"THIS IS AMERICA" CHILDISH GAMBINO (2018)

It’s easy to let the music video steal the thunder of this song itself. Which would be a shame. “This is America” blends hip hop with gospel and afrobeat textures, making the musicality completely different than anything else out there. Then there’s the message. Gun violence. Police brutality. Discrimination. Childish Gambino took this raw, honest Commentary and the most un-pop-like track all the way to #1 on the charts. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime song.

“This is America. Don't catch you slippin' now. Look at how I'm livin' now. Police be trippin' now. Yeah, this is America.”

"KODACHROME" PAUL SIMON (1972)

Thanks to countless yearbook write-ups, one of the most quoted songs of all time belongs to Paul Simon. “Kodachrome” took a friendly, lighthearted approach to rebellion. And musically, Simon was also his same rebellious self on this track. Daring to cross genres. Daring to even defy them. With every percussive beat. With every uplifting note.

“When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, It's a wonder I can think at all. And though my lack of education hasn't hurt me none, I can read the writing on the wall.”

"EVERYDAY IS LIKE SUNDAY" MORRISSEY (1988)

With no addictive Johnny Marr guitar riffs to lean on, Morrissey churned out one of his most melodic songs ever on his debut solo album. The song was “Everyday is Like Sunday”. Hearing it back, it brings me back to a time when all was good with music. The 80’s were hell bent against packing things up. The Smiths disbanded, but Morrissey didn’t skip a beat.

“Hide on the promenade. Etch a postcard: "How I Dearly Wish I Was Not Here". In the seaside town that they forgot to bomb. Come, come, come, nuclear bomb.”

"TO BUILD A HOME" THE CINEMATIC ORCHESTRA (2007)

This song was released the year I got married to my wife Carol. Many consider it to be one of the most beautiful songs ever written. Piano. Strings. Falsetto vocals. Every aspect of the composition reflects all the love, hope and perseverance that go into building a home. Every element delicately woven together at a dramatic, prodding tempo, daring you to cry your next cry.

“Out in the garden where we planted the seeds, there is a tree as old as me. Branches were sewn by the color of green. Ground had arose and passed its knees.”

"THE CHAIN" FLEETWOOD MAC (1977)

Fleetwood Mac fans are some of the most passionate music fans I know. And Rumours is their Holy Grail. Really you should listen to this album the way it was intended to be listened to: from beginning to end. But I like to skip halfway into it to Track 7 first and then dart around from there. “The Chain” gave Fleetwood Mac an edge. Verse-to-verse harmonies. Slow, driving beats. The guitar solo in the reprise. And the dramatic pause. These are signature moments in classic rock history.

“And if, you don't love me now, you will never love me again. I can still hear you saying, you would never break the chain.” 

"LITHIUM" NIRVANA (1991)

Neil Young may be the Godfather of Grunge. The Pixies and The Melvins may have inspired Kurt Cobain. But it’s Nirvana that defined the grunge era. “Lithium” had an explosion quality—going from soft and dormant to loud and ignited. This song and the entire Nevermind album was on non-stop play in my college residence hall my freshmen year. It didn’t matter what kind of music you listened to before. You now listened to Nirvana and that was that.

“I'm so happy because today. I've found my friends. They're in my head.”

"NEVER TEAR US APART" INXS (1987)

“Never Tear Us Apart” was a bit of an anomaly in the INXS catalog. First off, it’s one of the band’s few recorded ballads. INXS rarely slowed down the RPMs this much. Second, it’s a blues song through and through. Devoid of the INXS rock and new wave pedigree. But it’s probably my favorite INXS song. Those who grew up in the 80’s will remember “Never Tear Us Apart” as one of the best ballads of the era. From beginning to end, it’s strong on instrumentation. But its biggest strength is the power of its dramatic pauses. Few songs use pauses so masterfully.

“We could live for a thousand years. But if I hurt you, I'd make wine from your tears. I told you that we could fly. 'Cause we all have wings, but some of us don't know why.”

"MONDO '77" LOOPER (2000)

I first heard “Mondo ‘77” in a commercial. I don’t remember what it was for. I don’t know what it was trying to sell. But that didn’t matter. It was the song itself that sold me. Later I found out it was recorded by Looper, the side project from Stuart David of Belle & Sebastian. A project that’s curiously nothing like Belle & Sebastian. It’s electronic. Contagious. Repetitive. Big on samples. Big on hooks.

"I WANNA BE SEDATED" RAMONES (1978)

The inventors of the two-minute, three-chord punk song. What the Ramones did for rock & roll seems so simple, but their impact was huge. There was nothing else like it before them. And for me, “I Wanna Be Sedated” is the ultimate Ramones anthem. It follows you around throughout life. In car rides. At parties. In karaoke bars. The second I hear it, all the memories come back. And then just like that, the blast from the past is gone.

“20, 20, 20, 4, hours to go, I wanna be sedated. Nothing to do, nowhere to go, oh I wanna be sedated.”

"CITIES IN DUST" SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES (1986)

Even when Siouxsie & the Banshees veered toward more accessible pop melodies, they never lost their brash post-punk edge. “Cities in Dust” is a case in point. Here’s a history lesson on Pompeii, put to a dance rock beat. Non-Banshee fans could appreciate this stuff. Alarming guitar riffs in the bridge. Haunting toy piano crescendos. And that unmistakeable falsetto from Siouxsie Sioux, one of the more underrated singer-songwriters of our time.

“We found you hiding. We found you lying. Choking on the dirt and sand. Your former glories and all the stories. Dragged and washed with eager hands.”

"RUN OR HIDE" RUN RIVER NORTH (2016)

Before Run River North, they were a young, talented band by the name of Monsters Calling Home. A group of musicians that got their lucky break with a Honda commercial and a spot on Jimmy Kimmel Live. A year later, I saw them in New York and was blown away. MCH didn’t just perform, they connected with us. Four years later, I saw them again. This time they played “Run or Hide”. I was filled with pride that night. As an Asian American, I was inspired to see people like me who were breaking stereotypes. Doing things no one ever expected from us, like writing this incredible song.

“I think I changed my mind about a million times. Oh to run or hide, oh to run or hide. I'm gonna call this out. I'm coming back somehow.”

"BAD MOON RISING" CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL (1969)

Dark, ominous lyrics. Southern-style rock. Blame it on the Dude. I had absolutely no interest in “Bad Moon Rising” and Creedence Clearwater Revival until I saw The Big Lebowski for the first time. Soaking in this classic on Spotify is one thing. But it must’ve been an entirely different thing hearing it live at Woodstock. Creedence strikes me as being a band that would’ve thrived on the festival circuit. And a song like “Bad Moon Rising” would’ve been a setlist staple.

“Well don't go around tonight. Well it's bound to take your life. There's a bad moon on the rise.”

"KNIGHTS OF CYDONIA" MUSE (2006)

Muse knows how to be epic. And “Knights of Cydonia” is one of the best examples of this. We hear elements of Queen. We feel elements of metal. This is Muse doing what they do best. Full-on symphonic and full-on sonic at the same time. “Knights” is a 6-minute dystopian masterpiece. Here we are, yet again, asking ourselves, how the hell did three guys manage to make all these sounds?

“No one's going to take me alive. Time has come to make things right. You and I must fight for our rights. You and I must fight to survive.”

"MOTHER" PINK FLOYD (1979)

There was a time when I couldn’t stop listening to The Wall and “Mother” was part of the reason why. On a concept album with 26 tracks, this song was glue, holding disparate tracks together with its narrative and musicality. “Mother” flowed perfectly in the spot where it landed, right after perhaps the album’s biggest hit “Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2”. What makes it so good? I think it’s two things. The conversational interlude between Pink and his mom. And the musical interlude between the acoustic strumming and the electric solo midway into the song.

“Mother, do you think she's good enough for me? Mother, do you think she's dangerous to me? Mother, will she tear your little boy apart? Mother, will she break my heart?”

"I GO CRAZY" FLESH FOR LULU (1987)

In college, I was lucky enough to be part of an a cappella group with a group of immensely talented and amazing human beings. I don’t have a solo voice, but I got in by the skin of my teeth because I could sing some bass. Those musical limitations didn’t stop two dear friends of mine in the group from searching long and hard for the right solo for me. That song was “I Go Crazy”. Straight off the soundtrack for Some Kind of Wonderful. It was a perfect choice. Flesh for Lulu’s frontman’s vocal range is almost identical to mine. And the song is a true 80’s anthem through and through.

“This city's mad in the head. And sick in the soul. All the stars flew away a long time ago. Isn't that nice. Like Miami Vice.”

"RIGHT ON" THE ROOTS (2010)

In the back half of How I Got Over, “Right On” comes in with its mid-tempo ranting and grooving. Like much of the album, this is a song of self-determination. You hear it in the lyrics. But, most importantly, you just feel it—from the Joanna Newsom sample to the final verse. But what I love most about the song is it felt right for the times. “Right On” feels more like a journal entry than a public proclamation.

“For this love I go above and beyond the limit. I told y'all I'm above and beyond the gimmick. I get into your head and spread like a pandemic. I never put myself in a race I can't finish.”

"WAITING FOR THE SUN" THE DOORS (1970)

The Doors made music however the hell they wanted to. If it meant making the keyboard a bigger deal than the guitar, then so be it. If it meant taking psychedelic rock and drowning it in the blues, then so be it. There are so many Doors songs that are permanently enshrined in the classic rock canon. But I think the reason “Waiting for the Sun” always comes back to me is because it gave every signature Doors element its rightful moment in the spotlight.

“Waiting for you to come along. Waiting for you to hear my song. Waiting for you to come along. Waiting for you to tell me what went wrong.”

"THE IMPRESSION THAT I GET" THE MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES (1997)

This song is permanently inseparable from my fuzzy memories of college. It brings me back to one night at The Middle East club on Mass Ave in Boston. That was the night the full force of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones hit me in the face and kicked me in the ass. My best friend thought it was a great idea for a scrawny 125 pound kid to jump into the mosh pit. So in I went. Honestly I haven’t been the same since that show, because that was the night I stopped thinking about concerts as musical experiences and started thinking about them as visceral experiences.

“Have you ever had the odds stacked up so high you need a strength most don't possess? Or has it ever come down to do or die? You've got to rise above the rest.”

"THE KILLING MOON" ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN (1984)

Well before the Donnie Darko soundtrack, “The Killing Moon” was my favorite Echo & the Bunnymen song. This wasn’t just another new wave song. It took on a form no other rock song has ever come close to. Using balalaika-influenced instrumentation, “The Killing Moon” defied the times and the comfortable confines of 80’s Brit rock. Ian McCulloch’s divinely inspired lyrics and performance brought a sense of swagger, making this recording as epic as the imagery it conjures.

“Fate. Up against your will. Through the thick and thin. He will wait until you give yourself to him.”