Real Goblin

This is an unapologetic list of songs that do just as the title says. Sometimes, a particular track just puts you in a chokehold in an inexplicable way. These are a few of those songs.

“Agnes” – Glass Animals

I really go back and forth on my feelings for Glass Animals. But you can’t deny that this track in particular goes hard. The first 30 seconds creates a dreamy atmosphere, which evolves and builds like a wave until we hit the chorus and the whole thing crashes and rolls you over and over. Eventually you come up for air, but the band takes their time with it. It’s explosive. It’s dramatic. It’s probably their best song.

“Read My Mind” – The Killers

This is one of the most well regarded songs by The Killers among other artists. Twenty One Pilots have said that this song (and the accompanying music video) was a massive inspiration to the existence of their band as a whole. Boygenius knows it’s great. And Catfish and the Bottlemen know it too. Both of those bands have excellent covers of the tune. 

There’s just some kind of unique quality to this one that’s hard to pin down. It’s instantly nostalgic. The lyrics are some of the band’s best and most emotionally evocative. It’s one of those drive off into the sunset kind of songs that I never grow tired of. Also, Sam’s Town is underrated etc, etc. 

“Starlight” – Muse

This song awakened something in me. I recall ripping this off YouTube, loading it onto my iPod Classic and playing it near full volume on the school bus at 7 in the morning. In those moments, I was reconsidering my whole existence. It also definitely was not the right way to start my day. It probably worsened my anxiety and set me up for failure. 

But there’s just something about that rising and falling synth line that repeats throughout. It feels like waves crashing on the beach, and the soaring guitar coupled with Matt Bellamy’s voice makes for peak Muse on this song – which I consider their greatest song.

“Don’t Delete The Kisses” – Wolf Alice

There are a lot of Wolf Alice songs I could include on this list. They really know how to build to an explosive chorus. But this one in particular holds a lot of weight with me. Spotify says it’s my most listened to song ever. I think a lot of my feelings toward this song can be attributed to the music video, which adds visuals to the already visceral feelings this song brings about in me. The track plays out like a 2 hour dramatic film, where two characters are pulled together and pushed apart in a tumultuous relationship. Ellie Roswell really sells the spoken word vocal on the verses before it breaks into the repeated line: “what if it’s not meant for me?”

The music video is also heart-wrenching, as these types of things often are.

“Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl” – Broken Social Scene

Broken Social Scene is another band that has a tendency to make the kind of song that makes me wanna run through a wall (in a good way). “Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl” lives up to its name. It sounds exactly as it should. It feels like self-discovery, innocence, naivety, you name it. I am not, nor was I ever a seventeen year-old girl, but I was a seventeen year-old boy. And one who would lay on the floor of my room beneath a ceiling fan, feeling every emotion in the human lexicon at once. This song builds upon itself, layering and layering until you feel like you suddenly understand the secrets of the universe – if even for a microsecond.

“The Place Where He Inserted the Blade” – Black Country, New Road

This song unfolds like a Broadway musical. It has it all. There’s a three act structure, the lights are low, and a young closeted queer person sits somewhere nearby dreaming of life on the stage.

The performance by vocalist Isaac Wood sells this tune. But don’t let that distract you from the brilliant backing instrumentation, which takes center stage at several points throughout. It feels entirely unique from the rest of the songs on this list. It’s the epitome of Black Country, New Road.