2000 Great Songs #1368: Mosquitoes
This is my second pick from 2025, and it comes with the usual caveat that it feels ill-considered to select such a recent track as an all-time-great. But this remarkable ballad from The Beths seems like the perfect example of a slow-burner built for the long haul. Indeed, the first few times I spun Straight Line Was A Lie , their fourth LP (and probably my favorite album of last year), I gravitated towards the album-opening title track (which is slotted for the list soon enough), and the other immediate, upbeat rockers more consistent with the band's usual noise pop style. But over repeated spins, I started spending more and more time listening to "Mosquitoes," the quiet, thoughtful track that makes you want to sit down and cozy up with the lyrics. It's Elizabeth Stokes's most intimate track to date, a devastating flood standing in for whatever personal loss the song conjures in the listener, and a couple dozen listens in I still find myself tearing up every tim...
