My Top 1000 Songs #838: Don't Feel Bad

[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.]

I've spilled a lot of ink in these parts on my love for Rain Parade's 1983 debut, Emergency Third Rail Power Trip, one of my favorite records ever. The follow-up, and final proper studio album until a recent reunion, isn't quite as revelatory. But 1985's Crashing Dream, recording after frontman Steven Roback's brother David had departed for what would become Mazzy Star, is still pretty terrific, with a handful of great songs. Most notable is "Don't Feel Bad," very much in the vein of the debut's jangly retro-psychedelia. Wiggly guitar splashes and bouncy basslines, bathed in reverb, all joyously melodic, make it a defining moment of the Paisley Underground scene, pure 60s Byrdsy acid rock ideal for headphone-abetted chemical journeys into deep space, tethered to updated R.E.M.-era 80s college radio pop jangle.