Clash, Smells Like Teen Spirit (Cover), Time Is The Enemy.

"Clash" Junkie XL
One of the things I absolutely love about this song is the feeling of disconnect between each section of the song. There are moments where it almost seems like the song just stops dead with whatever its doing and goes off in a completely different direction. This song is a personal favorite of mine for driving on a nice day, or even more so, for a workout. It definitely gets repetitive towards the end, but its in a way that I really enjoyed. Whenever the song strayed from its main melody, I always got a little excited when I knew it was coming back. Almost like a game of musical peek-a-boo.

"Smells Like Teen Spirit (Cover)" Paul Anka
There is definitely a different feel with this lounge cover of an alternative rock song than there is with Richard Cheese. I don't want to say that Anka takes his lounge covers more seriously, because that could imply a level of pretension on his part that is definitely not there. Its more that he takes away the campy comedy-cover feel that Cheese has. Comedy music always has a feel of triviality; I feel it every time I hear Weird Al. Sure its funny, but that's about as far as it goes. Anka takes the lounge cover and turns it almost into something respectable. This isn't a funny rendition of a classic Nirvana song, this is Smells Like Teen Spirit as Paul Anka would have sung it, no more, no less. And it works.

"Time Is The Enemy" Quantic
One of the things I absolutely love about this song is that I have no recollection of where or when I got it, or how, for that matter. I don't own any CDs that this would have possibly been on, and neither "Time Is The Enemy" nor "Quantic" are things I might have searched for and accidentally gotten this. Either way, its one of my favorite chill out songs. This song gives me a feeling of a last shot, a last attempt at something greater, a last chance to escape. Long shots, quick cuts. Feet pounding on ground, lungs pounding in chest, rain pounding on head. A sense of being lost in a compeltely familiar area, like when you approach an intersection from a direction you're not used to and suddenly you have no idea where you are. Almost a level of peaceful and dutifully earned desperation. One of my favorite aspects, and its such a small one, is that the lilting piano in the background bounces back and forth from the left channel to the right channel. I didn't even notice it until I listened with stereo headphones, but its there.