Среда 28 Мар 2012, 18:52

edit: 01/06/12 had to make this a top 25, rather than what was a top 20, as some songs deserve better than being mere "special mentions". The top 10-25 is sure to be rearranged eventually, I mean the dark horse 'Quiet' is unlike any other SP song, let's be honest, and 'Try, Try, Try' has a powerful message–especially the music video. Again this won't be easy…

This was near impossible to do! There are just so many great SP songs; the musical landscape they carved is so dense that you could see the band in an almost endless spectrum. My impression of SP has changed considerably, albeit rapidly, over the couple years that I discovered them. Without a doubt one of the greatest bands ever and personally my favourite (for 'Disarm' and the MCIS album alone). Songs with ' / ' between them are tied for sounding like the other half of each other; so here are my favourites, consisting of strength & quality, including the lyrics I can relate most strongly to (ones emboldened somewhat more so):

1. disarm Disarm you with a smile, and cut you like you want me to cut that little child inside of me and such a part of you + I used to be a little boy, so old in my shoes - and what I choose is my choice/voice, what's a boy supposed to do? + the killer in me is the killer in you
2. bullet with butterfly wings Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage!! + tell me I'm the only one + I still believe that I cannot be saved
3. mayonaise Fool enough to almost be it, cool enough to not quite see it; doomed + No more promise, no more sorrow - no longer will I follow, can anybody hear me - I just want to be me; when I can, I will
4. fuck you (an ode to no one) I disconnect the me in me + this message is for anyone who dares to hear a fool + destroy the mind, destroy the body, but you cannot destroy the heart / X.Y.U. Into the eyes of the Jackal I say kaboom!! Now we begin descent, to where we've never been; there is no going back - this wasn't meant to last; this is a hell on earth - we are meant to serve, and she will never learn / Tales of a Scorched Earth I lie just to be real, and I'd die just to feel, why do the same old things keep on happening? Because beyond my hopes there are no reasons; everybody's lost just waiting to be found; everyone's a thought just waiting to fade; so fuck it all cause I don't care!
5. today Bored of the chore of saving face + I want to turn you on
6. tonight, tonight You know you're never sure, but you're sure you could be right - if you held yourself up to the light + believe in me as I believe in you tonight
7. soma I'm all by myself as I've always felt, I betray my chance + caught in a ruse of fools + fulfill a promise made of tin
8. geek usa I can't believe it when they're saying it's alright + the disappointed disappear - like they were never here + words can't define what I feel inside, who needs them!
9. cherub rock Freak out, give in; doesn't matter what you thought you knew + who wants honey - as long as there's money / rocket I torch my soul to show the world that I am pure deep inside my heart
10. zero Wanna go for a ride? + emptiness is loneliness, and loneliness is cleanliness, and cleanliness is godliness, and god is empty just like me + intoxicated with the madness, I'm in love with my sadness / bodies No one hurts like you!!
11. 1979 We don't even care to shake these ever-blues + forgotten and absorbed to the earth below / perfect We can't help but feel that something has been lost
12. muzzle I fear that I am ordinary just like everyone + and I knew the emptiness of youth + and I knew the silence of the world
13. thru the eyes of ruby The night has come to hold us young
14. hummer Faith lies in the ways of sin + when you decide that your life is a prize + shame my tongue, so fat with promise all along
15. spaceboy I don't need, I don't care + any way you choose me, it won't be wrong
16. to forgive Holding back the fool again - I forget to forget, nothing is important
17. here's no why In your sad machines - you'll forever stay, desperate and displeased
18. suffer All that you suffer is all that you are + drink from the reasons that hold you alive + will you wait, yes I'll wait, I will wait for you
19. hello kitty kat My love is weakness, my love is oh so wrong, my love is sadness, my love is oh so strong
20. the everlasting gaze Under the weight of your desires, you always find your way
21. quiet For years I've been sleeping; helpless; couldn't tell a soul + be ashamed, of the mess you've made; my eyes never forget, you see
22. try, try, try Pop tart, what's our mission - do we know, but never listen + we are still alive, try to hold on; and we have survived, try to hold on; and no one should deny, we tried to hold on to the pulse of a feedback current - into the flow of encrypted movement - slap-back kills the ancient remnants, that try to hold on
23. stumbleine Nobody nowhere understands anything about me and all my dreams lost at sea + misspent youth, faking up a rampage - to hold off the real slaves
24. eye Is it any wonder I can't sleep? All I have is all you gave to me; is it any wonder I found peace through you? + turn to the gates of heaven; to myself, be damned; turn away from light; it's not enough, just a touch
25. behold! the night mare All you have to do is run away, and steal yourself from me, become a mystery to gaze into; you're so cruel in all you do, but still I believe, I believe in you + so may you come with your own knives - you'll never take me alive; with all the force of what is true - is there nothing I can do? + And the night mare rides on…

Special mentions (in chronological order): daughter, slunk, drown, siva, sweet sweet, soothe, love, where boys fear to tread, beautiful, ava adore, glass and the ghost children, with every light, here's to the atom bomb, saturnine

They went from disguised "cherubims" (Siamese Dream), AFTER tripping acid and creating alternative art (Gish), with underlying rage being "rats in a cage" (MCIS), yet somehow managing to maintain 'Perfect' coherency (Adore), in what the Smashing Pumpkins were soon enough becoming 'Glass and the Ghost Children' revealers 'With Every Light' (Machina). That's what I call enlightenment.

Notes: my favourite of the "power three" at #4 is 'An Ode to No One' 'cos it's like a roller coaster ride that never gets old! I put these three together because to me they're something of a mind endurance; just try not to lose your mind thinking about them! The lyrics are actually quite spontaneous sounding and sometimes laughable ("I am made of shamrocks"?), but it's the effect of the songs that are powerful. In fact, I hear the lyrics differently to what's supposedly written, but I guess that's the beauty of song… you make your own impressions! These are good tunes for when you're fuckin' angry–and not in the passive-aggressive sense!

My next top songs will be by British, under-the-radar 3-piece, alt./indie rock institution Feeder; once my favourite band–before discovering SP.