Lists

Eurovision 2026: Grand Final winners, ranked

The songs of the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 Grand Final in Vienna, ranked by their final score. Bulgaria's DARA took the trophy with "Bangaranga" — the first entry since 2017 to win both the jury vote and the televote.

Essential Turkish rock & Anadolu psych albums

From 1970s Anadolu psych to the 2000s Turkish rock wave: 15 essential albums of Turkey's rock canon.

underground rap for people who hate the radio

No radio, no algorithm bait. DOOM, billy woods, Griselda, the whole left side of the map. Tap in and rate the bars.

The shoegaze and dream pop canonTier

Fifteen records that built shoegaze and dream pop, sorted S to D. Loveless sets the ceiling; everything else answers to it.

Essential Turkish pop albums

Twelve albums that defined Turkish pop — from Ajda Pekkan's superstar era through the golden 90s to the 2000s.

Essential shoegaze & dream pop albums

Fifteen albums of shoegaze and dream pop, from Psychocandy's feedback to the genre's 2020s revival.

Essential soul & R&B albums

Fifteen albums spanning soul and R&B from the 1960s golden age through neo-soul to the modern era.

Essential indie & alternative albums

The independent canon: 20 albums from the Velvet Underground to the streaming era that define indie and alternative rock.

Bass Before the Lecture

The point lands harder when the beat still moves (usually).

Second Verse Test

The good ones get meaner after the chorus.

Doubled, not widened

Fifteen songs I kept for one reason, the guitars are tracked twice instead of smeared out with a stereo plugin. You can hear which is which on anything with two speakers. Plays through in this order.

What's actually on the shelf, not what I tell people

Do I reach for Disintegration more than Nebraska? Yeah, and I've stopped pretending otherwise. Heartland guy, and this is what's actually sitting within arm's reach of the turntable.

Late set, no build-ups

Records where the groove is the whole argument and nobody needed a drop to sell it. Some of these are pop albums carried by one great rhythm section and I don't care. If you want a build every three minutes this isn't for you.

In defence of the corny end

Ordered from the records that never once apologise for being slow down to the crate-canon stuff most people here would have put on top. If you need grit before you'll believe a song was written, this list is going to annoy you.

Nothing here sounds like the basement

Ten records I keep going back to that have nothing to do with what I usually push on people, ordered the way I would hand them over.

The soul side of my crate, not the Memphis side

Half of this is what my uncle had on cassette in the car and half of it is stuff I went looking for chasing where those drums ended up, so it runs old to new on purpose. The WAR record is the one I would defend hardest, that conga and bass pocket is a lot of why I hear the tapes the way I do, and Cardiac Arrest is the Cameo people skip on the way to the later hits. Riff Raff at the bottom is not a joke, I just know where it goes.

Ordered by how much of it the machine made

Top of the list is where the sequencer wrote the parts and the people arrived later. Bottom is where the box is a session player and nobody would notice if it left. That is the only rule here, so it is not a genre list, and half the tags on these are wrong anyway. Left Deep Purple's Montreux set out because there is nothing programmed on it.

Bass Before the Lecture

The point lands harder when the beat still moves (usually).

the metal shelf so far

signed up this week, this is everything with a guitar in it that i've put a number on. two gwar records because picking one felt wrong. the live albums are at the bottom, which is not a knock, i just don't reach for them the same way.

Second Verse Test

The good ones get meaner after the chorus.

Rooms Built for Bad Machinery

Industrial records where the room matters as much as the riff (that is the test).

no interludes on the walk home

keep the songs touching

everything i had on this summer

no theme, just what actually got played. top half is old stuff i keep going back to, bottom half is newer things i have not made my mind up about yet. the cradle of filth is last for a reason.

guest verses in the fog

the running order wanders a bit. the voices pull it back

Track one does all the work here

Track one sets the terms and a few of these never top it, which is its own kind of interesting.

The first minute of the tape

Grew up on tapes where track one told you who was talking and what part of town he was calling from, so I still judge a record on the opener before anything else. Screw's chapter 172 is the entire idea in one go, Buckshot walks in like he owns the building, and Stevie is down at the end because he closes a list better than he opens one.

riffs i keep, orchestras i tolerate

sorted by how much of the song the guitar is actually carrying. everything with a string section or a crowd on it sank to the bottom by itself (i didn't plan that, i just listened back).

bridges i waited for

some songs still know the middle matters

the snare survives the chorus

the polish can stay if the verses still have a pulse

The producer is the lead singer

I keep these for the same reason I keep Dummy, which is that the person at the desk is doing more of the talking than anyone at the mic. I ordered it by how far that goes.

25 and not one of them is grime

beats i rate and thats it, the war and the tribe ones are carrying this whole thing

Festival Records With a Second Half

The singles get you through the gate. I kept the ones that still had something after them.

songs for bad lighting

pretty enough to hide the sharp bits

Everything here starts with the drums

Fifteen off the loop end of my library. James Brown and Marvin up top because that's where half the rest of this came from anyway, then the records built out of that, then a few new ones from this year that still bother to swing. Ends on All Day Music because nothing follows it (those congas, man).

Read the words first

Most of these I had the lyric sheet open for before the record finished, which usually means the song did not need my help. Not that it holds together as a mood, the tempos jump around and I sequenced it that way on purpose. Ends on the two quiet ones because they earn the spot.

twenty off records i keep for other reasons

front half is somebody carrying the tune with their own voice, back half stops asking nicely. closer to a sade tape at the start than anybody on it would admit, but. plays better this way than shuffled, i tried both.

Records That Survive the Vocal Stack

The doubles can make a chorus hit. If they erase the lead, I am gone. These held together.

Halftime hits and the floor gives out

The moment the drummer drops to half speed and the room goes down with him. Every one of these does it at least once. Still works.

Everything good happens after minute one

Intros do nothing for me. These earn it somewhere in the middle, usually right where the drums switch up on you. Prince takes up a lot of space here because he does it more than anybody.

Bass Weight, Not String Pads

If it would not move air from a stack, it stays off.

choruses that kept the rough draft

all gloss is forgiven if the snare still bites

riffs over reverb

old metal gets one job and these records do it

Twenty-nine for the car with one speaker

Put this together after noticing I keep reaching for records that leave a hole where a lesser producer would drop a fill. Most of it I first heard on CD, in a car, through the one door speaker that still worked, which is a terrible way to hear silence and I heard it anyway. The techno is in here for the same reason as the Neubauten. It holds up.

One real image apiece

None of this is off my usual shelf and I do not care where any of these bands are from. What they share is a line you could repeat to someone; a mood does not count. Ordered by how much of the record the writing is carrying.

What isn't in the mix

Kept these for what nobody plays on them. Royal Blood have no guitarist. Godflesh have no drummer. Once you start hearing the hole you stop hearing anything else. Order is just how they sit next to each other.

records with an actual quiet part

loud the whole way through is not heavy, it's just loud. everything here drops out somewhere and means it.

Openers That Pour the First Drink

A good first track makes the room warmer before the singer has to prove anything.

last track saves it

if the closer cannot carry the walk home the record was too long

Bass Lines That Refuse to Sit Down

The drums can race. I came for the movement underneath.

Long Intros, No Rush

Records that take their time before the song shows up. Ordered the way I actually play them, ambient end first and the pop end after 2am. Thriller is in here for the intro on the title track alone and I won't be defending that.

The running order matters more than the hooks here

Mac Miller opens because nothing else earns that spot, and the ScHoolboy Q run through the middle is really why I built this. Sorted by where a song sits best, not by which chorus is biggest.

What was in the car for four years

One car, one aux cord, mostly these. Not defending all of it.

Drums Before the Thesis

The argument can wait. I need the beat to move first (usually).

the chop did the work

weakest cut first in my head strongest one stays

Doubled, not widened

Fifteen songs I kept for one reason, the guitars are tracked twice instead of smeared out with a stereo plugin. You can hear which is which on anything with two speakers. Plays through in this order.

Side two is where these actually start

Does anybody sequence for the back half anymore? These did. Track eight onward is the reason each one is here.

Records I go to when the rap runs out

I keep these around because half the rap I like is standing on them. Not a crate-digging flex, most of this is easy to find, I just play it more than the records I would name in an argument.

What's actually on the shelf, not what I tell people

Do I reach for Disintegration more than Nebraska? Yeah, and I've stopped pretending otherwise. Heartland guy, and this is what's actually sitting within arm's reach of the turntable.

The Second-Listen Riff Shelf

The first pass lost me. The next one made the bass lines obvious. These are the records where the riff survives the homework.

where the drums came from

soul and funk i keep going back to for the drums more than the singing. the james brown one is the obvious cheat, half of everything is already in there. the roberta flack is the one nobody brings up and it's got the best low end of the lot. anyway.

Records I was wrong about the first time

Wrote every one of these off on a first pass and had to go back. Order is roughly how far off I was. Two of them I still only like one side of.

Bought For The Bass

Records where the bass is the lead and everyone else is accompaniment. Some obvious. Gallup at the top because of course. Loose order after the first three, and Clear Moon at the end because by then I have stopped wanting anything else.

Would have gone on the burned CD

Twenty-three songs and not one of them is the one that got played. Half of this I found the way I found everything back then, somebody's cousin's laptop and a spindle of blank discs, and the habit never left. The live Beyonce run at the top is deliberate, that show beats the studio takes. No skits.

hum it with nothing playing

the test is simple. no headphones, no guitars, walking to the shop, does the melody hold on its own. everything here passed. hum it.

songs that end instead of stopping

most of what i play just runs out of road and cuts off. these all land on purpose and you can hear somebody deciding. the last four are the ones i keep restarting.

The soul half of my rap collection

This started as a note to myself about where the backing vocals on the rap records were borrowed from. Top of the list is the source material, then what got built on top of it. Ordered the way I would hand it to somebody, not by year.

guitars before nostalgia

the old names still have to earn the riff

when i cant take another 40 minutes of one chord

songs. verses. a chorus, even. nick cave and madrugada are the only two that hold up next to the drone stuff, everything under them is just good. clutch is on here for the riffs and not one word of it. no real order past the top three anyway.

one britpop record in seventeen

seventeen records and one of them is britpop, and it's a comp. i went in expecting my own corner to show up. it didn't, so here's what did.

the moment it raises its voice

fifteen songs picked for one thing, the point where the band stops being polite and you hear it happen. some of them take four minutes to get there. kreator does not wait.

Soul first, then everyone who borrowed it

Starts with the records the drums came out of and follows them forward. Some of what came later is worse and I left it in, because taking it out would make the line look tidier than it was. Worth tracing.

the needle drops i'd blow the budget on

no dialogue for six minutes, just this.