Let’s shuffle em up and see where the world stands today. I’ll keep on going till I get bored.
1. Shine (In Your Mind) – The Apples In Stereo – Another electronic strum scrum with melody to spare and they are great live and playing at the Boewery Ballroom a week on Wednesday.
2. The Man’s Dollar – With the possibility of becoming a female Beastie Boys, they imploded. Both irritating and revolutionary at the same time.
3. You Should’ve Been There – Marshall Crenshaw – Off one of his greatest album, great bluesy pop riff.
4. Benny And The Jets – Elton John – Didn’t mention Elton on my glam post yesterday!! This remains a great rock and roll song, blessed with a funny, funny, cool lyric. And Elton’s syncopated piano just waiting to take off. The stuff legends are made of and wild and wonderful.
5. Avalance – Ryan Adams – Extremely depressing ballad off the extremely depressing Love Is Hell, Naturally, I love it.
6. Kodachrome – Paul Simon – Hit single off his second solo and it is terrific -that’s the Roches singing back up, though personally, I dount he got laid in High School.
7. Heart In A Cage – The Strokes – Grabs a groove but doesn’t know what to do with it -one of the lesser songs off their last album.
8. Cookie Jar (feat The-Dream) – Gym Class Heroes – When I say I am sick of The Dream, the reason is cookie cutter songs like this. Not a bad backing track but.
9. This Fire – Franz Ferdinand – That three chord lick at the beginning coulda been written in the 1980s and the lead singer knows how to emote.
10. Girls And Boys In School – Neon Trees – I really like the Habits album and sure this aint “Animal” but it cranks up nicely in a strokey kinda way.
11. Going Mobile – The Who – The least memorable song off a memorable Who classic.
12. Dark End Of The Street – Cat Power – The r&b James Carr gets catified though the keeper on the EP was her Sandy denny cover.
13. Sweet Disposition – The Temper Trap – Sciortino swears by em but me? I can take it or leave it and though this builds up on a teempered by drums wall of sound it is a little laid back for my tastes.
14. Mr. October – I’m Not Jim – Jonathem Lethem’s rock project… I think he writes the words. It’s actually a catchy lo fi rock song. Which is kinda pity because I had a load of smart ass one liners.
15. Hold Me Tight – The Beatles – As songs off With the Beatles go, it’s a minor track. Sorta like being your least favorite disciple.
16. Ultraviolet (Light My Way) – U2 – I was a coupla hours away from writing a random insult to Bono earlier today but I found that pic with the PM and was saved from trashing him for no reason. Having said that, Achtung baby was a great album and this song is a reminder of how the mighty have fallen.
17. Living For The Night – George Strait – Strait is so great and such a miserable dick he might well be the van Morrison of country. There is a sort of integrity in his coolness (country fans expect to be appreciated, rock fans would be happy just not to be hastled by bouncers) earned in a way diffedent young rock bands haven’t yet.
18. Coming Up – Ani DiFranco – Off a daytrotter session: arty and tedious and scratchy but interesting.
19. Splitting The Atom – Massive Attack – The album was such a disappointment it makes me wonder why I ever liked em.
20. The River Of Dreams – Billy Joel – Doo wop and a dream of a song. Perhaps his greatest moment.
21. Piano Instrument – The Rolling Stones – 30 seconds of boogie woogie off Dirty Work.
22. Another – The Notorious B.I.G. – You gotta wonder what Biggie woulda done with autotune…
23. I Walk The Line – Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan – It’s not that Dylan is outta tune, it’s that he has no relatioship to tune.
24. Start Me Up – The Rolling Stone – Hey, wasn’t punk meant to kill this shit? Hated it at the time but it has withstood the vissitudes of time pretty damn well.
25. The Way I Am – Ingrid Michaelson – She sounds like Lana Mir if Lana Mir was a singer songwriter with a drum machine.
26. Road To Joy – Bright Eyes – Conor’s rewrite and it’s a classic take.
27. Round Are Way – Oasis – B Side of “Wonderwall” I think it has its in the running for greatest Oasis song… that’s what I think. Remember how I wrote about hanging at an import store in the Village back in the 1990s? This is why.
28. All That’s Known – Jonathan Groff – From a musical a 100 times better than American Idiot.
29. I’m In Love With A Girl – Big Star – Quirky and catchy, everybody who heard it formed a band.
30. Nightswimming – R.E.M. – Makes me feel nostalgic about something that never happened to me.
31. Down River – David Ackles – Another great songwriter who never reached the audience he deserved. If you haven’t heard this song try it. Terrific stuff.
32. Local hero/Wild Theme Live – Dire Straits – Off a greatest hits comp and as beautiful as you can imagine. Great movie as well.