"Stay On These Roads"

I don't want to talk about this. It's by A-Ha, I think it's fab, if totally incomprehensible, and that's all I'm going to say on the subject.

"Exit"

I suspect that U2 bear more than a small responsibility for latter-day Manic Street Preachers. U2 can't walk past a song without turning it into an anthem, which is why this is so unusual and such a treat. It's like the Velvet Underground were writing about a firing squad - there's real darkness in here, like some Freudian couch-trip, and it explodes into jackhammer life. Another great song if you're dark-angry and feeling like you want to punch the wall.

"In The Bath"

I'm a fan of ambient music these days. I like the fact that you can project your own images over it, that you don't always *have* to listen for a lyric. Lemonjelly seem to have a great sense of humor too, which means that you can toy with some fun imagery. It's hard to describe ambient music, though... This has a rolling beat, cascading strings in the background, and really does make great listening when you're in the bath.

"Heroes"

Possibly one of the very few songs out there that really, really deserves the name "epic". I'd never totally trusted David Bowie - when I first listened to Ziggy Stardust and properly understood it, I began to wonder where *he* really was in all this. Everything he wrote seemed to me too cool, too icy calm, too......remote. And then I heard this, and for a brief moment, I hoped he was being honest. Now, I'm not so worried about his honesty, just the song's. This is fantastic: the hooting synthesizer completely makes this track, and the fact that out of all that cold, electronic whirlwind he produced such a passionate vocal just slam-dunks this one.

"Welcome to the Boomtown"

I got into David & David while I was living in Washington DC for a while, working restaurants and watching the yuppies get on with their lifestyles. This was a perfect soundtrack: acidic, edgy, spearing the unutterable self-satisfaction of an entire generation. You could have played this over Robert Downey's death scene in "Less Than Zero" and it would have been perfect.

"I'm On My Way"

My kids introduced me to this. I knew about the Proclaimers already, and I furtively liked "500 Miles", but this is great. It marches along like some deeply uncool song by some half-remembered sweater-clad grand-dad, but who cares? It brings a smile to my face. And I'm a fan of Scottish accents anyway.

"Every Night"

Phoebe Snow has an incredible voice. That is all.