1. I Want to Know What Love Is – Mariah Carey – That voice, that range, is tailor made for this classic poer pop ballad. Just lovely
2. Do You Wanna dance – John Lennon – So much off the rock and roll album was strange. This cover of the rock standard is pitched too high. Bizarre but not bad.
3. Oh My God – Ida Maria – I LOVE THAT CHORUS -a giddyup beat morphs into an extortion.
4. Tom Sawyer – Rush – How did that get here???? Giddy Lee Plus prog rock equals guilty pleasures!
5. Reservoir Dogs – Jay – Z – The Lox and Beanie Sigel join Jigga as they rap over a great drum loop.
6. Oh California – Colin Hay – The former Man At Work has become a folk singer, and a real gone one here.
7. New York City Serenade – Bruce Springsteen – Nine minutes of yuck. Nearly sinks the album.
8. Don’t Fall In Love With A Lonely Girl – Freedy Johnston – Pure pop from a good purveyor. Off his current album.
9. You’ll Think Of Me – Keith Urban – Moody, country ballad with a great chorus. He killed this ar MSG a coupla years ago.
10. Embraceable You – Sarah Vaughan – Did Vaughan make it on to M. Kriss greatest lady jazz singers. There is a vulnerability to Miss Vaughan’s singing that seems to make up the difference between Holiday and Ella.
11. Promise To Try – Madonna – Pretty, low key with strings hiding in the background. I forgot Madonna could do this kinda stuff.
12. Little Ships – Glenn Tilbrook and the Fluffers – Minor Tilbrook.
13. I Will Sing You Songs – My Morning Jacket – Interminable ambient rock jam.
14. In A Moment – Ray Davies – At Glastonbury this weekend, Ray paid tribute to Pete Quaife, his childhood fiend.
15. Ain’t Nothing Like You (Hootchie Coo) (Feat Jim Jones and Mos Def) – Blac Roc – Maybe our best producers of, er, blue eyed blues, plus two really good rappers both having a good day.
16. Heroine – The London Suede – Glam rock from the mid-90s.
17. Love Don’t Live Here – Lady Antebellum – Cross over country-rock balladeering.
18. How To Emcee – Rakim – I know people who believe Rakim is the greatest rapper of all time, I like him lots but he isn’t fun enough for my pedestrain tastes.
19. Now You Have Jazz – Louis Armstrong – A pretty good live version off his “The Kantanga Concert” album when he was the ambassador for not just all things jazz but all thinks American as well.
20. Forgetful Heart – Bob Dylan – Forgetable Dylan.
21. Breathe – U2 – There is an undeniable power to U2’s sound but it leads absolutely nowhere when they forget to write a song.
22. When The Day Met The Night – Panic At the Disco – The harmony’s are very Beatley, the horns are very, very Beatley and the song is almost aggressively prog pop. If you didn’t know any better, you’d swear it was the Apples In Stereo.
23. Make Me Smile (Come Up And See me) – Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel – “resist, resist… it’s from yourself you have to hide”. Glam pop of the highest quality.
24. Basket Case – Warren Zevon – Even his throwaways were awesome.
25. Everybody Get Dangerous – Weezer – Around about now I begin to lose all interest in Rivers Cuomo.
26. Lucky – Radiohead – I don’t underestimate them half as much as everybody else overrates them.
27. Mr. Hyde’s Gone (Don’t Be Afraid) – John Lennon – Just Lennon and a piano, kinda vaudevilly and still being worked out.
28. Under The Influence – Eminem – The real Slim Shady reminds us why we considered him one of the greats
29 Gone Troppo – George Harrison – Sounds like a good natured Jimmy Buffet.
30. I Can’t Get Started – Ella Fitzgerald – From the immediate classic Twelve Nights In hollywood.
31. Nine Lives – Tim McGraw – Country blueser -a touch meh.
32. Tucumcari – Freedy Johnston – From his first album, twenty years ago, as great as this years material. The calling card of a pop song writer: consistency.
33. Wouldn’t It Be Nice – The Beach Boys – The ultimate Cali song, if only because Warren Beatty made it indelibly Hollywood Hillsy in “Shampoo”. PS Sure Kate Hudson is cute but dya remember Goldie Hawn in that movie??
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34. Psalm – John Coltrane – It I a rush of emotion hidden in an alto sax.