An interesting paradigm. From another blog. This one.
What would these songs be for me?
I dunno. I already have a hard time classifying the 100 best songs I've ever heard. One reason for this is that any song can be meaningful depending on the context. Another variable is that I keep discovhearing very good music every week... So, I could put a more apt title to this rubrique : The Ten Songs That Changed My Life Forever After.
To this day, these are :
1) Fugazi - Repeater
This song has to be one of the most significant leap for a hardcore band, a move that would help me get away from the walloping pop-punk LA bands and discover emo.
2) Girls Against Boys - Let Me Come Back
One guitar, two basses, one drum, one shouted murmur. Yes, hardcore can be sexy, I found out the hard way.
3) The Replacements - The Ledge
A fucking depressing song for the 16 friends I had that committed suicide. "I'm the boy they can't ignore/ for the first time in my life, I'm sure". The only time I wanted to commit suicide I heard that song and everytime I get blue it sticks right back.
4) Sigur Ros - Svefn-N-Englar
A song for my boy. An angel was born and is now living with me. I was changed. He changed me. I changed him (a few times).
5) Rodan - Shiner
So densely intense, aggressive and emotional it beats all other "death metal" acts. And this is not even metal. And there's a girl on bass. Louisville's finest never made an album after that and my standards for music were once again raised.
6) Cowboy Junkies - Misguided Angel
A "shiver down the spines" song. These Torontonians turned me on to dramatic and tense moody atmosphere right in the middle of my noise phase (White Zombie, Sonic Youth, Band Of Susans, Live Skull). Quite a feat. Thanks Margot.
7 ) Lungfish - Nothing Is Easy
Fifteen years and this song is still so f---ing strong... Made me cry, makes me cry. "I know the sky is falling/ nothing is easy, anyhow/ I know I can't hold it"
8 ) 7 Seconds - We're Gonna Fight
Yes, we're gonna fight against stupid metalheads, their hairsprayed empty heads, their silly make-up and the pink spandex invasion. But we're also gonna fight against people forcing us to drink beer and smoke pot.
9 ) Mudhoney - Here Comes Sickness
In my daddy's caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar! Hey, psychedelic punk doesn't get much better than this one. Superfuzz makes me drool. I discovered Subpop and then fell in love with grunge for about two years...
10 ) Soundgarden - Hands All Over
I think that this is one of their best songs ever. The bass line is disarmingly simple but the groove is so infectious. Makes me want to bite the flowers on the wall. One of the best stoner/metal songs before I got to know Kyuss and Electric Wizard.
-- BONUS --
Well, didn't think I would get away without a French song eh? WRONG!
The Young Gods did an entirely French album in 1989 (yes, that year again. Not my fault music was almost all good that year. Even Madonna, David Bowie, and Peter Gabriel, so think about it!) and that song... A Voivod sample... Longue Route... That song spoke to me like no other song before and it still is one of the best French song, in a fresh sound. Fast, loud, glitchy, electronics with a real live drummer... I should've learned to play dem drums...