The Songs We Can't Escape

CLIPSE FEAT. AB-LIVA
"S.L.U."

The further away from November 4 we get, the bigger the profile of the 2008 Republican VP candidate grows—with the MSM, with TNA, even with crack-rappers. Sez Malice: "Sarah Palin hoes/Kick 'em out, leave the clothes/Back to the pipeline/Luckily, I'm twinkle-toes." Somewhere in Alaska, an ambitious, low-level Palin aide is e-ordering Play Cloths gear and M.I.A. hoodies for the Palin brood.

Ali Mahdawi

The Matthew Herbert Big Band

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LADY SOVEREIGN
"I Got You Dancing"

Just when you'd all but forgotten about her, the self-described Feminem's back, spittin' knuckleheaded-yet-spellbinding nonsense into an Autotune filter (oh, how fucking contemporary) and sporting a 'do that's actually halfway defensible. Really: Lady Sovereign's ferret-like flow is something to be celebrated, a heat-seeking missile that zips, dips, and swerves with a deliriously fluid agility that renders the act of transcription simultaneously impossible and a waste of effort. Suffice it to say that A) you should get up on "I Got You Dancing" post-haste, and B) for some reason it triggers flashbacks to the group cheerleading routines in Bring It On.

THE MATTHEW HERBERT BIG BAND
"Yessness"

This (and the album it appears on) is a lot like attending a big-budget musical about the Roaring Twenties—women in flapper dresses and furs tilting flasks, guys doffing bowler hats, lots of intricate choreography, tom-toms pounding, horns flaring—while blindfolded. Only you won't need theater binoculars or a tux. Sweet!

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
"Working on a Dream"

Listening to the Boss is like being in the care of a tender, patient lover: The guy just knows, intuitively, how to stir the universal soul and brand a lyric into the memory. The richest 1 percent aside, who can't relate to the titular sentiment? All of us are striving, in ways small and large, to evolve into something greater than we are. Nothing political, controversial, or boycott-worthy about that. (cf. John Mayer's "Bigger Than My Body.")

WAVVES
"Teenage Super Party"

The homemade speed in San Diego must be downright out-of-this-world. The homemade speed served at secret teenage super parties, in any event.