MP3 – [right-click/save-as] (16.5 MB)
21. “Well Thought Out Twinkles” – Silversun Pickups
If loving Smashing Pumpkins is wrong, then Silversun Pickups don’t wanna be right: bombastically dreamy alt-rock that surges from a whisper to a shriek.
22. “O Valencia!” – the Decemberists
True love takes a hit in a bullets-and-hot-rods adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, fueled by spangled folk-rock guitar and garage-combo organ.
23. “Smile” – Lily Allen
This deceptively named ditty was ’06’s most gloriously bitter breakup song: Part Mike Skinner, part Gwen Stefani, part Blondie, the young Allen defined her very own bratty, musically adventurous style on “smile,” a reggae-lite platter about the joys of an ex’s despair.
24. “The Wonder” – Figurines
25. “You Only Live Once” – the Strokes
A sharp-twang cocktail of bravado and concession from the recently married Julian Casablancas sounds like he’s still mystified by the art of commitment but intrigued enough to try.
26. “Us Ones in Between” – Sunset Rubdown
27. “Love Train” – Wolfmother
28. “We Share Our Mother’s Health” – the Knife
29. “Fire Island, AK” – the Long Winters
30. “Strange Apparition” – Beck
The folk-rap changeling confronts a crisis of faith with dry wit (“Lord, please don’t forsake me/In my Mercedes-Benz”) and a salvation package of country funk and saloon piano that sounds like ’68 Rolling Stones.