"The Crucible" (MTC)

No trainwreck, but middling overall. The play came through pretty strongly, but the staging seemed somehow lacking in a clear vision; set in 17th century Salem, Massachusetts, it was written by Miller as a parable for the communist witch hunts of the 1950s but derives its effect from its more universal depiction of the forces in human nature and society that can generate and drive such situations, and so the choice, as here, to not force any kind of overt 'updating' on it - terrorists, or in the current clime, perhaps migrants and specifically asylum seekers, being the obvious candidates - is an entirely legitimate artistic one, but the difficulty with the production was that it never really seems to reconcile the competing effects that its historical setting and the contemporary times in which it's being put on inevitably produce.

So, for example, the fear of witchcraft, and the way that it drives much of the action and character motivation, takes on a different valence in our modern times, where belief in the devil as an active force in society is, if not wholly gone, then at least far from universal (it's worth noting, this was already the case in the 1950s). What's critical is not that the audience be able to directly empathise with that context, but that its effect - on the characters, on us - ring true, and with this version of The Crucible, in that example and many others, there remained a dissonance, a lack of definition that undermined the clarion clarity of which the play's no doubt capable. In short, while it wasn't boring, nor did it grip.

The set perhaps had something to do with it - black backdrop and earth underfoot at the margins, starkly angular white framing structures and a minimum of other white props, perhaps intended to evoke the Puritan sparseness and focus attention on the characters - but, on balance, I don't think so. The acting was generally fine (Elizabeth Nabben as Abigail stood out - in a nicely local touch, I noticed her on our tram home afterwards - as did Brian Lipson's Judge Danforth (albeit with shoutily Alan Rickman like tones) and Grant Cartwright's Hale) but suffered from those underlying structural difficulties around lack of clear definition and thrust, including in David Wenham's turn as John Proctor. Anyhow, as I said at the outset, this wasn't bad - in fact, I quite enjoyed it - but I felt like it could have been much more.

(w/ Cass, Kai, Al, Steph N and Mehnaz)

Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself / Kishi Bashi - 151a

Noting these together not only because Daniel L set me up with both recently, but also because they're two albums rather of a piece - quirky, sensitive-sounding, folkish, melodic while not afraid of a left turn or three, violins galore (including, in the case of Kishi Bashi, a fair bit of whatever the violin equivalent of shredding is). Both very likeable, and filled with good tunes; the Andrew Bird is a bit more Sufjan-y (also a little bit Nick Drake), whereas Kishi Bashi tends more towards that stream of latter day avant-pop Beach Boy followers. As I said, lots of good songs on both records, but "Manchester", from 151a, is especially seriously damn sweet.

Much Ado About Nothing

Joss Whedon does the Bard, and why not? The elegantly droll trailer caught my attention, and the film delivers - on the insubstantial side perhaps, but charming and witty and all round a nice way to spend 100 minutes or so. Also, a neat way to be introduced to Much Ado..., as I hadn't otherwise been familiar with it via stage, screen or page.

I enjoyed the quasi-country house setting and the way everyone goes around in nice dresses and suits; also the way that all of the above was put to good use in framing - literally and otherwise - of scenes and characters (the black and white worked well too). Nice looking cast, several of them faintly familiar; actually familiar were Alexis Denisof (enjoyable, though a bit distracting as Benedick, given that I so strongly associate him with HIMYM's sleazy Sandy Rivers) and Nathan Fillion in a very funny turn as the blatheringly incompetent constable Dogberry.

(w/ Mehnaz)

200 favourite songs - the list

So, the whole list (nb - the 'last time' links are to generally much more detailed enthusings).

1. Lazy Line Painter Jane - Belle and Sebastian (Lazy Line Painter Jane ep, 1997)
Decidedly messy and imperfect, overflowing joyously at the seams, "Lazy Line Painter Jane" has an appeal that surpasses explanation - it just is. (Last time - #1)

2. Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division (1980 single)
... again ... (Last time - #13)

3. Fade Into You - Mazzy Star (So Tonight That I Might See, 1993)
This song is like a dream that never ends. (Last time - #3)

4. Ceremony - New Order (1981 single / Marie Antoinette soundtrack)
Crashingly, drivingly resounding; whatever you think it means, it does.

5. This Love - Craig Armstrong (featuring Liz Fraser) (The Space Between Us, 1998)
Really, this is all about Fraser's voice, sailing enraptured on that dazzling, lovestruck melody. (Last time - #10)

6. Paranoid Android - Radiohead (OK Computer, 1997)
Every generation gets the symphony that it deserves. (Last time - #8)

7. Teardrop - Massive Attack (Mezzanine, 1998)
Thudding, ringing, ricocheting; Liz Fraser again. "Teardrop" taps into something deep. (Last time - #31)

8. September Gurls - Big Star (Radio City, 1974)
Jangly power-pop heaven. (Last time - #23)

9. Wise Up - Aimee Mann (Magnolia soundtrack, 1999)
So clear-eyed and piercingly sad. (Last time - #18) 

10. Everybody Here Wants You - Jeff Buckley (Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk, 1998)
Fiery and filled with the exaltation of being in love; the emotion's both intensified and laid bare. (Last time - #12)

11. El President - Drugstore (featuring Thom Yorke) (White Magic for Lovers, 1998)
Captivatingly dramatic and touchingly intimate, with Monteiro and Yorke both in full voice, "El President" tells a particular tale, but it sounds universal. (Last time - #28)

12. Gorecki - Lamb (Lamb, 1996)
Starrily great and, for me, particularly heavily layered with emotional associations. (Last time - #22)

13. Talk Show Host - Radiohead (Romeo + Juliet soundtrack, 1996)
A stutteringly gliding, lyrical slice of modern alienation, yearning towards something that's still, all these years on, ever beyond grasp. (Last time - #15)

14. Sometimes - My Bloody Valentine (Loveless, 1991)
If pop music has Jungian archetypes, then "Sometimes", the quintessential shoegazer moment, is certainly one - densely buzzing, fuzzy guitar bed, murmured vocals drifting low in the mix, synth lines insistently surfacing and finally climbing to an ecstatic close. (Last time - #20)

15. You're In A Bad Way - Saint Etienne (So Tough, 1992)
Pure pop, and so fine. (Last time - #14)

16. Wrecking Ball - Gillian Welch (Soul Journey, 2003)
This song feels like coming home, no matter that the visions of Americana that it so sharply evokes are known to me only through my imaginings of them. (Last time - #6)

17. Just Like Heaven - The Cure (Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, 1987)
Racing sprightlily along, "Just Like Heaven" holds all of my favourite elements of the Cure in miniature - a slice of perfection. (Last time - #30)

18. In The Aeroplane Over The Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel (In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, 1998)
How strange it is to be anything at all! (Last time - #45)

19. Crush in the Ghetto - Jolie Holland (Springtime Can Kill You, 2006)
[O]ne for the warmer months, as the days grow longer...shadows and sunshine and all that. I must confess, I’m a little bit in love with Holland. - Dec 08

Completely beguiling - Holland's jazzy, heart in mouth singing is perfectly suited to this tender, carefully observed and quietly rapturous account of a sunny morning after.

20. Ashes to Ashes - David Bowie (Scary Monsters, 1980)
Like Bowie himself, endlessly fascinating. Sinuously circling and layered, always both revealing and concealing more of itself at each pass.

21. Little Bombs - Aimee Mann (The Forgotten Arm *, 2005)
More mournfully heartbroken than a song has any right to be. Brings a catch to my throat every time. (Last time - #37)

22. Can't Be Sure - The Sundays (Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, 1990)
There's a great lightness to "Can't Be Sure", which feels all the way through like it could just take off into the sky at any time, and then at last at the end it does, gusted up on Harriet Wheeler's ecstatic cries. Gorgeous. (Last time - #19)

23. 23 - Blonde Redhead (23, 2007)
Mysterious, urgent, and dizzying, it gives me a rush. - Dec 08
The aural equivalent of candy in a thunderstorm, sharp, sweet, lingering.

24. Just Like Honey - The Jesus and Mary Chain (Psychocandy, 1985)
I don't even know where to start with this one. Just one of the most perfect songs ever. (Last time - #5)

25. Hyper-ballad - Bjork (Post, 1995)
Well, I love this song, that's all. (Last time - #2)

26. She's A Jar - Wilco (Summerteeth, 1999) 
Oh Jeff Tweedy, so wise, so brilliant. "She's a Jar" really sings. (Last time - #29)

27. Be Mine - R.E.M. (New Adventures in Hi-Fi, 1996)
What is it about "Be Mine", buried away near the end of one of their most unheralded albums? It's so simple, but so very effective, a love song soundtracking an imaginary Western playing out in the dying days of the 20th century. (Last time - #62)

28. Spark - Tori Amos (from the choirgirl hotel, 1998)
I don't know if it's just because I've loved it so intensely in the past, but "Spark" feels somehow more vivid - more sharply defined - than most everything else around it. Swooning and desperate, lit from deep within. (Last time - #21)

29. Hold On, Hold On - Neko Case (Fox Confessor Brings The Flood, 2006)
It sounds like riding into the sunset, but what it's actually about is anyone's guess; whatever it is, I think it's probably both shadowy and sad. (Last time - #26)

30. Not Too Soon - Throwing Muses (The Real Ramona, 1991)
Woo! (Last time - #51)

31. Pink Orange Red - Cocteau Twins (Tiny Dynamine ep, 1985)
Otherworldly and beautiful. (Last time - #33)

32. Bachelorette - Bjork (Homogenic, 1997)
A fountain of blood in the shape of a girl / love's a two way dream - this is a song that I have dreamt about.

33. Little Stars - Lisa Miller (Version Originale, 2003)
Miller wrote this song for her child, and perhaps that goes some way to explaining how it can be so warmly, richly enveloping - another kind of love song. (Last time - #48)

34. Sea of Love - Cat Power (The Covers Record, 2000)
This is the prettiest, most forlorn-sounding thing. (Last time - #47)

35. Karma Police - Radiohead (OK Computer, 1997) 
Unaccountably brilliant.

36. Torn - Natalie Imbruglia (Left of the Middle, 1997)
I've always assumed that my enduring fondness for this one was a more or less personal idiosyncrasy, but then just last weekend, sitting in the Brunswick Street 'cider house' of a Sunday afternoon, what did I hear playing but "Torn", in amidst a whole suite of alternative and more 'adult alternative' tunes from the 90s (and oh did it sound good), making me wonder if maybe its impact has been wider than I'd guessed - and, if so, well why not, 'cause, melodic and wistful, I do think it's a slice of just about perfect pop. (Last time - #57)

37. Cowgirl in the Sand - Neil Young (Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, 1969)
Ten glorious guitar-y minutes, and compelling all the way. (Last time - #27)

38. Noah's Dove (demo) - 10,000 Maniacs (demo circa 1992 / Campfire Songs compilation)
Dreamily clear. I don't know why, but Natalie Merchant makes me think of Georgia O'Keeffe, Frank O'Hara, even Carson McCullers - she hearkens back to that line of Americans of singular vision. (Last time - #36) 

39. Lorelei - Cocteau Twins (Treasure, 1984)
Magical. (Last time - #9)

40. No Bad News - Patty Griffin (Children Running Through, 2007)
There's a vibrancy to "No Bad News" that fits its affirmatory tone, a strong bright thread that runs through and anchors it. The strumming carries you along, as does the singing; the drums kick it into another gear, and then too the horns; the words shout out that title idea of no bad news - we're not getting out of here alive anyway!

41. Slow Show - The National (Boxer, 2007) 
At their best, there's something hypnotic about the National, Matt Berninger's deep tones the ideal complement to the slow-build undercurrents and elegant depths of their particular brand of indie-rock. And "Slow Show" is particularly compelling, smoothly churning build-up and poetically intoned piano-accented extended outro alike ("you know I dreamed about you ...").

42. Elevator Love Letter - Stars (Heart, 2003)
It's a simple little thing, really, a trilling Stars-style boy/girl indie electro-pop tune, but what can I say, it's lovely. Nothing else to say, I guess; or, as the band puts it with one of those delicious delicate slices of disaffectedness, "my heels are high, my eyes cast low..." - or something like that ... I was at a house party a while back, and I couldn't really hear the music from where I was standing - but for a while, the beginning of every song which played on the stereo sounded as if it was this one. -30/4/06, 25/12/06

43. On The Beach - Neil Young (On The Beach, 1974)
Both specific and universal, I think of this song a lot. (Last time - #50)

44. "Heroes" - David Bowie ("Heroes", 1977)
Surging, searching and exultant, and powerfully romantic, this is the real thing. (Last time - #49)

45. Ride The Wind To Me - Julie Miller (Broken Things, 1999)
There aren't really words for how this brightly, wistfully yearning song makes me feel. (Last time - #54)

46. What You Said - Laura Cantrell (Humming by the Flowered Vine, 2005)
A little bit country, a little bit folk, a little bit pop - and, on this one, with a distinct bluegrass tinge and a melody that neither starts from nor goes where you expect it to but feels exactly right nonetheless.

47. Roads - Portishead (Dummy, 1994)
These kinds of recollections are always unreliable, but as I remember it, this was the first song, way back when, that made me realise that slow, sad-sounding music sung by girls could make me feel something as intensely as guitary alternative rock. But whether or not that's a true memory, "Roads" is amazing - shivering and heartbroken, Gibbons' astonishingly evocative voice drifting above it all.

48. I Know I Know I Know - Tegan and Sara (So Jealous, 2004)
So, so sweet. (Last time - #96)

49. Last Goodbye - Jeff Buckley (Grace, 1994)
Even the way this song begins makes me feel something in my chest. One for the ages.

50. Bloodbuzz Ohio - The National (High Violet, 2010)
[A]ll velvety morose sweep - Dec 2010
You can't but be carried along by this one. 

51. The Ship Song - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (The Good Son, 1990)
Velvety, romantic, deep - a song to be wrapped up in. (Last time - #44)

52. Judy and the Dream of Horses - Belle and Sebastian (If You're Feeling Sinister, 1996)
One of those Belle and Sebastian numbers that finds the poetry and the truth in the small things of contemporary life and winds up becoming something far grander than its subtlety would suggest.

53. Utopia - Goldfrapp (Felt Mountain, 2000)
A lushly, grandly sweeping electro swooner, still utterly modern-sounding. (Last time - #75)

54. Right In Time - Lucinda Williams (Car Wheels On A Gravel Road, 1998)
It's just, you know, one of those songs. (Last time - #40)

55. There Is An End - The Greenhornes (featuring Holly Golightly) (Dual Mono, 2002 - but more importantly the opening and closing credits song to Broken Flowers)
"There Is An End" always had an air of timelessness, like it could've dropped in from almost any time in the last few decades, and so it's not surprising that its low-key blues-inflected rock and roll tones continue to ring down the years, like the echoes of times gone past. (Last time - #72)

56. Out Loud - Mindy Smith (Long Island Shores, 2006)
[I]rresistible in its delicacy and pull ... builds pleasantly for a couple of minutes to the unexpected hook on "Ain't it time we need to change -" and then swirls home on the rush provided by that giddy upsurging wave of sweetness - 10/7/07, Dec 07

57. Daisy Glaze - Big Star (Radio City, 1974)
Brilliant. (Last time - #61)

58. Kaifuku Suru Kizu - Salyu (All About Lily Chou-Chou soundtrack, 2001 / Kill Bill vol 1 soundtrack)
Absolutely devastating.

59. Shark Fin Blues - The Drones (Wait Long By The River And The Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By, 2005)
Epic, bluesy, roaring garage-tinged rock.

60. Top of the World - Dixie Chicks (Home, 2002)
One of those ones where if I'd heard the Patty Griffin version first - Griffin actually having written it, no less - then it likely would've been that one that I took most to heart ... but instead it was the Dixie Chicks' take on this almost unbearably sad country ballad that hooked me, and which is now an indelible part of my musical landscape.

61. Return of the Grievous Angel - Gram Parsons (Grievous Angel, 1974)
Twenty thousand roads I went down, down, down ... these musical trails I've walked these last few years, Gram and Emmylou they largely blazed them. "Return of the Grievous Angel" is a joy, rambling conversationally along with a twang and a lilt - and those harmonies. Call it rock or country or folk or what have you - cosmic american music indeed.

62. Dr Strangeluv - Blonde Redhead (23, 2007)
There's something heightened about "Dr Strangeluv", Kazu Makino's always fraught vocals - yowls and coos - drifting and cutting in and out of a weave that takes in dream-pop, shoegaze, indie-rock to reach a kind of alienated modern soulfulness, all spinning texturality, throwing off lights.

63. Uninvited - Alanis Morissette (City of Angels soundtrack, 1998)
Hugely dramatic, stirringly emotive piano ballad. Gets under your skin and stays there.

64. Cornflake Girl - Tori Amos (Under the Pink, 1994)
I loved Tori for a time, knew her records inside out, puzzled over her lyrics, believed in her visionariness, all that. These days I more feel a kind of distant fondness for her, and for the teenage me who took her so unquestioningly to heart, but in fact particularly with the perspective of time, the curiouser and curiouser genius of "Cornflake Girl" can't be denied, naff whistling, "you bet your life it is" chorus, awesome piano solo bridge and all. (Last time - #85)

65. Hopeless - The Wrens (The Meadowlands, 2003)
Like all the best power-pop, drivingly, muscularly chime-y and melodic, with the kind of guitars that you feel while listening to them could make any song better. Every section of "Hopeless" builds naturally to the next; it all fits together, right up to the cathartic "oh yeah"s and piano strikes that bring it home.

66. I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself - The Earthmen (To Hal and Bacharach, 1998)
Bacharach is always a good start, and "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" is one of his finest moments besides, but nonetheless there's something a bit miraculous about what the Earthmen concocted with this version, layers of vocals and horns sweetly overlapping and cascading around each other, all the way to the heavenly, crescendo-ing ending.

67. Hoppipolla - Sigur Ros (Takk, 2005)
Just try to not have an emotional response to this one.

68. Good Woman - Cat Power (You Are Free, 2003)
As good as she is at this kind of vividly, melodically mournful moment, once in a while the enigmatic Chan really outdoes herself. (Last time - #84)

69. Cortez the Killer - Neil Young (Zuma, 1975)
A touchstone in so many ways, but for the epically unfurling guitars especially.

70. Via Chicago - Wilco (Summerteeth, 1999)
The unarguable centrepiece of their best album, "Via Chicago" is modern americana rock par excellence.

71. Venus in Furs - The Velvet Underground (The Velvet Underground & Nico, 1969)
After years of listening to it, I still don't feel as if I've grasped this one - not even close. (Last time - #4)

72. Try Whistling This - Neil Finn (Try Whistling This, 1998)
For all of the magic wrought by Crowded House, this is Neil Finn's finest hour, a slow-building under the radar classic.

73. Breakaway - Kelly Clarkson (Breakaway, 2004)
[A] great pop song is a great pop song, and one way or another we’re all gonna empathise with it somehow - Dec 07

74. Glory Box - Portishead (Dummy, 1994)
Scratchy cinematic soulful night-time music. Dummy was so fashionable back in the day, but nearly two decades on, and it's endured - and this deep, deathless cut, still sounding like nothing else, can drop me back into those brooding 90s days quicker than just about any other.

75. Save Me - Aimee Mann (Magnolia soundtrack, 1999 / Bachelor No 2 or, The Last Remains of the Dodo, 2000)
Hard not to take this one to heart. (Last time - #41)

76. Portions for Foxes - Rilo Kiley (More Adventurous, 2004)
Shiny indie poptastic wonderfulness, and how's this for an opening lyrical flurry: "Blood in my mouth cause I've been biting my tongue all week/ I keep on talking trash but I never say anything/ And the talking leads to touching/ and the touching leads to sex/ and then there is no mystery left/ and it's bad news ... " - 14/1/06

77. Lucky - Radiohead (OK Computer, 1997)
Ahhh. (Last time - #35)

78. What's The Frequency, Kenneth? - R.E.M. (Monster, 1994)
Ringing, reverb-y, resonant alt-rock.

79. Fake Empire - The National (Boxer, 2007)
[A] downbeat anthem ... at once totally contemporary chamber-pop influenced indie rock and classicist synthesis of the several pop music strands to be heard wrapped up in its sound ... [It's] about America. It’s moody. And awesome. - 1/9/08, Dec 08

80. Heaven Or Las Vegas - Cocteau Twins (Heaven Or Las Vegas, 1990)
Swirling ascendant into the sky - dream-pop with emphasis on both elements, the dream and the pop. (Last time - #42)

81. Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels) - The Arcade Fire (Funeral, 2005) 
Total Indie Orchestral Grandeur. (Last time - #58)

82. Us - Regina Spektor (Soviet Kitsch, 2004 / (500) Days of Summer soundtrack)
[S]ky-scrapingly dramatic, deeply personal-sounding - 11/11/09 

83. Kangaroo - Big Star (Third/Sister Lovers, 1978)
Halting and fractured, stumbling forward amidst ghostly layers of production noise and occasionally clanging percussion, and all borne on the kind of sweet, tender melody that belongs on a lost classic, which is just what this is.

84. The State I Am In - Belle and Sebastian (Tigermilk, 1996)
It's possible, just, to imagine a world where this song gets played all the time on fm radio and whole generations know and more or less love it, like maybe "Bohemian Rhapsody" in this one...a better world, a beautiful dream. (Last time - #39)

85. Breakfast in Bed - Dusty Springfield (Dusty in Memphis, 1969)
Talk about soul. (Last time - #65)

86. Wichita Lineman - The Clouds (Favourites, 1999)
Combines three of my favourite things in fuzzily distorted guitars, airy girl vocals and a yearning melody (albeit obviously pinched from Glen Campbell) and puts them together in a woozy, bewitching package.

87. Everlong - Foo Fighters (The Colour and the Shape, 1997)
It stands in its own, sheerly, massively anthemic right, but I also suspect that it taps into some more or less subliminal post-grunge aural zeitgeist, a modern rock sonic that we've all been primed to respond to and which "Everlong" completely nails. (Judging by recentish triple j hottest 100 countdowns, I'm a long way from the only one to've held on to this song.)

88. Talulah Gosh - Talulah Gosh (1986 single / Backwash)
The whole thing is a gem, but the moment that best encapsulates Talulah Gosh's theme song is the unobtrusive emphasis with which frontwoman Amelia Fletcher enunciates the key word in the line 'now she is a pop star'. The song just makes me think 'yay!', and so does the band. - 25/12/06

89. American Flag - Cat Power (Moon Pix, 1998)
A left-field classic. (Last time - #34)

90. Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops - Cocteau Twins (The Spangle Maker ep, 1984)
The title of the song and the ep that it's from probably tell you all you need to know. (Last time - #83) 

91. The Bleeding Heart Show - The New Pornographers (Twin Cinema, 2005)
[O]ne of the most sheerly irresistible songs I've ever heard, especially its ending - 15/3/10 

92. Goddess on a Hiway - Mercury Rev (Deserter's Songs, 1998) 
Piano rings it into an opening verse, the chorus hits, everything swirls up, it keeps going - the hiway might as well be the milky way, for the sound is galactic.

93. Let's Get Out Of This Country - Camera Obscura (Let's Get Out Of This Country, 2006)
Seeing them do this at a laneway festival one year, everything about this song was just exactly how I was feeling. 'Let's get out of this country' - the idea itself but also everything it stands for, and all wrapped up in this delightfully tripping slice of indie-pop.

94. This World Can Make You Happy - Amaya Laucirica (Early Summer, 2010)
[A]irily widescreen ... [reminds me of] every girl I've ever been involved with - 13/2/11, Dec 2011 

95. Hey, Snow White - The New Pornographers (Dark Was The Night, 2009)
The New Pornographers specialise in soaring, left of centre anthems - killer bridges and hooks, great dynamics and build-ups, brilliant use-of-voice-and-harmonies-as-instrument - and this has all of the above and then some, with the inclusion of some awesome guitar to drive it home. 

96. Consequence - The Notwist (Neon Golden, 2002)
Continues to resonate; if anything, it makes ever more sense. (Last time - #60)

97. Hands - Ms John Soda (Notes and the Like, 2006)
In one way, this kind of electro-indie-pop is a dime a dozen, but, looked at another way, that makes it all the more remarkable that "Hands" has so hooked me, and over all this time, smoothly, slippingly, elegantly varying.

98. Simple Things - Belle and Sebastian (The Boy With The Arab Strap, 1998)
Breezily, quietly sad. (Last time - #90) 

99. Opus 40 - Mercury Rev (Deserter's Songs, 1998)
This one's like a dream. 

100. Spectacular Views - Rilo Kiley (The Execution of All Things, 2002)
Opens at full tilt and goes up from there, Jenny Lewis hollering for all she's worth over the top of a huge, climbing piece of anthemic indie-rock verse-chorus-verse - she makes you believe, like she ecstatically spits out, it's so fucking beautiful.

101. Hobart Paving - Saint Etienne (So Tough, 1993)
I can't think of a more tender song than this one.

102. Seal My Fate - Belly (King, 1995)
Giddily joyous. (Last time - #25)

103. Modern Love - The Last Town Chorus (Wire Waltz, 2006)
[B]ecause sometimes, mournful Bowie covers is where it’s totally at. - Dec 08
This song was wonderful even at the time, plaintive and plangent, but it's acquired some real meaning for me over the years, so much so that it's hard to listen to. But it's glorious anyway.

104. Where Is My Mind? - Pixies (Surfer Rosa, 1988)
Like something sharp lodged in your cereal, but way more fun. (Last time - #52)

105. The Way We Get By - Spoon (Kill the Moonlight, 2002)
The first Spoon song I ever heard, and still my favourite, Britt Daniel and this awesomely tight yet casual feeling band selling a memorably catchy indie-rock ditty filled with almost-sequiturs - we rarely practise discern indeed, a new kind of dance in a magazine.

106. Fall At Your Feet - Clare Bowditch (She Will Have Her Way, 2005)
A lovely, spectral reading which somehow improves on the original. 

107. Ohio Clouds - Laura Veirs (Troubled By The Fire, 2003)
I remember first hearing this song glimmering on the radio and being caught by the almost childlike simplicity, the prettiness of the melody. In retrospect, this song may well have been the first real gust of breeze nudging me towards the folk, country, etc that eventually washed over me altogether.

108. Nude As The News - Cat Power (What Would The Community Think, 1996)
"Backhand - reversible roles - I know there's someone..." (Last time - #43)

109. Hot Burrito #1 - The Flying Burrito Brothers (The Gilded Palace of Sin, 1969)
A great song, and Gram Parsons sings it so sweetly. Man had soul.

110. Indifferente - Effetto Doppler (Indifferenticieli, 2003)
A monumental rocker, with a bit of a psychedelic edge and some serious power chordage. The fact that it's all in Italian also helps in imagining it as the soundtrack to some end of the world sci-fi western.

111. Godspell - The Cardigans (Super Extra Gravity, 2005)
[A] rush of a melody, hooks both expected and unanticipated, lyrics at once coy and direct, meaningful and obscure, that stick in the mind, delicious guitar jangle, ring and shear, Nina Persson's marvellous voice. - 2/8/08

112. Nothing Compares 2 U - Sinead O'Connor (I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, 1990)
It's in the combination of the chilly, glacial surface and the desperation and feeling just beneath.

113. Testament To Youth In Verse - The New Pornographers (Electric Version, 2003)
The first half is relatively straight up modern power pop, plenty engaging and likeable - but, once the whole thing is done, only really hinting at the greatness that comes with the back end, when Newman, Bejar, Case et al first dial it down and then build it back up as they throw everything into the mix in an amazing kind of harmonised multi-tempo vocal round that does sound, yes, just like the bells ringing "no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no...".

114. Downtown Train - Tom Waits (Rain Dogs, 1985)
It starts chimingly, and as old Tom gruffly chuggs his way through this one, that initial brightness runs alongside too. What a treat.

115. Body's in Trouble - Mary Margaret O'Hara (Miss America, 1988)
[S]tately folk/country-tinged low-key rockism - 21/4/07

116. Green Gloves - The National (Boxer, 2007)
[A] dark, velvet heart ... mysterious, subterranean - 1/9/08

117. The Passenger - Iggie Pop (Lust for Life, 1977)
Bowie's backing vocals over the chorus are the cherry on top, but really this one's just all good, filled with a mordant richness.

118. Shivers - Boys Next Door (Door, Door, 1979)
As with quite a few other songs like this, it has receded some over the years, but I can't imagine it ever really going away. (Last time - #16)

119. Wide Open Road - The Triffids (Born Sandy Devotional, 1986)
Epitomises a certain dream of Australia that we all have within us. (Last time - #93)

120. Recovery - New Buffalo (The Last Beautiful Day, 2004)
[A]ll handclaps and sighs and poignant keys - 17/2/05
This song is wonderful full stop, but it gains even more from the way that the artist behind it, now recording under her given name of Sally Seltmann, has just kept on going, and - to my surprise - become a touchstone for me, especially in how I think about this great city Melbourne.

121. Mimi on the Beach - Jane Siberry (No Borders Here, 1984)
Quel art-pop! (Last time - #79)

122. I Need Love - Sam Phillips (Martinis and Bikinis, 1994 - but I first knew it from the Stealing Beauty soundtrack)
[A] brightly yearnful, jangly, slightly country modern pop tune - 2/6/12
[S]omewhere along the line the Stealing Beauty soundtrack became a bit of a key record for me, carrying a great deal of emotional/affective freight (dreamy, airy, a bit melancholy but also very light - about exactly what you'd expect, given the music) - 21/4/07 
And "I Need Love" is the closing track on that soundtrack, which Phillips sings in a way completely believable.

123. Carolyn's Fingers - Cocteau Twins (Blue Bell Knoll, 1988)
[S]heerly thrilling ... one of the most immediate and immediately great that they ever laid down - 11/5/09
I always do think that this whole record really does sound like bells, and the ringing trills and cascading synthesiser waves of "Carolyn's Fingers" never fail to draw me in, and to remind me why the Cocteau Twins were my favourite band for so long, and why I still so love them.

124. Blue Thunder - Galaxie 500 (On Fire, 1989)
I'm not so completely raw-nerve wired to respond to this kind of thing nowadays, but nor have I completely shaken it off... (Last time - #11)

125. Relative Ways - And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead (Source Tags & Codes, 2002)
As crashingly, fierily undeniable a rock song as when it first burst out at us all those years ago; this, as raggedly declared by frontman Conrad Keely over a bed of just those electric guitars that he's singing about, is basically the song in a nutshell: "This electric guitar hanging to my knees / A couple of verses I can barely breathe".

126. Thursday - Asobi Seksu (Citrus, 2006)
Widescreen fm radio glory, shimmering and throwing out light in all directions the whole time and then catching fire outright as it hits its climax. ... post-millennial starstruck shoegazer sparkle ... exciting ... an immediate visceral rush ... the dazzle and surge of the record, its glorious coruscating swirls. ... skyscraping melodies wrapped in shoegazer thunder and light. - 25/12/06, 23/1/07

127. Marquee Moon - Television (Marquee Moon, 1977)
Best guitar song ever? (Last time - #46)

128. Long Shot - Aimee Mann (I'm With Stupid, 1995 / Live at St Ann's Warehouse, 2004)
It's the live version that I really love, mainly because it's so much more fleshed out by the band, the jaggedness of the guitars slashing through in particular. But either way it's the song itself, this beautifully observed, caustically self-lacerating thing, from indelible opening line all the way through to vivid end.

129. Nobody 'Cept You - 16 Horsepower (Secret South, 2000)
As powerful and intense as this Dylan cover is, it's also a ballad and as sincere a love song as they come, the band's dramatic preacher-style Appalachianism welded with that romantic core into something pretty special.

130. Communication - The Cardigans (Long Gone Before Daylight, 2003)
A sweeping, heartfelt pleader from the Cardigans - very fine.

131. Goodbye - Emmylou Harris (Wrecking Ball, 1995)
On this song - a Steve Earle number, actually - it's like Harris found a new sweet spot between the highest points of her earlier output and this new, spacious, modern feel. "Goodbye" is the sound of travelling down highways, real and imagined, physical and metaphorical.

132. You May Know Him - Cat Power (Moon Pix, 1998)
I don't know what it is about Cat Power, it's like she's singing her secrets just for me.

133. Today - Smashing Pumpkins (Siamese Dream, 1993)
Oh yes. (Last time - #86)

134. Blue Bell Knoll - Cocteau Twins (Blue Bell Knoll, 1988)
With the Cocteau Twins, one can't help but grasp for images, however necessarily fanciful; in that spirit, this one sounds like the surface of a night-dark ocean as it meets land, stars reflected glittering within.

135. Deathly - Aimee Mann (Magnolia soundtrack, 1999 / Bachelor No 2 or, The Last Remains of the Dodo, 2000)
All of the Mann signature elements are here, and this song's all round great, but the wailing guitars, halfway through and then at the end, picking up on and releasing everything that leads up to and around them, are the highlight.

136. Kare Kare - Crowded House (Together Alone, 1993 - though I think of it as part of the Two Hands soundtrack)
This song maybe isn't one of their most obvious, but there's something about it that gets me, a sense of being carried along in some nameless, almost dreamlike state.

137. Black Cab - Jens Lekman (Maple Leaves ep, 1993 / Oh You're So Silent Jens)
The tuneful/morose thing has been done to death, of course, but rarely in such perfect style as here - this is close to the ultimate example of its type ... . It makes you want to sing along from the dainty electric piano that rings the song in and its first words ("Oh no goddamn, I missed the last tram") - and I do - not just because it's so catchy, but also because the sentiments it expresses are so delightfully downcast and on the money; I'd quote more from it but every line is so exactly right, particularly when poor Jens sings it in that sonorous groan of his - 30/4/06

138. In State - Kathleen Edwards (Back To Me, 2005)
Golden summery country-rock, of course touched with the right amount of wistfulness (which is almost a tautology anyway, summer and wistfulness somehow going hand in hand).

139. Back to Black - Amy Winehouse (Back to Black, 2006)
A flat out modern classic, dramatic and human.

140. Ocean Liner - The Lighthouse Keepers (1984 single - but collected in multiple places)
[A song] for which the word 'charming' could practically have been invented ... - 25/3/12
Cute Australian indie-pop that gets under your skin without your realising it. I can never find the words to explain why this one's just so appealing.

141. The Ballad of El Goodo - Big Star (#1 Record, 1972)
"Hold on..."

142. Strong Enough - Sheryl Crow (Tuesday Night Music Club, 1994) 
Another one of those melancholy 90s pop-rock tunes, but one that's always been there for me.

143. Charlotte Sometimes - The Cure (1981 single - for me, one of many discoveries on Staring at the Sea)
You can see the connections to the rest of their work, but "Charlotte Sometimes" also stands a bit apart in the Cure's long line of great singles. It's one of those songs that reminds you of the mysterious alchemy that can make a pop song great, the song itself thoroughly mysterious, as is the way it wraps you up and takes you into its own shadowy world.

144. Aeroplane - The Everybodyfields (Nothing Is Okay, 2007) 
Four bars of strummed guitar, then come the fiddles and steel string, a yearning male vocalist ... joined soon by plangent female harmonies ... and we're off for three and a half minutes of confident, high and lonesome balladeering that struck me, hard, the first time I was listening to it, and doesn't seem to be wearing off at all - it's the kind of song that lodges in the throat and in the chest, that seems like a single falling swoon from start to finish. It's wonderful. - 20/10/12

145. Fall At Your Feet - Crowded House (Woodface, 1991 - plus of course Recurring Dream)
As with so many Crowded House songs, I've always just taken this one to heart.

146. The Sound of Silence - Simon & Garfunkel (Sounds of Silence, 1966)
This is such a heavy song, but so full of light at the same time.

147. Even Though I'm A Woman - Seeker Lover Keeper (Seeker Lover Keeper, 2011)
To me, 2011 sounds like this song, and it's lingered, the mid tempo up and back again lope of the tune matching the lyrics of relationship and disconnection, Holly Throsby doing justice to this Sally Seltmann-penned folkish pop gem, Sarah Blasko's presence in the background.

148. To A Poet - First Aid Kit (The Lion's Roar, 2012)
[D]reamy, meandering ... starts with some pretty 'oooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-oooh'-ing and Joni Mitchell-esque verse trilling, and also shares with Joni (at her best) a captivating compellingness that coexists with the sense that the wending tune is almost being made up as it goes along ... - 26/3/12

149. Burgundy Shoes - Patty Griffin (Children Running Through, 2007) 
In a songbook filled with gorgeously pretty songs, "Burgundy Shoes" may be Griffin's prettiest. When she rises on that first "sun", it feels like the sun itself is coming out.

150. Bells Ring - Mazzy Star (So Tonight That I Might See, 1993)
Hope Sandoval airily breathing indescipherable words while layers of guitar sweetly drone - lovely.

151. Wuthering Heights - Kate Bush (The Kick Inside, 1978)
What a delirious, delicious, great song - where did this come from?! And all the more amazing to realise that it was released 35 years ago. (Last time - #76)

152. There Is A Light That Never Goes Out - The Smiths (The Queen Is Dead, 1986)
Majestic. (Last time - #32)

153. Red Vines - Aimee Mann (Bachelor No 2 or, The Last Remains of the Dodo, 2000)
Clear-eyed, cutting, sympathetic. Glorious melody too.

154. What I Thought Of You - Holly Throsby (Team, 2011)
Downbeat, late afternoon murmurs - feels very Australian to me, and indeed for me this song is all wrapped up with the tail end of 2011, falling into summer, my feelings all in a knot.

155. Losing My Religion - R.E.M. (Out of Time, 1991)
Despite the complete radio ubiquity, genuinely great. (In much more detail: Last time - #7)

156. Rebellion (Lies) - The Arcade Fire (Funeral, 2005)
There's something endlessly exciting and inviting about this one. (Last time - #66) 

157. She Sends Kisses - The Wrens (The Meadowlands, 2003)
I guess a lot of bands have one song kind of like this one - the big, build-to-a-showstopping-climax anthem. But "She Sends Kisses" is what they're all aiming for, something that touches the heart while dragging the listener along in its wake as it does build, getting bigger, louder and deeper at every turn, all six minutes' worth of raw-voiced guitary glory.

158. Colors And The Kids - Cat Power (Moon Pix, 1998)
Has such a clarity that you can practically feel the sadness, held within and coming through in waves. (Last time - #69)

159. Monkey Gone To Heaven - Pixies (Doolittle, 1989)
How do they do it, sound so unhinged while putting together such brilliantly constructed songs? An alt-pop anthem for the ages.

160. King of Carrot Flowers Part 1 - Neutral Milk Hotel (In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, 1998)
Simple, captivating, intriguing.

161. Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us - Robert Plant & Alison Krauss (Raising Sand, 2007)
Mysterious, graceful, seemingly somehow unattached to the earthly, Krauss's silvery tones floating ethereally, counterpointed by hauntingly slow plucked banjo over a dusty bed of thudding percussion, ghostly fiddle and Plant's sighed backing vocals. One of those almost sui generis, perfectly formed songs that seems to exist entirely in its own space.

162. Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan (Highway 61 Revisited, 1965)
A pivotal song for me, for so many others, probably for pop music full stop. Echoes down the years. (Last time - #17)

163. Steal Your Love - Lucinda Williams (Essence, 2001)
Constantly building and never quite resolving, unless you count the lovely little guitar textures that swim upwards together at the end - just one long yearn.

164. Musette and Drums - Cocteau Twins (Head Over Heels, 1983)
A perfect storm. (Last time - #55)

165. Bottle Up and Explode! - Elliott Smith (XO, 1998) 
What makes this one so great is the way that it wraps Smith's ever-present sadness up in a relatively upbeat, fluid package, bursting out - exploding - a bit over halfway through with that surging electric guitar line, cresting to a close.

166. Bigmouth Strikes Again - The Smiths (The Queen Is Dead, 1986)
"Bigmouth Strikes Again" is in many ways the Smiths song, exemplifying all of their best qualities and  capturing that instantly recognisable sound. I liked this one from the outset, discovering Morrissey and Marr & co during my teenage years, and it's held its appeal ever since.

167. Lover, You Should've Come Over - Jeff Buckley (Grace, 1994)
Pure longing. Buckley's greatness only becomes clearer with the passage of time.

168. If It Makes You Happy - Sheryl Crow (Sheryl Crow, 1996)
One that's right in the sweet spot for me. (See also)

169. I Don't Ever Give Up - Patty Griffin (Children Running Through, 2007)
At once sparse and full, swelling with feeling - running and reaching, then soaring.

170. Amorino - Isobel Campbell (Amorino, 2003)
So very plaintive and wistful. Music for solitary autumn afternoons and memories of loves lost.

171. 14th Street - Laura Cantrell (Humming by the Flowered Vine, 2005)
Unutterably sweet, entirely winsome. Walking down 14th Street in NYC myself while listening to this song is one of those little memories that I cherish.

172. Dreams - The Cranberries (Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?, 1993)
A surging, unstoppable rush - one of those songs that defines the 90s. The appearance-by-cover in Chungking Express doesn't hurt either.

173. Mexico City - Jolie Holland (The Living and the Dead, 2008)
[T]here's something at once golden and shadowy about it that makes me think of long summer days - 15/3/10
At heart this is a pretty simple song - a sprightly country-rock number. But Holland's unique, glorious phrasing sells it and makes it so much more, something golden-hued and sun-edged that goes straight in at the spine and the chest.

174. Midnight Singer - Laura Veirs (Troubled By The Fire, 2003)
Still twinkling, ever-glistening. (Last time - #67) 

175. How Soon Is Now? - The Smiths ("William, It Was Really Nothing" single - 1984)
I really did say everything I needed to about this one before: Last time - #80.

176. There She Goes - The La's (The La's, 1990)
In its unassuming way, a perfect pop song.

177. These Days - Powderfinger (Two Hands soundtrack, 1999)
There are 'favourite' songs, and then there are those that, regardless of how much you feel that you may 'like' them nowadays, will always carry an immense emotional heft; there was a time when "These Days" meant so much to me.

178. Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon - Urge Overkill (Stull ep, 1992 / Pulp Fiction soundtrack) 
My feelings about this one owe a lot to the associations. I saw Pulp Fiction early, and one of the strongest images it left me with, only half-grasped, was the unattainable promise and allure of Uma Thurmann's appearance and the wistfulness of it all (before she o.d.s, that is), and this song still evokes that feeling.

179. Say Something New - The Concretes (The Concretes, 2004)
Urgent, clangorous, warm indie-pop that has just stuck with me.

180. Waltz #2 (XO) - Elliott Smith (XO, 1998)
Waltz timing be damned, this is a classicist pop song through and through, wonderfully constructed and memorably resigned. There was a pretty long gap between when this was on the radio, and years later when I really rediscovered it - but it was the kind of rediscovery that wasn't actually any kind of surprise, because really, it never went away.

181. Love Vigilantes - Laura Cantrell (Trains and Boats and Planes, 2008)
A thoroughly excellent New Order cover, all elegant lilt and melancholy; as usual, Laura Cantrell too lovely for words.

182. Give Him A Great Big Kiss - The Shangri-Las (1964 single, but came to me through the brilliant Myrmidons of Melodrama compilation)
Just a blast, from the declaratory opening lines - "When I say I'm in love, you best believe I'm in love, l-u-v" - and everything that's great about the Shangri-Las in a two minute burst of girl group melody, harmonies, spoken word interludes, tough-girl attitude and miniature symphonic drama.

183. Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead (The Bends, 1995)
One of those songs that, even though it's receded a bit for me over the years, remains buried so, so deep. (Last time - #78) 

184. With Every Heartbeat - Robyn (Robyn, 2007)
Pulsatingly exciting and excitingly human, this is electro-pop with soul. 

185. My Baby - Janis Joplin (Pearl, 1971)
Janis Joplin is amazing, and "My Baby" is one of her most straight ahead, sky-scrapingly triumphant moments. 

186. Si Tu Disais - Francoiz Breut (Vingt a trente mille jours, 2000)
[A]s lushly romantic as pop music gets ... - 26/5/06
If you've ever had a rainy French movie dream, then you know what this song sounds like, swirling strings, evocative vocals and all. For me, I think it helps that my schoolboy French is enough to pick up fragments of the lyrics while the whole remains basically mysterious. 

187. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough - Manic Street Preachers (featuring Nina Persson) (Send Away the Tigers, 2007)
An impeccably artlessly constructed windswept anthem, sounding like it's coming from the top of a mountain, two of the most charismatically urgent and dramatic singers of our time, the Manics' James Dean Bradfield and the Cardigans' Nina Persson, dueting in a match made in heaven, their voices meshing perfectly with the sweeping guitar lines and all-round epic air of the thing. 

189. Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've) - The Buzzcocks (Love Bites, 1978)
Brilliant slice of melodically punky pop. Many have tried and so few succeeded at getting even close to the combination of wide-eyed sweetness and jagged edge that this song nails.

189. Distant Sun - Crowded House (Together Alone, 1993 - though, like most people my age, I suspect, I know and love it from Recurring Dream)
One of those songs that feels like it's always been there and has just never gone away - timeless pop, at once happy and sad, with plenty of the glorious Crowded House moments.

190. Debaser - Pixies (Doolittle, 1989)
Really, what can you say about this song? Like so many Pixies cuts, sheer genius.

191. Not The Tremblin' Kind - Laura Cantrell (Not The Tremblin' Kind, 2000) 
... there's something inexpressibly delightful about the music she makes, done with a simplicity, warmth and sweetness which is pretty much irresistible. Take the title track and album opener, say - it drops in so unassumingly, all plinking guitar lines and deceptively casual-sounding singing, throws in a few graceful harmonies on the bridge (or is it a chorus? Whichever it is, love the way her voice wavers and reaches on that first "it's alright"...), then drops back to up-and-down repetitions of the verse and an instrumental break which is basically the guitar restating the main theme over again, follows it up with one more iteration of the bridge, then more repetition of the verse...and then it's over and, me at least, well, I'm charmed anew. - 30/3/06
The first song on her first album, and the first of hers that I heard, and everything that you need to know about why Cantrell is so great is right here.

192. Some Kind Of Bliss - Kylie Minogue (Impossible Princess, 1998)
One of those slices of late 90s rock-pop wistfulness for which I have such a pronounced soft spot - it sounds like being swept away, just as the title promises.

193. Candy Says - The Velvet Underground (The Velvet Underground, 1969)
So gentle, so lovely. I don't know why, but the first appearance of the line about watching bluebirds fly gets me every time.

194. Fleur De Saison - Emilie Simon (The Flower Book, 2006)
It's hard to intellectualise why this song is so good beyond just throwing up my hands and exclaiming about how cool it is! Another one in French, and this one I suspect probably wouldn't make any sense even if I did understand the words, but really it's all about the giddy stompy electro-rockist thrill of the thing, not least its offhanded marrying of sharp pop sensibility with genuine strangeness.

195. These Are Days - 10,000 Maniacs (Our Time in Eden, 1992)
Natalie Merchant and the gang in joyous, throw your arms around the world, top of their game form. The folk accents are there, but really this is pretty close to out and out jangling guitar pop, and good with it.

196. Why Should I Love You? - Mike Scott (Come Again compilation, 1997)
You never really know which songs are going to stay with you, but this one would have to be particularly surprising; I enjoyed this EMI compilation (which also included Foo Fighters' "Baker Street" and a host of other treats) plenty at the time, but it was only over years of very intermittent listening that this Kate Bush cover emerged as a favourite of mine. I still don't know quite what it is; as the lyric almost goes, there's just something about it. I find it in my head all the time.

197. See The Sky About To Rain - Neil Young (On The Beach, 1974)
This song sounds just like its title. One of the highlights from what's almost certainly Young's best album, it gets better with age.

198. Tightly - Neko Case (Blacklisted, 2002)
Haunted and imbued with a country soul while holding within itself all kinds of americana-type influences, "Tightly" is in some ways the purest distillation of what Neko Case is about. Little wonder that it's a gem.

199. Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs (Fever to Tell, 2003)
A truly epic love song. (Last time - #74)

200. Girls - Death in Vegas (Lost in Translation soundtrack, 2003)
Actually kind of insubstantial, but in a nocturnal, gauzily pretty way that's simply perfect in that oh so moody fashion.

* * *

Edit: In the spirit of clean-up, just gone through and deleted all the entries (10 or 20 at a time) leading up to this top 200. In the spirit of archiving, the associated comments:

3/7/13 (A new project: 200 favourite songs - #181-200): Partly as procrastination from the writing - stalling for all the old reasons - I've been trying to figure my current 200 favourite songs ('of all time') and thought I'd write about them. Many of these were in the reckoning the last time I did something like this, back in '06 - my tastes have shifted a bit over that time, but a lot of my personal canon was already well and truly set by then - so where I feel I've already said all I need to about a particular song, I guess there will be cross-linking and/or self-quoting.
But anyway, throat-clearing done, the first 20 by way of 'countdown', of the 200 songs that I most unreservedly love: ...

8/7/13 (#81-100): Really tearing through these!

10/7/13 (#51-60): So anyway, going by tens from now on seems like a good idea.

11/7/13 (#41-50): Well, obviously I love, love all of the songs on this list. But at this point - last 50 - it really is the pointy end, my favourite favourites, touchstones all. (Another aside - for all of the unfortunate qualities of my current introversion, it does feel good to be at home at night, the Ashes muted on tv, a bottle of red wine, music that I love on headphones.) So here we go...

21/7/13 (#1-10): The end!

"This is Beautiful" (The Public Studio @ Malthouse)

A video/performance piece - three screens, three performers on stage. Dialogue, often overlapping, questioning the nature of beauty and a range of associated conceits. Personally, I wasn't convinced by this one.

(w/ Meribah and Trang)

Karen Russell - Vampires in the Lemon Grove

The first thing to say about Vampires in the Lemon Grove, a collection of imaginatively fabulistic short stories, is that it interests me - the stories themselves and in particular Russell's writing, which is cleanly modern (in the sense of being contemporary) and at the same time enlivened by a distinctive personality...she's an excellent user of language and prose, adept with meaning and effect.

The high concepts of the stories are uniformly interesting - reformed vampires take refuge in an Italian lemon grove whose fruits partly assuage their thirst for blood, the female workers in a Meiji era factory gradually transform into human-silkworm hybrids with coloured silk bursting from their bodies when immersed in hot water, dead US presidents find themselves reincarnated in the bodies of horses in a barn somewhere in rural America, settlers share a single glass window amongst themselves in vain hope of becoming landowners in their own right while eking out a hardscrabble existence on an unforgiving plain (this last arguably the only out and out horror story in the set and certainly the one that most unsettled me). I didn't find them wholly satisfying - there's something just a bit elusive about them, a bit of a will o the wisp quality that left me feeling like I hadn't entirely grasped them - but, nonetheless, intriguing.

"The Audience"

A National Theatre Live screening at the Nova. Helen Mirren as Elizabeth II, in a non-chronological series of imagined private conversations with eight of her 12 Prime Ministers, including her first (Churchill) and most recent and current (Cameron), impressively - from an actorly point of view - spanning some 61 years. (The others being Anthony Eden, Harold Wilson, James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Gordon Brown. It's rather (and necessarily) broad in its characterisations (veering close to caricature), and to be honest at times in the acting (the cast is great, but the close-up rendition on screen of what is, after all, stage acting, is sometimes unkind given the important differences between screen and stage) - but interesting and enjoyable, and sympathetic to all of the figures it presents, most notably the Queen herself.

(w/ Sunny)

DL - Porn 2.0

So it had been a long time since I'd seen or heard from DL, but he wound up back in Melbourne maybe a year or so back and we've caught up a couple of times since. Turns out that he's been working on the writing in the intervening years, and this is the one he picked to send me to read: "A novella about social media, technology and the end of sex". Pretty enjoyable, and what the description says - an imagining of a future where rampant sexualisation (and its dissemination via the internet and social media) has resulted in a generation with no interest in sex and which in fact reacts with revulsion to people who would today be considered beautiful.

"Lord of the Flies" (US-A-UM @ Malthouse)

Lord of the Flies is one of the great myths to have emerged from the 20th century, claims the director's notes, and it's an intuitively attractive idea ... it certainly sank in for me when I read it for high school English - Ralph, Jack, Piggy, Simon, the conch, 'the beast', the whole powerful set of images and themes. And this production attempts to interrogate both that myth, and notions of gender (and gender politics) that underpin it, by flipping it so that all of the protagonists are played by girls rather than boys (albeit retaining their names and nominal genders in dialogue) and staging the island through a progressively more disrupted, broken-apart domestic setting of wardrobes, chests of drawers, an armchair, a made-up double bed and so on.

Enjoyable though it was, it's left me a bit in two minds. There was a strong energy to it, including in the performances (though the cast as a whole was a bit uneven, the key performances were solid), and an intensity that served it well in highlighting the violence of the characters towards each other. And good use of the set, quite effectively - and at times inventively - drawing out the possibilities of the various permutations of furniture (often pulled apart and in pieces) and other, both as stand-in geography (e.g. the girls crawling under the bed to emerge on another part of the island) and as more or less subtextual reimagining of the setting itself in light of its quasi-relocation into this desert of the (feminine qua domestic) real.

On the flipside, though, I'm not sure how far the production actually succeeds in shedding light on those underlying questions pertaining to gender &c - while 'Lord of the Flies' works well when performed by women (girls), and I felt my own responses to it being conditioned by that gendering, ultimately it seems a very similar kind of story, suggesting that, as is perhaps assumed by Golding's original, the savagery depicted is after all universal. Still, regardless - perhaps partly because - of that, I feel like the images of the (female) actors who inhabited those familiar characters for a couple of hours last night in the Tower theatre have now been added, integrated, as facets of how I imagine the characters themselves, which is something in itself.

(w/ Meribah)

"Persona" (Malthouse)

This was really excellent - the best thing I've seen in quite a while, and I reckon one of the best handful that I've seen put on at the Malthouse down the years full stop (a few others that stand out: Eldorado, Woyzeck, a pair of Becketts - Happy Days and The End - Terminus, the Declan Greene pair of Moth and Pompeii, LA, last year's The Wild Duck). I haven't seen the Bergman film from which it was adapted, but it entirely works on its own terms - working with a core theme of identity (as performance and as permeable), and weaving that in around the forces that structure and drive us, including in relation to others, not least sex and death. It's an arresting production, the white curtained set framed and lit in a way that feels like being in someone's mind, and the whole starkly, fluidly dreamlike. Also, fantastic, committed performances from the two principals, Meredith Penman as Elizabeth and Karen Sibbing as Alba. I think it's going to be a hard one to stop thinking about.

(w/ Kai and Alice + Al's friend Bel)