The Songs We Can't Escape

TWO TONGUES
"Even If You Don't"

Nice try, Two Tongues. You thought that by uniting your emo-punk bands, Say Anything and Saves the Day, in solidarity, you might revive your moribund, commercially bankrupt genre. You were wrong, of course, yet we thank you for reminding us that "Even"—Ween's circa-2000 dysfunctional/codependent tragicomedy single—is totally fucking brilliant.

CUTTY BOI
"Let's Race"

Some notable hip-hop/NASCAR collusions have occurred over the last few years, but this one takes the cake. North Carolina spitter Cutty Boi isn't simply flossin' with Kyle Busch in a commercial, or dropping a stray Juan Pablo Montoya reference. No, this dude displays an appreciation for stock-car culture so sincere—even the pit crews get some dap—that NASCAR execs felt compelled to hand him a Daytona 500 promo platform. "Daytona 500, that's kickin' the season off/Ten months from now, will Jimmie still be the boss?" the self-proclaimed "Mr. NASCAR" muses, in what's either the most cynical of marketing moves or a sign that the world we're living in has changed pretty drastically.

D. RIDER
"Dear Blocks"

Is the willful defacement of public (or private) property with spraypaint just, well, that: pure vandalism? Or is the act infused with no small measure of self-actualization, of fleeting immortality? Tripwire guitars and the rattles and hisses of cans insist the latter is true.

HYPOCHONDRIOSIS
"Abandoned Homes"

Say, whatever happened to Boards of Canada? This Finnish outfit—who tread a path of similarly soft-focus unease—invite you to imagine your village drained of life by a mysterious vapor just prior to turning in for the evening.

COURTNEY LOVE
"Loserdust (demo)"

As a longtime fan and defender of Mrs. Cobain, it pains me to admit that, yeah, maybe she's just over at this point. The Nobody's Daughter demos are just atrocious, MOR laziness, and even after a cabal of producers spitshine them, it's hard to imagine what audience they'll appeal to.