Viva Batista

My definition of a perfect song?  When I first hear it, it seizes my soul and won’t let go, and I’m compelled to listen to it over and over again–maybe dozens of times before the spell breaks–and when I hear it again in the future, it’s difficult, perhaps impossible not to listen to it all the way through. A few I’ve
encountered in recent years:

1% of One – Stephen Malkmus

7/4 (Shoreline) – Broken Social Scene

Button Up Buttercup – Haywood

Cotton – The Mountain Goats

(Don’t Fear) The Reaper – Blue Oyster Cult

Forget – Mission of Burma

Gold Soundz – Pavement

Guns on the Roof – The Clash

Hanging on the Telephone – The Nerves

The Heinrich Maneuver – Interpol

The Hollows – Matt Pond PA

Hotel Bar in Moscow – Haywood

I Will Dare – The Replacements

Obstacle 1 – Interpol

Rainy Streets – Superchunk

Sea Anemone – Jets to Brazil

Slow Hands – Interpol

Sometimes – My Bloody Valentine

The Sweat Descends – Les Savy Fav

Sweet Avenue – Jets to Brazil

Tears Dry on Their Own – Amy Winehouse (Go ahead, sue me.)

That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate – Mission of Burma

T.V. Eye – Wylde Rattz (Sacrilege, I know.  Again, sue me.)

The Water – Feist

You Can Make Him Like You – The Hold Steady