Choice Track Saturday#1

When Dave Marsh wrote his The Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made book, originally released in 1989 and revised in 1999, he postulated that while critics tended to define music in terms of the album, the single song was the better medium to study and critique.  While there are many great albums that I enjoy listening to from the first track to the last, I believe Marsh was on to something here.  Long before playlists in iTunes made it easy, I constantly made mix tapes starting in the late-1970s.  While searching for the elusive vinyl record became my shopping obsession, I tended to gravitate around certain tracks.  Even The Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd's masterpiece, in which songs flowed from track to track and which was held together as a concept album contained "Money" which stood out as an obvious single.

In the spirit, I have decided that on Saturdays, I should highlight one track that I will always listen to and treasure.  There is no implied order in terms of quality; these are only tracks that I believe are enjoyable and significant.  Having set the ground rules the first track I will detail and promote is:

(1) "Over and Over" by Hot Chip

This track can be found, as the fourth track, on their The Warning album.  In many ways, this song should not work at all.  The beat starts out clunky and amateurish; it is the kind of beats that emerge when new users start to play with a program like Apple's Garageband.  The song structure is very repetitive, echoing the lyrics.  And yet, this song is compulsively listenable.  This tune is sealed as a great track the moment that the electric guitar solo kicks in.  Finally, there is the clever moment when words are spelled-out, and each word is one letter shorter than the previous word.  This, for the record, are those spelled-out words, repeated in the middle and end of the song:

K-I-S-S-I-N-G
 S-E-X-I-N-G
  C-A-S-I-O
   P-O-K-E
    Y-O-U
     M-E
      I

Featured in the background of the Torchwood episode "Combat" from the first season, "Over and Over" is a tune that will spice up any playlist.