My Top 1000 Songs #377: Golden Blunders

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Seattle indie pop act The Posies had some solid records over their long run, and plenty of really good tunes (to say nothing of the countless beloved side-projects to which frontmen Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow contributed, from the reformed Big Star to jangle pop acts like Orange Humble Band).

But "Golden Blunders," off 1990's sophomore LP Dear 23, was at a different level entirely. It's a wondrous epic of a pop song, sweeping in scope. Yeah, it's awfully sad and downbeat... a cynical (but so damn melodic!) look at young love, and maybe an unplanned pregnancy, leading to an unhappy marriage (a power pop alternative to Meatloaf's "Paradise By The Dashboard Light," if you will)... but all is forgiven when the chorus is this absolutely swooning.

The early 90s felt like a momentary musical lull for me, but throwing this tune onto mixtapes and cranking up this chorus was one of the bright spots, an instant assurance that, yep, it was all gonna be fine.

Live unplugged, 2000:

Live 1994: