Ryan Adams / La Cienega Just Smiled
Album: Gold (2001)
Mix: Bryan’s Summer Carnivale, Volume 3 (2003)

Ryan Adams / I See Monsters
Album: Love Is Hell (2003)
Mix: Movin’ Day Mix (2004)

All-4-One / I Swear
Album: All-4-One (1994)
Mix: Let’s Hear It for the Birthday Boy! (2001)

Anggun / Snow on the Sahara
Album: Snow on the Sahara (1998)
Mix: Yo, B! The Soundtrack (2003)

“If your hopes scatter like the dust across your track / I’ll be the moon that shines on your path”

The Anniversary / The Siren Sings
Album: Your Majesty (2002)
Mix: Bryan’s Summer Carnivale, Volume 4 (2003)

“At the edge of the rest of your life / at the end of a one way road / I was losing everything / And tonight may never shine / if you never open your eyes / I keep this heart right next to mine”

The Ataris / In This Diary
Album: So Long, Astoria (2003)
Mix: Bryan’s Summer Carnivale, Volume 3 (2003)

Azure Ray / Rise
Album: Azure Ray (2001)
Mix: Bryan’s Summer Spooge Mix, Volume 2 (2002)

Backstreet Boys / I Want It That Way
Album: Millennium (1999)

“I never want to hear you say / I want it that way”

Badly Drawn Boy / The Shining
Album: The Hour of Bewilderbeast (2000)
Mix: Bryan & Suze Hit Columbus (2002)

Bangles / Eternal Flame
Album: Everything (1988)
Mix: Stop Catching and Start Pitching! (2000)

The Beach Boys / God Only Knows
Album: Pet Sounds (1966)
Mix: Stop Catching and Start Pitching! (2000)

Bishop Allen / Busted Heart
Album: Charm School (2003)
Mix: Movin’ Day Mix (2004)

Bitesize / Sugar Car
Album: The Best of Bitesize (1999)
Mix: Bryan’s Summer Spooge Mix, Volume 1 (2002)

“I’m rich / and you’re bitchin’!”

Bright Eyes / From a Balance Beam
Album: Lifted, or: The Story is in the Soul, Keep Your Ear to the Ground (2002)
Mix: Bryan’s Summer Carnivale, Volume 4 (2003)

Garth Brooks / Callin’ Baton Rouge
Album: In Pieces (1993)
Mix: Bryan’s Summer Carnivale, Volume 2 (2003)

Jeff Buckley / Hallelujah
Album: Grace (1994)

“I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch / but love is not a victory march / It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah”

Buffalo Springfield / For What It's Worth
Album: Buffalo Springfield (1968)
Mix: Summer Madness: Cruise (2001)

Eric Carmen / Make Me Lose Control
Album: The Best of Eric Carmen (1988)
Mix: Summer Madness: Chill (2001)

Tracy Chapman / The Promise
Album: New Beginning (1995)

Chicago / Look Away
Album: Chicago 19 (1988)

Eric Clapton / Tears in Heaven
Album: Rush: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack (1992)

Coldplay / Don’t Panic
Album: Parachutes (2000)
Mix: Summer Madness: Soar (2001)

Amy Correia / Fallen Out of Love
Album: Carnival Love (2000)
Mix: Date Party 2001 (2001)

“Love / Well I guess when it’s real / It doesn’t make you feel like you’re no good / I heard that love / They say that when it’s true / You get a feeling inside / You don’t have to hide / And baby I feel I’ve got to hide from you”

Counting Crows / Round Here
Album: August and Everything After (1993)

“Round Here” is the first track on the Counting Crows’ debut album, introducing the group to the world in a breathtaking way. The song slowly forms, as if from nothing — the first ten seconds are nearly silent before Adam Duritz begins his vocal. “Stepped out the front door like a ghost into the fog where no one notices the contrast of white on white / and in between the moon and you, angels get a better view of the crumbling difference between wrong and right.” (I didn’t realize I had memorized that until I tried to recall it just now.) Soon the guitar grows louder, keyboard, drums and bass enter when they’re ready, building, building. Eventually, as we know they will, the band reaches the top of the mountain and stretches out their arms, “Rooooooooouuund here, we’re carving out our names, round here we all look the same.” For me, “Round Here” is the Counting Crows; it is the sophomore year of high school, hanging out at the Coffee Klatch for hours, writing in journals, developing inside jokes, really gelling with a group of friends for the first time; it is Susan. Yes, this song style can become whiny and monotonous if not done this well, and yes, Counting Crows had to grow and change because you can’t do it forever, but what a shining moment.

Counting Crows / Anna Begins
Album: August and Everything After (1993)

“I am not worried, I am not overly concerned”
“Anna Begins” chronicles an uncertain relationship — is it love? Am I “ready for this sort of thing”? The narrator goes back and forth, weighing the situation while the song shuffles along, but something isn’t right. The chords, the melody, they sound like they’re in a minor key; there’s a note we want to change, but we’re not sure exactly which. “It does not bother me to say... if you don’t want to talk about it, then this isn’t love.” When the chorus arrives, the key changes and we feel better — at least for a moment. “The seconds when I’m shaking leave me shuddering for days.” After the second verse and chorus, the uncertainty grows more intense. “She’s talking in her sleep, it’s keeping me awake, and Anna begins to toss and turn.” Rain falls down. Then, abruptly, it’s over. “She disappears and, oh lord, I’m not ready for this sort of thing.” “Anna Begins” takes me back to the summer of 1998, when Katie and I visited Liz in St. Louis and went on our infamous camping trip. I was the third wheel by default gender division, and slept in a separate tent. While the girls talked into the night, I put on my headphones and really listened to August and Everything After for the first time. Is it possible that I had owned the album for years and played only the same three singles each time? It may well be, since I don’t even remember hearing “Anna Begins” before that night, but I will never forget the experience. Out in the woods on a warm summer night, not too long after the most transformational year of high school, in the middle of a summer and in particular a trip charged with emotion, I was increasingly sensitive to the surrounding world, and “Anna Begins” memorably washed over me.

Counting Crows / A Long December
Album: Recovering the Satellites (1996)

“A Long December” gives me the feeling of a never-ending winter, of gray skies and cold car seats, of slowly and numbly going through life, waiting for the first warmth of spring to thaw the world back out. The lyrics border on the hopeful, sort of (“There’s reason to believe that maybe this year will be better than the last”) but the tone is so removed from actual good memories and celebration — it’s clearly been awhile. No, this is more about reminiscing, taking stock, getting ready to move on; I guess we’ll see what the future brings. A weary yet resolute melancholy.

Counting Crows / Amy Hit the Atmosphere
Album: This Desert Life (1999)
Mix: Summer Madness: Chill (2001)

“If I could make it rain today / and wash away this sunny day down to the gutter / I would / Just to get a change of pace”
“There has to be a change, I’m sure / Today was just a day fading into another / and that can’t be what a life is for”

Counting Crows / Hard Candy
Album: Hard Candy (2002)

Such momentum! Impromptu dance parties on the balcony, the lights of Ballston twinkling in the background, a full set of M&M glasses at the ready. Oh my god, close the door, it’s so fucking hot out. But we just bought three cases this morning! Chugging a beer in the lobby bathroom (“It’s so cold!” “Shut up, it’s tradition!”) on the way out. Elaborate plans for a future together, right down to the name of our shared pet penguin; a first taste of things to come. “Ooooooh! Ahhhhh!” The background vocals just keep going! We are shining, we are exuberant, we are vital.

Counting Crows / Miami
Album: Hard Candy (2002)
Mix: Bryan’s Summer Carnivale, Volume 2 (2003)

Sheryl Crow / Strong Enough
Album: Tuesday Night Music Club (1993)

Sheryl Crow / I Shall Believe
Album: Tuesday Night Music Club (1993)
Mix: All I’m Taking With Me (2003)

“Open the door / and show me your face tonight / I know it’s true, no one heals me like you / and you hold the key”

Sheryl Crow / Crash and Burn
Album: The Globe Sessions (1998)
Mix: Bryan’s Summer Carnivale, Volume 4 (2003)

“I wrote a letter that I never mailed / I rehearsed a dialogue in my head / In case you ever wanted to track me down / I’ll take my cell phone to bed”

Sheryl Crow / Weather Channel
Album: C’mon C’mon (2002)

“I got friends / they’re waiting for me to comb out my hair / come outside and join the human race / but I don’t feel so human”

The Cure / Lovesong
Album: Disintegration (1989)
Mix: Let’s Hear It for the Birthday Boy! (2001)

Death Cab for Cutie / Death of an Interior Decorator
Album: Transatlanticism (2003)
Mix: A Million Little Pieces (2004)

The Decemberists / Grace Cathedral Hill
Album: Castaways and Cutouts (2002)
Mix: Cool Whip & Candy Corn (2004)

What an amazing tune. Every second of it, every vocal inflection, every instrument is just perfect. In my head, the Decemberists exist just to sing this for me. Such a sweet melancholy. “And the world may be long for you, but it’ll never belong to you.” There were a lot of good albums released throughout 2004, but this song (which is a few years old) somehow snuck up to become the cornerstone of my fall soundtrack.

Cathy Dennis / Too Many Walls
Album: Move To This (1990)
Mix: Stop Catching and Start Pitching! (2000)

Dixie Chicks / Heartbreak Town
Album: Fly (1999)

Nick Drake / Fly
Album: Bryter Layer (1970)
Mix: A Million Little Pieces (2004)

Drive Til Morning / Orange and Tweed
Album: Drive Til Morning (2002)
Mix: Go Go Gotta Getaway (2003)

E / Shine It All On
Album: Broken Toy Shop (1993)

Electric Light Orchestra / Mr. Blue Sky
Album: Out of the Blue (1977)
Mix: Bryan’s Summer Carnivale, Volume 2 (2003)

The Flaming Lips / Fight Test
Album: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002)

Ben Folds / Fred Jones, Part 2
Album: Rockin' the Suburbs (2001)

“Life barrels on like a runaway train / where the passengers change / they don’t change anything / you get off and someone else gets on”

Michael J. Fox / Pop Song #1
Mix: The Great Rum Caper (2001)

“How many times can I sit and think about the day I left you? / Now every time I go to that place I look around and don’t know what to do / Because I don’t know where I’m going to / All I do know is you”

Green Day / Macy’s Day Parade
Album: Warning (2000)
Mix: Movin’ Day Mix (2004)

Hanson / Penny & Me
Album: Underneath (2004)
Mix: summerfling 1 (2004)

Beth Hart / Delicious Surprise
Album: Screamin’ for My Supper (1999)
Mix: The Great Rum Caper (2001)

Colin Hay / Overkill
Album: Man at Work (2003)

“It’s time to walk the streets / smell the desperation / At least there’s pretty lights / and though there’s little variation / it nullifies the night from overkill”

Don Henley / The End of the Innocence
Album: The End of the Innocence (1989)
Mix: Target Mix (2002)

“O’ beautiful, for spacious skies / but now those skies are threatening / They’re beating plowshares into swords / for this tired old man that we elected king”

Janet Jackson / Again
Album: janet. (1993)
Mix: One Year and Counting (2000)

Tommy James and the Shondells / I Think We’re Alone Now
Album: I Think We’re Alone Now (1967)

Jewel / You Were Meant for Me
Album: Pieces of You (1995)
Mix: From Beezer to Boozer (2002)

Jimmy Eat World / A Praise Chorus
Album: Bleed American (2001)
Mix: Bryan’s Summer Spooge Mix, Volume 3 (2002)

Jimmy Eat World / Cautioners
Album: Bleed American (2001)

Billy Joel / Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)
Album: River of Dreams (1993)
Mix: One Year and Counting (2000)

Elton John / Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
Album: Honky Chateau (1972)
Mix: Northwest Ohio Mix (2002)

Elton John / This Train Don't Stop Here Anymore
Album: Songs from the West Coast (2001)

Journey / Don’t Stop Believin’
Album: Escape (1981)
Mix: Bryan’s Summer Spooge Mix, Volume 3 (2002)

“It goes on and on and on and on”

The Killers / All These Things That I've Done
Album: Hot Fuss (2004)
Mix: Movin’ Day Mix (2004)

Kings of Convenience / Homesick
Album: Riot on an Empty Street (2004)
Mix: Movin’ Day Mix (2004)

Chantal Kreviazuk / Green Apples
Album: Under These Rocks and Stones (1997)
Mix: From Beezer to Boozer (2002)

Ben Kweller / In Other Words
Album: Sha Sha (2002)
Mix: A Million Little Pieces (2004)

Cyndi Lauper / Time After Time
Album: She’s So Unusual (1983)
Mix: Stop Catching and Start Pitching! (2000)

John Lennon / Stand by Me
Album: Rock ‘n’ Roll (1975)
Mix: All I’m Taking With Me (2003)

Annie Lennox / No More “I Love You’s”
Album: Medusa (1995)
Mix: The Great Rum Caper (2001)

Lisa Loeb / Stay
Album: Reality Bites: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1994)

Madonna / Live to Tell
Album: True Blue (1986)

Aimee Mann / Deathly
Album: Magnolia: Music from the Motion Picture (1999)

Mates of State / Halves and Have-Nots
Album: Our Constant Concern (2002)
Mix: Bryan’s Summer Carnivale, Volume 3 (2003)

Tim McGraw / My Best Friend
Album: A Place in the Sun (1999)
Mix: One Year and Counting (2000)

Modest Mouse / The World at Large
Album: Good News for People Who Love Bad News (2004)
Mix: Movin’ Day Mix (2004)

Nada Surf / Blizzard of ‘77
Album: Let Go (2002)
Mix: A Million Little Pieces (2004)

Neutral Milk Hotel / In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Album: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998)
Mix: oneBALL Weekend (2002)

Neutral Milk Hotel / The King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. One
Album: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998)

New Radicals / Someday We’ll Know
Album: Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too (1998)
Mix: Bryan’s Summer Spooge Mix, Volume 2 (2002)

“90 miles outside Chicago / Can’t stop driving, I don’t know why / So many questions, I need an answer / Two years later, you’re still on my mind”
The New Radicals were created by singer/songwriter/producer Gregg Alexander, and released only one album before disbanding. That work, 1998’s Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too, featured a distinctly 1970s sound, particularly on the excellent first single “You Get What You Give,” which was followed by “Someday We’ll Know”, a well-crafted plea for closure to a relationship gone sour. Against a backdrop of unanswered universal questions (“Does anybody know the way to Atlantis? Or what the wind says when she cries?”), the song gets at a deeper, more pertinent matter — “Why aren’t you here with me tonight?” Maybe the narrator thought he had moved on, but some trigger set him off and it’s instantly two years ago, him confused and alone, the wound still fresh. This whole appeal might come off as simply insistent and defiant (“Someday you’ll know that I was the one for you”) if the tone in his voice wasn’t so pleading, so heartbroken.

Nine Inch Nails / Hurt
Album: The Downward Spiral (1994)

*NSYNC / This I Promise You
Album: No Strings Attached (2000)
Mix: Stop Catching and Start Pitching! (2000)

Five-piece boy band *NSYNC formed in Orlando in 1996. Their self-titled debut album put them on the map with several hits, including “Tearin’ Up My Heart,” “I Want You Back” and the rather lame ballad “(God Must Have Spent) A Little More Time on You,” but they didn’t fully hit their stride until the masterpiece release No Strings Attached in 2000. The album quickly took over the charts with the one-two punch of “Bye Bye Bye” and “It’s Gonna Be Me,” setting the stage for the ultimate boy-band ballad, “This I Promise You.” All of the elements are in place: lyrics and a melody that could seamlessly translate into a slick country single; one verse each from the two biggest stars of the group; a killer bridge followed by the requisite faux key change. Also notable is the curious gender-neutral tone that is maintained throughout, allowing the song to speak for a variety of relationships that fall outside the traditional realm of guy, girl and Jesus. Both Justin and JC (as well as *NSYNC as a whole) enjoyed considerable success after No Strings Attached, of course, but it marked both the height of modern cheesy pop groups and the end of the booming Clinton 90s. What is the song to me personally? Driving around with Ian on so many aimless nights, stopping for an ice cream Snickers at our little gas station in the middle of nowhere, so anxious about the approaching shift to college life; during a time of change and uncertainty, a little piece of home to hold on to.

Oasis / Don’t Look Back in Anger
Album: (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (1995)
Mix: summerfling 1 (2004)

Sinead O’Connor / Nothing Compares 2 U
Album: I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got (1990)
Mix: One Year and Counting (2000)

OK Go / 1000 Miles Per Hour
Album: OK Go (2002)
Mix: From Beezer to Boozer (2002)

OK Go hail from Chicago, and their self-titled debut album offers track after track of catchy, intelligent power pop. “1000 Miles Per Hour” is an offer to get out of this town in some magic car and “fly by wheat fields and water towers.” The invitation is fanciful and charming and a little desperate. “With a little bit of money we could buy us a car, with a little luck we could get away from where we are.” There seems to be a longing on the part of the narrator for something more, for a feeling that is not being returned (“Another long quiet lonely night spent at your side / there's not a lot I still could say to change your mind”), but maybe this ride will do the trick, will make the difference. Probably not. But what if?

OutKast / Ms. Jackson
Album: Stankonia (2000)

Dolly Parton / I Will Always Love You
Album: Jolene (1974)
Mix: All I’m Taking With Me (2003)

Pearl Jam / Yellow Ledbetter
Album: Daughter [single] (1994)
Mix: Bryan’s Summer Carnivale, Volume 4 (2003)

Pearl Jam / Nothingman
Album: Vitalogy (1994)

Liz Phair / Why Can’t I?
Album: Liz Phair (2003)

Queen / Bohemian Rhapsody
Album: A Night at the Opera (1975)

Radiohead / Fake Plastic Trees
Album: The Bends (1995)

Red Hot Chili Peppers / Dosed
Album: By the Way (2002)
Mix: Bryan’s Summer Carnivale, Volume 2 (2003)

R.E.M. / Find the River
Album: Automatic for the People (1992)
Mix: Target Mix (2002)

R.E.M. / Strange Currencies
Album: Monster (1994)
Mix: Go Go Gotta Getaway (2003)

Rilo Kiley / A Better Son/Daughter
Album: The Execution of All Things (2002)

The Shins / Caring Is Creepy
Album: Oh, Inverted World (2001)
Mix: Legally Beers (2003)

“Caring Is Creepy” is so supremely... wierd. “I think I’ll go home and mull this over / before I cram it down my throat / At long last it’s crashed, its colassal mass / has broken up into bits in my moat.” Ohhh-kay. Oh, there’s more. “It’s a luscious mix of words and tricks / that let us bet when we know we shouldn’t fold / On rocks I dreamt of where we’d stepped / and the whole mess of roads we’re now on.” Wow. The sound has such a dreamy, ethereal presence that helps to make the album the masterpiece it is. Both the lyrics and all of the noises that make up this track seem somehow... preordained, for lack of a better word, like The Shins are just channeling it for us, like there couldn’t possibly be any change that would make it one bit better. There’s something electric in the air, your mind is racing, you want to get somewhere — anywhere! — really fast.
Until I heard it live, I never noticed that heavily reverbed keyboard line that rapidly oscillates from low to high throughout, but they really play the fuck out of it during the show.

The Shins / New Slang (When You Notice the Stripes)
Album: Oh, Inverted World (2001)
Mix: Bryan & Suze Hit Columbus (2002)

The Shins / Gone for Good
Album: Chutes Too Narrow (2003)
Mix: A Million Little Pieces (2004)

Simon & Garfunkel / The Sounds of Silence
Album: Wednesday Morning, 3AM (1964)

Simon & Garfunkel / America
Album: Bookends (1968)

Simon & Garfunkel / The Boxer
Album: Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)

Elliott Smith / I Didn’t Understand
Album: XO (1998)

Taxiride / Can You Feel
Album: Imaginate (1999)
Mix: summerfling 2 (2004)

James Taylor / You Can Close Your Eyes
Album: Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon (1971)

Tegan and Sara / Underwater
Album: If It Was You (2002)
Mix: Bryan’s Summer Carnivale, Volume 4 (2003)

Third Eye Blind / Motorcycle Drive-By
Album: Third Eye Blind (1997)
Mix: Summer Madness: Cruise (2001)

“I’ve never been so alone, alone, and I… I’ve never been so alive”
Third Eye Blind is a mainstream band. They have sold millions of records and their singles have been played on the radio, sometimes incessantly. However, they have never really foisted anything that bad on us (well, except maybe “Jumper”) — in fact, most of their music is pretty decent. It’s tiresome when people can’t look past the success and recognition to enjoy the songs, uncomplicated as they may be. Take “Motorcycle Drive-By”: it’s no grand statement, but simply four minutes of exhilaration. I could summarize and analyze the lyrics, but all you really need are the general themes: summer, sunset, speed, escape, longing, burning. Think late nights with your upperclassman friends, drinking and talking around the fire and taking crazy road trips to faraway restaurants and discount retailers in the middle of the night. Or maybe a long drive by yourself, speeding down the dark empty highway with the windows down, singing and moving your head, your whole body to the song because you just can’t help yourself.

Travis / Writing to Reach You
Album: The Man Who (1999)
Mix: Smile! (2001)

U2 / With or Without You
Album: The Joshua Tree (1987)

U2 emerged from Dublin, Ireland with their 1979 debut EP, U2:3. Subsequent years saw the release of Boy, War and The Unforgettable Fire, but superstardom in the US was not achieved until their seminal album, The Joshua Tree, arrived in 1987. The release contained several hit singles, including “Running to Stand Still”, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and my favorite, “With or Without You.” The latter starts out with several bars of drums and synthesizer before that unmistakable bass line kicks in. While we cycle through the chord changes for the first time, an acoustic guitar swirls around, above the mix, intriguing us. Bono enters, gently sings a few bars, “See the stone set in your eyes, see the thorn twist in your side, I wait, for you…” For me, this is the most magical part of the song, the lull before the storm to come. Bass, guitar and Bono’s soft delivery combine to produce a powerful feeling, one of being part of something larger. Then, a brief hint of the chorus, followed by another short verse and chorus, and then the drums grow more aggressive. Bono has been freed, and his soft, measured delivery is replaced by a plaintive wail. The wave that was building starts to crest as the vocal climbs skyward. “Nothing to win and nothing left to lose, and you give yourself away… with or without you.” And we are off. The sun has been setting earlier each day, the temperature dropping. One night you walk outside, not yet fully prepared for it, and the sky is almost totally dark, the air crisp, lights twinkling in the clear night air. A powerful feeling of longing overtakes you, a feeling that is uncharacteristic of those warm nights of summer, or of the endless chill of winter — unsuited to any season or moment except this one, right now. You want to breathe in that air so deep, look into someone’s eyes and fall in love.

U2 / One
Album: Achtung Baby (1993)

Rufus Wainwright / California
Album: Poses (2001)
Mix: Bryan’s Summer Carnivale, Volume 1 (2003)

Rufus Wainwright / In a Graveyard
Album: Poses (2001)

Wilson Phillips / Hold On
Album: Wilson Phillips (1990)