I am a collector, and as such, I feel a need for completeness. I hate to feel left out of something grand and important. In pursuit of these ever elusive treasures, I bark up many a wrong tree, misled by a succulent plump cherry or peach at the bottom, only to find the rest is filled with lemons. I know I was not the only misguided teen who bought the godawful Razorblade Suitcase because of the killer song (and video for) "Greedy Fly." (It was only as my taste expanded that I realized why that one track was such a homerun: Bush just slowed down the riff from the first 17 seconds of Sonic Youth's "Silver Rocket.")
But as someone with a large music collection and now iconoclastic taste, I hate just as much to see critical lists recommending the decade's best "singles." In this decade of downloading the concept of only listening to the track that was deemed radio worthy by some A&R rep is ludicrous. Any discerning music fan can give handfuls of examples of albums in which the best track never had the dubious honor of being released by its lonesome, even on albums that saw five other lesser tracks sold solo.
And perhaps what I hate most of all, as the savvy collector looking to maximize his purchases and never get left out, is when a critic knows enough to recommend individual album tracks rather than singles, but those tracks are from stellar albums. Did you ever get a mixtape with a single track from The Downward Spiral or The Wall jammed in? Yes, "The Becoming" and "Goodbye, Blue Sky" are incredible tracks. No, they will never work well outside of the context of their respective albums. No matter how good a playlist is, how well it flows and juxtaposes for new revelations, hearing "Paranoid Android" just has me lamenting missing "Airbag" and humming "Subterranean Homesick Alien" over the beginning of your next track. Even if your playlist is so good that I download all the tracks and assemble it on my iPod, when I hear "Ada" I'm just going to jump over to my artists' list, find The National, and listen to all of Boxer, all the while wondering why you didn't pick "Fake Empire" or "Brainy" if you had to choose just one!
Given all of these personal peeves, but acknowledging that any encapsulation of this decade deserves a diverse downloadable list of songs rather than physical long-playing products, I have assembled the following megamix. You can think of this as me doing all your kazaa crate-diving, all your limewire lemon-picking dirty work for you. (And none of these tracks are mistitled, miscredited, DJ tagged (one), virus-infected, or become an ear-piercing screech after the first fifteen seconds. I believe in paying for art.) In almost all cases here, I regretted purchasing the albums these are culled from, but that one song made me do it! In a few cases, the albums that housed the track are actually good to great, i.e., Silent Shout and The Trials of Van Occupanther, but I still find myself only gravitating to those parts of the iPod for the songs below before freedom of choice has me on the move again. And a couple of these are the previously maligned singles, or remixes, with no album proper to be missing. Regardless, your inner collector can rest assured that these songs fully stand on their own.
And if, as is the very point of a mix, you hear something you absolutely love, might I suggest seeking out one of that artist's other albums?
But as someone with a large music collection and now iconoclastic taste, I hate just as much to see critical lists recommending the decade's best "singles." In this decade of downloading the concept of only listening to the track that was deemed radio worthy by some A&R rep is ludicrous. Any discerning music fan can give handfuls of examples of albums in which the best track never had the dubious honor of being released by its lonesome, even on albums that saw five other lesser tracks sold solo.
And perhaps what I hate most of all, as the savvy collector looking to maximize his purchases and never get left out, is when a critic knows enough to recommend individual album tracks rather than singles, but those tracks are from stellar albums. Did you ever get a mixtape with a single track from The Downward Spiral or The Wall jammed in? Yes, "The Becoming" and "Goodbye, Blue Sky" are incredible tracks. No, they will never work well outside of the context of their respective albums. No matter how good a playlist is, how well it flows and juxtaposes for new revelations, hearing "Paranoid Android" just has me lamenting missing "Airbag" and humming "Subterranean Homesick Alien" over the beginning of your next track. Even if your playlist is so good that I download all the tracks and assemble it on my iPod, when I hear "Ada" I'm just going to jump over to my artists' list, find The National, and listen to all of Boxer, all the while wondering why you didn't pick "Fake Empire" or "Brainy" if you had to choose just one!
Given all of these personal peeves, but acknowledging that any encapsulation of this decade deserves a diverse downloadable list of songs rather than physical long-playing products, I have assembled the following megamix. You can think of this as me doing all your kazaa crate-diving, all your limewire lemon-picking dirty work for you. (And none of these tracks are mistitled, miscredited, DJ tagged (one), virus-infected, or become an ear-piercing screech after the first fifteen seconds. I believe in paying for art.) In almost all cases here, I regretted purchasing the albums these are culled from, but that one song made me do it! In a few cases, the albums that housed the track are actually good to great, i.e., Silent Shout and The Trials of Van Occupanther, but I still find myself only gravitating to those parts of the iPod for the songs below before freedom of choice has me on the move again. And a couple of these are the previously maligned singles, or remixes, with no album proper to be missing. Regardless, your inner collector can rest assured that these songs fully stand on their own.
And if, as is the very point of a mix, you hear something you absolutely love, might I suggest seeking out one of that artist's other albums?
Diamonds in the Decade's Rough...
P.S. lala, love of my life, does not have every song on the planet available for free online listening (yet). You can view the complete playlist (as well as many that didn't quite make the cut) as an google doc spreadsheet here.
