Can you hear me? From the depths of the library come reviews from the 'chairman of the bored'.
We've got popular, indie classic tracks - you name it! Anything and everything from the big wide world of music; albums, singles, artists - it's all here!
Tune in, as an anxious whatever-year-old writes incessantly, passionate about his tunes, the sleeves and, of course, the lyrics - you can't go far wrong!
Discover something great, or avoid something altogether less desirable! Delve into a void of songs that saved your life, and/or otherwise...
Cynically yours, now and forever more,
The Saturday Boy
We've got popular, indie classic tracks - you name it! Anything and everything from the big wide world of music; albums, singles, artists - it's all here!
Tune in, as an anxious whatever-year-old writes incessantly, passionate about his tunes, the sleeves and, of course, the lyrics - you can't go far wrong!
Discover something great, or avoid something altogether less desirable! Delve into a void of songs that saved your life, and/or otherwise...
Cynically yours, now and forever more,
The Saturday Boy
My Top 10 Favourite Songs
Around the website, there are different styles of review. Song reviews, album reviews, top 10 countdowns of songs by certain artists, highlights of the year just passed, and even the top 20 songs from an assigned year, between 1952 and the start of the UK charts, and now.
Whilst these formats do allow me to share music I love (and even music I loathe) I wanted there to be a definitive top 10 of my all-time favourite tracks and where better a place to plonk the finished article than right here on the homepage as an unsuspectingly awesome introduction to new and veteran readers alike.
As with my artist countdowns, the tracks are present in descending order from 10th best to 1st and are all 4 or 5 star releases (the latter on the whole) and as such do not require the rating to be shown; heck, they wouldn't be my favourites if they sucked would they?
Some might be surprised at my choices, some might laugh, some might cry, and some might be entirely indifferent. Whatever the desired flavour of emotion displayed when reading, sit back and enjoy my all-time top 10 favourite songs. Ever. In the universe. Since the beginning of time...I think that's quite enough...
Whilst these formats do allow me to share music I love (and even music I loathe) I wanted there to be a definitive top 10 of my all-time favourite tracks and where better a place to plonk the finished article than right here on the homepage as an unsuspectingly awesome introduction to new and veteran readers alike.
As with my artist countdowns, the tracks are present in descending order from 10th best to 1st and are all 4 or 5 star releases (the latter on the whole) and as such do not require the rating to be shown; heck, they wouldn't be my favourites if they sucked would they?
Some might be surprised at my choices, some might laugh, some might cry, and some might be entirely indifferent. Whatever the desired flavour of emotion displayed when reading, sit back and enjoy my all-time top 10 favourite songs. Ever. In the universe. Since the beginning of time...I think that's quite enough...
Dire Straits - "Sultans Of Swing" (Live at Hammersmith Odeon, 22-23/07/1983) (10:56)
(Track from live album, "Alchemy")
This live rendition of the band's most famous song and taken from the "Love Over Gold Tour" is a truly epic 11-ish minutes in length and will have you kicking wildly at your surroundings for the duration of your listening experience. For the first 3 minutes-or-so, the song is, structurally, the same as the 1979 album version, only louder, sharper and, certainly, deeper with licks unfurling in from every angle, perhaps most notably at 1:48. Then, for around 2 minutes there's a great solo section, showcasing the incredible skill of lead guitarist Mark Knopfler, whose intense picking speed is easily unparalleled and whose swaggering vocal lends the laid-abck attitude of soft-rock. After this very rewarding section, the song comes back for a few minutes before a gigantic resurgence of the lead powered section, backed in full by anthemic blasts of synthesiser, and a suave, plodding bass-line. The soloing at this point is the best I have ever heard and, whilst lacking the speed of some of the music in other genres such as metal, it's that much more calculated and, in that sense, capitalises on the 'rehearsed' aspect of the original, giving you something very skilled instead of something that could so easily be construed as boring instead. At 8:23, the shivers-down-the-spine moment begins as Knopfler ricochets through a massively complex adaptation of the original song's end-section to a stunned audience, making up entirely for the fade-out of the studio recording that robs the listener of a solo. The sound is hectic and electric, battering the senses to a spine-tingling pinnacle of musical joy as crescendo after crescendo of drums and guitar roll over one another in a high-octane race to the end of the track, a build-up and eventual explosion that is over 30 seconds long. It's a magical thing and makes the list purely for epitomising the rock aesthetic...
(Track from live album, "Alchemy")
This live rendition of the band's most famous song and taken from the "Love Over Gold Tour" is a truly epic 11-ish minutes in length and will have you kicking wildly at your surroundings for the duration of your listening experience. For the first 3 minutes-or-so, the song is, structurally, the same as the 1979 album version, only louder, sharper and, certainly, deeper with licks unfurling in from every angle, perhaps most notably at 1:48. Then, for around 2 minutes there's a great solo section, showcasing the incredible skill of lead guitarist Mark Knopfler, whose intense picking speed is easily unparalleled and whose swaggering vocal lends the laid-abck attitude of soft-rock. After this very rewarding section, the song comes back for a few minutes before a gigantic resurgence of the lead powered section, backed in full by anthemic blasts of synthesiser, and a suave, plodding bass-line. The soloing at this point is the best I have ever heard and, whilst lacking the speed of some of the music in other genres such as metal, it's that much more calculated and, in that sense, capitalises on the 'rehearsed' aspect of the original, giving you something very skilled instead of something that could so easily be construed as boring instead. At 8:23, the shivers-down-the-spine moment begins as Knopfler ricochets through a massively complex adaptation of the original song's end-section to a stunned audience, making up entirely for the fade-out of the studio recording that robs the listener of a solo. The sound is hectic and electric, battering the senses to a spine-tingling pinnacle of musical joy as crescendo after crescendo of drums and guitar roll over one another in a high-octane race to the end of the track, a build-up and eventual explosion that is over 30 seconds long. It's a magical thing and makes the list purely for epitomising the rock aesthetic...
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - "Of All The Things We've Made" (3:24)
(Track from album, "Dazzle Ships")
I have a tendency, as you will find reading these entries, to love the songs that play on the heart-strings, songs that send shivers down the spine and give you all kinds of extreme emotions - as Morrissey once put it to us in the lyrics of the suitably titled "Rubber Ring", 'the songs that saved your life'. The light tinkling and reverberating guitar strums of this track did such a thing for me, grasping my attention for their beautiful arrangement and stark simplicity; the chugging chords repeat for the duration of the three-and-a-half minutes. The melody really is a thing of incredible beauty, sequencing exactly the right notes in a musical pathway that is sublimely produced, enveloping the listener in a haze of echoey warmth whilst retaining the strangest air of the sinister, the dark depth of the vocal almost juxtaposed with the bounciness of the music. Unlike the previous entry on this list, "Of All The Things We've Made" is less spontaneous and more repetitive with one looping progression and a mere 5 lines in the lyrics, though also unlike the previous song, the lyrics have a deeper significance, addressing the end of a relationship and the entailing destruction of the fruits of love's tenure. To me, it's rather special that in 24 words and using only a handful of notes, the band achieve an emotional effect that is absent from songs as much as 10 times the size and length, a true signal of how oddly powerful this humble 'noise' is. That the song is confined to existence as the last song on side-B of a much-overlooked album is classic in terms of where my favourite songs seem to come from; I think, in this case especially, a song's unconventional position with regard to release can be a real deciding factor for me as I become intrigued by its confinement. That said, the track ends "Dazzle Ships" nicely, finishing with the guitar that began the track, which coldly stops to face sonic oblivion...
(Track from album, "Dazzle Ships")
I have a tendency, as you will find reading these entries, to love the songs that play on the heart-strings, songs that send shivers down the spine and give you all kinds of extreme emotions - as Morrissey once put it to us in the lyrics of the suitably titled "Rubber Ring", 'the songs that saved your life'. The light tinkling and reverberating guitar strums of this track did such a thing for me, grasping my attention for their beautiful arrangement and stark simplicity; the chugging chords repeat for the duration of the three-and-a-half minutes. The melody really is a thing of incredible beauty, sequencing exactly the right notes in a musical pathway that is sublimely produced, enveloping the listener in a haze of echoey warmth whilst retaining the strangest air of the sinister, the dark depth of the vocal almost juxtaposed with the bounciness of the music. Unlike the previous entry on this list, "Of All The Things We've Made" is less spontaneous and more repetitive with one looping progression and a mere 5 lines in the lyrics, though also unlike the previous song, the lyrics have a deeper significance, addressing the end of a relationship and the entailing destruction of the fruits of love's tenure. To me, it's rather special that in 24 words and using only a handful of notes, the band achieve an emotional effect that is absent from songs as much as 10 times the size and length, a true signal of how oddly powerful this humble 'noise' is. That the song is confined to existence as the last song on side-B of a much-overlooked album is classic in terms of where my favourite songs seem to come from; I think, in this case especially, a song's unconventional position with regard to release can be a real deciding factor for me as I become intrigued by its confinement. That said, the track ends "Dazzle Ships" nicely, finishing with the guitar that began the track, which coldly stops to face sonic oblivion...
Billy Bragg feat. Johnny Marr - "Walk Away Renee (Version)" (2:24)
(B-side to single, "Levi Stubbs' Tears" from album, "Talking With The Taxman About Poetry")
Billy Bragg's most profoundly self-deprecating account of love, lust and life, "Walk Away Renee (Version)" takes musical inspiration from the Brown-Sanson-Calilli baroque-pop motown track "Walk Away Renee", as Johnny Marr fingerpicks with exquisite and intricate grace on a sharply produced acoustic guitar to throws resembling the original track, only with more jangle and meandering treble. The limelight, however, rests it's gaze firmly on Bragg, who speaks candidly and truthfully about a past love. He talks about how his nose would bleed when they spoke, and how when nobody came to collect their bus fares, he knew it was 'something special'. Things take a turn however, and suddenly the days of listening to the radio and the 'songs about the two of us' are over and the girl begins going out with another boy penned by the unrequited lover as 'mr. potato head', a hilariously tragic show of the mad rush of unstable emotions that flow following a break-up. Talking rather than singing atop Marr's delicate fingering, Bragg recalls lying in the bath until the water went cold, thinking about the two of them, 'her eyes and the curve of her breasts', the kinds of real observations from love that are so frequently ignored by songwriters. In the end, this broken, spoken-word Essex narration concludes in supposition that 'love is strange' and that 'you have to learn to take the crunchy with the smooth', reflecting how 'she cut her hair and I stopped loving her'. It's these beautiful, childishly innocent reflections of romance that give "Walk Away Renee (Version)" its edge over conventional love-songs, presenting the listener with a raw and relatable insight into the whirlwind of emotions that love entails, an almost crude effect that is enhanced by the single accompaniment provided by Johnny Marr.
(B-side to single, "Levi Stubbs' Tears" from album, "Talking With The Taxman About Poetry")
Billy Bragg's most profoundly self-deprecating account of love, lust and life, "Walk Away Renee (Version)" takes musical inspiration from the Brown-Sanson-Calilli baroque-pop motown track "Walk Away Renee", as Johnny Marr fingerpicks with exquisite and intricate grace on a sharply produced acoustic guitar to throws resembling the original track, only with more jangle and meandering treble. The limelight, however, rests it's gaze firmly on Bragg, who speaks candidly and truthfully about a past love. He talks about how his nose would bleed when they spoke, and how when nobody came to collect their bus fares, he knew it was 'something special'. Things take a turn however, and suddenly the days of listening to the radio and the 'songs about the two of us' are over and the girl begins going out with another boy penned by the unrequited lover as 'mr. potato head', a hilariously tragic show of the mad rush of unstable emotions that flow following a break-up. Talking rather than singing atop Marr's delicate fingering, Bragg recalls lying in the bath until the water went cold, thinking about the two of them, 'her eyes and the curve of her breasts', the kinds of real observations from love that are so frequently ignored by songwriters. In the end, this broken, spoken-word Essex narration concludes in supposition that 'love is strange' and that 'you have to learn to take the crunchy with the smooth', reflecting how 'she cut her hair and I stopped loving her'. It's these beautiful, childishly innocent reflections of romance that give "Walk Away Renee (Version)" its edge over conventional love-songs, presenting the listener with a raw and relatable insight into the whirlwind of emotions that love entails, an almost crude effect that is enhanced by the single accompaniment provided by Johnny Marr.
The Human League - "Circus Of Death" (4:00)
(Track from album, "Reproduction")
In the very beginning, before the banal "Don't You Want Me" and the boring dance-pop of "(Keep Feeling) Fascination", The Human League were 4 men, riding the crest of the synth-pop Britannia wave, introducing bizarre new electronic conceptualism to the British Isles in the wake of punk, a shocking and explosive insight into the new direction of popular music. Bands like The Human League picked up on German pioneers Kraftwerk and experimented with the synthesis of sound using the basic analog equipment available at the time, confined to the primitive recording material of tape, and stuck in an age where digital instruments had yet to be thought of. The result is a spooky, makeshift sound, weighted by pretentious lyrics and discordantly mixed keyboard riffs. It's easily one of my favourite genres, and I write here about "Circus Of Death" simply because it is the best song from the genre, harbouring the essence, in my opinion, of the sound. Opening with a sample from television, preceding an episode of "Hawaii Five-O", the melody finally begins 45 seconds in, after atmospheric tension builds with aeroplane sound effects and the sounding of a bold, spluttering beat. Phil Oakey's baritone narrative climbs to the peak of artistic self-indulgence from it's introductory stanza detailing the landing of the police at an airport, to the 'shortwave radio message from the last man on earth', 'spare me and my family, I've done you no wrong! Go away please let us be, I've known you for too long!'. The electronic accompaniment goes on to give a juicy wobble with every note played, from the wider bass notes, to the shrill chorus samples that take the lead. Under-produced and teeming with hedonism, "Circus Of Death" captures this artistic synth band at their best...
(Track from album, "Reproduction")
In the very beginning, before the banal "Don't You Want Me" and the boring dance-pop of "(Keep Feeling) Fascination", The Human League were 4 men, riding the crest of the synth-pop Britannia wave, introducing bizarre new electronic conceptualism to the British Isles in the wake of punk, a shocking and explosive insight into the new direction of popular music. Bands like The Human League picked up on German pioneers Kraftwerk and experimented with the synthesis of sound using the basic analog equipment available at the time, confined to the primitive recording material of tape, and stuck in an age where digital instruments had yet to be thought of. The result is a spooky, makeshift sound, weighted by pretentious lyrics and discordantly mixed keyboard riffs. It's easily one of my favourite genres, and I write here about "Circus Of Death" simply because it is the best song from the genre, harbouring the essence, in my opinion, of the sound. Opening with a sample from television, preceding an episode of "Hawaii Five-O", the melody finally begins 45 seconds in, after atmospheric tension builds with aeroplane sound effects and the sounding of a bold, spluttering beat. Phil Oakey's baritone narrative climbs to the peak of artistic self-indulgence from it's introductory stanza detailing the landing of the police at an airport, to the 'shortwave radio message from the last man on earth', 'spare me and my family, I've done you no wrong! Go away please let us be, I've known you for too long!'. The electronic accompaniment goes on to give a juicy wobble with every note played, from the wider bass notes, to the shrill chorus samples that take the lead. Under-produced and teeming with hedonism, "Circus Of Death" captures this artistic synth band at their best...
Morrissey - "I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday" (4:20)
(Track from album, "Your Arsenal")
Whilst not my favourite Morrissey song as readers of my Morrissey top 10 countdown will know, "I Know It's Gonna Happen..." captures, in similar fashion to the OMD track on this list, a simple sentiment in the warm arms of a beautiful chord progression, creating an end-result that is both endearing and stimulating. As the bass guitar begins to set the path for said progression, radio and television samples stutter in and out of existence before Morrissey, accompanied by full strings and rhythm guitar, begins his vocal, a tragic, tortured soul, opening up to the partner of his dreams whom he strangely has yet to become acquainted with. The odd reassurance of his message seems peculiar and yet, as with Bragg's number, very relatable, as a lonely searcher of love fantasises about a similar person waiting for them. Suddenly the oddity is not the concept itself, but it's exploration by a popular artist, one of the reasons it stands out for me. Another factor is the overwhelming positivity of the presented view; there is no wallowing in solitary confinement, nor hopeless pondering of the meaning of life. Instead, Morrissey takes on the perspective of an optimistic loner, cruising through miserablism in understanding of the plight, but ignoring its negativity and choosing, instead, to plea with his like-minded future love to wait for him. Compared with your average love-song, it's a phenomenal concept, and one executed to an equally gripping backdrop, which borrows heavily from David Bowie's "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" during the outro, when the bass repeats those thrilling notes of climax from the end of Bowie's 1972 masterpiece, "The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars". I love it for it's different approach to a topic which, tackled incorrectly, could have dire consequences, but which instead soars above regular pop music for it's tragic realism...
(Track from album, "Your Arsenal")
Whilst not my favourite Morrissey song as readers of my Morrissey top 10 countdown will know, "I Know It's Gonna Happen..." captures, in similar fashion to the OMD track on this list, a simple sentiment in the warm arms of a beautiful chord progression, creating an end-result that is both endearing and stimulating. As the bass guitar begins to set the path for said progression, radio and television samples stutter in and out of existence before Morrissey, accompanied by full strings and rhythm guitar, begins his vocal, a tragic, tortured soul, opening up to the partner of his dreams whom he strangely has yet to become acquainted with. The odd reassurance of his message seems peculiar and yet, as with Bragg's number, very relatable, as a lonely searcher of love fantasises about a similar person waiting for them. Suddenly the oddity is not the concept itself, but it's exploration by a popular artist, one of the reasons it stands out for me. Another factor is the overwhelming positivity of the presented view; there is no wallowing in solitary confinement, nor hopeless pondering of the meaning of life. Instead, Morrissey takes on the perspective of an optimistic loner, cruising through miserablism in understanding of the plight, but ignoring its negativity and choosing, instead, to plea with his like-minded future love to wait for him. Compared with your average love-song, it's a phenomenal concept, and one executed to an equally gripping backdrop, which borrows heavily from David Bowie's "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" during the outro, when the bass repeats those thrilling notes of climax from the end of Bowie's 1972 masterpiece, "The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars". I love it for it's different approach to a topic which, tackled incorrectly, could have dire consequences, but which instead soars above regular pop music for it's tragic realism...
The remaining 5 tracks COMING SOON...