Tuesday is the new Monday, right? The Old 97s put out a new album recently, and it’s pretty great. So, here’s a playlist of some of my favorite Old 97s songs. I had to do 12, ’cause 10 just wasn’t enough.

1. “Mama Tried”: The Old 97s burst right out the gate with their sound already pretty-well established: fast acoustic strumming, some Chet Atikins-like electric, and a railroad rhythm section that leaves you pretty breathless by the end of the song. This Merle Haggard cover is pretty emblematic of their approach.
2. “Victoria”: Most of the best Old 97s songs are witty, quip-filled emotional wringers about the dastardly women who’ve done Rhett Miller wrong and the whiskey he’s drinking to forget about them.
3. “Doreen”: So the original version of this song, off their debut Hitchhike to Rhome, is a string-band get-down that feels only vaguely out of touch with the rest of the album. But the reworked version on Wreck Your Life feels more in line with their usual sound and is just a barnstormer of a tune.
4. “Barrier Reef”: This is the song that got me into this band. “So I sidled up beside her/Settled down, shouted, “Hi there/My name’s Stuart Ransom Miller/I’m a serial ladykiller”/She said, “I’m already dead”/That’s exactly what she said” is just the best worst pickup line I have ever heard.
5. “Big Brown Eyes”: Early Old 97s albums often featured reworked versions of older songs. On Too Far To Care, You’ve got this one and “4 Leaf Clover,” a rework from their debut. Both benefit from years on the road and improved musicianship.
6. “Crash on the Barrelhead”: Sometimes the bassist sings? And it’s not bad? I’m as surprised as you are.
7. “Designs on You”: When all you want to do is have a fling with an engaged woman and she seems kinda willing, but you don’t wanna come across as too skeevy.
8. “In the Satellite Rides a Star”: If I had to pick a favorite Old 97s song, I’d ask you why you hated me and wanted me to choose between all of my beautiful, alcoholic children. But, gun to my head, it’d probably be this one. This week, anyway.
9. “Champaign, Illinois”: Other weeks, it might be this one, which “borrows” (with gracious permission) the chord progression from Dylan’s “Desolation Row” for a song about the Midwest and a touring band.
10. “Most Messed Up”: While this was probably once quite true for frontman Rhett Miller, he’s sobered up these days and far less likely to engage in debauched shenanigans. But hey, it’s fun to relive the (rather alcohol-soaked and hazy) past sometimes.
11. “Holy Cross”: Why this song never ended up on an album proper, I’ll never know. It’s so damn good.
12. “By the End of the Night”: Off their latest, American Primitive. The new album doesn’t really mess with the formula they’ve been working with for the past 30 years, but if it ain’t broke…