Nine songs

Grasping at straws for a blog entry today, so let's put the iPod on shuffle and see what pops up...

1. The Cardigans "Do You Believe" Gran Turismo

Most people expect this Swedish band vanished after "Lovefool", a nugget of pure pop bliss that was their lone mainstream American hit, but they're still around. Can't say that this song (available in a live version for your listening pleasure) is one that I'd highlight by a band I like fairly well, but thems the breaks when the iPod is randomly selecting from the 5660 tracks I've loaded onto it.

2. Sufjan Stevens "I Saw Three Ships" Songs for Christmas Vol. II: Hark!

Is it OK to admit that a lot of the popular Christmas music on the radio, especially what rock stations spin, makes me cringe? Stevens' five volume EP set of traditional and new holiday songs is just the thing for me: Christmas music without the saccharine.

3. The Apples in Stereo "The Silvery Light of a Dream" Tone Soul Evolution

Hey iPod, quit messing with what I'm trying to do. This track is almost entirely connective tissue on an album rather than anything one would listen to on its own.

4. The Beatles "Girl" Rubber Soul

Simple yet so satisfying. I don't listen to a lot of pop music on the radio, but one quality that strikes me about it is how it sounds so overproduced. It'll be really interesting to hear if those songs will sound as fresh as this classic forty-plus years later.

5. Big Star "In the Street" #1 Record

You know how there are bands that get name checked by your favorites and eventually you decide to see what all the fuss is about? In this case the praise was more than justified. Some of #1 Record sounds a little too of its time for my tastes--it's no wonder That '70s Show borrowed this for its theme song--but it's still a terrific album. This video shows the reformed band performing it twenty-some years later.

6. The Posies "Love Letter Boxes" Frosting on the Beater

I swear I'm not rigging this. The iPod, in all of its random wisdom, made a pretty cool segue here as members of The Posies played in a reformed Big Star. I'm in no position to list my favorite albums of decades, but this power pop record would probably be in the running for a top ten or twenty of the '90s.

7. The Dave Brubeck Quartet "Take Five" Time Out

A quintessential jazz track that I could listen to again and again and again. It seems like the epitome of vintage cool, whether it is or not. My mom owned this album, and I've since come into possession of her old vinyl LP.

8. The Pipettes "It Hurts To See You Dance So Well" Judy single

When I first heard something from The Pipettes, a modern version in sound and appearance of a '60s girl group, I fell in love instantly and went Google searching to see what else I could find. None of their stuff was available domestically at the time, but various sites had scattered tracks and the UK mix of their debut album. This sounds like an earlier incarnation of the band--the voices are different and the song is shorter--and the lineup in this video may now be out of date as I think two of the singers seen here have left. Regardless, I can't get enough of this kind of peppy retro pop.

9. Sleater-Kinney "Modern Girl" The Woods

This is a vestige of one of the CDs I borrowed from the library, ripped to listen to later, and promptly forgot about. Now it surfaces two years after...

Well, I hope that was fun, instructive, or worthwhile in some small way.