Category Archives: Music

Picking just The Black Ram was a bit of a technical cheat as this record was part of the three-album, one-EP Sojourner box set Magnolia Electric Co. released that year. That said, of the four discs it’s definitely the one I listened to the most. In fact, the title track, “Will-O-The-Wisp” and “A Little At A Time” all rank in my Top 25 most played songs in iTunes. What this all probably means is that because I was pretty deep in my Magnolia fandom at the time, as a conscious act to not look like such a fanatic I ranked this album lower than I felt it deserved in my heart. In truth it’s probably a top five record.

9. Arctic Monkeys Favourite Worst Nightmare

If I’m to be completely honest, I still don’t feel I know this album all that well. I was mostly enamored with the song “505” and had approached the band with more open ears on this album because the hype train for the Monkeys had receded to the point it where wasn’t annoying anymore.

8. Two Hours Traffic Little Jabs

I listened to this record a lot for a month or two and it fits solidly in a Can-Rockpop lineage that includes Sloan, By Divine Right, Limblifter, Zuckerbaby and their ilk. Since then, though, Two Hours Traffic have become extremely irritating to me. This is because of the disproportionate amount of times iTunes tries to play their songs when I’m listening in “random” mode. I have thousands upon thousands of songs. I’ve got the full Neil Young and Bob Dylan discographies. And yet, with peculiar frequency iTunes tries to serve me up songs from this album. The only reason I can guess for this is that one of the band members had a computer engineer cousin who worked at Apple and was in the department that developed the iTunes random algorithm. It’s the only explanation and it’s definitely tempered my enjoyment.

7. Buck 65 Situation

Buck 65 seems to suffer from a bit of Rodney Dangerfield can’t-get-no-respect-ism and Situation is a pretty good example of this. A concept album focused roughly around the year 1957, the songs on Situation deftly traverse topics like crooked cops, Bogart and obscenity trials. The fact that the subject matter is so unlikely — not just for a rapper, but for any type of modern music maker — just makes Situation all the more intriguing.

6. Neil Young Live At Massey Hall 1971

This show may represent the most perfect version of “solo Neil.” It’s a historic document and a brilliant setlist. In cold scrutiny, though, it’s probably not a best of 2007 album. This ranking probably says more about how much I’m willing to jockey parameters because of my Neil love than anything else.

5. Jens Lekman Night Falls Over Kortedala

Night Falls Over Kortedala is an entirely fine album, but this #5 rank is almost entirely attributable to one song, “And I Remember Every Kiss.” A soaring orchestral ballad, the song captures all the fire, all the intensity, all the passion of that nervous, electric first kiss.

4. Cuff The Duke Sidelines Of The City

Someone recently told me Wayne Petti basically tries to copy The Inbreds’ Mike O’Neill when he’s singing. Fascinating, right? And it explains why I like Cuff The Duke. I don’t listen to this album anymore, though, and I don’t remember why I had it ranked so high.

3. Feist The Reminder

The sort of person who can remain unmoved by “My Moon My Man” is the sort of person I would look upon with great suspicion.

2. Amy Winehouse Back To Black

“Me & Mr. Jones” was really what hooked me on Back To Black. Here was this jazz singer going on about Slick Rick, plus ones and “fuckery” (which has since become a core swear word for me), all with an air of stumbling, drunken tragic romance. I was won over immediately.

A lot of the songs and albums and artists I love have something I’ll define as “turbulence of the soul.” The world, for them, is just a bit tougher, a bit more painful and a bit more difficult than it is for the normals. It was clear from the first listen of Back To Black that Winehouse was one of these people and it reflects beautifully/uncomfortably in these songs.

1. Joel Plaskett Emergency Ashtray Rock

A teenage love triangle that breaks up the band and breaks up a friendship. It seems like such a small narrative to build a concept album around, but Ashtray Rock, like a less morbid Quadrophenia, works perfectly. You feel there when the drunk teenagers party down at the Ashtray Rock and when you’ve got nothing more to say to these people… well, it’s like a grayscale closing scene capturing the back of the jean-jacketed protagonist walking down a slushy sidestreet. Alone.

Other album lists…

2015 Top Ten — SUUNS + Jerusalem In My Heart SUUNS + Jerusalem In My Heart is #1
2014 Top Ten — Sharon Van Etten’s Are We There is #1
2013 Top Ten — M.I.A.’s Matangi is #1
2012 Top Ten — Dirty Ghosts’ Metal Moon is #1
2011 Top Ten — Timber Timbre’s Creep On Creepin’ On is #1
2010 Top Ten — The Black Angels’ Phosphene Dream is #1
2009 Top Ten — Gallows’ Grey Britain is #1
2008 Top Ten — Portishead’s Third is #1
2007 Top Ten — Joel Plaskett Emergency’s Ashtray Rock is #1
2006 Top Ten — My Brightest Diamond’s Bring Me The Workhorse is #1
2005 Top Ten — Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s Howl is #1
2004 Top Ten — Morrissey’s You Are The Quarry is #1
2003 Top Ten — The Dears’ No Cities Left is #1
2002 Top Ten — Archive’s You All Look The Same To Me is #1
2001 Top Ten — Gord Downie’s Coke Machine Glow is #1
2000 Top Ten — Songs: Ohia’s The Lioness is #1
1999 Top Ten — The Boo Radleys’ Kingsize is #1
1998 Top Ten — Baxter’s Baxter is #1
1996 Top Ten — Tricky’s Maxinquaye is #1

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Tagged as Aaron's top albums, Aaron's top albums 2007, Amy Winehouse, Arctic Monkeys, Ashtray Rock, Back To Black, best albums, best albums 2007, Buck 65, Buck 65 Situation, Cuff The Duke, Favourite Worst Nightmare, Feist, Feist The Reminder, Jens Lekman, Joel Plaskett, Joel Plaskett Emergency, Little Jabs, Magnolia Electric Co., Neil Young, Neil young Massey Hall, Night Falls Over Kortedala, Sidelines Of The City, Situation, Sojourner, The Black Ram, Top albums, top albums 2007, Two Hours Traffic

by Aaron Brophy | November 29, 2014 · 7:49 pm

59 Songs Ranked: Nothing Has Changed The Very Best Of David Bowie

Nothing Has Changed

Nothing Has Changed, the recently released David Bowie “Very Best Of” chronologically lays out 59 of his songs in its three-disc deluxe version.

It also very ably illustrates the many musical diversions Bowie has taken throughout his career, whether they be zoot suit mod rock, blue-eyed soul, glam, new wave, disco, industrial or pretty much any other sub-genre which was trending at a given time.

What it doesn’t do, however, is pass much in the way of judgment.

That’s what we’re here for… namely to rank all the songs on Nothing Has Changed and therefore determine — at least within the parameters of what’s presented here — a ranking of 59 “best” Davie Bowie songs from worst to, well, best.

The Rankings:

59) “Jump They Say (radio edit)” … This sounds like the worst parts of ’90s alternative music.
58) “Absolute Beginners (single version)” … A complete non-event.
57) “Let Me Sleep Beside You”
56) “Sue (or In A Season Of Crime)” … Unearthed for Nothing Has Changed, this evokes a bad Tim Buckley impersonation.
55) “Seven (Marius De Vries mix)”
54) “Your Turn To Drive” … Infuriatingly — or perhaps appropriately — directionless.
53) “Strangers When We Meet (single version)”
52) “Where Are We Now?”
51) “Everyone Says ‘Hi’ (edit)”
50) “Buddha Of Suburbia
49) “Little Wonder (edit)” … Bowie discovers jungle. Nobody wins.
48) “Silly Boy Blue” … That short period when Bowie was a hippie.
47) “Shadow Man” … Attempting to sound like Elvis Costello is a downgrade.
46) “Sound And Vision”
45) “Dancing In The Street (with Mick Jagger)” … We’ll stick with Martha And The Vandellas.
44) “Modern Love (single version)”
43) “Blue Jean”
42) “Under Pressure (with Queen)” … A person should cease having any interest in anything Queen-related once they reach the age of 14.
41) “Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) (single version)”
40) “Time Will Crawl (MM remix)”
39) “In The Heat Of The Morning”
38) “Survive (Marius De Vries mix)”
37) “Can’t Help Thinking About Me”
36) “The Heart’s Filthy Lesson (radio edit)”
35) “Slow Burn (radio edit)”
34) “You’ve Got A Habit Of Leaving” … Standard ’60s mop-top pop.
33) “Sorrow”
32) “Drive-In Saturday”
31) “Hallo Spaceboy (PSB Remix) (with The Pet Shop Boys)”
30) “Diamond Dogs”
29) “Love Is Lost (Hello Steve Reich Mix by James Murphy for the DFA Edit)” … Remixing the songs of classic rockers can be a minefield but Murphy’s subtle, aware-of-legacy touch works here.
28) “New Killer Star (radio edit)”
27) “Thursday’s Child (radio edit)”
26) “Fashion (single version)”
25) “Rebel Rebel”
24) “Heroes (single version)” … Lennon and McCartney used to have a thing they called “Let’s write a swimming pool” — basically churning out a pandering hit for $$$. This song feels like a favour to publishers.
23) “The Man Who Sold The World” … Still golden, but Nirvana’s unplugged version probably has more passion.
22) “Wild Is The Wind (2010 Harry Maslin Mix)”
21) “Boys Keep Swinging”
20) “China Girl” (single version) … If this song was released today would (could) it be a hit? Or is it socially unacceptable now?
19) “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)”
18) “Loving The Alien (single remix)”
17) “All The Young Dudes” … Mott The Hoople are more invested when they perform it.
16) “Changes”
15) “Oh! You Pretty Things” … Probably the definition of lipstick glam Bowie.
14) “The Jean Genie (original single mix)”
13) “Golden Years (single version)”
12) “Let’s Dance (single version)” … This was annoyingly inescapable in the ’80s, but there’s an undeniable swagger to this song that you have to be a rock star to pull off.
11) “I’m Afraid Of Americans (V1) (clean edit)” … Bowie goes industrial and it works.
10) “Life On Mars? (2003 Ken Scott Mix)” … Mostly this song triggers flashbacks of DI Sam Tyler and the brilliant TV show (British version only) of the same name.
9) “Young Americans (2007 Tony Visconti mix single edit)” … There’s a clip of Bowie performing this song live in the 20 Feet From Stardom documentary. After you watch that it all makes sense.
8) “Ashes To Ashes (single version)”
7) “This Is Not America (with The Pat Metheny Group)” (3.51) … There’s a pensive feeling here that probably represents Bowie’s best musical rumination on America.
6) “Ziggy Stardust”

The Top Five:

5) “Fame”

The blunt jabbing qualities of this John Lennon-assisted song perfectly capture a sort of rage Bowie didn’t often display.

4) “Liza Jane”

Originally recorded as Davie Jones And The King Bees in the early days before Bowie became “Bowie,” this song has that same magical quality that The High Numbers (who became The Who) displayed on “Zoot Suit,” or The Rolling Stones on their early blues covers. When you listen you can feel there’s more than just a standard rock ‘n’ roll song there.

3) “Moonage Daydream”

It’s not until an exercise like this that you realize how preoccupied with the cosmos Bowie was… or how great many of these trips were.

2) “Starman (original single mix)”

This song represents the ultimate romantic idealization of David Bowie.

1) “Space Oddity”

The best attribute of “Space Oddity” is the way it inflames the imagination. There are few songs, be they by Bowie or anyone, which can take you on a journey this grand.