Tag Archives: lists

The 25 Best Smashing Pumpkins Songs Of The 1990s Ranked

For my money, even Kurt Cobain and Elliott Smith (and Noel Gallagher?) can eat their hearts out; Billy Corgan was the finest songwriter of the 1990s and a generation. That decade was the golden era of Smashing Pumpkins, with an early period awash with little nuggets of buried developmental treasure, an outtakes compilation stronger than any studio album most acts ever produce, four major albums of which two can be counted as seismic and troves of b-sides worthy of any great record; all in all, a veritable platinum mine. The classic line-up of James Iha (guitar), D’arcy Wretzky (bass) and one of the finest drummers of all time in Jimmy Chamberlin being in tow certainly didn’t hurt the group’s stock and potential.

The stylistic diversity within the alt-rock sphere is perhaps the most striking; after triangulating 60s psychedelic rock with the still-emergent but fast-skyrocketing alternative rock genre on 1991’s “Gish”, all bets were off for the size and structure of a Pumpkins song. This means that in attempting to collect their finest 25 efforts of that decade, all manner of songs are benched, traversing proggy supernovas (“Soma”, “Silverfuck” ), metal-adjacent freakout jams (“The Aeroplane Flies High (Turns Left, Looks Right)”, “X.Y.U.”),  electronic radio gems (“Ava Adore”, “Perfect”), tightly wound pop songs (“Bodies”, “Tristessa”), eye-of-the-storm becalmers (“By Starlight”, “Galapagos”), slight but indelible musical poems (“Cupid De Locke”, “Stumbleine”), punk workouts (“Tales Of A Scorched Earth”, “Pissant”) and, perhaps most egregiously, even the sickly-sweet orchestral acrobatics of “Disarm”. Not to max out on spoilers, but you get the picture.

All that said, let’s dive in and rank the absolute cream of a decade’s worth of gob-smacking sonic excellence from the Chicago outfit.

25. “To Forgive”

From “Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness” (1995)

When “To Forgive” creeps in it sounds like a track in the midst of decay, with a rousing progression wobbling through its chords, primed to crack open and reveal its inner workings at any moment. Even with the support of Chamberlin at the set entering the mix, it hardly becomes any less delicate as it flowers, introducing ornate arrangements to a cut already tracking as one of the most chamber-ready from the Corgan songbook. That pulse-checking pause in the final chorus is a reminder of how organic the process is, even from a band firing out generational anthems like a well-oiled production line at this point in both their career and the “Mellon Collie” album.

24. “Rocket”

From “Siamese Dream” (1993)

It’s another huge entry in the win column as far as the studio martialling of Butch Vig and Billy Corgan on “Siamese Dream” goes, with remarkable use of the boards to construct an imposing barrier of blaring, contorting guitar alarms. It’s a viscous buzz-box, and sounds too good not to submerge oneself in the glorious blur. While what passes for dream pop today, as popular as ever, has morphed over time, Pumpkins tracks like “Rocket” have proved immeasurably seminal, with a glam rock stomp to boot adding significant bolster. The transition of the guitar from verse or bridge to hook is a truly velveteen scheme. Call it textural ecstasy.

23. “Marquis In Spades”

From “The Aeroplane Flies High” (1996) / “Zero” (1996)

Lurking on the “Zero” single and collected on the “The Aeroplane Flies High” bumper boxset, this banger is one of only two cuts from said compilation to make my ranking despite being surrounded by pearls, such is the competition for slots on this list. Sounding superb and ageing as well as any A-lister Pumpkins track of the era, its elastic, bendy chord progressions are nonetheless extra crunchy and speak to a then-young lifetime of Black Sabbath worship. Alongside other amazing discarded tracks of these sessions like “Mouths Of Babes”, the suggestions that “Mellon Collie” could have stretched to a triple album pile up.

22. “La Dolly Vita”

From “Pisces Iscariot” (1994) / “Tristessa” (1990)

The earliest days of the Pumpkins are loaded with tracks orbiting the debut album “Gish” which thrum with promise and potential within the confines of their twee guitar-pop, often incorporating eastern scales on a Beatles-style psychedelic kick. One of the strongest crystallisations of this affectation is “La Dolly Vita”, which landed as a b-side on the “Tristessa” single and helps elevate the 1994 collection “Pisces Iscariot” as possibly the best outtakes album of all-time. For good measure, on its rear it bookends its textured majesty with guitar launch-speed, and with Chamberlin unleashing a percussive stampede at the stool, as per.

21. “Geek U.S.A.”

From “Siamese Dream” (1993)

Any time Jimmy Chamberlin gets his own miniature intro you ought to know what’s coming, but not necessarily that you’re about to have possibly the finest performance of his career dropped on you. With that sort of scaffolding as a backdrop, Corgan rides the same stripe of turbo-charged riff you will hear throughout “Siamese Dream” across multiple movements. Indeed, a strength of the album is cohesion and the way various spins on the overarching idea are presented; clock that reprise of the “Today” melody in the bridge, as chords rotate aflame after a brief and wonderfully mellow interregnum. What follows is a frenetic breakdown which may be the most frenzied moment on this record.

20. “Where Boys Fear To Tread”

From “Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness” (1995)

The second half of the “Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness” double album scarcely requires an adrenaline shot unless dwelling in overwhelm after side one, which is far from improbable, but it gets one from this certified earth-churner. You have to love that stuttery stop-start guitar opener like a war machine being cranked to life, before the central riff bulldozes its way through. While “Siamese Dream” is the more celebrated for its production, Flood and Alan Moulder have to take credit for drowning the listener in sound, the way thunderously scuzzy guitar oozes into every nook of the mix once Chamberlin truly hits the zone.

19. “Rhinoceros”

From “Gish” (1991)

The “Gish” album was certainly the work of a band squaring its most bluesy, psychedelic and rocking influences from the back end of the 60s with the big bang of alt-rock then occurring in the American rock mainstream, as no shortage of bands would also do over the years to come, though rarely as superbly. Despite this, the sole “Gish” track to make my list doubles more so as a glimmering precursor to the dream pop fireworks of “Siamese Dream”. “Rhinoceros” still has room for an astounding hook, effortlessly intense drumwork, inch-perfect construction and tone, delicious licks and a searing solo set-piece on the axe. Marvel at it.

18. “Appels + Oranjes”

From “Adore” (1998)

With no disrespect to the still much-loved singles from “Adore” which also register among its finest moments, this for me is the album’s strongest piece and the last outstanding Pumpkins song of the 90s. Its blurry, obscurantist aural churn and the clattering percussion mash up beautifully, while the hook is similarly smeary with a melody to die for. Much of the record indulged very well-earned ambitions which didn’t quite translate under a new sonic template, recorded amid widespread personal tumult, but the highs spoke to a magical flame still flickering and seemed to vocally anticipate Corgan and Chamberlin’s (admittedly sunnier) doomed power pop supergroup Zwan.

17. “Jellybelly”

From “Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness” (1995)

You can practically scent the smoke as “Jellybelly” drives in, with overdriven guitar chords suggesting short circuit as Chamberlin, incapable of impatience given the fluidity of his drumming which always conjures an illusory spontaneity, sits waiting to pounce. One of the grooviest and most barn-storming grunge riffs in the catalogue unfurls, promising that whatever “Tonight, Tonight” may have promised, “Mellon Collie” is going to pack plenty of hooks and guitar payloads ascending several tens of thousands of feet above ground level, replete with squirms of fretboard-bothering threatening to tear a back-exit out of the mix.

16. “Thirty-Three”

From “Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness” (1995)

“Mellon Collie” sails off into the distance on a multi-track run of soft-rock and gentle ballads, but none of them touch the slightly earlier vulnerability of “Thirty-Three”, a spindly concoction unsurprisingly characterised by gorgeous Corgan melodies. Conceived around an acoustic strum, it still achieves the requisite power to reach the mountaintops of far more volcanic Pumpkins compositions, while lines like “tomorrow’s just an excuse away” reverberate down the generations. Listeners are liable to peer upon mirrored reflections when they glimpse the track’s surface, but the unquantifiable value of time looms large as a lyrical concept.

15. “Starla”

From “Pisces Iscariot” (1994) / “I Am One” (1992)

This celestial behemoth somehow didn’t make “Gish”, settling in place on certain incarnations of the “I Am One” single and lending plenty of legendary ballast to “Pisces Iscariot”. Bridging something of the gap between the chemically-assisted sonic stargazing of the earliest days and the monolithic shoegazing heard on “Siamese Dream”, especially in structural terms, “Starla” is a critical entry in revealing what a Pumpkins song could be, pairing a delicious, propulsive build-up with a rocking and delightfully destination-free denouement which shoots for the interplanetary and nestles comfortably amongst the satellites. Did I mention that it features one of the finest guitar solos you will ever hear?

14. “Porcelina Of The Vast Oceans”

From “Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness” (1995)

While we could visit and indeed are visiting countless tracks to study the band’s greatest loud and quiet moments, nothing combines them as jaw-droppingly as this epic. Positioned near the end of the first disc of “Mellon Collie”, challenging as it is to describe anything this entirely towering as being ‘tucked’, it evidences a band who had not in fact abandoned a propensity for Hendrixian structural unpredictability post-“Siamese Dream”. Whether appreciating anything from “Leviathan”-era Mastodon to the funeral doom of Ahab, this track is my supreme reference point for oceanic dynamics and sunshine-in-the-bay melodics.

13. “Hummer”

From “Siamese Dream” (1993)

Compared to the baked-head meandering interspersed with flashes of compositional brilliance on “Gish”, a track like “Hummer” is one of the strongest examples of a new taste for multi-part suites and watertight engineering splattered across “Siamese Dream”. This might sound better than any other track on the record, with shoegaze missiles gliding in from all angles, a by-now-inevitable katzenjammer of a solo and Cogan delivering every line like a refrain. You know there’s magic at work when a lengthy and balmy coda may still be the highlight, even more so than when the DNA of blackgaze luminaries such as Alcest and Deafheaven can be heard fossilised within. It’s a magnificent triumph from a band entering the stratosphere.

12. “Set The Ray To Jerry”

From “The Aeroplane Flies High” (1996) / “1979” (1996)

This cult favourite b-side stands alongside the finest work the band has committed to tape, with the question of how it didn’t make the “Mellon Collie” tracklist being conspiracy-worthy, instead backing up the “1979” single release. Corgan is pared back exquisitely but in brilliantly longing form, against a stirring riff of guitar bubblebath and a slinky bassline foaming with vivacity. Chamberlin, as so often, is the secret weapon, with his more tender treatment still yielding a divine rhythmic force which carries the track into the empyrean. All the finest bands need one of their greatest tunes hidden away for the deep-divers, and this serves that purpose and then some.

11. “1979”

From “Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness” (1995)

Introducing the gothic digitalisms of 1998’s “Adore” album can’t have been helped by the fact that the band utterly perfected electronicised pop on their first swing at the style with this radio-ready shooting-star from “Mellon Collie”. As a glowing paean to youth and the intangibility which haunts nostalgia, the track thematically reflects the bittersweet crush depth of the jam-packed double-disc set which birthed it, simultaneously cosmic and microcosmic, and does so on the strength of a looping earworm seemingly fed a diet heavy on steroids. For a band harking back to times and influences grown dusty, the track continues to fold in on itself via new listeners and generations as the years and decades pass.

10. “Muzzle”

From “Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness” (1995)

On “Muzzle”, as on countless of the incredible pop moments intertwined throughout “Mellon Collie”, the guitars burning behind Corgan may be less expressive than elsewhere but are always dialled into a pitch-perfect tone and proximity, while Chamberlin wastes no chance to grasp a scene-stealing fill between his ever-metronomic thumping. Billy reels off a laundry list of some of his most tattoo-worthy lines in a track laced with despair and joy, the horror and electricity of being alive. The fashion in which the instruments hang back for a starting gun to commence both verses so that Corgan’s marquee moments shine brighter speaks to a seminar in songcraft. This one feels incredible to sing along to.

9. “Tonight, Tonight”

From “Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness” (1995)

Even amongst all of these stupendous songs, the beloved “Tonight, Tonight” seems to stand alone. Tasked with following up the titular instrumental intro to “Mellon Collie”, it properly kick-starts the rollercoaster with enchanting pop penmanship and a 30-piece string-section for an artful declaration of the band’s newfound station. This tune alone justified the ambition, with Corgan in his most poetic mode yet, as a tornado of strings dances wildly and Chamberlin lashes out a marching cacophony. The vocal is angelic alt-rock, a siren-song recruiting new listeners to the legion as surely in 2025 as in 1995. A bona-fide crossover hit with a remarkable accompanying flick, this is peak Pumpkins by so many measures.  

8. “Thru The Eyes Of Ruby”

From “Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness” (1995)

 Upon release and ever since, “Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness” was tagged as a Gen X equivalent of “The Wall”, which arrived sixteen years earlier. Spookily, another sixteen years later Millennials got our generational double-disc when M83’s “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming” emerged, so we await whatever 2027 serves up from Gen Z. “Thru The Eyes Of Ruby” is the most “The Wall”-esque offering on the record, with magisterial peaks and valleys, vocal histrionics, a hook almost whispered as insanity unfolds around it followed up with a shrieked bonus chorus tacked to a ballistic, grungy riff, and a fleet of false finishes, each of them as pretty as a peach. To think it all started with those lopsided piano keys.

7. “Today”

From “Siamese Dream” (1993)

As the three-minute pop song goes in Billy Corgan’s hands, “Today” is the ultimate document. It is a  devastatingly incredible slice of songwriting from its opening chimes, which flutter gleamingly like wings emerging from chrysalis before a raft of guitars take flight. A deeply personal song, Corgan recorded everything but the drums himself, which, like the name counts in this piece, hints towards the true driving forces behind this band. The sugary guitar avalanches, pre-hook air-drumming opportunities and irony-laden lyrics, which juxtapose suicidal ideation with one of the most sonically summery rock songs you’ll ever hear, are all over before you can blink.

6. “Zero”

From “Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness” (1995)

“Zero” sits firmly as we delve further into a seven-track run early on “Mellon Collie”, all of which I’ve included here, and in many ways has lived on as the signature tune of both the album and band. Corgan is very much in his bag here, with vocals registering between the sexy and the snarling, while a battalion of rhythm guitars achieve carbonated takeoff. Chamberlin thoroughly interrogates every pocket of space he can find, and a squelching, extraterrestrial solo confirms that the more mellifluous pyrotechnics of “Siamese Dream” are in the rearview. The bridge, which is given carte blanche to breathe, is purely theatrical (“God is empty just like me”), and the concision of the whole hair-shredding affair scans as weaponised.

5. “Cherub Rock”

From “Siamese Dream” (1993)

Even for a band clearly growing into their own sense of identity, in opening proceedings on 1993’s “Siamese Dream”, this track wastes no time in announcing an exponential glow-up. With producer Butch Vig in tow to assist, Corgan set about crafting a trademark sound, with string tone and production techniques cribbed from an array spanning Jimi Hendrix through to the still nascent shoegaze genre. Faced with an overdub-heavy wall of guitar ferocity which Gen Z disciples of the widely-resurrected form are still attempting to recapture today, the breath catches repeatedly between the canyon-sized crevices of this arena-friendly meteor, complete with prismatic solo writhing gelatinously like a freshly released kraken. Talk about a mission statement!

4. “Bullet With Butterfly Wings”

From “Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness” (1995)

If ‘iconic’ has become an overused and abused word, “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” provides a calcified study in the qualities of the term. From its celebrated opening line to Corgan’s screamed variation on the hook after that strummed final pre-chorus, totems are tucked into every inch of the cut. The lyrics bottled the disenfranchised angst of Gen X as finely and cathartically as anyone working in any form ever had, a spirit teeming throughout the “Mellon Collie” album, to say nothing of its glammed-up video debuting that t-shirt, while offering up a final hurrah prior to as potent a pop cultural example as we have of a star seizing control of their hairline.

3. “Here Is No Why”

From “Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness” (1995)

Possibly my most played Pumpkins track, this one locates the band strapped into chugging lockstep from the outset. Corgan is irresistible, deploying those half-speaky but elongated verse and bridge melodies, while storm-gathering guitars crank up and into a hook positively soaring through hyper-space. There may not be a higher point in the canon as he wails perhaps his finest lyric against stiff competition; “In your sad machines/You’ll forever stay/Burning up in speed/Lost inside the dreams of teen machines”. Gen X doesn’t have a monopoly on alienation, but they were the first to see that the future didn’t look rosy.

2. “Fuck You (An Ode To No One)”

From “Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness” (1995)

This number may strike the optimum balance between the sharply coiled songwriting and the freer-form chaos at either end of the Pumpkins scale. Fueled by some of the most aerodynamic riffage and barrel-bomb chugs across the discography, the track strikes upon genius when it reveals a higher gear and a hook up its silvery sleeve at the approximate halfway point. Dynamic contrast is utilised mercilessly as Corgan takes his self-righteousness into elegiac territory, while Charmberlin’s percussive artillery provides an insurmountable challenge even to anyone strongly versed in superlatives. A-plague-on-all-their-houses collapse has rarely felt as thrilling or life-affirming, and on any given day you may find me caught beneath this landslide.

1. “Mayonaise”

From “Siamese Dream” (1993)

It speaks for itself when a track which begins life as a deep-cut and is never released as a single steadily grows to be a near-ubiquitous favourite in an outstandingly packed inventory. Such is the trajectory of “Mayonaise”, sitting pretty on the second half of “Siamese Dream”. No track as successfully repurposes the cursed dreaming of flowers-in-the-hair Boomers for Gen X, repainting their shimmering guitar vistas and filtering their most cryptic pinings for a better tomorrow through an alt-rock headrush. The whistling feedback arrives courtesy of a faltering guitar, an inimitable accident. The melodic twists and turns, whether through the sparkling introductory riffs or the varicoloured solo, one of my all-time favourites, are the stuff of Stendhal. “No more promise, no more sorrow/No longer will I follow/Can anybody hear me?/I just want to be me”.  A yearning plea from one man with a guitar and a headful of hopes, on behalf of a generation, and as it turned out, many generations to come.

The 20 Best Deftones Songs Ranked

At one stage, in a moment of dumb ambition, I had planned to attempt to rank all 100 Deftones songs from their nine studio albums, especially given how round a number this presented. This idea faded not only due to the size of the undertaking but also the realisation that after wading beyond the very upper tier of their music, the task becomes impossible by virtue of quality and consistency. Like many of Chino Moreno’s romantic heroes such as The Cure and The Smiths, the band have penned nary a dud across their three decades and those nine records, which also made picking out a top twenty especially tough, such that their sole Grammy win for Best Metal Performance (“Elite”) doesn’t make my cut, for example.

With Moreno on vocals and rhythm guitars, one of my all-time faves in Stephen Carpenter on guitars, Chi Cheng on bass prior to his tragic and untimely death and replacement with Sergio Vega from 2009 onwards, Abe Cunningham on drums and Frank Delgado on keys, turntables and electronics (since 1999), the band have helmed an all-timer of a discography which has transcended genres and generations, with sizeable numbers continuing to be recruited into their legions of fans to this day. Let’s run through my top twenty countdown.

20. “Battle-Axe”

From “Deftones” (2003)

There are no shortage of epically structured Deftones tracks, but this song’s edge in a packed field starts with its haunting earworm of an opening riff, which forever lurks in my psyche, and continues with the fact that rarely are the chugga-chugga moments laced quite as potently with all of the aerodynamism of sea-spray. In combination, we end up with a soaring space metal concoction par excellence, an underrated diamond on an oft-overlooked record, and one which narrowly pips the equally titanic later number “Tempest” into my ranking.

19. “Engine No. 9”

From “Adrenaline” (1995)

From 1995’s critical nu-metal document “Adrenaline”, this barnstormer represents Deftones at their most twisted, with riffs balanced between the steamrolling and the slicing, and one of Moreno’s most frenzied, frantic vocal displays. Often the lyrics, such as they are, are hurled as much yelped, especially in the splenetic build to the second hook. From the scat-worthy shout-a-longs to the fixedly wound, chugging car-crash metal bleeding forth from the speakers in bountiful gushes, comparisons to those other California genre titans rattle around, which is more than worthy company.

18. “Be Quiet & Drive (Far Away)”

From “Around The Fur” (1997)

Sometimes the finest tracks on a record are its big singles, no matter how good the album is. So it is with the twin parentheses-bearing pillars of 1997’s “Around The Fur”, which also double as two sides of the same coin. “Be Quiet & Drive (Far Away)” is the good cop in this scenario, one of their most resilient and triumphant numbers, with a celebratory sound which is no less muscular and cutting to the touch for it, like barbed-wire party streamers. The whitest of white-knuckle thrills can be located in hearing the way Carpenter leads his guitar mechanics through controlled unspooling in the late bridge, a marvellous sleight of hand, or the way he lets his axe truly fly for an instrumental refrain. As so often, throttling momentum is the order of the day, including lyrically; call it the biggest of dubs in converting concept into sound.

17. “Genesis”

From “Ohms” (2020)

“Ohms” may be the most consistent Deftones album, struggling to yield standouts by sheer virtue of the fact it is comprised of a veteran band churning out ten legacy bangers seemingly without breaking a sweat. That said, the opening cut “Genesis” takes pride of place for introductory energy, guitar power and the cavernous, binary vocals we’ve grown to expect from Chino. The source of the track’s considerable glow is thus a reliability and comfort, if such words can really be used to describe such a seismic alt-metal fireball, in which a band displays a mastery of tension and release that few ever reach.

16. “My Own Summer (Shove It)”

From “Around The Fur” (1997)

As alluded to previously, “My Own Summer (Shove It)” is the evil twin of the two mega-singles from “Around The Fur”, both of which rank near the ceiling of the entire nu-metal genre’s output. From the album-opening clatter of Cunningham’s steely rolls, the devil is in the exponential build-up, initially the twist of Carpenter’s chords the first time the riff turns ferocious, followed by Moreno’s throat-shredding howls the second time it does so. It’s a riff which has scarcely aged in three decades, and sounds every inch the jukebox monster, pouring forth in sinuous, serpentine form. The lyrics are late 90s creep poetry of the finest order, encased in impenetrable amber which even the murderous skyrocketing into the final chorus can never hope to crack.

15. “Beware”

From “Saturday Night Wrist” (2006)

In my estimation, “Beware” is an underrated tune, packed with delicious elements from the moment it kicks in with a kinetic fuzz. The template is classic Deftones, with melodiously enticing guitar lines gliding through the verses towards a cacophonous hook on which Moreno has rarely sounded as vocally impactful, but there are bonus points for the bridge with the sound of chirping frogs as a percussive extra. After the second chorus the track morphs into a suite, with a second bridge previewing the song’s hammering coda and the vortex of guitars increasingly thickening. When that epilogue is ultimately dropped it comes down like an anvil, one of the band’s heaviest moments, with a pulverising groove-metal riff pushing the readings into the red.

14. “Swerve City”

From “Koi No Yokan” (2012)

“Swerve City” explodes out of the blocks with serious intent, but for a band plenty prone to being seduced by a dose of grandiosity it nonetheless comes off as an exercise in concision, not to mention hookiness, sporting a curtain-calling runtime for the 2012 “Koi No Yokan” album of 2:45. It’s certainly there for a good time and not a long one, lathering its deepest of yo-yoing grooves in festival-ready sheen, with an irresistible “woah-woah” chorus paired to seismograph-bothering riffage. The record finds the band firmly settled into their revival period with Sergio Vega on bass, characterised by breathtakingly precise aural architecture and sublime sound whether space-bound or buried six feet deep, and this cut has it all in microcosm. Ratchet up the volume.

13. “Bored”

From “Adrenaline” (1995)

Deftones occupied the upper echelons of nu-metal as we know, prior to transcending and outlasting the genre’s peak. Any elite nu-metal act needs a career mission statement as an opening gambit; you can rank “Bored” alongside “Blind”, “Papercut” “(sic)” and “Suite-Pee”. When that riff first peers around the corner it sounds flat-out mean, before the divebombing chords graze away the skin on full contact. Even 30 years ago, track zero bears many of the group’s hallmarks, between Cunningham’s machine-gun kit work, Moreno’s desperation, Carpenter’s love of subtly rephased lines and hard stops as well as an eye for swirling hook-backers and killer breakdowns, and the voyeuristic creeping of Chi Cheng’s bass, which would swiftly evolve into roomier sensibilities. One to watch!

12. “Digital Bath”

From “White Pony” (2000)

In textural terms, “Digital Bath” flaunts the supercharged production and electronicised sound which would cause comparisons to Radiohead to abound, as both bands moved into the new millennium at their most forward-thinking. The seething power surges of Carpenter’s guitar attack already scythe through the dense atmospherics, but the squawk signposting the biggest overdrive of all, after the central eye-of-the-storm segment which is one of the group’s most capricious and tranquilising at once, truly ushers in a maelstrom apex. Like all of “White Pony”, the defining characterisation of the song is as an exemplar of a band moving into a new chapter, and gloriously glowing up on the way through.

11. “Sextape”

From “Diamond Eyes” (2010)

“Sextape” sees the band at their horniest, not particularly a rarity though often missed, but also their most shimmering, which speaks heavily to the many dualities the band encompass. It has now long stood as a career highlight, with Moreno on mesmerising form and the accompanying music impeccable, inducing an overwhelming nostalgia, sadness and bliss at once in an intoxicating compound. While the cosmic dust-drives we expect from a Deftones chorus are present they are slightly more restrained than elsewhere, but still brilliantly evoke a clattering sundown of almost impossible scale. While the same would go for practically any song on this list, something about the magic contained here would make it very tough to dispute as their finest moment, regardless of my ranking. It is pristine and indelible, a truly scared totem.

10. “Kimdracula”

From “Saturday Night Wrist” (2006)

At first glance, “Kimdracula” is ‘just’ standardly brilliant Deftones fare, a great track on a great record, marked by watertight song construction and a stellar trademark Moreno chorus. What pushes it as high as the top ten is the breakdown, which features probably my favourite Carpenter riff ever. After that second chorus, we meet unadulterated rocket fuel as the guitarist uncorks a howitzer, invoking a Meshuggah-esque sludge-storm. When the riff returns at the closure it is rhythmically offset by an altered drum-line from Cunningham, which keeps the replay value of the original breakdown extremely high forever more.

9. “Phantom Bride”

From “Gore” (2016)

“Phantom Bride”, registering as late as 2016’s refined collection “Gore”, evidences a band with some tricks still hidden up the sleeve. With a ticking, translucent, panoramic riff to play over, Moreno is front and centre on a technicolour track with the glisten and gleam of crushed gemstones. Alice In Chains wizard Jerry Cantrell steps in on guest duty, lending refractory pyrotechnics in the form of a catherine-wheeling guitar solo, a white rabbit in the Deftones catalogue, and one of the best such free-formers of the 2010s. The lyrics scan as if written directly for me, rendering every listen devastatingly powerful, while the finale enters the frame to hang in the sky overhead like a swarm of bomber jets. 

8. “Passenger”

From “White Pony” (2000)

Unsurprisingly for those in the know, once Maynard James Keenan comes to feature on late “White Pony” standout “Passenger”, he lingers imposingly over the proceedings. While unmistakably still sounding like a Carpenter composition, the song takes on some of the structural and aesthetic qualities of a Tool movement, to nobody’s discouragement. Keenan’s vocals are as incredible as ever, and lyrical matters again absorb the energy and angle of his chief band; decidedly mystical, utterly memorably and quite possibly vulgar. In the closing stages we hear the whole thing beautifully settle like small volcanic pools, always threatening to rupture, and doing so in the shape of titanium-coated progressions. It’s a true dream link-up in every sense.

7. “Hole In The Earth”

From “Saturday Night Wrist” (2006)

Most Deftones cuts don’t need a direct lyrical reference or indeed a titular nod to hint in the direction of being struck by a meteor; to say nothing of their always visceral, bulky low end, Carpenter can achieve the effect alone with his multitude of strings. The opening track of 2006’s “Saturday Night Wrist” leans into it anyway, and then some, hitting the jackpot aurally with some of the band’s most gargantuan moshpit-openers. The way the choruses crash in with a stuttering, head-smashing topline riff is self-explanatory, but the track pulls double duty as something of a rosetta stone for deciphering the recipe behind just how beautiful their music can be; the key resides in the way Moreno’s vocals pan around semi-obscured in the lengthy, dreamy build to the song’s zenith, where the teased final hook gives way to a djent-flavoured flamethrower riff and some of Cunningham’s most hyperactive drumming.

6. “You’ve Seen The Butcher”

From “Diamond Eyes” (2010)

For my money, the “Diamond Eyes” album is the closest contender to the “White Pony” throne, and misses that mark by mere inches. Credit producer Nick Raskulinecz for perhaps perfecting the space-metal side of their sound and imbuing it with neutron star density. “You’ve Seen The Butcher” traverses a vast and seemingly endless soundscape, and I thoroughly enjoy lyrical references to explosions matching up with the achievement of the same effect on the sonic side, somewhere out in the distance of this auditory universe. This album’s arrival was concurrent with the final episodes of the TV phenomenon “Lost”, and in my mind they have thus always intermingled in the nexus point between natural occurrences and mystique, between untapped, unexplained power and the tangibility of human life, like all of the finest sludge metal. I mean, if you need power and harmonics, just give this chorus a spin.

5. “Rosemary”

From “Koi No Yokan” (2012)

“Rosemary” is another of the very finest amongst a long list of Deftones exhibitions providing a total masterclass in dynamics; some simply had to miss out on this list (with apologies to “Beauty School” and “Hearts/Wires”). Commencing from a start point of some of their warmest, most spacious and most intergalactic melodic work right from that chiming outset, alongside stoned bass defined by desert-rock thickness, we build up tantalisingly to Carpenter’s setting off of a guitar landslide with a crush-depth that would make prime Mastodon proud. Resultingly, few of the band’s hooks scrape the sky as high as the life-affirming ballistics offered up here, and the basking comedowns are luscious to a fault. An absolute lawnmower riff into a drop-dead gorgeous coda provides the false finish.

4. “Change (In The House Of Flies)”

From “White Pony” (2000)

Terry Date became synonymous with the Deftones sound for his production of their earliest albums, and cuts like this are among the strongest testaments as to why. Against stiff competition, the transition from verse into second chorus here towers as one of the most ground-shaking launch points in the Deftones discog, and that’s for a band who have made exit velocity a calling card. Why it sounds that much more earth-shattering than the first such segue remains a loveable mystery. Add in a canyon-sized chorus and some of the most memorable fills of Cunningham’s oeuvre during the tornado of a climax and you are still only halfway to describing what makes this genuine crossover success one of the most beloved and iconic songs amongst fans. 

3. “Minerva”

From “Deftones” (2003)

If “Change” has one of the foremost mortar-like liftoffs in the canon, “Minerva” boasts several. The lead song from the self-titled album achieves utter perfection in showcasing what the band do so superbly and doesn’t so much co-opt loud-quiet dynamics the way Kurt Cobain did from Pixies as run them through a process comparable to the jump from the A-bomb to warheads. The track’s otherwise sleek exterior, in the form of paradoxically liquid, sand-snaking melodics which move under cover of darkness, is pockmarked with its blast radiuses, so violently but Stendhal-inducingly does it flare. The band knew their references by setting the video in the desert, but this finds them at their shoegaziest in a way acts like Kyuss and Sleep never were, ground zero for understanding how Gen Z got into Deftones.

2. “Rocket Skates”

From “Diamond Eyes” (2010)

It certainly becomes increasingly difficult to triangulate the appropriate superlatives to portray the massiveness (it is also a word!) of the Deftones sound, and “Rocket Skates” may provide the biggest challenge of the lot. It is a hyperactive gallop, with a crazed pace from the crank of the opening riff and initial bass guitar slide. Moreno sounds completely feverish on the mint-condition hook, with “guns! razors! knives!” executed to perfection and surely ranking as one of his greatest moments, especially when topped off with a “wooooo!” that would make Ric Flair seem relaxed. The dovetailing guitar battalion brings the heat to the bridge, tearing open a veritable black hole of propulsive, overdriven noise, and the crash of Cunningham’s cymbals and skins alike is gut-level. At the bottom line, it simply sounds stupendous and there may not be a track in the catalogue that I return to more regularly.

1. “Pink Maggit”

From “White Pony” (2000)

For all their critical credentials and progressive baubles, “Pink Maggit” is the closest Deftones ever came to drone-adjacent post-metal. Both its becalming opening movement and crushing denouement are vibrant with the sounds of mega-waves cresting and tectonic plates shifting, an affair of sonic adventurism which successfully locates terra firma. Submerged in the mix and thrashing earthwards is a song many know as one of the band’s biggest hits, the unauthorised “Back To School (Mini Maggit)”. A band’s finest achievement doubles as a parable on the dangerous lure of commercialism, forced and otherwise. Chalk it down to experience, as it certainly didn’t hurt them in the long run, victoriously closing what narrowly remains their magnum opus.

The Power Rankings: July 2020 (#10 – #1)

10. Beyoncé

Queen Bey had the universe of commercial singles locked down before morphing into an outstanding album artist with “Beyoncé” (2013) and the epochal pop album “Lemonade” (2016). Despite that, her 2018 Coachella-headline show and the accompanying all-time great concert movie “Homecoming” are merely her most recent volcanic apogee. We just welcomed her back into active public consciousness with the rocket-powered Juneteenth smash “Black Parade”.

Most recent: “Lemonade” (2016)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Beyoncé” (2013)

9. Frank Ocean

A one-album superstar after “Channel Orange”, Frank outdid himself with 2016’s spectacular bedroom RnB fantasia “Blonde”. Nobody charts the mountain ranges of Millennial relationships with such devastating, surgical insight, across a gold rush of sublimely crafted pop, soul and rhythm and blues songs with a decisive indie flair. An utterly elusive live act who seems currently settled on an evolving puzzlebox of single releases, Frank continues to be a beautiful phenom. 

Most recent: “Blonde” (2016)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Channel Orange” (2012)

8. Deftones

The dream-weaving Sacramento alt-metallers peacock their myriad influences and are poster boys for the tentative critical reassessment of nu-metal currently gathering steam, but ejected from the genre’s orbit way back with their 2000 classic “White Pony”. The 2010s saw them release three albums comprising their finest work to date. No other metal band can quite match the aerodynamics of Stephen Carpenter’s guitar playing or Chino Moreno’s impassioned vocals.

Most recent: “Gore” (2016)

You’ll also need to hear this: “White Pony” (2000)

7. Bon Iver

Justin Vernon has well-established pedigree for melding the sacred with the supposedly tasteless, seamlessly marrying Autotune and yacht rock to the unlikely realms of indie folk and art rock before anyone else dared. It doesn’t hurt that he is a once-in-a-generation songwriter with an inimitable ability to bend the very contours of what constitutes a melody or a song and is on an increasingly expressionistic streak of album writing most recently extended by the jigsaw-esque “i,i”.

Most recent: “i,i” (2019)

You’ll also need to hear this: “22, A Million” (2016)

6. Death Grips

Nobody else has sounded like the first truly futuristic band of the 21st Century since they blasted out of Sacramento in the early 2010s as the most profound cultural response to the nightmare of late capitalism. Providing vital reworkings of punk and hip hop simultaneously, with a trenchantly electronic focus, and the source of a veritable production line of music lore memes replicating like grey goo, Death Grips are the leaders of a Transatlantic collective of acts proving that angry men need not be regressive.

Most recent: “Year Of The Snitch” (2018)

You’ll also need to hear this: “The Money Store” (2012)

5. Lana Del Rey

The critically deified “Norman Fucking Rockwell!” is the culmination of a decade of work from Del Rey flavoured with literary aspiration and interrogating the exceptionally dark side lurking behind chocolate box Americana. Del Rey’s magnum opus, marking her out as the nation’s finest songwriter, is a fascinating, multi-storey character study which delves into a national psychology and finds a dysfunctional America which is perpetually 33 years old.

Most recent: “Lust For Life” (2017)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Norman Fucking Rockwell!” (2019)

4. The Hotelier

At the vanguard of the 2010s emo revival, these Worcester, Massachusetts upstarts exclusively craft life-affirming, emotionally turbulent rock music. In an era where guitars have been largely eschewed in popular music, “Home, Like Noplace Is There” (2014) and “Goodness” (2016) are rare gemstones of a contemporary folk mythology constellating across white suburbia. The Hotelier are the finest band in the United States of America.

Most recent: “Goodness” (2016)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Home, Like Noplace Is There” (2014)

3. The Weeknd

Since emerging with a store-ready mystique on 2011’s “House of Balloons”, Scarborough, Ontario’s Dark Knight has elevated the fusion of musicality and aesthetics to unrivalled heights, remunerated with a dominant chart presence. The ever-woozy, cinema-indebted “After Hours”, the international smash hit album of the Covid-19 pandemic, is his best work yet, finally locating a slippery sweet spot between 80s pop nostalgia and the multi-suite darkwave RnB which minted his name.

Most recent: “After Hours” (2020)

You’ll also need to hear this: “House Of Balloons” (2011)

2. The 1975

More than any other act, The 1975 have articulated the way digital culture has influenced reality and vice versa; the unspeakable synthesis. As if harnessing a sonic singularity, the band seems kitted out to plug into genres at will without ever losing fidelity. Their supercharged fourth album “Notes On A Conditional Form” deeply explores the crossover between underground electronic music and pop while charting the band’s evolution into the world’s best. All three of their previous records are dyed-in-the-wool future classics.

Most recent: “Notes On A Conditional Form” (2020)

You’ll also need to hear this: “A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships” (2018)

1. Kendrick Lamar

The world’s foremost musical artist, having released the 2010s’ most acclaimed album in “To Pimp A Butterfly” in 2015, before becoming the first non-jazz or classical artist to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music with 2017’s follow-up, “DAMN.” Lamar then curated the soundtrack for Marvel’s ground-breaking “Black Panther” movie. To say we eagerly await the next step of a performer so expertly chronicling an era of such dizzying tumult from his lofty pinnacle would be some understatement.

Most recent: “DAMN.” (2017)

You’ll also need to hear this: “To Pimp A Butterfly” (2015)

The Power Rankings: July 2020 (#20 – #11)

20. Travis Scott

As an artist, Travis has become a creative centre of gravity, filtering the finest contributions out of all collaborators. His ability to synthesise and refract influences and shades of detail have rendered his own albums exponentially superhuman, while his notorious live show, which went digital to wide acclaim during lockdown, further fosters a youthful solidarity and community from the jaws of the lurid debris of capitalism. He is now a fully-fledged crossover star, as evidenced by Rosalía’s current hit “TKN”.

Most recent: “Astroworld” (2018)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight” (2016)

19. Kanye West

Where to start? For seven albums across 15 years, West lived up to his controversial billing as a musical genius, constantly challenging audiences with the most sublime, trend-setting records in pop and hip hop. Few in history can claim to have influenced so many disparate movements and generations with every release. Recent albums, while still confrontational and surprising, suggest his exceptionally high peak is in the rearview, but he continues to shine sparingly as a producer.

Most recent: “Jesus Is King” (2019)

You’ll also need to hear this: “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” (2010)

18. Tool

Los Angeles alternative stalwarts Tool have been a towering act in metal and rock with only four more momentous albums since the 1993 debut “Undertow”. After a 13 year hiatus, 2019’s “Fear Inoculum” may feature the best individual work from all members. Over a decade, my doomed quest to locate the motherlode of Tool’s amplified aesthetic, summoned by guitar pyromancer Adam Jones, has sent me down a who’s-who spiral of seminal alt bands from Melvins to Helmet, Failure to Primus, and back again.

Most recent: “Fear Inoculum” (2019)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Lateralus” (2001)

17. Radiohead

Radiohead would have contended to top this list for a decade or more following the release of the 1997 landscape-altering warhead “OK Computer” through 2007’s gorgeous “In Rainbows”, as they repeatedly released the finest, most fascinating albums in popular music, gateways to the experimental reaches of countless genres for generations of music fanatics. They continue to be compelling, appointment-listening every five years or so; true guardians of the form.

Most recent: “A Moon Shaped Pool” (2016)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Kid A” (2000)

16. Kate Tempest

England’s Poet Laureate-in-waiting already boasts a catalogue of rewarding albums of steadily fizzing musicality and playful, rhythmic wordplay, but to call her such assumes anything other than disdain for establishment. Contrarily, Tempest yearningly rues societal decay at every turn. 2019’s “The Book Of Traps & Lessons” is a masterpiece of engaging musical scores and barely-veiled Brexit metaphors, climaxing in the devastating career-best crossover “People’s Faces”.

Most recent: “The Book Of Traps & Lessons” (2019)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Let Them Eat Chaos” (2016)

15. Lil Uzi Vert

Lil Uzi has risen to the apex of a group of exciting young rap artists blurring the lines between hip hop, pop, rock and emo, partly because most of the others died before reaching 22. That said, his hyperspeed, technicolour “Eternal Atake” and the accompanying “Luv vs. The World 2” tape see him largely abandon some of those previous emotionally fraught leanings for a saucer-eyed freakout of breakneck rapping and accelerationist consumerism. The results are head-spinning.

Most recent: “Eternal Atake” (2020)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Luv Is Rage 2” (2017)

14. Sleaford Mods

The Nottingham duo’s no-holds-barred insights into austerity Britain are the most critical update to punk since it was first scraped off the walls of 70s London. The glorious alchemy of Jason Williamson’s excoriating, oft-hilarious lyricism and Andrew Fearn’s knuckle-dragging bass beats has hit enough chords to entrench the Mods as unlikely repeat occupants of the UK album chart top 10. The pair are indisputably one of music’s most essential, unique contemporary acts.

Most recent: “Eton Alive” (2019)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Divide & Exit” (2014)

13. Everything Everything

Manchester’s pre-eminent prophets of poptimism are quietly building one of the finest canons in contemporary rock-based music while subsuming influence from everything but. Brandishing a baton yielded by Radiohead, the band are fuelled by Jonathan Higgs’ ear for maximalist melodies and eye for a wicked sociocultural take to ram into his regularly madcap lyricism. These dispatches from the new model island are equal parts academia and dystopian entertainment.

Most recent: “A Fever Dream” (2017)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Get To Heaven” (2015)

12. Meshuggah

Hailing from the rich metal heritage of Umeå in the Swedish north, the progressive metal titans may boast the most definitively signature sound in all of music. Nobody but nobody sounds like the palm-muted landslides and polyrhythmic tidal waves of Meshuggah’s monstrous compositional mania. Pioneers of the djent sub-genre, their albums have been untouchable explorations of seriously deep groove and syncopated insanity for decades now.

Most recent: “The Violent Sleep Of Reason” (2016)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Koloss” (2012)

11. Björk

The chameleonic Reykjavik siren songstress is nine albums deep, and her most recent, 2017’s “Utopia”, may be her most blissful yet. Although she never truly missed a step, her recent partnership with electronic trailblazer Arca has, somehow, brought even more illuminating scope, panorama and scale to Björk’s experimentation. Hers is one of the most vibrant, enriching and consistent discographies of any artiste out there.

Most recent: “Utopia” (2017)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Homogenic” (1998)

The Power Rankings: July 2020 (#30 – #21)

30. Moonsorrow

Since inheriting the folk-metal throne from Falkenbach, Moonsorrow’s colossal sound has outlasted major challengers such as Primordial and Agalloch and continues to withstand a spirited current attack from Celtic folk metal masters Saor. After so many years, their every album is event-listening for the extreme metal community, and all are unparalleled in scale, energy and vision; the very best band from Finland’s world-leading metal scene.

Most recent: “Jumalten Aika” (2016)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Verisäkeet” (2005)

29. Charli XCX

With her latest records of titanium-coated space pop, Charli is caressing and coaxing chart music into its inevitable future; party music aching with empathy and longing, its vulnerability candying in the breathless gaps between slamming production and digitally decaying vocals. “Charli” (2019) is her futurist pop manifesto, “How I’m Feeling Now” (2020) will be the lockdown album du jour. Charli has tirelessly written her way to the near-top and is hopefully just getting warm.

Most recent: “How I’m Feeling Now” (2020)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Charli” (2019)

28. Perfume Genius

Mike Hadreas has flown a flag for outsiders everywhere from the days of his lo-fi emergence a decade ago to 2020’s instant classic “Set My Fire On Fire Immediately”, which may cement him as the headline act of excellent NYC label Matador against stiff competition from his peers. Comfortable orienteering baroque, glammed-up chamber pop and smoky Zeppelin-esque segues in equal measure, this ever-improving indie helmsman is one breakout hit song, which nearly came with 2014’s “Queen”, from a surprising future as an arena act.

Most recent: “Set My Heart On Fire Immediately” (2020)

You’ll also need to hear this: “No Shape” (2017)

27. Julia Holter

Los Angeles-based Julia Holter was already one of America’s most exciting experimental talents prior to 2018’s “Aviary”, the multitudinous meditation on medieval memory which saw Holter carving out a liminal space even further down the evolutionary vein of irresistible avant-garde mined on 2013’s “Loud City Song”, after the more traditionally structured “Have You In My Wilderness” brought her a wider audience in 2015. All limits to her sound have now been shed.

Most recent: “Aviary” (2018)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Loud City Song” (2013)

26. Tyler The Creator

Tyler manifested a decade ago as an enigmatic but dastardly provocateur who seemed a bit lost for a couple of albums. Few have settled into a niche as comfortably as he now has. He could maintain a cult following for years releasing albums in the style of “Scum Fuck Flower Boy” (2017) and “Igor” (2019), understatedly beautiful records which repurpose the forms and techniques of hip hop to interrogate feelings and demographics around male loneliness.

Most recent: “Igor” (2019)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Scum Fuck Flower Boy” (2017)

25. Solange

As Beyoncé seemed to complete her conquering of the planet with the universally adored “Lemonade” in 2016, her sister finally harnessed her own talents into an opus of similar stature. “A Seat At The Table” deep-dived into the lived tribulations of black American women and gleamed with a nourishing, inestimably vintage sound which made it sound like we’d known it forever. “When I Get Home” (2019) continued the trend from a musical family we barely deserve right now.

Most recent: “When I Get Home” (2019)

You’ll also need to hear this: “A Seat At The Table” (2016)

24. Converge

Three decades in, the Salem, Massachusetts metalcore overlords boast a span of albums with which few can compete. Almost 20 years after their defining classic “Jane Doe”, they have continued to bolster their highly accomplished musicianship and increasingly thoughtful lyricism behind the twin pistons of guitarist Kurt Ballou, maven of frenzied, razor-wire guitar riffing and now a producer of immense clarity in the worlds of metal and experimental music, and extreme music pin-up and frontman Jacob Bannon’s seismic, throat-shredding vocal work.

Most recent: “The Dusk In Us” (2017)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Jane Doe” (2001)

23. Tame Impala

Kevin Parker (“did you know Tame Impala is just one guy?”, as the music nerd meme goes!) may once have been a rock kid but has now been fundamentally turned by his time deep behind pop lines. Tastemakers already couldn’t get enough after “Lonerism” (2012), and giving in to his inability to resist giddy, luminescent melody saw “Currents” (2015) turn him into a go-to collab for pop music’s biggest names. “The Slow Rush” (2020), an incredibly topical treatise on time, is all vamping, intergalactic beats and electronic euphoria.

Most recent: “The Slow Rush” (2020)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Currents” (2015)

22. The National

While hailing from Cincinnati, Ohio, big budget indie giants The National came to outstrip the false dawns of The Strokes and Interpol to become the definitive soundtrack of big city living post-9/11. Matt Berninger waxed lyrical about the glamour and boredom of young professionals before the band bottled a dusty, cinematic aura which flowed to some centre on “Boxer” (2007) and “High Violet” (2010). Their most recent albums more playfully stumble across a capacity to surprise.

Most recent: “I Am Easy To Find” (2019)

You’ll also need to hear this: “High Violet” (2010)

21. Ulcerate

The New Zealand trio conjure up jaw-dropping power on record. Their sound is a post-metal melee, a big tent pitched at the atmospheric mid-point between death metal and sludge, with listeners liable to lose footing amid the technical and structural chaos modelled on the utterly disorientating innovations of Gorguts, Portal and Deathspell Omega and the powerhouse drumming of creative engine room Jamie Saint Merat. 2020’s “Stare Into Death & Be Still” may be their best yet as they play with increased melody to astonishing effect.

Most recent: “Stare Into Death & Be Still” (2020)

You’ll also need to hear this: “The Destroyers Of All” (2011)

The Power Rankings: July 2020 (#40 – #31)

40. Future

Nobody, not even Kanye West, has shaped the sound of current American chart music more forcefully than Future since he arrived as a fully-formed modern-day bluesman for the trap generation. A revolutionary artist still churning out records of cast-iron consistency, Future crammed in an underrated collab tape with Juice WRLD in 2018 before Juice’s tragic passing, turned in an arguable career crescendo on the 2019 FKA Twigs cut “Holy Terrain” and continues to average at least an album per year.

Most recent: “High Off Life” (2020)

You’ll also need to hear this: “DS2” (2015)

39. Iceage

Once described as the most dangerous band in the world by Iggy Pop, the Copenhagen outfit’s punk-rooted music is aflame with poetic heft and beaming musicality, transmogrifying from a firebrand modern hardcore sound into a sophisti-rock mould incorporating post-punk, jazzy stylings and various other arthouse leanings, perfected on “Plowing Into The Field Of Love” (2014) and “Beyondless” (2018). These boys look poised to continue to cultivate their profile with class.

Most recent: “Beyondless” (2018)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Plowing Into The Field Of Love” (2014)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX76LXiqXHc

38. Run The Jewels

The incendiary eloquence of Killer Mike has positioned him as one of America’s most significant modern rappers after a long rise. Underground veteran El-P is no slouch, bringing cocksure witticisms and future-funky bombshell production to the table. The duo are on a seemingly intractable run of self-titled calls-to-arms dripping in swagger, steel and style; it’s the very best of political party music anchored in an effortlessly charismatic chemistry between the tandem.

Most recent: “Run The Jewels 4” (2020)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Run The Jewels 3” (2016)

37. Deathspell Omega

The mystical French collective have been a unique force in black metal for a long time and boast an expansive catalogue of material showcasing the most dizzying, nauseating guitar dynamics in music. Concluding a stream of records lyrically focused on the theology of God, Satan and humanity, the band switched to political themes on 2019’s “The Furnaces Of Palingenesia” as their shrouded membership came under heightened scrutiny, but the band remains a staggeringly dense lodestar for extreme music.

Most recent: “The Furnaces Of Palingenesia” (2019)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Paracletus” (2010)

36. Arca

Venezuelan producer Arca has defined the future sound of electronic music through her albums “Xen” (2014) and “Mutant” (2015) before delivering one of the most exhilarating curveballs of the 2010s by lacing the wartorn dynamics and brooding, Lynchian textures of her ever-shifting compositions with haunting vocal work on 2017’s excellent self-titled album. As well as steering Björk in new sonic directions of late, Arca has just undertaken another left-turn into what can be broadly termed pop on the new album “Kick I”.

Most recent: “Kick I” (2020)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Arca” (2017)

35. J Hus

J Hus is flying low on so many radars right now. The London rapper and singer and his collaborative producer Jae5 have brought new linguistic and musicological possibilities to the UK hip hop scene with two white hot albums defined by an effervescent studio sound, midwifing the nascent Afroswing movement in the process, and unlocking a wave of burgeoning young acts headlined by Coventry rookie Pa Salieu. You’d have to look to Nigeria’s Burna Boy to find Hus’ only contemporary right now.

Most recent: “Big Conspiracy” (2020)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Common Sense” (2017)

34. Oranssi Pazuzu

Mashing psychedelic rock, black metal and the backwater prog of Swans into a monolithic, snaking curiosity come Finland’s Oranssi Pazuzu. Steadily gathering momentum in the metal world, the band struck gold on 2016’s “Värähtelijä” and are now back with the equally gargantuan “Mestarin Kynsi”, an oft-bonkers, hulking slab of spaced-out, nightmarish chaos. This is an ambitious, complex band with a likely big future of similarly significant statements ahead of them.

Most recent: “Mestarin Kynsi” (2020)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Värähtelijä” (2016)

33. FKA twigs

Tahlia Barnett is a singular force, merging contemporary RnB and a hive-mind of star electronic artists to forge an uncompromising, extraterrestrial blend of avant-garde music. Her commitment to her art, as musician, dancer and visual sorcerer, is unquestioned, and on the painstakingly crafted “Magdalene” (2019) she ascends to a magnetic career zenith best highlighted by the album’s stunning closer “Cellophane”, which was instantly acclaimed as one of the finest songs of the 2010s.

Most recent: “Magdalene” (2019)

You’ll also need to hear this: “LP1” (2014)

32. Deafheaven

The San Francisco collective took to the stratosphere with 2013’s instant classic “Sunbather”, the shimmering, shoegazing epic which is one of the most widely acclaimed metal albums of all time and proved that black metal could be as American as apple pie. The band have been remarkably consistent and, in “Ordinary Corrupt Human Love” in 2018, added their second classic, rifling expertly through post-rock, post-metal and a dreamy blackgaze sound they have immortalised.

Most recent: “Ordinary Corrupt Human Love” (2018)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Sunbather” (2013)

31. The War On Drugs

With 2017’s “A Deeper Understanding”, Adam Granduciel impossibly refined the trippy, panoramic Heartland renderings of 2014’s “Lost In The Dream”. The group is now defined by tightly-confected, skyscraping song structures loaded with foreshadowing of never-promised finalities, lyrics which evaporate on contact with air, statuesque peaks of crystalline instrumentation and Rust Belt evocations painted contemporarily with a veritable Springsheen.

Most recent: “A Deeper Understanding” (2017)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Lost In The Dream” (2014)

The Power Rankings: July 2020 (#50 – #41)

Welcome to the inaugural entry in the Michael Johnson Power Rankings, my subjective countdown of the 50 greatest acts in music based on the admittedly vague notion of “artistic momentum”! My intention from here is to update these rankings biannually, on the 1st of January and 1st of July each year. I figured this would be fun and informative and will provide both myself and anyone who reads this with an opportunity to discover some great new music and great old music too, as well as tracking the glacial pace at which music acts rise and fall over many years, and the rarity with which artists powerful enough to reach the upper echelons of this poll are unseated. I very much encourage people to shout at me to ask why I did or did not include a certain artist; I will have opinions but it’s perfectly likely that I have not heard their material, and it will therefore assist me to unearth new treasures!

I only applied one cast-iron rule, which was that an artist should have at least two studio albums (or “equivalent”) to their name to be eligible for inclusion. For example, this meant that artists who released debut albums which ranked among the finest records of 2019, such as Dave and Billie Eilish, are not included here. Another factor which is not a rule as such but came into consideration for me was that the longer an act has gone without making a definitive statement, the less likely they were to make this list, which eliminated some outstanding acts such as Joanna Newsom, Daft Punk and Sigur Rós. Otherwise, an act which has gone several years without a release but which I consider highly significant may rank well above a prolific artist with a great but less engaging catalogue; it is largely arbitrary and adheres to my taste, which is why I welcome any questions!

Music fanatics will know how hard it was to leave many incredible artists and performers off this list. Not everyone could make it, but there are troves of stunning music across the careers of all of the acts below, not least in the 100 albums mentioned as recommendations! All things being well, this will be the first time of many that I do this. I already know that you can expect change in January 2021, but for now, I hope you enjoy reading!

50. Drake

Many critics allege Drake sounds tired, but he always has. On the MJ-cannibalising quarantine smash “Toosie Slide”, with the laziest ever novelty dance, he sounds dead behind the eyes, but is the same icon of an overly-medicated, inherently sad generation long embodying bleary assimilation into capitalist exuberance as captured in Mark Fisher’s immortal review of his 2013 masterstroke “Nothing Was The Same”. k-punk is gone, but Drake is still trying to tell us things.

Most recent: “Dark Lane Demo Tapes” (2020)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Nothing Was The Same” (2013)

49. Arctic Monkeys

Alex Turner has never had a tighter grip on the reins, but the rest of the band seem comfortable, likely owing to the fact that the sleek, shiny space-lounge of “Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino” soundtracks the most startling tour of the psychogeography of a hotel since Kubrick’s “The Shining”. The band have firmed up their already stellar reputation; the hyper-observational brat poet who surveyed Noughties England lives on in Turner’s now more metaphorical, but equally swoon-worthy, sociocultural prescience.

Most recent: “Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino” (2018)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not” (2006)

48. Shabaka Hutchings

Rapidly becoming an icon of UK jazz and reviving the canonical Impulse! label, saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings has set the scene ablaze with Sons Of Kemet’s “Your Queen Is A Reptile” (2018), a record which channels the spirit, energy and defiance of punk and metal through jazz, The Comet Is Coming’s “Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery” (2019), a progressive tour-de-force, and now Shabaka & The Ancestors’ “We Are Sent Here By History” (2020), a marvellously accomplished record. Anything he now commits to tape is a must-hear.

Most recent: “We Are Sent Here By History” (2020)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Your Queen Is A Reptile” (2018)

47. JME

After 2019, the finest year in the history of British hip hop, this list would be simply incomplete without a leading light of the scene on it. Although his brother Skepta has become the genre’s elder statesman either side of the Atlantic, JME marginally has the better albums. 2015’s “Integrity>” may be the best ever British hip hop record and 2019 follow-up “Grime MC” is equally weighty from an artist who prizes authenticity and faithfulness to oneself above all else.

Most recent: “Grime MC” (2019)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Integrity>” (2015)


46. Insomnium

The Finnish outfit have no peer when it comes to the melodic death metal sub-genre. By this point, with the addition of “Heart Like A Grave” (2019), they have amassed a portfolio of albums to rival any. Theirs is one of the most emotional listens in metal, typified by cascades of tearful, lamenting guitar melody, sweeping stardust bridges and chugging power chord breakdowns laced expertly together. The secret is in the weight of feeling always counterbalancing the heaviness of sound.

Most recent: “Heart Like A Grave” (2019)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Above The Weeping World” (2006)

45. The xx

Possibly nothing influenced British music more in the 2010s than The xx’s jaw-dropping debut “xx” (2009), part of a rich lineage of UK guitar music debuts which arrived from the womb primed to shift psychic earth. The influence of their mercurial texture stretched far beyond rock, not least because it simply sounded amazing. Despite only three albums in 11 years, the trio remain essential listening as their glistening, serpentine indie takes on new colours and shades. It doesn’t hurt that Jamie xx doubles as one of the most exciting electronic artists out.

Most recent: “I See You” (2017)

You’ll also need to hear this: “xx” (2009)

44. Beach House

The Baltimore, Maryland dream pop auteurs may have numerous touchstones, but have unmistakably carved their own name into the heritage of the genre. “Teen Dream” (2010), “Bloom” (2012) and “Depression Cherry” (2015) is their classic trilogy but they continue to progress steadily; by 2018’s “7” they have more gorgeous, blissed-out numbers than you can shake a Flake 99 at (because this is aural ice cream!) and an intriguing career-long storyline regarding how percussion (the band has no official drummer) has driven their songwriting.

Most recent: “7” (2018)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Teen Dream” (2010)

43. Flying Lotus

FlyLo has long turned heads as an electronic artist breaking into new territory and has done a similar service for contemporary jazz, which has always defined the leanings of his material, reflective of his familial ties to the Coltranes. His artistic relationship with bass guitarist extraordinaire Thundercat puts him at the centre of the Los Angeles sound. His latest, 2019’s “Flamagra”, is a sprawling, diverse and jam-packed record buoyed by the character FlyLo has always brought behind the boards.

Most recent: “Flamagra” (2019)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Cosmogramma” (2010)

42. Freddie Gibbs

Gibbs is one of hip hop’s most overlooked talents, despite elucidating some of the most dexterous, velveteen rhymes in the game. The most concretely-realised amalgamations of his abilities are two albums with legendary producer Madlib, the modern crime classics “Piñata” (2014) and “Bandana” (2019), both displaying relentless lyrical talent. Gibbs just hooked up with another veteran in The Alchemist for “Alfredo”, and now possesses an enviable legacy playbook.

Most recent: “Alfredo” (2020)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Piñata” (2014)

41. Christine & The Queens

Héloïse Letissier is building an army of followers on the back of two glorious pop albums and a new EP, all bearing theatrical, bungee-jumping melodies, beats which are equal parts arty and danceable and lyrics which match Letissier’s vocals in their penchant for taking oblique turns. With an arena-sized ambition which always brings the spectacle and performative flair of her live show to a track, as well as growing mainstream acclaim, we can expect Christine & The Queens to ascend to far greater heights yet.

Most recent: “Chris” (2018)

You’ll also need to hear this: “Chaleur Humaine” (2014)