Have you ever been to a concert and wished the band had played certain songs? I know I have. The reality is, you'll never get exactly what you want. However, you are free to build any playlist you like. I have decided to write a series showcasing the Top 20 songs from some of my favorite bands.
For those of you who are old enough to remember cassette tapes, you'll know the terrible anguish of trying to fit the songs together. How annoying when the last song you picked was still playing as the tape ran out! Those days are over and it's now a simple task to throw together a playlist using your computer, iPod or a USB. I know that having USB capability has enhanced my driving pleasure because it's so easy to update a list of songs.
But there's also more to creating a playlist than simply deciding which songs to include. Like an actual concert, or even a single song, a good playlist features changes in mood and tempo. If a band opens with the three songs that the audience most wants to hear, the rest of the performance might fall flat. My own particular method of creating a playlist has a number of considerations:
- Mix up the duration of the songs
- Put space between songs from the same album, unless the two are better when played in sequence
- Build to a natural high, slow it down again, and finish with a real flourish
- Put in some newer songs close to the start, assuming there are newer songs worthy of inclusion
- For bands with more than one vocalist, mix up the sequence depending on who is singing
- Speed and style matters, so mix it up unless there is a good reason not to
- Albums often have a great choice of opening and closing song that work best in that particular spot
- The final three or four songs might resemble an encore if it was a real concert
- Leave the listener satisfied and wanting more
Unlike most of the bands in this series, I have not been listening to Built To Spill for 10 years or more. The music is still quite new to me and all of the current albums were already released before I became a fan. I have only seen the band in concert once and I am yet to associate any of their songs with events in my life. If I make another Built To Spill playlist in a year or two, it might be drastically different to the one I am going to offer you today.
If you think of all your own favorite bands, you'll probably find that the album you heard first from each one is either top, or close to the top of your favorites for that band. In this instance, every Built To Spill album was first played by me over the span of a couple of days, so what I think about each does not suffer from the bias of having heard it years before the release of the later albums.
What this list is influenced by is what I find most appealing about music. That will always be the case with anything that I listen to. I am sure many of you will violently disagree with some of my choices, but all I can say is that they are honest.
Built To Spill have produced a lot of songs with much more melody that I would typically listen to. The jewels of my music collection tend to be messier and more complex than most of the songs on this playlist. Doug Martsch founded the band in 1992 and has been the only permanent fixture. His voice is more accomplished than my favorite vocalists. Like I said, I gravitate toward messy sounds.
One thing that stands out is the sheer variety of styles present across eight studio albums. That probably has something to do with the continual changes in personnel. However, despite all of the changes, Untethered Moon (2015) seems to be one of the band's best for years, at least for my tastes. My absolute favorites from the band's discography are Perfect From Now On (1997) and Keep It Like a Secret (1999). The playlist is heavily influenced by those two in particular.
To get to the final 20 songs, I quickly ran through the band's songs and worked from a shortlist of 34. About half of the final 20 picked themselves, but the remainder of the list was not easy to pin down. The contenders each had something to offer that I think is worth hearing.
Here's the final 20. As outlined above, these are not in order of preference, but are in a sequence that I might choose for an actual live concert. Here is the YouTube Playlist if you want to enjoy the full experience.
The Plan
All Our Songs
Kicked It in the Sun
Strange
Sidewalk
Goin' Against Your Mind
Out of Site
Else
Living Zoo
Time Trap
Untrustable/Part 2 (About Someone Else)
Car
Stab
You Were Right
Trimmed and Burning
I Would Hurt a Fly
Horizon to Cliff
Broken Chairs
Randy Described Eternity
Carry the Zero
