Three more

Janet Kay, "Silly Games" - Every few months, I start listening to reggae again, although given how loud my friends tend to collectively groan whenever I set off on one of these phases you might not even need to be told. Well, fuck my friends; if I have to listen to music they couldn't possibly care less about in order to dig up a song with as much palpable splendor as "Silly Games", then they're just going to have to grin and bear it. It really should say a lot that my immediate frame of reference for this song is the Flying Picketts' cover of "Only You"; I do hate to hold a song up to comparison against one of my very favorite songs in the history of me listening to music since damn near anything's going to suffer by comparison, but fuck it - the "Only You" cover is pretty much my gold standard when it comes to music so gorgeous that it takes dozens of listens to start scratching the surface of all the intricacy that makes it work and gives it shape, and "Silly Games" comes as close to scaling that peak as any song I've found in years and years and years. I mean, obviously the first few trips through it I was distracted by all the obvious stuff - the warmth of the keys, the feather-light skitter of the drums, THOSE HIGH NOTES MY GOD YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO CONTAIN YOURSELVES SERIOUSLY GO PICK UP SOME ADULT DIAPERS RIGHT NOW OKAY I WARNED YOU - but somewhere between my fiftieth- and sixtieth-thousand listenings I started picking up on how much crazy shit was percolating just below the surface. Hell, it's a sparse-enough song that you can probably pick any element of it, follow it through the song, and just get your wig pushed back by how much studio space it explores; I spent most of my iPod time at work today trying to come up with a way to freebase the double-tracking on the vocals, and that's after like a week straight of just trying to follow the drums as they meander around the track. Plus there's the fact that all this sub rosa greatness happens to show up on a song about how Kay wishes she or her equally timid paramour could just cut loose and make things plain - I mean, I know I've gone on and on and etc about how I don't give much of a shit about what songs are, y'know, about, but that's a pretty cool little way to let you tap into the song's substance. Just an utterly inarguable classic. (Click here to buy Reggae Love Songs, inarguably the greatest lovers rock compilation ever by virtue of having this song AND Dawn Penn's "No No No", from Amazon.co.uk)

Explainer, "Lorraine" - I've been dying to post this song for a while now, but up until this weekend I only had an infuriatingly shitty rip of it - not that this rip at 128's ideal, of course, but it'll probably take you about four seconds to realize that (a) it's the kind of song that dies a thousand deaths every time any element gets lost in the mix, and (b) it's a great enough song that at some point you just have to shut up and share. It's just so vibrant and alive, six minutes of crazy strumming and jazzy brass and silly whistles and gloriously uncomplicated lyrics and on and on and on. I was actually introduced to this song by way of a book and a digitalized 2005 remake (in that order), so this version of the song is still pretty new to me; frankly right now they could strip the whole thing down to just the strumming and I'd be fine, although of course I'd miss those horns something fierce. It really is a shame that America's soca consciousness doesn't extend any farther than "Hot Hot Hot" - I mean, if we're going to point our tunnel vision at one song, we might as well pick a song that's fun to listen to instead of just fun to soundtrack used car dealerships' summertime sales drives. (Click here to buy The Very Best of Explainer from eCaroh)

The Fox, "Ride On" (ATOC Disco Dub) - I get a lot of emails from artists asking me to check out their music, but it's pretty rare that I get contacted by anyone with a body of work I can actually cite. Needless to say it was party time over the weekend when I opened up my email to find a conversational (i.e. NOT A FORM LETTER - seriously, Joe and Jane Emo Band From Flyover Country, that's a surefire way to make me hold off on listening to your song until I'm stoned and snarky) email from someone over at A Touch Of Class, a label I've been quite fond of ever since picking up A Touch Of Class Sucks!, their tragically slept-on compilation a few years ago; she was actually asking me if I'd like to check out the spankin' new ATOC remix of the Gossip's "Listen Up", but as great as it is (and it's GREAT) I ultimately decided against it when The Prettiest Pony unsurprisingly already has yr hookup. Besides, this gives me a chance to shill for the aforementioned comp - I still say the high water mark is this frantic Rapture-ization of the Fox's "Ride On", but really, the biggest strength of Sucks! is its variety; ATOC is nothing if not heirs to the majestic Ze Records espirit of cheerful sleaziness, and buying Sucks! on the basis of the "Ride On" remix would be kinda like buying Mutant Disco having only heard "Contort Yourself". Of course, I for one would call that the most joyfully eye-opening experience ever, and I'd wager that buying Sucks! on a basis like that wouldn't be too shabby a bargain either, but HEY! that's for you to decide. (Click here to buy A Touch Of Class Sucks! from Amazon.com)