cohost is going read-only tomorrow. the following day, I will turn 43. that these two things are happening so close together feels kind of serendipitous. so I wrote a bunch of words about many of my favorite songs.
I started writing this as soon as I heard this site would be going away at the end of the year. it felt like I had to leave something here in case someone might happen across my profile before the whole site disappears. I'm going to miss this place. I probably didn't treat it with the respect I really should have, but cohost was special in what it tried to—and frequently did—accomplish.
if you know me, you know music is very, very special to me. so it feels fitting to say goodbye to cohost with a passion project, of sorts. this list isn't exhaustive (how could it be?) but I like to think anyone who reads it will come away with a sense of what I look for and appreciate in a song, and maybe find something they will love for the rest of their lives. save for the first entry, the rest of this list is unordered.
so long, everyone. it's been a gas.
let's go:
Maaya Sakamoto - "03"
my favorite song. forever and always.
this is one of Yoko Kanno's best arrangements, I feel. it is sparse but vast. when it makes its presence felt, the pangs of yearning and nostalgia are almost unbearable. I wear my heart on my sleeve when talking about Maaya Sakamoto. she's one of the best singers in the world, and here she brings the perfect balance of longing, melancholy and hope. no other song I've heard captures the connection to the temporality of all things as well as this one.
favorite moment: all of it. but if I had to pick one, the very beginning, where the sample of the car passing by dissolves beautifully into the opening chords.
Angra - "Metal Icarus"
"Fireworks" is perhaps Angra's weakest album, but this track plays like a promise of what power metal can be. Andre Matos was a much more introspective songwriter than most of his peers in the genre, as well as a far more skilled lyricist, despite his occasional fumbles with the English language. here he sings of friends departed, relationships faded, potential unfulfilled, experiencing the beauty and folly of youth "night after night / upon forces unknown." all amid some of the best music the band ever put together.
favorite moment: the solos. good lord, the solos.
Strapping Young Lad - "Underneath the Waves"
"City" is the greatest extreme metal album of all time. a major reason for that is because Devin Townsend was unafraid to tap into the thing that so many metal musicians (and, well, men in general) tend to avoid: feelings. "Underneath the Waves" finds Devin at perhaps his most mentally and emotionally confused, airing out his frustrations in an effort to confront the chaos in his head. this is a song that only someone with Devin's rare talent and abilities could ever pull off. also Gene Hoglan rules.
favorite moment: the chorus, in which Devin is filled nearly to bursting with anguish: "TIRED OF WAITING / TIRED OF FIGHTING / TIRED OF WAITING / FOR FUCKING NOTHING"
Porcupine Tree - "Trains"
fans might scoff at me for picking something so basic from across Steven Wilson's vast discography, but this is Porcupine Tree's most well-known song for many reasons: Wilson's powerful vocals and melodies, lyrics rife with imagery and – oof! – that chorus. "always the summers are slipping away" is one of the greatest and most relatable lines ever written, paired with one of the best melodies from a songwriter who made a career out of stand-out melodies.
favorite moment: the very first chorus. I wish I could hear it for the first time, every time.
Akino Arai - "Furu Purachina" ("Raining Platinum")
"Furu Purachina" is emblematic of Akino Arai's knack for writing songs that transport the listener to some familiar but faraway place. her singing on this track rings over her minimalist arrangement like a voice from beyond the firmament. one moment I'm walking down the street of some busy metropolis at golden hour, the next I'm watching clouds recede after a fresh rainfall, or staring at green fields and skyscrapers through the window of a speeding bullet train.
favorite moment: the layers of noise colliding with the closing refrain.
Kate Bush - "Hello Earth"
if ever I end up releasing an album, I want it to follow a trajectory similar to "Hounds of Love," leading with catchy, relatively straightforward tracks before segueing into far less conventional material. "Hello Earth," the second-to-last cut on the album, nearly drifts into prog rock territory. we get haunting vocal interludes, an arena-worthy refrain and an outro spoken in German, relaying the perspective of a woman floating alone in the vastness of the ocean. and thanks to Kate Bush's steady hand and talent for emotional depth, it all works.
favorite moment: the final chorus, with the main character's subconscious making a final desperate plea in the form of rumbling background vocals.
Zabadak - "Michishio no Yoru" ("Night of the High Tide")
"Michishio no Yoru" perhaps best exemplifies just how expert Zabadak was at (among other things) various forms of European folk music. this opener from 1990's "Tooi Ongaku" leads with a haunting Celtic melody that transitions into Yoko Ueno's trademark soaring vocal, gradually adding memorable elements (that bassline!) as it marches toward its rousing refrain. Zabadak would unfortunately come to an end with the death of Tomohiro Kira in 2016, but their body of work is splendid and now easy to find on YouTube and elsewhere. seek it out.
favorite moment: the choral break leading into the last verse, where Ueno sings accompanied by a fog bank of voices
Masta Ace - "Take a Walk"
a lot of people in the 90s took the wrong message from gangsta rap. "Take a Walk," from Masta Ace's classic 2001 album "Disposable Arts," brilliantly puts the lie to the romanticized idea of inner cities that so many would-be tourists envisioned after hearing "The Chronic" for the first time. it's hard to imagine the average suburban white listener knowing even a quarter of the neighborhoods shouted out on this track. in quite possibly the best sample choice ever, the beat is based on Spanky and Our Gang's "Lazy Day."
favorite moment: "see cats don't really wanna kill, they tryin' to eat / yo ain't it a nice day to take a walk in the street?"
The Pillows - "Moon is Mine"
anyone looking for an equivalent to "There is a Light That Never Goes Out" without Morrissey's baggage can rejoice. "Moon is Mine" is every bit the paean to the inevitability of fading youth as The Smiths' timeless anthem, with much less mope and far more hope. singer Sawao Yamanaka, backed by the lush Britpop-inspired guitar work that was a trademark of The Pillows' first few albums, relays a tale of longing for the anonymity of night in some of his best lyrical work of the era.
favorite moment: the final, appended chorus - "COME ON, STARLIGHT. I dream of us embracing / GOOD NIGHT, SLEEP TIGHT. I sleep beside you."
Nightwish - "Wishmaster"
Nightwish's brand of symphonic metal left such a mark on the genre that it's possible to divide it into before- and after-Nightwish eras. and yet the song of theirs I find most quintessential is one of their more straightforward. "Wishmaster" shares more DNA with power metal, grounded as it is with rolling double-kick drums and palm-muted guitar riffing and lifted to untold heights with its unforgettable chorus. but it's still unmistakably Nightwish, and perhaps the best song of Tarja's run with the band.
favorite moment: MASTER! APPRENTICE! HEARTBORNE, SEVENTH SEEKER! WARRIOR! DISCIPLE! IN ME, THE WISHMASTER!
Allan Holdsworth - "Questions"
though it seems hackneyed by now to call Allan Holdsworth the greatest electric guitarist to ever live, his solo halfway through "Questions," a composition by drummer Chad Wackerman, makes the case as much anything he ever did. his mastery of melody, harmony, phrasing and technique are made manifest over Wackerman's chord progressions, which feel as though they were written for someone he wished to know better than he did.
favorite moment: the phrase from 2:58-3:05. sublime.
Tony MacAlpine - "Autumn Lords"
the heyday of Shrapnel Records introduced an impossible number of virtuoso guitarists to a relatively large audience, but to my ears Tony MacAlpine stood head and shoulders above most of them. he was (and is) rare among his peers in his ability to combine ridiculous chops with a talent for writing superb melodies and surprisingly catchy songs. "Autumn Lords" is a showcase of all three, the rare neoclassical shredfest that doubles as an earworm. and he can rip it up on keys, too? that's just cheating.
favorite moment: the instrumental break at 2:22
Steve Morse - "Ghostwind"
for someone who made a career since the 70s as a rock and fusion virtuoso, opening a solo record with a gentle electro-acoustic tune that could play alongside an Ansel Adams slide show is a bold move. fortunately, Steve's gifts as a composer easily match his skill as an instrumentalist, and the result is a stunning track that is the perfect companion for nature walks, long drives through tree-lined roads and brisk Christmas mornings.
favorite moment: the utterly gorgeous sequence from 1:14-1:44
Darkest Hour - "Knife in the Safe Room"
to my ears Darkest Hour were far and away the best band to emerge during the 2000s metalcore craze, and this track runs through my head almost daily. opening with a monster two-chord riff that owes as much to Sabbath as their D.C. hardcore forebears, it gets right down to business, piling on thrashy riffs and solos before launching into one of the most brutal breakdowns ever recorded.
favorite moment: "DROWN ANY SEMBLANCE OF POWER, OF PRIVILEGE OF STATE"
Yoko Kanno - "Omega Blue"
for those willing to delve into it, Yoko Kanno has an extremely rich discography filled with underappreciated tiny masterpieces like this one. singing under the name Gabriela Robin, as she has many times throughout her career, she provides a companion piece for sudden realizations and walks through urban wastelands.
favorite moment: the updraft at 52 seconds.
Maaya Sakamoto - "Kiseki no Umi"
the iconic opener to the "Record of Lodoss War" might be better known than its source material by now. that's less of a knock against the anime and more of testament to how triumphant "Kiseki no Umi" truly is. Sakamoto and her longtime collaborator Yoko Kanno make the listener feel like they are being launched into a bracing autumn sky, horizon in full view. stunning.
favorite moment: Sakamoto's vocal reaching escape velocity during the chorus
Tears For Fears - "Brian Wilson Said"
after graduating high school I was adrift for roughly a year and a half while I figured out how to get the hell out of the stagnant air of the small town I'd been living in. "Brian Wilson Said" played like all of my fears being aired out. Roland Orzabal's contemplative vocals and nostalgic lyrics are a golden mean, a meeting point between the frustration of feeling stuck and the anxiety of uncertainty.
favorite moment: the lone piano outro, paired with Orzabal's message in a bottle: "I keep coming back / I'll get back to you"
Devin Townsend - "Bastard"
when Devin Townsend's "Ocean Machine" arrived, it felt like the album I had been waiting and pining for my entire life. I was 17; bored, lonely and depressed, although I didn't know it at the time. "Bastard" was the song that tied all of the album's themes and all of my feelings together simultaneously. it’s a tide that rises so gradually that you don't even know what's happening until you've been swept away into open water. then that volume swell portends the beginning of something indescribable.
favorite moment: the guitar volume swell at the very end...............................................................
Janet Jackson - "Someday is Tonight"
"Rhythm Nation" is better than "Thriller" and by the time this gets posted I will not be able to take these words back and I don't care. it's a grand and final statement of pop art that might never be equaled, and yet the last tender track segues beautifully into the more introspective arc of Janet's career. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis made their illustrious careers with scorching new jack swing, but this emotional R&B number reveals other immense talents they never fully explored.
favorite moment: the closing collage of heavy breathing, horns and layers of synthesizers
Children of Bodom - "Follow the Reaper"
no other band to emerge in the 2000s captured just how fun and cathartic heavy metal could be quite like Children of Bodom. on their early albums, Alexi Laiho (1979-2020) and company sounded like every 15-year-old hesher's dream outfit: breakneck rhythms, instrumental virtuosity, badass riffs being introduced every eight bars and a whole lot of silly lyrics about being evil and pissed off and hating everything. "Follow the Reaper," the leadoff track from the 2001 album of the same name, is everything the band was great at compiled into a singular perfect statement.
favorite moment: "TO FOLLOW THE REAPER TO THE POINT OF NO RETURRRRRRRRN"
Arcturus - "Radical Cut"
I have a complicated relationship with Arcturus. 2002's "The Sham Mirrors" might be my favorite album of all time. it's bizarre and brilliant and unsettling and catchy and and and and.... but I am also forced to reckon with the, ahem, actions and words of certain drummers. that said, "Radical Cut" stands out as perhaps everything the Norwegian black metal scene had been trying to achieve since the early 90s collected into one track. screaming along at mach 10 with Ihsahn screeching out its absurdist lyrics, it's a machine that feels like it could fall apart at any moment. and yet...
favorite moment: Ihsahn's scream. you'll know it when you hear it.
Blind Guardian - "Time Stands Still (At the Iron Hill)"
by now it is well-established that Germany's Blind Guardian are the true elder statesmen of power metal. their consistency is almost miraculous, and damned near every album is guaranteed to have at least a few classic songs. "Nightfall in Middle-Earth," however, is a record made up of classics from start to finish, and "Time Stands Still..." is maybe the most Blind Guardian-ass Blind Guardian song that ever Blind Guardianed.
favorite moment: the extended instrumental break, in particular the passage at 3:05
Thin Lizzy - "Cold Sweat" (apologies for the spotify link. every other version of this song seems to have been scrubbed from the internet)
I write music from time to time. Phil Lynott, to me, is a kind of north star. no one else in hard rock could write simple, effective songs that could blow your mind like he did. here, he takes a workmanlike riff and makes it deceptively complex with clever syncopation, tying the whole thing together with a solid lyric and his signature gravelly baritone. it hasn't left my head since I heard the opening bars. John Sykes puts the icing on this cake with a blistering solo.
favorite: "STONE COLD SOBER AND STONE COLD SWEAT/ RUNNIN DOWN THE BACK OF MY NECK"
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - "Learning to Fly"
one could argue, convincingly, that Tom Petty recorded a lot of songs better than this one: "Wildflowers," "Time to Move On," "Love is a Long Road," "Refugee," "The Waiting"...I could do this all day. but "Learning to Fly" has a secret ingredient that will win me over every time: Jeff Lynne. I'm an absolute sucker for his style of production and this track reeks of it. sometimes I am overwhelmingly easy to please.
favorite moment: those layered background vocals. "learning to flyyyyyy-yyyy-yyyy"
Depeche Mode - "Everything Counts" (Live 1988)
this specific version of one of Depeche Mode's most beloved songs is the single greatest moment in synth pop history. Depeche Mode were better than any band in the genre at creating songs that played well to arenas, and this rendition of "Everything Counts" at their 1988 sold-out show at the Rose Bowl is a revelation: after one listen, it almost feels like there's nowhere else to go but down.
favorite moment: the crowd sing-along that closes out both the song and the concert. joyous.
Susumu Hirasawa - "Hashi Daiku" ("Bridge Builder")
I first heard this song playing from my college roommate's speakers while he watched a Rurouni Kenshin AMV. there was no going back. Hirasawa's global profile has risen considerably since I first heard him more than 20 years ago, and deservedly so. this track contains everything that makes him so distinctive: the layered samples, the gorgeous synths, the overpowering reverb, the vocal melodies that rise and cascade like a windswept mountain range. it's enough to make me wonder if everyone's favorite Susumu Hirasawa song is the first one they ever heard....
favorite moment: the outro, which mirrors the intro while containing the context of everything in between.
Leonard Cohen - "The Captain"
Mr. Cohen might be the finest lyricist that ever lived. he explored his own contradictions and vulnerabilities (and everyone else's) in ways that were authentic, acerbic, bleak, somber, hopeful and somehow obvious all at the same time. "The Captain" is a country-western yarn about two soldiers who might be the same person, all anger and confusion and resignation, the way we all sometimes are in times of crisis. obviously.
favorite moment: "whatever makes a soldier sad will make a killer smile"
Warren Zevon - "Reconsider Me"
this song, penned by Zevon and later given to Stevie Nicks, doesn't find the delightfully cynical and majorly underappreciated songwriter at his best, lyrically. but there's something about how he sings its mournful melody and apologetic lyrics that hits hard when taken together with the fact of his tumultuous personal life, which was detailed in the memoir written by his former wife that did not portray him charitably but which he nonetheless endorsed before his death. we may not believe Zevon when he swears that he's "changed since then," but then, that's kind of the point.
favorite moment: every time Zevon sings the titular words. every. fucking. time.
