
#9: Hey Ya! - Outkast
"Hey Ya!" earned its spot on this list in part because it is one of the most catchy songs of all time.* Its popularity in late 2003 transcended the normally boundaries of popular music, as it was played as much on The River (Omaha's closest thing to an indie rock station) as it was on the more typical stations.** For an outfit that has produced a number of hits, Outkast has never quite topped "Hey Ya!" in either scope or accomplishment.
*As proof, I posted the video on here a couple of days ago, and the song is still in my head.
**If you want an indication of just how popular this song is regardless of demographic, inspect the variety of people dancing to it when it comes on during a wedding reception. In my experience, the diversity is usually only topped by "Shout," which has the inherent advantage of invoking everyone's favorite exercise: the squat.
Of course, a song isn't going to reach such lofty status as being in my top ten by merely being catchy. What separates "Hey Ya!" from your everyday breakout hit is how purposefully weird it is. Consider the following:
- It is a hip hop song that prominently features the acoustic guitar.
- The song eschews your typical 4/4 for a blend of 4/4 and 2/4 that comes off sounding like 11/8. In theory this should make it "undanceable," but the happy atmosphere of the song combined with people's willingness to dance terribly solidly refutes this premise.
- It tries to deal with complex themes like love and relationships, but then happily throws that out the window and starts coining catchphrases instead.
- It's called "Hey Ya!"
All these oddities aren't without a greater purpose. In this song, Outkast is able to accomplish nothing less than the complete nullification of pop music, which they ironically do by creating the perfect pop hit. The song attempts to deal with real issues in a clever way, but is swept away by its own breezy tone (this is clear when Andre 3000 says "y'all don't hear me, y'all just wanna dance" in the second chorus). This forfeiture of meaning can be seen as an indictment of the ability of such music to accomplish what its weightier brethren are able to. Outkast was able to pull off a nifty trick with "Hey Ya!," and as a result it is a solid ensconced in my top ten.
Runners-up:
If you want someone to discuss deep tracks from the Outkast catalogue, then I am not your man. However, I will say that I've enjoyed almost all of their hit songs, with the notable exception of the dull "The Way You Move."
#8: Two Headed Boy Pt. Two - Neutral Milk Hotel
One of the most tricky propositions in music is using an album-long metaphor to communicate one's message. However, when it is executed properly, it can be extremely rewarding. In the case of Jeff Mangum's seminal work In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, it would appear that the story of Anne Frank is used to express his feelings about desiring someone who is out of reach. While I think this metaphor works well taken at face value, what makes it truly stand out from its peers is that the story is so detailed and the emotions are so raw that it doesn't feel like a simple poetic device. Rather, the listener feels that Mangum is actually singing his heart out over the long-dead diarist. This possibility set against such well realized and emotional songwriting creates one of the most powerful albums ever created.
"Two Headed Boy Pt. Two" is the most powerful track on the album because it rides this line between metaphor and reality so well. Previous songs discuss the details of Anne Frank/mystery girl in more depth. "...Pt. Two" cashes in on this buildup by approaching the story more from the point of view of the narrator. When Mangum sings "in my dreams, you're alive and you're crying," he finds a beautiful way to express how the suffering of another is internalized in his own life. When he addresses the title boy in the final passages of the song, it almost seems as if he is defeatedly consoling himself. People are often disappointed that Mangum has yet to follow up on In the Aeroplane..., but I'm really not surprised that nothing has come about yet. I can't imagine how he would ever be able to muster the necessary emotional resonance needed to top or even approach this level of work.
Runners-up:
The entirety of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is terrific (but don't take my word for it). That said, Mangum is generally at his finest when the instrumentation is as minimal as possible. "The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. One," "Two Headed Boy," and "Oh Comely" are three of his finest tracks. All of these songs live up to my #8 song in terms of emotional impact, but they all go about their business in slightly different ways. "The King..." shows a youthful exuberance through it's overstrummed guitar, "Two Headed Boy" keeps the agressive guitar while Mangum adds more force to his voice, and "Oh Comely" is just a beautiful single take that shows off the full range of his songwriting abilities.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Music Countdown #14-11: All the Rest is Dust
This installment of the music countdown stops just short of the top ten. I decided to go through four songs in this post for a few reasons. One, I'm excited to get to the top ten, where things start to get juicier. Two, I couldn't come up with any thematic connections like I have for previous posts. With that said, this is still a very important part of the list for me as three of these bands are among my 5 or 6 favorites of all time.
#14: Stones from the Sky - Neurosis
When I was young, I would sometimes play "my music" while in the car with my dad. My dad has a Masters in music, taught band for 30 years, and often listens to classical, jazz, and big band music. Needless to say, the majority of what I listened to was not his cup of tea. He was nice enough to play along though, and didn't often have any bad things to say. Even though a lot of what I was listening to on the radio was pretty terrible, he would rarely criticize it. There did seem to be one exception though: When the guitars in a song were too fuzzy or distorted for his tastes, he would say he couldn't make our the tune, or something else to that effect. I always found it fascinating that that was the one aspect of modern music that he chose to single out. It makes sense though when you think about how using pedals, synthesizers, and such to distort sound largely goes against the precision of the harmony and criticality of the tone of an instrument present in many classical works. However, I think the ability of many musicians to use these tools to create a "wall of sound" is one of the great advances of contemporary music.
One of my favorite examples of such a practice comes near the end of "Stones from the Sky." The first 6 minutes or so of the song is a pretty typical Neurosis tune: A slow building beginning leads to a stronger passage with growling vocals, followed by a long burn-off. Where the song makes the turn from great to brilliant though, is in its final minutes. After we hear the theme come and go, the underlying guitar line takes center stage and starts to increase in furor. With every cycle, the individual notes become less and less clear as the intensity grows. Then, as the end nears, the song starts to sputter in and out as if your speakers are outright refusing to trudge on. It is truly both a beautiful and ugly ending to a song, and I mean that in the best possible way. As you might guess, I have yet to play this song for my dad, because I don't think he would like it.
Runners-up:
Fair warning to all those reading this: the runners-up sections in this post will be pretty long. Neurosis is one of my favorite bands, with a lengthy catalogue that now spans four decades. Narrowing their best work down to a few songs is a fairly ludicrous activity, but I will attempt it nonetheless.
"Souls at Zero" is a relatively straightforward track (for Neurosis, at least) that shows off the strengths of the band in its early days. The song builds on itself through several different themes which pay off in a great way in the bridge and final chorus.
I would consider many songs on this list potential nominees for best song to play during the apocalypse. In the end though, I would have to pick "Purify" as the winner. The song is one of the best examples of how Neurosis is more than willing to take their time and dwell on every chord of discontent. The clincher that elevates this song from great to really great is the terrifying use of bagpipes at the end.
Not all Neurosis fans were pleased with the stripped down sound of 2004's The Eye of Every Storm. I did not share that opinion, as I absolutely love how they are able to get to core of what makes them such a great band. The title track is the best example of this as the instrumentation is extremely minimal as they progress through the song, with near silence pervading the middle section. This quiet rumination pays off greatly when the final section begins and reveals the reason for the title: "Time brings them all home, to the eye of every storm." Good stuff.
#13: A With Living - Do Make Say Think
Do Make Say Think is a band that almost entirely eschews vocals in their music. So you might think it's a bit strange that I'm representing on this list by a song that is a pretty straightforward verse-chorus work complete with vocals. However, there are two very good reasons that this song is here. The first reason is that the song is awesome. The second reason is more complicated.
For the first couple of years that I knew this song, I always thought of it as a song that needed to be played at night. There was just something about the tune that didn't work as well during the day. Maybe it was the calmness of the singer's smooth deep voice or the way the higher guitar notes met the bassline that gave the song the feeling of a cool summer night. Then one day, I finally realized that the songs first lyric ("lying down beneath the stars...") and its later mention of shooting stars might have something to with it.* While I certainly felt a little silly for having missed that obvious connection for so long, it made me think a little more about how I perceive music. While other may hook onto the words in a song and go from there, I generally tend to first notice the melody or the sound and build from that (I'll talk about this more extensively later in the list). Regardless of how one perceives music, I think that this is a great example of how Do Make Say Think was able to craft a tune that mirrors the themes of the lyrics well. Perhaps the fact that they don't normally use words means that they are more skilled at being able to have just the music tell the tale. Whatever the reason, DMST made a song that belongs on this list.
*I always knew the lyrics, I had just never made that connection.
Runners-up:
I could talk at length about several songs here ("Fredericia" is a great beginning to Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn, and I love the moment of laughter in "A Tender History of Rust."), but I'll reserve this space for a song that was thisclose to making the list: "Bound to Be That Way." I first came upon Do Make Say Think not long after moving to Madison after college. To me, the song perfectly encapsulated the feeling that I imagine we all feel when we begin "real life." When we go off to do whatever it is we are doing, we're making a choice to do that. Just as importantly, we're also making a choice not to do the other things that we could be doing. In my situation, I was far away from a lot of my friends and all of my family, and I was doing work that was not at all what I studied in school. While I ended up loving all aspects of my time in Madison*, this song sang to the paths not traveled and how regardless of the decisions I made, life was "bound to be that way." Of course, the song has no lyrics so it could really be about whatever the listener wants it to be**, but it found me at such an appropriate time that I still think it has to be about that.
*Except for the snow and the cold. That sucked.
** Truly great songs often have that kind of flexibility. We'll talk about this more later as well.
#12: Lisbon - The Walkmen
It seems that every sappy montage during the Oscars talks about how films can take you a different place. While I agree that this is true, I think that music can do an even better job of this because it's lack of visuals necessarily invokes ones imagination*. Unfortunately, this aspect of the medium is often underappreciated. Luckily, the Walkmen release a new record every couple of years that shows exactly how to create a sense of being in a specific time and place.
*People often make the same argument about books as well, but I don't think it's quite the same, since music still taps directly into your senses.
Perhaps the best example of this ability is the title track of their 2010 effort, Lisbon. In the first ten seconds, a quiet guitar and snare drum play so low and so far in the background that the focus is instead drawn towards the faint hint of background noise. When frontman Hamilton Leithauser starts in with "The countless eyes dotted in the night sky/I speak the language of several hundred words," you feel immediately transported to a calm night in Lisbon (or at least The Walkmen's version of Lisbon). The song continues on for a wonderous six minutes, alternating between quiet sections and passages supported by the wistful wail of brass instruments, and ends in a muted and content guitar line. The Walkmen's attention to these sorts of details in creating their recordings often propels their work a step above the rest, even before accounting for their ability to write great songs. Rather than simply hearing lyrics about experiences, the listener gains a better understanding of the emotions being communicated through the synthesis of words and music.
Runners-up:
I've managed to summarize the runners-up for my other favorite bands, but I'm not going to try to do that there. The Walkmen are able to succeed at so many different things that it's nearly impossible to narrow down their catalogue to a list of best songs. For example, how can you compare such a catchy hit as "The Rat" to the song that comes directly after it "No Christmas While I'm Talking," a moving piece that barely has a discernable tune?
Instead of talking about a single song, I'll briefly discuss my favorite of their albums, You and Me. While the bombast that is more common in their early work shows itself in songs like "In the New Year," The Walkmen begin the process of paring down their music to its core with maximum effect. Their next album Lisbon would take this to the extreme, but I thought that You and Me did a better job of balancing all of the band's strengths. Some of the early tracks such as "On the Water" showcase how well the band is able to use quiet passages to create a mood, while the fantastic "I Lost You" goes all out with its bittersweet sentiment. No band seems to convey the full experience of being a twentysomething like The Walkmen.
#11: Lateralus - Tool
If you know me well, then you likely know that Tool was my favorite band for several years in high school and college. They've since been surpassed in my estimation by Isis, The Walkmen, and a couple of other bands, but I still hold fond memories of their music and listen to them from time to time (if they would kindly release some new music, maybe I would listen to them more). Part of my fondness for them was spurred my their musicianship and their willingness to write great sprawling songs on a diverse range of topics. But if I'm being honest, then I'd have to say that I also liked them for what it meant to be a Tool fan. They were quite rebellious of the mainstream conventions of rock that I was beginning to grow tired of. Their videos didn't show the band playing the music, instead opting to act out strange and disturbing scenarios through animation and claymation. They're time in the spotlight was far more cryptic and removed that a typical band. In a way, they seemed to detest their fans, but you pretty much always had to take everything they said with a large grain of salt. Being a fan of Tool was a much more complicated proposition than with other bands.
Yet, when all that is stripped away, they've made some really great music over the years. Their heavy themes and their need to accomplish a lot can sometimes weigh down the music a bit, but in the case of "Lateralus," Tool's ambition lifts their work to new heights. The lyrical theme of "reaching out to embrace whatever may come" is great enough on its own. What really drives the song home though, is how it interweaves the Fibonacci sequence into the music to literally depict the spiral motif used throughout the song. The lyrics in the verses swing back and forth in patterns of 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and 13 syllables, and the chorus is a very purposefully in alternating 9/8, 8/8, and 7/8 time signatures (987 is the 15th number in the sequence). After that, the song goes through a great quieter section that is usually omitted from the radio edit, and ends with as anthemic of a flourish as you'll ever get from Tool. Spiral out indeed.
Runners-up:
I can confidently narrow down the runners-up from Tool's catalogue to two songs. "Third Eye" is most certainly an example of the overindulgence that Tool sometimes succumbs to in their songwriting, as both the studio and the live version run about 14 minutes. However, it's such a good 14 minutes in which so many different things happen, that it doesn't really matter. In this way, "Third Eye" is more of it's own EP as opposed to a song at the end of Aenima.
In my previous incarnation of this list, "H." ended up as the #1 song. While I've since found works that better reflect the song's theme of regret and isolation (more on those later in the countdown...sorry that I'm being kind of a Mosby in this post), "H." still holds up well more than a decade after I've first heard it. The fact that it's one of Tool's most pared down works of the post-Undertow era probably doesn't hurt it, either.
#14: Stones from the Sky - Neurosis
When I was young, I would sometimes play "my music" while in the car with my dad. My dad has a Masters in music, taught band for 30 years, and often listens to classical, jazz, and big band music. Needless to say, the majority of what I listened to was not his cup of tea. He was nice enough to play along though, and didn't often have any bad things to say. Even though a lot of what I was listening to on the radio was pretty terrible, he would rarely criticize it. There did seem to be one exception though: When the guitars in a song were too fuzzy or distorted for his tastes, he would say he couldn't make our the tune, or something else to that effect. I always found it fascinating that that was the one aspect of modern music that he chose to single out. It makes sense though when you think about how using pedals, synthesizers, and such to distort sound largely goes against the precision of the harmony and criticality of the tone of an instrument present in many classical works. However, I think the ability of many musicians to use these tools to create a "wall of sound" is one of the great advances of contemporary music.
One of my favorite examples of such a practice comes near the end of "Stones from the Sky." The first 6 minutes or so of the song is a pretty typical Neurosis tune: A slow building beginning leads to a stronger passage with growling vocals, followed by a long burn-off. Where the song makes the turn from great to brilliant though, is in its final minutes. After we hear the theme come and go, the underlying guitar line takes center stage and starts to increase in furor. With every cycle, the individual notes become less and less clear as the intensity grows. Then, as the end nears, the song starts to sputter in and out as if your speakers are outright refusing to trudge on. It is truly both a beautiful and ugly ending to a song, and I mean that in the best possible way. As you might guess, I have yet to play this song for my dad, because I don't think he would like it.
Runners-up:
Fair warning to all those reading this: the runners-up sections in this post will be pretty long. Neurosis is one of my favorite bands, with a lengthy catalogue that now spans four decades. Narrowing their best work down to a few songs is a fairly ludicrous activity, but I will attempt it nonetheless.
"Souls at Zero" is a relatively straightforward track (for Neurosis, at least) that shows off the strengths of the band in its early days. The song builds on itself through several different themes which pay off in a great way in the bridge and final chorus.
I would consider many songs on this list potential nominees for best song to play during the apocalypse. In the end though, I would have to pick "Purify" as the winner. The song is one of the best examples of how Neurosis is more than willing to take their time and dwell on every chord of discontent. The clincher that elevates this song from great to really great is the terrifying use of bagpipes at the end.
Not all Neurosis fans were pleased with the stripped down sound of 2004's The Eye of Every Storm. I did not share that opinion, as I absolutely love how they are able to get to core of what makes them such a great band. The title track is the best example of this as the instrumentation is extremely minimal as they progress through the song, with near silence pervading the middle section. This quiet rumination pays off greatly when the final section begins and reveals the reason for the title: "Time brings them all home, to the eye of every storm." Good stuff.
#13: A With Living - Do Make Say Think
Do Make Say Think is a band that almost entirely eschews vocals in their music. So you might think it's a bit strange that I'm representing on this list by a song that is a pretty straightforward verse-chorus work complete with vocals. However, there are two very good reasons that this song is here. The first reason is that the song is awesome. The second reason is more complicated.
For the first couple of years that I knew this song, I always thought of it as a song that needed to be played at night. There was just something about the tune that didn't work as well during the day. Maybe it was the calmness of the singer's smooth deep voice or the way the higher guitar notes met the bassline that gave the song the feeling of a cool summer night. Then one day, I finally realized that the songs first lyric ("lying down beneath the stars...") and its later mention of shooting stars might have something to with it.* While I certainly felt a little silly for having missed that obvious connection for so long, it made me think a little more about how I perceive music. While other may hook onto the words in a song and go from there, I generally tend to first notice the melody or the sound and build from that (I'll talk about this more extensively later in the list). Regardless of how one perceives music, I think that this is a great example of how Do Make Say Think was able to craft a tune that mirrors the themes of the lyrics well. Perhaps the fact that they don't normally use words means that they are more skilled at being able to have just the music tell the tale. Whatever the reason, DMST made a song that belongs on this list.
*I always knew the lyrics, I had just never made that connection.
Runners-up:
I could talk at length about several songs here ("Fredericia" is a great beginning to Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn, and I love the moment of laughter in "A Tender History of Rust."), but I'll reserve this space for a song that was thisclose to making the list: "Bound to Be That Way." I first came upon Do Make Say Think not long after moving to Madison after college. To me, the song perfectly encapsulated the feeling that I imagine we all feel when we begin "real life." When we go off to do whatever it is we are doing, we're making a choice to do that. Just as importantly, we're also making a choice not to do the other things that we could be doing. In my situation, I was far away from a lot of my friends and all of my family, and I was doing work that was not at all what I studied in school. While I ended up loving all aspects of my time in Madison*, this song sang to the paths not traveled and how regardless of the decisions I made, life was "bound to be that way." Of course, the song has no lyrics so it could really be about whatever the listener wants it to be**, but it found me at such an appropriate time that I still think it has to be about that.
*Except for the snow and the cold. That sucked.
** Truly great songs often have that kind of flexibility. We'll talk about this more later as well.
#12: Lisbon - The Walkmen
It seems that every sappy montage during the Oscars talks about how films can take you a different place. While I agree that this is true, I think that music can do an even better job of this because it's lack of visuals necessarily invokes ones imagination*. Unfortunately, this aspect of the medium is often underappreciated. Luckily, the Walkmen release a new record every couple of years that shows exactly how to create a sense of being in a specific time and place.
*People often make the same argument about books as well, but I don't think it's quite the same, since music still taps directly into your senses.
Perhaps the best example of this ability is the title track of their 2010 effort, Lisbon. In the first ten seconds, a quiet guitar and snare drum play so low and so far in the background that the focus is instead drawn towards the faint hint of background noise. When frontman Hamilton Leithauser starts in with "The countless eyes dotted in the night sky/I speak the language of several hundred words," you feel immediately transported to a calm night in Lisbon (or at least The Walkmen's version of Lisbon). The song continues on for a wonderous six minutes, alternating between quiet sections and passages supported by the wistful wail of brass instruments, and ends in a muted and content guitar line. The Walkmen's attention to these sorts of details in creating their recordings often propels their work a step above the rest, even before accounting for their ability to write great songs. Rather than simply hearing lyrics about experiences, the listener gains a better understanding of the emotions being communicated through the synthesis of words and music.
Runners-up:
I've managed to summarize the runners-up for my other favorite bands, but I'm not going to try to do that there. The Walkmen are able to succeed at so many different things that it's nearly impossible to narrow down their catalogue to a list of best songs. For example, how can you compare such a catchy hit as "The Rat" to the song that comes directly after it "No Christmas While I'm Talking," a moving piece that barely has a discernable tune?
Instead of talking about a single song, I'll briefly discuss my favorite of their albums, You and Me. While the bombast that is more common in their early work shows itself in songs like "In the New Year," The Walkmen begin the process of paring down their music to its core with maximum effect. Their next album Lisbon would take this to the extreme, but I thought that You and Me did a better job of balancing all of the band's strengths. Some of the early tracks such as "On the Water" showcase how well the band is able to use quiet passages to create a mood, while the fantastic "I Lost You" goes all out with its bittersweet sentiment. No band seems to convey the full experience of being a twentysomething like The Walkmen.
#11: Lateralus - Tool
If you know me well, then you likely know that Tool was my favorite band for several years in high school and college. They've since been surpassed in my estimation by Isis, The Walkmen, and a couple of other bands, but I still hold fond memories of their music and listen to them from time to time (if they would kindly release some new music, maybe I would listen to them more). Part of my fondness for them was spurred my their musicianship and their willingness to write great sprawling songs on a diverse range of topics. But if I'm being honest, then I'd have to say that I also liked them for what it meant to be a Tool fan. They were quite rebellious of the mainstream conventions of rock that I was beginning to grow tired of. Their videos didn't show the band playing the music, instead opting to act out strange and disturbing scenarios through animation and claymation. They're time in the spotlight was far more cryptic and removed that a typical band. In a way, they seemed to detest their fans, but you pretty much always had to take everything they said with a large grain of salt. Being a fan of Tool was a much more complicated proposition than with other bands.
Yet, when all that is stripped away, they've made some really great music over the years. Their heavy themes and their need to accomplish a lot can sometimes weigh down the music a bit, but in the case of "Lateralus," Tool's ambition lifts their work to new heights. The lyrical theme of "reaching out to embrace whatever may come" is great enough on its own. What really drives the song home though, is how it interweaves the Fibonacci sequence into the music to literally depict the spiral motif used throughout the song. The lyrics in the verses swing back and forth in patterns of 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and 13 syllables, and the chorus is a very purposefully in alternating 9/8, 8/8, and 7/8 time signatures (987 is the 15th number in the sequence). After that, the song goes through a great quieter section that is usually omitted from the radio edit, and ends with as anthemic of a flourish as you'll ever get from Tool. Spiral out indeed.
Runners-up:
I can confidently narrow down the runners-up from Tool's catalogue to two songs. "Third Eye" is most certainly an example of the overindulgence that Tool sometimes succumbs to in their songwriting, as both the studio and the live version run about 14 minutes. However, it's such a good 14 minutes in which so many different things happen, that it doesn't really matter. In this way, "Third Eye" is more of it's own EP as opposed to a song at the end of Aenima.
In my previous incarnation of this list, "H." ended up as the #1 song. While I've since found works that better reflect the song's theme of regret and isolation (more on those later in the countdown...sorry that I'm being kind of a Mosby in this post), "H." still holds up well more than a decade after I've first heard it. The fact that it's one of Tool's most pared down works of the post-Undertow era probably doesn't hurt it, either.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Music Countdown #16 and #15: Soon I'll Let You Go
Another entry in the music countdown gives us another pair of songs that share a connection. Instead of a thematic connection or a shared country of origin, the similarity in these songs is that they're not laid out like your typical radio hit. There will be plenty of uniquely structured long songs on this countdown, but these entries are unique to the list in that they're both able to be creative while staying brief (in fact, they are the two shortest songs on the countdown).
#16: Feiticeira - Deftones
#15: White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane
The vast majority of songs you hear on the radio follow roughly the same pattern: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, done. It's a well-established formula for success that even some of the songs on this countdown follow ("Sprawl 2" for example). I fully understand the merits of such songwriting, and am more than willing to celebrate it when it is done right (being creative within such confines can often be the most impressive work of all). The problem is that some modern musicians seem to fall into a bit of a trap when trying to compose new music. It's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy in that the majority of hit songs follow the same pattern, so if one wants to write a hit song, you need to follow that pattern. In that light, the argument put forth by these two songs is one of dyamicism. If a band is able to break free from the structure of popular music, then you can acheive so many things that you couldn't before.
The Deftones have always managed to ride the line between conventional and experimental to their advantage. They've been able to balance their big hits ("My Own Summer" and "Change (In the House of Flies)" being the two biggest) with their less radio-friendly fare quite well. What makes them truly great is how many similarities you can find between those groups of songs. While songs such as "Pink Maggit" and "Fireal/Swords" forgo the chorus/verse structure entirely, their appearances and the end of albums doesn't come from nowhere. Songs like "My Own Summer" do fall into the standard pattern mentioned at the top of the post, but they differ in an important way. Instead of playing the same chorus three times, the chorus builds on itself each time through. By my extremely hasty count, about a dozen Deftones songs fall into this modified standard template, which adds a fantastic wrinkle to radio-friendly songs.
"Feiticeira" doesn't quite fall into this pattern, but it is a great song with a unique structure all it's own. The frantic pace and vocals reflect the fact that the song is sung from the voice of someone being thrown in a car and kidnapped. The song works on its own merits, but is even stronger when you consider it as a bit of meta-commentary on how the experience of the album as a whole will make the listener feel. When we return to the car motif later in the song "Passenger," we find that the captor hasn't let go yet, and the narrator has actually grown fond of the situation ("still I want some more" sings frontman Chino Moreno). White Pony is a great album for many reasons, but what is most impressive is how well everything flows together. "Feiticeira" then is much more than just a great song; it is the crucial beginning to a larger masterpiece.
To prove that I do occasionally listen to music that's older than me, Jefferson Airplane makes an appearance on the list.* Anytime I hear "White Rabbit" in a movie or television show, it makes me enjoy the song that much more. The song is clearly about the effects of drug use, but not every appearance is concerned with that. One of my favorite uses is in David Fincher's underrated The Game. In the movie, Michael Douglas' character is unsure of whether or not what is happening is part of an alternate reality his brother bought for him. The song appears near the middle of the film, when it seems that he's starting to lose grip on what is reality and what isn't. In this way, the song is about more than simply drug use; it is about dealing with the loss of control that comes with any extraordinary event. The song's gradual crescendo only adds to the intensity of that feeling, and thus makes it a great song which is served well, both thematically and sonically, by its non-standard structure.
*If you go to the Backer around 8 PM, DJ Drew will totally play "White Rabbit" for you if you ask nicely. The song fits the Backer well.
Runners-up:
I could probably write a whole post about my favorite Deftones songs and albums, but I don't know if even I would read that. White Pony is generally though to be their seminal work, and as you could probably already tell, I agree wholeheartedly with that sentiment. I could have chosen many other songs off of that album to be on this list ("Digital Bath" or "Knife Prty," for example), as well as a few off of other albums ("Hexagram" off of their self-titled album is fantastic). In the end, I went with "Feiticeira" because it sets the tone so well for one of my favorite albums of all time.
I'm not quite as familiar with the complete works of Jefferson Airplane, but I do thoroughly enjoy the Coen brothers' film A Serious Man, which is centered around what is probably their most famous song, "Somebody to Love."
#16: Feiticeira - Deftones
#15: White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane
The vast majority of songs you hear on the radio follow roughly the same pattern: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, done. It's a well-established formula for success that even some of the songs on this countdown follow ("Sprawl 2" for example). I fully understand the merits of such songwriting, and am more than willing to celebrate it when it is done right (being creative within such confines can often be the most impressive work of all). The problem is that some modern musicians seem to fall into a bit of a trap when trying to compose new music. It's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy in that the majority of hit songs follow the same pattern, so if one wants to write a hit song, you need to follow that pattern. In that light, the argument put forth by these two songs is one of dyamicism. If a band is able to break free from the structure of popular music, then you can acheive so many things that you couldn't before.
The Deftones have always managed to ride the line between conventional and experimental to their advantage. They've been able to balance their big hits ("My Own Summer" and "Change (In the House of Flies)" being the two biggest) with their less radio-friendly fare quite well. What makes them truly great is how many similarities you can find between those groups of songs. While songs such as "Pink Maggit" and "Fireal/Swords" forgo the chorus/verse structure entirely, their appearances and the end of albums doesn't come from nowhere. Songs like "My Own Summer" do fall into the standard pattern mentioned at the top of the post, but they differ in an important way. Instead of playing the same chorus three times, the chorus builds on itself each time through. By my extremely hasty count, about a dozen Deftones songs fall into this modified standard template, which adds a fantastic wrinkle to radio-friendly songs.
"Feiticeira" doesn't quite fall into this pattern, but it is a great song with a unique structure all it's own. The frantic pace and vocals reflect the fact that the song is sung from the voice of someone being thrown in a car and kidnapped. The song works on its own merits, but is even stronger when you consider it as a bit of meta-commentary on how the experience of the album as a whole will make the listener feel. When we return to the car motif later in the song "Passenger," we find that the captor hasn't let go yet, and the narrator has actually grown fond of the situation ("still I want some more" sings frontman Chino Moreno). White Pony is a great album for many reasons, but what is most impressive is how well everything flows together. "Feiticeira" then is much more than just a great song; it is the crucial beginning to a larger masterpiece.
To prove that I do occasionally listen to music that's older than me, Jefferson Airplane makes an appearance on the list.* Anytime I hear "White Rabbit" in a movie or television show, it makes me enjoy the song that much more. The song is clearly about the effects of drug use, but not every appearance is concerned with that. One of my favorite uses is in David Fincher's underrated The Game. In the movie, Michael Douglas' character is unsure of whether or not what is happening is part of an alternate reality his brother bought for him. The song appears near the middle of the film, when it seems that he's starting to lose grip on what is reality and what isn't. In this way, the song is about more than simply drug use; it is about dealing with the loss of control that comes with any extraordinary event. The song's gradual crescendo only adds to the intensity of that feeling, and thus makes it a great song which is served well, both thematically and sonically, by its non-standard structure.
*If you go to the Backer around 8 PM, DJ Drew will totally play "White Rabbit" for you if you ask nicely. The song fits the Backer well.
Runners-up:
I could probably write a whole post about my favorite Deftones songs and albums, but I don't know if even I would read that. White Pony is generally though to be their seminal work, and as you could probably already tell, I agree wholeheartedly with that sentiment. I could have chosen many other songs off of that album to be on this list ("Digital Bath" or "Knife Prty," for example), as well as a few off of other albums ("Hexagram" off of their self-titled album is fantastic). In the end, I went with "Feiticeira" because it sets the tone so well for one of my favorite albums of all time.
I'm not quite as familiar with the complete works of Jefferson Airplane, but I do thoroughly enjoy the Coen brothers' film A Serious Man, which is centered around what is probably their most famous song, "Somebody to Love."
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