No Tomorrow - Loudon Wainwright III

No Tomorrow - Loudon Wainwright III 
3:01
Older Than My Old Man Now, 2012

Written by Loudon Wainwright

The ultimate carpe diem, live for today song.  It's pretty explicit about the message; no subtext here.  After LW3 imagines a drunkard, a spendthrift, and a man wondering where the time went, he just comes out and says it.  "Tomorrow might get it but there's no way to know / So live for today, there's no tomorrow."  Loud-O has always written about mortality, but at the time of this album he was 65 and living in the moment (like his dog!) probably seemed like a great idea.  It's clear he had a lot of life left from this song, however; his vocal is as spry, playful and strong as ever as he sings, bellows, tosses out asides, and holds the notes with youthful energy.

No Children - The Mountain Goats

No Children - The Mountain Goats

2:48

Tallahassee, 2002

Written by John Darnielle

One of the most blackly funny breakup songs ever recorded ("I hope that our few remaining friends / Give up on trying to save us / I hope we come up with a failsafe plot / To piss off the dumb few that forgave us.")  This song feels like it was written by someone drowning in poison and laughing about it. Over a bright, perky piano and upbeat strumming, Darnielle spits apocalyptic nihilism with a grin: "I hope you die / I hope we both die." It's a song about mutual destruction, sung as if it's a jaunty campfire tune. That contrast — the bouncy melody versus the scorched-earth lyrics — is exactly the Mountain Goats' magic trick.  The narrator and his partner are long past reconciliation, reveling in their shared misery like doomed lovers in a cheap motel. "I am drowning / There is no sign of land," he declares, sounding more defiant than defeated. Darnielle's voice strains and cracks, but the delivery is gleeful, an exorcism by singalong.  It's a portrait of broken love at its ugliest and most honest.

No Weather - Brian Fallon

No Weather - Brian Fallon

2:39

The Revival Tour 2011 Collections, 2011

Written by Brian Fallon

Fallon, the vocalist for the excellent band Gaslight Anthem, turns in gritty acoustic here, his gravelly, aching voice never before sounding so much like Bruce Springsteen.  The song is addressed to an unknown adversary, someone who has thrown stones in the narrator's path.  In the chorus, Fallon rewrites the old blues trope "I asked for water, she brought me gasoline" into something wider and more elemental.  "And all I wanted from you was no weather / And no dark clouds since I was young / All I needed was slow peaceful rivers / All I felt was poison on my tongue." There's venom in the verses ("Did your mother raise you with Judas or Jesus?") but also a weary dignity. When he multiplies his own voice for backing vocals at the end, it's not for polish, but to suggest solidarity, a lone man harmonizing with his own ghosts.

No More - The McGuire Sisters

No More - The McGuire Sisters

2:15

By Request, 1955

Written by Julie De John, Dux De John, and Leo J. De John

He's not around.  He's long gone.  He doesn't write, he doesn't phone.  "My baby don't buy me pearls / He's busy with other girls."  A sad lament, you might think.  But backed by buoyant, screeching horns and a jovial male backing vocal, the McGuire Sisters sing it as a swinging romp and sound positively radiant.  It's not entirely anomalous: you can almost hear the flirty smile in their voices when they proclaim in a coy harmony, "But somehow / I'll find me a baby new / And maybe I'll pick on you."  Maybe they'll come knocking at your door!  In the heady days of American post-war optimism, the prospect must have been delightfully enticing.

No One - Ray Charles

No One - Ray Charles

3:10

single, 1963

Written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, 1960

Originally recorded by Connie Francis, this song finds a compelling voice in Ray Charles.  It's a ballad of steadfast love for the one who broke the narrator's heart clean in two. "So I'll keep on caring / My whole life through," Charles sings, turning hurt into devotion. Backed by the Raelettes' smoky harmonies and a punchy horn section, Charles' phrasing is masterful, every syllable radiating warmth and ache. It's a tribute to the songwriting skills of Shuman and Pomus that this song could easily fit into pop and western sensibilities as written, but Charles delivers it as a perfect soul gem.

Rattle Them Bones - The Pine Hill Haints

Rattle Them Bones - The Pine Hill Haints

2:37

The Magik Sounds Of the Pine Hill Haints, 2014

Written by the Pine Hill Saints

Evoking the Squirrel Nut Zippers, Devil Makes Three, and C.W. Stoneking, the Alabama-based Haints play the old weird folk traditions, everything from rockabilly to folk-punk to Celtic folk.  This song is a shuffling Gothic folk-blues on a Caribbean beat with echoed vocals and a shambling percussion that sounds like chains clattering rhythmically on a bucket.  It's a contained chaos, a crazy Gothic jazz, like if the Ramones started in the 1920s.  It takes skill to craft such a joyful noise.

Randy Scouse Git - The Monkees

Randy Scouse Git - The Monkees

2:33

Headquarters, 1967

Written by Micky Dolenz

This song has the distinction of being banned by the BBC under its title, released instead as "Alternate Title," due to Dolenz not realizing that "randy" and "git" were Britishisms not quite ready for prime time.  The song was inspired by Dolenz hanging out with the Beatles ("the four kings of EMI. are sitting stately on the floor") and Cass Elliott, as well as his own future wife ("She's a wonderful lady / And she's mine all mine").  What's fascinating is how this song is split in two: the verses and chorus are counterpoints to one another.  The verses are whimsical party reportage, while the chorus is a series of condescending lines typically aimed at the younger generation of the time ("why don't you cut your hair?" and "why don't you be like me?").  Musically, it's all manic drumming, booming timpani, and melodic chaos.  It's one of the Monkees' best moments, brimming with intelligence and frustration under the pop gloss.

Running - Pearl Jam

Running - Pearl Jam

2:19

Dark Matter, 2024

Written by Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, Eddie Vedder, and Andrew Watt

I like Pearl Jam when they're slow and introspective, but I like it even better when they take the wheels off and embrace their punk sides.  Sounding like a meaner, leaner Bad Religion fed through a Seattle amp stack, they tear through the song, which features some of Vedder's most rapid-fire vocals and intense, machine gun drumming.  The lyrics are similarly thrashing and urgent, the pleas of a drowning man.  "Got me diving, got me diving / Got me deep, I get the bends / When I'm summoned, or too late coming."  Vedder is intense even in a low growl, but here he and the band are playing like their lives depend on it.  It's desperate, it's alive, it's immediate.

Railroad Man - Anna Lynch

Railroad Man - Anna Lynch

3:39

Anna Lynch, 2013

Written by Anna Lynch?

This is a stately country-folk song narrated by a young man who feels the pull of the railroad, tiring of the coal mines and farmland.  While just a teen, he jumps a car, but runs into a man who's been defeated by the rail life.  "There's more than broken bodies on this side of the tracks / Dreams come here and they never come back."  Lynch, who has lived in California, Alaska, and North Carolina, channels the wide geography of Americana into her writing. The arrangement is spare but confident: brushed percussion, bluegrass-style picking, and a steady vocal that feels both tender and resigned as it carries the emotional heft of folk tradition.

Rainin' In My Heart - Slim Harpo

Rainin' In My Heart - Slim Harpo

2:32

Slim Harpo Sings "Raining In My Heart...", 1961

Written by Slim Harpo

As the Wikipedia article admonishes, this song is not to be confused with the Buddy Holly song of the same name.  It's been covered by Tom Jones, Neil Young, and the Fabulous Thunderbirds, among others, but I haven't heart any of those versions.  It's a slow New Orleans blues, a plea to an absent lover, sung in a gentle, high croon, accompanied by simple guitar lines.  It's punctuated by a couple of warbling harmonica solos and an Ink Spots-style spoken invocation in the middle, the voice pitched a shade deeper so you know he's serious: "Honey, I need your love / Darlin', you know why."