Choosing the 10 best Fugazi songs from their extensive and emotionally exhausting discography (in the best way possible) is sort of like trying to choose your 10 favourite lifetime visceral experiences. Fugazi are on what might just be a permanent hiatus (and we sure hope not) and have left a huge void in the world of emotional hardcore for the past 14 years. Considered by many as the quintessential “emo” band, when that word had entirely different connotations as it does today, listening to the 10 best Fugazi songs of all time could lead us into an endless Fugazi-listening vortex. Again.
10. “Shut the Door” (Repeater, 1990)
A staple of their earlier live shows, this harrowing narrative about a drug overdose is one of Fugazi’s most haunting songs, lyrically and musically. In the 1999 feature-length documentary film about the band, Instrument, the live performance of this songs sends chills up the spine as guitarist/vocalist Ian MacKaye taps the veins on his arms, singing, “I break the surface so I can breathe,” and the recorded version matches that intensity all the same, the screamed line, “Have you ever been free?” ringing out like the ultimate warning cry against drug use.
9. “Ex-Spectator” (The Argument, 2001)
The double-drum intro, as rad as that sounds, isn’t the best part about the seventh song on Fugazi’s final studio album to date. It’s the way the song develops from there; guitarist/vocalist Guy Piccioto and MacKaye’s strums and plucks complemented by yet another sneaky Joe Lally bass line. Then? Well, the song goes decidedly prog, before erupting into one of MacKaye’s patented bellowing choruses. This song is Fugazi at their most ambitious, and it’s a glorious listen to behold.
8. “Birthday Pony” (Red Medicine, 1995)
Every “best-of” list has its completely subjective oddball pick, and “Birthday Pony” fits the bill here quite well. Red Medicine, as a whole, is widely considered to be Fugazi’s weirdest album, and this track is a strange, swinging MacKaye rant, complete with that key moment at 1:48 where he launches into a maniacal laugh, followed by an even more maniacal laugh. Then, the quirky breakdown, and more screams from MacKaye. A lot of Fugazi songs leave you guessing, but this one still surprises and confounds after 20 years.
7. “Smallpox Champion” (In on the Kill Taker, 1993)
The ringing of bent strings pops off probably Picciotto’s best vocal performance with the band (and he has many). The melody lines here are one thing, but it’s Picciotto’s rapid-fire delivery throughout the song that drives this amazing song. Then the bridge kicks in, with one of Lally’s tastiest bass licks, and all bets are off. They talk about “complete” songs, and Fugazi has many, but this is one of their most memorable.
6. “Reclamation” (Steady Diet of Nothing, 1991)
Known for their outspoken politics, “Reclamation” is most notable for being a rallying cry for the safety of women in our communities, including the right to control their own bodies. Musically though, it’s one of MacKaye’s strongest songs. The buildup to the single-word chorus of, yep, you guessed it, “Reclamation!” is the rallying cry that the band’s diverse fan base needed in the early ‘90s when a woman’s right to choose was unfortunately still in jeopardy. “Reclamation” is still protest music at its finest.
5. “Rend It” (In on the Kill Taker, 1993)
Following previous entry “Smallpox Champion” on the band’s third album proper, this song begins with a flurry of chaos and noise and quickly transforms into one of Picciotto’s most tender deliveries. But, wait, then MacKaye gets involved and the song morphs again into one of Fugazi’s loudest, most groove-laden songs. If there’s such a thing as a Fugazi song that “totally kicks ass, man,” this is the one.
4. “Argument” (The Argument, 2001)
Hopefully not the last song that Fugazi will write, being that it closes off their last album to date, “Argument” is one of those classic slow-burn, MacKaye-fronted tracks that starts with almost juvenile simplicity and ends with a cacophonous roar against unnecessary political correctness. For a band that always wore their hearts on their sleeves, there was no better way to go on a 14-year-and-counting hiatus than this track.
3. “Blueprint” (Repeater, 1990)
Look up the word “emo” in an online dictionary and there should be a link to “Blueprint.” One of Fugazi’s most epic moments, the first time you hear this song it just sweeps you off your feet with impassioned vocals and that building tension that Fugazi is unparalleled for. This song also features one of the quartet’s most simplistic and memorable anti-capitalist lyrical sermons: “Never mind what’s been selling, it’s what you’re buying.”
2. “Five Corporations” (End Hits, 1998)
Throughout their six-plus albums, Fugazi often flirted with shorter, punkier songs that pleasantly reminded us that MacKaye fronted one of the best hardcore bands ever, Minor Threat. But taking that fast-punk model and adding in perhaps the best rhythm section to ever come out of Washington, DC in Lally and drummer Brendan Canty makes for two-and-a-half-minute songs that could be put on an endless loop on a desert island: songs like “Five Corporations,” which gets stuck in your head and just never, ever leaves.
1. “Waiting Room” (13 Songs, 1989)
Not much debate here, we don’t think, and funny that one of the first songs the band ever wrote remains their greatest testament. The intro bass line alone is worth a spot in the punk rock hall of fame (all lower case, of course), but where “Waiting Room” goes from there… oh, just… wow. Employing the elements of reggae and funk that would eventually absorb into their sound in more organic ways, the song was Fugazi immediately sticking their neck out, as if to say, “We’re here and we’re doing something entirely different.” Just under three minutes of punk perfection.
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