Stayin’ Alive – Bee Gees
The hi-hat is a pulse you could take a pulse with, which doctors later did, and the guitar answers in a figure so clean it feels machined.
Mr. Brightside – The Killers
A synth stabs, a guitar answers in a bright panic, and Brandon Flowers starts already out of the cage, doing just fine, which is how you know he is not.
All My Friends – LCD Soundsystem
Two pianos, or one piano refusing to resolve, hammer a figure that stumbles and then refuses the stumble as an excuse to stop.
Don’t You (Forget About Me) – Simple Minds
A guitar figure hangs in the air like a school bell that will not stop, and Jim Kerr comes in already asking to be remembered, the title a hand on your shoulder in a corridor.
Lovefool – The Cardigans
The hi-hat is indecently cheerful.
Last Nite – The Strokes
The downstroke is so even it feels borrowed, which it partly is.
Riders on the Storm – The Doors
Rain is already falling when the Rhodes piano enters, a jazz figure with nowhere urgent to be, and Jim Morrison's voice comes in low, as if he were telling the story from the passenger seat.
Thinkin Bout You – Frank Ocean
The voice is pitched until it sounds like a secret told through a fan.
Human Traffic
Friday does not begin so much as land, and Cardiff rearranges itself around five friends who have already decided the week was a mistake.
Master of Puppets – Metallica
In March 1986, Metallica released an album with no advance single and a cover that already told you the subject: hands in a red sky, and a field of white crosses on strings.