On my favourite songs of all time

“Tender” by Blur is my favourite song of all time right now. I first heard it about a month ago and I listen to it twice a day. It's a beautiful campfire singalong that lasts over seven minutes and never gets boring for even a second. I especially love the part when the gospel choir comes in and sings “Come on come on come on, get through it,” and I also really love the part when Damon Albarn puts on his Ringo voice to sing, “Love’s the greatest thing we have,” and the part when the guitarist who is not Damon Albarn sings “Oh my baby! Oh m baby! Oh why? Oh my.”


“Good Intentions Paving Company” by Joanna Newsom was my favourite song of all time last month. I first heard it again two months ago and I now listen to it once a day. There’s no harp on it, but there’s lots of piano, clicky clacky drums and percussion, some strings, some banjo, a trombone solo, and multiple Joanna Newsoms singing cool, warbly harmonies. Some people don’t like Joanna Newsom’s voice, or the fact that she looks like Jean Chretien when she sings, but those people probably voted for Rob Ford. Also, they don’t know anything about music or haven’t actually listened to Joanna Newsom very much, because she basically sounds like Joni Mitchell, and if you don’t like Joni Mitchell, you hate Canada and are possibly a terrorist.


“Over and Over” by MC5 was my favourite song two months ago. I now listen to it once every two days. I didn’t realize how awesome this band was until I got their second and third records this year--they’re like Live at Leeds with more tambourine, more politics and less drum fills. This is the kind of raw, unhinged tuneage that kind of makes me rue the fact that the computer is now our most important musical instrument. The singer, who is extremely ugly, has one of those great screaming white soul voices that would have no chance in the auto-tune era and his slightly less ugly band plays with that classic early seventies tight-but-loose feel that’s all but impossible to pull off in the click track-dominated, cut and paste musical world of 2010.


“Stylo” by Gorillaz was my favourite song of all time three months ago. I now listen to it once in a while. This is the kind of perfectly constructed, perfectly produced track that kind of makes me delighted about the fact that the computer is now our most important musical instrument. I especially love the part when the backup singers start to chant “Overload! Overload! Comin’ on to the...”, and I also really love the part when Bobby Womack (who is probably not Damon Albarn) sings “If this love is electric, it’ll be flowing on the streets. Night after night, just to get through the week. Sometimes it’s hard. Right now!" I also really love that Gorillaz is now a real band instead of cartoons, because Damon Albarn is a genius.