"Zero" Reasons Not to Listen to This Playlist

The first in a monthly series of themed playlists

In a recent post, I mentioned that I’d come up with an idea for a playlist project structured around numbers. Specifically, songs with the ‘featured number’ in the song’s title. I thought I’d start it off with the number zero.

There’s no deep meaning behind this project. It’s just fun to compile songs around a theme and there are a lot of amazing songs with the word “zero” in the title. No, I’m not allowing the number 0 to count. Only the word.

Did I get the one/s (zeros) you were thinking of? Let me know in the comments. Below is a link to the Spotify playlist of all 20 songs. But you can play the YouTube links if you don’t use Spotify. I’m including a few live and alternative performances of the songs in the post below as I find them.

Without further ado:

1. Bob Dylan — Love Minus Zero

Statues made of match sticks
Crumble into one another
My love winks, she does not bother
She knows too much to argue or to judge

I’m not the biggest Dylan-head, but the songs I love, I love all the way. This is peak Dylan, from his 1965 album, Bringing It All Back Home. He’s known for his songs without choruses, ones that are stuffed with 20 non-repeating verses. This doesn’t have 20 verses, but it has quite a few. It’s a song that is open to interpretation but seems to be about idealizing a woman and her “free spirit” only to not be able to handle it, eventually “breaking her wings.”

2. Joan Armatrading — Down To Zero

Oh the feeling
When you're reeling
You step lightly thinking you're number one
Down to zero with a word leaving
For another one

This is the first track on Joan Armatrading’s 1976 self-titled 3rd album. It’s also, IMO, her best album. This could be a sister song to Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” though ends with the stolen boyfriend crawling back when the new fling doesn’t work out. Does she take him?

3. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers — Zero From Outer Space

I've been wrapped up in confusion
I've been tied down to my bed
Suffering some illusion
I'm out of my fucking head

It's insane to my brain
I ran away
And now, hey, hey, hey
I'm a zero from outer space

From the “She’s the One” soundtrack album. I love the out-and-out rockers from Mr. Petty and the Heartbreakers. “Zero From Outer Space” gets me up and movin’. This deep track was produced by Rick Rubin.

4. Aimee Mann — Patient Zero

But news filtered over the transom
That a villain ended up with the part
You paid your respects like a ransom
To a moment that was doomed from the start

Aimee Mann does melancholy better than anyone. This song from her 2017 Mental Illness album is gorgeous, and the bridge adds even more emotional layers. I love this stripped-down live version. Though the studio one is sublime.

Mann said when the final production of the song was complete, it sounded to her “like L.A. at night, like a starstruck but bittersweet and corrupted soundtrack.”

5. The Pernice Brothers - Zero Refills

Please, go in safety
Don't be ashamed or scared to show your age
Please, go in safety
Don't be too quick to find a better cage

I had the great pleasure of seeing Joe Pernice perform a solo show last September. He debuted several songs from the just-released Pernice Brothers’ album, Who Will You Believe? Expect a TWEET post featuring a song from that album later this year.

In the meantime, enjoy this gorgeous gem from their 2006 album, Live a Little.

6. The Lemonheads — My Hero, Zero

But place a zero after one, and you've got yourself a ten
See how important that is?
When you run out of digits, you can start all over again
See how convenient that is?

If you are of a certain age, you likely remember Schoolhouse Rock. The short animated educational videos used to air on Saturday mornings in between the other cartoons. In 1996, an amazing compilation of the show’s earwormy songs was put together, featuring many of the great indie bands of the day.

The Lemonheads covered “My Hero, Zero,” with Evan Dando reminding us just how wonderful the amazing number zero is.

7. Fishbone — Party at Ground Zero

Since I recently wrote about this track, which was the impetus for this playlist, I’ll simply share THE LINK, in case you didn’t get a chance to read it!

8. The Weeknd — Less Than Zero

Remember I was your hero, yeah
I'd wear your heart like a symbol
I couldn't save you from my darkest truth of all
I know
I'll always be less than zero

I had always ignored The Weeknd, unfairly labeling him as one of those slightly interesting but forgettable pop-rap stars. But then I came across this song in my Zero search and was transfixed. It sounds like an unearthed late-1980s synth-disco ballad. It’s got a fantastic melody, and I love the crescendoing keyboard lines. And the chorus makes me bop my head to and fro.

9. Elvis Costello - Less Than Zero

   Turn up the TV, no one listening will suspect
   Even your mother won't detect it
   So your father won't know
   They think that I've got no respect
   But everything means less than zero

   This song is probably most famous for being the tune Elvis Costello and the Attractions started playing on their SNL debut before going against Lorne Michaels’ wishes and launching into “Radio, Radio.”

   Which is sort of too bad, as it’s a great track in its own right. But would we still be talking about this moment today if he didn’t flip the script?

   10. The Fixx - Saved By Zero

   Thoughts that leave me
   Chasing after
   My dreams disown me
   Loaded with danger

   Watching this video again, after many decades, only deepens my love for The Fixx. This video was all over MTV in the early ‘80s. I wanted to use the original video, not a live clip, as I get a thrill when the hand reaches up through the paint can.

   I love guitarist Jamie West-Oram’s funky rhythms here and the way the voices layer on top of each other near the end: “saved by, saved by, saved by zero…”

   11. Yeah Yeah Yeah’s - Zero

Shake it like a ladder to the sun
Makes me feel like a madman on the run
Find me never, never far gone
So get your leather, leather, leather on-on-on-on

Karen O. is a force of nature. If I were to attempt to label her with a number, it would be way more than zero. I have always loved this song, but had never seen the music video until putting this together. I love that it is shot in San Francisco, in Chinatown.

I think the song is about how music can release the wild side of even the most shy introvert. Or something like that.

12. Hot Hot Heat - Zero Results

And I'm sorry son, you're showing nearly zero results
You pour your drink too tall
It's hard to hide behind the fortress of "It's not my fault"
No sense of do’s, and no care for dont’s

What a fun band Victoria, British Columbia’s Hot Hot Heat were/are. I listen to this song (and so many of their others) and my energy level skyrockets.

I wasn’t sure what this song was about, so I entered it into Songmeanings.com, but it returned ‘zero results.’ I guess I got my meaning after all.

13. The Presidents of the United States of America - Zero Friction

Huge space station
Man it with a chimp until it dies
Zero Friction
Twirling on and on in the invisible sky
You've been happy since the dawn of time

I loved these jokey grungesters back in the mid-90s, though their success was short-lived. Being a bald man, I always appreciated seeing a follically free fellow leading a rock band.

14. The New Pornographers - The New Face of Zero and One

It's the how-to guide to become the new face of zero and one.
So fall into the new line, hanging off the truth of the times.

For a few years, The New Pornographers were my favorite band. When Electric Version, their sophomore release, came out, it was one of those years. The blend of A.C. Newman and Neko Case’s voices is like manna from heaven to my ears.

I have no idea what this song is about, but I love how it sounds, so it still speaks to me.

15. Built To Spill - Carry the Zero

Found the pieces
We counted them all alone

Didn't add up
Forgot to carry a zero

Built to Spill is one of those bands you can’t be a casual fan of. You are either obsessed with them and have seen them live at least a half dozen times, or you don’t care for them at all. I clearly fall in the former camp. “Carry the Zero” is one of my favorite songs. Not just by BTS (the real BTS band, BTW!), but of all time.

I don’t know how to describe the feeling I get listening to it other than catharsis incarnate. The way Doug Martsch’s voice and his emotive guitar lines weave in and out, the only comparison I can make is to Neil Young and Crazy Horse.

16. Smashing Pumpkins - Zero

My reflection dirty mirror
There's no connection to myself
I'm your lover I'm your zero
I'm the face in your dreams of glass

I’m not much of a Smashing Pumpkins fan. I find Billy Corgan’s voice grating and his lyrics nothing to write home about. But there are a few songs that I really gravitate to from their earlier years. “Zero,” from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, is one of the few. It fires on all cylinders and rocks hard.

People online say this song is about, alternately: addiction, depression, religion, and bulimia. Knowing Billy, it’s probably all of the above.

17. Gerard Way - Zero Zero

I try to love that way
Of getting information
I've gotta walk away
Shout like a suffocation
Call me zero, zero, zero

I’m part of an album-of-the-month discussion group and about a year ago, the album chosen was Gerard Way’s (of My Chemical Romance) solo debut, Hesitant Alien. I was never a MCR fan, so was skeptical, but I really loved this album. It is a melange of many genre’s and styles, from glam to punk to new wave and everything in between. “Zero Zero” is apparently the name of the superhero Gerard came up with for himself, should that ever become manifested.

18.Ghost - Year Zero

Since dawn of time the fate of man is that of lice
Equal as parasites and moving without eyes
A day of reckoning when penance is to burn
Count down together now and say the words that you will learn

Okay, now we’re solidly in the heavier part of the playlist. Ghost is pretty mild compared to some modern metal bands. “Year Zero” amps up the doom and gloom, with lots of references to Satan and Beelzebub. This live version shows how dramatic Ghost are in concert.

19. Periphery - Zero

I may not look like it, or even act like it, but I’m a big fan of progressive metal. Music that is heavy, but with a nerdy edge. More math-rock and cerebral than loud and from the gut (though I like that stuff too). Periphery is a great example of that sound I love. “Zero” wasn’t a song I knew before this project, but I totally dig it. They do have songs with lyrics, but this one is a kick-ass instrumental.

20. Porcupine Tree - Cloud Zero

I thought I’d end the playlist with another instrumental, from another progressive rock band. Porcupine Tree is the heavier, rockier musical outlet for the great Steven Wilson. I’ve been a fan of Wilson for decades, both for his work with Porcupine Tree as well as his solo projects. His most recent album, The Harmony Codex, was a favorite album of 2023.

He’s also remixed and remastered tons of iconic albums. The list of his contributions to the music sphere is massive and incredibly important.

I know I went on quite long here. I’ll try and control myself for future playlists.

Did I leave out any Zero songs you feel should have been included? Leave a comment, and let me have it!

Hope you enjoyed Zero things about this playlist!

Steve