1996 was the year I graduated high school and started college, so this should be a nostalgia-heavy list. And yet it isn’t. I was listening to a lot of 70’s rock then and did not have yet have any interest in (or much access to) the indie music scene. Of the list below, only a handful of songs (2Pac, Sublime, Tom Petty, Optiganally Yours) were songs I listened to extensively at the time. The rest are tracks I have learned of or learned to appreciate since.
Top 10 Songs of 1996
- “Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying” / Belle & Sebastian / If You’re Feeling Sinister
"At the final moment I cried / I always cry at endings" - "Lord Only Knows” / Beck / Odelay
"There’s nothing dead left to kill" - "California Love” / 2Pac (ft. Dr. Dre) / All Eyez on Me
"The track hits your eardrum like a slug to the chest" - "Santeria” / Sublime / Sublime
"Tell Sanchito that if he knows what is good for him he best go run and hide" - "California” / Tom Petty / She’s the One
"It ain’t like anywhere else" - "One Day” / UGK / Ridin’ Dirty
"The only thing that’s promised to a player in the penitentiary" - "Upfield” / Billy Bragg / William Bloke
"That’s where you’ll find me / over the blue horizon" - "Midnight in a Perfect World” / DJ Shadow / Entroducing…
<instrumental> - "Waving at You” / The Mountain Goats / Nothing for Juice
"Die hard / die kicking / old habit of mine" - "Wichita Lineman” / Optiganally Yours / Spotlight On…
<Glen Campbell cover>
