To me, how highly i rate a song goes hand in hand with how much of an emotional reaction i have to it, and how much that stays with me over time as I relisten to the record. I am not snobby about whether it was a major production, or someone in a room with only an acoustic guitar making mistakes as they play it live or whatever, for me it is the soul of the song and the performance that gets to me first and foremost, but of course it has to have good artistic components too in order to achieve that.
It will only be after the fact of the song registering with me in this way that I might go back and analyze the components to see how it works so well.
Yeah, sometimes you will immediately go 'holy crap, that's a great melody/guitar riff etc', but I can often hear something that is a catchy melody, but it does not give off the right vibe to me somehow, it does not feel cool or special, it could give off the vibe of being manufactured for manufacturing's sake, not much soul in the song so to speak, so for me, 'catchy' does not always equate to being good, sometimes 'catchy' can be annoying.
So , after of course the song having good musical components like a good melody/guitar riff/tune/lyrics etc , whether it is exciting, joyful, melancholy, depressing, crazy, spooky, whatever, the common component has to be that it has to sound authentic to me, because if the person singing the song does not sound like they believe it, then neither do I.
That's why there are certain bands i find i just cannot get into any of their songs no matter what, they give off a vibe that does not sound authentic to me...Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Saxon,Motley Crue,.. all that kind of thing, they sound like guys playing 'crazy person dress-up', whereas with folk like Nirvana, Guns N Roses, The Doors, Hendrix, Pixies, The Stones, The Beatles, the Stooges,...those guys really do sound like they have rock n roll in their blood, and I am not talking about the 'living life on the edge, taking drugs and booze to excess' crap, i am talking about people who are blessed with an imagination, verve and certain way of seeing things that enable them to produce exciting and inspiring songs, as opposed to dullards who think rock n roll is all about learning how to play the guitar as fast as possible and knowing all the technical gubbins, as if the spirit of rock and roll is something that can be learned and mass produced like ****ing sausages, it isn't, you either got it or you ain't, and if you ain't you should just wash behind your ears, take care of your family and sell sausages down your local butchers. There is nothing wrong with that noble pursuit, but there is something wrong with faking an attitude and diluting the spirit of rock n roll by using it as a vehicle to get rich and famous.
