Movie Diary

Wednesday, September 16, 2026


 



























Playwright Aleshea Harris made the jump to directing features because she didn't want to take chances with letting someone else adapt her play Is God Is. And I'm glad she did, it's so darkly funny and original and violent, great performances from Kara Young and Mallori Johnson and Sterling K. Brown, not for everyone but nonetheless highly recommended. 

b) Miss You, Love You
Jim Rash won an Oscar for the screenplay for The Descendants, and his work as Dean Pelton on "Community" is one of the funniest sitcom performances of the last couple decades, but I don't know if people really appreciate how talented Rash is. Miss You, Love You, Rash's first solo effort as a writer/director after previous collaborations with Nat Faxon, essentially has three principle characters, but only two of them are actually in the movie. Diane (Allison Janney) is mourning her second husband, Tyler (offscreen) is her son from her first marriage who's too busy with work to come see her (he's some kind of famous important journalist who's also gay, so I pictured Anderson Cooper), and Jamie (Andrew Rannells) is Tyler's assistant Jamie who comes and helps Diane plan the funeral. And the whole thing is really compelling for a movie that's almost entirely two people talking, slowly unveiling all these emotional fault lines. 

c) The Last House
Being trapped or confined is a pretty elemental horror trope, but so many 2020s horror movies about people being stuck in their houses have, whether intentionally or accidentally, felt like COVID lockdown allegories. So I kind of rolled my eyes when I started watching The Last House, a movie where suddenly every door in the world is mysteriously sealed shut and nobody can get out of their house. The premise takes a pretty big turn in the second half, and it appears from the reviews that pretty much everyone hated it, but I found it a relief that it wasn't entirely what I expected. Greta Lee and Wagner Moura are definitely way overqualified to lead a movie like this, though. 

d) Immaculate
I think Sydney Sweeney could probably be a good scream queen, given that her best performances in "Euphoria" usually involved her character responding social or romantic situations with mortal terror. I didn't think much of Immaculate, though, just kind of a loud, clumsy movie without much atmosphere or tension. Director Michael Mohan made a decent Lizzy Caplan/Alison Brie dramedy Save the Date over a decade ago, I don't think he really has a feel for horror. 

e) The Whisper Man
There are some wonderfully disturbing supporting performances in The Whisper Man by Hamish Linklater, Michael Keaton, and Owen Teague. But I don't feel like the stars, Robert De Niro and Adam Scott, were given a whole lot to work with in their roles, a lot of it felt like a third generation Silence of the Lambs knockoff. 

f) A Private Life
Speaking of Silence of the Lambs, a pretty good thriller starring Jodie Foster, although a totally different kind of story. 

g) The Devil Wears Prada 2
So much of the promotional rollout for The Devil Wears Prada 2 just centered on the four stars being friends and being excited to work together again, which made it kind of jarring, in a fun way, to put on the movie and be reminded that, oh yeah, these characters are not besties and would not be back in each other's lives under happy, nostalgic conditions. I think there's probably no kind of sequel that's harder to pull off than following up a beloved comedy more than a decade or two later. I thought this was perfectly fine and they came up with a better story than I expected with a few fun moments, but I imagine I'll kind of forget it ever existed as I continue to watch the first movie again and again. 

h) A Dog's Journey
My wife and I watched A Dog's Purpose years and years ago and found it to be a reasonably charming little emotionally manipulative family film. More recently my 11-year-old son watched it as well as the sequel, and I thought it was sweet how much he got wrapped up in the sentimentality of the story. I also got way more interested in the sequel than I expected because Betty Gilpin plays a negligent mother, just casually being one of the best actors of our time even something she's kind of too good for. 

i) Drive
While putting together my recent lists of 2010 and 2011 movies, I caught up on some stuff from that era that I missed at the time, and this is kind of a big canonical one I felt like I had to finally see. I'm a lot less skeptical of Ryan Gosling now than I was when this came out, he's done some really good work. I didn't really think he had the right screen presence for a character with no name who says few words, though, and the direction and music that people found so incredibly stylish and fresh at the time already seems a little stale and dated to me, or maybe that's just because it was influential? In any case, it was better than I thought it would be, even if it didn't totally in me over, if that makes sense. 

j) Margaret
Margaret came out in 2011, but it was actually filmed in 2005 and underwent a whole protracted battle over Kenneth Lonergan getting a final cut he was happy with and getting the studio to release it. That results in a funny moment where Anna Paquin, playing a high school student, makes a derogatory reference to "the current president" in a scene that was filmed during the George W. Bush administration and released during the Barack Obama administration. Pretty great ensemble cast, including Kieran Culkin and J. Smith-Cameron years before "Succession," some very memorable scenes, but I don't know, a very strange premise in some ways and I don't know if Lonergan captured what he was going for after all that time. 

Rabbit Hole, like Margaret, is a movie about grief where the story is set in motion by a tragic auto accident. This was Miles Teller's first film role, in his early twenties playing a teenager, and I actually didn't even recognize him when he first showed up onscreen, I was like "Who is that guy? He looks familiar." 

l) Weekend
A pretty moving little slice-of-life British film about two guys who hook up and spend the weekend together right before one of them is about to move out of the country. 

m) Warrior
I think it's funny that I unintentionally watched movies called Weekend and Warrior on consecutive nights. Tom Hardy playing an MMA fighter? Sure, I can buy it. Joel Edgerton also playing an MMA fighter? Not so much. 

n) The Fighter
I was happy when Melissa Leo from "Homicide: Life on the Street" won an Oscar for The Fighter, but in retrospect it doesn't really feel like it had much impact on her career or the quality of roles she's gotten since then. Okay movie, Leo and Christian Bale definitely earned their Oscars, but it definitely seems like the moment when David O. Russell went from being a unique filmmaker whose work was unlike anyone else's to a guy who more often than not just directs whatever a studio wants him to direct. 

o) The Artist 
Another movie that feels like a semi-forgotten relic of awards season hype. Do you remember that a French black-and-white silent film won Best Picture in 2012? I did like it, especially Berenice Bejo's performance, but I kind of wish they hadn't packed recognizable American actors in the supporting cast, every time I felt really immersed in and feeling like I was actually watching a movie made in 1927, John Goodman or James Cromwell would show up and puncture that bubble. 

p) Hugo
Another memory holed Oscar movie. Martin Scorsese directed a family-friendly film, shot in 3D, with a 12-year-old boy protagonist living in a Paris train station! It was nominated for 11 Academy Awards! Will this get mentioned in a single obituary when Scorsese dies? Not bad, but definitely kind of an odd little outlier in his filmography. 

Going through the three Tron movies this year because I've never really watched them, I liked this more than I expected, just visually they managed to modernize the original's aesthetic while still looking really cool. 

r) Somewhere
When I was looking for 2010 films to watch, I learned that Sofia Coppola directed a movie I'd never heard of in the seven years between Marie Antoinette and The Bling Ring. Stephen Dorff plays a movie star, but one ten times more famous than Dorff ever was, living a sort of debauched, drunken, promiscuous life while his 11-year-old daughter (Elle Fanning) stays with him. I don't think this movie was as deep or as funny as it thought it was and probably would've been a lot better with DiCaprio, who apparently considered the role, but it's probably for the best that he didn't waste his time with it. 

s) Meek's Cutoff
A pretty good Kelly Reichardt movie about survival and death on the Oregon Trail. 

t) Secretariat
A biopic of a famous animal, told through the lens of the humans who owned, trained and rode him is a weird idea, when you think about it. I enjoyed it, though, Diane Lane and John Malkovich's performances really make it watchable, and after I wrote about horse racing for the first time this year, it was an interesting window into that world. 

u) Super 8
As one of the few non-franchise J.J. Abrams movies, I was curious to see this, but it really didn't add up to much, and he really is fucking ridiculous with that lens flare. 

v) Tamara Drewe
One thing I like about early 2010s movies is that Gemma Arterton was in a lot of them. Very odd movie, though, like it starts out feeling like this very straightforward thing about a woman moving returning to her hometown, and then the plot takes so many weird and often very stupid turns. 

w) Curly Sue
This was the one John Hughes movie I had never really seen at all before when I ranked Hughes movies a few weeks ago, and I don't think anyone had any problem with me putting it in last place. 

11:26 AM

Saturday, September 12, 2026

 





John Mayer's Continuum was released 20 years ago today, and I wrote about it for Publik / Private Small Press. 

11:48 PM

Friday, September 11, 2026

 





This week on Spin I ranked the 25 greatest rock bassists of all time. I also wrote about New Order's "Sunrise" for my Deep Cut Friday column. 

2:21 PM

Thursday, September 10, 2026


 











My first piece for Live For Live Music is a ranking of the 25 best solo albums and side projects by the members of the Rolling Stones. 

11:26 AM

TV Diary

Wednesday, September 09, 2026

 







a) "Lanterns"
I know even less about the Green Lantern than I do about other comic book heroes, but I like the HBO series so far, easily the best performance of Kyle Chandler's career and also a great use of Aaron Pierre, Kelly Macdonald, Garrett Dillahunt, and Poorna Jagannathan. I definitely enjoy the snappy scenes with those core characters more than the flashbacks and the comic book lore stuff, but it all hangs together really well, excited to see where the story's going. 

I haven't read the 1901 Australian novel My Brilliant Career or seen the 1979 film adaptation, but I really enjoyed the Netflix miniseries, Philippa Northeast is so charming and Sybylla is such an entertaining character. It's one of those shows that looks fairly historically accurate but the dialogue sounds fairly modern, every time they dance to music the band is covering pop songs that were written a hundred years later, color-blind casting, etc. So I have no idea how faithful the show is to the spirit of the source material beyond the obvious changes, but I liked it. 

Another classic novel I haven't read, although I feel like I at least started this one at some point in grade school. MGM+ really seems like the dregs of the streaming services, I'm only signed up for it right now because they have one of my favorite shows of 2026 so far, "American Classic." But I'm trying to check out more of their other stuff and the first episode of these seems reasonably promising, Mirren Mack is beautiful but the more I see Kit Harington in stuff the less convinced I am that he can act at all. 

Hugo Weaving is great in this Australian series that recently hit Netflix in the U.S. about the staff of an airport who deal with the daily crises and issues of people getting on and off the planes. It feels pretty true to life and gradually gives you these moments where you learn more about the lives of the characters, kind of like "The Pitt," which is funny because one of the stars is Shabana Azeez, who plays Dr. Javadi on "The Pitt," and I guess I'd probably read at some point that she's Australian but it was kind of jarring to hear her real accent in this. 

e) "Adults" 
When "Adults" debuted on FX a year ago, the most I could say for sure was that it was at least slightly better than "Overcompensated," the Amazon comedy that it was frequently compared to and shared one cast member with. But by the time I finished watching that first season over the summer, it had really grown on me. I think the writing is slightly better than the cast or the direction lets on, but the cast is at least likeable enough to pull it off, and Amita Rao has killer comic timing, she's stolen a lot of scenes this season. 

f) "The Paper"
"The Paper" is another one that grew on me over the course of its first season to the point that I was anticipating the new one. I don't think anybody really wanted a tenuously connected spinoff of "The Office," least of all me, but the cast is really good, Sabrina Impacciatore and Alex Edelman steal a lot of scenes. And I actually find the Ned/Mare romance plot to be reasonably charming and compelling, as tired as I am of will-they-or-won't-they office romance storylines, they just have good chemistry and I like the way they bond over both being workaholics. 

g) "Chad Powers"
I really dislike the Chad Powers parts of "Chad Powers," where Glen Powell puts on some hideous facial prosthetics and looks and sounds like a live action version of Mr. Van Driessen from "Beavis & Butt-Head." As the show has gone into the second season, it's subjected me to Chad a little less, and I've enjoyed the parts with a normal-faced Powell doing scenes with Steve Zahn and Perry Mattfeld. But the title and premise are what they are and a certain amount of the show is always going to irritate the shit out of me as long as I watch it. 

h) "Reacher" 
I don't know if it's just perception of the show or an actual change in production values but "Reacher" feels a little more "Walker, Texas Ranger" now than the first couple seasons did. And I know there are a whole lot of books in the series, but the longer you watch this guy hop from one place to another getting into trouble and killing a shitload of bad guys, the more absurd it all feels -- in this season he ends up on the news and is basically famous, which feels like a genie you can't really put back in the bottle, but they'll just ignore it in the future anyway. And anyway it's still fun to watch Alan Ritchson beat the crap out of everybody and eventually spend a night in a hotel room with a hottie in peril who throws themselves at him -- in this case played by Agnez Mo, apparently an international pop star who's the Rihanna or Indonesia or something, who turns out to be the villain of the story. 

i) "The Gentlemen" 
Glad this is back, episodic TV is a good fit for Guy Ritchie and he has a great cast. 

j) "SCTV"
"SCTV" is canon for comedy buffs who were born in the '60s and/or in Canada, but for the rest of us it's been this elusive thing you see in occasional late night reruns or YouTube rips of old sketches of these hilarious early career highlights of Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, John Candy, Martin Short, and so on. So it was pretty exciting to see a good chunk of episodes of "SCTV" hit Netflix for the first time last week, especially just a few months after O'Hara's death. I think sketch comedy is on its best day a hit-or-miss medium and not everything is going to hold up well, in terms of references or taste, after 4 or 5 decades, but there's some really funny stuff in there, one of my favorite sketches is the Half Wits game show, just some good hardcore silliness. 

k) "Dang!" 
As sick as I am of the whole 'adult animated sitcom' genre, I will concede that this new one on Netflix starring Stephanie Hsu and Poppy Liu has pretty sharp writing, I enjoyed the first episode. Not as good as "Strip Law," which Netflix already canceled, but hopefully they won't cancel this one too. 

I'm not sure but I think it's pretty likely that both of my kids have watched all 283 episodes of "Adventure Time" at least once. And one of them just devoured this decent little collection of prequel episodes and started watching the series all over again. "Adventure Time" took quite a while to grow on me but I appreciate its endless well of surreal, kid-friendly absurdity a bit now. 

There's a line on the 1995 Geraldine Fibbers song "Dusted" about "reading Banana Fish" that I always kind of assumed was referencing an obscure west coast zine or something, but apparently it was a seminal manga of the '80s and '90s that was adapted into an anime in 2018. And I like it, it's kind of a gritty crime drama with some surreal sci-fi-ish elements, good dialogue and storytelling. 

n) "My Daughter's Father"
This Mexican series on Netflix has a good premise that grabs you right away -- a young woman needs a kidney transplant, and her dad is willing to be her donor, but that's how she finds out that he's not her biological father and her mother's been hiding a secret for decades. I haven't kept up with it, but the first episode was pretty good. 

o) "Happiness"
Lately my wife has been in the habit of binge watching anime and K-dramas on her tablet, and sometimes I gently remind her that we have a TV and I like a lot of the same stuff so we could just watch some of these shows together on the big screen. I've watched a lot of Korean shows on Netflix but someone I missed this one from a few years ago, it's about a zombie breakout but it's fairly character driven with sharp dialogue, I'm enjoying it so far. 

"Take A Hike!" is a reality show where four South Korean celebrities go hiking in the mountains. I'm not really familiar with any of the people in the cast (although one of them is a singer named, I shit you not, 'Car, the Garden'), but obviously we've had lots of shows like this in America, it's moderately entertaining whether or not you know who the people are. 

In this Brazilian reality show, mothers compete for who knows their children best by attempting to predict their choices in different situations. Cute idea, nothing I need to see more than once but I feel like this is a format you could do in America and other countries successfully. 

r) "On the Road" 
This is one of the new America's Test Kitchen shows on Netflix, Bryan Roof just goes around the country and checks out different restaurants and talks to chefs, kind of boilerplate Food Network-type stuff but I love seeing, like, Louisiana barbecue places where the food looks incredible. 

s) "Wishbone Kitchen"
Netflix has gone all-in on "video podcasts," which kind of irritates me as a concept. But there's not that much difference between a cooking show and a cooking video podcast in practice, and Meredith Hayden is a good host. 

t) "Earle Meets World"
Alix Earle is a blonde influencer lady who apparently has beef with another famous blonde influencer lady, Alex Cooper, who is a completely different person who had a different but similarly dull, earnest reality show a few months ago. 

u) "Lion"
A nice 4-part National Geographic doc chronicling one lion's life from a cub to the head of a pride. It's kind of funny that Jon Favreau exec produced this just because he directed that one Lion King movie, though, like does his name make any difference to whether someone would watch this? 

v) "The Dynasty: UConn Huskies"
I don't follow women's basketball closely, or basketball in general really, but it's certainly been interesting to watch women's college hoops and the WNBA make these great strides over the years. And I didn't really know until I watched this Apple TV miniseries just how important UConn and Rebecca Lobo in the mid-'90s were to that trajectory, really interesting and engaging doc. 

w) "The Program: Texas Tech"
College football is even less in my range of interests and this show just wound up being background noise. 

x) "O.J. Unseen: Exploitation of Evil"
I have vague memories of reports that O.J. Simpson was making a TV prank show 20 years ago and being appalled by the concept like most people. But I probably forgot about it for the last 19 years, until this docuseries featuring footage and interviews with people who worked on it or were ambushed with unexpectedly meeting O.J. Simpson on the show, which was apparently supposed to be funny. Just a snapshot of a completely insane time in pop culture that we lived through. 

y) "Death of the Pastor's Wife"
A really horrifying Netflix doc about a pastor who people think killed his wife, just every single detail of the story makes the whole thing worse and worse, I tapped out after one episode, I'm just not a big true crime person. 

z) "Conan O'Brien Must Go" 
I think it's good that Conan only does 3 or 4 episodes of these a year, you don't really need a lot of them, but each one is pretty fun, I feel like he's evolved his comic persona a little by improvising out in the real world with regular people instead of just with celebrities on a talk show set. I particularly enjoyed the episode in the Netherlands. 

11:25 AM

The 2026 Remix Report Card, Vol. 3

Tuesday, September 08, 2026
























Here's Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, and the Spotify playlist of every remix I've covered so far this year. 

"Boundaries (Remix)" by TheRealmiss BabyDee featuring Saucy Santana and Diamond The Body
TheRealmiss BabyDee is from Alabama and Diamond The Body is from Florida and one of those Zeus network reality show quasi-celebrities. "Boundaries" is a pretty good song, weird beat with minimal drums and lots of chaotic voices layered over each other, Saucy Santana has fun with it but doesn't really add much to the song. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: C+ 

"Dat Sound (Remix)" by H3adband featuring Boosie Badazz
Baton Rouge rapper H3adband released "Dat Sound" last year, or at least did it on one of those YouTube performance channels where people rap into a microphone hanging from the sky, before "Boo" became his mainstream breakthrough a few months ago. But "Dat Sound" either never made it to streaming services, or was pulled for some reason, until he released the song in July alongside a remix with Boosie -- surprisingly neither version of "Dat Sound" is on the album H3adband released in August, go figure. I like hearing Boosie on this song, but his vocals are really poorly mixed/recorded.   
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: C+

"Freak (Remix)" by Yseult featuring JT
"Freak" is a pretty good new jack swing pastiche, maybe a notch below what did Bruno Mars did on "Finesse," and JT's verse on this even kind of reminds me of Cardi on the Bruno remix. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B 

"Geeked Shit (Remix)" by Luh Nae featuring Pluto
I liked one of Pluto's albums, but she got a lot less feature work than YKNiece after they both broke through with "Whim Whamiee," and I kind of understand why listening to Pluto's verse on here, it's just not good at all. Luh Nae is another young female Atlanta rapper who's kind of throwing back to the snap music/swag era, "Geeked Shit" wasn't produced by Zaytoven but it sounds so Zaytoven, I like the beat more than the song. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: D

"Goose Coat (Remix)" by Surf7 featuring Meek Mill
Philadelphia rapper Surf7 released his debut single "Goose Coat" in June (or at least his first song on streaming services, he had another song on Soundcloud a few weeks before that), and then got the biggest rapper from his city on the remix in July, that's pretty cool, he's really hitting the ground running. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B- 

"Gut Genug (Remix)" by Kitschkrieg featuring Skepta, Shirin David, and Blumengarten
"Gut Genug (Remix)" by Kitschkrieg featuring Omah Lay, 255, and Blumengarten
The original "Gut Genug" or "Du Bist Gut Genug" ("you are good enough" in German) was a massive #1 hit in Germany and Austria by three German artists: production trio Kitschkrieg, the singer/producer duo Blumengarten, and rapper Shirin David, who seems like the Iggy Azalea of Germany. Apparently this got big on TikTok in America and is the first German-language song on the U.S. charts in decades, there's more interesting background on the "Gut Genug" phenomenon here. Anyway, there are two remixes featuring British grime rapper Skepta and Nigerian Afrobeats star Omah Lay, both are pretty good. 
Best Verse: Skepta
Overall Grade: B

"Here For The Party (Remix)" by Gretchen Wilson featuring Ella Langley
No female country singer was as big in 2004 as Ella Langley is in 2026, but Gretchen Wilson came pretty close with "Redneck Woman" -- she was even the target of the very first Kanye West awards show tantrum when she won Favorite Breakthrough Artist over him at the AMAs. Wilson's run at the top was pretty short-lived, though. She had a few more hits, including "Here For The Party," but she hasn't really had a successful single since 2005 or any album at all since 2017. So it was a bit of a coup for her to get the biggest current star to sing on a re-recorded version of a song that came out when Langley was five years old. Wilson was never a great vocalist, and at her current age, Langley really upstages her. Actually, it's actually nice to hear Langley sing something that's a little rowdier than her solo stuff usually is. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B- 

"Hot Body (Remix)" by Ayra Starr featuring Danny Ocean
I didn't realize there's a Latin pop star from Venezuela who calls himself Danny Ocean, I saw the guest credit on this remix and my brain went "that's not...Billy Ocean? Frank Ocean? George Clooney?" I like his verse on this, though, his voice reminds me a little of J Balvin but more melodic. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B 

"I Need Dat Remix" by 318dman featuring Nino Paid
Nino Paid is probably the biggest current rapper from Prince George's County, Maryland, where I live, and he sounds surprisingly natural on the breakout hit by Louisiana rapper 318dman. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B+ 

"In My Pockets (Remix)" by Diamond The Body featuring BossMan Dlow
The beat on "In My Pockets" already sounded like the kind of thing BossMan Dlow usually raps on, so he takes to the remix pretty naturally, almost sounds like his song now. Only the clean version is on Spotify, that's pretty annoying. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B

"Louisiana (Remix)" by PhattMouf featuring Fredo Bang
Fredo Bang is pretty low on the list of Louisiana rap stars that I think a new Louisiana rapper would want on a remix of a song called "Louisiana," I don't know if he'd even make the top 10, but he has a decent verse on here. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B- 

"Mi Chico (Remix)" by DJ Goja featuring Jason DeRulo and Melody
I don't like Jason DeRulo as much as Pitbull, but I think DeRulo has a Pitbull-like ability to keep piggybacking onto different songs and trends and stay relevant. DJ Goja is a Romanian producer who made an Afrobeats-inspired track that went viral, and then DeRulo and Brazilian singer Melody jumped on it, and now that's the version that's on pop radio. 
Best Verse: Melody
Overall Grade: C+

"Morning Dew (Donk) Remix" by Beyonce featuring Jay-Z
A cappella bars at his recent concerts notwithstanding, this remix has the first new Jay-Z verse on record in nearly 4 years (the last one was DJ Khaled's "God Did"). "Morning Dew (Donk)" was already kind of a odd little curio, a leaked 2013 outtake that got polished and officially released for the forthcoming reissue of Beyonce's 2006 album B'Day. And this remix is just really playful and weird, throwing Soulja Boy and Sheck Wes and Isley Brothers samples and Goodie Mob lyrics into the pot. The public response to the remix, as far as I've seen, has been overwhelmingly negative, but I think it's kind of an enjoyable minor thing. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B-

"Never Enough (Rod Lee Version)" by Turnstile featuring Rod Lee
You're here on my blog so you probably know that I wrote an entire book about Baltimore club music, and possibly also that I was pretty excited that Baltimore punk breakout band Turnstile's Grammy-winning album Never Enough featured an extended Baltimore club homage on the single "Look Out for Me." On Friday, Turnstile released Never Enough: Versions, which collects remixes and covers from a surreal spectrum of artists including Elton John, Slayyyter, Dying Fetus, and Alex G. For me, though, the big news is that Baltimore club legend Rod Lee turns the #1 rock radio hit "Never Enough" into a Paradox-era club banger with a Brendan Yates vocal loop. I especially love Rod Lee going "I'm about to break it down with my boy Brendan" and the second half of the track where he riffs on the title. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: A

"N*gga (Remix)" by Skrilla featuring 1900Rugrat
Skrilla is the Philly rapper whose song "Doot Doot (6 7)" birthed the whole "six seven" meme, and my theory is he didn't get very famous off that because his music is awful and almost unlistenable. Skrilla unsurprisingly says the n-word a lot on this song, and Florida rapper 1900Rugrat opens his verse saying "cracka cracka cracka cracka cracka cracka cracka," which is pretty hilarious. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B- 

"Nobody (Remix)" by Trim featuring Monaleo and G. Herbo
I covered South Carolina rapper Trim for the first time in one of this year's earlier Remix Report Cards, and immediately clocked that she's influenced by Nicki Minaj, but with each track I hear the Nicki mimicry just seems more and more over-the-top. I kind of rolled my eyes when I heard the "Swag Surfin'" sample on the remix (with a producer tag from Hitmaka, king of lazy samples, no less). But there are also so few rap remixes where there's an actual different beat and it does sound pretty good. The "Nobody" remix initially came out in June with just Monaleo, and then the version with the G. Herbo verse added came out a month later. I would've been happier with the first one, Monaleo kills every feature these days and G. Herbo is overrated as hell. 
Best Verse: Monaleo
Overall Grade: B+ 

"Nobody Speak Part 2" by DJ Shadow featuring Denzel Curry, TiaCorine, and Run the Jewels
At some point Run The Jewels became the default rap music you constantly hear it films, sitcoms, and cartoons, as if every Hollywood music supervisor was just happy to have something recent to put in a scene where they really wanted to use a Beastie Boys song from their adolescence. The 2016 DJ Shadow/Run the Jewels collaboration "Nobody Speak" might have more syncs than any other RTJ song, and I guess this new version is for its 10th anniversary. Denzel Curry and TiaCorine go bar for bar like Jada and Styles surprisingly well, I don't feel like it makes sense to say either has the "best verse" because they both just rap back-and-forth together, but they're good on it. I still don't like the beat, though, like, this is the guy who made Endtroducing. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B

"One Track Mind (Remix)" by Naika featuring Jessie Reyez
"One Track Mind - Part II" by Naika featuring Kalash
Naika is a singer from Miami with one French parent and one Haitian parent, her pretty good debut album Eclesia came out in February and the single "One Track Mind" was a major hit in France. Jessie Reyez's voice didn't annoy me on this as much as usual, but the version with French rap star Kalash is definitely better.  
Best Verse: Kalash
Overall Grade: C+

"Rollin (Remix)" by BIA featuring Stunna Sandy, Bay Swag, and DJ Snake
I covered Stunna Sandy in this column last year before she broke through with her recent Drake collaboration, she's basically an Ice Spice knockoff who's even more attractive but makes even worse music. The original "Rollin'" featured Cash Cobain, his frequent collaborator Bay Swag is a natural fit for the remix but his verse isn't as good. 
Best Verse: Bay Swag
Overall Grade: C+

"Shoulders (Remix)" by 42kbrook/Pookielean featuring H3adband
I thought at first that 42kbrook/Pookielean was a duo but it's just one guy -- from what I can tell, after Baton Rouge rapper 42kbrook blew up with the viral song/dance move "Pookie Lean" last year, he changed his artist handle on streaming services to 42kbrook/Pookielean to really lean into (no pun intended) his claim to fame. Maybe if "Shoulders" gets big enough he'll change his name to 42kbrook/Shoulders. Okay song, H3adband makes it slightly better I guess. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: C+ 

"Sinner, Pt. 2" by Tamera featuring Jessie Reyez
London singer Tamera Foster didn't win when she competed on "The X-Factor," but Simon Cowell still signed her to his label and called her 'the British Rihanna.' Tamera was the opening act on Jessie Reyez's tour last year, so it's a smart move to have her on a remix of her latest single, but "Sinner" is a really good song, and Reyez's voice is like nails on a chalkboard to me, here much more than on the Naika remix. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: D 

"Spend Dat (Remix)" by Yung Miami featuring Lil Baby and Kodak Black
"Spend Dat (International Remix)" by Yung Miami featuring Davido, Shenseea, and Vybz Kartel
I think "Spend Dat" sucks, although I don't feel like it's bringing about the downfall of society like some people seem to. The song had already peaked in both streams and radio spins and started to decline before Yung Miami announced that a remix was coming, maybe she gain restore the song's momentum with these two remixes but I kind of hope not. I will always give credit to artists who record a new verse for their own remixes because that's rare these days, and Yung Miami actually did two new verses, one for each of these remixes, that impressed me. I don't think any of the guests really came with it, though, Kodak is straight up incoherent. 
Best Verse: Davido
Overall Grade: C+

"Talk To Me, Zara" by Robyn featuring Zara Larsson
Despite so much modern American pop being written and produced by Swedes, there's a pretty small number of Swedish pop singers in my lifetime (post-ABBA) who have been commercially successful in America -- it's basically Robyn, Tove Lo, and Zara Larsson, and that's it. And I'm glad Robyn and Zara have been working together, Robyn appeared on the Midnight Sun: Girls Trip remix album earlier this year, and now Zara's on a good retitled version of Robyn's single "Talk To Me." 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B 

"Used 2 (Extended Version)" by 38 Spesh featuring Rome Streetz
Everybody in the neoclassicist cratedigger street rap lane gets hailed as the second coming on the internet, including 38 Spesh and Rome Streetz. I'm not super into either but I like Rome Streetz a little more of the two, so I think he adds something to this song. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B+ 

5:00 AM

Friday, September 04, 2026

 




My Deep Cut Friday column for Spin this week is about Matthew Sweet's "Lost My Mind." I also added There Near to my ranking of Dinosaur Jr. albums that ran in June. 

10:40 AM

Thursday, September 03, 2026

 





I wrote a Baltimore Banner piece about Afro Plus Fest, which kicks off in Landover tomorrow. 

9:35 AM

Wednesday, September 02, 2026
Zac Shipley · Total Ship Show Music Break 1 - End of Summer

 



The fourth episode of Total Ship Show, my podcast with my brother Zac, came out about a week ago. This week we've got the first installment of the Total Ship Show Music Break, a 30-minute audio-only episode on Soundcloud where Zac and I each play three songs and talk a bit about them, which we're going to try and do now and then going forward. Zac picked songs by Gold Steps, Bermuda Search Party, and Secret Menu. I went with kind of an 'end of summer' theme with my picks by Jonathan Richman, Death Cab For Cutie, and Zara Larsson.  

9:33 AM

My Top 522 Singles of the 1980s

Tuesday, September 01, 2026

 



I have previously made lists of my 522 favorite singles of the 1990s, the 2000s, and the 2010s. My rationale is that there are roughly 522 weeks in a decade, and I love the idea that a great song, a great popular single on the charts that will stand the test of time, comes out at least once a week, all year every year, and has continuously throughout our lifetimes. A lot of people subscribe to the mentality that a great pop song comes out every once in a while and it's this shining exception to a lot of bullshit that nobody needs to hear, but I don't feel that way at all. 

There are 520 songs in my mammoth 38-hour Spotify playlist. Salt-N-Pepa's "I'll Take Your Man" and Vanity 6's "Nasty Girl" are the two songs that aren't on Spotify. Salt-N-Pepa are in a legal battle for control of their master recordings and I wish them luck. Vanity 6 somehow slipped between the cracks when a lot of the albums by Prince's proteges went on streaming services after he died. I put the whole thing on shuffle yesterday and had such a ball dancing around my house, I highly recommend it. 

I wrote in detail about many of these songs in my lists of the best pop, R&B, hip-hop, country, mainstream rock, alternative rock, and hard/rock metal singles of the 1980s. 

1. Queen and David Bowie - "Under Pressure" (1981)
2. Frankie Beverly & Maze - "Before I Let Go" (1981) 
3. Prince - "Little Red Corvette" (1983) 
4. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five – “The Message” (1982)
5. Cyndi Lauper - "Time After Time" (1984)
6. AC/DC - "Back In Black" (1980)
7. Violent Femmes - "Blister In The Sun" (1983)
8. Katrina And The Waves - "Walking On Sunshine" (1985)
9. The Cure - "Just Like Heaven" (1987)
10. Madonna - "Like A Prayer" (1989)
11. George Jones - "He Stopped Loving Her Today" (1980)
12. Luther Vandross - "Never Too Much" (1981) 
13. Talking Heads - "Once In A Lifetime" (1981) 
14. Slick Rick – “Children’s Story” (1989)
15. Wham! - "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" (1984)
16. Iron Maiden - "Run To The Hills" (1982)
17. Van Halen - "Panama" (1984)
18. Tom Petty - "I Won't Back Down" (1989)
19. Public Enemy – “Rebel Without a Pause” (1987)
20. Guns N' Roses - "Welcome To The Jungle" (1988)
21. R.E.M. - "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" (1987)
22. Kate Bush - "Running Up That Hill" (1985)
23. Michael McDonald - "I Keep Forgettin'" (1982)
24. Daryl Hall & John Oates - "You Make My Dreams" (1981)
25. The Isley Brothers - "Between The Sheets" (1983)    
26. Debbie Gibson - "Only In My Dreams" (1987)
27. Tracy Chapman - "Fast Car" (1988)
28. Paul Simon - "You Can Call Me Al" (1986)
29. Michael Jackson - "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" (1983) 
30. Whitney Houston - "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)" (1987) 
31. Stevie Nicks - "Edge Of Seventeen" (1982)
32. Phil Collins - "In The Air Tonight" (1981)
33. Eric B. & Rakim – “Paid in Full” (1987)
34. New Edition - "If It Isn't Love" (1988)  
35. Journey - "Any Way You Want It" (1980)
36. Randy Travis - "Forever And Ever, Amen" (1987)
37. Pat Benatar - "Heartbreaker" (1980)
38. Big Daddy Kane – “Ain’t No Half-Steppin'” (1988)
39. LL Cool J – “Rock the Bells” (1985)
40. Motorhead - "Ace Of Spades" (1980)
41. N.W.A. – “Straight Outta Compton” (1988)
42. Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson - "Pancho and Lefty" (1983)
43. Rush - "Tom Sawyer" (1981)
44. Marvin Gaye - "Sexual Healing" (1982)
45. Robbie Nevil - "C'est La Vie" (1986)  
46. Jane's Addiction - "Mountain Song" (1988)
47. Run-DMC – “King of Rock” (1985)
48. Motley Crue - "Kickstart My Heart" (1989)
49. Devo - "Whip It" (1980)
50. The Human League - "Don't You Want Me" (1982)
51. Modern English - "I Melt With You" (1983)
52. Tom Browne - "Funkin' For Jamaica (N.Y.)" (1980)    
53. Billy Joel - "The Longest Time" (1984) 
54. Sade - "The Sweetest Taboo" (1985)   
55. Soul II Soul - "Back To Life (However Do You Want Me)" (1989)
56. The Gap Band – “Outstanding” (1982) 
57. Prince - "When Doves Cry" (1984)  
58. Living Colour - "Cult Of Personality" (1988)
59. U2 - "New Year's Day" (1983)
60. Metallica - "One" (1989)
61. Neil Young - "Rockin' In The Free World" (1989)
62. Dwight Yoakam - "Guitars, Cadillacs" (1986)
63. They Might Be Giants – “Don’t Let’s Start” (1987)
64. Elton John - "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" (1983)
65. Salt-N-Pepa – “I’ll Take Your Man” (1986)
66. Audio Two – “Top Billin'” (1987)
67. Bruce Springsteen - "I'm On Fire" (1985)
68. INXS - "Don't Change" (1982)
69. ZZ Top - "Gimme All Your Lovin'" (1983) 
70. Soft Cell - "Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go?" (1981)
71. Madonna - "Borderline" (1984)
72. The B-52s - "Love Shack" (1989)
73. Ozzy Osbourne - "Crazy Train" (1980)
74. Tanya Tucker - "Love Me Like You Used To" (1987)
75. Pet Shop Boys - "West End Girls" (1986)
76. Sonic Youth - "Teen Age Riot" (1988)
77. Dio - "Rainbow In The Dark" (1983)
78. Tears For Fears - "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" (1985)
79. Starship - "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" (1987)
80. Bon Jovi - "Wanted Dead Or Alive" (1987)
81. John Mellencamp - "Cherry Bomb" (1987)
82. George Strait - "Amarillo By Morning" (1983)
83. George Michael - "Faith" (1987)
84. Christopher Cross - "Ride Like The Wind" (1980)
85. Eurythmics - "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" (1983)
86. The Clash - "Rock The Casbah"  (1982)
87. Billy Idol - "Dancing With Myself" (1981)
88. Def Leppard - "Photograph" (1983)
89. The Who - "Eminence Front" (1982)
90. Dexys Midnight Runners - "Come On Eileen" (1983)
91. Judas Priest - "Breaking The Law" (1980)
92. Ice-T – “6 ‘N the Mornin’” (1986)
93. Schoolly D – “P.S.K. What Does It Mean?” (1985)
94. Suicidal Tendencies - "Institutionalized" (1984)
95. Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock – “It Takes Two” (1988)
96. The Pointer Sisters - "Neutron Dance" (1985) 
97. Donna Summer - "She Works Hard For The Money" (1983)
98. Rick Springfield - "Jessie's Girl" (1981)
99. Rick Astley - "Never Gonna Give You Up" (1988)
100. Lipps Inc. - "Funkytown" (1980)  
101. Cyndi Lauper - "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" (1983)
102. Janet Jackson - "When I Think Of You" (1986)   
103. Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force – “Planet Rock” (1982)
104. The Dead Milkmen - "Punk Rock Girl" (1989)
105. Funky 4 + 1 – “That’s the Joint” (1980)
106. Stevie Wonder - "Do I Do" (1982)  
107. Daryl Hall & John Oates - "Private Eyes" (1981)
108. Boogie Down Productions – “South Bronx” (1986)
109. Teena Marie - "Square Biz" (1982)
110. Keith Whitley - "I'm No Stranger To The Rain" (1989)
111. The Cult - "She Sells Sanctuary" (1985)
112. Squeeze - "Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)" (1980)
113. Wang Chung - "Dance Hall Days" (1984)
114. Chaka Khan – “What 'Cha Gonna Do For Me” (1981)
115. Steve Winwood - "Roll With It" (1988) 
116. Michael Jackson - "Rock With You" (1980) 
117. Billy Squier - "Lonely Is The Night" (1981)
118. Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris - "Wildflowers" (1988)
119. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - "Refugee" (1980)
120. Genesis - "No Reply At All" (1981) 
121. Bruce Hornsby and the Range - "The Way It Is" (1986)
122. Toto - "Rosanna" (1982) 
123. Bonnie Tyler - "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (1983)
124. Tina Turner - "The Best" (1989)  
125. Queen - "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" (1980)
126. Madonna - "Express Yourself" (1989) 
127. Whitesnake - "Here I Go Again" (1987)
128. Heart - "Alone" (1987)
129. Van Halen - "Hot For Teacher" (1984)
130. Guns N' Roses - "Sweet Child O' Mine" (1988)  
131. The Replacements - "Alex Chilton" (1987)
132. A-ha - "Take On Me" (1985)
133. The Romantics - "What I Like About You" (1980)
134. Eddie Money - "Shakin'" (1982)
135. MC Shan – “The Bridge” (1985)
136. The Police - "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" (1981)
137. Roxanne Shante – “Roxanne’s Revenge” (1984)
138. UTFO – “Roxanne, Roxanne” (1984)
139. Big Country - "In A Big Country" (1983)
140. Bruce Springsteen - "Hungry Heart" (1980)
141. The D.O.C. – “It’s Funky Enough” (1989)
142. The Pretenders - "Back On The Chain Gang" (1983)
143. Journey – “Stone In Love” (1982)
144. The Greg Kihn Band - "The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em)" (1981)
145. Wall Of Voodoo - "Mexican Radio"  (1983)
146. Pete Townshend - "Let My Love Open The Door" (1980)
147. Crowded House - "Don't Dream It's Over" (1987)
148. Don Henley - "The Boys Of Summer" (1984)  
149. Depeche Mode – “People Are People” (1984)
150. General Public - "Tenderness" (1984)
151. Fleetwood Mac - "Gypsy" (1982)  
152. De La Soul featuring the Jungle Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest, Monie Love, and Queen Latifah – “Buddy (Native Tongue Decision)” (1989)
153. Traveling Wilburys - "Handle With Care" (1988)
154. Fabulous Thunderbirds - "Tuff Enuff" (1986) 
155. Anita Baker - "Same Ole Love (365 Days A Year)" (1987)  
156. The Pixies - "Here Comes Your Man" (1989)
157. The Ramones - "We Want The Airwaves" (1981)
158. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - "Bad Reputation" (1981)
159. Cameo - "Word Up!" (1986) 
160. Poison - "Talk Dirty To Me" (1987) 
161. Beastie Boys – “Paul Revere” (1986)
162. Public Enemy – “Fight the Power” (1989)
163. E.U. - "Da Butt" (1988)  
164. Melle Mel – “White Lines (Don’t Do It)” (1983)
165. The Smiths - "How Soon Is Now?" (1985)
166. Buster Poindexter And His Banshees of Blue - "Hot Hot Hot" (1987) 
167. DeBarge - "I Like It" (1982)    
168. Prince and the Revolution - "I Would Die 4 U" (1985)  
169. Herbie Hancock – “Rockit” (1983)
170. Huey Lewis and the News - "If This Is It" (1984)   
171. .38 Special - "Hold On Loosely" (1981)
172. Alabama - "Mountain Music" (1982)
173. Stetsasonic – “Talkin’ All That Jazz” (1988)
174. Bob Marley and the Wailers – “Could You Be Loved” (1980) 
175. John Mellencamp - "Jack & Diane" (1982)
176. Cheryl Lynn - "Encore" (1984)
177. Oingo Boingo - "Dead Man's Party" (1986)
178. The Waterboys - "The Whole Of The Moon" (1986)
179. Doug E. Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew – “The Show” (1985)

































180. Fine Young Cannibals - "Good Thing" (1989)
181. Kenny Loggins - "This Is It" (1980)
182. Janet Jackson - "The Pleasure Principle" (1987)  
183. Teddy Pendergrass - "Love T.K.O." (1980)
184. Madness - "Our House" (1983)
185. Tom Tom Club - "Genius Of Love" (1982) 
186. The Waitresses - "Christmas Wrapping" (1981)
187. Wham! - "Last Christmas" (1984) 
188. Sinead O'Connor - "Mandinka" (1987)
189. David Bowie - "Ashes To Ashes" (1980)
190. Peter Gabriel - "Games Without Frontiers" (1980)
191. Genesis - "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" (1987)
192. Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine - "1-2-3" (1988)
193. Rod Stewart - "Young Turks" (1981) 
194. Styx - "Too Much Time On My Hands" (1981)
195. The Hooters - "And We Danced" (1985)
196. The Outfield - "Your Love" (1986) 
197. Murray Head - "One Night In Bangkok" (1985)
198. Nu Shooz - "I Can't Wait" (1986)
199. New Order - "Bizarre Love Triangle" (1986)
200. Michael Jackson - "Beat It" (1983)   
201. Kim Carnes - "Bette Davis Eyes" (1981) 
202. Donnie Iris - "Ah! Leah!" (1980) 
203. The Dazz Band - "Let It Whip" (1982) 
204. George Clinton - "Atomic Dog" (1983)  
205. Bryan Adams - "Somebody" (1985)
206. Simple Minds - "Don't You (Forget About Me)" (1985)
207. Peter Gabriel - "In Your Eyes" (1986)
208. INXS - "New Sensation" (1988)
209. Queen - "Another One Bites The Dust" (1980)
210. David Bowie - "Let's Dance" (1983)
211. The Waterboys - "Fisherman's Blues" (1988)
212. Nena - "99 Luftballoons" (1984)
213. The Clash - "Train In Vain" (1980)
214. Indigo Girls - "Closer To Fine" (1989)
215. R.E.M. - "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)" (1984)
216. The Police - "Every Breath You Take" (1983) 
217. U2 - "With Or Without You" (1987)
218. Stevie Nicks with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" (1981)
219. The Cure - "Close To Me" (1985)
220. Patrice Rushen - "Forget Me Nots" (1982)   
221. Frida - "I Know There's Something Going On" (1983)
222. Rick James - "Super Freak" (1981) 
223. Prince - "Controversy" (1981)  
224. Olivia Newton-John - "Physical" (1981)
225. INXS - "What You Need" (1985)
226. Squeeze - "Tempted" (1981)
227. Starpoint - "Object Of My Desire" (1985)
228. Lionel Richie - "All Night Long (All Night)" (1983)  
229. Janet Jackson - "Rhythm Nation" (1989)
230. U2 - "All I Want Is You" (1989)
231. Madonna - "Material Girl" (1985)
232. Bonnie Raitt - "Thing Called Love" (1989)
233. Zapp - "Computer Love" (1985)
234. Little Feat - "Let It Roll" (1988)
235. Journey - "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" (1983)
236. Naked Eyes – “Always Something There To Remind Me" (1983)
237. Cowboy Junkies - "Sweet Jane" (1989)
238. Bananarama - "Cruel Summer" (1984)
239. Talking Heads - "This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)" (1983)
240. Aretha Franklin f/ George Michael - "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (1987) 
241. Blondie - "Rapture" (1981)
242. Daryl Hall & John Oates - "Kiss On My List" (1981)
243. Surface - "Happy" (1987)  
244. Foreigner - "Juke Box Hero" (1981)
245. The Jacksons - "This Place Hotel" (1981) 
246. Bobby Brown - "Don't Be Cruel" (1988) 
247. Laurie Anderson - "O Superman" (1981)
248. George Thorogood & The Destroyers - "I Drink Alone" (1985) 
249. Jennifer Holliday - "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" (1982)  
250. Diana Ross - "Upside Down" (1980) 
251. Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force - "I Wonder If I Take You Home" (1985)
252. The Weather Girls - "It's Raining Men" (1982)     
253. Milli Vanilli - "Girl You Know It's True" (1989)
254. The Time – “777-9311” (1982)
255. Robert Plant - "In The Mood" (1983)
256. Loverboy - "Working For the Weekend" (1982) 
257. Pink Floyd - "Learning To Fly" (1987)
258. Keni Burke - "Risin' To The Top" (1982) 
259. Prince and the Revolution - "Kiss" (1986)               
260. Eddy Grant - "Electric Avenue" (1983)
261. Bobby Brown - "On Our Own" (1989)
262. Reba McEntire - "Little Rock" (1986)
263. Janet Jackson - "Miss You Much" (1989)
264. Pretenders - "Don't Get Me Wrong" (1986)
265. Taana Gardner – “Heartbeat” (1981)
266. Rufus & Chaka Khan - "Ain't Nobody" (1983)
267. Michael Jackson - "Billie Jean" (1983)
268. Tears For Fears - "Head Over Heels" (1985)
269. Rick James – “Give It To Me Baby” (1981)
270. Kool & The Gang – “Get Down On It” (1981)
271. Neneh Cherry - "Buffalo Stance" (1989)
272. Karla Bonoff - "Personally" (1982)
273. Prince - "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man" (1987)
274. Newcleus – “Jam on It” (1984)
275. Rosanne Cash - "Seven Year Ache" (1981)
276. Scorpions - "Rock You Like A Hurricane" (1984)
277. The Gap Band – “Yearning For Your Love” (1981)
278. Tone Loc – “Wild Thing” (1988)
279. George Jones - "Tennessee Whiskey" (1983)
280. George Michael - "Father Figure" (1988)
281. Lita Ford - "Kiss Me Deadly" (1988)
282. Tears For Fears f/ Oleta Adams - "Woman In Chains" (1989)
283. Kate Bush - "This Woman's Work" (1989)
284. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - "Fishin' In The Dark" (1987)
285. Dead Or Alive - "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)" (1985) 
286. Autograph - "Turn Up The Radio" (1984)
287. Luther Vandross - "A House Is Not A Home" (1981)
288. Willie Nelson - "On The Road Again" (1980)
289. Jermaine Stewart - "We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off" (1986) 
290. Cyndi Lauper - "Money Changes Everything" (1985)
291. Was (Not Was) - "Walk The Dinosaur" (1989)
292. Bobby McFerrin - "Don't Worry, Be Happy" (1988)  
293. DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince – “Parents Just Don’t Understand” (1988)
294. Prince - "1999" (1982)
295. Michael Jackson - "Thriller" (1984)
296. Madonna - "Open Your Heart" (1987) 
297. Motley Crue - "Home Sweet Home" (1985)
298. AC/DC - "You Shook Me All Night Long" (1980)
299. Jackson Browne - "In The Shape Of A Heart" (1986)
300. Bruce Springsteen - "Dancing In The Dark" (1984)
301. Metallica - "For Whom The Bell Tolls" (1985)
302. Slayer - "Reign In Blood" (1986)
303. Megadeth - "Peace Sells" (1986)
304. Kathy Mattea - "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses" (1988)
305. Prince - "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" (1980)
306. R.E.M. – “The One I Love” (1987)
307. Michael Jackson - "Smooth Criminal" (1988)
308. Change f/ Luther Vandross - "The Glow Of Love" (1980)
309. INXS - "Need You Tonight" (1987)
310. Frankie Beverly & Maze - "Joy And Pain" (1980)
311. The Rolling Stones - "Start Me Up" (1981) 
312. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - "Don't Come Around Here No More" (1985) 
313. Peter Gabriel - "Sledgehammer" (1986)
314. Phil Collins - "Sussudio" (1985)
315. Duran Duran - "Hungry Like The Wolf" (1982)
316. The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl - "Fairytale Of New York" (1987)
317. Bryan Adams – “Cuts Like A Knife” (1983)
318. Pat Benatar - "Love Is A Battlefield" (1983)
319. Prince - "Uptown" (1980)
320. Queen Latifah – “Dance for Me” (1989)
321. Michael Jackson - "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" (1983)
322. The Judds - "Had A Dream (For The Heart)" (1983)
323. Van Halen - "Everybody Wants Some!!" (1980)
324. New Kids On The Block - "You Got It (The Right Stuff)" (1989) 
325. Harold Faltermeyer - "Axel F" (1985) 
326. Olivia Newton-John and Electric Light Orchestra - "Xanadu" (1980)
327. Steely Dan - "Hey Nineteen" (1980)
328. Ray Parker, Jr. - "Ghostbusters" (1984)
329. Shannon - "Let The Music Play" (1984)
330. U2 - "Where The Streets Have No Name" (1987)
331. Talking Heads - "And She Was" (1985)
332. R.E.M. - "Radio Free Europe" (1983)
333. Vanity 6 - "Nasty Girl" (1982)
334. Alicia Myers – “I Want To Thank You” (1982)
335. Shalamar – “A Night To Remember” (1982)
336. The Psychedelic Furs - "Pretty In Pink" (1986)
337. Michael Jackson - "The Way You Make Me Feel" (1987)
338. “Weird Al” Yankovic – “Eat It” (1984)
339. Bruce Springsteen - "Born In The U.S.A." (1984)
340. Phil Collins - "I Don't Care Anymore" (1983)
341. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - "If You Leave" (1986)
342. Spandau Ballet - "True" (1983)
343. Kix - "Blow My Fuse" (1988)
344. The Deele - "Two Occasions" (1988)
345. Tears For Fears - "Mad World" (1982)
346. Thomas Dolby - "She Blinded Me With Science" (1983)
347. The Ramones - "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?" (1980)































348. Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson - "Say Say Say" (1983)
349. David Bowie - "Modern Love" (1983)
350. MC Lyte – “Cha Cha Cha” (1989)
351. J.J. Fad – “Supersonic” (1988)
352. The Cure - "Lovesong" (1989)
353. Billy Squier - "The Stroke" (1981)
354. Marley Marl featuring Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap and Big Daddy Kane – “The Symphony” (1988)
355. Red Rider - "Lunatic Fringe" (1981)
356. 3rd Bass f/ Zev Love X – “The Gas Face” (1989)
357. Special Ed – “I Got It Made” (1989)
358. LL Cool J – “I’m Bad” (1987)
359. Michael Jackson - "Human Nature"  (1983)
360. Aerosmith - "Love In An Elevator" (1989)
361. Prince and the Revolution - "Pop Life" (1985)
362. Bruce Springsteen - "Atlantic City" (1982)
363. Culture Club - "Karma Chameleon" (1984)
364. Poison - "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" (1988)
365. "Weird Al" Yankovic - "Dare To Be Stupid" (1986)
366. Bon Jovi - "Livin' On A Prayer" (1987)
367. Jody Watley - "Real Love" (1989)
368. Men At Work - "Overkill" (1982)
369. Tones On Tail - "Go!" (1984)
370. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" (1982)
371. Michael Jackson featuring Siedah Garrett - "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" (1987)
372. Face To Face - "10-9-8" (1984)
373. T La Rock & Jazzy Jay – “It’s Yours” (1984)
374. Def Leppard - "Animal" (1987)
375. The Treacherous Three – “Body Rock” (1980)
376. Rush - "Freewill" (1980)
377. Prince featuring Sheena Easton - "U Got The Look" (1987)
378. The English Beat - "Save It For Later" (1982)
379. The Sequence featuring Spoonie Gee – “Monster Jam” (1980)
380. Blue Oyster Cult - "Burnin' For You" (1981)
381. The Showboys – “Drag Rap” (1986)
382. 2 Live Crew – “Me So Horny” (1989)
383. Guns N' Roses - "Paradise City" (1989)
384. Sir Mix-A-Lot – “Posse on Broadway” (1988)
385. Van Halen - "Unchained" (1981)
386. Too $hort – “Life Is … Too Short” (1988)
387. Billy Idol – “Rebel Yell” (1984)
388. Journey – “Don’t Stop Believin’” (1981)
389. Pebbles - "Girlfriend" (1988)
390. Madonna – “Into The Groove” (1985)
391. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – “Everyday I Write The Book” (1983)
392. Twisted Sister - "We're Not Gonna Take It" (1984)
393. Biz Markie – “Nobody Beats the Biz” (1987)
394. Ozzy Osbourne - "Over The Mountain" (1981)
395. Eazy-E – “Boyz-n-the-hood” (1987)
396. Billy Joel - "It's Still Rock And Roll To Me" (1980)
397. Great White - "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" (1989)
398. Whodini – “Freaks Come Out at Night” (1984)
399. Quiet Riot - "Cum On Feel The Noize" (1983)
400. Run-DMC – “It’s Like That” (1983)
401. Dire Straits – “Walk of Life” (1985)
402. Ratt - "Round and Round" (1984)
403. Kurtis Blow – “The Breaks” (1980)
404. Bon Jovi - "Runaway" (1984)
405. The Sugarhill Gang – “Apache” (1981)
406. Kiss - "Lick It Up" (1983)
407. LL Cool J – “Going Back To Cali” (1988)
408. Bruce Springsteen - "Glory Days" (1985)
409. Madonna – “Cherish” (1989)
410. Def Leppard - "Foolin'" (1983)
411. Billy Joel – “Pressure” (1982)
412. Billy Idol – “White Wedding” (1982)
413. Survivor - "Eye of the Tiger" (1982)
414. Europe - "The Final Countdown" (1986)
415. Pat Benatar – “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” (1980)
416. Rush - "The Spirit Of Radio" (1980)
417. Bob Seger - "Her Strut" (1980)
416. EPMD - "You Gots To Chill" (1988)
418. Rakim - "Follow The Leader" (1988)
420. The Go-Go's - "Head Over Heels" (1984)
421. Howard Jones - "Things Can Only Get Better" (1985)
422. John Mellencamp - "Pink Houses" (1983)
423. Pink Floyd - "Comfortably Numb" (1980)
424. Run-DMC - "It's Tricky" (1987)
425. Tom Petty – “Runnin' Down A Dream” (1989)
426. Van Halen - "And The Cradle Will Rock..." (1980)
426. Genesis - "Misunderstanding" (1980)
427. The Replacements - "I Will Dare" (1984)
428. Frankie Goes To Hollywood - "Relax" (1985)
429. Billy Idol – “Eyes Without A Face” (1984)
430. The Vapors - "Turning Japanese" (1980)
431. LL Cool J – “I Can’t Live Without My Radio” (1985)
432. Diana Ross - "I'm Coming Out" (1980)
433. Paul McCartney - "Coming Up" (1980)
434. Def Leppard – “Hysteria” (1988)
435. ZZ Top - "I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide" (1980)
436. Billy Joel – “Uptown Girl” (1983)
437. Erasure - "A Little Respect" (1989)
438. Anita Baker - "Sweet Love" (1986)
439. Elvis Costello – “Veronica” (1989)
440. Bob Seger - "Against the Wind" (1986)
441. Run-DMC - "My Adidas" (1986)
442. The Fixx - "One Thing Leads To Another" (1983)
443. Madonna – “Like A Virgin” (1984)
444. The Dead Milkmen - "Bitchin' Camaro" (1985)
445. Aerosmith – “Rag Doll” (1988)
446. The Cars - "Drive" (1984)
447. Bruce Springsteen - "Brilliant Disguise" (1987)
448. R.E.M. - "Orange Crush" (1988)
449. Oran "Juice" Jones - "The Rain" (1986)
450. Cameo - "Candy" (1986)             
451. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “Here Comes My Girl” (1980)
452. Judas Priest - "Living After Midnight" (1980)
453. The Police - "Wrapped Around Your Finger" (1984)
454. LL Cool J – “Big Ole Butt” (1989)
455. Camper Van Beethoven - "Take The Skinheads Bowling" (1985)
456. Talking Heads - "Wild Wild Life" (1986)
457. Culture Club - "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?" (1983) 
458. Eugene Wilde - "Gotta Get You Home Tonight" (1984)
459. The Cars – “You Might Think” (1984)
460. Def Leppard – “Pour Some Sugar On Me” (1988)
461. Madonna – “Holiday” (1983)
462. Dennis Edwards f/ Siedah Garrett – “Don’t Look Any Further” (1984)
463. Violent Femmes - "Gone Daddy Gone" (1983)
464. Aerosmith – “Janie’s Got A Gun” (1989)
465. U2 - "Bad (live)" (1985)
466. The Nails - "88 Lines About 44 Women" (1985)
467. R.E.M. - "Fall On Me" (1986)
468. Bob Seger – “Against The Wind” (1980)
469. Billy Joel - "You May Be Right" (1980)
470. The Police - "Don't Stand So Close To Me" (1980)
471. Don Dixon - "Praying Mantis" (1985)
472. Yello - "Oh Yeah" (1987)
473. Jocelyn Brown – “Somebody Else’s Guy” (1984)
474. The Go-Go's - "We Got The Beat" (1981)
475. Blondie - "Call Me"  (1980)
476. U2 - "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (1987)
477. Run-DMC and Aerosmith - "Walk This Way" (1986)
478. Janet Jackson - "Nasty" (1986)
479. R.E.M. - "Pop Song 89" (1989)
480. Madness - "It Must Be Love" (1981)
481. Depeche Mode - "Just Can't Get Enough" (1981)
482. Madonna – “Lucky Star” (1983)
483. Billy Joel – “A Matter of Trust” (1986)
484. Ashford & Simpson - "Solid" (1984)
485. Prince - "Purple Rain" (1984)
486. Duran Duran - "Notorious" (1986)
487. The The - "This Is The Day" (1983)
488. INXS - "Devil Inside" (1988)
489. Jane's Addiction - "Jane Says" (1988) 
490. Talking Heads - "Burning Down The House" (1983) 
491. U2 - "Pride (In The Name Of Love)" (1984)
492. R.E.M. - "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville" (1984)
493. Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush - "Don't Give Up" (1986) 
494. Split Enz - "I Got You" (1980)
495. Information Society - "What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)" (1988)
496. Squeeze - "Black Coffee In Bed" (1982)
497. Deniece Williams - "Let's Hear It For The Boy" (1984)
498. Madonna – “Dress You Up” (1985)
499. The Police - "Synchronicity II" (1983)
500. Fishbone - "Party At Ground Zero" (1985)
501. Joe Jackson - "Steppin' Out" (1982)
502. Janet Jackson - "What Have You Done For Me Lately" (1986)
503. The Replacements - "Bastards Of Young" (1985) 
504. Prince and the Revolution - "Raspberry Beret" (1985)
505. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - "The Waiting" (1981)
506. The B-52's - "Private Idaho" (1981)
507. Sade - "Smooth Operator" (1984)
508. New Order - "Blue Monday" (1983)
509. Talking Heads - "Road To Nowhere" (1985)
510. The Waitresses - "I Know What Boys Like"  (1982)
511. Ronnie Milsap - "Smoky Mountain Rain" (1980)
512. The Cure - "In Between Days" (1985)
513. George Strait - "The Chair" (1985)
514. The Replacements - "I'll Be You" (1989)
515. U2 - "I Will Follow" (1981)
516. Hank Williams Jr. - "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" (1984)
517. Jim Carroll Band - "People Who Died" (1980)
518. Dolly Parton - "9 To 5" (1980)
519. Peter Gabriel - "Shock The Monkey" (1982)
520. Emmylou Harris - "Born To Run" (1982)
521. Bruce Springsteen – “Tunnel of Love” (1987)
522. The B-52's - "Song For A Future Generation" (1983)

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