Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
1984
Marr's melody came from a New York hotel room, the title from Sandie Shaw, and misery never sounded so cheerful.
★ 7.2
The Songs canon
Sourced and sung.
Every song chosen by hand, with the recording to play it.
Browse all 2,393 songs or filter by genre, subject, artist, and year.
Browse all 2,393 songs or filter by genre, subject, artist, and year.
My Girls
2009 · From Merriweather Post Pavilion
An arpeggio out of Chicago house, a sample from the Cassini Saturn probe, Lennox wanting only a home.
★ 6.9
Kids
2008 · From Oracular Spectacular
Goldwasser wrote the music at nineteen in a dorm room, an exercise in stereotypical pop that outgrew itself.
★ 6.7
Such Great Heights (The Postal Service)
2003
Tamborello sent instrumental DATs to Gibbard, who added vocals and shipped them back; his first happy love song.
★ 6.7
Time to Pretend
2008 · From Oracular Spectacular
The praying mantis in their house inspired the music, by the band's account; the words satirize rock-star excess.
★ 6.6
Electric Feel
2008 · From Oracular Spectacular
A 6/4 groove where pop usually sits in 4/4, and Fridmann's production turns silvery synths into a slow strut.
★ 6.6
Somebody That I Used to Know
2011
Recorded at his parents' house on the Mornington Peninsula around a Luiz Bonfá sample, eight weeks at number one.
★ 6.5
Seasons (Waiting on You)
2014
One Letterman performance in March 2014, Herring's angular dancing, and Pitchfork, NME and Spin named it the year's best.
★ 6.5
White Winter Hymnal
2008 · From Fleet Foxes
A round about snow that the band never once played together, its voices stacked from first takes in production.
★ 6.4
I Will Follow You Into the Dark
2006 · From Plans
One microphone, mono, caught during a studio break when the headphones failed, and Gibbard's breath before the first chord.
★ 6.3
Feel It All AroundWashed Out
Feel It All Around
2009
Bedroom pop in the literal sense, a Gary Low disco record slowed to a crawl, and chillwave had its template.
★ 6.2
Oxford Comma
2008 · From Vampire Weekend
Koenig found the punctuation via a Columbia Facebook group, then wrote a song about not caring at all.
★ 6.0
Miss Misery
1997 · From Good Will Hunting (Original Soundtrack)
An earlier version with different lyrics sat unreleased until Good Will Hunting sent Smith to the Oscars in white.
★ 5.9
Young Folks
2006
Yttling whistled a placeholder melody, ran it through tape delay, and kept it; Bergsman answers line for line.
★ 5.8
Hannah Hunt
2013 · From Modern Vampires of the City
Koenig named it for a Columbia classmate from his Buddhism class, and the final minute cracks wide open.
★ 5.8
Closer
2012
Greg Kurstin's four-on-the-floor and mid-nineties Erasure worship turned the Quins into a dance-chart number one.
★ 5.7
Queen
2014
Adrian Utley of Portishead helped build the noise, and Hadreas answers a lifetime of stares with pure swagger.
★ 5.7
Archie, Marry Me
2014
Snowed into a Prince Edward Island farmhouse, Rankin wrote a proposal song; VanGaalen cut it in Calgary.
★ 5.7
Kissing the Lipless
2003 · From Chutes Too Narrow
Cut in the basement of Mercer's Portland house, a breakup song that starts at a whisper and detonates.
★ 5.2
Sleeping InThe Postal Service
Sleeping In
2003
Tamborello mailed beats from Los Angeles; Gibbard answered with a dream he would rather not wake from.
★ 4.9
Soul Meets Body
2005 · From Plans
Gibbard wrote it for his girlfriend, Walla produced at a Massachusetts farm studio, ten weeks atop Adult Alternative.
★ 4.7
I Can't Make You Love Me (Bon Iver)
2011
Vernon strips Reid and Shamblin's Nashville ballad to falsetto, then slips into Raitt's "Nick of Time" at the end.
★ 4.5
Other PeopleBeach House
Other People
2012 · From Bloom
Cut to 24-track analog tape at Sonic Ranch in Texas, gauzy organ, Legrand singing a relationship dissolving.
★ 4.5
Take a Walk
2012
Angelakos built each verse from a man in his own family who immigrated, then set financial ruin to synths.
★ 4.5
Revival
2010 · From Halcyon Digest
Two minutes long, given away to fans who posted flyers, and jangling its way toward something like salvation.
★ 4.4
Some Nights
2012
Ruess wanted a hip hop producer and Paul Simon's harmonies; the sleeper took seven months to reach number three.
★ 4.3
Sea of Love (Cat Power)
2000
Voice, guitar, and a 1959 Phil Phillips hit slowed to a whisper; Juno carried it to a new audience.
★ 4.1
Hero (Family of the Year)
2012
Richard Linklater put it in Boyhood and its trailer, and the Keefe brothers' harmony now sounds like growing up.
★ 3.7
Up Against the Wall
2006
Seven minutes long, never a single, self-produced by the trio, and the longest slow burn on Writer's Block.
★ 3.7
Call It What You Want
2011
Paul Epworth produced it, and Foster points the synth hook at everyone too eager to conform.
★ 3.5
If I Could Change Your Mind
2014
James Ford produced it, all three sisters wrote it, and the harmonies turn a plea into a groove.
★ 3.3
Amsterdam (Peter, Bjorn and John)
2006
Track four on Writer's Block, self-produced by the trio, and its plainest study of being left behind.
★ 2.8
Let Her Go
2012
Rosenberg cut it in a Sydney studio with Australian session players, and a Dutch fan's email set it loose.
★ 2.8
Generator (First Floor)
2010
Queens kids who met on Craigslist and busked subway platforms, then made banjo and glockenspiel sound euphoric.
★ 2.0