out of five

i love out of five. they post weekly themed mixes of ten tracks, each song chosen by a different person. this is not the place to find hot new bands or to get ten new songs you'll love every week. there are no archives. but i like the curatorial aspect of it, and the randomness. it's as if you are picking through a bin of mixtapes at a record store: some are interesting, others feature a song or an artist you haven't thought about in a while, some make no sense.

this week's mix is titled: "Pure Genius: songs with a legitamate claim to being the greatest pop song ever." ok, a good one for beginners. pop songs: nice and digestable (previous themes have been haze, high, spoken word). they've chosen some obvious tracks here -- from Kylie, Prince, ABBA -- and some less so -- Matthew Sweet, Talking Heads. A good mix, overall.

Now, of course, the armchair music selector: where is "Dry the Rain" by
the Beta Band? How about "Oh Sweet Nuthin" by the Velvet Underground? Not pop enough? Ok, virtually anything by the Beatles, then.

Today's question: what makes a genius pop song? should it push the boundaries or please the masses? should it be widely recognized as genius, or be a tour de force of a lesser-known artist?