My Top 1000 Songs #973: Build A Bigger Iceberg

[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.]

Between Guided By Voices and frontman Robert Pollard's myriad solo/side projects, there are literally hundreds (ok, thousands) of songs to choose from, yet for what I think is my 10th GbV-related selection on the list--pretty sure that's the most of any act, including the Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Clash, etc.--I find myself latching on to a particularly obscure track. "Build A Bigger Iceberg" feels pretty far from canon GbV--it's from their less-revered latter-day post-sabbatical period; it's a b-side (and, to boot, a b-side to the third single from their fourth album in two years, 2013's English Little League); and, rather than a Pollard number, it's another pick from sometime-band-member Tobin Sprout.

And on top of all that, the title isn't even correct. (According to Sprout, it was called "Build A Better Iceberg" and was mistitled on the single.)

But there's something special about Sprout's twee little songs: they've always had outsized emotional tug for me. Like much of his work, it's barely a song at all--he's got just enough lyrics for a single verse, followed by a one-line chorus that just gets repeated until he's managed to hit the 2-minute mark--yet it's a chorus that's been rotating in my head for over a decade nearly nonstop. "Son, I believe the world keeps turning round." Honestly, I don't ask for much in my music beyond that. Absolutely striking.