California courts allow humans to marry headphones!

Who cares about same sex marriage! What I'm really excited about are my headphones. They improve my concentration, drown out the horrible things around me, and force me into a world of my favorite music. Songs sound better when you're under the 'phones, it's true. And today, here are the songs that I am deeply in love with. Are you?

“Thought @ Work” by the Roots-- As the song proclaims, “You feel this shit soon as they throw it on.” Man, it’s true. This is such party song. I like how it’s called Thought at Work, because every time this song comes on when I’m at work, I stop thinking and immediately want to get up and dance on my desk. It’s a recess song! I can’t figure out if the drums are live or a sample, but who cares. This song is “tight” as the teens say. Black Thought has a very perfect flow and I’m amazed that he’s not huffing and puffing 30 seconds into it.

“A Lack of Color” by Death Cab for Cutie. The lyrics are sad and desperate, but I don’t think they’d be quite as heartbreaking if they were sung by someone else (Lionel Richie, for example). The lead singer’s voice is so unique and lovely. It’s buttery soft and innocent. It makes every Death Cab song soothing, addictive, and heartfelt. It’s the kind of voice that if it was yours, you’d sing all of the time and you’d give up talking and just go through life singing everything. “Pleeeeeeese, pleeeease, pass me that staaAAAAaaapler, grandma-ahh-ahh.” They are the epitome of emo-indie-hipster music (see: Fox's tween hit show The O.C. ). Anyway, I think it’s the very reason they’ve become such a huge commercial hit. And deservedly so, though, I wish I could turn back time and hog them all to myself. Put all their music in my iPod and seal it off forever. Squeeze it tightly like a tiny gerbil in the suffocating grip of my greedy fist. Mine! Mine! Mine!

"Bedstuy Parade & Funeral March" By Mos Def. I am feeling that blues/rock/rap hybrid, baby. He’s known as being part of the Native Tongues revival because he brought back the kind of rap that De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, and Brand Nubian were doing in the 80s & 90s. It’s socially conscious, thoughtful and lacks the annoying, pointless bragging and boasting and violent lyrics that’s become (or always has been) the standard. It doesn’t hurt that I think Mos Def is one of if not THE sexiest men on the planet. What can this man not do? He acts, writes, directs, raps and speaks with charm, intelligence and sex appeal.



Bjork’s “Medulla” album is filled with shiny gems, and it’s hard for me to pick a favorite, but “Mouth’s Cradle” is up there, as well as “Triumph of Heart.” Though her lyrics are every bit poetic, you can tell that she writes them after the fact. Or at least changes them to perfectly match the music. Incidentally, Bjork is probably my all-time favorite musician. I cried when I saw her play at Radio City Music Hall in New York in 2001. That’s dorky, I know, but the Vespertine album will turn even the coldest scaly serpent into a bright pink ladybug-collecting pacifist. I appreciate the incorporation of beat box as instrument in "Triumph of Heart."