The Top 15 Title Tracks of the Minute!

So if you're anything like me, you may suffer from the cripplingly debilitating syndrome I like to call "Music ADD." Symptoms include nervous "Shuffling" and panicked "Randomizing" while barely halfway into tracks, often leading to feverish sweats and sore fingers. I recently made the horrifically poor decision of purchasing a Griffin RoadTrip, the delightful device that you plug into your car's cigarette lighter to serve as iPod charger, player, and holder. With over 4000 songs fully loaded into that sleek, gorgeous ibod, I was ready to hit the road.

It's a miracle I'm still alive with no accidents as of yet--knock on wood. My condition makes it nearly impossible to drive between traffic lights without at least one impulse to change the song, and I don't mean within an album. I constantly decide that, say, The Smiths are too moody for the Summer, or that I want to save my Bjork for the Fjall. Thus, in order to save myself from a mangling or a maiming or other such m-ings, I've decided to revert to old habits that I had sworn off once I had purchased that damned RoadTrip.

I'm making MIXES. Only now, I can call them "Playlists".

This first, and potentially only, mix is one of Title Tracks. For those of you who don't know, a Title Track is the song on an album of the same name. For example, there is the epic "Let It Be" off of--you guessed it--Let it Be. The Title Track is arguably the clincher of the album. The opener grabs you, the closer sends you off, and the title track--many albums simply don't have one--is the Raison d'Etre (for those of you who are wondering, I have no clue what that means, but I'm pretty sure it's French for "clincher").

Finally, it's the moment we've all been waiting for: IGIF's Top 15 Title Tracks of the Minute!!!

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[MP3] Ani DiFranco - Little Plastic Castle
As much as I love music blogs, I am constantly disappointed with how often people like Ani DiFranco are ignored. Ani is one of the most prolific, most prophetic songwriters of our generation, and she is constantly overlooked! Our friend Louie did a wonderful job covering the incredibly talented Lauryn Hill, and now it's time that someone gave Ani a similar treatment. As the title track, "Little Plastic Castle" opens my favorite Ani album with a delicious crescendo. The track leads you in with the usual Ani fare, a tender guitar riff under casually brilliant lyrics. After a perfect amount of that, the muted trumpets come in, and a frolickin' good time ensues. I'm not gonna say much more, because--cheesy as it is--this song totally speaks for itself.

[MP3] Bonnie "Prince" Billy - I See a Darkness
Well, to begin: if you're ever having a shitty day, avoid too much Bonnie "Prince" Billy. Or perhaps that's exactly when you should listen to this mastermind of emotion. However, I have just discovered a STARTLING PIECE OF INFORMATION!!! This song is NOT an original, but a cover of a Johnny Cash song (in which Will Oldham sings backup vocals). And for those of you keeping track, I just went a little crazy with the bold and italics. But let's get back to the matter at hand. A lot of people don't like Will Oldham for one reason or another--his voice, his painfully depressing songs, his somewhat overwrought lyrics--but it's hard to deny the beauty of this song. Will Oldham seems to find the true emotion behind the original, and his version is arguably more sincere than the Man in Black's. I See a Darkness is one of the most gripping albums of the past ten years, and this song is a clear indicator of the album's chilling style and profound emotional impact.

[MP3] Cat Power - Free
This song is a rejection of the attitude of both rock stars and rock fans, the "Fuck You, I Don't Care" attitude that has, in my opinion, been a huge detriment to live music. This is Chan Marshall's wish, that people leave behind preconceived notions of the Bigger-Than-Life star and just let the music happen, come success or failure, praise or embarrassment.

[MP3] The Clash - London Calling
The opener, the title track, the call to arms: nothing says The Clash like "London Calling". I've heard it said that London Calling's cover art is the best in rock history, and I'd have to agree. The song is addictive, prophetic, and timeless. The pulsing beat, the rolling drums, and the haunting lyrics combine to make one of the most exquisite punk anthems of all time.

[MP3] David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
I'd like to take a moment to expose your webmaster, Connor. This year, I invested in a videogame called GUITAR HERO. We would spend hours--literally, hours--playing in my room. And there is nothing more exciting than riffing to the chorus of "Ziggy Stardust". I don't think anyone really knows what the hell Bowie is talking about in this song, but the story is just so damn cool that you believe Ziggy is real and is the sexiest man/woman/Martian to have ever picked up a guitar. The chords are punched into you with such amazing precision that it's hard to ever really pick up on all the nuances of the piece--the amazing guitar riffs going on over the chords, the bass lines that walk all over the verses, the cymbals that constantly crash under the hypnotic vocals. And, finally, if you listen closely, there's nothing sexier than when David Bowie gasps after the line "Ziggy sucked up into his mind"--Ahhh.

[MP3] The Elected - Sun, Sun, Sun
This is one for all you Rilo Kiley/"Salute Your Shorts" fans out there. The Elected is the side project of Blake Sennett, the male singer/guitarist from RK and also Ronnie Pinsky from "Salute Your Shorts". With a stronger emphasis on the country half of alt-country, The Elected's newest album Sun, Sun, Sun is filled with some really excellent tunes that got me past the four-headed Hell beast that is Finals Week. This track starts with a very folksy guitar progression over a piano riff. Then comes Blake with his throaty whisper-singing, and the emofest begins. However, the song is absolutely sincere and it builds so well that it hits you in just the right way. It's not abrasive like Bright Eyes nor is it "whiny" like Dashboard--it's just right.

[MP3] Elvis Costello & The Imposters - The Delivery Man
On his most recent album with The Imposters, Elvis Costello took several steps away from his punk past and moved closer towards his jazzier, blusier future. This album was also his first released after his marriage to Diana Krall, so the calmer, more "proper" Elvis is to be expected. However, it is far from disappointing. The lyrics are incredibly clever, the trademark Elvis Costello wail is still there, and the melody is, to say the least, awesome. This song is a narrative, and it wraps you up completely in its storyline.

[MP3] The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1
What do I really need to say about this song, this album, or this band that hasn't already been said? The song has a playful badassery that echoes the style of the album, and it showcases the songwriting brilliance of Oklahoman Wayne Coyne. One of the coolest albums I've ever listened to, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots will consume your soul with its addictive songs and it won't ever let go--sort of like that overpossessive ex. By the way, that will be the worst ending to a paragraph you will ever encounter unless you have read anything written by Dan Brown.

[MP3] Jeff Buckley - Grace
On the list of greatest Rock 'n' Roll voices of all time, Jeff Buckley has to be up on the top ten. His amazingly sweet falsetto mixed with his wailing twang are legendary, and "Grace" completely showcases the range of his talents: his guitarplaying, his songwriting, and, most significantly, his singing. The album itself is one of my favorites because of its timelessness. It's an incredible collection of pop magic, with one of the most fantastic voices since Freddy Mercury. With a title track like "Grace", Buckley showcases his angers and frustrations but also his ability to write an amazing song off an amazing album that will influence musicians for a long time to come.

[MP3] Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Neko Case has one of the most beautiful voices I've ever heard. I am a huge fan of everything Neko Case, whether it's incredibly country or ridiculously Canadian (not that Canada is ridiculous--I just don't know how else to describe the New Pornographers--epic, rollicking, ironically anthemic?). The title track off of her newest album starts off with some of the most imaginative lyrics I've heard in a long time--they're visually engrossing and, with a voice like hers, completely haunting. By the time she actually gets to the chorus, you're completely intoxicated with Neko. The small taste of brightness in the chorus makes you fall totally under her spell, and as soon as the song ends, you're left aching for something more.

[MP3] Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
There are a few artists in my life that have completely reshaped the way I listen to music. There's Tom Waits, The Decemberists, Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, The Smiths...but then there's Neutral Milk Hotel. In The Aeroplane Over the Sea, a recommendation from Connor, came as a burst of "Holy Shit!" into my life this past year, and I couldn't get it out of my life. I was infused with the crazy trumpet lines, the darkened ballads of WWII atrocities, and the unforgettable, indescribable vocals of Jeff Magnum. The title track of the album is a song of hope, of the past touching the future, and of endurance. It is the refusal to give up in the darkest of times, the denouncement of all things morbid, and the recapturing of all that is beautiful. In an album written partially for his dreams about Anne Frank ("There are lights in the clouds/ Anna's ghost all around"), this song stands as a buffer between the album's bright beginning, the darkening middle, and the ultimately beautiful end.

[MP3] The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic
More Neko Case! But also: Dan Bejar of Destroyer, AC Newman, Kathryn Calder of Immaculate Machine--the list goes on. Being the opener of Mass Romantic, this song was the first song I ever heard by The New Pornographers. I was immediately hooked. There was no way for me to classify the music or to quantify the instrumentations I was hearing; the harmonies were amazing, the A section was as amazing as the B section as the C section, and I was especially intoxicated with Neko Case's amazing voice. Before last year's Twin Cinema, Mass Romantic was one of the best albums I'd ever heard. The New Pornographers seem to only be getting better with each new release, and I can't wait to hear more from them in the future.

[MP3] Radiohead - The Bends
Wow. What is there to say about one of the best songs off of one of the best albums of all time? As an album, The Bends holds true to Radiohead's grunge roots while moving towards the experimental tendencies that are so inherently "Radiohead." As soon as you hear Thom's wail over that leading guitar riff, you know you're in for a musical treat. The music rises and falls in epic waves, taking you on an ebrasive journey that makes you really wonder "Where do we go from here?" Lyrically, the song seems to be the ancestor of Radiohead classics like "No Surprises", "2+2=5", and "Karma Police". The Bends is arguably Radiohead's best album, and this song catches the malaise and impatience perfectly.

[MP3] Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
First, a confession: "More Adventurous" is my least favorite Rilo Kiley album. It's a part of that vicious cycle we constantly encounter in which we declare an album to be unpleasant and thus never listen to it, so I can't really defend that view. It just never grabbed me like any of the others did. This song, however, along with "Does He Love You?" are the album's masterpieces and rival any other RK songs in terms of beauty. As a Title Track, "More Adventurous" serves as the alt-country anthem on the album, blending soul, twang, and poetic lyricism with a wit and sensibility that seems more reminiscent of Bright Eyes than of, say, his most recent collaborator, Emmylou Harris.

[MP3] Tom Waits - Closing Time
Very few people in this world are cooler than Tom Waits. As this song opens, the horns bring you in to one of the best closers I've ever heard. The bassline is simple and yet lovely, as is the piano section. In fact, that's the way I'd classify this song--lovely. It's too bad Tom doesn't sing anything in this song, but if you've listened through Closing Time, you know full well just how astounding he is. The piece is off one of his oldest albums, but it's still so quintessentially Tom Waits. It has an aura of misty nostalgia all over it, and it's really magical. The influences of blues, jazz, soul, gospel, and folk all come together and create one of the most incredible albums in music's history.

So there you have it, folks. My list for the Top 15 Title Tracks of the Minute! It's long, it's ugly, but it gets the job done. But here's my idea: What are your ideas for the best title tracks ever??? I know I left out a lot. I left out "Let It Be", for example. I left out "Back in Black". I left out a lot of punk, a lot of jazz, a lot of classic rock. What are your picks?

Hope you enjoyed the Top 15 Title Tracks of the Minute, and keep on rocking in the free world!

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