Songbook Xtended: Let It All Hang Out

A.D.O.R. - Let It All Hang Out (1992) [Original Post]

Songbook Xtended: Relax

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Relax (1983) [Original Post]

Songbook Xtended: Express Yourself

Madonna - Express Yourself (1989) [Original Post]

Songbook Xtended: Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me

U2 - Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me (1995) [Original Post]

Songbook Xtended: Troy

Sinead O'Connor - Troy (1987) [Original Post]

Songbook Xtended: Hub-Tones

Kamasi Washington - Hub-Tones (2018) [Original Post]

Songbook Xtended: Milk

Garbage - Milk (1996) [Original Post]

Songbook Xtended: Bachelorette

Björk - Bachelorette (1997) [Original Post]

Songbook Xtended: Kiss Them For Me

Siouxsie and The Banshees - Kiss Them For Me (1991) [Original Post]

Songbook Xtended: Welcome to the Opera

Anyma & Grimes - Welcome to the Opera (2023) [Original Post]

Songbook Xtended: We Have Explosive

The Future Sound of London - We Have Explosive (1997) [Original Post]

Songbook Xtended: Blind

Korn - Blind (1995) [Original Post]

Songbook Xtended: Alright

Jamiroquai - Alright (1997) [Original Post]

Songbook Xtended: Avalon

Juliet - Avalon (2005) [Original Post]

Songbook Xtended: Love is a Battlefield

Pat Benatar - Love is a Battlefield (1983) [Original Post]

Songbook Xtended: Don't Come Around Here No More

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Don't Come Around Here No More (1985) [Original Post]

Songbook Xtended: Loser

Beck - Loser (1994) [Original Post]

Songbook Xtended: The New Pollution

Beck - The New Pollution (1997) [Original Post]

Songbook Xtended: As It Was

Harry Styles - As It Was (2023) [Original Post]

Obvious allusions to reality TV pop music supergroups melt away as Harry Styles dances his way to one of the best songs of the year. An anthem for our age, soaked in bitter nostalgia, and increasingly populated with a grim sense of mourning. Some of this is my own inflection, a song arriving at the best - or worst possible time. Yet for all its tart lyrical ambivalence, there's a triumphant energy -- sweetness and light bursting out of the darkness with bells chiming. A rare instance of enjoying a Top 10 single, this one has a great video to boot, and my only real criticism is that it's so damned short. I guess I'll just have to keep it on repeat. Something I never really expected to want from a One Direction alum.

Songbook Xtended: Good Beat

Deee-Lite - Good Beat (1991) [Original Post]

My original thought was: "1990 forever. Fuck you, 2023." The thing is, they tell me this actually came out as a single in 1991, and I just couldn't allow that kind of accounting error to go unchecked. Lady Miss Kier says she wants a good beat, and my needs aren't far from hers. Maybe throw in some 'chingy' piano you can step to, and a pretty lady wailing. That'll just about do it. Deee-Lite to the rescue with a song that isn't the tour de force of Groove is in the Heart, but is still a swell time.