Happy Monday, folks! It’s time for a brand-spankin’-new playlist for your ears’ enjoyment!

1. Silverchair, “Tomorrow”: I never really listened to these guys back in the day. They were still in high school when they got signed. High school! Back in high school, I was worried about pimples and whether or not my girlfriend would leave me, not signing record contracts and going out on tour.
2. Peter Gabriel, “Olive Tree”: When an artist takes twenty years to record an album, then releases it with at leas three different mixes, it’s usually a bad sign. This album is an exception to that sort of thinking. Gabriel has put together a beautiful, thoughtful, and touching set of songs. “Olive Tree” is a standout, but honestly I could have put virtually any song from this album in this spot and said the same thing. It’s just so damn good.
3. Gorillaz, “Tomorrow Comes Today”: Heard it as an interstitial on NPR this morning, and now it won’t stop playing in my head. So you get to hear it, too.
4. Drive-By Truckers, “Used To Be A Cop”: These folks are such good storytellers. You almost manage to feel sorry for an ex-cop who got kicked off the force for…reasons.
5. XTC, “The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead”: I have an unabashed, non-ironic love for XTC. They just made such fun, joyful music. It’s fantastic. This song is fantastic. Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding deserve better.
6. Michael Penn, “No Myth”: This dude just always amazes me with his way with a melody or a lyric. He’s great. This song is peak ’80s but also great.
7. Sting, “All This Time”: One of my favorite lines of all time came from this song: “Men go crazy in congregations/They only get better one by one.”
8. Norah Jones, “The Long Way Home”: Who doesn’t love a Tom Waits cover? No one. No one doesn’t love a Tom Waits cover.
9. Mark Knopfler, “We Can Get Wild”: This man just struggles to write a bad song, y’know? Yeah, they’re out there, but they’re few and far between. He just crafts with such a high level of skill and thought that even his bad songs have something interesting going on in them.
10. James McMurtry, “Just Us Kids”: This guy tells fun stories about losers and folks who think they’re winning, even if only in their surface thoughts.