We finally dropped below zero, baby! God Bless Chicago!
1. “To Ramona,” Bob Dylan, 1964. Fairly low-key effort from his “pure folk” era. 5/10
2. “Driving Along,” Harry Nilsson, 1971. One of the best songs from one of the albums that, to me, defines the early 1970’s. 8/10
3. “It Never Changes to Stop,” The Books, 2005. I’ll be honest, the songs on this album all kind of blend together in my mind. Which may be the point, but that doesn’t make it memorable. Listening to it right now, I’m enjoying it enough, though. 6/10
4. “Masterfade,” Andrew Bird, 2005. Only on Mysterious Production of Eggs could a song this fantastic not even make the top half of the album for me. 8/10
5. “Bennie and the Jets (live),” Elton John, 1976. One of those live recordings that adds nothing to the album version. 4/10
6. “Four Sticks,” Led Zeppelin, 1971. Oh please. They’ve done so much better. 5/10
7. “Fearless,” Pink Floyd, 1971. This year is getting a weird amount of play tonight…one of only two songs on Meddle I really like, but it’s still pretty far from their best work. 5/10
8. “The Card Cheat,” The Clash, 1979. Right square in the middle of London Calling, quality-wise. Which puts it pretty high, actually. 7/10
9. “Night Owl Blues,” The Lovin’ Spoonful, 1965. Wow, it’s a…Lovin’ Spoonful…album cut. An instrumental. 3/10
10. “Love and Some Verses,” Iron & Wine, 2004. I will always prefer Sam Beam alone in a basement to this latter-era, well-produced crap. But it’s still so pretty…. 6/10
Average: 5.7/10
Bonus Track: “The Bagman’s Gambit,” The Decemberists, 2005.