Happy Monday, folks. The school year is starting to wear thin. I know my niblings are all out soon, though Oklahoma always ends before Memorial Day (we’ve still got a whole month left here in Northern Virginia). Anyway, here’s some music to get us through another week.

1. Counting Crows, “Virginia Through the Rain”: The latest Counting Crows album is…fine. It’s classic Counting Crows. Good melodies, excellent instrumentation, but I don’t really remember much of the song after it’s done playing. This one’s pretty nice, though.
2. Fugees, “Ready or Not”: I listened to the Fugee’s album The Score over the weekend for the first time. I was already aware of “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” their breakout hit from this album, but this one is a pretty solid tune, too.
3. The Grass Roots, “I’d Wait a Million Years”: Such a great song. The chorus is just a study in how to write a killer hook and deliver it with energy.
4. Jefferson Airplane, “Volunteers”: Speaking of energy, this one’s full of it. And probably drugs. Lots and lots of drugs.
5. Procol Harem, “A Whiter Shade of Pale”: Never really been sure what this song is about, though I’ve heard it’s about the negotiation of sex between a guy and a girl. I just know it always feels a bit melancholy and sad to me.
6. Bob Dylan, “Boots of Spanish Leather”: Speaking of songs that make me feel sad, this one just hits in a strange way. Ostensibly a conversation between a couple about a souvenir from a trip to Spain, there’s more to it than that. Young me was obsessed with this one for a while, and older, theoretically wiser me still puts it on repeat sometimes.
7. Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, “Let It Ride”: Probably one of the better songs off Cold Roses, which I still argue is the best Ryan Adams album in his lengthy (possibly unwieldy) catalog.
8. Electric Light Orchestra, “Long Black Road”: An ELO song I’d never heard? Apparently it was on the soundtrack to American Hustle back in 2001. Comes across as a song recorded especially for the movie. It’s classic Jeff Lynne.
9. Macy Gray, “I Try”: Did you know she had not only other songs on the album this song came off of, but other albums, too? It’s wild!
10. Spoon, “I Turn My Camera On”: Can you believe Gimme Fiction came out 20 years ago? It’s true. And now I feel like all my bones are turning to dust.