Top Five British Songs from the Late Nineties

Over at The Baseball Stand and The Midlothian Campaign, I've been reading a lot of lists lately. So I thought I'd counter with one of my own. Here are:

The Top Five British Songs from the Late Nineties (in ascending order and with commentary):

5. Oasis - "Don't Look Back in Anger"

Every time I hear this song, I think back to a long day of skiing at Whistler, after which we gathered in one of those extremely loud and crowded bars at the base of the mountain. To bring some inspiration to my weary bones (and to make up for the lack of poutine on the menu), I requested this song -- and soon felt the slow, lumbering beat flowing over me like extra large bubbles from a malfunctioning jacuzzi jet. Of course, En Kook ruined the mood by requesting "Sweet Home Alabama" immediately afterwards. Killer lyric: "But please don't put your life in the hands/Of a rock n' roll band/We'll throw it all away."

4. Travis - "Writing to Reach You"

I read somewhere that WTRY was based off of "74-75" by the Connells. I put the two songs together on CD, and I always enjoy hearing the earlier song merge into this masterpiece -- it's a similar experience to studying an early Chinese bronze and then contemplating its cousin from two hundred years later, where the once literal representations have transformed into twisting, abstract forms. Killer lyric: "Still the radio keeps playing all the usual/And what's a wonderwall anyway."

3. Embrace - "My Weakness Is None of Your Business"

A great title, and so much more if you actually listen to the song. Embrace released two MWINOYB singles, one recorded live at Abbey Road studios. The second part of the Abbey Road single was made available only to fanclub members for a short time during 1997 -- and doesn't show up on Ebay too often, the bidding usually ending around 30 pounds. It's the only Embrace single I don't own. Should I bid on it, or not? Killer lyric: "That's why I get that shallow feeling/That you like/I never learn that I can't win."

2. Oasis - "Supersonic"

Any song that mentions my favorite effervescent analgesic deserves a spot on this list. Killer lyric: "I know a girl called Elsa/She’s into alka seltzer/She sniffs it through a cane on a supersonic train." (I always thought he was saying "She sniffs it through a canine/A supersonic train.")

1. Embrace - "All You Good Good People"

Many people dismiss Embrace as rip-offs of Oasis, Verve or Spiritualized, but this song blows those criticisms out of the water. "All You Good Good People" is, quite simply, the "Perfect Kiss" of the nineties. Given that "Perfect Kiss" was the best song of the eighties, it only stands to reason that AYGGP tops this list. The best moment of "Perfect Kiss" comes after the surprise third verse in the extended version, after the crickets and frogs and right after the cowbell, when the song mercilessly picks up steam (in about its sixth minute) and drives harder and harder into your brain the desolation and atrabiliar of the song's lyrics. Just the same, my favorite part of AYGGP is in the second chorus, when suddenly things don't go as planned. But this time the lyrics lead to inspiration, the path from the wilderness into which "Perfect Kiss" led. Let me quote:

all you good good people
listen to me
you're just about done
with the way that you feel
'cause nothing rings home enough
to dig your heels in
you don't have to leave me
to see what i mean
lose all your fears
they're keeping you down
you won't have to fake it
while i'm around
all you good good people
listen to me

And then the music takes over, and it doesn't get any better ...