The Best of 2025

Top 25 Songs:

1. Clipse - Ace Trumpets
2. DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ - Will My Love
3. Water From Your Eyes - Playing Classics
4. U.S. Girls - Like James Said
5. Saya Gray - LIE DOWN..
6. Spellling - Portrait of My Heart
7. Viagra Boys - Man Made of Meat
8. Daily Toll - Belljar Convenience
9. Hey, Nothing - 33°
10. Lonnie Holley - That’s Not Art, That’s Not Music
11. Alex G - Afterlife
12. Previous Industries - Rock N Roll McDonald's
13. Cloud Nothings - Final Summer
14. фарфоровые коты - No Reason
15. Mess Esque - Crow's Ash Tree
16. Pulp - Grown Ups
17. Jay Som - Float
18. Billy Woods - Misery
19. Cleo Reed - Strike! (feat. Billy Woods)
20. Earl From Yonder - BLACK N MILD (feat. RXKNephew)
21. Sudan Archives - A BUG'S LIFE
22. Jonathan Richman - But We Might Try Weird Stuff
23. Maria Somerville - Spring
24. Kinski - Do You Like Long Hair?
25. Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist - Ensalada (feat. Anderson .Paak)

Top Album:

Viagra Boys - viagr aboys

The Best of 2020

Top 15 Songs:

1. Fontaines D.C. - You Said
2. Grimes - Delete Forever
3. Dogleg - Fox
4. Fiona Apple - Shameika
5. Beatriz Ferreyra - Echos
6. Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist - Something To Rap About (feat. Tyler The Creator)
7. Dehd - Desire
8. Kelly Lee Owens - Melt!
9. U.S. Girls - 4 American Dollars
10. Dan Deacon - Fell Into the Ocean
11. Porridge Radio - Sweet
12. IDLES - Grounds
13. Run the Jewels - JU$T (feat. Pharrell Williams & Zack de la Rocha)
14. Kiwi Jr. - Salary Man
15. Megan Thee Stallion - Savage Remix (feat. Beyonce)

Top Album:

1. Fontaines D.C. - A Hero's Death

The Best of 2019

Top 20 Songs:

1. Purple Mountains - Nights That Won’t Happen
2. Spellling - Under the Sun
3. Sharon Van Etten - Seventeen
4. Lizzo - Juice
5. Mannequin Pussy - Drunk II
6. Jay Som - Tenderness
7. William Tyler - Fail Safe
8. Deerhunter - What Happens to People?
9. black midi - 953
10. Angel Olsen - Lark
11. Jenny Hval - High Alice
12. FKA twigs - Sad Day
13. Chris Forsyth - Tomorrow Might as Well Be Today
14. Priests - Texas Instruments
15. Mac DeMarco - Preoccupied
16. Thom Yorke - Dawn Chorus
17. Bat for Lashes - Feel For You
18. HAIM - Summer Girl
19. Ex Hex - Want It to Be True
20. Sleater-Kinney - Broken

Top 10 Albums:

1. Purple Mountains - Purple Mountains
2. FKA twigs - Magdalene
3. William Tyler - Goes West
4. Jenny Hval - The Practice of Love
5. black midi - Schlagenheim
6. Chris Forsyth - All Time Present
7. Sharon Van Etten - Remind Me Tomorrow
8. Spellling - Mazy Fly
9. Priests - The Seduction of Kansas
10. Orville Peck - Pony

The Best of 2018

My final list of the top 5 songs and top album of the year, as determined by me.

Top 5 (in alphabetical order past number one):

Best Song:

Snail Mail - Pristine

The Rest of the Best

Lucy Dacus - Night Shift
Screaming Females - Glass House
Ryley Walker - 22 Days
Young Fathers - Wow

Best Album:

Ryley Walker Deafman Glance

The Best of 2017

Songs:

1. William Basinski--"For David Robert Jones"
2. Jay Som--"One More Time, Please"
3. Priests--"Suck"
4. Sheer Mag--"Need To Feel Your Love"
5. Blanck Mass-- "Hive Mind"
6. Tinariwen--"Sastanaqqam"
7. Ty Segall --"Break a Guitar"
8. Milk Music--"Twists & Turns & Headtrips"
9. King Krule--"Dum Surfer"
10. Taiwan Housing Project--"Authentic Alien Perfume"

Albums:

1. Priests--Nothing Feels Natural
2. William Basinski--A Shadow in Time
3. Jay Som--Everybody Works
4. Sheer Mag--Need to Feel Your Love
5. Ty Segall --Ty Segall

The Best of 2016

Song: Sturgill Simpson -- In Bloom

Albums: Radiohead -- A Moon Shaped Pool

The Best of 2015

My final list of the top 10 songs and top album of the year, as determined by me. One song per artist limit.

Top 10 Songs (in alphabetical order past number one): 

Best Song
Grimes - REALiTi

The Rest of the Best
Blanck Mass - Atrophies
Colleen Green - TV
Holly Herndon - Chorus
iLoveMakonnen - Whip It (Remix) (feat. Migos & Rich The Kid)
Ought - Beautiful Blue Sky
Thundercat - Them Changes
Unknown Mortal Orchestra - The World Is Crowded
Ryley Walker - Hide In The Roses
Wavves X Cloud Nothings - Nervous

Top Album:

Sleater-Kinney - No Cities to Love 

The Best of 2014

My final list of the top 25 songs and top 5 albums of the year, as determined by me. Mostly by gut feeling, although factors such as longevity and sentimental value are factors in addition to overall personal enjoyment. One song per artist limit.
 Top 25 Songs:

1. Todd Terje - Delorean Dynamite
2. Ought - Habit
3. Grimes - Go (feat. Blood Diamonds)
4. EMA - Satellites
5. Sun Kil Moon - Dogs
6. Rustie - Raptor
7. Röyksopp & Robyn - Do It Again
8. FKA twigs - Two Weeks
9. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Thuggin'
10. Ex Hex - How You Got That Girl
11. Alex G - Promise
12. Fatima - Underwater
13. Sharon Van Etten - Your Love Is Killing Me
14. Mac DeMarco - Chamber of Reflection
15. Spider Bags - Summer Of '79
16. Parquet Courts - Bodies Made Of
17. Parkay Quarts - Pretty Machines
18. Cloud Nothings - Psychic Trauma
19. The Men - Another Night
20. St. Vincent - Birth in Reverse
21. Childbirth - I Only Fucked You As a Joke
22. Shellac - Riding Bikes
23. Perfume Genius - Queen
24. Owen Pallett - The Riverbed
25. Aphex Twin - aisatsana [102]

Top 5 Albums:

1. Sun Kil Moon - Benji
2. Parquet Courts - Sunbathing Animal
3. Ought - More Than Any Other Day
4. Fatima - Yellow Memories
5. Alex G - DSU

The Best of 2013

My final list of the top 25 songs and top 5 albums of the year, as determined by me. Mostly by gut feeling, although factors such as longevity and sentimental value are factors in addition to overall personal enjoyment. One song per artist limit.
 
Top 25 Songs:

1. Fuck Buttons - The Red Wing
2. Daft Punk - Get Lucky (feat. Pharrell Williams)
3. Bored Nothing - Shit For Brains
4. Milk Music - Cruising With God
5. Run the Jewels - No Come Down
6. Oneohtrix Point Never - Americans 
7. Pusha T - Nosetalgia (feat. Kendrick Lamar)
8. The Knife - Full of Fire
9. The Analog Session - April
10. Kurt Vile - Wakin On A Pretty Day
11. Deerhunter - Monomania
12. The Men - I Saw Her Face
13. The Dismemberment Plan - Let's Just Go to the Dogs Tonight 
14. James Blake - Voyeur 
15. Speedy Ortiz - No Below
16. Danny Brown - Kush Coma (feat. A$AP Rocky & Zelooperz)
17. Anna Meredith - ALR
18. Pissed Jeans - Cafeteria Food
19. FKA twigs - Water Me
20. Future Of The Left - Why Aren't I Going To Hell
21. The Handsome Family - Octopus
22. Wooden Shjips - Everybody Knows
23. Mikal Cronin - Change
24. Planningtorock - Public Love
25. Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines (feat. T.I. & Pharrell Williams) 

Top 5 Albums:

1. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
2. Kurt Vile - Wakin on a Pretty Daze
3. Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels
4. Oneohtrix Point Never - R Plus Seven
5. Mikal Cronin - MCII

The Best of 2012

My final list of the top 25 songs and top 5 albums of the year, as determined by me. Mostly by gut feeling, although factors such as longevity and sentimental value are factors in addition to overall personal enjoyment. One song per artist limit.
Top 25 Songs 

1. Grimes - Oblivion
2. Cloud Nothings - Wasted Days
3. Kendrick Lamar - Backstreet Freestyle
4. Lower Dens - Brains
5. Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe
6. James Blackshaw - The Snows Are Melted, the Snows Are Gone
7. Bat For Lashes - All Your Gold
8. John Talabot - So Will Be Now...
9. Freddie Gibbs - Kush Cloud (feat. Krayzie Bone & SpaceGhostPurrp)
10. Spider Bags - I'll Go Crazy
11. Four Tet - Pyramid
12. Mac Demarco - Freaking Out the Neighborhood
13. Future of the Left - Polymers Are Forever
14. Crystal Castles - Telepath
15. King Tuff - Alone & Stoned
16. Ty Segall - You're the Doctor
17. Oren Ambarchi & Robin Fox - Trios
18. Cat Power - Ruin
19. David Byrne & St. Vincent - I Should Watch TV
20. The Futureheads - Meet Me Halfway
21. Frank Ocean - Pyramids
22. Frankie Rose - Interstellar
23. Japandroids - Fire's Highway
24. Moon Duo - I Can See
25. Dan Deacon - True Thrush

Top 5 Albums

1. Cloud Nothings - Attack on Memory
2. Grimes - Visions
3. Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d. city
4. John Talabot - ƒIN
5. Spider Bags - Shake My Head

Record Store Hauls (San Diego and Portland)

SAN DIEGO:

Nickelodeon Records:
Beginning the Folk Guitar (an instructional record with sheet music/tabs)
John Fahey - Christmas with John Fahey Vol. II
First Man on the Moon (a documentary record on the moon landing)
Public Image Ltd. - 9

Great little record store run by two older women. Lots of idiosyncratic sections like "Space", "College" (full of university fight song and band recordings--in particular the motherlode for an Ohio State Buckeyes fan ), "Smoking" (records with people smoking on them), "Advertising," etc.

Off the Record:
B-52's - Wild Planet
John Fahey - Christmas Guitar Volume One
Funkadelic - The Electric Spanking of War Babies
Hunx - Hairdresser Blues
Curtis Mayfield - Curtis/Live
Prince - Dirty Mind
Kurt Vile - Childish Prodigy

PORTLAND:

Jackpot Records:
Jandek - Chair Beside a Window
RJD2 - Deadringer
Ty Segall - Goodbye Bread

Everyday Music:
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
Fennesz - June (12")
Lindstrom and Prins Thomas - Tirsdagsjam (12")
Jack Oblivion - Saturday Night Part 2 (10")
Zola Jesus - Conatus

This store is just a behemoth. Extensive CD sections as well. I mostly mined the electronic and experimental sections.

Second Ave Records:
Big Black - Songs About Fucking
Kate Bush - Never For Ever
Kate Bush - The Dreaming
Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill (12")
Cloud Nothings - Cloud Nothings
Peter Gabriel - Security

Great, ramshackle store focusing on rock. Sections for punk, '60s garage/psychedelic,  '50s, rockabilly/psychobilly, etc. Lots of CDs and other goodies behind the counter in cardboard boxes that can be rooted through on request.

The Best of 2011

My final list of the top 25 songs and top 5 albums of the year, as determined by me. Mostly by gut feeling, although factors such as longevity and sentimental value are factors in addition to overall personal enjoyment. Rule change this year--one song per artist.

Top 25 Songs

1. Planningtorock - The Breaks
2. Zola Jesus - Ixode
3. Let's Wrestle - I Will Not Give In
4. Kurt Vile - Runner Ups
5. James Blake - The Wilhelm Scream
6. Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers
7. Yuck - Operation
8. Tune-Yards - Bizness
9. St. Vincent - Cruel
10. Cut Copy - Take Me Over
11. Wild Flag - Romance
12. TV On The Radio - Will Do
13. Mind Spiders - Don't Let Her Go
14. Nicolas Jaar - Space is Only Noise if You Can See
15. Neon Indian - The Blindside Kiss
16. The Flaming Lips with Neon Indian - Is David Bowie Dying?
17. Frank Ocean - Lovecrimes
18. Sloan - Beverley Terrace
19. Freddie Gibbs - Let Ya Nuts Hang (feat. Scrilla)
20. Tyler the Creator - Yonkers
21. Jack Oblivian - Kidnapper
22. John Tejada - The Living Night
23. Moon Duo - Scars
24. Apex Manor - Teenage Blood
25. Sic Alps - Eat Happy

Top 5 Albums

1. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo
2. Zola Jesus - Conatus
3. Yuck - Yuck
4. Tune-Yards - W H O K I L L
5. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes

The Best of 2010

My final list of the top 25 songs and top 5 albums of the year, as determined by me. Mostly by gut feeling, although factors such as longevity and sentimental value are factors in addition to overall personal enjoyment.

Top 25 Songs

1. Crystal Castles - Vietnam
2. Gucci Mane - Lemonade
3. Flying Lotus - Do The Astral Plane
4. Crystal Castles - Not In Love (feat. Robert Smith)
5. Mux Mool - Enceladus
6. Massive Attack - Saturday Come Slow
7. Four Tet - Angel Echoes
8. Cee Lo Green - Fuck You
9. Sleigh Bells - Rill Rill
10. Big Boi - Shutterbugg (feat. Cutty)
11. Mux Mool - Get Better John
12. Aloe Blacc - I Need A Dollar
13. Erykah Badu - Window Seat
14. Four Tet - Love Cry
15. Big Boi - You Ain't No DJ (feat. Yelawolf)
16. Liars - Scarecrows On A Killer Slant
17. Tonetta - Drugs Drugs Drugs
18. Goldfrapp - Rocket
19. Pawel - Alvin
20. Future Islands - Tin Man
21. The Soft Pack - Mexico
22. Lindstrøm & Christabelle - Lovesick
23. Erykah Badu - Turn Me Away (Get MuNNY)
24. Robyn - Dancing on My Own
25. Black Francis - Cinema Star

Notes: "Lemonande" is from a album released in December 2009 but was separately released and marketed as a single in 2010. One notable "omission" is "Crown on the Ground" by Sleigh Bells, which was featured on my 2009 list because of its appearance on Sleigh Bells' 2009 demos. The song would have also been featured in the top five this year.

Top 5 Albums

1. Four Tet - There Is Love In You
2. Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh)
3. Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
4. Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
5. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles

R.I.P. Jay Reatard

R.I.P. Jay ReatardMay 1, 1980 to January 13, 2010
"You could either say that somebody has a window of time to where they're going to have the opportunity to do what they do creatively and do it well, or some people think you have like a certain amount of songs before you dry up or whatever. I tend to think it's like amount of time, so I'm racing against time constantly. A lot of it's just kind of the fear of death or whatever, too. I know I'm not going to be able to make records when I'm dead. I'm not dead right now, so I want to make records. It's that simple, really."

The Best of 2009

Tentatively my final list of the top 25 songs and top 5 albums of the year, as determined by me. Mostly by gut feeling, although factors such as longevity and sentimental value are factors in addition to overall enjoyment of the song.

Top 25 Songs

1. Grizzly Bear - While You Wait for the Others
2. Passion Pit - Little Secrets
3. Japandroids - Wet Hair
4. Sleigh Bells - Crown On The Ground
5. Lil Wayne feat. Nicki Minaj - Sweet Dreams
6. Japandroids - I Quit Girls
7. Bat For Lashes - Moon And Moon
8. Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks
9. Dizzee Rascal - Holiday
10. Lil Wayne - Swag Surf
11. KiD CuDi - Day N Night (Nightmare)
12. Animal Collective - My Girls
13. Passion Pit - The Reeling
14. Animal Collective - Bluish
15. Fever Ray - If I Had A Heart
16. Future Of The Left - Drink Nike
17. Thunderheist - Jerk It
18. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Zero
19. The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name
20. Black Lips - Drugs
21. Future Of The Left - You Need Satan More Than He Needs You
22. Thunderheist - Do The Right Thing
23. Bat For Lashes - Pearl's Dream
24. Jarvis Cocker - Leftovers
25. Jay Reatard - Wounded

Top 5 Albums (tentative)

1. Japandroids - Post-Nothing
2. The Field - Yesterday and Today
3. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
4. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
5. Future of the Left - Travels With Myself and Another

"Kids These Days!": Justin Bieber

I can't even believe this shit. Not only is this little prick's "celeb crush" Beyonce, who is Jay-Z's girl, but he then goes out of his way to diss her footwear in "Justin On His Biggest Turn-Off!": "'I will not even look at you if you're wearing Uggs--even if you're Beyonce!'" (Nevermind why aren't the parents upset that we live in a society where it's appropriate to ask a pubescent boy about his sexual preferences in a magazine.)

Where does Justin Bieber get off?

Jay-Z is soft. Jay-Z should drop a diss track against Justin Bieber.

No. 1 Single Reviews: "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas

I know this one has been at the top of the charts for five weeks now, but waiting three months for "Boom Boom Pow" to drop off the charts, only to be replaced by more Black-Eyed Peas, was so soul-crushing I couldn't open Blogger for almost a fortnight.

It boils down to a crappy, dispassionate "let's go party" song--in other words, it's still the Black-Eyed Peas. There's an oddly psuedo-sentimental, yet up-tempo feeling to the dry, eighth-note guitar strums that I can't quite put my finger on. It's got that perverse "mid-level indie trickles up to the mainstream" vibe. Remember how Kelly Clarkson got her Yeah Yeah Yeahs on with "Since U Been Gone", then got her "Since U Been Gone" on with "My Life Would Suck Without You?" Dilute that by another ten levels to get this. In fact, for the first half a minute it almost seems like it might be a likable song, but as usual the Black-Eyed Peas miss the point entirely. The vocals start, and before long will.i.am is barking out the verses in four-word tone-deaf burst: "AH GOT MAH MONEY/LET'S SPEND IT UP."

It as asinine and grating as "Boom Boom Pow," but in an entirely different way. It also plays like a checklist of shitty, focus-grouped tricks for radio singles. The lowlights include:

-Auto-Tune

-The "beat cuts out for a split second after an appropriate lyric" manuever, Lyrical Varation 15: "shut it down".

-An early favorite for corniest call-and-response bridge of the century so far, in which Fergie sounds and looks like nothing so much as a pudgy, slow girl ab-libbing along to a record.

will.i.am.: Fill up my cup
Fergie: DRANK
will.i.a.m: Mazel tov
Fergie: L'CHAIM*

-A shameless, shoehorned "counting down the days of the week bit".

I hate everything about this song. I even hate the title, "I Gotta Feeling." Even Urban Dictionary knows this means "got to" as in "have to", not "got a" as in possession.

That's right; the name of this song is "I Have To Feeling." Congratulations on electing these idiots your best representative for popular music, America!

*Yes, Fergie says "l'chaim," a Jewish toast. Yes, it's Auto-Tuned.

Where are all the Animal Collective sound-alikes?

"You can hardly throw a stone in a record shop without hitting a new album by a band that sounds like Animal Collective." - Dusted Magazine

"We'd love to get through this without mentioning Animal Collective, which has become the indie-focused writer's Beatles or Brian Wilson-- a comparison so overused that it's meaningless." - Pitchfork

"Between 1996's groundbreaking Millions Now Living Will Never Die and 2001's pacesetting Standards, Tortoise garnered a level of influence in indie music that almost rivals that of Animal Collective today." - Pitchfork (again)

Where, exactly, is this proliferation of Animal Collectivesque bands that I've somehow missed?

Concert Review: The Posies (peforming Frosting on the Beater), The Bell House, New York City, June 12

The recent explosion of bands performing full albums live--most notably with the Don't Look Back concert series--has been an interesting new way to focus on the album as a whole piece of work in an era when record sales are down and downloads and shuffle options guide a new generation to think in terms of single tracks. Choosing to do one of these shows is also something of a statement that an artist wants to hold an album up as a classic, or at least their best work, and can be a way to honor underrated albums deserving of more recognition.

The Posies' performance of Frosting on the Beater was an excellent way to elevate both an unheralded classic album and the one of the most severely underrated rock bands of the modern era. They left a string of great albums and should-have-been-hit-singles but never caught on commercially, despite swimming in power-pop cred (we're talking "Ringo Starr covers one of your songs and a Big Star reformation enlists your songwriters and singers" levels here.) Their only flaw was that their music was made for the wrong era, so one of the little ironies of their career is that their most successful and popular album was the one that coated their melodic songwriting in layers of grunge distortion.

It also happens to be their best album, however, and particularly well-suited for a live treatment. Their strongest songwriting meant an hour of sing-alongs, backed by some alternative rock sheen for a little headbanging. The opening four songs salvo is one of the best stretches of guitar-pop of the nineties, and big rockers like "Definite Door" or the era's quiet/loud dynamic on "Lights Out" punched the songs up live.

The band's rotating rhythm section has long since left the album's original players behind, putting the focus squarely on songwriters/vocalists/guitars Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow. Auer, who takes the lead on most Frosting songs, was by far the looser performer of the two. While Stringfellow's voice has held up enough to match the records well, Auer's voice seems a bit higher and more nasally than the recordings, and has lost a bit of the deep, breathy quality it used to have. Auer also does most of the lead guitar work, and worked up some good squealing noise for the noisy jam ending of "Burn and Shine" and the drumless "Coming Right Along." For his part, Stringfellow ricochets around the stage and bounces like his legs are pogo-sticks, and the frequency and intensity with which he spits (occasionally soaking the front row) would be impressive for a 20-something punk rocker, let alone a guy who's been in a band called the Posies for two decades.

The second set/encore skewed heavily towards the Frosting follow-up Amazing Disgrace, highlighted by the fierce Stringfellow rocker "Everybody is a Fucking Liar." (A few requests for that song mid-way through the set elicited the Stringfellow gem "Hey, Jon, after the last twenty seconds did you have any doubt we're in the New York area?")

The atmosphere on stage was as loose and fun as the playing, with the band retuning and cracking jokes between nearly every song--most notably a brief running gag about Bret Michaels' recent injury at the Tony Awards, including a "moment of silence." The mood from the unappreciated band before and after the show: Auer joked to the front row about missing roadies as he set up his pedals before the show, and the guys were not too famous to work their own merch booth after the show. They still deserve better--the performance would have, and should have, played just as well to a few thousand instead of a few hundred--but the show was a fitting tribute to a gem of an album.

Set One (Frosting on the Beater):
Dream All Day
Solar Sister
Flavor of the Month
Love Letter Boxes
Definite Door
Burn and Shine
Earlier Than Expected
20 Questions
When Mute Tongues Can Speak
Lights Out
How She Lied by Living
Coming Right Along

Set Two (Encore):
Start a Life
Ontario
Apology
Please Return It
Throwaway
Everybody is a Fucking Liar
Conversations
You're the Beautiful One

Covers: "Don't Stop Believin'" by the cast of Glee

I'm not sure what bugs me more: that a cover of "Don't Stop Believin'" by the cast of Glee is No. 4 on the Hot 100--five spots higher than Journey's original peaked--or that it seems to rip off the Petra Haden version. (At least the intros.)

An a capella take on a song isn't necessarily such an original idea that two people can't come to it independently. Haden's cover is from a relatively obscure compilation. A compilation with a "guilty pleasure" theme, in fact. Who knows whether or not the crew of some network television studio is aware of Haden's 2007 cover or not.

They knick the sound, but lose points for effort. Haden went so far with her vocals that she even sang the guitar solo. The Glee kids, however, wimp out. After about a minute, in come the drums and the rest of the band, and by the end of the song the a capella concept seems to have been entirely fazed out.

It's an obscenely bombastic arrangement: the a capella backing vocals stick around, horns show up, and a man and girl duet in the shrieking style of drama kids--Adam Lambert is kicking himself over a missed opportunity right now. (Speaking of Idol, if the girl on this song was a contestant she'd have "pitchy" ringing in her ears.)

If anything, it's that earnest stage sincerity that sets the Glee cover apart. Haden's version is more low-key, goofy, and even seems to be making fun of the song, or at least teasing it. The Glee version sings to the rafters and is intended to get those 12-to-15-year-olds bopping on their couches.

As for how the cover stacks up to Journey, well, who do you trust: Steve Perry or a nation of tweens with iTunes?