Items12The creator’s order
  1. 1Christmas Card From a Hooker in MinneapolisChristmas Card From a Hooker in MinneapolisTom Waits writes the whole song as a Christmas letter from a woman to an old friend, over a smoky saloon piano. She paints a cosy picture of a new life and a good man, and the details are just specific enough to sound true. Listen to the last verse closely: it reframes everything before it, and…0
  2. 2Sail AwaySail AwayRandy Newman sings as a slave trader pitching life in America to Africans as a land of plenty across the sea to Charleston Bay. Set against a gorgeous, Copland-like orchestral arrangement, his warm, easy delivery makes the horrific sales pitch unnervingly seductive, forcing the listener to notice…0
  3. 3LukaLukaSuzanne Vega sets an agonising study of abuse to a breezy acoustic pop rhythm. Sung as a boy who lives on the second floor, the lyric is all deflection: he says he is clumsy, asks neighbours not to ask, insists it is nothing. The cheerful strumming widens the gap between his polite denials and what…0
  4. 4NebraskaNebraskaRecorded on a four-track cassette in a rented bedroom, Bruce Springsteen inhabits 1950s spree killer Charles Starkweather with terrifying acoustic detachment. Recounting the slaughter of ten innocent people with placid indifference, the narrator claims he was just out having fun with his…0
  5. 5Idiot WindIdiot WindThe emotional centrepiece of Blood on the Tracks unfolds as a venomous tirade against media gossip and romantic betrayal. Dylan's narrator spits fury with absolute moral certainty, yet the song's circular accusations gradually implicate his own cruelty. The masterstroke arrives in the final chorus,…0
  6. 6Excitable BoyExcitable BoyWarren Zevon pairs jaunty, doo-wop-flavoured piano and cheery backing vocals with an escalating catalogue of a young man's misdeeds, from rubbing pot roast on his chest and biting an usherette's leg to far worse. The narrator and chorus wave each one away as the work of an excitable boy, a…0
  7. 7AlisonAlisonCloaked in the velvet chords of a late-night soul ballad, Elvis Costello's classic presents itself as a tender profession that my aim is true. Yet listening beneath the romantic veneer reveals a narrator brimming with bitter, possessive resentment. Sneering at Alison's party life and mocking her…0
  8. 8Every Breath You TakeEvery Breath You TakeFrequently misconstrued as a gentle romantic anthem, Sting's masterpiece is an unsettling monologue of obsessive surveillance. Over Andy Summers's circular, chiming guitar figure, the narrator tracks an ex-lover's every breath, step and move with cold, possessive detachment. The soothing vocal tone…0
  9. 9Christmas in PrisonChristmas in PrisonJohn Prine's prisoner dreams of the woman he loves at Christmas, and his images of her are so funny, tender and outlandish that you start to suspect she exists mostly in his head. Prine's dry, porch-side deadpan and gentle picking blur the line between devotion and the fanciful daydreams that keep…0
  10. 10Live OakLive OakJason Isbell weaves a gripping Southern gothic tale of a reformed outlaw attempting to build an honest life with a woman who loves him. Over acoustic guitar and fiddle, the narrator wrestles with mounting paranoia: did she fall in love with his gentle, hardworking present, or was she captivated by…0