Five From The Other Side

If you were happy to read a list last year, then I'm hoping you'll be overjoyed to start the new year with another top five list, containing 80% original material.

5: "God Help You Dumb Boy" (Our Lady Of The Broken Spine, Reverend Glasseye And His Wooden Legs) I have a soft spot in my heart for fake Western music. This year, it comes from In a right and proper world, Emo music would sound like this.

4: "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!" (Illinoise, Sufian Stevens) This might be the first album in a long time I had to listen to just to see why so many people hated it. Its godawfully long titles are matched by surprisingly fun hooks. However, this song does lose points for only using zombies as a metaphor. If I'm not impressed when George Romero does that, why should I take it from Stevens?

3: RE: Your Brains (Jonathan Coulton) I was tempted to go with Creepy Doll, just to be different. The trouble is, I don't catch myself singing along to Creepy Doll, and I do chant along to the zombies.

2: "Hard Rock Hallelujah" (The Arockalypse, Lordi) Not only does Lordi destroy cheerleaders, they can also bring them back from the dead. More importantly, they can bring me out of my slumbering, which is something my alarm clock can no longer manage. Lordi is also a good choice to one up Guar lovers.

1: "Sex Changes" (Yes Virgina, The Dresden Dolls,) I've had my fill of buying CD's that just make me think how much better it would sound live. So while I was happy with the Dresden Doll's first two albums, I was really waiting for their music to get a nice shiny coat of studio gloss. Yes Virginia provided a nice varnish, and an increased number of fast numbers to make the miles fly by.

As for cheating, I'll direct your attention to Dr. Steel, Gogol Bordello, Khate, and Twink. Also, I'm just going to assume Tom Wait's Big Box Of B-Sides would have been one of my favorites of last year, if I had known it had been released then.