Okay, the game is to critique five random tracks from the iPod, with the specific instruction not to skip anything that’s uncool. Here we go:
Ludacris - “Hip Hop Quotables” - I gave this three stars at some point, just because the title suggests that he’s trying to be as funny as possible in a short space. I am not hearing a single line that made this track jump out at me, but Ludacris does make references to croquet and Hyundai, so that’s basically what you need to know about that.
India and Tito Puente - “What a Difference a Day Makes” - probably the only jazz album I know. I first heard this song in 1999 on the bus on the jazz and traffic information station. The first verse is in Spanish, and the whole thing is disorienting, stimulating, and over-the-top. I didn’t ask if it was okay to put on the CDs that played at our wedding reception: I just put it there. I still have my wedding-music playlist on my iPod, and I still play it occasionally.
They Might Be Giants - “(She Was A) Hotel Detective” - I still can’t imagine what John F. was going for when he wrote this song. I’ve been hating it now for 14 years. I was shocked to see the video as a teenager, since I definitely recognized having seen it years before, but remembered nothing about the song or the band. The sequel is definitely better: in my top twenty of TMBG all-time.
Jay-Z and Linkin Park - “Points of Authority / 99 Problems / One Step Closer” - I really like the fact that Jay lets Mike handle the first verse here, since it includes lines like “I don’t know what you take us (me) as, or understand the intelligence that Jay-Z has”, but my favorite is “if you grew up with holes in your zapatoes, you’d be celebrating the minute that you had some dough“. Two other things: the redo of this collaboration at the Grammys (swapping in “Yesterday”, featuring Sir Paul McCartney, for One Step Closer) was pretty hard to watch. Jay-Z yapping “yeah” and “that’s right” over actual Paul McCartney actually singing “Yesterday” made an uncomfortable moment into an unintentionally funny one, so I suppose I can thank him for that.
Mike Doughty - “Unsingable Name (live 2004)” - Is it just me, or did the overproduction of Haughty Melodic strip a lot of the charm from Mike Doughty? His stuff is naturally weird, and the new album seemed pretty square. He’s a very human and vulnerable writer, and too much production makes him sound extremely well-practiced, almost invincible. Either way, this is one of the better tracks on the album, and it’s great (better?) live.
