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1. I Am Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes – The 1929 Carter Family classic gets a lovely cover by the former Flatliner. His voice is twangy and low key and the band (the Wronglers) are a quiet fiddle and toot.
2. Goblin – Tyler, The Creator – One day Tyler will be 29 years old and very rich, one day he will be Kanye West. Till then, he has recorded the best hip hop album since Kanye West. This song re-thinks the Green Goblin of Spiderman infamy, and he switches from the horror of youthful poverty to the bizarreness of youthful success. "I don't even skate any more, I'm too fucking busy".
3. Code Pink Dub – Poly Styrene – Was she a Luddite? A Rastafarian? A wack job? Yes.
4. I Can Help – Billy Swan – Recorded in two takes without benefit of overdubs, the 1974 hit song is a noveltyish -because of that downward spiral riff and fake endings, saved the world for Thor in the only truly funny scene in the movie.
5. Mississippi – Bob Dylan – A lyric is not poetry, it is written to be sung. This song was released a week after 9-11 and the resonance of a line like "I know you're sorry, I'm sorry too" resonates beyond the cold type you read: Dylan sings it with an ache to his voice and it tugs your gut out. It got me thru that September and 5 years later got me through the worst break up of my life I saw Dylan at MSG maybe a year later, his first performance post the attack. An excellent concert but he only made reference to it once: "Most of these songs were written here," he claimed. "So nobody has to ask me what I think about New York City".
6. Pine Box – Maynard And the Musties – Joe imagines his best friend, and steel guitar player who died suddenly, at his wake. It speaks to a gift Joe has for empathy. If it is one thing to write about a friend and another to write about missing him, it is something else entire to write about what he is going thru after his death. It is, indeed, unique.
7. Hold On – Wilson Phillips
8. The Edge Of Glory – Lady Gaga
9. Master Of Art – Laura Stevenson And the Cans
10. America – Joe Steinhardt