All Blonde Redhead songs RANKED
LP songs only (+ 3 O'Clock EP because why not), lfg. Kazu Makino (vox+stuff), Amedeo Pace (vox+stuff) and Simone Pace (percussion) are three people who make music some of it is noisy some of it is dreamy most of it is good some of it is great their discography gets better the more you hear of it let's go. |
| 103 |  | Blonde Redhead
Barragan
Cat on Tin Roof
Devastating nothingburger of a track, even by Barragan's standards: plods tunelessly on and on, only a couple of stray vocalises from Kazu keep this from complete dead air. The memo you'll be getting throughout the next 15-ish entries is that Blonde Redhead a great band who made one tedious baroque chore of a bad fucking album. It is this one. Everything the band had spent years honing re. songwriting, sharp motifs, cohesive, fat-free arrangements, killer vocal hooks and distinctive inflections seemed have gone straight out the window (though they later regained these on 3 O'Clock and Sit Down For Dinner, fuck be praised). This is its worst song! Avoid! |
| 102 | | Blonde Redhead
Barragan
Seven Two
Devastating non-event of a closer that hits finally as its album seemed to have got its shit together. Good riddance. |
| 101 | | Blonde Redhead
Barragan
Barragan
Forgettable acoustic doodle at the start of a royal stinker. Relatively harmless considering the duds below. |
| 100 | | Blonde Redhead
Barragan
The One I Love
The harpsichord arps that fuel this one are pretty melodically striking by Barragan standards, although still nothing you won't hear in a music class for 7 y/os. Redeemable Kazu chorus, forgettable track overall. |
| 99 | | Blonde Redhead
Barragan
No More Honey
A lot of shape to this one by Barragan standards, probably entirely down to the noisy guitars that ooze in and out to support the chorus -- sometimes all it takes is a little contrast. It's grating, but I feel this is wilfully so and *almost* enjoy the personality it brings to the table: Kazu's refrain is listless enough that she takes the distortion in her stride. Would be the worst song on almost any other album, but I guess stands as a minor highlight? |
| 98 | | Blonde Redhead
Barragan
Lady M
Though not at all the 'worst' song on Barragan, "Lady M" is perhaps the most representative of how thoroughly the album failed to come together -- there is something here! Kazu's half-out-the-door portrait of the title persona has substance to it and is backed by a engaging core refrain ("When you dance, she dances"), the song's modulated guitars and eerie synth chords make for a striking range of tones towards her, and Simone's broken shuffle-waltz sounds like no other groove in their discography. None of these elements sit well alongside one another though -- everything ear-catching here seems to cancel itself out, and the song plods its way from had-potential to firm-nope. Unfortunate track. |
| 97 |  | Blonde Redhead
Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons
Ballad Of Lemons
BLOOP BLOOP BLOOP BLOOP BLOOP BLOOP BLOO BLOO BLOOB hurrhurrhurr this isn't a song, but I do appreciate how citric those synth tones sound? Enjoyably goofy annoying as all hell instrumental, this is their "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots II" I will never not skip it *but* I did enjoy how much attention this list forced me to pay to it? |
| 96 |  | Blonde Redhead
In an Expression of the Inexpressible
Justin Joyous
Look, I love clanging guitar dissonance as much as the next guy, but this final middle finger at the end of the band's most prickly record is too dull to warrant any measure of the grating winddown it enforces. This is the kinda shit nu-Swans fans kid themselves into thinking that they worship until they accidentally come across it devoid of any pretentious airs, graces or overlong reverberations. |
| 95 | | Blonde Redhead
Barragan
Defeatist Anthem (Harry & I)
The first half of this composite freakshow is a majestic delight that sees Kazu rise a dizzy set of string arps and land would would easily be Barragan's second-strongest track (and a plausible foreshadowing of the sound the band focused on for Sit Down For Dinner)...
...but pivoting into an utterly useless 3-minute folktronica car-crash coda really does force my hand here. Ffs. |
| 94 |  | Blonde Redhead
La Mia Vita Violenta
Young Neil
"Young Neil" is an incomprehensible set of disconcerting nothings whispered for all of one minute over vaguely alternative muted guitar strummings that Beck might have noodled in between daydreams (not a compliment), and uh yep it's still preferable to over 50% of the tracks on Barragan. |
| 93 | | Blonde Redhead
Barragan
Dripping
A midtempo synthpop slicker worthy of modern-era Tame Impala (not a compliment) -- could anything be more incongruous to Barragan's flow or palette? "Dripping" starts decently and runs out of steam as it goes on, but Amedeo carries the track decently and its infectious as all shit beat immediately launches it into the album's higher reaches. |
| 92 | | Blonde Redhead
Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons
Equally Damaged
It is 40 seconds of eerie, hype-raising synthpulse! I will never listen to it outside of the context of "In Particular" (which fwiw I probably should have ranked it as a pair with)! It is fine! It can go no higher! |
| 91 |  | Blonde Redhead
Blonde Redhead
Sciuri Sciura
The wall of skronks that kicks in on this 1:38 is as solid a tribute to Sonic Youth as any, but other than that, this one doesn't sound enough like anything to stand as either a worthy rip-off or a plausible blueprint for the Blonde Redhead Experience -- and for the self-titled record, that's a pretty hecking dire criticism for reasons that will become very obvious in due course. The title refrain is also annoying after the first 3-4 repetitions. |
| 90 | | Blonde Redhead
Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons
Mother
Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons's increasingly demented closing suite culminates with an unintelligible noise rock howler that I'd probably like a whole lot more if the mix wasn't mud and plastic mixed at all the wrong proportions. Kazu and Simone go off here, but this brand of chaos is way above the call and sounds like something that would carry far better live. |
| 89 | | Blonde Redhead
Barragan
Mine to Be Had
Barragan's 9-minute epic just about holds its weight, even if it has no real business overstaying the 6-minute mark. The song's opening momentum cruises along with enough momentum to leave the record's entire first half the other side of the horizon, and from then on we have the pleasure of hearing the same just-above-average Amedeo verse several hundred times in a row, underpinned with a dash of feedback. Sometimes all it takes is a simple winner. |
| 88 | | Blonde Redhead
Blonde Redhead
Snippet
Band walks into studio, enacts imitation of Neurosis-cum-Sonic-Youth, plays a melody you have heard before, records no vocals, uses instrumental as respectable piece of filler on their debut, it is not bad, your band could do this too, okay. |
| 87 | | Blonde Redhead
La Mia Vita Violenta
Down Under
Now that we've got all but one Barragan tracks out of the way, the spotlight can finally turn to my second least favourite Blonde Redhead album, the chief scapegoat for which sure is pretty (uhhhhurr) down under the rest of this list! La Mia Vita Violenta isn't a bad record or even particularly close to one, but it does suffer from homogeneous as shit pacing, an absence of memorable vocal parts (with a small handful of notable exceptions), overemphatic focus on uninteresting guitar interplay, and the plainest mix in the BR discography. "Down Under" is all of those things + I hate the cold opening and (having accused the album of homogenous pacing lol) how its frequent dynamic shifts jettison momentum. Kazu sounds alright here though, and I can dig the finish |
| 86 | | Blonde Redhead
In an Expression of the Inexpressible
Speed X Distance = Time
Ugggh I want to put this one higher and lower at the same time? It's unlistenable! What an off-putting melody! What a wash of dissonant chords and (later on) Japanese folk scale bullshit! Maybe Kazu's most grating vocal performance ever, some cursed lullaby antics all over this? But make it through the first 3 seconds (challenge!), and the way the band develops all of this is unique and fascinating within and maybe without their discography -- lots of melodic intricacies here, drums are killer and we get a cute pinch of flute to cushion those zillion horrible fragmented contours.
tl;dr the instrumental parts of this are genuinely captivating, its melodic progressions are quite complex, and I respect what it shoots for, but those Kazu verses will never not be a reflex red-button moment. |
| 85 | | Blonde Redhead
La Mia Vita Violenta
I Am There While You Choke On Me
...in which Kazu graduates from convincing Kim Gordon worship to passable PJ Harvey worship (+ one admittedly world-beating screech). This one's fun bluesy stomp can't save it from the impression of a half-baked skit |
| 84 |  | Blonde Redhead
Penny Sparkle
Here Sometimes
Probably the first (*stutters*) controversial pick of the list, "Here Sometimes" for me is the blandest and most boring track from an album I largely consider unfairly maligned for those qualities. It is also the most popular track on the record, its opener, and (afaik) the only one the band still play live -- dammit. The story here is that Penny Sparkle leans hard into a wilfully frigid take on dream pop that cut the vast majority of their indie-rawk DNA out of 23's blueprint and understandably filtered the shit out of much of their fanbase. Frigidity is excellent! It sounds brittle and washed out and anxious and vulnerable, and many other qualities that this band have always taken very much in their stride. "Here Sometimes", by contrast, is a relatively warm compromise that ends up tepid and plain and *skipped* for me. Next. |
| 83 |  | Blonde Redhead
Sit Down for Dinner
I Thought You Should Know
For all the many nice things I'll have to say about Sit Down for Dinner later on, there is no getting around the fact that "I Thought You Should Know" is a colossal snoozer that lands like a nondescript cushion in sequence and an active traipse outside of it. It clears the air before the album's stellar final run, but I think this is the first time I've ever made it to the end outside of that context. Painfully slow tempo, forgettable vocal melodies on an album otherwise packed with winners, lengthy runtime, and very little in the way of development despite the core idea very much waving for it? Hmmm. |
| 82 | | Blonde Redhead
La Mia Vita Violenta
10 Feet High
I go back and forth on whether this is a minor banger or moderate clunker, but it sure do be a major part of the reason that the backend of La Mia Vita blurs like hell to me. Peaks in the first 10 seconds - it's mostly a trundle from thereon out. |
| 81 | | Blonde Redhead
Penny Sparkle
Will There Be Stars
One thing I forgot to add for Penny Sparkle is that all of its duds fall in the opening half, and of these I cannot think of anything easier to finger point than the OneRepublic bullshit Amedeo twists his voice into for this one's verses. It gets a few points over "Here Sometimes" because I dig the way he lifts at the end of the chorus, but this style of kitsch/moody synthpop is a big no otherwise. |
| 80 |  | Blonde Redhead
3 O'Clock
Give Give
Lots of things to love about this individually: the dusky chamber palette that plays so well across 3 O'Clock as a whole, the strength of Amedeo's refrain, the inevitable sense of winddown that permeates the whole thing and makes it a respectable closer, that nifty percussion (hardly a traditional kit sound in earshot here), but for whatever reason "Give Give" has always dragged its feet for me -- it feels set up to flow as a long sigh, but somehow ends up in the treacle. |
| 79 | | Blonde Redhead
Blonde Redhead
I Don't Want U
For a band (rightfully) pigeonholed as a straight Sonic Youth ripoff on their self-titled debut, it's honestly kinda cool that Blonde Redhead kicked things off with a hazy krautrock track packed with incongruous yelps, toe-tipping motoriks, groovy basslines and abrupt changes of pace. None of it really ties together, but neither does it fall apart? An album is started, all is okay, the rest is history. |
| 78 | | Blonde Redhead
In an Expression of the Inexpressible
This Is For Me And I Know Everyone Knows
I really don't love dropping this many songs from In an Expression... this far down the list -- that album is the boldest and most experimental thing BR ever put out, and although it'll get amply rewarded as such later on, it comes with a small handful off misfires. "This Is For Me..." is one the one hand coursing noise rock barnstorm and on the other a messy as hecked fuck mash of vocal styles that should probably land as anthemic chaos, but plays out as an unfortunate cheerleader accident in practice. Unique track and somewhat fun regardless, but not one I can earnestly put much higher. |
| 77 | | Blonde Redhead
Penny Sparkle
Not Getting There
...further to 81 re. kitsch flavourless half-baked synthpop tracks, I was tempted to exclude this one from the list entirely to avoid the risk of second-hand embarrassment from neekafat discovering it and inevitably making it his favourite BR track. Its upbeat pacing is appreciated this early on in Penny Sparkle, and that's about it. |
| 76 | | Blonde Redhead
Blonde Redhead
Girl Boy
Alright alright, *yes* this is an entirely pointless track for anyone to ever listen to outside of sequence, yes it is all but interchangeable with "Young Neil" (94) other than that it's longer and doesn't have a Scott Pilgrim title, yes it has no real business landing outside of the bottom 20, BUT I love how shyly, how cryptically it wraps up the s-t after the almighty burnout of "Swing Pool" and you are going to uh have to deal with the consequences. |
| 75 | | Blonde Redhead
Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons
Loved Despite Of Great Faults
The most awkward, transitional record of Blonde Redhead's career, Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons saw them put noise and dissonance largely in the point and emerge as a mercurial indie act with sinister overtones galore and the occasional sophisticated flourish. Perhaps all the more so because it's paired with one of the album's most obvious highlights, "Loved Despite Of Great Faults" shows this era at its most lopsided and strained, Amedeo struggling to match his voice to a more melodic backdrop while its shifts between straight (3/4 verses) and compound (6/8 choruses) time were a gearshift that always felt forced to me -- all the more so for the high drama this song channels, aiming to wrap up the record's first-half arc. Maybe it's too far up the list, hmmm |
| 74 | | Blonde Redhead
In an Expression of the Inexpressible
10
A blip-infused carnival of chromatic skronk with a neat melodic hook and background layers of guitar fuck the whole way through? This sounds far more Fugazi than Sonic Youth (as do large chunks of In an Expression... and Fake... -- hold that thought!), and would make for a killer short-length instrumental. I don't love it as the second track on the album (even a record this weird struggles to weather such an abrupt change of pace so early), and since I find that the vocal sections add relatively little to the track once they appear, but this is decently cool regardless.
Dare I say it's the first certifiable GOOD SONG on the list? |
| 73 |  | Blonde Redhead
Misery is a Butterfly
Magic Mountain
The first of a string of spartan, Kazu-led ghost-ballads that you'll be seeing across the next few places (and also much higher up, I promise), true to the remote utopia of its subject matter "Magic Mountain" functions above all as a pause for breath at the 3/4 mark in Misery...'s relentlessly claustrophobic tracklist -- goodness knows it hits the spot as such and adds a fair bit to the record thematically ("I'll never make in in the flatlands"), but it's hardly the most memorable track otherwise and the album's finale combo handily eclipses it. And is this our first song from Misery... ? Not too shabby. |
| 72 | | Blonde Redhead
La Mia Vita Violenta
Bean
I greatly enjoy how the b-vooom b-vooom b-vooom of the main riff on this one does indeed sound like a bean (beans?!) bouncing up and down in the microwave or whatever bullshit. Kinetic bean! Really like the bass groove on this one, which is fortunate because the majority of the song sticks to it like glue. It gets somewhat lost in La Mia Vita…’s homogeneous backend, but is one of the more successful examples of the edgy noonday malaise much of the record shoots for — I think I like most of these tracks much more individually than together. |
| 71 | | Blonde Redhead
Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons
For The Damaged
Similar to "Magic Mountain" in that it works best in sequence and shows Kazu at her most intimate, but "For The Damaged" one is outright shivers through and through (especially considering the more clamorous levels unease in the first two songs in the Melody-suite that precede it -- for all the change of pace this offers, it might just be the most anxious song on the record). Similar to (though infinitely more palatable than) 86, this is one I respect much more than I enjoy, but those chills do flow freely. |
| 70 |  | Blonde Redhead
23
Spring And By Summer Fall
I don't know if there's any consensus on what the worst track on Blonde Redhead's (spoilers) best (spoilers) album is, but I'm going to shoot my shot and say that it's a) this one, b) it's this one even though it starts out strong, c) it's this one because it runs out of steam but never changes place, d) it's this one because it lacks a strong chorus yet sets itself up perfectly for one, e) it's this one even though its acutely washed-out shoegaze palette is a pretty cool blend of textures and there's not very much else like it, and f) it would probably still be this one if it had the absolutely kickass drum finale they play live for it, which changes its whole shape and gives it a very necessary yeeting off the unyielding plateau it sets up for itself.
Thank you for your time. |
| 69 | | Blonde Redhead
Sit Down for Dinner
Via Savona
Very little to say for this one -- it's a bittersweet instrumental (Kazu is vocalising, shuddup) outro at the end of a lovely album, doesn't 'make' an impression as much as it reinforces whatever's left in your ears by the end of 'If'. Gorgeous mix of tones + very tastefully arranged, will accept arguments that this should have been higher, but it doesn't say quite enough on its on terms for me at the moment. |
| 68 | | Blonde Redhead
Barragan
Penultimo
The best song on Barragan by an astronomical margin and a rare glimmer of the potential this record might have had -- and even then, it cuts itself short just as it feels ready to hit a peak. The accompaniment here (get a load of that harpsichord/dulcimer unison!!) is deadly focused, and Kazu and Amedeo's verse/chorus interplay cements a really infectious vocal pattern. There's intrigue all over this thing - too bad all we get is two choruses. Give it a bridge and a nifty resolution, and we'd be sailing. Still, that any track on this album can top any track on 23 is something to be impressed by ig |
| 67 | | Blonde Redhead
Misery is a Butterfly
Maddening Cloud
AND SHE SAIIIIIIIID
I CAN'T FEEL MY TOES
Never sure how to feel about this one! It has a *great* chorus and not much else to it?! It's choppier and I guess a lot less oppressive than the rest of Misery is a Butterfly (as close as it comes to a moment of legacy, depending how tongue-in-cheek you consider "Doll is Mine"), which in theory makes it a pretty significant cut, but in practice pans out as a perplexing roadbump in between "Magic Mountain"'s palate cleanser and the all-important final pair? Gets a shrug and a clap from me, and lands by far the least impact of any of the album's Amedeo-led songs. |
| 66 | | Blonde Redhead
Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons
Melody Of Certain Three
For all this one boasts a solid chorus, it's a rare Blonde Redhead song where I feel confident saying that the rhythm guitar is easily the standout -- those riffs are as jagged as any of their noise rock tracks despite being far more palatable to the indie crowd! I enjoy how much meat this one has on its bones: it's another of Melody's oddball rockers, but unlike "Loved Despite Of Great Faults" (the most loosely comparable track in that regard), the shifts from verse to chorus feel hefty and well-earned. Good! Not Amedeo's most commanding performance by a long shot though. |
| 65 | | Blonde Redhead
Misery is a Butterfly
Messenger
The perfect(ish) average of all the standard Misery things: glassy keys, morose chamber rock arrangement, overtones of weariness, gorgeously strained vocal inflections, cyclical verse-centric structure -- the only major distinction is that it's Amedeo rather than Kazu her (usually the other way round on this kind of track). This has less going for it than anything comparable on the album, but it holds up decently by the sum of its parts and makes for a pretty flattering baseline. |
| 64 | | Blonde Redhead
Penny Sparkle
Love or Prison
This one took f o r e v e r to get into, and honestly if it weren’t sandwiched between the stellar “My Plants are Dead” and Penny Sparkle’s outstanding side-B, I doubt I would ever have gotten there (I tend to skip the opening three tracks most listens) — it's maybe the most glacial track in the whole BR discography, and the mileage you'll get from it will depend 100% on how much you jive with an understated Kazu refrain. I love how fragile, guarded and tender her work here/across most of this record is, and so all is good, could easily see this landing in some people's bottom 20 though. |
| 63 |  | Blonde Redhead
Fake Can Be Just As Good
Water
I don't know if this a controversial placement or not, but Fake Can Be Just As Good taking until the 2/3rd mark to make an appearance should give you a sense of the consistency involved in this one -- that 8-for-8 hit ratio makes it by far the most consistent of BR's noise rock-era output, even if I find the title wears a little too true at points and have switched to marginally prefer In an Expression... for its cracked weirdo quotient. In line with that, "Water" is the most openly derivative thing on the album by a decent margin: even the great, late Vern Rumsey covering bass duties for you is no excuse to rip off Unwound's "Unauthorized Autobiography" with the note-per-note precision that the first half shoots for. It sounds hella joyless to me compared to the other bangers on this album, but the second, instrumental half is much more refined, evoking all manner of rusty, sordid, damp imagery in a way that fits this sound perfectly and elevates the song by a good 20ish places |
| 62 | | Blonde Redhead
3 O'Clock
Where Your Mind Wants to Go
Basically a one-song trailer for Sit Down for Dinner, albeit in even more sedentary form. Cringe rhymes and somewhat dreary pacing aside, this one finds Amedeo at his most mellow, crooning one of the band's most melodious refrains over a CHOICE beat (again, Simone does great work jettisoning his standard kit here) and a gorgeous chamber arrangement. It drags its feet a little towards the end of that long ol' runtime, but is otherwise an essential follow-up for everyone who got mileage out of Sit Down... |
| 61 | | Blonde Redhead
3 O'Clock
3 O'Clock
This one is basically tied with "Where Your Mind Wants to Go", and I don't really want to make a call because their strengths and failings balance each other out nicely. On the one hand, this is by far the most dynamic piece on the EP, seeing Kazu returning to the Misery... sound with a good deal more colour in her cheeks - her verses here are particularly magnetic, and the song has that sightless-movie-narration quality that accompanies so often accompanies good, simple storytelling. It also avoids overstaying its welcome, but the chorus has always felt a little cluttered to me, dragging it down considerably. Still, it's better than any track on Barragan and suggested an immediate return to form for their first release thereafter. |
| 60 | | Blonde Redhead
Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons
A Cure
This song is intense as all shit without ever getting conventionally heavy - it's the emotional climax of Melody's second-half suite, and for what it's worth, it starts out strong and hits the kind of chorus you feel all the way in the bottom of your stomach. The clattering percussion and oh-shiiii guitar bends here pin their vibe down to perfection, but Amedeo dishes out one of his most underrated vocal performances to claim the highlight feature. The catch? Too damn long! This thing sets its stakes up perfectly, but drags them out too far. More songwriting focus would have gone a long way here. |
| 59 | | Blonde Redhead
Fake Can Be Just As Good
Bipolar
"Bipolar" on paper is one of Blonde Redhead's most fuck-off no-nonsense bangers, and no ifs/buts/hows about it, that groove is the absolute business (chime-like guitar dissonance also very welcome). It went hard as hell when I caught them live (and made for a totally unexpected inclusion!), but the studio version is a little reined-in for my liking: Kazu's studio vocal is a little too waiflike for its own good, and the song's linear flow doesn't do as much as it might to spotlight the accentuations that do occur (a little more weight thrown towards the drums in the mix would have gone a long way here). Not as visceral as it might have been, but a bruiser all the same. |
| 58 | | Blonde Redhead
Fake Can Be Just As Good
Pier Paolo
Dramatic song! Memorable riffs! Length runtime — why? How? Feels like it should offer a lategame album climax, but gets epically upstaged by “Oh James”! Always thought this one took far too much time to go through its motions for the impact it dishes, but it still packs enough punch to warrant a couple of exclamation marks!! Not very noisy!! |
| 57 | | Blonde Redhead
Sit Down for Dinner
Melody Experiment
One of the bolder song titles I’ve seen in my time, which this track brings to fruition in refreshingly understated style. The verse/chorus section is more groove-fuelled than melodic for me, but Kazu puts in a good turn, and — well, hearing the band kick off and allow the melodies in question to roam free in a deliciously tasteful set of chord shifts in the second half is worth whatever reservations you may have been harbouring. This one is maybe too subtle for its own good and has been a slow grower for me, but I feel it could still go a distance. Very classy song. |
| 56 | | Blonde Redhead
Blonde Redhead
Without Feathers
I want to make a strong case for how underrated this one is, but feel my placement is immediately going to self-sabotage it — oh well. It’s one of the most immediate digests of the scuzzy, grotty charm that makes me such an ardent part-time defender of the self-title record: Kazu’s verses on this sound so fresh, so green compared to the later records — the noisy guitar washouts may be pushing for more grit than the band knew how to handle at this point, but you can feel them gradually finding their sound all over this. It loses shape over its final minute (Goo b-reel if I’ve ever heard it!) and was a little thin on its feet to begin with (noisy guitar in place of an actual chorus is always a gambit for a song as simplistic as this one), but I still have a huge soft spot for it and would love to have put it higher. |
| 55 | | Blonde Redhead
Sit Down for Dinner
Not for Me
Absolutely prime case of a song with a pre-chorus dramatically stronger than its actual chorus, but shit damn that BUT YOU RAN WITH THE FLOWERS hook is one of my favourite things I’ve ever heard Amedeo do as a vocalist. This song loses steam, but there are a few moments where it seems ready to set itself out as *the* shining example of BR’s mellow indie era. |
| 54 | | Blonde Redhead
Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons
For The Damaged Coda
Ranking the sole meme song from a band this guarded and earnest was *not* a task I was looking forward to!
We all know this one, like it or not, and we can probably all agree that it’s pretty damn good for what it goes for. Kazu’s vocalisations are spookier and more evocative than her vocals on the original “For the Damaged”, that piano part is impeccable menace, and, yes, watching Evil Morty throw his eyepatch away and walk off with his indistinguishable brethren is still worth the chills (the series tie-in didn’t quite get me into BR the way it did with Mazzy Star, though Melody… was my first BR album (saw it suggested somewhere for fans of Sonic Youth, but it took me two+ years to hear anything more from the band, largely as a result of the songs from it ranked lower than this)).
ANYWAY, the one single thing that this song does is great but not great enough to take it higher than this midway tossup, take it or leave it you filthy consumers. |
| 53 | | Blonde Redhead
La Mia Vita Violenta
Violent Life
Now this is how your write a *song* where the guitars do half the talking! Difference between tracks like “Without Feathers” and this is incredibly pronounced for two tracks on two albums that came out the same year — this one is razor-focused for every second of its runtime, and the guitar tones and interplay are impeccable without being overly flashy. The melodies are infectious and have a real edge to them, and if it’s impossible to tell whether Amedeo is carrying the song or being carried by it, the runtime is lean enough that the ambiguity hardly causes a stink. Very cool shit. |
| 52 | | Blonde Redhead
La Mia Vita Violenta
Harmony
Let’s say nice things about “Harmony”: I enjoy that it’s basically a post-rock build-up with an entirely incongruous sitar lead that conveniently enough kicks arse? I love the build in question (very Unwound “Abstractions”/misc. post-Slint vibes here) and how naturally it gives way to Kazu’s verse, and would probably rank it a fair bit higher if it didn’t abruptly lose its direction, fritter away all its meticulously well-earned momentum, and, uh, end? Should have been 2-3 minutes longer and packed a proper finale. |
| 51 | | Blonde Redhead
Blonde Redhead
Mama Cita
The lyrics on this one are utterly hysterical -
IT’S THE SMELL THAT DRIVES THEM WILD / THEY ARE *NOT* FASCINATED BY MY EYES
- but this is still a belter, and that the finale is probably the single *heaviest* moment in their discog (rare skramz aplenty from both Kazu and Amedeo). I think the band bite off a fair bit more than they can chew in this one’s stakes and intensity, and that it’s no coincidence that La Mia Vita Violenta generally reined this end of their sound in in favour of mid-tempo cruisers, but this ranks alongside “Astro Boy” for the single most violent thing they ever put to record — and on that level, it’s still respectably cohesive. |
| 50 | | Blonde Redhead
La Mia Vita Violenta
Jewel
Amedeo’s cold opening here is maybe the biggest OH-SHIT moment on the record (right in time for the last song!) — I still have no idea what this song is about or why it hits the way it does, but all the stakes I feel are very much lacking through this album’s second half suddenly materialise out of nowhere and hit right home. That first minute is a decisive letdown, but the changes of pace and incremental layering of abrasive contours throughout this song are impeccable — where has this mercurial relationship with actually-quite-pushy shrink been this whole time? The clean breaks give it a real edge and those grooves are up with the album’s funkiest, krauty finest (“Bean” did some worthy foreshadowing though!). Really great song, keep underrating it by association with the arid run it rounds off, but this is pretty much the perfect closer for this album and a stealthy highlight. |
| 49 | | Blonde Redhead
Misery is a Butterfly
Doll is Mine
IT IS TIME FOR THE CREEPY DOLL SONG, oh man I will never forget the way this hit me when I went through Misery… the first time, especially after the superlative glumness factor of tracks two and three. Amedeo does a great job of channelling the earnest obsession of the narrator-character without going too far overboard, and the nightmare feel of the song opens up a new pocket to the album’s haunting chamber palette, a theatrical complement to its more emotionally vulnerable side and no less disturbing for it. Did its initial shock value wear off a little? Uh, sure, but this ain’t no novelty song. Cannot imagine the album without it. |
| 48 | | Blonde Redhead
In an Expression of the Inexpressible
Futurism Vs. Passéism Part 2
A leaner runtime, a Guy Picciotto French spoken-word cameo for reasons(?), and a slinky minor-arp resolution: in theory, the sequel should outdo the original, but “Part 2” being lighter on its feet also means it packs slightly less punch. It’s a perfect complement to a song so assertive that it never truly *needed* a follow-up though, and I do love how this lands in sequence though: it picks up the pace from “Missile ++”’s dubby fake-out just perfectly. |
| 47 | | Blonde Redhead
In an Expression of the Inexpressible
Led Zep
Slooooooow grower, this, neatly buried in the backend of a baffling fucking album (this record took me so long to get into that it was probably a good week before I even realised there *was* a backend! Thank the midway placement of 86 for that). Kazu doesn’t really sing notes on this as much as she stirs and strains air currents with her voice, and the song’s somewhat innocuous straight-time groove and slow pacing raise a lotta question marks re. What’s It All In Aid Of, but suddenly some hero (who?) starts rattling off harmonics at around the 3:00 mark and it all clicks into place? I’m making the executive decision that this song is an atmospheric masterclass and that you won’t hear anything like it from most of the bands worth investing similar levels of patience into? Just don’t you fucking dare try to sing along. |
| 46 | | Blonde Redhead
La Mia Vita Violenta
(I am Taking Out My Eurotrash) I Still Get Rocks Off
Blonde Redhead trying to play a vulgar indie barnstormer is such a hilariously weird look in hindsight that I’m completely unsurprised they’ve never done anything like it since, but no amount of dubiously convincing swagger can offset the slippage this one lays down — when it kicks off, it //goes//, and hearing such an endearingly stilted take on such an orthodox song formula gives it an unexpected niche of its own. It does not suit them at all! And yet they rock it!! I STILL GET ROCKS OFF all fucking day baby. |
| 45 | | Blonde Redhead
Sit Down for Dinner
Before
Fuck me, this song is graceful — meticulous songwriting chops all over it, and if the initial chorus melody itself sounds a tad tired (“I don't need to see I already know / I can tell you I've seen it all before”), then Kazu’s delivery has enough flair to tide it over and the latter end (“Stop! Before you run, before you make a run, turn it upside down”) is a fair bit trickier to pin to something similar. But really, this one is all about the flow from cadence to cadence and the seamlessness of the guitar accompaniment. Beautiful stuff all round. |
| 44 | | Blonde Redhead
La Mia Vita Violenta
U.F.O.
uh, this is the one that just krauts out over big feedback for five and a half minutes, over the course of which next to nothing happens. there’s some cool-ass tom pounding in the final minute? it is very cool. best on the album? dunno. |
| 43 | | Blonde Redhead
23
Sw
Even at their noisiest, the bulk of BR’s discography has always felt far more threatened than threatening, but from its first thunderous second onwards, “Sw” is a rare track so ominous as to flip the script on that — this song follows through on the razor-thin tension and heart-in-mouth stakes set up so well on the “The Dress” with as much momentum as anyone could ask for, and I think one of the things that puts me off “Spring and by Summer Fall” is how languid it feels in bringing things down to earth, however necessary. But uh yep, this is a huge song whichever way you look at it and Amedeo does great work trumpeting the apocalypse (over some choice cryptic one-liners). Reaaaally satisfying transitions between verses and chorus too, love how fleeting the interplay there is vs. how girthy the synthbrass-fuelled bridge that crashes in midway is. Why isn’t it higher? Hmm, doesn’t hit quite as hard without “The Dress”. |
| 42 | | Blonde Redhead
Penny Sparkle
Everything is Wrong
Though it’s fallen down the ranks a bit in the past couple of years, I absolutely love the moment of warmth and solace this song offers in the infamously bleak backend of Penny Sparkle, and tbh in general — it hits like a warm bath at the end of a shitty day, and for all the title lyric (chorus) could just as easily be read as generalised and facile, the weariness in Kazu’s tone strips it of its hyperbole and lands it as a genuinely alleviating statement of reassurance. Not much to it as a ‘song’, and maybe it leans a little hard on its basic 3/4 swirl without offering too much in the way of development, but it articulates everything it needs to in short order and gets out before it reiterates itself too much. Very blessed piece.
And, uh, hey, that's the first Penny Sparkle song in over 20 places? Insane how wide the good/meh gulf on this one is -- and it only gets better from here. |
| 41 | | Blonde Redhead
Misery is a Butterfly
Falling Man
“Falling Man”, uh, fell from an initial top 20 placement! Why? It’s a razor-sharp neurotic banger with potentially the catchiest guitar line in the BR discography and a vocal performance from Amedeo so iconic it’s practically his calling card tune — and yet, something about his vocal tone doesn’t *quite* land it to the perfection that it commands in every other aspect. Also not a huge fan of the single verse/chorus/ambient haze/total-repeat songwriting schtick — this ain’t no lazydays Animal Collective bullshite! A couple of detractions then, but this one’s central idea is still a lean fucking piece of work. |
| 40 | | Blonde Redhead
Sit Down for Dinner
Kiss Her Kiss Her
Is this a new fan favourite? I am deciding now that it’s a new fan favourite! Absolutely textbook Kazu pop stuff all over this, just a meticulously well-conceived track from start to finish: got them dreamy verses, that dizzy SINGALONG of a chorus, that iconic, endlessly loopable post-chorus hammer-instrument dun-dun-dun (l o v e d this live, gave me a whole new appreciation for the song despite not really varying from the original). I expect and kinda hope to get a bit of flack for not putting it a bit higher, and if pressed for why would probably mumble something about it showing veteran songwriting chops without actively raising the roof (even though the chorus literally does exactly that) before defaulting on not-enough-time-to-bond — I think this one will age very well. |
| 39 | | Blonde Redhead
Fake Can Be Just As Good
Futurism Vs. Passéism
Oh b o y I love this stupid instrumental - it’s as close as BR ever got to a straight-up riff firestorm, and the spartan levels of overdrive on the guitar make it less contingent on ’noise’ and double down on good ol’ rock. The energy here is fantastic, bass and drums absolutely kick off and the whole band make their mark so firmly that they never really need to go beyond simple licks (though those syncopated snare patterns go the distance). I dunno. This one gets me pumped — it’s a masterclass in less-is-more compositionally, but absolutely pops off all the same. Perfect closer, relatively lengthy runtime does not show at all. |
| 38 | | Blonde Redhead
In an Expression of the Inexpressible
Suimasen
Can one have a peal of guitars? I fucking guess so? This prickly banger used to be my favourite on the album, and I can still hear why: the opening synth-noise section has some real stakes and poise to it, proper bird of prey circling overhead -shit right there (would love to have heard more of this, although I guess “Led Zep” came close enough), while the clamorous (can we call it a) beatdown that overtakes the rest of the song is one of the most traditionally ‘heavy’ things in the BR canon and reminds me of a lot of things about The Future of What-era Unwound. The discontinuity between the first and second halves costs it a few places, as does the abrupt ending, but both ideas absolutely pull their weight even if they feel a little undercooked individually. Underrated slammer even if it cuts itself short. Excuse you! |
| 37 | | Blonde Redhead
23
Top Ranking
Hurr hurr, not the top of *this* ranking! This might be the perkiest, catchiest thing on 23 (perfectly positioned between two of its sparsest tracks), but it commits the fatal sin of running out of things to say by the end of the first chorus. Being the total earworm it is, it took me literal dozens of listens before I noticed this, but having noticed exactly how much longevity the song-long developments on most other tracks on the album have had by comparison, I can’t help but feel minutely short-changed by it: there’s a reason this one never commanded that much standalone rotation despite previously sitting very high in my ranking for 23. Can’t complain too much: if there was ever a vocal hook worth resting one’s laurels on… |
| 36 | | Blonde Redhead
Sit Down for Dinner
Sit Down for Dinner (Parts 1 & 2)
No way am I ranking these separately — I don’t believe that anyone is listening to them that way, and the transition between the two is probably the best part of either (each would have been at least 10 places lower individually). Kazu kills it here: it’s an achingly fragile album centrepiece that puts the spotlight on each and every one of her inflections (as it should be) and brings a faltering, hesitant, anxious sense of warmth to a frigid soundscape in a way that feels quintessentially Blonde Redhead. This is one of those songs that you need to thoroughly ‘get’ this band to get, but for those on board, it’s a delicate home run. |
| 35 | | Blonde Redhead
Blonde Redhead
Astro Boy
“astro boi”
This song is a fucking mess and I’m not even going to try to document its structure coherently.
Why does it start with a chorus? What does the chorus do?
What brought those fucking screams out of Kazu Makino’s throat where any other band would put a normal verse?
What fucking level were the band on as a collective at around the 1:00 mark? That shit is some absolutely prime EVOL-era Sonic Youth smoke and haze and hand-in-glove Kim Gordon magick?
Why does it stop halfway and kinda restart but not really?
Does it tail off or is it just absorbed by the murk?
It’s a weird song by anyone’s standards, but feels green and earnest and unpolished in a way that the later ‘weird’ tracks on In an Expression… very much lack — this is the kind of track you will only ever hear from a fresh band, and if that makes it Blonde Redhead’s ultimate no-filter moment, then shit boi do they whip up some sorcery with it. Absolutely nightmare of a track to rank. |
| 34 | | Blonde Redhead
23
Dr Strangeluv
I thought of using this line for “Kiss Her Kiss Her”, but if I had to simultaneously sum up as a whole and sell Blonde Redhead to someone who had never heard them before with one song, it would have to be this one — it packs a classic Kazu vocal, 23’s trademark gauzy tones, a melancholy chord progression that would be a shoe-in for either Melody or Misery, and just enough hint of grit in that guitar tone to peek back at their earlier material, and all of it hits home. The band chemistry and momentum are what tie it together for me: it’s good by the sum of its parts, but every verse/chorus sounds better than the one before (other than that cool-as-a-morning-breeze opening couplet, which is plain peak), and *that’s* the mark of a good piece of songwriting to me for this kinda thing (also what gives it the edge on “Kiss Her Kiss Her” and much of the newer stuff — with a few exceptions, Blonde Redhead don’t have nearly as much time for song-length builds post-23/Penny Sparkle). Also, the percussion here midkey fucks — so many subtle accentuations to that core beat. An understandable fan favourite. |
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