PBNSOTW

Pay attention, aspiring rock stars. Spoon gets to the meat of the song quickly, writes a darkly intriguing lyric, and keeps the production clean and spare with the vocal right out front. I love the grand piano left hand notes providing growl and dimension.

Alma Naidu now holds the record for appearances on PBNSOTW with three. She's brilliant, and you owe it to yourself to listen through to Wondering, it will heal some part of your angst.

Never heard of Tino Drima before, but I like this song. And Pismo Beach. So it's a twofer. Lou Reed meets the B-52's and everybody goes out for cocktails.

Erin Rae makes a well-deserved second appearance on PBNSOTW. The intro of this song will have the center line of California 1 playing in your head.

I admit to a bias for Keb' Mo', but this song stands on its own. The fact that I have an enormous celebrity crush on Ms. Chenoweth doesn't influence this choice. Really. Stop it. Leave me alone. Nice use of strings.

This week's problem child is an artist I'm not familiar with, Will Joseph Cook. 4am breaks several rules needlessly and gets in its own way to the point where most new listeners will have abandoned it by the 20 second mark. Starts with annoyingly pronounced lyrics, synthy saxes, and someone pounding on drywall for what feels like forever. Then all of a sudden at 1:17 a great song happens. Ends with a completely unneccesary phone call in the last :12.