Writing a Goldfinger top ten has been a tough challenge. They are a seminal band and share a fond place in the hearts of so many. However, depending on how and when you first heard them, you may have a wildly differing opinion on the type of band they are. I also realised I have a strong bias towards one particular album and haven’t spent a lot of time with the material post 2000s. Therefore in the interest of desperately trying to please the Goldfinger fanbase and in trying to remain as impartial to all their albums as possible I’m off for a monster Goldfinger marathon. See you back in the next 20 or so hours…
10. Answers (from Goldfinger)
The first album is criminally overlooked a lot of the time which is a real shame when there are bangers like this on it. Classic GF ska and my favourite of the original bunch.
9. Say It Out Loud (from The Knife)
The Knife was an incredibly strong entry in their discography and of all the songs in there I feel like Say It Out Loud was one of the most OG Goldfinger songs in there, since you can hear so many outside influences in a lot of the other material. This one made me the most nostalgically happy when the album dropped last year.
8. Bro (from Stomping Ground)
Goldfinger are a band that were optimised by a humorous ‘don’t give a fuck’ attitude and this mock-hardcore-into-dub-back-to-mock-hardcore number never fails to elicit a smile from me.
7. Open Your Eyes (from Open Your Eyes)
Maybe a controversial entry here, this song was a marked difference to anything Goldfinger had done beforehand and I myself disliked its obvious emo serve and altogether severely serious nature. It was however a huge commercial success for them and got a hell of a lot of alternative club playtime. As the years have gone on, and I’ve grown up, I like it more and more.
6. Get Up (from Hello Destiny)
I hadn’t listened to Hello Destiny before writing this list. That’s a huge shame because it’s a gem of an album. Get Up is a skank-a-long kickass tune that, if you’ve not heard it before, I guarantee will have you dancing like nobody's watching. Honestly, if Hello Destiny passed you by like it did me I recommend it highly.
5. Pick A Fight (from Stomping Ground)
I love this song with reckless abandon. It’s one of the quintessential Goldfinger pop punk tunes and a banger in every sense. Great vocals, some of the best in its class and just a great all round tune. You’re probably going to notice from here on out that I’m incredibly Stomping Ground heavy. I apologise to no one for that. It was my first Goldfinger album and the one I draw on whenever I think of the band.
4. San Simeon (from Stomping Ground)
San Simeon is peak Goldfinger pop punk. It is great on so many levels it hurts my brain to think about how much excellent is in here. There’s so much fun and energy in this song that it brings an instant smile to my face.
3. 99 Red Balloons (from Stomping Ground)
You always remember your first time. 99 Red Balloons is the first experience I had with Goldfinger and is still to this day top three on my list of greatest punk covers ever. To be honest I didn’t know it was a cover when I first heard it. I just thought it was one of the greatest songs on the earth and wondered why they sang in German at the end. The only thing I can think of that would make me like a Goldfinger song more would be if they’d somehow written a mashup track with MxPx…
2. Put The Knife Away (from The Knife)
Put The Knife Away is basically a mashup track with MxPx. Obviously at this stage in the band's life having Mike Herrera on bass can have that effect on their songs and nowhere is this more apparent than on this track. The speed, melody, vocals… everything screams MxPx to me and that is more than enough to have this come out near the top of this list.
1. Superman (from Hang-Ups)
How could it not be? I know I like songs more than Superman, I know they have better ska tunes and I know it’s been overplayed to the point of ridiculousness but fact are facts. Superman is the biggest, greatest, most influential Goldfinger song of all time. Even amongst the rest of the THPS1 soundtrack Superman was special, sharing a popularity that outshone everything else of the classic soundtrack. It’s most of the world’s entry to Goldfinger and something that has defined generations and been an entry to all of our tastes in music for countless people. A special song indeed.
This top ten was written by Dan Peters.
No comments:
Post a Comment