25. No Me No You, by Frost*
(Milliontown, 2006)
Last time, Frost* took a short break from appearing on the list but here they are once again. No Me No You is perhaps the hardest rocking track on their debut album Milliontown (2006). Coming right after the instrumental opening track Hyperventilate, it is the first real song on the album and might give the casual listener a misleading impression of what kind of music the band makes (as might the opening track as well, but for different reasons). No Me No You is definitely progressive rock, but the guitar riffs would be right at home on a heavy metal / hard rock album. Please do check it out by playing back the video embedded below.
Another thing that you immediately notice about No Me No You is its immensely big sounds. This is where Jem Godfrey's background as producer truly becomes obvious. The man has always been fond of sounds a mile both high and wide, and this is one of the best examples of that liking. Perhaps this might also be a good moment to point out that other members of the group are also exceptional musicians. Just listen to the masterful John Mitchell to get an idea of how great progressive rock guitarists can be.
24. Where Is My Love? by Blackfield
(Blackfield, 2004)
We will write this song down as a 2004 release appearing on repeat offender Blackfield's debut album, although the finalized version of it actually appeared on Blackfield II (2007). It is true that the track list of the debut in its original form doesn't include this song, but it appears on its bonus disc along a couple of other tracks. That version has been called a demo version but it sounds perfectly ready to us and in fact it is the version that we have in our iTunes collection instead of the slightly different Blackfield II version.
Once again, an immensely beautiful Blackfield song has been written solely by Aviv Geffen who seems to be the much more melancholic party in that group. The track is dominated by truly outstanding guitar work. Their goosebump inducing sounds make this sound like a better composed version of a rock song made famous by one of the British guitar rock groups of the nineties like, say, Oasis. Even though the song tells about a search for a lost loved one, it is actually one of the happiest sounding songs composed by Geffen. Remember, this is the same man who wrote the excruciatingly downbeat Dissolving With the Night (#29).
23. Saline, by Frost*
(Experiments in Mass Appeal, 2008)
Wait a minute, didn't we discuss Frost* only moments ago? Well, here they are again, with a much more mellow and beautiful song than No Me No You, picked from their second album for a change. It looks like we did a lot of listening to both of the group's first two albums back in 2008 and 2009 at which time they were both very close to the top. Now that we no longer listen to them quite as regularly as we used to back then, their best songs have slowly started descending on the list and three of them have fallen out of the Top 20. Yes, there will be a third Frost* song in this same blog entry, fear not!
Together with Dear Dead Days (#54), Saline forms the centerpiece of the Experiments on Mass Appeal album. But unlike that hard rocking song with its desperation filled lyrics, it is a much more delicate work of art. The group's brilliant drummer Andy Edwards has nothing to do, and even guitarist John Mitchell has had to leave his electric guitar be and perform with an acoustic one. Saline is one of the songs on the second Frost* album that would have been right at home even on their brilliant debut. A true masterwork - but then, aren't these all?
22. Blackest Eyes, by Porcupine Tree
(In Absentia, 2002)
Porcupine Tree is yet another repeat offender on the list, having already appeared on it an incredible 13 times before this. Will this fourteenth appearance finally be the last one? Certainly the majority of their best songs have already been mentioned, so there can't be very many left, if any at all. Blackest Eyes is of course the energizing opening track of our number one favorite album in their output, 2002's In Absentia. It alternates brief heavy metal sequences with more acoustic and mellow parts, thus creating a memorable contrast.
A random listener with a distaste towards metal may well get the wrong idea from the track's opening sequence. Even though Blackest Eyes does begin with some very heavy guitar riffs, it turns out to be a sweetly melodic song written at a high point of Steven Wilson's creativity as a songwriter. Also, it must have come as a small surprise to a Porcupine Tree fan considering the earlier albums that had never veered so close to heavy metal.
21. Hyperventilate, by Frost*
(Milliontown, 2006)
So it ends as it began. The track that takes the 21st place in our Top 250 is from the very same album as the 25th that opened this blog entry. The instrumental opening track of Milliontown precedes No Me No You on it and, like we already mentioned, perhaps gives a slightly misleading idea to the first time listener, being the only instrumental recorded Frost* track that we know of.
But when it comes to the music itself, there is nothing misleading about it. The quiet opening soon gives way to typical Frost* sounds: larger than life, complicated melodies played with impeccable precision. Someone once compared Hyperventilate to something from the soundtrack of a seventies Italian horror film. The soundscape feels much more accomplished than that but otherwise we can almost understand the comparison.
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