25. “Romance,” R.E.M.

I had to check, but it turns out that I have made mixes without R.E.M. This is not one of them. There’s something about the “Fancy’s yours and call the shots” middle section–maybe it’s the D to A interval subtly emphasized in Stipe’s vocals–and also about the guitar in this one, how even side-by-side with the horn mix of “Finest Worksong” on the compilation album Eponymous, it still sounds sound like brass in itself. I listened to that album every morning in the fall of 2003 while getting ready for school: to this day the stylized fields on the cover still look like the tall grass of the cross-country races and the guitar jangles taste like brown sugar oatmeal.

24. “Apple Jack,” Dolly Parton

There’s something about her girlish giggle in this live cut of “Apple Jack” that makes me thankful for Dolly Parton’s existence on this earth. Dolly’s performance makes up Side A of “Live at the Boarding House, San Francisco”; Linda Ronstadt, her fellow Trio member, sings on Side B.

23. “Before the Money Came,” Bettye Lavette

I’d never heard of Bettye Lavette until Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot featured her on a “late bloomers” episode of their show, Sound Opinions. That was in September and I haven’t gotten bored of this track since.

22. “Cranes in the Sky,” Solange

Solange (little sister to Beyoncé) never specifies what “it” is that she’s trying to work over, under, around, through. You don’t need to know. What you need to know is her simple, unsparing catalog of attempts to cope, the sympathetic strings, and the double image she returns to: clouds of metal cranes, and also birds in flight.

21. “Near to the Wild Heart of Life,” Japandroids

A rush of adrenaline, an injection of guitar-driven joy, this song got me through large parts of October. “She kissed me like a chorus” is now in my personal pantheon of perfect pop lines.

20. “Seeland,” NEU!

From Neu! 75, in which I discovered that “Krautrock” is not totally unlike everything else, but is in fact like many things I like already. Except for when it has vocals–the vocal tracks are the weakest part of the album. When Neu! goes pure instrumental, like this, it’s somehow painful and reassuring at the same time: it invokes nostalgia for something you never had, but whispers that inhabiting it in your imagination is almost as good. Listen through to the end at least once for the sounds of the rain on the road.

Smiles of Experience

U2, my favorite band in the world, put out a new album three weeks ago, and I haven’t really listened to it yet. I did, briefly, and then I ran away from it because I couldn’t relegate it to background music and I couldn’t bear to give it all my attention. I have been reading every review through a squint, hoping and dreading simultaneously that I will agree with the writer. Will you be my viewpoint? Will you? It would be easier if I could outsource it and not deal with the weight of my own wanting. It would be easier if I could be cooler than it and if I could sneer at it. I don’t want to be beyond it. I just want it to be good. My eighteen-year-old self wants to know if U2 is continuing to redraw my inner landscape. I can’t bear to disappoint her.

The only way I can approach these tracks is this: I’m going to look at them sideways. I won’t stack them up against all the emotional weight I bring to them. I’ll stack them up against “Smile.”

Smile is tucked away on a fan club release, Medium, Rare, and Remastered, volume 1. It’s not an outstanding U2 track. It’s also not bad. It does what I think U2’s best songs do: it captures the experience of wanting to connect to someone and realizing how high the cost is. It’s about longing, about breakup, and even though it sounds sweet, its title derives from heartbreak and self-knowledge that is too straightforward to be self-pity: “I will live again, you will live again… I don’t want to see you smile.” It’s the song that popped into my head when I was listening to others talk about the new album. It’s the sort of B-side that keeps me a U2 fan. It sounds like this.

With that as a benchmark, I’m going to see if I can hear the songs U2 wrote, or if all I can hear is my own wanting. Here we go, ranking each song against “Smile”:

1. Love Is All We Have Left

This song sounds like it is meant to start a live show. Bono’s voice is in good form here. And there’s auto-tune! A concession to the times! They produced the hell out of this, it works, and I respect it.

Winner: “Love Is All We Have Left”

2. “Lights of Home”

This riff is almost, but not quite, entirely like the riff from their 2009 track “Stand-Up Comedy.” And, my goodness, there’s unison singing–another concession to the times! Once again, there’s so much going on, so well produced, that I’d probably choose to listen to this over “Smile.”

Winner: “Lights of Home”

3. “You’re the Best Thing About Me”

This reminds me of a heavier version of “Flower Child,” another song on Medium, Rare, and Remastered. Despite the utterly delightful guitar part between 2:50 and 3:00, the winner here was going to be “Smile” by a whisker, until the very last line made me say “Hold on” and listen again. That’s the U2 I love, the band that probes a relationship’s weak points and ends up with more questions than answers. It’s wolf in sheep’s clothing, a U2 stadium rocker with a club remixable middle section (U2 has cared about being played in the club since approximately Achtung Baby, something that I don’t tend to see people mention when they write about U2, even though the band named a lead single “Discotheque” once.) I am into it.

Winner: “You’re The Best Thing About Me”

4. “Get Out Of Your Own Way”

This one features a Beautiful Day-style beat, and a pretty cliché-sounding chord progression. I want to shake Bono by the shoulders (well, maybe just the one, he injured the other) and tell him to STOP RHYMING. Also he never should have let these lyrics see the light of day: “The slaves are looking for someone to lead them / The master’s looking for someone to need him / The promised land is there for those who need it most / And Lincoln’s ghost says / ‘Get out of your own way, ahhhhhh.'” I can just see the inspirational quote now, written on a wooden board in curlicues:

“Get out of your own way.”
–Abraham Lincoln.

 

Even with Kendrick Lamar on the outro, I can’t choose this one.

Winner: “Smile”

5. “American Soul”

This would take the 4-spot or 6-spot in the live show, the crest of another rollercoaster hill and the exhilarating shot toward the earth below (and the reminder that yes, they have a new album out). “American Soul” was cruising for a win–Kendrick, the disco beat, the fuzz on the guitar, and the inherent shout-along-ability of the chorus were more than enough for me to overlook the phrase “came here looking for American soul” (which is true enough as a description of the band, though too generous by far for the audience), but not enough for me to ignore “refu-Jesus.” “Smile” it is.

Winner: “Smile”

6. “Summer of Love”

This song basically is “Smile,” better produced and made global and generic. There’s an additional hint of dread in the way the guitar climbs up to a high E more and more as the song approaches its end. I’m not sure it’s better than “Smile,” though it’s better than their other West Coast song, “California (There Is No End To Love).”

Winner: “Smile”

7. “Red Flag Day”

The big squeezy bass gives this song oomph; the tempo amps it up. It has the rush of risk, the danger of something turning out wrong. When’s the last time you heard Bono say “No…….No…….”? On “Bad”? The title recalls War–“Red Light,” “Surrender”; the ocean imagery makes it sound more in continuity with Achtung Baby and “Electrical Storm.” I like thinking this is the “Electrical Storm” couple ten or fifteen years later. Depending on how much you think “Electrical Storm” is autobiography, it probably is. (P.S. “Electrical Storm” is my text message notification sound and has been for years.)

Winner: “Red Flag Day,” not even close.

8. “The Showman (Little More Better)”

I appreciate the self-deprecation of “Singer’s cryin’ bout everything / Still in the playground, fallin’ off the swing / But you know that I know.” Overall, the song’s a bit of fluff–again, fluff on which you can hear Adam! Either the mixes have improved over earlier albums or my headphones have–but they’re so clearly having fun I’m going to come down on their side.

Winner: “The Showman (Little More Better)”

9. “The Little Things That Give You Away”

If you told me the Edge could literally do these guitar parts in his sleep I wouldn’t bat an eye. I want to play this side-by-side with the intro to “City of Blinding Lights“; I suspect they will sound 84% the same.

I still like it. Goddammit.

Winner: “The Little Things That Give You Away.” I think I may need deprogramming.

10. “Landlady”

Ooh, Edge guitar! But it’s buried too far in the mix this time. And they’ve gone to this same well two songs in a row now. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. The last verse is sweet enough (“I will win and call it losing / if the prize is not for you”), but it’s too little, too late.

Winner: “Smile”

11. “The Blackout”

Oh, it’s the guitar slide from “Even Better Than the Real Thing,” amped up. I was wrong: this is the show-starter. I can all but see the strobe lights in the darkness. Also: DID YOU WANT A HOOK? WE HAVE A HOOK. Plus it’s another dance-beat song–they read the room right on that count.

That said, why are they ripping off Paul Simon, and badly at that? Bono doesn’t need to 50-Ways-to-Leave-Your-Lover his way into getting the rhyme scheme to work. If he had made this song less about “democracy” and more about personal darkness–think “The Fly”–this would have been one of their best tracks, period. Oh well. Just close your eyes and pretend you’re at the show and the music’s too loud for you to understand the verses.

Winner: “The Blackout” (chorus)

Loser: “The Blackout” (verses)

12. “Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way”

No, it’s not. This song might be, though. I think this is the loudest and swellingest of any song in the album through my headphones. It’s sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Winner: “Smile”

13. “13 (There Is A Light)”

“Smile” is better, but this one seems genuine as well, a candlelight vigil to close the show. It seems almost better on its own–after this whole album it’s the sugar flower on top of the cake, but on its own you can taste the sweetness on your tongue.

Winner: “Smile”

TOTAL: Songs of Experience 7, “Smile” 6

It’s a relief that the new album is slightly better than average, on average. Maybe I’ll actually be able to hear it now.

19. “I Don’t Know Why I Love You,” The House of Love

It turns out that a small but notable portion of my musical taste is not XTC and the Stone Roses per se, but every subsequent British band who listened to them and said “yep, let’s do that.” Tell me this song would not get you on the dance floor.

18. “The Chain,” Fleetwood Mac

All the ingredients of a rock song are here, but not all together. The song starts with guitar and drums; then you add in some vocals, but the bass is still missing. The guitar drops out and the (fretless) bass sneaks into the background for the first chorus. Then the guitar takes the foreground, panning back back and forth, then the bass, then the guitar again. They aren’t all together in full force until the last 35 seconds. It’s the story of Fleetwood Mac in a song. Sing their iconic kiss-off with me: AND IF YOU DON’T LOVE ME NOW, YOU WILL NEVER LOVE ME AGAIN.

17. “The Future (Is Learning To),” Ted Leo

His entire new album, The Hanged Man, consists of Ted Leo facing down horrible things and figuring out how to pick up the pieces on the other side. This isn’t cheap optimism, which makes me trust him to guide me through tough times all the more.