As promised, more about the meme

1. Uusitalo: "Tulenkantaja"
   
   One of the less interesting monikers of Finnish house producer Sasu Ripatti. There isn't much interesting about this track our the album that shares its name. I would recommend two of his previous albums, Vocalcity (as Luomo) and The Four Quarters (as Vladislav Delay), far more than this one.
   
   
2. The Mountain Goats: "In Corolla"
   
   In reassuring to know that despite signing to 4AD and working with John Vanderslice, John Darnielle will never stray far from what works for him: focus on melody and lyrics. Four albums after abandoning the home-cassette approach to recording, The Mountain Goats have allayed my persistent fear that production would eventually overtake substance. Though not their best album, it's not far behind All Hail West Texas or The Coroner's Gambit.
   
   
3. Lou Reed: "Andy's Chest"
   
   Transformer is among the finest records ever made despite Lou Reed's far-from-perfect voice and almost embarrassingly silly lyrics. What makes this album spectacular, I think, is how Lou delivers so confidently as if everyone else is a fool for not making surreal and goofy music. And indeed they are.
   
   
4. Suede: "Daddy's Speeding"
   
   Probably my favorite Suede song ever. Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler were at each other's throats when this song was written and recorded, but it hints at the heights they could have reached if Butler had stayed. Ten years later, I was thrilled that they had started working together again as The Tears. The new record is decent, but it lacks the intensity they once had. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they can find their voice again on the next one.
   
   
5. Meat Beat Manifesto: "United Nations Etc. Etc."
   
   At the Center is my least favorite MBM album and one of the worst records I heard in 2005. This song sounds so much like any other generic dub/breakbeat track that it hardly seems worth the effort and expense of recording it. Jack Dangers should just hang it up. I can't think of anyone else who started out so great and fell so far.
   
   
6. Stereolab: "Analogue Rock"
   
   This doesn't stick out as one of their best, but I have never heard a bad Stereolab song.
   
   
7. Avenue Q Original Broadway Cast: "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist"
   
   For a gay man, I could easily be considered a musical theater illiterate (despite the fact that my dreams are often musicals). This and Rent are the only cast recordings I own.
   
   
8. Daniel Johnston: "Sorry Entertainer"
   
   I'm a late-comer to what Isabella Rossellini's character in The Simpsons might call "outsider music" (made by hillbillies, mental patients or chimpanzees). My introduction to Daniel Johnston came earlier this year in the form of the sprawling greatest-hits comp Welcome to My World. Some oversensitive types object to what they see as the exploitation of Johnston's mental illness. However, have you ever heard any great musicians that weren't mentally ill? Should we not listen to The Cure for fear of exploiting Robert Smith's alcoholism? Or Cocteau Twins because of Liz Fraser's speech disorder? Artists make art from the resources at their disposal, including any physical or mental infirmities. Now I just have to find an album made by chimpanzees...
   
   
9. Belle & Sebastian: "Marx and Engels"
   
   Belle & Sebastian are one of those rare bands whose b-sides are frequently better than their singles and whose EPs are better than their albums. The Life Pursuit excluded, of course.
   
   
10. The Cure: "Pictures of You"
    
    If I made a mixtape of the saddest songs ever, this would be track one. It reminds me of an old friend - let's call him Larry - and his deceased partner - let's call him Jim. Jim had a congenital heart defect that caused him to need a heart transplant in his late 20s. He rejected the transplanted heart and died at the age of 33. Larry and he had been together just over ten years. Jim had been one class away from completing his B.A. A few months later, Larry received a letter from the university telling him that they had decided to award Jim his degree posthumously. Larry still keeps it in a frame to this day. I think about this whenever I hear this song and I usually shed a tear or two for Larry and Jim.