Rooster – Alice in Chains
The guitar crawls before it strikes.
Virginia Plain – Roxy Music
An oboe and a synthesizer collide in the first seconds, glamorous and slightly unhinged, and Bryan Ferry starts listing places as if a postcard had been cut up and thrown into the wind.
Black Steel – Tricky
The tempo has been taken down until the threat can sit.
It’s a Sin – Pet Shop Boys
A cathedral of synths opens as if a mass had been remixed for a club, Latin already muttering underneath, and Neil Tennant's voice comes in looking back, already ashamed, already pleased to say so.
Nevermind – Nirvana
In September 1991, a trio from Aberdeen put a baby and a dollar bill on the cover and, inside, a set of songs that sounded like a room being rearranged by force.
Baba O’Riley – The Who
The pattern does not sound like a band at first.
Let’s Stay Together – Al Green
The horns enter like a polite rumour, and the voice is already lower than the feeling, which is the whole trick and the whole fight.
What’s Love Got to Do with It – Tina Turner
A soft drum machine and a guitar figure begin almost politely, and Tina Turner's voice enters with a question that is not polite at all, love set aside like a coat she has decided not to wear.
Stupid Girl – Garbage
The drum loop is borrowed and does not apologize.