By Uncleben
From 369 nominations last week, 58 of which featured the best, 28 the greatest, 20 the worst, 19 the sweetest and 9 the biggest, I've eventually whittled it down to this selection. Hope you enjoy. Warning: some rules of English grammar may have been broken in the making of the write-up, but the music went unharmed.
George Olsen & His Music - The Best Things in Life Are Free. The smoochiest, foxtrottiest, divinest showtune on show this week. The earliest recorded version of a song covered many times since, perhaps most memorably by the Prairie Dogs, a group of compulsive thieves who spend an episode of The Muppet Show stealing everything they can find on set.
Dilated Peoples - Worst Comes to Worst. The dopest, scratchiest, illest beats on the block. The punniest band name of the week. And the choicest sample of a Stax Records classic, William Bell's 'I Forgot to Be Your Lover'.
The House of Love - The Girl with the Loneliest Eyes. The dreamiest, wooziest, marshmallowiest neo-psychedelia from one of the most criminally underrated albums of the 1990s.
Nickel Creek - Thinnest Wall. The edgiest, playfullest, sprightliest bluegrass band in the Song Bar this week. And their least favourite place to argue is "your childhood bedroom, your parents on the other side of the thinnest wall".
The Jesus and Mary Chain - The Hardest Walk. The snottiest, quiffiest, white-noisiest boys in all of East Kilbride, stuffing the Ronettes, the Velvet Underground, a swarm of bees and a microphone into a trash can and somehow concocting the sweetest musical honey.
David Childers & the Modern Don Juans - The Prettiest Thing. The rootsiest, earthiest, wistfullest sounds of North Carolina - and (fun fact) the cover most often performed by Childers's good friends, the Avett Brothers.
Utah Phillips & Ani DiFranco - The Most Dangerous Woman. Mary Harris Jones, aka Mother Jones, dubbed the most dangerous woman in America, at the age of 83, for organising protests to enforce the eight-hour working day in Colorado's coal mines. That's some kind of dangerous.
Garbage - Queer. A paean to the queerest of the queer, the strangest of the strange, the coldest of the cold, the lamest of the lame, and the numbest of the dumb. And a video featuring the finest example this week of Bobby Gillespie's drumming technique outside of an early Jesus and Mary Chain song - though yer actual stickwork was by the world's funkiest drummer, Clyde Stubblesfield.
Christophe Maé - La plus jolie des fées. The airiest, floatiest, delightfullest pick of the pack. A tribute to Maé's mother, the 'prettiest of the fairies', performed with Cameroonian musician, Richard Bona, and a charming children's chorus.
R.E.M. - Finest Worksong. The American work ethic can be the ugliest thing, to paraphrase Michael Stipe. The tautest of early R.E.M. And this week's mightiest one-note guitar riff.
Charlie Rich - The Most Beautiful Girl. Up against the stiffest of competition, the most beautiful song nominated this week about the most beautiful girl, boy or other animate being in the world. The twangiest pedal steel, the lushest strings, and the Silver Fox's baritone at its richest and most vulnerable.
Lana Del Rey - The Greatest. The most plaintive, elegiac, spine-tingling nomination this week - from an artist described by one music magazine as the greatest American songwriter of the 21st century. And the most effortlessly cool of lyrics: "I miss New York and I miss the music. Me and my friends, we miss rock 'n' roll. I want shit to feel just like it used to. And baby, I was doing nothing the most of all." Exceptional.
The Apogee A-list Playlist:
George Olsen & His Music - The Best Things in Life Are Free
Dilated Peoples - Worst Comes to Worst
The House of Love - The Girl with the Loneliest Eyes
Nickel Creek - Thinnest Wall
The Jesus & Mary Chain - The Hardest Walk
David Childers & The Modern Don Juans - The Prettiest Thing
Utah Phillips & Ani DiFranco - The Most Dangerous Woman
Garbage - Queer
Christophe Maé - La plus jolie des fées
R.E.M. - Finest Worksong
Charlie Rich - The Most Beautiful Girl
Lana Del Rey - The Greatest
The Best B-list Playlist:
Sarah Vaughan - The Sweetest Sounds
Aswad - Tuffist
The Wild Swans - The Worst Year of My Life
David Bowie - The Prettiest Star
Clifford Jordan - The Highest Mountain
No-No Boy - The Best God Damn Band in Wyoming
Rare Bird - Her Darkest Hour
Barry Brown - Fittest of the Fittest
McCarthy - Take the Shortest Way with the Men of Violence
Gene Clark - Life's Greatest Fool
The Kane Gang - Closest Thing to Heaven
Weyes Blood - The Worst Is Done
Guru's Wildcard Pick:
Jockstrap - Greatest Hits
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations in response to last week's topic: Record makers or breakers? Songs about superlatives. The next topic will launch on Thursday after 1pm UK time.
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