Of the past year: Knives Out by Radiohead
Of the past month: Sunday by Sonic Youth
Of the past week: War at 33 1/3 by Public Enemy
Of today: Pagan Poetry by Björk
Obviously there is no such thing as a "best" song, but since, like anyone I guess, I have changing moods, sudden obsessions and long love affairs with music, I answered a bit differently than expected.
Why Knives Out? As we all know, Radiohead pulled the definitive album with OK Computer. Since they "completed" rock they went to explore new horizons. In Amnesiac, between the brilliant formal experimentation is a gem. It is there just to remind everyone that Radiohead are still the best at "standard" rock ( 2 guitars, 1 Bass, 1 Battery). This gem is Knives Out. (Ok I exaggerate for fun.. don't flame me :P)
Why Sunday? Suddenly, some weeks ago and without a reason I decided it was sad that I knew close to nothing about Sonic Youth. So I searched around for some songs to download and latter bugged a friend who has 5 or 6 albums. One of the first download I made was Sunday and I was amazed by the originality and the mood of that song and how the guitars suddenly merged together in an unidentified entity before becoming melodic and rhythmic again. A song that I do not spend a day without listening to.
Why War at 33 1/3? All these talks about Rap on this board made want to listen to my Fear of Black Planet album. I got shocked at how well it aged (12 years already!) and how unique it is. For me the most impressive and energetic song of the album is War at 33 1/3. Even if you don't care about Rap I encourage you to lend a hear to this, you prolly never heard something like that before. I bow in front of Hank Shocklee, Carl Ryder, Eric Sadler and Keith Shocklee for such producing genius. I am sadly not sure The Bomb Squad is still around
To explain, it's a mix of samples, scratches and archives voices.. a dense and unique sound texture indeed!
Why Pagan Poetry? Vespertine was laying near my PC since the day I posted about Martin Console on that "What song are you listening to" thread. I just pop'ed it in my CD player today and I found again with great pleasure the stunning ability of Björk to instantly create emotion and intimacy with her voice (from singing to whispers to cry to breathing). In this register, I feel Pagan Poetry is the best of the album and the Glockenspiel melody is simple and haunting. But isn't Glockenspiel simple and haunting by nature?
That would be it for songs… which is only a small portion of music as a whole obviously
Damn... long post... I blame it on the busy or not online healers :P