Single-Minded Excellence

Pop music has its equivalent of small, independent movies--challenging, thoughtful efforts that exist mostly on the fringes of the multibillion-dollar recording industry the same way their counterparts do in the film world.

Steve Earle’s “Ellis Unit One” and Eddie Vedder’s collaboration with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, “The Long Road,” are examples of these personal and demanding works--as different from the majority of Top 40 pop fare as smart, stylish films such as “Fargo” and “Lone Star” are from the emptiness of a multiplex-filling “Mission: Impossible.”

These two stark, acoustic reflections on life and death are so far removed from the ear candy that dominates most radio formats that it’s easy to see why they were never even released as formal singles. They are part of the “Dead Man Walking” album, which was released in association with Tim Robbins’ moving film about ethical issues surrounding the death penalty.

“Ellis Unit One” and “The Long Road” head my list of the most distinguished singles so far in 1996. (The best albums list appears in Sunday Calendar.)

The term “singles” is used out of a sense of tradition because certain album tracks are increasingly becoming as much a part of the pop dialogue as conventional singles.

Nirvana’s “All Apologies” and Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know,” for instance, were never released as singles, for various marketing reasons, yet they largely defined the pop currents of 1994 and 1995, respectively.

In recognition of this new reality, the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences has changed the eligibility rules in its best record Grammy competition. Instead of being open only to records that were officially released as singles, voters may now consider album tracks.

The best so far in 1996:

1. Steve Earle’s “Ellis Unit One” (Columbia). With just Earle’s embattled voice and acoustic guitar, this recording looks at the dehumanizing brutality of the death penalty through the eyes of a young man who comes home to Texas after a military stint and turns to the same prison job held by his father and two uncles. He recalls the old folks telling him of the days of the electric chair, and the way kids from the college sat on a nearby hill at night, cheering when the dimmed lights signified that the switch had been pulled.

Things are more humane now, people tell the prison guard, because lethal injections are used to carry out the death sentences. But all the killing eventually gets to the guard and he dreams of waking up with straps across his chest and something “cold and black” pouring through his lungs. He’s torn apart by the endless death marches:

I’ve seen ‘em fight like lions, boys

And I’ve seen ‘em go like lambs

And I’ve helped to drag them

When they could not stand.

As haunting as popular music gets.

2. Eddie Vedder and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s “The Long Road” (Columbia). If Earle’s song dealt with darkness and despair, this moody, soulful track is a search for spiritual comfort. The Vedder composition first appeared on “Merkin Ball,” the single that Pearl Jam recorded last year with Neil Young.

There was an endearing intimacy to that version, with Vedder’s aching voice backed only by acoustic guitar, bass and pump organ. But this stripped-down rendition is even more affecting. Vedder is accompanied by the remarkable Pakistani singer, whose cleansing chants underscore beautifully the song’s reflection on the nature of life and loss.

3. Beck’s “Where It’s At” (DGC). Beck Hansen lands here because this record--written and produced with the Dust Brothers--brings together two of the ‘90s’ most vital pop strains, hip-hop and alternative rock. It’s a tip of the hat to the heartbeat of contemporary pop music--a time when two turntables and a microphone are all you need to make the magic.

4. 2Pac’s “California Love” (Death Row/Interscope). This funky rap exercise, produced and mixed by Dr. Dre (who also offers vocal assistance), is teamed with the equally hook-filled “How Do U Want It” on 2Pac’s latest single. The pair should rival “Where It’s At” as the boom-box hit of the summer.

5. Oasis’ “Champagne Supernova” (Epic). You can dismiss Liam Gallagher as arrogant and stiff on stage, but he is one of the most commanding singers in British rock. You can also reject Noel Gallagher as too much under the influence of the Beatles, but he’s also the most appealing rock songwriter from England in years. And the brothers put all that talent together in a track that aims straight for the innocence and psychedelic mystery of “Strawberry Fields Forever”--and it’s a bull’s-eye.

6. Toni Braxton’s “Let It Flow” (LaFace). Babyface, as writer and producer, is one of the premier pop sculptors of our time, combining the artistry and taste of Quincy Jones with the romantic pop/R&B; grace of Stevie Wonder. This classy story about stepping away from a bad relationship was featured in last year’s “Waiting to Exhale” soundtrack album, but wasn’t released as a single until now. Braxton’s superbly tailored vocal is the stuff Grammys should be made of.

7. Bobbie Cryner’s “You’d Think He’d Know Me Better” (MCA). You try to figure out what is going on in country radio when programmers ignore this record about the disintegration of a marriage, which has much of the emotional pulse of George Jones’ classic “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” This may be the most striking country single since Garth Brooks’ “The Dance.”

8. Butthole Surfers’ “Pepper” (Capitol). Like Beck, these maverick rockers erase the lines between hip-hop and alternative rock in a record that explores the chills and thrills of wild youth:

They were all in love with dying

They were drinking from a fountain

That was pouring like an avalanche

Coming down the mountain.

There’s colorful cinematic detail here that would give the right film an unforgettable jolt.

9. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s “Tha Crossroads” (Ruthless). In the positive rap tradition of Ice Cube’s “It Was a Good Day” and 2Pac’s “Dear Mama,” this deliciously designed celebration of family and future comes about as close to gospel as you get in rap. With sales of more than 2 million, it is the year’s biggest commercial hit.

10. Everything but the Girl’s “Wrong” (Atlantic). In the anxious, techno-dance pattern of Erasure and Eurythmics, the British duo of Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt weaves extremely catchy musical textures around a story of the give and take in a relationship.