XFM Top 1000 Tunes

I’ve been writing music reviews for a forthcoming book: The XFM Top 1000 Tunes of All Time. Apart from being another branch to my polymath/indecisive portfolio, it was a great opportunity to rediscover some classics: Bran Van 3000, Hard-Fi, the Stereo MCs and Patti Smith, among many others.

The book is due out in the Autumn: “the definitive guide to the best tunes ever recorded”, according to the blurb.

A snippet to whet your appetites (and a cracking song to boot):

The Walkmen / ‘The Rat’

2004 / 4:28

Rocking and intense, Washington DC’s Walkmen released their debut album, the wonderfully titled ‘Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone’ in 2002. Inspired but occasionally rambling, comparisons were made with U2.

Noticeably tighter, 2004’s follow-up, ‘Bows + Arrows’, sounded like a band who’d found their feet. First single from the album, and standout track, ‘The Rat’ deals with an ex-friend or girlfriend: ‘You’ve got a nerve to be asking a favour, you’ve got a nerve to be calling my number’ growls Hamilton Leithauser. Behind him, the drumming and guitars are extraordinarily fast but also immaculately sharp. Leithauser has said that the song was written in less than an hour, after drummer Matt Barrick started messing around in a jamming session. An electric organ adds a background of menacing atmosphere to the memorable intensity.

The band formed from the remnants of two split groups in 1998, one of which was the much feted Jonathon Fire*Eater. They set up a recording studio in New York City and added tweaks such as antique piano into the garage rock mix. Inventive and evolving, the band have since done a track-by-track cover of Harry Nilsson and John Lennon’s 1974 album Pussy Cats; their acclaimed 2008 album ‘You & Me’ is softer, Dylan-tinged Americana.

Self-critical and refreshingly modest, The Walkmen have spoken proudly about how David Letterman asked to have ‘The Rat’ added to his morning jogging tape after they appeared on his show.

According to both Pitchfork and NME, ‘The Rat’ was one of the 20 best singles of the first decade of the 21^st century. A wound-up, bristling, knot of tight aggression, the song remains hard to follow. Anger seldom punched this hard or sounded this slick.