SPLIT LIKE LIGHT REFRACTED

Three scary words: adult album rock.

Everybody Wake Up—Dave Matthews Band
Every decade gets the Depeche Mode it deserves. I'm looking at you '90s...

Don’t Get Me Wrong—The Pretenders
They had such a messy history, and were defined more by profligacy than prolificacy, but when Chrissie was on her game, they were almost without peer. This isn't quite Talk of the Town or Back on the Chain Gang, but it's still pretty sweet.

Hey Hey What Can I Do—Led Zeppelin
This is definitely in my Zep top five. My Zep top five:
1. Hot Dog
2. This
3. Communication Breakdown (instrumental track)
OK, so my top five only has two and a half...

Ballad of John and Yoko—The Beatles
Most folks, when they write a self-referential song, don't actually go that extra self-mythologizing mile. Who Are You doesn't crawl up Rog and Pete's ass. In a Big Country? Nah. Belle and Sebastian? Obliquely, at best. Clash City Rockers? Getting warmer, I suppose. But this shit is like Antmusic for navel gazers...

All the Way Home—Bruce Springsteen
From Devils and Dust, apparently. Sorry, that's the best I can do. Feel free to drop me a line if you know anything more...

Don’t You (Forget about Me)—Simple Minds
The former Mr. Hynde always seemed to have a hard time reconciling the fact that he didn't write the group's biggest American hit. It hurt to be a whore for John Hughes, I suppose, but it paid the rent. I'm sure they encore with it at numerous European festivals every summer these days...

Talk—Coldplay
Yellow was cute, in all its hoodie-on-the-beach earnestness, but I fail to see how the world needed anything more than that...

Grade: C+