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My 100 favorite songs

88. Mac DeMarco - My Old Man

It was tough to pick a Mac DeMarco song for me, I’m nearly always in the mood for one of his albums. His songs almost always fit the vibe for me. There are different sounds or ideas in the decade or so he’s been putting out records, and the record I’ve locked into the most is This Old Dog.

For my untrained ears Mac sounds like he would fit into yacht rock or some 70s/80s soft rock genre. There are a handful of artists I left off this list that have individual songs I might like more than any particular DeMarco song (Real Estate comes to mind), but few artists who did make the list that I’ll gladly shuffle their entire catalog with no skips. That easy listen is appreciated on days where you’re not looking to be challenged by something interesting, you’re not looking to party and dance, you just want to relax and enjoy the time.

But My Old Man is more than just a careless throwaway, and that’s where DeMarco takes it up a gear for me. The song doesn’t have anything especially unique to say about turning into a parent or getting older, but it’s delivered in a funny way, you can hear the smile through the singing, and when I’ve seen it performed live he was laughing about it to himself. I think about the line “There's a price tag hanging off of having all that fun” sometimes when I’ll wake up sore or hungover or dead tired, and I appreciate him for that. I’m hoping someone will give DeMarco a shot who never did before, even if it isn’t this song or album that does it, because it’s consistently been a hit for me.
 
The uglier the guy, the better the love song. Jim Croce is just one example of this correlation.
 
TownieDeac said:
For my untrained ears Mac sounds like he would fit into yacht rock or some 70s/80s soft rock genre.
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Going to add him to my regular rotation based solely on this description

Townie you ever fuck with Vance Gilbert? He has a great big voice for the folky singer-songwriter stuff he puts out
 
Have seen Vance at a couple festivals, awesome voice
 
oh man we love Mac here

his Boston Calling show (same year as the previously discussed Chance mud hellhole!) is one of my all-time favorite shows

it was filmed by WGBH and they did an interview that they stitch between the tracks:



the interview is honestly great for the context it adds-- apparently his guitar pedal broke before the set, and his acoustic guitar was broken, which leads to a great Mac quote that I think about a lot: "sometimes when you shit the bed you have to piss your pants to make up for it, y'know what I mean?"

anyway even though as Townie acknowledges this probably wouldn't be the Mac track others choose (mine would probs be "Freaking Out the Neighborhood" or any given track from Salad Days), I love almost all Mac, and "My Old Man" is lovely
 
87. Eric B and Rakim - Don’t Sweat the Technique

By 1991, the time this album and single were out, Eric B and Rakim were the best rap duo performing. They took the DJ/MC partnership to a completely new level with four outstanding records, a brilliant list of hit singles, and an ever evolving and improving style. Ra’s artistry over and above his generation’s finest MC’s was in his mellow delivery, his focus on lyrical poeticism and, and more than anything else, his departure from rapping on bars—he rapped around the beat, through it, over it, past it, transcended it. Apart from maybe Black Thought, I don’t know if there is a more interesting and innovative rapper to ever do it. And for the first time on this, the duo’s final album, he was ready to brag about it.

There is something elemental and basic about this track, the Kool and the Gang sample, the repeated hook, the muted but amped up delivery and phrasing. The internal rhymes propel the track forward, and the beat is simple but energetic and just bombastic enough to nail it all together.

I can leave myself entirely out of today’s entry, except to say I didn’t really get into rap apart from what was popular in the early 2000s and some Tupac singles until after college, when my roommate at the time was obsessed with it. I came home every day from work to Outkast and A Tribe Called Quest and Lil Wayne and Nas and Jurassic 5. There was a stretch of a few months when rap was all I listened to, and almost everything on this list that is hip hop adjacent comes from that time period. I love this track, it always puts me in a good mood. Pumps me up, gets me going.
 
86. Counting Crows - Omaha

I spent most of my morning thinking about this song and album and band, trying to remember where I first heard it. It was tough to choose a favorite Counting Crows song—for a band that I listened to a lot in teenage years and then pretty randomly in my 20s and now 30s, I can pick up August and Everything After any time and play it start to finish and remember all the words. Mr. Jones, Long December, Round Here, and Anna Begins were all candidates.

Omaha, though, shows off a lot of what’s unique and interesting for such a huge mainstream success story like Counting Crows. I’m no expert but I’m pretty sure accordion and mandolin feature prominently, and this track really stretches Adam Duritz’s vocals in the high end of his range. I think it’s the most sonically interesting song of theirs, and while there may be catchier hooks or easier melodies, this was the tune I was happiest listening to on repeat putting this list together.

I have pretty great memories with high school friends riding around after school cranking bands like Counting Crows and Third Eye Blind and (I’m not embarrassed) Matchbox 20 and Gavin Degraw, if your teenage years can’t be full of earnest and painfully honest and self serious and lovely music, you’re either too cool or lying to yourself. There was a time in my 20s when I certainly thought I was too good for anything that wasn’t obscure or challenging, but as I get older I only grow in appreciation again for good songwriting and songs that you want to come back to, no matter whether they were big hits or just big hits to me. This one is dedicated to Charlie Sprinkle, miss ya buddy.
 
Great album, can't say that I would have picked this one as the best, but much like Adam Duritz's dating life, there are alot of headliners here.
 
TownieDeac said:
87. Eric B and Rakim - Don’t Sweat the Technique

By 1991, the time this album and single were out, Eric B and Rakim were the best rap duo performing. They took the DJ/MC partnership to a completely new level with four outstanding records, a brilliant list of hit singles, and an ever evolving and improving style. Ra’s artistry over and above his generation’s finest MC’s was in his mellow delivery, his focus on lyrical poeticism and, and more than anything else, his departure from rapping on bars—he rapped around the beat, through it, over it, past it, transcended it. Apart from maybe Black Thought, I don’t know if there is a more interesting and innovative rapper to ever do it. And for the first time on this, the duo’s final album, he was ready to brag about it.

There is something elemental and basic about this track, the Kool and the Gang sample, the repeated hook, the muted but amped up delivery and phrasing. The internal rhymes propel the track forward, and the beat is simple but energetic and just bombastic enough to nail it all together.

I can leave myself entirely out of today’s entry, except to say I didn’t really get into rap apart from what was popular in the early 2000s and some Tupac singles until after college, when my roommate at the time was obsessed with it. I came home every day from work to Outkast and A Tribe Called Quest and Lil Wayne and Nas and Jurassic 5. There was a stretch of a few months when rap was all I listened to, and almost everything on this list that is hip hop adjacent comes from that time period. I love this track, it always puts me in a good mood. Pumps me up, gets me going.
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I'm not a rap guy for the most part, or perhaps I'm a fan with a very narrow, but scattered appreciation. I made an effort several years ago to broaden my rap horizons, listened to a podcast about it, etc. This was one of the songs that was introduced to, and it absolutely is fantastic.

On a side note, if I were to pick a Counting Crows song, it would be Rain King.
 
TownieDeac said:
87. Eric B and Rakim - Don’t Sweat the Technique

By 1991, the time this album and single were out, Eric B and Rakim were the best rap duo performing. They took the DJ/MC partnership to a completely new level with four outstanding records, a brilliant list of hit singles, and an ever evolving and improving style. Ra’s artistry over and above his generation’s finest MC’s was in his mellow delivery, his focus on lyrical poeticism and, and more than anything else, his departure from rapping on bars—he rapped around the beat, through it, over it, past it, transcended it. Apart from maybe Black Thought, I don’t know if there is a more interesting and innovative rapper to ever do it. And for the first time on this, the duo’s final album, he was ready to brag about it.

There is something elemental and basic about this track, the Kool and the Gang sample, the repeated hook, the muted but amped up delivery and phrasing. The internal rhymes propel the track forward, and the beat is simple but energetic and just bombastic enough to nail it all together.

I can leave myself entirely out of today’s entry, except to say I didn’t really get into rap apart from what was popular in the early 2000s and some Tupac singles until after college, when my roommate at the time was obsessed with it. I came home every day from work to Outkast and A Tribe Called Quest and Lil Wayne and Nas and Jurassic 5. There was a stretch of a few months when rap was all I listened to, and almost everything on this list that is hip hop adjacent comes from that time period. I love this track, it always puts me in a good mood. Pumps me up, gets me going.
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Pretty sure this is the first song from the list that I'm intimately familiar with.

Eric B and Rakim were the best rap duo of the late 80s but when Don't Sweat the Technique came out in Summer 1992, it felt like a return to prominence rather than sustained excellence. Paid in Full (1987) was a great album and Follow the Leader (1988) had a few hits. But Let the Rhythm Hit 'Em (1990) was a let down by comparison. By that time, EMPD and Gang Starr were probably the best duos.

Don't Sweat the Technique seemed like a departure from their earlier work. The sax heavy jazz, the smooth flow, it didn't have the edge of the previous albums. It was a summer jam although it fit in with the movement toward jazz samples that Guru (from Gang Starr) would turn into his Jazzmatazz album a year later. Rakim looked out of place in the video rapping in a mansion with bikini-clad or evening gown wearing women. It just wasn't what I expected from Eric B. and Rakim at the time although I look back fondly at it now.


My top 5 Eric B. and Rakim jams
1. Paid in Full (arguably the best beat of all time with an all-time great verse)
2. I Ain't No Joke
3. Know the Ledge
4. Follow the Leader
5. Eric B. is President
 
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85. Tyler Childers - Lady May

Sometime last summer my mother in law said she liked all music except for country and rap, which is a sentence I’ve probably heard a hundred times, mostly in high school, and mostly from people who don’t really listen to much music. For whatever reason I didn’t care that a 70 year old wouldn’t like rap, but I took issue with the idea that there was no country music from any era that she would like. Purely out of spite I made and never delivered a “Country Music She Would Like” playlist knowing she dug the Grateful Dead and some folk tunes and it wasn’t a million miles away. Anyway, I put this song on that playlist and I think it’s one of the catchiest and best country songs I have ever heard.

I’ve never had the pleasure to see Childers live, but I’ve listened to a great deal of his work, and I’m completely enamored with his singing voice and songwriting technique. He manages to be folksy and mix in renegade country elements. He’s convincing and self-effacing. It’s music you want to sit around the fire and listen to.

Gotta leave today’s entry short, but that’s ok, hopefully if you’re one of those anti country folks this is one you’ll give a chance to. And I’m really hopeful people will tell me who else I should listen to if I like Tyler Childers too!
 
Despite efforts I have to admit I do not listen to a wide range of music so I am not familiar with a lot of songs, but I am proud someone from my humble hometown made the Townie 100!

I like Tyler and his music. He has shown up randomly in Lawrence County to perform many times after hitting it big. My cousin is the Chairman of the Tourism Committee and loves him and how he has stayed involved in the local community.

Purgatory is a great album. I am not sure which song I would pick as my favorite. The album cover is an outline of Lawrence County, Kentucky, by the way.
 
Forgot how much I like Mac DeMarco.

I view My Old Man as a fun modern remake of Neil Young’s ‘Old Man’.

The melody is beautiful and it has a trance-like quality that I rarely find with guitar. The chorus has a subtle sarcastic ‘bounce’ to it and like you said you can hear his smile through the singing of it. The lyrics have Tom Petty ‘perfect vagueness’ so you can put your own meaning on the song.
 
Love the PhDeac write-up to the write-up

Hope to see these for Digable Planets and ATCQ
 
dartsndeacs said:
1. Scatman
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Boards playlist:

Welcome to the Jungle
Marquee Moon
Song 2
Something from Animals (Barca)
Carry On Wayward Son
Something from FutureSex/LoveSounds (Palma)
Soul Survivor
O’ Here’s to Wake Forest
 
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