STYROFOAM BOOTS: My Top Ten

Styrofoam Boots has kindly responded to my request and submitted her all-time top ten tunes. There's more than a few surprises here. In no particular order:

1) Come on! Feel the Illinoise! Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition. Part II: Carl Sandburg visits me in a dream - Sufjan Stevens

Anyone who knows me well enough will know that I adore Sufjan Stevens and the whole Illinois album is marvellous but I think this song encapsulates everything I love about Soof best. Complex, catchy and creative, Come On! Feel the Illinoise! manages to sound intimate and epic all at the same time. What a dreamboat.

2) Frontier Psychiatrist - The Avalanches

“You’re a nut! You’re crazy in the coconut!”

3) The Young Crazed Peeling - The Distillers

I remember first seeing the video for The Young Crazed Peeling on (now defunct, RIP) P-Rock when I was probably 14 years old and my mind was blown. Brody Dalle instantly became my idol and changed my little life.

4) Willy Mason - Save Myself

“My love and my hammer’s all I really need.” Willy Mason makes me want to give up my degree and travel across America in a wagon. He’s also an absolute babe.

5) Joni Mitchell - Blue

A song about a song about heartbreak, Blue seems to have so much emotional weight behind it, and moves me every single time I hear it. My favourite sad song.

6) Old Friends/Bookends Theme - Simon & Garfunkel

Technically two songs, although they work well apart, once you've heard them together one doesn't quite seem the same without the other. "How terribly strange to be seventy..."

7) Head Over Heels - Tear For Fears

I first heard Head Over Heels on Donnie Darko and I’ve been obsessed with it ever since. Sam Amidon covers it beautifully, by the way.

8) The Chain - Fleetwood Mac

Oh, as if this needs an explanation. It's The fucking Chain!

9) Dashboard - Modest Mouse

Dashboard introduced me to Modest Mouse and consequently a whole heap of other bands that have been significant to me since.

10) There Is A Light That Never Goes Out - The Smiths

Choosing between all the Smiths songs I love was no mean feat but it could only really have been There Is A Light That Never Goes Out that took the top spot.

I know 500 Days of Summer made it super cool to love this song (as if proving my worth to the hardcore wasn't already hard enough now I have another layer of shit to contend with "I've loved them for ages, promise! I don't even know what a Gordon Levitt is!") so I'm not going to go on and on about it but basically this song means a lot to me and could potentially be my favourite ever.

Thanks xxx


If you have Spotify you can listen to the list here.

Here are a few highlights from youtube:







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