The Songs We Can't Escape

This week, we cast a fleeting glance back at 2007's putrefying corpse, shrug, and move on.

DEERHOOF
"+81"

Here's a furiously cheery pop cure for the next time your roommate's all, "Life's an empty facade, there's rotten lettuce in my taco, I'm gonna off myself."

LIL' WAYNE
"Put Some Keys on That"

In five years, no one will remember either Rich Boy or his single, "Throw Some D's." Yet Lil' Wayne's Da Drought 3 gloss on that song is colossal, just one of the Young Money head/microphone overachiever's finest 2007 freestyles. Remember how, as he was approaching the end of his presidency, Bill Clinton would stay up late every night to create the illusion that by doing so he could prolong his Oval Office stay indefinitely? I think that's sort of what Wayne's pulling by piling up the mix tapes/guest spots and continually delaying Tha Carter III. When that joint drops—amazing or lame—everything will suddenly be...different somehow.

DINOSAUR JR.
"Almost Ready"

The joke? No need for an "almost"—J., Lou, and Murph were ready, and swung back into the underground rock game as though they never bickered and split up in the first place, delivering unto Indieville the liberating, tuneful Beyond.

FALL OUT BOY
"Thriller"

No Jacko (cameo or steal), just Jay-Z dropping in on this rousing, arrogant anthem-manifesto because, well, he can. Wentz and Co. are, yup, as gifted as we wish they weren't.

THE SMASHING PUMPKINS
"That's the Way (My Love Is)"

"You should call on me, baby/I'm always there for you," head Pumpkin Billy Corgan assured us a few numbers into "reunion" album Zeitgeist. If he meant "always there to fleece us," then, yeah. The chrome-domed dude issued seven editions of this sub par record in 2007, tacking on various lures—b-sides, a DVD, a book—with an eye to trumping downloaders and inflating sales. Six months after the release date, the alt-rockers can't even flaunt gold status. Pathetic, sad, and a reflection of the utter shambles the music industry is in right now.