Five Songs, Chapter Twenty-Nine

Remember this little exercise? (If you do, you’ve been reading this blog for far too long.) I abandoned it for a while because I went through the whole favorite 100 albums project, and that more than satisfied my music-writing itch. But that’s been over for a while, and the five songs conceit has been shelved since almost three years ago. So back to it...

“I’m Sober Now” by Danny O’Keefe

My friend Strath introduced me to this song a few years ago, and he’s written about O’Keefe at slightly greater length over at his fine blog. He’s a singer and songwriter from the Pacific Northwest (Strath’s native stomping grounds) who was most active in the 1970s and had his music covered by a number of higher-profile artists. “I’m Sober Now” is all unapologetically maudlin slide guitar and a great tear-filled beer lyric that includes lines like, “they say some folks can make it / livin’ on their own / but the only ones I’ve heard of / was either saints or stones.”

“This Is Why We Fight” by The Decemberists

R.E.M. recently released another pretty desultory effort, but that’s OK, because The Decemberists’ The King is Dead, released in January, already had a lock on the best R.E.M. album of the year. Peter Buck plays on a few songs — one in particular, “Calamity Song,” begins with a guitar figure so reminiscent of Reckoning that it’s ridiculous. "Why We Fight," the album’s penultimate song, has been the one I’ve most compulsively listened to. There have been times I’ve just played it 10 times in a row, and I’m still not sick of it. Its music sounds more Smiths than R.E.M., and the lyric is very much an early Son Volt (or R.E.M., but it’s nice to shake up the references) type of effort, with satisfyingly vague emotion and portent. (“Come the war / come the avarice / come the war / come hell.”)

"We're Not Alone" by Dinosaur Jr.

This is off Beyond, which was released in 2007 and thus has no right to sound as good as it does. This song is both catchy and, to my ears, very moving. "I wanted you to say / 'be around'" goes one recurring lyric. The song shifts less than halfway into a slightly different guitar movement, no less catchy, and a repetition of "If you say we're not alone." Well, if you like guitar rock, and the bands that influenced Dinosaur Jr. (The Replacements) and the bands Dinosaur Jr. then influenced (Buffalo Tom), I think you'll like this song quite a bit.

"The Modern Leper" by Frightened Rabbit

This installment of Five Songs is becoming, with this song, at least 60% about various forms of guitar-driven relationship angst. (80% if you count The Decemberists, which we probably should, because whatever the hell he's singing about, it's probably a metaphor for a girl.) This band isn't everybody's cup of tea. Even I can only take a few songs at a time. The singer's voice, though his Scottish accent has to count for something, can fall on the wrong side of the emo-ish/mewling divide (aren't both sides of that divide the wrong side? you ask, and you are right to).

"Pannonica" by Thelonious Monk

A song I've been listening to a bit lately, and you should, too. You can't just listen to that rock music all the time, you know. It'll rot your brain. (Oh, and I listen to the Alone in San Francisco version more often, but the full version on Brilliant Corners is also good.)

Five Songs, Chapter Twenty-Eight (Special Edition)

Over at his blog, my friend Strath responds to someone’s request for five favorite Morrissey songs (either solo or with The Smiths). This was tough, but here goes:

1. Panic

This is still tops for me. Even though it’s not his fullest lyric, and lyrics are such a key to his appeal, this is a perfect burst of a song. And unlike Blur’s “Song 2,” which is similarly brief but relies mostly on shouts of “Whoo-hoo!,” Morrissey does manage to squeeze in a sense of place (“the Leeds side-streets that you slip down / the provincial towns you jog ‘round”). The chants of “hang the DJ” that close out the song (“because the music that they constantly play / it says nothing to me about my life”) are infectious even the millionth time you hear them.

2. Half a Person

A lot of my favorite Morrissey songs are actually upbeat, musically, despite his reputation as a mope. But in this song, he’s got the mope switch set to stun -- he’s “clumsy,” “shy,” “morbid,” and “pale,” self-loathing and obsessed with someone else, and that’s “the story of (his) life.” But he makes misery sound so good.

3. Last of the Famous International Playboys

Maybe my favorite vocal moment of his is when he sings: “I never wanted to kill, I am not naturally evil. Such things I do just to make myself more attractive to you. Have I failed?”

4. The Boy With the Thorn in His Side

“How can they look into my eyes and still they don’t believe me?” We don't know, Morrissey. If anyone knew, I'm sure they would send it to you in a fan letter.

5. The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get

This is a great song overall, but it also has one of his most clever moments, when, as an unrequited lover/stalker, he sings, “I’ve made up your mind.” Brilliant.

And now the honorable mentions, since only Panic above has a spot guaranteed on the list from day to day: Girlfriend in a Coma, Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before, Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now, Now My Heart is Full, Interesting Drug, Glamorous Glue, We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful, Sheila Take a Bow, and Please, Please, Please...

Five Songs, Chapter Twenty-Seven

"Dallas" by Jimmie Dale Gilmore

I don't compare Dallas to New York, but they are both homes of mine in very real ways. So when I'm feeling homesick for the southern one, I like this lyric:

Did you ever see Dallas from a DC-9 at night?
Well Dallas is a jewel, oh yeah, Dallas is a beautiful sight.
And Dallas is a jungle but Dallas gives a beautiful light.

I know the song more from the cover that 10,000 Maniacs did on MTV Unplugged (yes, I'm a thousand years old), but I've never found that version again anywhere.

"That's Right (You're Not From Texas)" by Lyle Lovett

"But Texas wants you anyway." A charmingly expressed, megalomaniacal sentiment, appropriate for a state that is as proudly provincial as anywhere you'll ever see. The big band makes a fun racket on this one. Lovett is one of the state's true jewels.

"Denton, TX" by Damien Jurado

I don't know what this has to do with Denton, but I imagine if you were from there, and you heard the plaintive "Please come home" that's sung about two-thirds of the way through, you'd have a sizable lump in your throat.

"Galveston" by Glen Campbell

"She was 21 when I left Galveston." "I clean my gun and dream of Galveston." Campbell sings these lines over more swelling strings than any tough guy would allow. Still, it works. It sounds like the music over the opening credits of a mythical 1980's TV show about a gay man with a terminal disease who had worked at an oil refinery, had to be with a woman to appease the locals, and ended up falling in love with her on some level. That just occurred to me, and I'm stone-cold sober.

"The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton" by The Mountain Goats

Speaking of Denton. I went on at length about this song in a long-ago post.

OK, I suppose you've all figured out the theme here. I welcome any suggestions of additional songs in the comments.

Five Songs, Chapter Twenty-Six

“What Do You Know” by Matthew Sweet

It’s likely that Sweet’s Girlfriend will be the only record of his that enjoys a lasting reputation, but that’s a shame. Not only does 100% Fun have similarly high peaks, but even Altered Beast, the lackluster follow-up to Girlfriend, had a few really good songs. This is one of them.

“Michael Myers Resplendent” by The Mountain Goats

The closing track on the band’s just-released Heretic Pride. John Darnielle has a thing for titles (“Lovecraft in Brooklyn” and “How to Embrace a Swamp Creature” are other standout songs on this album).

“Lloyd, I’m Ready to be Heartbroken” by Camera Obscura

There are several bands with female singers currently trying to sound like Phil Spector productions (The Pipettes and Lucky Soul are doing it very well). But among them, Camera Obscura does the best job of borrowing from that sound without being completely defined by it. This song’s terrific title is a result of it being a response to Lloyd Cole’s song “Are You Ready to be Heartbroken?”

“Asking for Flowers” by Kathleen Edwards

The title track off Edwards’ forthcoming CD (early March). I thought her last, Back to Me, was a sophomore slump, but this new one is a return to form, and maybe the most consistent of her three releases.

“I Fall in Love Too Easily” by Bill Evans

Off of Moon Beams, an album I’ve been enjoying the past few days (well, past few nights; this is mellow music), but again, I don’t know if liking this makes me a jazz Neanderthal or not. I could really use some kind of guide charting the phases of man and the appeal of certain jazz musicians.

Five Songs, Chapter Twenty-Five

"No One" by Alicia Keys

Currently my favorite song on the planet.

I'm serious.

"Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor

My favorite song on the planet when I was eight. I had a crippling Rocky III fixation for a while, and I bought this song on 45. I vividly remember my mother telling me one afternoon, after repeated plays, "Don't wear it out." I thought she meant the grooves on the vinyl might wear away and make the record unplayable. "Can I break it if I play it too much?" I asked in a panic. "No," she replied, "you might just get tired of it." Silly mother, I thought. Tired of "Eye of the Tiger"?!

"Maneater" by Hall & Oates

My favorite song when I inevitably got tired of "Eye of the Tiger."

I'm a sucker for strong bass lines, I guess. (I actually love Hall & Oates to this day.) My mother makes a cameo appearance here, too -- when she saw me watching this video, which featured a woman walking around in stiletto heels, she banned MTV in the house, a rule that actually had some teeth for a while. Watching the video now, I don't see more than a couple of momentary flashes of ankle, and I'm starting to wonder if there was a very brief attempt to raise me Amish.

"Neverending Math Equation" by Sun Kil Moon

A beautiful cover of a song by Modest Mouse. A friend wrote the other day, after discovering this song, to say that it is "the essence of John Williams' music," so I figured it deserved a mention, being the essence and all.

"Nightswimming" by R.E.M.

My favorite song, ever. I've tried not to wear it out. Really. I only listen to it a couple of times a year now, if that. Mom taught me well.

Five Songs, Chapter Twenty-Four

"What is Life" by George Harrison

I saw Built to Spill perform this song at Irving Plaza in 2001, and it was one of the best live covers I've ever heard. The original is great, too. iTunes just posted Harrison's catalog for the first time, so I highly recommend grabbing this if you don't have it already.

"Another Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill" by Jens Lekman

There are songs of his I like better, but gotta love this lyric:

I had a friend, a girl who looked sort of like a guy
I can't forget her dark painful eyes
And they burned her with a cigarette lighter
When the cops came they had to untie her
Another girl was free to grow up a cynical writer

"When Am I Gonna Realize" by Christopher Denny

I just discovered this guy and downloaded his debut, Age Old Hunger. He's a 23-year-old from Arkansas whose voice sounds like some photographs from 1880 look: Twangy, weary, but spirited. And it's surely affected, but who cares? He can also write a song, and after only a day or two of listening to him, this is one of my favorites. You can see him performing another song, which I don’t like quite as much, here.

"Love Has No Pride" by Bonnie Raitt

Beautiful song, gorgeous voice.

"Train Song" by Mindy Smith

Ditto.

Five Songs, Chapter Twenty-Three

"Ready to Go" by Jennifer O'Connor

Off her record The Color and the Light, this is a two-minute song, gentle in sound but ambiguous in message (bitter? defeated? cautiously hopeful?), perfect for listening to four or five times in a row without a problem.

"Cigarettes, Wedding Bands" by Band of Horses

I've mentioned this band's new album a couple of times, but vaguely. Now that I've listened to it several times, it's clear that somebody better release something pretty damn great, pretty damn quickly if they want to challenge this for the year's best. Their debut last year was also terrific -- the new one keeps a lot of its strengths (consistency, songwriting, and the echo-y vocals), but does a slightly better job balancing ethereal numbers with harder rockers, like this one.

"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" by The Beatles

How Help! doesn't make it on to lists of my favorite albums, I have no idea. It's enough to make me think the master list needs some updating. Perhaps in the coming weeks...

"Groove is in the Heart" by Deee-Lite

For the groove, yes. And for the heart, sure. But also for the way Bootsy Collins ends it with, "Y'all are crazy, man!"

"Halah" by Mazzy Star

I must have lost the album this appears on, She Hangs Brightly, a while back, but only noticed recently. So, today I downloaded this, the opening track and my favorite. It has the honor of being the 7,000th song in my iTunes.

Five Songs, Chapter Twenty-Two

"Plus Ones" by Okkervil River

After a couple of listens to this band's latest, The Stage Names, it's pretty much what I expected it to be -- a strong mid-year contender for the best of '07.

"String of Racehorses" by Hotel Lights

I've written about this band a couple of times before, including here. This song is off a six-song ep, goodnightgoodmorning. It's great, and before you go making connections to the post below, this song seems to have nothing to do with actual horse racing.

"Downhill Racer" by Everything But the Girl

It's been nearly eight years since this band released its last record, Temperamental, which includes this song. That's way too long. Tracey Thorn has released solo material, but it's not quite the same. The band's appeal is in the sophistication of Ben Watt's beats married to Thorn's silky vocals, but she's also an underrated lyricist, as when she sings in this song: "I know how hard it is to watch it go, and all the effort that it took to get here in the first place, and all the effort not to let the effort show."

"Atlanta" by Centro-matic

I've been throwing away a great number of CD cases to prepare for a move, but I'm keeping a couple of hundred for old time's sake, including everything by this band, to which I have a sentimental attachment. Unfortunately, I don't even buy their discs anymore -- I downloaded the latest, an ep called Operation Motorcide, and this is my favorite song on it.

"This Can't Be Love" by Ella Fitzgerald

Because the first four here don't reflect how much older stuff I've been listening to, and because I know that even Thorn and the rest could learn something from Lorenz Hart:

This can't be love, because I feel so well,
No sobs, no sorrows, no sighs.
This can't be love; I get no dizzy spells,
My head is not in the skies.

Five Songs, Chapter Twenty-One

Yes, this feature is back. Writing about one song at a time just didn't do it for me. More accurately, it was fine, but I just didn't remember to do it as often as I remember to do five at a time. So, even though no one seems particularly fond of this, deal with it.

"Springfield, IL" by Slobberbone

"I've always said that if we ever overcome the stigma of our name, we'll know that we've truly arrived." That's singer Brent Best, who headed Slobberbone, named for the item that a dog perpetually chews. The band formed in Denton, Texas, and they were something a bit stranger than alt-country. Their best heartfelt, slower songs are very much in the mold of that genre, but they also melded punk rock and hillbilly rock, and weren't afraid to pen some pretty silly lyrics if a line or two might be worth a laugh. This song, off the band's final album, Slippage, is repetitive in the lyrics department, but like so much of the group's work, it rocks.

"Lullaby" by Loudon Wainwright III

Wainwright (Rufus' daddy) recorded songs for the movie Knocked Up. I only remember a couple of them being featured ("Grey in L.A." and "Daughter," both good and both at the end of the movie), but the whole album of music "from and inspired by" the flick is pretty good. "Lullaby" is evidently a new version of an older song of his. It sounds like something Lyle Lovett might record, which is a big compliment.

Various unknown songs by Band of Horses

I saw Band of Horses play a free show at a park in Brooklyn yesterday afternoon, and though I don't know any titles, they played a handful of new songs off their forthcoming album. I think it's going to be a very good one.

"Too Young to Fall in Love" by Motley Crue

I felt old at the Band of Horses show. Not old, really, but just terribly cranky. The words "hipster scum" kept running through my brain as I surveyed the crowd. This wasn't a surprise; the concert was in Williamsburg, the exit point of the city's Hipster Drainage Pipe. I saw at least three people wearing old Motley Crue T-shirts. The back of one read, "The Crue is back, and they've brought the doctor." I assume that's Dr. Feelgood of the Mayo Clinic. In any case, "Too Young to Fall in Love" is a good song.

"Sorry" by Youth Group

A certain someone is rolling her eyes at this one. But while I try to determine where this band falls on the guilty pleasure scale, I'm just enjoying the fact that "Sorry" sounds like a really good James out-take. (OK, that's not going to help the eye-rolling.)

Five Songs, Chapter Twenty

This feature has been absent for a while, and not one person has asked for its return. I choose to take that silence as your passive-aggressive way of asking for another installment. As you wish:

"How My Heart Behaves" by Feist

The entirety of her latest is worth the price, but this is the one I've been listening to while falling asleep these days. Is that sharing too much?

"Why Should I Cry For You" by Sting

Maybe because it's not always about you, Gordon.

"Til I Hear it From You" by Gin Blossoms

I frequently argue that the Gin Blossoms are one of the more underrated pop bands of the past 15 years or so. I frequently find myself getting looked at with a mixture of pity and horror. The relationship between these two trends is being studied.

"First Night" by The Hold Steady

You should be listening to The Hold Steady as often as possible. I'm going to keep saying this until everyone in America hears me and obeys. Given my current traffic patterns, that should happen sometime around the year 3089. Someone might have to take over this duty for me at some point.

"Amazing Grace" by Aretha Franklin

Off of the double-disc gospel record of the same name, on which Aretha makes hardcore agnostics like myself look really, really silly over and over again. If Aretha sings it, it must be true. Right?

PS -- On a related and developing note, the Starbucks I'm in is currently playing a different Aretha record, and as soon as I finished writing the above, a crazy-ish elderly woman a couple of tables over leaned toward the teenage boy next to her and said, "I hope they turn off that screaming. I like music, but I can't stand that screaming." Heathen!!

Five Songs, Chapter Nineteen

"Ain't That Enough" by Teenage Fanclub

Try to be depressed while listening to this song. Go ahead. Try.

"World of Pauline Lewis" by Television Personalities

This is from the band's first full-length album, And Don't the Kids Just Love It, which was released in 1981. I read about them on emusic, which starts its account of the band with this:

Britain's Television Personalities enjoyed one of the new wave era's longest, most erratic, and most far-reaching careers. Over the course of a musical evolution that led them from wide-eyed shambling pop to the outer reaches of psychedelia and back, they directly influenced virtually every major pop uprising of the period, with artists as diverse as feedback virtuosos the Jesus and Mary Chain, twee pop titans the Pastels, and lo-fi kingpins Pavement readily acknowledging the Television Personalities' inspiration.

I'm glad to have found them. You can read more in their Wikipedia entry, including this strange tidbit:

In an article in The Guardian on April 24 2006, it was implied that Dan Treacy is in some way behind the Arctic Monkeys, although this is based on little more than a perceived similarity between their lyrical style and that of Treacy, and the fact that the lead singer of Arctic Monkeys is mysteriously not credited with their songwriting.

"Objects of My Affection" by Peter Bjorn and John

Guitar squalls and a martial drum beat combined with vocals both sneering and yearning. A good song, though I picked only a few tracks off this album on iTunes. Not sure I'm ready to jump on the bandwagon just yet.

"Multitude of Casualties" by The Hold Steady

Like so many of this band's songs, this is a clever one about teenagers driving fast, doing drugs, attending mass -- some looking for God while others just search out a good time.

"South Tacoma Way" by Neko Case

A beautiful song overall, it contains these lines, which kill me: "I can't comprehend the ways I miss you / They come to light in my mistakes."

Five Songs, Chapter Eighteen

"Escape from New York" by Chris Mills

I very randomly selected these five songs (the equivalent of dragging your finger down a page in the phone book and then suddenly stopping), because trying to come up with some more conscious method seemed too taxing. But it's telling that this was the first one I landed on. "So say goodbye to all that you love best and hope we find it all again somewhere out west" or "If we had a car, I think I could still drive / From here to the Berlin Wall, at the bottom of the ocean" or "And it's late, but it's not too late / We can still make our escape / And though it's sad, it's not that sad / 'Cause soon the memories of the hard times that we've had will be like city lights all fading." Hmm. Somehow I don't think it's that easy, but it's a damn nice sentiment.

"The Falls" by Hudson Bell

OK, forget the random choices. I think I've picked up on a theme. Speaking of driving, though not at the bottom of the ocean (that's just not safe), this song starts noodly and builds to a moment where the guitars grow louder and tighten up while Bell sings "You're driving through the mountains, listening to a song." At this moment, not driving through the mountains becomes quite a painful experience. Put another way, I'm convinced "The Falls" is not ideally heard in a studio apartment in Brooklyn. But alas, there aren't any mountains very close to here and I really like the song.

"Warmest Part of the Winter" by Voxtrot

I've been listening to this a lot the past few days, including on a bus trip today from the Philly area back to New York. In addition to its other fine qualities, I'm here to report that it makes for a damn fine soundtrack for looking out the window of a Greyhound on the Jersey Turnpike. I don't know if it's going to be on the full-length they're releasing this year or not, but right now it's available on some compilation that iTunes has. My favorite song of theirs, I think (Voxtrot, not iTunes), and at 99 cents for more than six minutes of goodness, it's well worth it.

"Underground" by Ben Folds Five

Being the type of young man I was, ha ha, I would often spend my long drives in Texas listening to pretty maudlin stuff. But one time, driving back to Dallas from Austin after covering some sporting event or other down there (I think it was a high school baseball game; it was a glamorous life), I realized how this band's giddy debut was a much more spirit-lifting choice at 75 miles per hour. Also, I think that was the drive during which I first noticed this priceless lyric in this song: "And we'll be decked in all black, slamming the pit fantastic / Officer Friendly's little boy has got a mohawk and he knows just where we're coming from."

"Car" by Built to Spill

Because it's one of my favorite songs of theirs, and because the title, at least, reflects the theme.

Five Songs, Chapter Seventeen

“Tuesday Morning” by the Pogues

Not sure I get the appeal of classic Pogues stuff, so even though it’s probably heretical to say it, this is my favorite song of theirs.

“Borderline” by Madonna

I was driving with some friends to D.C. last year, and I was playing DJ with the iPod of one of the friends. She had several Madonna songs on it. I played this, and she said, “Why do guys always like Borderline most of all Madonna songs? It never fails.” I can’t answer that question (the lab results aren’t back yet), but figured I would mention the exchange. It's true that it's my favorite song of hers, and that I can only stand about four others.

“Rock Me On the Water” by Linda Ronstadt

Filled with 1970s goodness.

“Acoustic Guitar” by Magnetic Fields

Love the whole song, but particularly the line “Acoustic guitar, if you think I play hard, well, you could have belonged to Steve Earle.”

“Hard-core Troubadour” by Steve Earle

Yeah, this could be you, acoustic guitar. So shut up and be grateful.

Five Songs, Chapter Sixteen

“Why Don’t You Love Me” by Hank Williams

Because you’ve got to love a song that includes the lyric “Why don’t you love me like you used to do / How come you treat me like a worn-out shoe?”

“Elevator Love Letter” by Stars

I think this is literally a love letter to an elevator, which is more than a bit bizarre, but the song’s awful purty.

“Daysleeper” by Longwave

By the time Longwave released The Strangest Things, Interpol and the Strokes had already beat them to the position of reigning buzzmakers in New York, but I’d put it up against the work of those two bands. That’s not saying too much, given how I feel about those bands (it doesn't hurt that Longwave is more shoegazey and more early U2-y, influences that do more for me than Interpol's Joy Division fixation and the Strokes'...recycled hook fixation). "Daysleeper" is an instrumental, and it’s got satisfyingly spacey guitar work over a more grounded, determined drum part. Plus, it builds up to a point, with fifty-four seconds left, where a drill-like guitar loudly interrupts the proceedings -- and I hate to say, but it’s the perfect match for the sound going through my head quite often these days, which sound I can blame almost entirely on the R train.

“Daysleeper” by R.E.M.

Same title as the previous song, and a weirdly appropriate companion to it. Moody, pretty, and one of the four or five songs R.E.M. has recorded since Bill Berry left that might deserve a place on a “best of” collection. It would probably have to be a two-disc collection, but still. (OK, since you’re dying to know, the others I’d consider would be “Why Not Smile,” “Beat a Drum,” “Imitation of Life,” and “Leaving New York.”)

“Moonshiner” by Uncle Tupelo

You might think you know a better version of this traditional song (Bob Dylan and Cat Power have recorded it, among others). If so, you are wrong. Very, very wrong.

Five Songs, Chapter Fifteen

I talked to a friend today about the logistics of putting up longer sound files, something like a podcast, but I'm not sure if it would technically be a podcast. I'd like to eventually post hourlong blocks of songs up here, fulfilling one of my lifelong dreams: to be a DJ. (Other lifelong dreams include owning a house with a screened-in porch, writing a novel, and becoming comfortable inside my own skin.)

For now, more words about songs:

"Revelator" by Gillian Welch

Late this past summer, I listened to this song with a few people outside a friend's cabin in the middle of nowhere in upstate New York. It was dark, the night was getting cold, and there was a decent-sized fire going. The song was playing from someone's car, since there's no electricity on the premises. Anyway, that's a very nice way to hear this song, but I'd recommend it in just about any setting. Except maybe halftime of a big football game. Not the right vibe.

"Don't Talk" by 10,000 Maniacs (Unplugged version)

A friend in college really liked this song, and despite the fact that I was a fan of the band, I wasn't crazy about it. Then I heard this version, and bingo.

"I Got Stripes" by Johnny Cash

The Folsom Prison version. A short little burst of a song about an inmate, sung to a bunch of applauding, whistling, very appreciative inmates. Good times.

"See A Little Light" by Bob Mould

If you know of a better-constructed pop song, please let me know.

"Back in Black" by AC/DC

There's your song for halftime.

Five Songs, Chapter Fourteen

"To Love Somebody" by The Bee Gees

A friend and I spent a few solid minutes at dinner the other night discussing the greatness of the Bee Gees. I suppose that's enough said about that.

"Lilac Wine" by Jeff Buckley

Buckley's biggest fans seem to have that crass increase in rock fervor that accompanies someone's early death, and I've always thought his stuff is wildly hit-or-miss. His take on Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" is unimprovable and a total classic, and I love "Last Goodbye," especially in the moment when he sings "Did you say 'no, this can't happen to me.' " This song has a similarly great moment throughout, whenever he draws out "I feel unsteady." Hit or miss, yeah, but that voice was something.

"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" by Joe Cocker

Because I remain fairly uneducated about classic rock, the first time I heard this song was in the final scene of Layer Cake, a pretty good movie. Growing up, I mostly knew the Joe Cocker of "love lifts us up where we belong," etc., and this is, mercifully and thrillingly, a different Joe Cocker.

"Whiskey Bottle" by Uncle Tupelo

A long way from happiness
In a three-hour-away town
Whiskey bottle over Jesus
Not forever, just for now

"Citrus" by The Hold Steady

Hey citrus, hey liquor, I love it when you touch each other
Hey whiskey, hey ginger, I come to you with rigid fingers
I see Judas in the hard eyes of the boys who worked in the corners
I feel Jesus in the clumsiness of young and awkward lovers

Five Songs, Chapter Thirteen

Some songs hot off the presses, so you know I’m not just listening to records from 1991. I’m mostly doing that, but I’m not just doing that. (A bonus sixth song this time as well, because I love you. Never forget that.)

“Beanbag Chair” by Yo La Tengo

I sometimes think this band is loved more for its cred than its actual music, but then I listen to a song like this and think maybe I’m wrong.

“Somerville” by The Pernice Brothers

Joe Pernice’s best songs are really, really good, and this is one of them. The new album’s pretty uneven, but this is worth snagging. Not impossibly catchy, but testing the boundaries of what's possible vis a vis catchiness.

“Hot Soft Light” by The Hold Steady

This band created a small but noticeable buzz in the press a while back, maybe a year ago, and whatever I read at the time made me think I wouldn’t like them. The references to vocals that were spoken more than sung couldn’t have helped -- I’m not a big fan of that. It was also the kind of buzz that sounds like New York media people just talking to each other, loudly enough to make it seem national, which always gives me pause. But on the new release, Boys and Girls in America, leader Craig Finn is mostly singing, albeit not particularly well. He writes great lyrics, though, and the guys backing him just throw together a ridiculous stew of guilty-pleasure riffs, drawing on everything from AC/DC to Springsteen to the J. Geils Band to early Bon Jovi to Rush. And a lot more. Basically, the band sounds like a million things you’ve drummed along with on the steering wheel, but the first few songs, more than anything, are dead ringers for early Springsteen. Like, to the point where Bruce should be getting a few cents every time they’re played anywhere, not that he needs it. “Hot Soft Light” is my favorite based on the first few listens, but it has a lot of competition.

I’m not kidding about the lyrics. Here’s a passage from the first track, “Stuck Between Stations”:

The devil and John Berryman
Took a walk together.
They ended up on Washington
Talking to the river.
He said “I’ve surrounded myself with doctors
And deep thinkers.
But big heads with soft bodies
Make for lousy lovers.”
There was that night that we thought John Berryman could fly.
But he didn’t
So he died.
She said “You’re pretty good with words
But words won’t save your life.”
And they didn’t.
So he died.

“Penny on the Train Track” by Ben Kweller

I think I was in college when Kweller was the very young (15?) leader of a Dallas-area grunge-ish band called Radish that was getting earnestly profiled in places like The New Yorker because people had an appetite for such things and bands like Silverchair were being taken pseudo-seriously. Amazing. Anyway, Kweller turned out to be much, much more Ben Folds than Chris Cornell at heart, and his three solo albums prove it. This is off the latest, and it’s got the kind of melody that, when it comes over the headphones on the subway, makes you want to peel apart the doors and start running through the tunnels toward daylight.

“Become the Enemy” by The Lemonheads

No, the new record isn’t the most consistent thing. I didn’t download the whole shebang. But yes, it’s mostly a return to form. Start here if you doubt me.

“Out of Control” by Mindy Smith

I listened to Smith’s first album, One Moment More, quite a bit when it appeared a couple of years ago, and this is off the just-out follow-up, Long Island Shores. Not sure the whole thing is as strong as the debut, but that’s a common story. Anyway, she sings in a vague, humanistic way about god and heaven and such (but not exclusively), and her clear voice is so divine that you might end up believing. Heathens (like me), proceed with caution.

Five Songs, Chapter Twelve

Bet you thought I was done with these. Wishful thinking.

“Jealous” by Sinead O’Connor

I’m not going to lie. Even after a long break from this feature, when you’d think I have lots of things to say stored up, I often just go with things that happen to be playing while I write. So, this just came on. It’s pretty. That’s all.

“Over and Done With” by The Proclaimers

Used to great effect in the movie Bottle Rocket, when Dignan drives away in the white car, but also a pretty great song on its own.

“Canyon” by Richard Buckner

I keep waiting to get tired of Buckner, because his sound hasn’t changed too much over the last few albums, but it’s not happening. I’m not saying it’s still a thrill when he releases a record, but it’s a reliably enjoyable experience. His latest, Meadow, is just out, and after a first listen, this is my choice for standout track.

“I Work Here, I Grew Up Here” by Mark Mallman

Mallman defies description, but I’ll try. He’s based in Minneapolis, and he writes songs that merge glam-rock and poppy influences. And though the songs are often melodic, his live persona is a screaming, campy, sometimes barely-held-together creation. I know enough about him now to know that his shtick is not necessarily my ball of wax, but I saw him play an industry showcase at Joe’s Pub in New York a few years ago where he was accompanied by a band that had been thrown together for him at the last minute. I don’t know if it was the pressure of the setting or the strangers backing him up, but the persona was kept on a very short leash that night, and he delivered the songs almost perfectly, including this earnest piano-and-voice number about staying in place, which includes the lines, “there is a long road, there is a short one/but they both go the same damn place.”

“Losing My Religion” by REM

A friend said that she recently heard this song on the radio, after having liked it all these many years, and it suddenly struck her as over-produced and not very good. Boo, I say. I’ve always thought a song that holds up to five thousand listens is, ipso facto, a brilliant creation. And the lyric “I’ve said too much, I haven’t said enough” is a classic nonsensical-but-affecting Stipean effort. I was going to link to the band’s performance of the song on MTV Unplugged, but you can find that if you want. Instead, here’s a version that rocks, or approximates rocking:

Five Songs, Chapter Eleven

It's been a while since the last installment. Dig out your dancing shoes.

"Getting Saved" by Portastatic

Portastatic's Bright Ideas was one of last year's best records, and this is probably my favorite song off the follow-up, Be Still Please, which is out in October and is one of this year's best. I would tell you how I got a copy, but then everyone's going to want one and we can’t have that.

"Life of Leisure" by Rainer Maria

If the rest of this band's latest album was as strong as its first three songs, you'd have a contender for 2006's top spot on your hands. As it is, well, download the first three songs. Here's an analysis made possible by iTunes, God bless it -- I’ve listened to those three a combined 70 times. I’ve listened to the other eight songs a total of 24 times. (OK, I just listened to the song "Already Lost," not one of the first three, and I have to say, I should be listening to that one more.) ((OK, OK, look -- the whole record’s pretty good, they just front-loaded the puppy, that’s all.))

"Wasted Time" by Skid Row

I know. Here’s the thing. In possession of iTunes, I wander. I think of songs I heard way back when, like this one -- yes, I somehow possessed the cassette of Slave to the Grind when it came out; you can stop reading now (not just this post, but the entire blog, and any personal correspondence I might send you). I won’t blame you. -- and I search for them, to see how they sound now. As I was telling a friend a few weeks ago, there are a lot of songs I listened to as the very dumb, tasteless, slowly testosterone-infused 13-year-old I was (“I Won’t Forget You” by Poison, “Wait” by White Lion, “Pour Some Sugar On Me” by Def Leppard, the list goes on) that sound as awful as I would imagine -- neanderthal lyrics, hacky musicianship, and production values that make it sound like poofy-haired ‘80s bands in search of recording space were regularly renting out giant empty coffee cans. Not this song, though. This is more Guns N Roses than Europe. Without defending Skid Row, and while admitting that the first couple of times I listened to this again it was with a vague sense of shame, this song isn't bad. Really. I’m also intrigued by someone like Sebastian Bach, who can really sing (particularly compared to most front men in hard rock), but chooses to growl in equal measure. It makes it that much more satisfying when he decides to clearly hit and hold a note. OK, it’s damning with faint praise to say a song is one of the better examples of a drug-addiction power ballad from the era that spawned this one, but there you have it. Oh, hell -- as one reviewer on Amazon opined, “Don’t think, just rock.”

The most humiliating thing -- but I'm all about full disclosure here -- is that I just spent all of those words on this song, and it's not even my favorite Skid Row song. That will have to wait for another time. I don't think we're ready for that.

"Sixteen, Maybe Less" by Calexico and Iron & Wine

Two great tastes that taste great together.

"Mind Blindness" by Dirty on Purpose

If you like male-female call-and-response vocals and ringing-then-fuzzy, melodic guitar, go now. Go. We’ll wait for you to get back.

Five Songs, Chapter Ten

"Everyone's Starting Over" by the Diggs

This is a Brooklyn band I recently discovered, and I’m hoping to see them play in a couple of weeks. Thus far, they sound like a solid, straightforward rock band. Some songs clearly betray a UK/shoegazey influence -- not unlike Longwave, another current New York band -- but this song is pretty much a rave, and it has a great, simple lyric at its center: “I won’t give you false hope, but everyone’s starting over.”

"He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot" by Grandaddy

I guess these guys broke up recently. I was never that familiar with them, but I love this song. It's nearly nine minutes long (good bang for your buck on iTunes, if nothing else), and its epic pretensions have as much to do with structure as length. It starts slow, picks up a bit, then picks up another bit. Then it nearly stops, then picks up a bit, then turns into what sounds like a group of Gregorian monks chanting while someone plays Nintendo in the background. (OK, I’m not selling this.) With repeated references to "2000 man" and a poor man's OK Computer sound, it's a bit dated in its millennial menace, but just go with it.

“Still D.R.E.” by Dr. Dre

Not because I listen to a ton of hip-hop (could you have guessed that it’s not generally mopey enough for me?), or because it’s a good song, which it is, but because Dre sets a very high bar for cool when he makes the following line sound legitimately tough: “Still rock my khakis with a cuff and a crease.”

“I Wanna Stay Home” by Jellyfish

I like this song, but I only think to mention it here because I heard it the other night when I stumbled across Career Opportunities on one of my eight hundred HBO channels. I didn’t watch for long -- I don’t really want to watch it, and if I ever do there’s no rush, since it’s on one of those HBOs almost every night -- but the use of this song caused me to do a double-take. I remembered it from late high school, which would have been the early 90s. And it turns out the movie was released in 1991. Wow. You know how some people argue things like, “the 1960s really ended in 1972, with Watergate”? Well, I've always found that kind of argument silly, but carbon-dating Career Opportunities made me realize that the 80s didn’t really end in the 80s.

“Untitled” by R.E.M.

This is the first R.E.M. song I’ve listed in this recurring feature, which could mislead you into thinking they occupy some normal space in my music collection and psyche. Don’t be misled. This is the last song on Green, and it’s so catchy and loosely structured that you could probably play it on a loop for a solid three and a half hours before I complained, or even realized what was going on.