The Apples in Stereo, "About Your Fame"
I do enjoy poking fun at the Apples in Stereo around here, but this is a sweet tune. So, yeah, some of their stuff can be unambitious, but when the pop is dialed in, it's pretty excellent.
Nine Inch Nails, "Corona Radiata"
2005 through 2008 has been Trent Reznor's most productive period, with three full albums and an instrumental one coming out in less time than it usually takes him to make one album. The Slip is the final record of that sequence before he went back into hibernation, and it's generally the most straightforward of the four. Uh, this track notwithstanding. While I think Year Zero is the best of that bunch, there's a catharsis with this record that is satisfying. Again, this dry hump of a song aside.
The Skatalites, "Wood and Water"
Always happy to hear the Skatalites here, this tune coming from their Greetings from Skamania album. As an aside, there actually is a Skamania county here in Washington, a fact that never fails to make me smile. I don't know if they've ever been there, though. I have, it's nice. Don't remember if I listened to this album while there, though.
They Might Be Giants, "If Day For Winnipeg"
I need a term for these sorts of songs that TMBG puts together. Songs that are assembled out of strange instrumentation, with odd rhythms, and a sort of toy-like quality to them. There are often a couple of these things on each of their albums, and they aren't goofs, or at least not more goofy than anything else they do. It's instead clearly playing around with their arrangements and seeing how far they can stretch things, but not for wackiness' sake. Toy rhythms?
The Slackers, "For the Money"
Good ska day! No, the Slackers weren't in the first wave, they're the best (and most traditional) of the third wave. As always, this is irresistable to me. Listen to the Slackers!