Shuffle 4

1. The Rolling Stones-Coming Down Again: Nice woozy sounding ballad from Goat's Head Soup, an underrated albeit flawed album. It sounds a bit like a leftover from Exile On Main Street. Keith Richards sings on this one, and he lacks the charisma and vocal talent of Mick Jagger, and his voice these tracks are often buried in the mix. It works on this song though. Allegedly the song is about Keith's relationship with his then girlfriend, though considering Keith Richards' reputation, it's not surprising to think of this a drug song.

2. Tom Waits-Bride of Rain Dog: Brief instrumental interlude from Rain Dogs. A nice jaunty tune with good sax. Doesn't really work outside of the album though.

3. Bob Dylan-I Shall Be Free No 10: Those who know me, know that I love Bob Dylan. He's a songwriter who works across the entire spectrum; from silly to sublime, heartbreaking to political and everything in between. A friend of mine says Bob Dylan is one of those guys who's stuff shouldn't work, but it does. This song is quite silly.

4. Leonard Cohen-Last Year's Man: I fucking love Leonard Cohen! This is a standout from Songs Of Love and Hate, one of my favorite albums. One can almost suffocate from all the despair in this song. Usually he displays a fair amount of black humor, but on this album, he just seemed really pissed, bitter and depressed. I dig the minimal instrumentation on this song. And, oh yes, great lyrics.

5. Radiohead-How to Disappear Completely: I like Radiohead, but i don't love them. I will say that Kid A is a brilliant album, full of interesting sounds, but I never feel like listening to it. In Rainbows is really good though. This is a pretty subtle song, one that can easily be relegated to background music. Love the squealing violins at the end.

6. Destroyer-Trembling Peacock: You'd think with a name like Destroyer there'd be some crazy rock and roll. Instead you get some Bowie influenced singer-songwriter shit. While that description might make one shy away. It isn't annoyingly introspective, rather clever and self-aware. I'm quite a fan of this band, though this song isn't that great.

7. Black Flag-Jealous Again: Another killer Black Flag from their first four years. Speedy, angry punk before they became annoyingly macho. Greg Ginn rips it with a killer solo as well.

8. Elliott Smith-Memory Lane: Solid song from the late, much adored Elliott Smith. I like this song, it's got a nice jaunty melody and pleasant lyrics that avoid being overly precious or maudlin. I've never thought that Elliott Smith was that great of a lyricist, but he crafts melodies that make up for it.

9. Led Zeppelin-What is and What Should Never Be: It's Led Zeppelin, so of course it rocks! Rocks hard! Interestingly this song kind of pre-dates the popular (especially in crappy late 90's grunge type stuff) songwriting technique of soft verses that explode into loud choruses. Love the call and response guitars at the end.

10.Big Boi w/Khujo Goodie-N2U: Big Boi has always been the most underrated part of OutKast. Andre3000 has the flashier personality and wrote Hey Ya, but Big Boi is an excellent (if occasionally mysoginistic) rapper with a great flow that wraps itself around the beat. This is one of the standouts from the Idlewild soundtrack, a funky and Prince-like song about fucking, though it must be said that with OutKast, the whole is greater than the parts.