The natural follow-on to last week is to look at being right, as I hurtle towards /Tuesday Ten /600.

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And, it turns out, this was a really difficult subject (reflected in the relatively small number of suggestions). After all, as my wife pointed out, the egos of most songwriters/performers would likely be much more comfortable admitting someone else was wrong, than admitting that those same people were right, and so it proved.

There’s a lot of sneering at other parties in relationships, there are terrible crimes, there are elements at looking at the past and proclaiming that they were right all the long. There are, at least to these ears, some great songs.

A quick explanation for new readers (hi there!): my Tuesday Ten series has been running since March 2007, and each month features at least ten new songs you should hear – and in between those monthly posts, I feature songs on a variety of subjects, with some of the songs featured coming from suggestion threads on Facebook.

Feel free to get involved with these – the more the merrier, and the breadth of suggestions that I get continues to astound me. Otherwise, as usual, if you’ve got something you want me to hear, something I should be writing about, or even a gig I should be attending, e-mail me or drop me a line on Facebook (details below).

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/Radiohead
/Everything In It’s Right Place
/Kid A

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A song that I’ve heard in a few places just this week – including memorable use in Daredevil: Born Again, and in the background in a local pub, among others – so perhaps it was a sign that it needed to be used this week.

Everything In It’s Right Place is a hugely important and symbolic point in Radiohead’s career. The first song written for what became Kid A, an almost violent reaction to their nineties rock era – even if OK Computer had begun to hint that Radiohead’s sonic interests were far more than just rock – it is broadly a curious mix of electronics, processed and looped vocals but retains the otherworldly melodies and elegance of Radiohead’s songs. Live – at least from the various incarnations online – Jonny Greenwood uses an arsenal of pedals to loop and rework the song even further.

Kid A still divides opinion, twenty-five (!!) years on. But with hindsight, Radiohead were simply ahead of the curve, understanding that they never needed to be pigeonholed or restricted, and they could investigate and explore new frontiers and new ways of recording or releasing music – and their fearlessness turned out to be the right choice.

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/The Faint
/The Geeks Were Right
/Fasciinatiion

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Back in the early 1990s, when I was at school, the internet was still a nascent thing – and not something in general parlance. Those that were into computers and technology were the “geeks”, not exactly cool and not exactly the ones at the heart of the social scene. But with the way technology has taken over our lives, those that got in early were the ones who did very well (as some of my school friends did, that’s for sure). The Faint – back in their golden period, frankly – made oblique comment on this amid a psychedelic, not-quite-human post-punk-funk groove on The Geeks Were Right, as they warn about the potential dangers of humans relying too much on technology (which turned out to be absolutely correct). Still a banging tune, too.

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/Spin Doctors
/Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong
/Pocket Full of Kryptonite

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Not about a girlfriend, apparently, but instead lead singer Chris Barron’s overbearing stepmother (who told him he’d get nowhere with his musical career), the debut single from the early 1990s phenomenon Spin Doctors marks their first entry in this series (somehow, I’ve never used their better known single Two Princes). In many ways, it is cut from the same cloth as that megahit, sun-kissed funk-rock with a pop edge that manifests in that mighty earworm of a chorus. That chorus tells us about someone who is always right, never admits they are wrong and annoys the fuck out of the protagonist, such that the massive success this band enjoyed, selling over ten million copies of that debut album, must have felt pretty damned sweet.

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/Jane’s Addiction
/Ain’t No Right
/Ritual de lo Habitual

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With the recent collapse of Jane’s Addiction – again – it perhaps could be suggested that Perry Farrell is someone who might suggest that their way is always the right way. Certainly, their chaotic alt-rock turned out to be a trailblazing path for a whole host of bands to follow, not to mention the Lollapalooza festival that they set-up and started before splitting for the first time late in 1991.

They have released new material on a few occasions since that first split, but they will forever be remembered in particular for the boundary-pushing power of Ritual de lo Habitual, an album that broadened horizons for many, unleashed one eternal alternative dancefloor filler, along the way making the first half of the album feel like the best party that you’d not been invited to. While in the second half of the album explored proggy worlds untouched by most of their peers for many years, as they paid tribute to Perry Farrell’s girlfriend Xiola Blue, who died young of a heroin overdose.

But one of the highlights of the first half of the album is Ain’t No Right, a careering, out-of-control rush, as Farrell sneers at life’s hiccups and goes “fuck it”. He might not have always been right, but this album remains a fucking joy.

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/Ganser
/Told You So
/Just Look At That Sky

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There was always an uneasy tension in Ganser’s songs, like a rubber band that you just know is going to snap at some point, but you just don’t quite know when. One of the many great songs on their album Just Look At That Sky, the vocals alternate between (the now departed) Nadia Garofalo and Alicia Gaines, and like many of their songs, there is a deliberate obfuscation to the lyrics, it seems. But perhaps, this is an internal monologue trying to deal with being warned about their behaviour and attitude to others, and wondering whether in the cold light of the next morning, they will realise that they were right all the long.

Since Nadia left, Ganser have continued gigging with new vocalist Sophie Sputnik, and hopefully there might be new material soon…

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/Babes In Toyland
/Bluebell
/Fontanelle

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The complex history and difficult birth of this excellent example of early nineties Riot Grrrl and grunge (it’s fair to say that Babes In Toyland, by this point, had their feet in both camps) was told brilliantly in a Pitchfork Sunday Review a little while back, and there’s no doubt that Kat Bjelland needed no-one to tell her what was wrong or right. Indeed, the savagery and sharp edges of Bluebell sees Bjelland spitting out her lyrics about someone who shines like the fucking sun like throwing knives, but even so nothing, absolutely nothing, prepares the listener for her screaming “You’re dead meat, motherfucker / You don’t try to rape a goddess“.

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/Sonic Youth
/Death Valley ’69 (feat. Lydia Lunch)
/Bad Moon Rising

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The first Sonic Youth song to really break them out of NYC was the raw, noise-rock of Death Valley ’69, a dizzying snarl of feedback and disgust that examines the Manson killings, seemingly from the point of view of the people that were under the spell of Manson and were perpetrators of the physical acts. The lyrics are one of mental confusion, suggesting Manson’s proclamations were “right” and they had to go through with it. The whole scheme ended up with multiple murders, drugs, more drugs, and ended up with Manson and three other defendants found guilty on all counts. Manson died in prison, others were eventually released on parole decades later (although Bobby Beausolei has never been released), and some of the darkest moments of the counterculture era remain a fascination to many.

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/These Animal Men
/You’re Always Right
/(Come on, Join) The High Society

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Speed freaks These Animal Men – everything about this band always felt like they were moving at 100mph, thanks to a variety of influences – actually slowed down a bit for You’re Always Right, as they assessed their own position. Sure, the other party is always right, and maybe they were behaving like the end of the world was around the corner, but the general gist seemed to be: “can’t I make my own mistakes and then decide what to do?”. Amazingly the band did keep going long enough to make a second album, but disbanded quickly afterward, with a variety of other bands formed by ex-members in their wake. They were at least right enough to nail (Come on, Join) The High Society, which remains a marvellous album 31 years after release.

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/Mesh
/I Don’t Expect To Be Right
/Fragmente

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For the entry from Bristol synthpoppers Mesh, we’re going deep into their history, for an obscure rare track from the Fragmente compilation – one that brought together various singles and one-offs in 1998. As is typical of their sound in that era, it’s a rougher-edged synthpop than the sparkling production of later albums, but the devastation of the lyrics from Mark Hockings that regularly delve into the carnage of wrecked relationships and distrust is present and correct. This song seethes with the annoyance of yet another revelation of wrongdoing, as by this point they expect disappointment, and the hope that the other party might have changed is proven to be wrong again – as being right here means they will be let down one more time.

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/The Auteurs
/How Could I Be Wrong?
/New Wave

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Luke Haines was the caustic voice in the Britpop party from the off: his band The Auteurs, despite apparently picking all the boxes, never got the success others did at the beginning of the Britpop era, while their early peers Suede blasted off – all of this is brilliantly documented in Bad Vibes: Britpop and my part in its downfall and is absolutely worth your time.

This song, from the excellent debut New Wave, sees Haines suggesting that of course he is right, no matter what choice he makes, no matter what he chooses to do. Perhaps, in hindsight, he was right: unsullied by playing the game at the time, his long career has been full of fascinating left-turns, unexpected brilliance and bleak, dark humour.