"Nancy Boy"

I can't account for why I love this song. I think Placebo are great, they kick the living crap out of "20th Century Boy" and Brian Molko's got a fantastic voice. It's urgent, nasty and full of life. Maybe it reminds me of what punk used to be like.

"Finishing Touches"

You know when you're so angry you can hardly speak? Someone or something has really rained on your parade and turned the day black..... here's the song you need. You can spit out the lyrics as you sing along: "You can screw everybody I've ever know/But I still won't talk to you on the phone". Warren Zevon R.I.P.

"(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding)"

Sometimes the message gets a great medium: sadly Brinsley Schwartz never made it big, but they left this behind. You can make this song happy, uplifting, sad and downright dirge-like, but it should always leave you with a spring in your step.

"Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes"

I'm sure Kevin Ayers isn't from this planet. This reminds me a little of Charlie Daniels' "Uneasy Rider", a shaggy-dog story of a song, but I can't help laughing whenever I hear it. There's a bunch of eccentrics out there writing songs, but this one is right up there with the loopiest.

"You're So Good To Me"

Once in a while, you have to have a song that just celebrates the limits of human emotion. And there's more than a few Beach Boys songs that do this for me - "God Only Knows" is right up there, as is "Caroline, No". But this song is so damn SIMPLE! It's like looking at a David Hockney painting and saying to your buddy: "Shit, *I* could have done that". And the eternal response is "Yeah, but you didn't: *he* did". Which can be kind of depressing once in a while, but then you get caught up in the sheer joy of the song and it doesn't matter any more.