Highlights from P4K’s 100-51 List
Telling it like it is - Joshua Love on “Someday” #53:
The placement of “Someday” as the top Strokes song on our list befits the fact that it’s possibly the best distillation of lead singer Julian Casablancas’ irresistible brand of insouciant asshole charm.
Actually this is all I want in rock music - Matthew Solarski on “Obstacle 1” #64:
[T]his early knockout from the record remains the signature distillation of Interpol’s well-apportioned strengths, as if urgency + hook + tempo change = all you’ll ever need to craft the perfect little rock song.
Biggest LOL - Ryan Dombal on “Mr. Brightside” #72:
In the decadent, Moulin Rouge-inspired, ham-a-lot video for “Mr. Brightside”, Brandon Flowers and Eric Roberts battle for the love of a ghostly courtesan by playing a game of… checkers. Not chess. Not poker. Not, like, a pistol duel— checkers! Is there a less sophisticated and/or consequential way to settle a score? (Naturally, Flowers eventually flips the board in disgust, ending the brief showdown.)
Most impressive stretch - Tom Ewing on “Stroke of Genius” #78:
Christina Aguilera and the Strokes find smolder in one another, Aguilera’s purring sultriness transforming the ache in “Hard to Explain” from world-weariness to frustrated desire. Impressively, the Hellraiser predicted the arc of 00s teenpop with this— its turn away from bubblegum R&B to guitar-driven confessionals.
Best recontextualization - Marc Hogan on “I’m A Cuckoo” #97 (which btw I was so happy to see):
Not only does this version make “Cuckoo” finally sound as carefree as its melody, it also predicts indie pop’s late-2000s turn Africa-ward. (See especially the Tough Alliance and Air France remixes of former Concretes singer Victoria Bergsman’s Taken By Trees project.)
Blurb that makes me love the original song even more and hence the best blurb - Douglas Wolk on “Work It” #54:
Yes, there’s a beat— a dumbfounding one, so stripped-down and fluid it’s practically gestural, so good you say blah blah blah— and the samples that bookend it (Rock Master Scott at the beginning, Run-D.M.C. at the end) point out just how much more graceful technology has made hip-hop in 20 years. But this is Missy’s show as both a writer and a rapper, and she’s got so much juice she can literally reverse the flow of time. She can end nearly every line with an oh-ah rhyme (half of which are words she made up herself), she can ditch rhymes altogether for an even funnier effect (of course “nails done” matches “hair did”!), and she can totally grind on you and play it off as a giggle— note that she’s not comparing herself to Halle Berry but to “a Halle Berry poster.” There aren’t many more bluntly sexual songs that have turned into hits this elephantine; maybe it slid by because there aren’t many songs that are anywhere near this funny about sex.
