Sometimes a pandemic hits and so you spend weeks thinking about and ranking the songs from your favorite band’s catalog.

I just recently ranked 101 of the best NCAA Tournament games of the modern era, so this was cake by comparison. And as I bide my time waiting for a follow-up interview with Steve Lillywhite — which we hope to get done in podcast form later in 2020 — what better time than now to tackle something so fun and fanatical?

I haphazardly ranked out about 85% of the songs below a few years back and never got around to tweaking. Quarantining, and the abrupt end of all sports across the globe, accelerated the project.

Songs that qualified: Any full studio song on a DMB or Dave Matthews album — officially released or in any other capacity. Album instrumental segues or not fully fleshed live songs (like “Grux,” “bkdkdkdd,” “Pantala Naga Pampa,” "Kill the Preacher,” the abandoned Batson ‘06/’07 sessions, “Mother’s Night,” “Litho Blitho,” etc.) were not under consideration. Random one - or two-offs played by Dave (a la “Falling Off the Roof”) aren’t logged, but any song with at least three live plays was considered, and some were included. Covers were not eligible. I’m not merely accounting for the way the songs were recorded/produced, but the essence of each song.

Posted below the rankings, fun for all the DMB fans who find this: a bracket of the 68 best DMB songs in history, complete with two write-in options. Let’s get to the rankings. It’s rough sledding initially but things pick up about 30-35 songs in. This is but one man’s view of DMB’s canon, and above all else, an elongated appreciation for one of the most successful and distinct bands in American history.

169. Blackjack (unreleased). All of the creative instincts and songwriting quirks that can lead DMB to construct such interesting songs and/or subsections of songs completely backfires and folds in on itself in this gibberish-laden disaster.

168. Steady as We Go (Stand Up). Mawkishly piano-dominant, way out of character, and the crescendo is the most cringeworthy moment the band has ever committed to a proper album.

167. Stand Up (Stand Up). The phrase “STAND UP!” is said/sung AT LEAST 72 TIMES -- there well could be another dozen more mercifully buried in the slapdash mix --- during the studio recording of this.

166. Angel (Everyday). “I call you up, you pick up.” Enough sung. Only salvaged ever so slightly because the guitar riff is somewhat catchy, if not entirely derivative.

165. Smooth Rider (Stand Up). Never have I listened to a song for the first time, thought it was pretty solid, only to have the second, third and fourth listens degrade my opinion as rapidly as salt falling into boiling water.

164. Hunger for the Great Light (Stand Up). A bizarre song about oral sex that combines a desire to pull from the flower-power era and then shoehorns in an alt-rock-lite riff.

163. Time Bomb (Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King). The instrumental intro was a good idea. Everything after was not.

162. Mother Father (Everyday). Only been played a handful of times, and that stands to reason. Everyday’s songs were famously put together in just over a week’s time back in 2000, and no song from that record is a clearer piece of evidence of how that can be a bad thing than this one.

161. Dreamgirl (Stand Up). Or is it “Dream Girl”? You know what, it doesn’t matter. This song talks about digging a whole all the way to China, unless of course you’re already in China, which in that case you’d best dig your way home. It’s a love song, natch.

160. Grey Blue Eyes (Some Devil). Matthews’ very good solo album nevertheless runs about three songs too long, and this is one of them.

159. Baby Blue (Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King). Written for the late, great LeRoi Moore, the song is short, quiet and sweet, but that’s about it.

158. Stolen Away on 55th & 3rd (Stand Up). Forgettable, but evidence that a Moore soprano sax line can save almost any DMB tune to a certain degree.

157. Baby (Some Devil). It’s a nice lullaby.

156. Come Tomorrow (Come Tomorrow). Hard to get on board here. Why did they name the album after this one?

155. I Did It (Everyday). The song that changed the direction of DMB’s trajectory forever. The music video remains bizarrely hilarious. Wow, this was so long ago.