Author Archives

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Song of the Day #1,148: ‘Little Sister’ – Rufus Wainwright

Best Songwriters – #6 – Rufus Wainwright

I went back and forth several times between including Rufus Wainwright in my top five songwriters and leaving him at #6. Ultimately I went with this placement for reasons I’ll get into next week, but it was a hard decision. Part of me agrees with Elton John’s assessment of Wainwright as “the greatest songwriter on the planet.”

Hyperbole aside, it’s hard to deny the writing chops of a man whose pop music is influenced by Chopin and Puccini as well as The Beatles and his folk singing father, Loudon Wainwright III. Rufus Wainwright brings a theatrical sensibility to his music that simply isn’t approached by anybody else working today. He is a fascinating blend of classic and modern styles and attitudes.

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Song of the Day #1,147: ‘Not About Love’ – Fiona Apple

Best Songwriters – #7 – Fiona Apple

Fiona Apple is by far the least prolific songwriter on this list, having released only three albums over the past 15 years, and no one-offs, EPs, original B-sides or any of that. She has written (or at least released) a grand total of 32 songs.

Yet she finds herself at #7 on my list of favorite songwriters, a testament to the greatness of those 32 songs. If only she’d muster up the will to get back in the studio, she might climb into the top five.

Actually, it’s probably more accurate to say that Apple earned her spot on this list thanks to the 22 songs on her last two albums, When the Pawn… and Extraordinary Machine. While I am a fan of her debut, Tidal, it is a less confident and mature record than its successors — not surprising, considering she was 18 when it was released.

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Song of the Day #1,146: ‘Snow Angel’ – Ron Sexsmith

Best Songwriters – #8 – Ron Sexsmith

Ron Sexsmith’s presence here won’t come as a surprise to any of you who’ve watched me lavish praise on him over the course of ten Ron Sexsmith Weekends. In fact, the bigger surprise might be that he isn’t higher on the list.

Sexsmith is perhaps the finest melody-writer working in the business today. He doesn’t go in crazy new directions on each album; he doesn’t create cinematic landscapes through innovative production techniques; he doesn’t play fast and loose with shifting time signatures. He simply writes — with amazing consistency — some of the most sublime melodies I’ve ever heard.

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Song of the Day #1,145: ‘Ghost World’ – Aimee Mann

Best Songwriters – #9 – Aimee Mann

Aimee Mann is the artist on this list who earns the “most improved” designation. If you’d told me that the Mann of ‘Til Tuesday and her first solo album would grow into one of the most assured, mature and emotionally effective songwriters I know, I would have been highly skeptical.

But around the release of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, largely inspired by Mann’s music, her albums took a turn toward the sublime. Her Bachelor No. 2, which featured several of those Magnolia tracks, was confident, dramatic and stylistically diverse — a statement record by a woman nobody expected to make a statement.

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Song of the Day #1,144: ‘Summer, Highland Falls (Live)’ – Billy Joel

Best Songwriters – #10 – Billy Joel

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a comment saying that I don’t consider Brad Paisley or Taylor Swift among my “top tier” of songwriters. So of course the question that immediately jumped into my mind was, “Who is in my top tier of songwriters?”

The next two weeks will be dedicated to answering that question.

First, a few ground rules.

I’m restricting this list to solo artists. No Lennon/McCartney or Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe band collaborations here. No Counting Crows, Belle & Sebastian or The Smiths.

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