
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