My Top 2000 Songs #1140: Fire Eyed Boy

"Fire Eyed Boy," from Broken Social Scene's 2005 eponymous LP, is so definitive sounding a mid-2000s indie rock song that it almost feels like someone programmed AI to update Pavement and Built to Spill and filter it through Death Cab For Cutie and this is what got spit out. Which is definitely not intended as a criticism; the end product doesn't end up feeling derivative or artificial, just ideally designed for my 90s-shaped inclinations. It's a rousing guitar rock song, organically frenetic, the wail of skewed guitars just barely concealing a killer chorus hook. But it's so well-constructed you can almost take it for granted--and, incredibly, just one of several equally wonderful songs on the album.

The official video, with dialogue:

Live on Letterman with a few dozen guitars:

...and in 2023: