Overlooked Songs

Volume 25, Track 14

“The Suburbs (Continued)” by Arcade Fire (2010) Clocking in at under a minute and a half “The Suburbs (Continued)” is the final track of the album and its long fadeout is a great bridge back to “The Suburbs” and its sudden, cymbal-crashing introduction (if one were to listen to this album on repeat). Additionally, “The [...]

Volume 25, Track 13

“Half Light I/Half Light II (No Celebration)” by Arcade Fire (2010) [Editor's note: excluding the introductions, the posts on this site adhere to an unofficial cap of 300 words. (Obviously, there have been some instances where the 300 word limit was exceeded but on the whole the song posts are kept within that limit.) But [...]

Volume 25, Track 12

“Empty Room/City With No Children” by Arcade Fire (2010) When Sarah Neufeld’s violin becomes a foreground presence and Régine Chassagne sings lead vocals Aracade Fire turns into a completely different band, which is evidenced on “Empty Room” the fifth track on The Suburbs. “Empty Room” begins with Neufeld semi-manically working her violin for about five [...]

Volume 25, Track 11

“The Suburbs” by Arcade Fire (2010) [Editor's note: excluding the introductions, the posts on this site adhere to an unofficial cap of 300 words. (Obviously, there have been some instances where the 300 word limit was exceeded but on the whole the song posts are kept within that limit.) But every once in a blue [...]

Volume 25, Track 10

“The Scarecrow” by Pink Floyd (1967) The penultimate track on The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, “The Scarecrow” employs some percussion by Nick Mason that can make one think of King Arthur’s coconut-handling assistant in The Holy Grail, and a guitar by Syd Barrett that makes me think that maybe Kurt Cobain or Stephen [...]

Volume 25, Track 9

“The Gnome” by Pink Floyd (1967) “I want to tell you a story/About a little man if I can/A gnome named Grimble Gromble/And little gnomes stay in their homes/Eating, sleeping, drinking their wine”—so begins “The Gnome,” the mellow track that is born out of the spaced out and frenzied audio channel-switching “Interstellar Overdrive.” Three things [...]

Volume 25, Track 8

“Astronomy Domine” by Pink Floyd (1967) Clocking in at a hair past four minutes and ten seconds, “Astronomy Domine,” the opening track on Pink Floyd’s debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, sets up the atmosphere perfectly on this seminal psychedelic masterpiece. Filled with a myriad of textures like blips and bleeps and [...]

Volume 25, Track 7

“Drugs (Electricity)” by Talking Heads (1982) Another example of how a live performance of a song can sound more fleshed out and organic than its studio counterpart, this performance of “Drugs (Electricity)”[1] is really quite astonishing to listen to. This song has so many little textures and blips and big atmosphere residing inside of it [...]

Volume 25, Track 6

“Cities” by Talking Heads (1982) The second of two songs from the 2004 reissue to appear on this Volume, this recording of “Cities” is from a show at Emerald City in Cherry Hill, NJ in November of 1980. “Cities” originally appeared on Fear of Music and its upbeat catchy-ness made it a perfect song to [...]

Volume 25, Track 5

“Memories (Can’t Wait)” by Talking Heads (1982) The studio version of “Memories (Can’t Wait)” is found at the end of side one on Fear of Music, the band’s third album. Musically, this song has a heavy and ominous feel to it and that feeling is made manifest by the lyrics’ ability to suggest that the [...]

Volume 25, Track 4

“The Big Country” by Talking Heads (1982) Originally released on the album More Songs About Buildings and Food this live version of “The Big Country” that was recorded from a performance at the Park West in Chicago in 1978 finds Talking Heads expanding this song into much more lush territory than the studio recording. To [...]

Volume 25, Track 3

“Time After Time (AnnElise)” by R.E.M. (1984) “Time After Time (AnnElise)” is the track that ends side one and it starts off immediately with a Middle Eastern-ish wave of a guitar riff and while this sound reappears throughout the track, “Time After Time (AnnElise)” is a pretty standard rock song. What makes this song interesting, [...]

Volume 25, Track 2

“So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry)” by R.E.M. (1984) I was this close to picking “So. Central Rain” as the Pantheon Song entry for R.E.M. a little over a year ago. “Radio Free Europe” eventually won out, but I still found a way to work in a reference to this song in that post. Even though [...]

Volume 25, Track 1

“7 Chinese Bros.” by R.E.M. (1984) Reckoning is a damn fine album. It is one of the few albums that I spent an inordinate amount of time debating with myself as to whether I should include it on the list of greatest rock albums I wrote a few years back. I’ll either always regret leaving [...]

Volume 25 Introduction

My initial intention for Volume 25 was to do something large and big, something befitting for a silver volume such as this. My original idea for this volume was to write about songs that eclipsed the 10-minute mark. I put together the list of songs and everything. Everything was ready to go. And then I [...]

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