1. Basement Kiss – Wendy James – One of Costello’s lowest moments, was his destructive comments about the former Transvision Vamp’s lead singer. She asked him to write a song for her and instead, with his wife, he wrote an album. Wendy gave pretty steady readings of them. Elvis hated them and recorded them himself, not half as well. Here is the best of them, a class structured Lady Chatterley’s lover of a song – A-
2. All Under One Roof Raving – Jamie xx – Isn’t this guy lo fi? Electronic house sampling, arty and lo key not lo fi – B
3. The Motherlode – Mastodon – Heavy riffing for five minutes straight. You think you’ve heard it before, you have heard it before, so now hear it again – B+
4. International Smile –Katy Perry – A little too deep in Prism to get noticed, this is a fine Maroon 5ish chorus though it isn’t really go anywhere –B
5. Halfway To The Moon – Phish – I’ve long thought Page McConnell was the best thing about this band and the last two minutes of the track, he lays down terms for surrender – A
6. Hot Burrito # 2 – Dinosaur Jr – No, not really but a pretty good rocker – B
7. Problem – Ariana Grande – It’s the whispered hook which makes it work – A
8. Fancy – Iggy Azalea – Iggy owes Charli XCX for this one, it is the chorus that sells it – A
9. Maps – Maroon 5 – I saw these guys once at MSG and they won a lotta brownie points from me, so even a borderline song like this not fully formed M5 blueprint I don’t hate – B-
10. Walkin’ My Baby Back Home – Nat King Cole – With his trio he was one of the greatest, this solo song is pretty lascivious stuff and is one long wink – A+