A retrospective look at a retrospective look: Chart Chat's 2023 MRT rankings in review

On the one-year anniversary of Chart Chat, I took a look back at the 44 songs reviewed as part of my Modern Rock Tracks No. 1s column

It all began as a New Year’s resolution: Taking the little musical trivia posts and insights I started on my personal social media pages and turning them into a Substack newsletter. Then, as now, it wasn’t as much about posting massive subscriber numbers as it was taking my interest in music history to the next level. I wanted to explore songs that shaped my future interest in music, and learn about bands who were successful in ways I couldn’t have known about in my youth.

On January 6, 2023, I wrote about Trik Turner and about where I wanted to take this column, and I’m happy to say that I’ve succeeded in my goal thus far. I’m learning about new music, I’m discovering fun tracks from the late ‘80s and early ‘90s that I wouldn’t have found otherwise, and I get to write about music and my experience with it.

What I did not expect was the following I’ve gathered along the way. I’m hardly making waves in terms of subscriber numbers (when and if I hit triple digits, I may mention it here), but if there’s ever an argument for quality over quantity, it’s with my followers. I’m lucky to be in the news feeds of some amazingly talented writers, and through our cross interactions I’ve found a great many interesting and thought-provoking newsletters on this platform. I’m in awe of the depth of talent on here, and profoundly lucky to be learning from and interacting with all of you. Thank you for your continued support!

With all that said, I thought it’d be worthwhile to start a tradition and revisit the previous year’s rankings of the 44 songs I reviewed in the “Modern Rock Tracks No. 1s” series. I decided to post them in reverse rank order, and see if my reviews hold up upon retrospective review. (On average, my ranking for these tracks is a 6.7, which tells me I may have been too nice to a few of these.)

Songs that ranked 0/10

• I’m not a huge fan of some of these songs, but if you make it to #1 on the MRT chart, you deserve at least a 1 out of 10, so none of my reviews have bottomed out completely. Yet. As for the Hot 100, well, I’d absolutely consider a zero for some of them…

Songs that ranked 1/10

• The Railway Children and "Every Beat Of The Heart": Objectively terrible. I couldn’t even go through the trouble of listening to it again, because it’s just not my cup of tea.

Songs that ranked 2/10

• Midnight Oil and "Blue Sky Mine": Those harmonicas. Seriously.

• Gene Loves Jezebel and "Jealous": The story of the band is far more entertaining than this song will ever be.

Songs that ranked 3/10

• Big Audio Dynamite and "Just Play Music": One of the first tracks to top the MRT chart, it’s also arguably one of BAD’s weakest. They’ve got a good one coming up soon, though.

• Ian McCulloch and "Proud to Fall": Echo without the Bunnymen. Probably got extra points for his band being linked to “Donnie Darko.”

• The Cure and "Never Enough": I wish I liked The Cure as much as everyone on the planet does. They’ve got some great tracks, but some of these MRT chart toppers are meh at best.

Songs that ranked 4/10

• Tears For Fears and "Sowing The Seeds Of Love”: I wanted to love this one, but it’s almost like they’re trying too hard. When the band re-emerges atop the MRT charts, I’ll have much nicer things to say.

• World Party and "Way Down Now": I know some of my followers disagreed with the ranking, but the track just didn’t grab me.

• The Sisters of Mercy and "More": It’s fine. Just not “I want to listen to this more than a couple of times in my life” fine.

Songs that ranked 5/10

• The Replacements and "I'll Be You": The ‘Mats became one of my favorite bands to dig into this year, and “Alex Chilton” actually made my Spotify Wrapped top 10 for 2023. This one was fine, and I hear the influence on future generations of rockers, but I think it’s less exceptional than a lot of their earlier music.

• Hoodoo Gurus and "Come Anytime”: I didn’t hate this song, and I really enjoyed the harmonies in the refrain and acoustic sound, but it doesn’t stand out for me. More or less a good, but forgettable, track.

• The Psychedelic Furs and "House": This is one I should have ranked lower. Not sure where I found the compassion to put this higher than, say, 3/10.

• David J and "I'll Be Your Chauffeur": Another relatively forgettable track, but it got bonus points for its touching lyrical journey. Maybe a half point because it’s Bauhaus-adjacent.

Songs that ranked 6/10

• Julian Cope and "Charlotte Anne": Another one I think I rated too generously. Still, a nice song if you like nice songs.

• Public Image Ltd. and "Disappointed": This one surprised me, as it was completely different than what I would have expected from Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols, but I think I like his PIL stuff just as much.

• Kate Bush and "Love And Anger": It’s definitely not “that song,” but it’s still a good opportunity to remember that Kate Bush is pretty talented.

• INXS and "Suicide Blonde": I’m always going to be partial to their “Kick” album, but the stuff on INXS’s follow-up keeps that momentum going in ways that other bands can’t match. A nice tribute to Kylie Minogue, apparently.

Songs that ranked 7/10

• Psychedelic Furs and "All That Money Wants": Unlike their not-great single “House,” this one from the early days of the MRT charts is solid.

• The Cure and "Fascination Street": Might have stretched to get this to a 7. It’s fine, and I know they’re so beloved, but I think I still prefer “pop-crossover The Cure” to “alt-radio-deep-cut The Cure.”

• Camper van Beethoven and "Pictures Of Matchstick Men”: A good example of a song I would have judged poorly on name alone, but ended up being both a decent song AND had a decent story behind it.

• The Jesus and Mary Chain and "Blues from a Gun": This felt like a good track to kick off the 1990s. JAMC gave radio listeners at the time a taste of where alternative rock was headed in the coming years.

• Sinéad O'Connor and "The Emperor's New Clothes": I think I might have given a point or two to this track given I wrote it not long after her passing. It’s a fine track but nowhere near the perfection she attained with the first single off this track’s album.

• Midnight Oil and "Forgotten Years": When you dump the harmonicas, good things happen. Midnight Oil is pretty talented and I think it shows in this track.

Songs that ranked 8/10 - 25% of my songs are here!

• Siouxsie and the Banshees and "Peek-a-Boo": The band that kicked this whole crazy experiment off, props to Siouxsie Sue and her Banshees for representing the future of alternative rock so wonderfully with this eclectic, fun track.

• R.E.M. and "Orange Crush": R.E.M.’s catalog is so deep, I consider this one of my favorite tracks from the band, but I wouldn’t call it a “top 10” personal favorite of mine. Still, this one was the longest-running #1 on the MRT chart in the ‘80s, and for good reason.

• Lou Reed and "Dirty Blvd.": Lou Reed is a legend, and while I didn’t initially like this track, it grew on me on repeat listens. I appreciate the lyrical poetry Reed applies here, and ultimately I think the ranking fits.

• Elvis Costello and "Veronica": Another track that I didn’t expect I’d like but ended up really enjoying on repeat listens. Costello has a deep catalog and wraps around a variety of genres, but this track’s straight-up rock presentation and background really spoke to me.

• The B-52's and "Channel Z": I can listen to certain B-52’s tracks anytime, but this one I need to be in the right mood. Same with “Rock Lobster.” But if I’m in a goofy mood and need this band in its purest form, this track fits the bill.

• The Church and "Metropolis": I really like this track a lot. I hear The National and The War On Drugs in this song, and it’s that association that boosts this song up a little higher for me.

• Depeche Mode and "Policy Of Truth": The “Violator” album is a gift that keeps on giving, even to the present day. And while there are definitely tracks I like more than this one, I feel pretty good about the high ranking of this one. I enjoyed the juxtaposition of enjoying silence with their first single, and then advocating for no silence in the next single.

• Jane's Addiction and "Stop!": One of the biggest surprises so far was discovering this track, which gets no play on alternative radio but is a stone-cold adrenalin rush. I love lots of Jane’s Addiction, but this one is just terrific from start to finish, and makes me wish I’d seen it live.

• Jane's Addiction and "Been Caught Stealing": Did I mention Jane’s Addiction? This is probably still my favorite JA song of all time, though “Stop!” may overtake it at some point. In the meantime, just remember that, if you want some “Thin Man,” you should probably pay for it.

• The Replacements and "Merry Go Round": As I continue to learn more about The Replacements, I am just stunned by how much of their sound would have fit in perfectly just a few years after their musical “prime,” and this track is another example. I have to think they would have gotten so much alternative AND mainstream airplay with tracks like this in the post-grunge alt-rock wave of the mid ‘90s.

• Happy Mondays and "Kinky Afro": The most recent addition to the Chart Chat newsletter, Happy Mondays channel that “Madchester” vibe into a song that’s really pretty groovy, if I’m being honest.

Songs that ranked 9/10

• U2 and "Desire": Like many critics and music lovers, I wasn’t crazy about “Rattle And Hum” as a project, especially following the singular greatness of “Joshua Tree.” That said, I love “Desire.” It’s one of the first U2 songs I really fell in love with growing up, and still holds up well today.

• R.E.M. and "Stand": While I don’t consider “Orange Crush” a top-10 favorite R.E.M. song for me, I’d be hard pressed to eliminate its album-mate, “Stand,” from that hallowed ranking. This song was the transition piece from R.E.M.’s earlier musical sound into something completely new, and as I move forward with Chart Chat this year, I’m looking forward to diving into the band’s explosion into one of the premiere bands of the ‘90s.

• Love and Rockets and "So Alive": Easily one of my favorite “re-discoveries” of this project, as I vividly recall the refrain from listening to the radio in my youth but had forgotten about the track in the intervening 30+ years. Probably one of the best musical encapsulations of immediate, lightning-striking infatuation with someone you see for the first time across a crowded room.

• Peter Murphy and "Cuts You Up": A somewhat surprising top-10 entry in Billboard’s Greatest of All Time Alternative Songs chart in 2018, “Cuts You Up” is pretty solid, actually. Everything about the song hooks me, but that refrain is especially terrific.

• Concrete Blonde and "Joey”: Just as “So Alive” is an amazing sonic review of infatuation, Concrete Blonde really cuts deep into the depth of emotion caused by the intersection of love and alcohol abuse. Johnette Napolitano sings with both beauty and urgency, and the song is an all-time solid track.

Songs that ranked 10/10

• The Sundays and "Here’s Where the Story Ends": Hat tip to

  Mark Blankenship
  for bringing this track into the “perfect 10” club. He’s not wrong, though: The Sundays are terrific anyway, but they take their talents to a whole different level with this song.

• Depeche Mode and "Enjoy The Silence": This song is the best ‘80s song to be released in the ‘90s, and will always and forever be my favorite Depeche Mode track. As I wrote: “The song is a killer right from the start, hitting you sonically left and right with that synthetic drum beat behind one-note flourishes of keyboard riffs and a guitar line that drives right into David Gahan’s low-key lyrics lamenting loudness.” For a song about silence, the power of this song’s acoustics puts it among the finest to be released.

• The B-52’s and "Love Shack”: This is a no-brainer perfect 10. I’d argue that “Roam” is also in that rarefied air, but that track stalled out far too low to be a part of this review. Nevertheless, “Love Shack” is the perfect “nerd party” song, and is still one of the most fun tracks I’ve ever heard.

• Sinéad O'Connor and "Nothing Compares 2 U": This came up in my rotation to review right at the time she passed away, but even without that sad backdrop, this song was an automatic perfect 10. What can I possibly say about this track that you don’t already know? It’s perfect, and will likely define her legacy for all time.

• XTC and "The Mayor of Simpleton": My first perfect 10 doing this project, and easily the best discovery I’ve made throughout my time writing Chart Chat. It’s a simple premise: A guy who loves a girl, but all her friends think he’s an idiot. And the best part is that he KNOWS he’s not smart, but argues that you don’t need to be smart to be good at love. Coupled with a catchy bass line and amazing harmonics between the bandmates, and it was love at first listen for me. It ranked #5 on my Spotify Unwrapped for 2023, and I would be shocked if it wasn’t in the top 5 in 2024. Love, love, love this song.

There’s a lot more where this came from! Stayed tuned for more #1 MRT hits in 2024, and thanks as always for joining me on this interesting and fun musical history trip. I appreciate you all!

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