Songs people need to know about

No one has perfect taste or knows all the best songs, and it's fair to say that everyone knows at least one amazing song that not enough people know. It's impossible for anyone to know all the best songs and unfortunately some of the best go under the radar. Here are some of the ones I know. There's a Spotify playlist at the end of the post with all the songs on it.

Wolf Parade - I'll Believe In Anything
A song that just builds and builds and builds, in my opinion the entire purpose of the song is to build to the last 30 seconds which are some of the biggest moments in any song I know, holding so much emotion and musicality in such simplistic songwriting. That's not to say that the first four minutes are boring, the simple instrumentation is there as a platform for the raw vocals and harmonies, creating that difficult feeling of hope coming out of sadness, something that will come up a lot on this list.

Bakar - Unhealthy
The slowest song off the record, with the spoken word section in the middle gaining new meanings every time it comes back on repeat, but somehow one of the catchier ones, the 'dot dot dot' at the beginning is always stuck in my head hours after I've listened to it. Bakar manages to perfectly capture a feeling of regret not just in the vocal delivery but in the beats too.

Bon Iver - Blood Bank
Bon Iver is far from an unknown band, but this song is an offcut from Justin Vernon's debut, even though it would fit in perfectly on For Emma, Forever Ago simply because of how beautifully sad the track is.

Cheats - Ringer
A surprisingly normal indie-rock track from a Philipino band with the highly relatable repeated lyric "Don't say I need to calm down, I know I need to calm down". The cut is another on this list that creates the idea of late-night regret and the feeling of a bad night that's somehow uplifting.

Spector - Untilted in D
For some reason the line "You said call the AA but I didn't know which one" has always struck me as one of the funniest, even though it might not be intended to be. I'm realising that this list is slowly becoming a list of very similar songs as this is another that feels like one designed for the night, but it's just such a timeless song with such subtle tragedy.

The Broken Family Band - It's All Over
A track that is just as depressing as it sounds, but far more beautiful, featured on the soundtrack of the equally depressing Skins this sounds exactly as it is titled, everything completely collapsing around your ears, but it does so with grace.

Pegasus Bridge - Skinny
One of the first songs that I found through Spotify and is about a very specific situation but somehow manages to be very relatable at the same time. The song isn't technically or critically amazing, but it's nostalgic and is easy to really get into.

Okkervil River - A Stone
I once saw a comment on the music video for this song that the story should be made into a film. Although, I am beginning to think that I may need to write another list sometime with much less depressing songs, because this is yet another song that is very sad, even though it's about stones.

Keaton Henson - You Dont't Know How Lucky You Are
One of the least cliched songs about love that I know of, I'm still undecided as to whether it's about an ex or about someone who doesn't love him back, either way it's an incredibly honest idea of what love is, incredibly personal.

The Airborne Toxic Event - Sometime Around Midnight
Possibly the most uplifting song on this list comes from a band who put out pretty much crap for the rest of their career except this one song. While I always have a particular memory associated with this song I always think it feels like walking home from a party half-drunk and walking into things, but it's a good song nonetheless.

I think I'll write a follow-up at some point with less depressing songs because I realised that's what this turned into.

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