i-Pod 15

One of the best things about the i-Pod and i-Tunes is that they keep track of how often you listen to a song. You quickly find out how obsessed you are with songs and bands and begin to wonder if you have problems. I thought it’d be cool to run down my Top25, I think maybe I just list my top fifteen for now, and then every few weeks or month, take a new look at what the Top25/15 are. So with out further Freddy Adu…

1) “Letter from an Occupant” by the New Pornographers – This is the closest a song has come to crack in some time. For the first 1:54 of this song, it’s a catchy pop tune that you enjoy, but nothing more. And then they let Neko Case go wild and she lets her voice put this song over the top. I can’t stop listening to it even though the lyrics, I think, mean nothing. Not that I’m a big lyric fan, but still… no matter “For the love a god you say.”

2) “Nothing” by Mason Jennings – Jennings has been a personal favorite of mine for some time. “Nothing” is one of his more solid songs, nicely put together, nicely sung, and one of those songs you can’t help but tap your foot to. Plus, if you’re a sucker for cute love songs, this one fits the bill.

3) “American Baby” by Dave Matthews Band – This is why you never ever should let someone else uses your i-Tunes. What a bad song. But if you live with someone who may or may not consider Dave as Jesus, well you get stuck with this crap. Don’t listen, just run, whiny Dave was never good and has never sucked so well.

4) “Take Me Out” by Franz Ferdinand – I still don’t know what to do with this song, the first 45 seconds or so of just straight up rock/indie is cool and I love it… and then it turns into disco and you can’t help but grove. Why this song isn’t played at every bar I’ll never be sure.

5) “The Late Greats” by Wilco – My favorite track on A Ghost is Born, just a catchy tune from Tweedy; I like his voice, the fact that he says Romeo, and keeps saying radio.

6) “Maps” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Yeah, I think the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are overrated. Yeah, I can’t get into them. But if you can’t get into this song I feel for you. When Karen O starts lyrically waxing “Wait, they don’t love you like a love you” over and over, but never singing it the same way twice, nothing truer rings true.

7) “Dedicated” by Amps – You had to know that Kim Deal would show up here somewhere, and here she is. I’m actually not a big fan of the start of this song, and then “Demons in the spring, ba-bum” and the song becomes this sort of heartstring pulling lovely. Yeah so the solo is a little lame, but I love the “ba-bum” and “I can hear them sing” and finally “dedicated all to you”. And you realize, hey there are/were times in your life when that is so true.

8) “Crown” by Mason Jennings – Jennings makes his second appearance, and this song one of his most recent, sounds like so many of his others… a late night in the rural Midwest on a train or listening to a train in bed. And then comes the chorus “I don’t want none of this love for you honey, deep deep down in my heart.” Maybe a little cliché, but it’s sung so well.

9) “Where is my Mind” by Pixies – Okay this probably doesn’t make the list a week ago, but things can change quickly in life. “And you ask yourself, where is my mind?” I’ve been asking myself.

10) “New Slang” by The Shins – This is one of those songs that when you first hear it, you want to skip it because it takes too long to get going, but then you think well it is a good song, and then you let it play, and you go, okay this song is great. “Garden State” says that it will change your life, I don’t agree, but it’s a hell of a song.

11) “The Rat” by the Walkmen – I still believe this was the best song of 2004, it just pounds itself into your head and stays there. It sounds so chaotic on so many levels, like there are too many guitars and drums going at once and who ever is singing may or may not be getting killed, but it all works. And the lonely bridge is just perfect for summer, when forwhateverreason you don’t hang out with your peeps as much, or maybe just because there is more day light.

12) “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)” by The Arcade Fire – I think I should feel bad about this song being on here and the rest of the album not, but I don’t. The way the song builds up and signing about digging tunnels from my house to yours… well there is something so beautiful about this song that you have to listen to it.

13) “Romeo” by Basement Jaxx – It’s Friday, I’m walking home from work, I’m listening to “Romeo”. Unless you think dancing is as bad as the Devil, you can’t not move when this comes on, gets me pumped for a Friday or Saturday night.

14) “Big Sur” by Mason Jennings – This one just won’t get away. I like the idea of writing for someone “this is the song to give you hope” and then there is that great guitar work later in the song.

15) “Whatever Happened” by The Strokes – I think this is one of the best-crafted songs in some time, if only because it’s one of the few songs that has a ring composition, peaking at “You don’t miss me… I know.”