Eva Walker

We're counting down the best opening tracks this morning. This is #630 on the list! From the one and only album of this Pacific Northwest supergroup consisting of guitarist Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, lead singer Layne Staley of Alice in Chains, drummer Barrett Martin of Screaming Trees, and bassist John Baker Saunders.

#629 "She Cries Your Name" was released as a third single on Beth Orton's 1996 Trailer Park album which was re-released in 1997. Pitchfork says "Even more than a decade later, 'She Cries Your Name' still sounds great, with Orbit's luxuriously gloomy string arrangement-- especially the way the cello's low-end signals the entrance of the chorus like stage curtains parting-- and the deft production hands of UK electronic scenester Andrew Weatherall and Bad Seeds' Victor Van Vugt providing the perfect context for Orton's cozy, impressionistic Americana sketches."

#628 on the countdown of best opening album tracks. In '81, Tom Tom Club made their debut, With "Wordy Rappinghood," a funky pursuit. From a Moroccan rhyme, they took a part, "A Ram Sam Sam," adding their art. Rolf Harris sang it in '71 with glee, But Tom Tom Club gave it a new decree. With rhythms catchy and lyrics light, Their infectious beat soared to great height. So, from a children's game, a hit did sprout, Tom Tom Club's groove left no doubt!

#627 Watch indie/garage rock revival icons The Strokes play baseball against a superior robot team in the video for 2020's "The Adults Are Talking": www.youtube.com And while you're watching, please support our fall fundraising drive! kexp.org/donate

#626 best opening track Read the story behind this 1976 album, the only album from Thin Lizzy to have much commercial impact.: ultimateclassicrock.com

#625 Debut studio album from Secret Machines, released in 2004. Pitchfork said, "The band sounds as though they're scoring an intergalactic space battle, or perhaps something more terrestrial, like the lurching onslaught of a thousand warbeasts." pitchfork.com

#624 Take a Bow calls on world leaders to take responsibility for their actions. Muse move through three musical stages: starting off as a classical piece before moving into a techno mid-section and a heavy "apocalyptic rock" ending. Initially described "a looping epic which morphs into a gothic fairytale" www.musewiki.org

#623 This opening track from Pixies' fourth album was a cover of The Surftones' 1989 song. The Surftones' Steve Hoffman talks about the song here: surfguitar101.com

#622 on the best opening tracks list! "This is the sound of someone losing the plot/you're gonna like it, but not a lot." So says Jarvis Cocker on "The Fear", the opening track on This Is Hardcore, the ambitious follow-up to Pulp's breakthrough Different Class, thereby providing his own review for the album. Cocker doesn't quite lose the plot on This Is Hardcore, but this ominous, claustrophobic track makes it clear that this is a different band, one that no longer has anthems like "Common People" in mind. The shift in direction shouldn't come as a surprise - Pulp were always an arty band - but even the catchiest numbers are shrouded in darkness." www.roughtrade.com

#621 “I shouldn’t say it because I was in the band, but I love this album," said Peter Hook about "Closer." "Even though much of the music is very melancholic, fragile and intense, every song is confident.”

#620 The memorable saxophone hook you hear on “Who Can It Be Now?” is performed by band member Greg Ham, who died in 2012 There's a saxophone - and some paranoia - in the video for "Who Can It Be Now?" youtu.be

#619 "Girl U Want" was the first single released off Devo's third album. In a interview with Devo, [frontman Gerald] Casale said, "Devo didn't sit around and try to write hits, but when people liked it and wanted to key on that, we thought it made sense, we thought it was an easy song to like - it's very poppy, it's got a good hook." "Girl U Want" has been covered by Soundgarden, Superchunk, Zombie Ghost Train, Doomriders, the Freelance Whales, Chancho en Piedra and I:Scintilla. Most recently, Spoon's "Do I Have to Talk You Into It" sampled Devo's poppy hit. www.clubdevo.com

#618 This song is about the first Iraq War, which took place in 1991. There was a lot of support for the war, but Americans seemed detached, willing to watch it play out on TV. In "Wargasm," L7 takes aim at the shallow displays of patriotism that don't require any real sacrifice or effort ("Tie a yellow ribbon 'round the amputee"), likening it to a sexual turn-on for those who find it titillating. www.songfacts.com

#617 Recorded on four-track cassette in his New Jersey bedroom, Nebraska has proved one of Springsteen’s most enduring works, a raw, haunted acoustic record populated by lost souls searching not for salvation through music but simply a reason to believe. brucespringsteen.net

#616 best opening track. "Digable Planets daring debut album repainted Gotham in a way that would have caused F. Scott Fitzgerald’s mind to swell." bit.ly They're sampling Marvin Gaye, Herbie Hancock's "Rain Dance," and "Samba de Orpheus" by Grant Green.

#615 This was Bauhaus' last commercially released single. Check out the video, shot in a deserted warehouse in London and filmed by Howard Guard, famous for the Maxell cassette ads! youtu.be

#614 on KEXP's best opening tracks list. This album is the first of David Bowie's collaborations with Brian Eno and Tony Visconti, the famous "Berlin Trilogy", filled with electronic and ambient explorations inspired by Berlin School musicians. "Speed of Life" opened the album, originally intended to feature lyrics but Bowie decided the piece stood better on its own as an instrumental.

#613 "Boys Don't Cry" was The Cure's second single, following "Killing An Arab." Released in June 1979, it wasn't a hit at the time, but in 1986 a new version was issued as a single in which the original track was remixed and the vocals re-recorded. This time it reached #22 in the UK charts. *** Thank you to everyone who donated to KEXP during Early...you can still give during the Morning Show with John and Morgan! kexp.org/donate