Radiohead - Paranoid Android
Sleater-Kinney - Jumpers

Bell is a better actor than SMG overall, but I think "The Body" is the best individual performance by either one.

Veronica's an incredible creation because you totally get why everyone around her would find her to be a aloof, defensive, untrusting, and generally thoroughly unlikeable. She has the kind of character description you expect from the villain, not the protagonist. And yet, through the alchemy of Thomas's writing and…

Not to mention the name of every store in Seattle.

A:TLA also owes a ton to Buffy, although I'm not sure if the influence was deliberate. Zuko's arc is arguably Spike's arc done right.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is one of the few Buffy follow-ups (Veronica Mars is another) that really captures the light/dark dichotomy mentioned in the article - in which the characters can be screamingly funny one moment and then heartbreaking in the next (holy shit, "You Stupid Bitch"). It also gets that the most effective…

I met him a few times after Common Rotation shows, and he was never less than charming and down to earth.

Common Rotation is great. I was in college when "The Big Fear" came out and got to see Busch and Kufs play a free show in my dorm's lounge. Apparently, Amber Benson was manning their little merch booth, but I hadn't seen Buffy at the time so the significance of this was lost on me.

/hears Belly Button Lint Connoisseur's entire post as sung by Vella Lovell in a parody of "Trapped in the Closet"

Of the ballads on Whatever and Ever Amen, "Brick" is, like, the fifth-best. Sixth-best, if you include "Air."

The piano solo backed by distorted bass and three-part harmonies just before the fluegelhorn kicks in is also stunningly gorgeous.

The live version of "Emaline" from the Sessions at West 54th DVD is tops for me. That instrumental coda is pure distilled joy.

Yeah, should have noted the harmonies too. None of the band members ever had an exceptional voice (although BF5-era Ben came close), but there was an alchemy when they hit the three-part harmonies that bordered on Beatle-esque. (The "wall of harmonies" someone mentioned above in the climax of "Missing the War" is like…

Regina Spektor and The Decemberists share the entire "Catchy Ditty About Sexual Exploitation, Murder, and Possibly Cannibalism" wing of the CSWHSLWYRLTTHOF.

The point of view switch in the lyrics as the distorted bass kicks in during the last verse of "Air" is such a fantastic musical moment.

"Narcolepsy" into "Don't Change Your Plans" into "Mess" is one of the best sets of album opening songs ever.

"The Bitch Went Nuts" is more self-aware that its narrator is a jerk. Although the unadulterated teenage piss and vinegar of "Song for the Dumped" is what makes it work as well as it does, so self-awareness is probably overrated.

Their take on "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head" is also fabulous.

There's a weird, pervasive dismissal of 90s music that isn't grunge or hip hop - even this article couldn't help but throw in a dig at the swing revival. I wasn't a fan of every one of the random styles that the 90s threw at the wall, but I do miss when pop music was a crazy mishmash of pastiche from every previous…

The title track ("The Sound of the Life of the Mind") on the new record is up there with anything BF5 did in their first incarnation.