Janelle Monáe

The Flaming Lips, “The Sparrow Looks Up at the Machine”

They should have kept that noise from the first few seconds going throughout. Just go full abrasive. It would make me happy, anyway.

Mudhoney, “Burn It Clean”

One of the delightful bits of early Mudhoney is how often you can just hear someone yelling, belching, or otherwise making noise at the beginning or ending of tracks. It’s an excellent choice to leave that stuff in. The “hey jackass!” at the start of this really sets the tone.

The Suicide Machines, “Punck”

Punk!

UGK, “The Game Belongs To Me”

Underground Kingz is one of those rarities, a rap double album that doesn’t end up feeling totally shaggy and unnecessary. While, yes, it does have some filler here and there, it’s mostly a very likeable listen, and Bun B in particular is always a pleasure to listen to.

The Skoidats, “Rootsawalkin'”

It’s a bit of a ripoff using the horn intro from “Guns of Navaronne” and then not have it be the song. I paused this and went and listened to that song instead and then came back. That said, this isn’t a bad tune, thick with horns and with a nice, frantic groove to it. It’s not the Skatalites, but nobody is. Except the Skatalites, I suppose.

We’ve got several folks here who are reaching high for art here.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor, “Peasantry or ‘Light! Inside Of Light!’”

Pretension is not, in and of itself, a bad thing. If you have the bombast and chops to pull it off, pretension really just turns into ambition. And Godspeed You! Black Emperor really do have the chops to make it work. Yes, their song and album titles are nonsense, but who cares when you get to listen to something like this. The brigaded violins, the sweep of guitars, the stately waltz of the whole thing, it’s just gorgeous. Also, this song is close to being as long as the entire playlist yesterday.

Kind of distant and/or futuristic there for a while, until we hit the last song.

Sigur Rós, “Untitled 8”

Icelandic post-rock group Sigur Rós make long, abstract songs that pretty much all sound like the soundtrack to something. Despite this theoretically being something I should be very into, this album (( )) did nothing for me, and I haven’t picked up any of the rest of their stuff. I’m not sure why.