Top 5 Friday: My Five Favorite Songs From the 90's

Cale was very on point with his list of the 10 Most Embarrassing songs from the 1990's. Since this week was my turn to do the Top Five Friday list, I thought I'd rip a page from his book and show you the opposite side of that: My Five Favorite Songs from the 1990's.



5. "Enjoy the Silence" by The Depeche Mode: (1990) Just exactly how powerful can words be? Dave Gahan is basically telling you to enjoy the silence, because once you speak, you can't take back the things you say. Silence is a beautiful, beautiful thing and we have a tendency to ruin it with the things that should never come out of mouths. Also, the way it sounds is still sublime to me. The Horns, the synth, the chorus. "All I ever wanted, all I ever needed is here, in my arms..." It was, and still is, that album, one of my favorites to listen to in the dark.

4. "#1 Crush" by Garbage: (1996) "All real love is a form of obsession, if you love someone more than anything else, that degree of exclusivity requires an abnormal amount of passion and care. And that can be positive. It's just that keeping it short of unhealthy, short of violence, really requires a bit of moderation. You can't let something like that take over all of your thought processes." Shirley Manson on her oh-so-very-sexy song.

3. "Nothing But a G Thang" by Dr. Dre: (1992) Not only did it put West Coast rap on the map (there's a cheesy rhyme for you) it introduced us to West Coast G-Funk, Rap music flavored with the synthesised slow, heavy beat. It gave us White kids Gangster rap and thank God Dr. Dre did that, because I would have been lost without it. Dr. Dre opened my eyes to the violent, overtly sexual, mysogynist ways of the world and I am honestly all the better for it. He also, with this song, gave us Snoop Dogg. Come on, you know this song is ultra-catchy and when you hear it you turn it up, scrunching down in your seat just a little bit so you can feel the flow...

2. "Possession" by Sarah McLachlan: (1996) Another favorite from my "I like to listen to it in the dark" collection. It's all about desire, isn't it? About that dreadful yearning for someone we can't quite have. I know it's all about a stalker she had, but if you strip away that, it could really apply to base desire. Desire can be painful. It can also be pleasurable. You get the best of both worlds with this song.

1. "Lover, You Should've Come Over" by Jeff Buckley: (1995) "You go across the bridge traversing Mark Twain's muse and Jeff Buckley's funeral bed..." (from the movie Elizabethtown) Quite possibly one of the most beautiful, serene, heart breaking songs I've ever heard in my entire life.