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| jasonmayer.net | |
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top 30 songs of the 1990s |
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The Top Ten |
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1. One - U2
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2. Misunderstood - Wilco
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3. Windfall - Son Volt
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4. Fade Into You - Mazzy Star
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5. Let Down - Radiohead
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6. Disarm - Smashing Pumpkins
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7. Not Dark Yet - Bob Dylan
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8. Whiskey Bottle - Uncle Tupelo
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9. Only Shallow - My Bloody Valentine
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10. Off He Goes - Pearl Jam
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The Best of the Rest |
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11. Man on the Moon - R.E.M. 12. 2:45 A.M. - Elliott Smith 13. Somebody Pick Up My Pieces - Willie Nelson 14. Nutshell - Alice in Chains 15. A Shot in the Arm - Wilco 16. Long Road - Pearl Jam 17. Hotwax - Beck 18. Mary Jane's Last Dance - Tom Petty 19. Gun - Uncle Tupelo 20. One of Us - Joan Osborne
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21. Karma Police - Radiohead 22. Sunken Treasure - Wilco 23. You Don't Know How it Feels - Tom Petty 24. Yellow Ledbetter - Pearl Jam 25. Needle in the Hay - Elliott Smith 26. Shoot You Dead - Slobberbone 27. Lonely Feeling - Robert Earl Keen 28. Lucky - Radiohead 29. The Living Bubba - Drive-By Truckers 30. Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space - Spiritualized |
Bono
and U2 at their absolute best - writing meaningful, emotional lyrics and
delivering it in that trademark U2-style. This was a no-brainer for
me.
My
favorite band today. This song grabs you by the throat to start
their second album and doesn't let go. And when Jeff Tweedy launches
into his barrage of "Nothings" on stage, there isn't a better
concert-going experience.
The
perfect driving song. It captures the feel of being on the road
perfectly with its second verse about "catching an all night
station/somewhere in Louisiana." When Jay Farrar is on,
this is the quality of song he can produce. Sounds like heaven,
indeed.
The
perfect marriage of an incredible voice and a hauntingly beautiful
melody. It's impossible to listen to this song and not have an
emotional reaction to it. You can make your own interpretation, but
I've always viewed it as an unrequited love song. Absolutely
gorgeous song.
Radiohead
is easily one of my top 5 bands, and because of that, it's always hard to
pick a favorite song. More and more, though, I find myself coming
back to this one. The best song on the best album of the 90s, and it
fits well with the themes of paranoia and detachment on the rest of O.K.
Computer.
As
I've said before, most of these songs weren't appreciated until after the
decade that spawned them. This is the biggest exception. I
remember listening to this album, and this song especially. An angry
song that is made even more powerful with its great melody and Corgan's
delivery of the lyrics.
Bob
Dylan is the greatest living songwriter and this track off his final
masterpiece proves it as he faces the spectre of his own death. I
discovered this song and album in the late 90s at the perfect time for
me. I was about as down and depressed as I had ever been, and Dylan
spoke to me like no other.
Probably
the most influential band of the decade and the one band that I do wish I
could say I knew then. This is the best song of their landmark debut
album that starts off slow and plaintive before rocking your ass
off. Jay Farrar was the superior talent at this stage of his and
Tweedy's careers. But that would change at the end of the decade a
few years after Tupelo broke up.
Is
this an aural representation of sex? Could be. But I do know
that the back-and-forth melody featuring an assault of fuzzed out guitars
with slowed-down, barely-there lyrics blows me away everytime. I
have that opening riff stuck in my head for days after hearing it.
And it's on another one of the best albums of the decade.
I've
always tended to like Pearl Jam's slower side a little more, which is why
this song stands out to me. Eddie sounds great here singing about
himself here and is there a truer or more pointed lyric than "Nothing's
changed but the surrounding bullshit/That has grown"?