Top 5 Songs on the Top 5 Albums by Your Top 5 Artists

By far the most ambitious project we've undertaken on this blog, but for our 100th post, could you expect anything else? I'm going to assume for the sake of variety that all these lists are personal preferences, lest we get three instances of The Beatles at #1. Of course, if anyone else is trying to fool themselves by being be objective, then by all means.

Dan's Top 5:
I'm pretty satisfied with this list, having included less than ten songs out of 125 that I don't listen to regularly. I was really considering adding Bowie instead of Pink Floyd, but I had called Floyd my favorite for so long in high school, and Bowie is just too hard to whittle down to five albums.

1. Peter Gabriel




1. Peter Gabriel 3


1. Games Without Frontiers


2. I Don't Remember


3. Biko


4. No Self Control


5. Intruder


2. So


1. Sledgehammer


2. Red Rain


3. In Your Eyes


4. Big Time


5. That Voice Again


3. Peter Gabriel 4


1. Shock The Monkey


2. I Have The Touch


3. The Rhythm of the Heat


4. San Jacinto


5. Lay Your Hands On Me


4. Us


1. Secret World


2. Come Talk To Me


3. Digging In The Dirt


4. Blood of Eden


5. Kiss That Frog


5. Peter Gabriel


1. Solsbury Hill (my favorite song ever, and it's on one of his worst albums. Really, Up deserves to be here. But whatever.)


2. Moribund the Burgermeister


3. Modern Love


4. Down the Dolce Vita


5. Humdrum




2. Muse




1. Black Holes and Revelations


1. Invincible


2. Knights of Cydonia


3. Take A Bow


4. Starlight


5. Supermassive Black Hole


2. Absolution


1. Stockholm Syndrome


2. Butterflies And Hurricanes


3. Hysteria


4. Thoughts of a Dying Atheist


5. Falling Away With You


3. Origin of Symmetry


1. New Born


2. Plug In Baby


3. Bliss


4. Citizen Erased


5. Micro Cuts


4. H.A.A.R.P.


1. Knights of Cydonia (Live)


2. Butterflies And Hurricanes (Live)


3. Stockholm Syndrome (Live)


4. Hysteria (Live)


5. Invincible (Live)


5. Showbiz


1. Showbiz


2. Falling Down


3. Cave


4. Sober


5. Uno




3. Radiohead




1. The Bends


1. My Iron Lung


2. Fake Plastic Trees


3. Street Spirit (Fade Out)


4. Planet Telex


5. Just


2. OK Computer


1. No Surprises


2. Airbag


3. Paranoid Android


4. Karma Police


5. Climbing Up The Walls


3. Hail To The Thief


1. There There. (The Boney King of Nowhere.)


2. A Punchup at a Wedding. (No no no no no no no no.)


3. 2 + 2 = 5 (The Lukewarm.)


4. Where I End and You Begin. (The Sky is Falling In.)


5. Go to Sleep. (Little Man Being Erased.)


4. In Rainbows


1. Reckoner


2. Bodysnatchers


3. Videotape


4. House of Cards


5. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi


5. Kid A - it took me forever to warm up to this album


1. Optimistic


2. Everything In Its Right Place


3. Idioteque


4. The National Anthem


5. Morning Bell




4. Duran Duran




1. Rio


1. Hungry Like The Wolf


2. Rio


3. Save a Prayer


4. Hold Back The Rain


5. The Chauffeur


2. The Wedding Album


1. Ordinary World


2. Come Undone


3. Too Much Information


4. Breath After Breath


5. Love Voodoo


3. Duran Duran


1. Planet Earth


2. Girls on Film


3. Careless Memories


4. Night Boat


5. Anyone Out There


4. Red Carpet Massacre


1. Falling Down


2. Tricked Out


3. Skin Divers


4. Nite Runner


5. Red Carpet Massacre


5. Seven And The Ragged Tiger


1. The Reflex


2. The Union Of The Snake


3. New Moon On Monday


4. Of Crime and Passion (OK, I don't listen to these last two at all. But what am I going to do, say I like Medazzaland?)


5. The Seventh Stranger




5. Pink Floyd




1. The Dark Side of the Moon


1. Brain Damage


2. Eclipse


3. Time


4. Us And Them


5. Money


2. The Wall


1. Comfortably Numb


2. Run Like Hell


3. Nobody Home


4. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2


5. Mother


3. Wish You Were Here


1. Wish You Were Here


2. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I - V)


3. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI - IX)


4. Have A Cigar


5. Welcome To The Machine


4. Animals


1. Sheep


2. Pigs (Three Different Ones)


3. Dogs


4. Pigs On The Wing (Part One)


5. Pigs On The Wing (Part Two)


5. Meddle


1. Echoes


2. One Of These Days


3. Fearless


4. A Pillow Of Winds


5. San Tropez (I hate this song, but I hate "Seamus" even more.)

Ryan's Top A Lot:

1. The Beatles
   




1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
   


1. A Day in the Life (again this song pops up in the #1 spot, maybe it IS my favorite song of all-time, I just don't realize it...)
   


2. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
   


3. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
   


4. Getting Better
   


5. Good Morning Good Morning
   


2. Abbey Road
   


1. Here Comes the Sun
   


2. The End
   


3. I Want You (She's So Heavy)
   


4. Because
   


5. You Never Give Me Your Money (note: ranking these was very difficult, esp. due to my refusal to consider the medley one song...otherwise the medley should be anyone's #1) (other note: Mean Mr. Mustard sounds like it could actually be on Nilsson's "The Point!")
   


3. Magical Mystery Tour
   


1. I Am The Walrus
   


2. Strawberry Fields Forever
   


3. All You Need Is Love
   


4. Hello, Goodbye (my dad's favorite, incidentally)
   


5. Penny Lane
   


4. The Beatles (White Album)
   


1. Happiness is a Warm Gun
   


2. Helter Skelter
   


3. Dear Prudence (I freely admit I have problems ranking #s 2 and 3, see the White Album list and the Top 5 Beatles songs list)
   


4. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
   


5. Back in the U.S.S.R.
   


5. Revolver
   


1. Eleanor Rigby
   


2. Yellow Submarine
   


3. Taxman
   


4. Got To Get You Into My Life
   


5. And Your Bird Can Sing (whew--I don't know what I was expecting with this list, but it is definitely proving a lot more difficult than planned... If The Beatles was that hard, I worry about the projects to come...)
   


2. Harry Nilsson
   




1. The Point!
   


1. Me and My Arrow
   


2. Think About Your Troubles (note: so damn good)
   


3. Everything's Got 'Em
   


4. Poli High
   


5. Life Line
   


2. Aerial Ballet
   


1. Everybody's Talkin'
   


2. Good Old Desk (a personal favorite...oh, right, we're doing a list about this)
   


3. Don't Leave Me (excellent scat)
   


4. Daddy's Song
   


5. One (not really one of my favorite songs, but still good...see Coconut below...I originally ranked Nilsson Schmilsson above Aerial Ballet, until I realized this was simply not the case; anyway, I typed up the rant about Coconut before this rant. I'll stop now.)
   


3. Nilsson Schmilsson


1. The Moonbeam Song


2. Gotta Get Up


3. Without You (really overdone, but this song is still good, damn it)


4. Jump Into The Fire


5. Coconut (admittedly not my favorite Nilsson song, but still a good song...I've downgraded it to 5...this song mainly irritates me because whenever you do a search for Nilsson, anywhere--google, limewire, etc.--this is the first song to pop up. I mean, Nilsson had so many better songs than this one. Meh, whatever.)


4. Harry


1. I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City
   


2. The Puppy Song
   


3. Mother Nature's Son (per wiki, this was the Beatles' favorite cover of one of their songs)
   


4. Mr. Bojangles
   


5. Nobody Cares About The Railroads Anymore
   


5. Pandemonium Shadow Show
   


1. 1941
   


2. Sleep Late, My Lady Friend
   


3. Without Her
   


4. Cuddly Toy (hmm, here's some random Nilsson song titles: cuddly toy, the puppy song, good old desk, the moonbeam song...in many ways he appeals to the 4-year-old in me)
   


5. You Can't Do That
   




3. Ben Folds/Five (nuts to you if you think this is cheating)
   




1. Whatever and Ever Amen
   


1. Brick
   


2. One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces
   


3. Evaporated


4. The Battle Of Who Could Care Less
   


5. Kate
   


2. Ben Folds Five
   


1. Alice Childress
   


2. Philosophy
   


3. Jackson Cannery
   


4. Boxing


5. Julianne
   


3. Rockin' the Suburbs
   


1. Still Fighting It
   


2. Not The Same
   


3. The Luckiest
   


4. Zak and Sara
   


5. Annie Waits
   


4. Naked Baby Photos (this is a compilation CD of previously unreleased tracks, but it has my two favorite BFF songs on it, so I have to include it...see #s 1-2)
   


1. Eddie Walker
   


2. Emaline
   


3. Underground (the best version of it)
   


4. For Those Of Y'All Who Wear Fanny Packs
   


5. Twin Falls
   


5. Songs for Silverman
   


1. Landed
   


2. Time
   


3. Prison Food
   


4. Bastard
   


5. Late (the first of two tributes to Elliot Smith to appear on this list...see BDB below)
   




4. Badly Drawn Boy
   




1. One Plus One Is One
   


1. Four Leaf Clover
   


2. Year of the Rat
   


3. Fewer Words (the other tribute to E.S.)
   


4. Logic Of A Friend
   


5. One Plus One Is One
   


2. About A Boy
   


1. Something To Talk About
   


2. A Minor Incident
   


3. Silent Sigh
   


4. I Love N.Y.E.
   


5. Donna and Blitzen
   


3. The Hour of the Bewilderbeast
   


1. The Shining
   


2. Disillusion
   


3. Once Around The Block
   


4. Pissing In The Wind
   


5. Everybody's Stalking (this song does not sound like a BDB song)
   


4. Born in the U.K.
   


1. Born in the U.K.
   


2. The Time of Times
   


3. Journey from A to B
   


4. Degrees of Separation
   


5. Promises
   


5. Have You Fed The Fish?
   


1. You Were Right
   


2. Born Again
   


3. Have You Fed The Fish?
   


4. All Possibilities
   


5. The Further I Slide
   




5. John Lennon (solo career)
   




1. Imagine
   


1. Imagine
   


2. Oh Yoko!
   


3. Jealous Guy
   


4. How Do You Sleep? (or, "Suck it McCartney!")
   


5. Oh My Love
   


2. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
   


1. God
   


2. Working Class Hero (he says "fuck" twice. Cool.)
   


3. Mother
   


4. Isolation (hey, according to wiki, this is one of Roger Waters' favorite songs of all-time)
   


5. Remember (man this song takes me back to my Lennon obsession in high school)
   


3. Mind Games
   


1. Meat City
   


2. Mind Games (as sung by Kevin Spacey.) (maybe not.)
   


3. Tight A$
   


4. Aisumasen (I'm Sorry)
   


5. Bring on the Lucie (Freeda People)
   


4. Double Fantasy
   


1. Watching the Wheels
   


2. (Just Like) Starting Over
   


3. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) (has "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" in it)
   


4. Woman
   


5. I'm Losing You
   


5. Rock 'n' Roll
   


1. Stand By Me
   


2. Be-Bop-A-Lula
   


3. Rip It Up/Ready Teddy
   


4. Ain't That A Shame
   


5. Peggy Sue
   

Tim's Top 5:

Given that the formatting would take forever, in part because I'm down to typing with six fingers and because it's blurring lines together, I'm forsaking it for now.

I. The Beatles –

A. Abbey Road
1. Polythene Pam
2. Something
3. Here Comes The Sun
4. You Never Give Me Your Money
5. Golden Slumbers

B. Revolver
1. Taxman
2. Tomorrow Never Knows
3. She Said She Said
4. Eleanor Rigby
5. Got to Get You Into My Life

C. Rubber Soul
1. Run For Your Life
2. In My Life
3. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
4. You Won’t See Me
5. The Word

D. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
1. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise)
2. A Day in the Life
3. Lovely Rita
4. Getting Better
5. Good Morning Good Morning

E. A Hard Day’s Night
1. Things We Said Today
2. Can’t Buy Me Love
3. A Hard Day’s Night
4. You Can’t Do That
5. If I Fell

II. Pearl Jam –

A. Yield
1. Faithful
2. Wish List
3. In Hiding
4. Given To Fly
5. Brain of J.

B. Vs.
1. Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
2. Rearviewmirror
3. Glorified G
4. Daughter
5. Animal

C. Riot Act
1. Save You
2. Love Boat Captain
3. I Am Mine
4. Thumbing My Way
5. Can’t Keep

D. Vitalogy
1. Corduroy
2. Not For You
3. Spin the Black Circle
4. Last Exit
5. Immortality

E. Pearl Jam
1. Life Wasted
2. Gone
3. World Wide Suicide
4. Come Back
5. Severed Hand

III. Bruce Springsteen –

A. Born to Run
1. Thunder Road
2. Born to Run
3. Backstreets
4. Jungleland
5. Tenth Avenue Freeze Out

B. The Rising
1. Lonesome Day
2. The Rising
3. Worlds Apart
4. Into the Fire
5. Mary’s Place

C. Darkness on the Edge of Town
1. The Promised Land
2. Darkness on the Edge of Town
3. Prove It All Night
4. Badlands
5. Adam Raised a Cain

D. Born In The U.S.A.
1. No Surrender
2. Darlington County
3. My Hometown
4. Bobby Jean
5. Glory Days

E. The River
1. The Ties That Bind
2. Independence Day
3. The River
4. You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
5. Out in the Street

IV. Elliott Smith

A. Figure 8
1. Stupidity Tries
2. Son of Sam
3. Everything Reminds Me Of Her
4. Pretty Mary K
5. Junk Bond Trader

B. Either/Or
1. Ballad of Big Nothing
2. Pictures of Me
3. Speed Trials
4. Between the Bars
5. Alameda

C. XO
1. Waltz #2 (XO)
2. Bled White
3. Independence Day
4. Baby Britain
5. Bottle Up and Explode!

D. From A Basement on a Hill
1. Pretty (Ugly Before)
2. Coast to Coast
3. A Distorted Reality Is Now A Necessity To Be Free
4. A Fond Farewell
5. Shooting Star

E. Roman Candle
1. No Name #1
2. Condor Ave.
3. No Name #3
4. Roman Candle
5. Last Call

V. Guided by Voices

A. Mag Earwhig!
1. I Am A Tree
2. Jane of the Waking Universe
3. Portable Men’s Society
4. Can’t Hear the Revolution
5. Bulldog Skin

B. Isolation Drills
1. The Brides Have Hit Glass
2. Fair Touching
3. Twilight Campfighter
4. Skills Like This
5. Chasing Heather Crazy

C. Bee Thousand
1. Tractor Rape Chain
2. Echos Myron
3. Smothered in Hugs
4. I Am A Scientist
5. Gold Star For Robot Boy

D. Alien Lanes
1. Game of Pricks
2. Watch Me Jumpstart
3. A Salty Salute
4. Blimps Go 90
5. My Valuable Hunting Knife

E. Under the Bushes Under the Stars
1.Cut Out Witch
2. Don’t Stop Now
3. The Official Ironman Rallying Song
4. Underwater Explosions
5. Your Name Is Wild

Top 5 New Wave Songs

I am going to be driving to Virginia today, so I thought I'd get a jump start on any lists I'd miss. I thought about calling this "Top 5 Songs of the 1980s," but then I realized I didn't really want to rate every genre... For example, how do you compare "London Calling" to "True" by Spandau Ballet? Easy, you rank "London Calling" ahead of it, and so forth, until you've left off a good number of solid New Wave songs.

Ahem! Without further ado!

Ryan's Top Five

1. "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" - Tears for Fears - Oh man, do I ever love this song. Tears for Fears is one of my favorite bands, '80s or otherwise. I can pinpoint the moment where I started loving this song; it was featured prominently in an episode of "The West Wing," and I became obsessed. (For some reason, I have issues with songs in TV Shows and movies that I like.) Since that episode, I have A) stopped liking The West Wing, B) stopped caring about politics, and C) stopped caring about my own political aspirations (i.e., stopped caring about wanting to rule the world). And yet, my love of this song continues unabated.

2. "Don't You (Forget About Me)" - Simple Minds - If you can listen to this song without picturing Judd T. Nelson punch the sky, then you are pinko commie trash--and Judd T. Nelson is coming for you. (I've hired him; he's relatively free these days and eager for cash.)

3. "True" - Spandau Ballet - To anyone who's ever been forced to endure a long and emotional conversation with me about this song and its proper place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, I apologize. My obsession began again with a TV Show--episode 6, series 1 of "The Office (UK)." Who knows why? But if you watch the music video, I think you'll agree that of all the rock bands in the world, I probably have the best chance of joining this one. (I own a suit, a nerdy demeanor, and the ability to get that haircut.) "This is the SOUND... of my SOUL...this is the SOUND.."

4. "Take On Me" - a-ha - 100 Bonus points for its parody on "Family Guy," negative a-jillion bonus points for its association with "Corky Romano." But it still makes the Top 5, that's how good this song is. And the music video.

5. "Love My Way" - The Psychedelic Furs - It was a tough call between this and "Once in a Lifetime," but I feel safe that someone else will call on Talking Heads. This song is like a song by The Cure, it just doesn't make me want to kill myself.

Honorable Mentions: "Once In A Lifetime" and "Burning Down The House" by Talking Heads, "Down Under" by Men At Work, "I Melt With You" by Modern English, "This Is The Day" by The The, "Drive" by The Cars, "Shout," "Head Over Heels," and "Mad World" by Tears for Fears, "Come On Eileen" by Dexys Midnight Runners, "Whip It" by Devo, "China Girl" and "Let's Dance" by David Bowie, "Love Song" and "Boys Don't Cry" by The Cure, and finally "Only You" by Yaz (thank you, again, to The Office).

Tim's Top Five:
Preface: I don't know what New Wave music is. Wikipedia has helped, but I'm not very discerning of musical genres, particularly of the 1980s. What this list really seems to celebrate is the year 1983, since four of the six songs on the list an honorable mention are from 1983.

1) Cars by Gary Numan - This song is the best example of the 1980s being musically useful. Absolutely everything in the song is not good -- the keyboards are annoying, the claps are clearly fake, the vocals are not aesthetically pleasing, the lyrics are pretty much nonsensical. I still love it. Eventually, the swirling sounds that close out the final minute of the song are at least interesting and probably involve a theremin, but I can't defend this song on any level except that I really love it.

2) Pulling mussels (from the shell) by Squeeze - Squeeze had several songs that could fairly be categorized as hits, but this and Tempted are the only ones you'll ever here, and with good cause, because this song is so awesome. I'm not sure what it is about the song that appeals to me, but I think part of it is the Stephen King-like attention to unnecessary detail. Is there anything to be gained from specifically identifying a Harold Robbins paperback? Perhaps there was to people in 1980. I was not yet born, I don't know, but I love it.

3) Mexican Radio by Wall of Voodoo - Apparently there's a meaning behind this song (so says Wikipedia) that there were Mexican radio stations that could be heard nearly around the world because they were broadcasting in basically non-regulated environments at extraordinary wattage. But really, I just enjoy barbecued iguana.

4) Modern Love by David Bowie - I don't know why, but this really seems to belong on this list. It basically seems to be that I just include things that are synthesizer-y and involve drum machines. While it's not my favorite Bowie song, it is the song I listen to the most, although "Five Years" is gaining rapidly. Incidentally, my standard of what new wave is basically means The Smashing Pumpkins' album Adore is eligible for my list. But it's not on it, because it sucks. So there.

5) The Living Daylights by A-ha - Yes, they had another song, and yes, this is the theme to the ill-advised 1987 James Bond debut of Timothy Dalton The Living Daylights. So it's getting pretty recent for inclusion, I would guess. Too bad, I really don't think much of the 1980s.

Honorable mention: Come On Eileen - Dexy's Midnight Runners - For a period of my life, this was probably among my five favorite songs. Then radio stations that were playing "current" music began playing nothing but 80s songs, which was to say songs that sorority girls use to identify the 1980s, which was to say songs from John Hughes movies or songs that have otherwise been remembered for semi-ironic reasons.

Dan's Top 5:

Here I am on only the second day of work, and I'm posting a Top 5. Damn, and I thought this job would be different... Ah well. I was shocked when I saw the topic of today, as my recent explorations of the history of music, especially after the fall of punk, have led me to question the real definition of "New Wave." Who's in, and who's out? Blondie? The Police? I've decided to take things really simple and follow the model you guys set up - 80's New Wave pop.

1. "Once In A Lifetime" - Talking Heads - For me, it's doesn't get better than this song. Those of you who know me on Livejournal can see that my titles are taken from this song. I'm fairly sure that this song is a take on the sudden realization that one has pursued traditional success (the big car, the beautiful wife) while forgetting the grander scheme of things (the references to "water"). Oh yeah, and the music video kicks ass. David Byrne's epileptic dancing style is almost as great as that of Ian Curtis.

2. "Inside Out" - The Mighty Lemon Drops - I still remember the afternoon that I saw the music video on VH1 Classic (That channel is the only good thing VH1 has done for me). Since then, it has become on of my favorite songs ever. It's even my ringtone. Seriously. The beauty of this song is its simplicity. It's a song that really grabs you, but I feel like I easily could have written it myself. All the more fuel for my rock-star-self-delusion fire.

3. "Time After Time" - Cyndi Lauper - I think I read somewhere before that Tim doesn't like this song. If so, that's too bad, because it's really an excellent example of a pop ballad. The bass line during the chorus is excellent, and I've been trying to recreate the rich, lush chorus effect on this song's guitar track for years. In my book, this is a pop standard and one of the defining songs of the 80's.

4. "Girls on Film" - Duran Duran - I can't do a New Wave list without a Duran Duran song, so the only question is, which song do I pick? Something off of Rio, or off of their first album? Even then, which song? I decided to go with this song because it offers Duran Duran's revolutionary new sound (at the time, 1980) with John Taylor executing a killer bass track, and Roger Taylor executing a killer mini-solo that actually highlights the electronic-ness of the drums, rather than trying to hide it. Oh yeah, and the video has boobs in it.

5. "Melt With You" - Modern English - What I love about this song is that it assumes you know science well enough to know what would happen if the world stopped rotating. It's not, "I'll stop the world, which will cause half of the earth to drastically overheat, and melt with you." Also, the song is driven by a great riff and overall sounds very... "sparkly."

Honorable Mentions: Echo & The Bunnymen - "Lips Like Sugar" (a candidate for the earlier Top 5 Songs You Used To Be Into). The Smiths - "Panic," "How Soon is Now?," "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before." The Cure - "Pictures of You." Madness - "Our House." And only left off because I figured you guys wouldn't consider it New Wave, The Police - "Message in a Bottle."

Top 5 Concerts You've Been To

Straightforward and strictly self-referential for a change of pace.

Ryan's Top Five

1. Badly Drawn Boy, Liberty Hall, Lawrence, KS (Oct. 2004) - When I put down all the concerts I've been to in print (not as many as I had thought), this one is far and away the best. First off, you have to factor in this--what are the fucking odds of A) Badly Drawn Boy coming to America to tour, B) Badly Drawn Boy coming to Lawrence, KS, and C) Badly Drawn Boy coming to my favorite venue in the world? Secondly, I definitely got my money's worth; he played his best album, "One Plus One Is One" (which had just been released), in its entirety, then they took a break, then he came back and did a full concert of older songs, then he came back for an encore. The show lasted almost four hours. By the encore, he was drunk and ranting about the upcoming election and George W. Bush. And to top it off, the opener was good, an indie band from England called Adem. My favorite concert, bar none.

2. Duran Duran, NTelos Pavilion, Portsmouth, VA (Aug. 2005) - This was easily the biggest concert I've ever been to, and Duran Duran did not remotely disappoint. They opened with "Friends of Mine," then Simon Le Bon says hello to the crowd and screams, "IS ANYBODY HUNGRYYYYY?!" before they launch into "Hungry Like The Wolf." This strikes me as one of the coolest ways to begin a show, ever--give the public what they want. Adhering to this, they did just about every song you could want them to do, not letting their newer stuff overwhelm the act. This included my two favorites, "Come Undone" and "Ordinary World." And when he dedicated the latter to the military men and women overseas and their families left behind--Norfolk after all is a Navy town, and plenty of Navy folk were in the crowd--it actually wasn't cheesy, doubtless because the song itself is so fucking awesome. Downside: the opening act sucked. All in all though, great show.

3. Colin Meloy, Liberty Hall, Lawrence, KS (April 2008) - I was psyched for this concert but I'll admit I was a bit leery of an entirely acoustic set. Fortunately, this concert was pretty great, all told. He did plenty of "The Crane Wife," including kick-ass versions of "The Perfect Crime 2" and "O Valencia." He's a pretty good stand-up comedian to boot; at one point he said he didn't want to "get too footnotey, like some fucking David Foster Wallace novel." Finally, he finished by leading the crowd in a rollicking rendition (says I) of "The Mariner's Revenge Song."

4. Ben Folds Five, Sokol Auditorium, Omaha, NE (Oct. 1999) - The concert itself was great, but more than that, this was at 16 my First Real Concert I ever went to, you know, of music I had discovered on my own and had listened to religiously for two solid years. (See #5 for clarification of "First Real Concert.") They did a few songs from Reinhold Messner (released earlier that year) but focused primarily on Whatever And Ever Amen (one of my top 5 favorite albums) and their eponymous debut. Highlights included awesome renditions of "Philosophy," "One Angry Dwarf...," "Narcolepsy," and so on. It was all good. Side-note: Train was the opener, before they were big. I suppose I liked them then, or anyway I liked "Meet Virginia."

5. Hootie & the Blowfish, Some Nebraskan Ampitheatre, summer, I believe 1997 - OK, not the best of recollections about this one... though I know I still have the ticket stub somewhere. This, in all fairness, was the First Concert I ever went to, so I have to include it here. Actually, it's easy to laugh about Hootie & the Blowfish now, but... well OK, it was probably easy to do so then, but I was still 13 and only a few years removed from "Cracked Rear View." Hey, you know what, fuck you all, I like Hootie & the Blowfish.

All The Concerts I've Been To Follow (I am pretty sure I'm not forgetting any...):

Honorable Mentions:
- The Swell Season at the Uptown Theatre, KCMO (this is #6 if I were ranking them, great show)
- Ben Folds, the Lied Center (at KU, this was an awesome show and I suppose is tied for 6th)
- Ben Folds, Rufus Wainwright, Ben Lee at City Market, KCMO (would have been great if lightning didn't preclude Ben Lee entirely and persuade a skittish Rufus Wainwright to fly through his set)
- Ben Folds at some venue in Norfolk (Portside? Somethingerother? This is how much Hampton Roads is into Ben, my dad bought tickets for the three of us (him, me, Tory), we get there, and they're handing out free tickets at the door...Anyway, good show, but nothing particularly Top 5-worthy)
- Jurassic 5, Abe & Jake's in Lawrence (my only hip hop show)
- Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band at the NTelos Pavilion in Portsmouth, VA (fun seeing a Beatle. Not quite as fun seeing members of Supertramp, ELP, et. al.)
- Nickel Creek at Liberty Hall (good concert, the music's not really my cup of tea, but still)

Dishonorable Mention:
- Tonic at Harbor View in Norfolk, VA (free concert...took forever for them to get onstage...after they performed about three songs we realized we didn't really give a shit about Tonic and left, which was enjoyable. They did have good barbecue, to be fair.)

Dan's Top 5:

1. Smashing Pumpkins, The Orange Peel, Asheville, NC (Jun. 30, 2007) - The Smashing Pumpkins did a residency for a little over a week in Asheville to promote Zeitgeist. I actually managed to get two tickets (a mere $20 each) out of I'm guessing 600 per show. The greatest thing about this concert was the venue. It's essentially the size of a school gym, so I got to stand about ten or fifteen feet away from Billy Corgan. Despite only beginning to get into Smashing Pumpkins at the time, it was still an amazing set. They played "Stand Inside Your Love," "Tonight, Tonight," and of course, "1979," which is a song that's in my Top 10, if not my Top 5 Songs of All Time. I Would have liked to see a show with the original lineup (i.e., with D'arcy and James) but let's not kid ourselves - Corgan is the band (for better or for worse - I blame him exclusively for Zeitgeist).

2. Gogol Bordello, The Lyric Theatre, Blacksburg, VA (October 18, 2007) - This one was a real surprise. I accepted a ticket after my roommate told me about the group, making this the first and only concert to go to where I didn't know any of the songs that would be played. For those who don't know of Gogol Bordello, the music is best described as Eastern European Gypsy Punk. Yeah, wrap your head around that. Anyway, I managed to squeeze into the front row, but of to the side, where there was no punk activity (minor crowd surfing and possible moshing took place) so I could focus on the performers. The concert ranks so high because I was right up front for an extremely high-energy show. All the performers were really into it, and I got to shake all their hands at the end of the set.

3. Radiohead, Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Charlotte, NC (May 9, 2008) - I had to settle for lawn seats, but for fucking Radiohead, it didn't matter (I was in the front against the railing anyway). The band did twenty-four (24) songs and wrapped up by 11, letting me get back to Blacksburg by 2. It seemed fast at the time, but it was two-and-a-half hours. Naturally, they did their In Rainbows songs, but they also pulled a few tricks by playing songs like "Optmistic," "Exit Music (For a Film)" and "Planet Telex." The encore consisted of "Paranoid Android" and "Reckoner," and will probably be the best encore in the history of ever. My only complaint is that they didn't play any of my top three songs ("My Iron Lung," "No Surprises," "Fake Plastic Trees").

4. Rush, Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Virginia Beach, VA (Jun. 22, 2007) - I've only been really into Rush for under a year, and this concert really made me a die-hard fan. I knew that each member of the trio was one of the best in the world at their instrument, but I wasn't expecting this level of awesomeness. I get to say I've seen a Neil Peart drum solo live, and that makes me happy. I didn't know but half of the songs, but one of the highlights was a clip of South Park introducing "Tom Sawyer." The band really has a good sense of humor. The encore was capped with "YYZ," which took it to a whole new level of kickass.

5. Sudflood XVIII, Top of the Stairs, Blacksburg, VA (Apr. 22, 2006) - I'm going to pull a fast one and include an all-day music fest that my former band, Rex Bedlam, played in. We were originally slated to play an hour and a half, but technical issues and other bands running over time shaved our set down to about half an hour to 45 minutes. The first song, our drummer broke his kick pedal, and the second song, our electric guitarist broke a string. However, we gave it our best and even managed to cover Zeppelin's "Black Dog." Afterwards, other visiting bands (all of which were good) gave us props during their sets. Pretty awesome. Oh yeah, we also got unlimited free beer for twelve hours.

Honorable Mentions (i.e., the rest of the concerts I've been to, ranked in descending order of greatness):

Muse w/ My Chemical Romance, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD - Muse fucking rule, but because they were openers, their set was a mere 45 minutes.

Red Hot Chili Peppers with Gnarls Barkley, John Paul Jones Arena, Charlottesville, VA - RHCP was really lackluster, as they played mostly newer songs (i.e., post-BSSM), but Gnarls Barkley was the shit. However, their bass was clipping because their sound levels were off, resulting in a non-ideal show.

The Last Dispatch, The Hatch Shell, Boston, MA - Dispatch's supposed final show ever. (They reunited recently at MSG for a series of benefit concerts.) Awesome music from a single band for three and a half hours, but way too many people, way too hot, and most of the fans were hippies.

ZZ Top, Ted Nugent, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Virginia Beach, VA - This was my first concert ever, and I went with my dad (which, if you know my dad, is not an uncool thing to admit). It was pretty enjoyable, but Ted Nugent ruined his set for me when he avidly supported George W. Bush during some inter-song banter.

Carbon Leaf w/ Ben Lee, Burruss Hall Auditorium, Blacksburg, VA - I was in the second row for this one, and I'm a solid fan of Carbon Leaf. Ben Lee was pretty good too. I expect this to be the standard for an acceptable concert experience.

Sudflood XIX, Top of the Stairs, Blacksburg, VA - Overall, most of the bands were boring, but Carbon Leaf was there, and I found out that they did the show for free (proceeds this year went to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund). They also signed my copy of Echo Echo.

Ben Folds, Burruss Hall Auditorium, Blacksburg, VA - This concert makes me suspect that Ben Folds hates, for some reason, the state of Virginia, Virginia Tech or even me personally. He seemed really detached from the audience, and even forced us to listen to him start "Gracie" about five or six times because someone in the audience "woo"-ed in approval. (He neared completion of it twice, only to start it over.) What a douche.

O.A.R. w/ Michael Franti and Spearhead, Burruss Hall Auditorium, Blacksburg, VA - I think I was in the front row for this, but let's be honest, O.A.R. sucks. Spearhead was pretty cool, though.

Tim's Top 5:
Ryan jumped the gun on this one, I'm pretty sure the Springsteen show I'm going to 7/27/08 will be #1 and I suspect the Pearl Jam show (and maybe, god willing, R.E.M.?) in June may crack the list, so I was holding off.

1) 4/00 - Guided by Voices with Sense Field at The Sokol Auditorium, Omaha, NE - I was probably the only person watching Sense Field, but they became one of my favorite bands after the concert -- and shortly after the concert had to abandon their hopes of ever releasing their album with Warner Bros. and it became the abortive effort that was released on Nettwerk and scored them 15 minutes of fame with "Save Yourself". Then GbV put together a greatest hits concert that captured the era of GbV at its finest -- this was right after Do The Collapse, so they didn't have the stuff from Isolation Drills, but it led them to get the best of the Fading Captain Series and favor stuff from Alien Lanes and Bee Thousand instead of the most recent album. The only drawback is one that would follow GbV for years, their steadfast avoidance of material from Mag Earwhig!, which was and still is, my favorite GbV album hands down.

2) 6/13/03 - Pearl Jam with Idlewild at the Mid-American Center, Council Bluffs, IA - Bu$hleaguer on the Riot Act album...boring. Bu$hleaguer live -- played in the heart of Republican country -- unparalleled in awesomeness. This is the concert that made me think Riot Act was one of Pearl Jam's greatest albums, even though only me and four other people own it. I don't think I'm wrong. They closed with Rockin' in the Free World, which is definitely the chosen song to end Pearl Jam shows, they covered The Police's Driven to Tears, The Clash's "Know Your Rights" (both have since become favorites of mine) and unfortunately Crazy Mary (a song which I have no affection for). It was really an amazing show, no Katowice, Poland, but amazing nonetheless.

3) 7/28/07 - The Old 97's with Ha Ha Tonka at The Chameleon Club, Lancaster, PA - I'd seen the Old 97's the night before on the Rockin' on the River cruise in New York but discovered they had a show far closer to me the next day. They ended up playing three encores -- one with Rhett by himself playing a couple of solo songs and a cover of the Pixies' "Wave of Mutilation", then the band returned to join him for a couple more Old 97's tracks. After half the club had left, they came out and played two more songs, both of which were unrecognizable at the time. The venue was astounding for a middling college town in the middle of Amish country, and the crowd really seemed to know their work much more than the NYC crowd. Ha Ha Tonka was an entertaining enough band, more on the side of country than alt-country, but they waited at the back of the show to watch, which is the true sign of an opening act that deserves some respect. I've meant to get their album for a long time now. I should really get around to it. There were still a couple of songs I'd have killed for them to play (seriously, "Nite Club" and "If My Heart Were a Car" warrant playing), but it was an exhaustingly amazing show. I drove the long trip home having absolutely no regrets about seeing them for a second time in two days.

4) 4/06 - Franz Ferdinand and Death Cab For Cutie at Barton Hall, Ithaca, NY - The venue was awful for acoustics, I had absolutely nothing to drink (thank you, Cornell University), but the two acts were amazing. Franz Ferdinand went through the vast majority of their material, but still managed to hold things back that I'd forgotten were awesome; Death Cab played a good sampling of their material, even though I was unfamiliar with 90% of it at that point. I owned Plans within the week and have since developed an appreciation for their work as a whole.

5) 7/07 - The Police with Fiction Plane and the Fratellis at Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, PA - Sure, it might as well have been pre-packaged, because The Police played only two sets during the entire reunion tour (Philadelphia warranted the long set at least), but they reminded me that there was a period before I was really sentient that Sting used to actually, you know, be kind of cool. And rock. They really put together a great show, the venue wasn't bad, and the beer flowed freely. Definitely one of the highlights of my employment thus far. You know, other than all the "law" stuff.

Honorable Mention: Ben Folds with The Divine Comedy at Seven Flags Event Center, Clive, IA - This was on the Ben Folds and a Piano tour after Rockin' the Suburbs, before he went off the musical deep end and became dead to me forever. The audience interaction seemed fresh (it wasn't, as you learned from the live album, it was all a scripted show with the same banter at every stop), and the music was awesome; Smashing Pumpkins with Fountains of Wayne at the Omaha Civic Auditorium, Omaha, NE - My first concert still warrants mention, although I knew so little of either of these bands' work when I went to the show that it really cut into the awesomenss; Snow Patrol with OK Go and Silversun Pickups at Tweeter Center, Camden, NJ - the headline act wasn't what I went to see, but they put together a good show, OK Go played most of their catalog and Silversun Pickups are as solid a second opening act as I could envision. Venue wasn't particularly good.

Top 5 Songs of 2007

Tim mentioned this topic last time, and since I'm bored at the moment, digesting some lasagna, I guess I'll go ahead and try starting it. Since it's just songs, I imagine there will be a lot more feedback since I'm pretty sure everything we can think of putting here will be easily accessible. There's always Youtube.

Dan's Top 5:

1. Duran Duran - Falling Down - I had a really tough time trying to determine the #1 spot, which for some reason isn't normally the case. I decided to play it safe and go with a pop song. The masters of pop really came through on Red Carpet Massacre, and this is by far the best song on the album, and ranks up there with "Come Undone" and "Ordinary World" in terms of songwriting quality. I doubt I'll ever get tired of hearing this one.

2. Panda Bear - Comfy in Nautica - I talked a lot about this song in the last post, and it was really the only other contender for #1. I figure it's safer to put it at number two, but really, it's a virtual tie. Who knows, the Duran Duran song may even get old. Now, maybe Panda Bear loses some points because the vocals are just so reminiscent of Brian Wilson and his insane reverb that it almost seems a touch unoriginal. But no, this is just a damn good song.

3. Paul McCartney - Dance Tonight - A-ha, you had forgotten about this single, hadn't you? Shame on you, since it was the epitome of Paul McCartney songwriting. A short, simple-as-hell song. And it gets bonus points for featuring the mandolin. And it's catchy. Look it up on Youtube, and it will be in your head for the next week. Bonus points for Mackenzie Crook being in the music video.

4. Radiohead - Videotape - Not my favorite song off of In Rainbows, but probably the best objectively speaking. It's a good end-of-life retrospective piece, perfect as the last song on the album. I liked the earlier live bootlegs so much better, though.

5. LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends - The music behind this lengthy song is the definition of repetitive, but it gives it almost a "Heroes" kind of feel. I just started listening to it today, and I guess this is my way of saying, "hey, check it out - now I'm listening to LCD Soundsystem." But honestly, this song seems really special. Or maybe it isn't and just seems new to me.

Honorable mentions: All the other Radiohead songs on In Rainbows, The Good, The Bad, & The Queen - Herculean, The Bravery - Believe, The Bravery - Time Won't Let Me Go, Editors - An End Has a Start

Tim's Top 5:
This list is loaded with horns...sorry, KC and the Sunshine Band, this just about had to be your year.

1. Spoon - The Underdog - This is classic Spoon, an understated song that has no basis for ever reaching the radio. The song's even got a horn section, something not you're going to hear out of Austin, TX that often. Britt Daniel is in rare faux British form, and it's a brisk and catchy song with an infinitely memorable chorus moment that you will carry around with you weeks at a time. It's one of the best songs of 1966, which easily makes it the best song of 2007.

2. The Shins - Phantom Limb - It's hard to knock this from #1, since it's the song from 2007 that I've listened to the most obsessively, but for a long time I actually didn't even like it, so I suspect that there had to be something that turned me off initially. It's not all about the vocals here, because the simplistic and constant drumming carries more than its share of the weight, but there's more depth and direction in James Mercer's voice for one second in this track than Scott Stapp will have experienced in his entire life.

3. Jay-Z - Roc Boys (and the winner is...) - Ok, American Gangster is not a great album on par with The Black Album, but this is Jay-Z in rare form. And it's got its own horn section that really carries the flow. It mixes Curtis Mayfield-R&B, the unmatched rap stylings of Shawn Carter, and a pure pop chorus. Rolling Stone called it the number one song of the year, I'm sad to say, but even a broken clock is right twice a day. Their inclusion of Kanye's "Stronger" at #13 on the list just shows that they are also quite wrong on a frequent basis.

4. The Bravery - Believe - I don't quibble with someone who would choose Time Won't Let Me Go as the better of the singles on this album, and part of me almost chose Fistful of Sand as the best track on the album. But if you're listening to it on the album, including the 29 second intro that begins the album, I don't think there's much choice. It's a more modest track than Time Won't Let Me Go, that really just sounds "big", but the guitar - drums - guitar - vocals lead-in in the first ten seconds of the song grabs me every time. It's also apparently on Madden 2008, but despite my hours and hours of playing the game, it didn't catch my attention until I got the album. Well done, The Bravery. With respect to 2007, I choose you in the feud with The Killers. In 2005 and 2006, uh...yeah, well, this album was amazing.

5. Arctic Monkeys - Fluorescent Adolescent - This is what an amazing day in London sounds like. This is the song that will forever place "daft" in my lexicon of words that will be useful in a pinch. It has a lo-fi sound, but you can also tell that all 8 tracks on the recorder were getting used before this went in the can. The real hook here is Alex Turner's vocal work and rapid tempo shifts, ranging from frenetic at the beginning of the verses and slowing down into the breaks -- it's perhaps the only song I can think of that builds up to slowing down, but it works masterfully...until it sprints to the finish. It's a 3 minute pop song, but it does it right.

Honorable Mention: The White Stripes - You Don't Know What Love Is (You Do As You're Told); Travis - My Eyes; The Bravery - Fistful of Sand; Bruce Springsteen - American Land (no one else could capture another era's music any better); Bruce Springsteen - Last To Die (probably the best lyrical song of 2007); Fall Out Boy - Carpal Tunnel of Love (just the "woo hoo hoo" almost pushed it into the Top 5); The Arcade Fire - Keep the Car Running; Maroon 5 - Makes Me Wonder (the lyrics really made the difference, just knowing that the 18 year old girls who wanted to run out and buy the album didn't notice what Adam Levine is saying makes me love this song)

Ryan's Top Five

1. "The Good Life" - Kanye West - I love, love, love this song. This is the ultimate backyard party song.

2. "An End Has A Start" - The Editors This song rules. I love this sound, whatever particular genre this is.

3. "Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors" - The Editors - I thought about ranking this one above song #2, but then I'd just be being cheeky.

4. "Listen!!!" - Talib Kweli - He and Kanye are the two best rappers out there, says I. That'd be an interesting Top 5...

5. "Flashing Lights" - Kanye West - Well, this pick evidences how much music I heard last year. That said, I do love this song. A great driving song.

Top 5 Albums of 2007

We're going to jumpstart this thing...maybe we'll make it to weekly posts by the end of March or April.

Tim's Top 5:
2007 wasn't a bad year for music. It wasn't great, it brought disappointing albums from Kanye West, Jay-Z, an awful live album from Guided by Voices, and Fountains of Wayne, who managed to cash in on their fame by going into total hiding and not even getting their middling album promoted.

1) Eddie Vedder - Into The Wild -- Wow. There are a lot of bands that are such figureheads that their lead singer could branch off and create a great album on his own that's basically indistinguishable from the band's own work. Well, that's not what this album is. It's exceedingly brief, with a number of songs that are barely even long enough to be Robert Pollard-written, but it's mastery of the stripped-down musical ambience that a story like Into the Wild demands. I just can't envision how a story as magnificent as Into the Wild, merged with a soundtrack that's so perfect that even the book should be read to it, could be anything but the best film of 2007 (or, with little hyperbole, the best film in a decade), but that remains to be seen. "Hard Sun" is a great song, "Far Behind", "Society", "No Ceiling" and "Setting Forth" are all its peers or superiors. It took a second listen before I started to really enjoy it, it took me starting to read the book before I fell in love with it, but it's now an absolute essential to my playlist.

2) Bruce Springsteen - Magic -- I didn't notice that Radio Nowhere really did appear to be Springsteen channeling Eddie Vedder's voice until reading it in someone else's review, but it does seem true. The album as a whole is coherent, tight, and pretty even. It has definite highlights -- "Last to Die" and "Livin' in the Future" are among the best in recent years, but most of all it proved that The Rising was not a one-off, Springsteen's still more than capable of rocking out ("Radio Nowhere", "Last To Die"), but still has the ability to write evocative and emotional songs ("Terry's Song"). Perhaps most importantly, Clear Channel has refused to play anything from it, because it apparently commits the sacrilege of not giving George W. a big, sloppy kiss (though it's not necessary to treat it as a political album).

3) The Bravery - The Sun and the Moon -- Well, you can't write a band off just because their first album was disappointing. Granted, I only found out it was disappointing because I was so enamored with The Sun and the Moon that I bought the debut off ITunes a day later, but it is. The Sun and the Moon, on the other hand, has fed XM Radio two of the most pleasantly overplayed songs in Believe and Time Won't Let Me Go. The songs in between the two on the album fit in perfectly and capture the faux British sound that I clearly am totally susceptible to (let's be honest, Guided by Voices spawned it, Spoon is an obvious offspring of it, and The Bravery doesn't fall far from that tree, and neither do the Killers. Then about 75% of the other bands I like are British)

4) Bruce Springsteen - We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions - American Land Edition -- I can't even begin to describe how much I thought the Seeger Sessions sounded like an awful idea. I wouldn't have ever listened to a single track from the album had I not landed tickets to see Springsteen at Giants Stadium in July. When I saw he was playing American Land to close out every show, I felt like I just about had to hear it and acquire it. That led to ITunes...which led to me buying the album. Now I can only say it's a shame that I'm ranking this behind Magic, because I think on so many levels this might be a better album, it's just not one you can just turn on and listen to in the same way. But what it surrenders in accessibility it makes up for in overwhelming greatness. This is one of those experiments that could have and probably should have gone horribly wrong. It didn't.

5) Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare -- Fluorescent Adolescent is one of my songs of 2007, Brianstorm is the most annoying single Arctic Monkeys have put out, and it's still great, it's just a totally listenable album that I think matches or exceeds the promise of their first album, even if this one pretty much stayed under the radar in both the United States and the U.K. (comparatively, it was still a #1 album in the UK, but it sold considerably less). This is what cements Arctic Monkeys in the "must buy" list. Now I just need to get back to the UK to get Who The F*** Are Arctic Monkeys for the price it should sell for.

Honorable Mention: The Shins - Wincing the Night Away -- It took me way too long to really enjoy anything on the album, and so much is wrapped up in the fact that Phantom Limb is the catchiest song of 2007 that I can't really say I'm a fan of the album as a whole; Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga -- Initially a disappointment, but it's a great album and The Underdog is definitely a rival with Phantom Limb for the song I'm most likely to listen to eight times in a row; The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible -- This is penalized for me having only listened to it once thus far (I bought it on a whim with The Sun and The Moon three weeks ago), but I think it could join a serious conversation for #5; lastly, Jay-Z - American Gangster -- Yes, I described it as disappointing, but I'm starting to appreciate it, and it has a couple tracks for the canon. I just don't want to pull a Sam's Town and look back a year later in disbelief that I didn't consider it an elite album.

The only album I know of that I feel like I need to hear from 2007 that's not on this list is Interpol, which I just got from the library. For now, it warrants an asterisk.

Take it away, other people, knowing full well that the Top songs of 2007 (where I really make my love for poppy, commercial music obvious) looms in the immediate future.

Dan's Top 5:

1. The Good, The Bad & The Queen – The Good, The Bad & The Queen – When Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz) does anything, odds are it's going to be good. Add to that Paul Simonon (The Clash), Simon Tong (The Verve) and Tony Allen (Africa 70), and you have the definition of a supergroup. Oh, and Dangermouse produced it, too. The thing is, most supergroups have traditionally put out crappy music. Or so I'd assume. I imagine everyone involved would be overplaying their parts and egos would be clashing. Not the case here. And hey, it's British and it sounds British. There's a definite London motif about the album, to the point where it makes me wonder if I'm missing out on what they're singing about.

2. Panda Bear – Person Pitch – If it's possible that one song can carry an album, it would be the opener to this little masterpiece, "Comfy in Nautica." It's one of the best and most addicting musical pieces I've heard, and apparently I'm not alone in thinking so. Rolling Stone called it the #74 best song of the year. If nothing else, it earns you points when you listen to it because no one is listening to it either. Unless they pay attention to Pitchfork, which called it the best album of the year. Then again, they take the art of being a pretentious music snob to another level.

3. Radiohead – In Rainbows – Alright, maybe I have rose-colored glasses on when it comes to Radiohead, but I'd argue against that. To this day, I still don't like Pablo Honey, Kid A or Amnesiac. The rest of their discography, however, is fucking brilliant. That being said, I'd say that this album isn't as good as Hail to the Thief was. It's very chill, and with the exception of "Bodysnatchers," it stays that way the whole way through and offers not much else to listen to. It could have been better, but it's still amazing.

4. Gogol Bordello – Super Taranta! – Gypsy Punk Music. That's a pretty accurate description. And if that's not enough to get you interested in listening to this album, I don't know if the rest of the words that follow will do much else. I had the privilege of seeing the band live, and it's something else entirely. If you like taking into account a band's originally, then this band is one of the most original you could ask for. What is helpful is that I believe any thirty-second clip of the tracks from this album will give you a pretty accurate indication of what they sound like. So check it out.

5. Duran Duran – Red Carpet Massacre – This last spot was tough, but I have to go with my old favorite. I had already heard that Justin Timberlake and Timbaland had done a good job making pop music. They both collaborated with the Fab Five on "Falling Down," resulting in one of the best songs I've ever heard. That song and the rest of the album prove that Duran Duran can still sound fresh and original, and they haven't done that since The Wedding Album.

Honorable Mentions: Porcupine Tree – Fear of a Blank Planet, The Bravery – The Sun and the Moon (didn't make the top 5 since Tim already mentioned it.), The Go! Team – Proof of Youth

Ryan's Top Five

I will attempt to make a credible list despite my lack of albums from last year. That said, the only stuff I've heard has to be the best, right? Right?

1. Various Artists - "The Darjeeling Limited" Soundtrack - OK, I am cheating here but still, this was the best album I bought last year. Awesome songs from The Kinks, et. al.

2. Kanye West - "Graduation" - Not nearly as good as College Dropout, but miles better than Late Registration. I love "Good Life" and "Flashing Lights."

3. Various Artists - "Hot Fuzz" Soundtrack - Cheating again. "The Village Green Preservation Society" is one of my all-time favorites.

4. The Editors - "An End Has A Start" - OK, this is probably better than #4 on this list, but I haven't listened to it enough to slot it any higher.

5. Talib Kweli - "Eardrum" - Talib Kweli is like a poet who raps--literally, he references Shakespeare, Langston Hughes, and others in songs from this album.

Top 5 Surviving Bands

This list is of the best bands that have carried on with good music after one or more of their founders left the band for one of a myriad of reasons (e.g. creative differences, solo ambitions, or death). To give you a good example of what I'm after, I'm not going to be listing Weezer on this list, as in my opinion, all their good music came before Matt Sharp left following Pinkerton. Similarly, the Who never recovered from losing Kieth Moon. For the sake of history, I'll also list who left the bands and why.

Dan's Top 5:

1. Pink Floyd (Syd Barrett, mental problems and drug use) - Pink Floyd is probably the oddest choice I could make, as a majority of their success (both commercially and artistically) comes from songs that were almost directly related to Syd Barrett. So, in essence, the Barrett split defined the band. The most notable of these songs, in my opinion, is the epic "Shine On You Crazy Diamond."

2. Duran Duran (Roger Taylor, retirement, and Andy Taylor, solo career) - In my opinion, the New Duran Duran trio made one of the best pop albums of the 90's in the form of The Wedding Album. Even though the rest of their work is sub-par when compared to before the split, "Come Undone" and "Ordinary World" are just too good, not to mention "Too Much Information." The band would reunite in 2005 for one album before Andy left again in 2006.

3. Genesis (Peter Gabriel, brilliant solo career, Steve Hackett, creative differences) - Really, though this band went through tons of lineup changes, there are two distinct eras - The one with Collins, Rutherford, and Banks, and the earlier one that also included Gabriel and Hackett. The five-member Genesis was extremely artistic, Theatrical Victorian Prog Rock, while the three-member Genesis was the band that produced great 80's pop (see Invisible Touch). Both were amazing, so the band deserves this spot.

4. Van Halen (David Lee Roth, solo career) - The reasons why Diamond Dave split are still debated, but Sammy Hagar took over and led the band (or followed Eddie Van Halen's lead) into more pop-oriented waters. The thing is, it was still good music. 5150 was the first Hagar album as well as their first #1 album, and deservedly so. Gary Cherone sucked, though.

5. AC/DC (Bon Scott, death) - After Brian Johnson joined, they released Back in Black partially in tribute to Bon scott, and that went on to be one of the best-selling albums of all time. However, nothing apart from "Thunderstruck" has really been too good since.

Honorable mentions: The Rolling Stones (I'm sure someone else will put them, so I wasn't worried), The Yardbirds, Smashing Pumpkins

Ryan's Top Five

1. Red Hot Chili Peppers - This is the only band that came to mind at first, so I'll go with it. They lost Hillel Slovak and then went on to produce some of the best music of the (early-mid) 90s. Tory and I, I'm pretty sure, are maybe the only two people who like One Hot Minute more than Blood Sugar Sex Magik.

2. The Flaming Lips - Um, they had quite a few members over the years before they made their two best albums, The Soft Bulletin, and Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots.

3. The Verve - Had a lot of turmoil before Urban Hymns, which, as I pointed previously, is one of the best albums of the 90s. Of course, they've never been as good since, but still. Actually, upon further review, the band broke up before this album, then guitarist Nick McCabe returned to record this album, and then they broke up again. So, I'm keeping it here, because the spirit of turmoil was so determined and admirable.

4. AC/DC - See Dan's entry, Back in Black was by far their best.

5. Pink Floyd - I slot them this low because I really like Syd Barrett's stuff.

I'm out.

Tim's Top 5:
1. Guided by Voices - (Tobin Sprout, Jim Pollard, Greg Demos, Jim McPherson...everyone who was ever in the band aside from Bob Pollard at some point...) This band went through dozens of lineups, but at the core, it remained solid, so that my favorite album of GbV's featured a lineup that would appear on no others (though Doug Gillard remained an integral part until the end).

2. The Ramones - (I can't go through the whole list, I'm not that much of a fan) There were eight of them, their music is, to me, relatively indistinguishable for most of their existence, I don't long for the presence of any particular members of the Ramones. This is all I have to say about the Ramones right now.

3. Pearl Jam - (a Spinal Tap-ish collection of drummers -- Dave Krusen, Matt Chamberlain, Dave Abbruzzese, Jack Irons -- a popular mention on this list) - Granted, it's a drummer, few bands (Zeppelin, The Who) would have been brought down by the loss of a drummer. That said, it's also a ton of drummers. And it's had no impact. Ten is still Pearl Jam's worst album, Matt Cameron is their best drummer, although Jack Irons was certainly sufficient.

4. Oasis - (Tony McCarroll after Definitely Maybe, Bonehead and Guigsy after Be Here Now, Alan White after Heathen Chemistry) -- Again, two of these were drummers, but it counts. They're not a great band anymore, but their albums continue to be better than they'll get credit for from the jaded Americans who seem to have grown skeptical of British acts. Heathen Chemistry and Don't Believe the Truth are both far better than advertised, and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants is a better album than anyone really remembers.

5. OK Go - (Andy Duncan, this is purely theoretical) Duncan left after they finished recording Oh No, so his replacement has not appeared on any albums, but they were good live after Duncan left, so I therefore can conclude that his loss will be negligible. I really have no contribution to offer to this Top 5 list whatsoever.

Frankly, I'd do far better with bands that utterly collapsed after a personnel shift (Chris Bell-less Big Star would top the list)

Top 5 Songs With Animal References in the Title

In continuation with our ongoing theme of musical titles... songs with references to animals in the title. Must actually be the name of a general animal, and not a proper name (e.g. if someone were to write a song called "Free Willy," it would not be accepted. Thank god no one has, though.)

Dan's Top 5:

1. The Beatles - Blackbird - Probably one of the best acoustic ditties ever.

2. Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf - The best pop song I've ever heard, hands down.

3. Peter Gabriel - Shock the Monkey - One of my other favorite pop songs ever, it gets more and more points because Peter says "monkey" so many times.

4. The Pixies - Monkey Gone To Heaven - I don't know why, but I really like this one. It also pays to show you like something by the Pixies besides "Where is My Mind?"

5. Cake - Sheep Go To Heaven, Goats Go To Hell - I like the metaphor in this one, as it's effective, yet straightforward enough that any idiot can work it out.

Ryan's Top Five

Some prefacing is in order. You really could do a Top 5 with only Beatles songs and be pretty fine. That said, that would be a bit boring, and there's loads of other worthy songs. Once again, the "honorable mentions" for this list are aptly named.

1. Badly Drawn Boy - Year of the Rat - I don't want to oversell Badly Drawn Boy, but I'll do so anyway: he is a musical genius. This is one of his best; he re-energizes a definitively tired theme--this is, basically, a peace-is-the-answer song that even features a children's chorus. And yet, this song still kicks ass, and manages to sound completely original. His instrumentation is amazing.

2. The Beatles - I Am The Walrus - Even in a list that avoids a lot of Beatles classics, this one deserves special mention. One of those "epic" songs that The Beatles excelled at (A Day In The Life comes to mind). Earns bonus points because Lennon wrote some lyrics intentionally to mess with the minds of English teachers, which is the musical equivalent of Edgerrin James telling a reporter, "You know, I had to score that last touchdown, for the fantasy players."

3. Harry Nilsson - The Puppy Song - A lovely pop song that not everyone has heard. Comes with standard feel-good lyrics, but not too-feel-good--basically, the lyrical attitude that characterized most of Nilsson's masterful career. "I'd take my puppy anywhere / La la la la, I wouldn't care / And we would stay away from crowds / And signs that said 'No Dogs Allowed.'" He repeats this first verse in the second and subs 'friend' for 'puppy.' Did I mention I love Harry Nilsson?

4. The Who - Boris the Spider - One of my favorite The Who songs. Try listening to it and not having "Creeepy, craaawly, creepy, crawly, creepy-creepy crawly-crawly creepy-creepy crawly-crawly..." in your head for the rest of the week.

5. Cake - Sheep Go To Heaven - "Goats go to hell." What can I say, I love Cake, and this is one of their best, maybe their best.

Honorable mentions: The Beatles - Hey Bulldog, Octopus's Garden, Blackbird, Rocky Raccoon, Blue Jay Way, And Your Bird Can Sing (almost made it), Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown), Duran Duran - Hungry Like The Wolf (also almost made it), John Lennon - Cold Turkey (the guitar in this is awesome), Led Zeppelin - Black Dog, Rage Against The Machine - Bulls on Parade.

Tim's Top 5:
A very underrepresented animal tops my list...

1. Cobra Starship - Snakes on a Plane (Bring It) - When I hear this song, I remember the sheer mania that surrounded SoaP in my own mind and apparently in the minds of only a handful of other people when it came to actually seeing the movie. It's the ideal soundtrack song, it's memorable enough to be played on the radio, but it also is so ridiculously transparent that you can't help but think of the movie it's associated with. The rest of Cobra Starship's work is pretty middling to poor, but for one brief moment they got it right...and it'll never be August 18, 2006 anywhere else but in my heart.

2. I Am a Walrus - The Beatles - For many years, this was my favorite song. Now, it's at best my third favorite Beatles song (Rain and It's All Too Much are both superior to me now), but it's still a great one. I've still yet to see Magical Mystery Tour, and I'm not sure how I ever reached such a fate.

3. Three Little Birds - Bob Marley - Don't get me wrong, my reggae phase began and ended in the era of Big Mountain (real reggae band) and Inner Circle (not a real reggae band), but Bob Marley is an intriguing musician if you can get into him for reasons other than your frat brother's poster/your interest in smoking pot and needing to find a kindred spirit in this oh-so-rare desire and are unable to meet any living human beings.

4. Blackbird - The Beatles - For some reason, I keep buying Paul McCartney live albums, as if he was in some way getting better as a musician. Most of the songs sound mediocre at best, but Blackbird is still a masterpiece. It is extremely simple, but it's flawless.

5. Bulldog Skin - Guided by Voices - This spot was handed to Norwegian Wood, but I think the Beatles need to be displaced here. Bulldog Skin was one of the closest things Guided by Voices ever had to a hit, since it had a video that was played on MTV during 120 minutes -- the one time I saw it, it was immediately followed by Paranoid Android. But it was from their greatest album, one that's instantly overlooked because it bridged a period between the lo-fi they're really known for and the move to TVT records with Do the Collapse that offered the world Teenage FBI and little else.

Honorable mention: Hey Bulldog, And Your Bird Can Sing, Everybody’s Got Something to Hide But Me and My Monkey - The Beatles; Bird in a Cage – Old 97’s
Slow Cheetah – Red Hot Chili Peppers; Red Dragon Tattoo – Fountains of Wayne; Eagle Eye – Heatmiser; Red Mosquito – Pearl Jam; Sheep Go to Heaven - Cake

Tory's Top Five

1. Beatles - Rocky Raccoon - This makes the number one as it is by the beatles so it is deserved, as well as being my overall favorite song by the beatles. Yet it is one song that we do not have on our iTunes.

2. Elvis - Hound Dog - I don't know why this wasn't even honorably mentioned by anyone. It is definitely a trademark song of Elvis' and may be his most famous. It's at least also in the top 5 Elvis songs in addition to this list.

3. Flight of the Conchords - Albi the Racist Dragon - A dragon is an animal, let's not forget.

4. Pink Floyd - Sheep - This song is so bad ass. It goes through so many tempo changes and singing styles. When it hits "Did you hear, the dogs are dead" it is so utterly sweet.

5. Culture Club - Karma Chameleon - How did you guys miss this awesome eighties staple.

Honorable Mentions: Once again there are a lot of these. Ben Folds - Rock this Bitch (not necissarily a reference to the animal;) Bright Eyes - Down in a Rabbit Hole and Stray Dog Freedom, they didn't make it as they are not my favorite of Bright Eyes, despite his spot as favorite artist; Primus - Tommy the Cat and Fish On, Sailing the Seas of Cheese was an incredibly album; Damien Rice - Elephant, as with Bright Eyes its not one of my favorite songs by Rice; Pink Floyd - When The Tigers Broke Free, this also isn't a reference to the animal, but to tanks, but the name of the tanks are a reference to the animal, so it could've worked; Samuel L. Jackson - Black Snake Moan, amazing but not his original song and its from a movie and so on; Blink 182 - Mutt (see Ryan's upcoming guilty pleasure list.)

Top 5 Songs Containing the Word "World" in the Title

This is an even better idea than the "Sun" list, as there is an abundance of songs for consideration, and they're all usually good. Behold.

Dan's Top 5:

1. Duran Duran - Ordinary World - The most-liked Duran Duran song, apparently. I prefer to listen to most anything off Rio, but this is an amazing song. Probably the first song the group ever did that had some real meaning behind it, too.

2. Oasis - All Around The World - Probably the most infectious pop rock song I know, i would blast this at high volume when driving around, singing along with the "la la la's." Loses it's #1 spot, though, because of AT&T commercials.

3. Peter Gabriel - Secret World - Gradually becoming one of my favorite Peter Gabriel songs ever, it's fairly minimalist but still pretty powerful. Also appeals to me as a bass player. I can't really explain it, just listen to it.

4. David Bowie - The Man Who Sold the World - Our band almost covered this song. I love it's mix of a good guitar track with an awesome bass line.

5. Weezer - The World Has Turned and Left Me Here - For a while, this was my favorite track off the Blue Album. Of course, that's gradually fallen down a few notches, but really an oft-overlooked song.

Very honorable mentions: Cat Stevens - Wild World, R.E.M. - It's the End of the World As We Know It, Tears For Fears - Mad World, Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants to Rule The World, Van Halen - Top of the World

Ryan's Top 5

Like Dan, the honorable mentions for this Top 5 will be VERY honorable. Namely "Ordinary World," which in the end I had to bump for The Old 97's (safe in my knowledge that Dan would include it)...If I'm being honest I really prefer "Come Undone" to "Ordinary World." In any event...

1. Tears for Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World - I gave some thought to putting this at a spot other than #1, but this has been one of my favorite songs for almost a decade now, so I'd be lying if I slotted it anywhere but here. Anyone else notice that this Listing Things leads to run-on sentences?

2. David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World - I almost put this third, but, again, I'd be lying. It's easy to forget how awesome this song is, but as soon as you play it, you hear the guitar, and you're reminded.

3. The Kinks - Nothin' In This World Can Stop Me Worrin' Bout That Girl - Another song from the excellent Rushmore soundtrack. The Kinks are a band I need to devote more attention to.

4. Cat Stevens - Wild World - I also need to devote more attention to Cat Stevens, because I love this song, Into White, Tea for the Tillerman, Here Comes My Baby (another Rushmore great).

5. The Old 97's - King Of All The World - Yet another band that deserves more of my attention, as I've heard roughly ten of their songs, and I've loved them all. This song is good enough to supplant Ordinary World for the five-spot.

Insanely honorable mentions: Duran Duran - Ordinary World, Tears for Fears - Mad World, Gary Jules - Mad World (TFF cover), Mark Mothersbaugh - Hardest Geometry Problem In The World (this would be cheating, I figured), Weezer - The World Has Turned And Left Me Here, Oasis - All Around The World, Daft Punk - Around the World, REM - It's The End Of The World As We Know It, Collective Soul - The World I Know, Paul Simon - All Around The World Or The Myth Of Fingerprints.

Tim's Top 5:
1. Wreckless Eric - Whole Wide World - The true test of any song's intrinsic greatness is how well it stands up to covers, particularly by lesser artists. In this case, the lesser artist was Will Ferrell in the movie Stranger Than Fiction...and it was still stunning. It's a deceptively simple song, but it has a real duality to it, starting very quietly and growing into a late 70s' Undertones-esque pop-punk masterpiece.

2. Neil Young - Rockin' in the Free World - The true test of any song's intrinsic greatness...sounds familiar. Anyway, Pearl Jam is not a lesser artist, but their versions of Rockin' in the Free World can't match Neil's own. It's revolutionary that he can put together this track and Harvest Moon in the span of a few years, but it speaks volumes about Neil Young's ability to play into any number of musical camps. The lyrics of this song are among the best I've ever encountered, and it has a real revolutionary ethos that appeals to me.

3. Old 97's - King of All the World - My recent period of listening to nothing but the Old 97's has indicated to me that I could easily go the rest of my life listening to nothing else, and I wouldn't feel my life was particularly empty because of it. This song is pure pop, more so than even most of the tracks on Satellite Rides, but it's a simple joy. It's a great kickoff to one of the best albums I own. What is it about the Old 97's that makes the first track on every album a masterpiece? Victoria, Time Bomb, Jagged, King of All the World, and Won't Be Home would be the best tracks 99.9% of all bands would ever put out...but they're just the first tracks on the five albums I've got.

4. Paul Simon - All Around the World or the Myth of Fingerprints - The fact that this song would fall fourth on nearly any list seems absurd to me, given that there was an entire month where it was the song set as my wakeup song on my alarm clock -- although given my insomnia, that means I likely woke up to it 10 times. It's my favorite track off Graceland, which is one of my favorite albums through and through, so it pains me to put it fourth...but honesty must prevail -- and it doesn't even come close to third.

5. Cat Stevens - Wild World - Another frequent appearance in my alarm clock, it's one of Cat Stevens' best, as proven by the Mr. Big cover that's not even bad (compare with Rod Stewart ruining The First Cut Is the Deepest and Sheryl Crow giving its ashes a golden shower).

Honorable mention - R.E.M. - World Leader Pretend -- an embarrassingly underappreciated song from Green; Sam Cooke - (What a) Wonderful World -- this was soiled by its association with Urkel; Pearl Jam - World Wide Suicide -- a song I didn't even care for until I actually figured out what the lyrics were...and instantly loved; Nothin' in the World Can Stop Me Worryin' Bout That Girl - an understated classic from the Kinks that singlehandedly makes Rushmore a great movie. Ok...the line "O.R. they?" did that...but the song is awesome.; The World Is Not Enough - Garbage -- a song I enjoy more than I should because of its association with a James Bond movie (albeit a poor one), that just missed the female singer list.