Today, I put on Zen Arcade with every intent of rating each song, but I stopped at "Hare Krsna." I was trying to view that particular track outside of the context of the album; I realized it just wouldn't score very high outside of the album, but, within the record itself it works perfectly. And for that reason, more so than with the aforementioned Spiderland and Pink Flag, I just cannot rate this album on a song-by-song basis. Everything about it—from the blistering hardcore to the fuzzy, catchy pop tunes to the experimental tape loops—is absolutely essential to the Zen Arcade experience.
For what it's worth, the songs that would rate a 10 are "Never Talking to You Again," "Pink Turns to Blue," "Whatever" and "Turn On the News." Three of those Hart tunes, yeah, but I generally prefer Mould.