Punish yourself by ranking your 100 favorite songs
It’s a fun and horrible exercise. Try it.
I’ve decided that June is music month here on Bangers & Jams. In early summer, I tend to go to the same few restaurants … or no restaurants at all. I experiment less with my at-home cooking. The takes get less spicy, and that’s not good for anyone. So we’ll return to the food stuff in July.
I come here with a different summer recommendation: Make a playlist of your 100 favorite songs, ranked in order.
In late 2020, a couple friends invited me to do this with them as a way to curb pandemic boredom. I think they each spent a week on theirs. But few weeks over the course of six month, I’d look at my list, make tweaks, feel dissatisfied and keep adjusting. Finally, one day in the summer of 2021, I cut my long list down from 141 songs to 100, spent hours fiddling with the order, and decided this thing was locked.
Later, I found out I had misunderstood the assignment. They had ranked their 100 favorite songs of the century, meaning the past 100 years. I had ranked my favorite songs released since Jan. 1, 2000. (I was relieved, because I never would have let myself complete the other version).
There are lots of ways in which this already feels dated. So in the June 29 edition of Bangers and Jams, I’m going to drop an update. I’m still deciding on the constraints, whether that’s trying to extend the list to my favorite songs ever, just doing an update for this current century, or something else.
Until then, here are some reflections:
This list is like 70% bangers, 30% jams. (Yes, there’s a difference). Some songs have incredibly high highs. They knock you out and overwhelm you. They’re moving and unsettling and intense. They’re bangers. Other songs are comforting. You easily sink into them, remembering the melody and vibe more than the root emotions. They’re perfected versions of a thing other people have tried but not done as well. They’re jams.
Songs with memorable live performances got a significant boost. So did tracks holding deep sentimental value or ones that regularly made me cry or ones that became small obsessions played multiple times a day for months. This list also was entirely oriented around favorite rather than best, which is the only version I was interested in making.
My music taste leans very Meet Me In The Bathroom, but it maybe went a little overboard here. There’s also not enough country music. That’ll change in round two.
Artists with multiple songs: LCD Soundsystem (5, yikes), The Strokes (4), Car Seat Headrest (3), Frank Ocean (3), Kanye West (3), Lorde (3), Outkast (2), The Rapture (2), Julien Baker (2).
I accidentally ordered this from No.1 to No. 100 in the playlist, which gives the weird experience of the songs getting progressively worse as you listen.
Here’s the full list, in table form. Give it a shot yourself, make up your own constraints and see how it goes.
