Skinnerbox, "Trying To Be Cool"
Skinnerbox's What You Can Do, What You Can't is a charming album from the third wave, full of personality and a distinctive sound, especially King Django's vocals. Alas, the followup record Demonstration, which gives us this tune, feels really flattened. It sounds to me like a bit of a cynical shot at radio play by injecting some punk into the sound, and it just kind of makes Skinnerbox sound like everybody else.
The National, "Bloodbuzz Ohio"
I've thought a lot about why I don't love The National. It seems like I should, I mean listen to those drums! But I think I fundamentally just don't like the vocals. I just don't care for the aesthetics. I don't hate the band or anything, I can listen to them, but the vocals are always going to be a rock in my shoe.
PUP, "A.M. 180"
Speaking of bands I've never really gotten, I've mentioned not getting Grandaddy before here. But PUP doing Grandaddy songs? I'm cool with that! We should make all of Grandaddy's records out of PUP!
Wait, is this the first PUP song we've had? That's dumb! They're the best Canadian punk band going!
Wormed, "Agliptian Codex Cyborgization"
I should train an AI on metal song titles and see what it coughs up.
King Crimson, "21st Century Schizoid Man Including Mirrors"
Vampire Weekend, "Step"
One of my favorite songs from Modern Vampires of the City, I'm just going to stay out of the way on this one.