I’m outta here as soon as I fix the flux capacitor: The best of MF Doom

A storyteller whose couplet-by-couplet sequences conjure realities as bent as Julio Cortazar’s, the late Daniel Dumile was a world-class rapper and first-rate producer. Only RZA matches him in the fluency with which he weaves musique concrète and samples of Fantastic Four and other cultural detritus. And as with other garrulous musicians like The Minutemen distinguishing

Ranking #17 singles, U.S. edition: 1978-82

I can praise Boz Scaggs’ pre-Avalon peak, or submit two paragraphs on Evelyn King’s “Love Come Down,” one of the sharpest of post-disco singles because it goes ALL. THE WAY. DOWN; but Steve Martin got this high on the top forty with a valentine to DISCO TUT. I will, however, well on Billy Joel, who

Ranking #19 singles, U.S. edition: 1982-1986

My second favorite .38 Special churn, Diana Ross’ Daryl Hall-Arthur Baker-assisted tuneful twaddle, and the only Fixx single to mean something besides semi-attractive syllables stretched like chewing gum over post-Rodgers rhythm guitar — imagine their former client Tina Turner covering it, and I’m not joking. The Hague Howard Jones – Life in One Day REO

Ranking #15 singles, U.S. edition: 1972-1975

Imagine choosing between Zep, ABBA, and The Four Tops — different levels of hysteria and cultural ubiquity. David Bowie makes his first American top 40 appearance competing with John Denver and Bread, the latter of whom are responsible for a concentration on mush so severe that I wonder if David Gates could’ve worked with Quaker

Ranking #14 singles, U.S. edition: 1979-1982

Without looking at the chart positions, a casual reader might say, “New Wave won!” In 1979 and 1980, that’s how it looks when Pretenders, Devo, and The Cars peaked below the top ten with their most characteristic singles.

Ranking the singers in “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”

Friends know I’m not a fan of this tinselly twaddle. The “feed the world” chorus boasts Kool & the Gang, Jody Watley, and Bananarama — didn’t Midge Ure and Bob Geldof give’em a line or two? At least USA For Africa’s “We Are the World” included women and people of color, most of whom understood

Ranking ‘Songs in the Key of Life’

The culmination of a remarkable hit streak, Songs in the Key of Life coalesced Stevie Wonder’s vaporous one-world banalities and funk touchstones in a double-album-plus that became a world-conquering smash. It’s not his best album, nor the album to which you’d introduce a skeptic, but the space allows him occupancy of certain corners of black

Ranking ‘Physical Graffitti’

I’ll swear New Order took heart from Led Zeppelin’s titling methods. “All the Way”? As vague as “In the Light”? “Broken Promise”? See “Custard Pie.” The second biggest zell-ing Zep album has more than its share of classics, but to glance at the sleeve is to wonder, “Oh, so which is the one with the

Ranking The Beatles’ ‘White’ Album

Purchased after a summer of seeping myself in Beatles lore, The White Album didn’t incarnate what I wanted from the quartet. Y’all need to remember 1990 wasn’t a particularly fecund time for said lore, even with World Party, Jellyfish, Crowded House, etc, not to mention a huge Paul McCartney world tour, populating the landscape. For

The fifteen best Randy Newman covers

Although I respect Randy Newman and play with pleasure several albums, I recoil from the high fructose corn syrup of a vocal attack that’s supposed to convey irony. Harry Nilsson, who recorded an album of Newman, remains his most fluent interpreter; otherwise, give me Ray Charles or Dusty Springfield. Not Three Dog Night turning “Mama

Ranking Roy Orbison’s American and UK top forty hits

I find the collapse of his American chart success after “Oh Pretty Woman” startling and unexplainable. Sure, the material wasn’t up to what he and Fred Foster made into the candy-colored psychodramas, but to think he never charted higher than #21 (“Goodnight”) until 1989’s Wilbury-written comeback “You Got It”!

Ranking Rick Springfield’s American top forty singles

A magpie whose visual instincts made him an MTV fixture well into the High Reagan era, Rick Springfield is an odd duck, his talents still unappreciated. I distrust power pop, yet “Love is Alright Tonight,” his Hagar cover, and especially “Jessie’s Girl” were taut, snotty delights in the radio doldrums of 1981-1982. Then he discovered