14 - "This Love" Maroon 5
I can't say that this song is at all stylistically innovative, but this is a real honest to G-d competently written pop song, with hooks and everything. There's not much of that on the radio these days.

15 - "This Land Is Your Land" Sharon Jones
For starters, unlike Woody Guthrie, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings have de facto written a whole new original melody to the well known lyrics. Plus, they've included the most interesting part about "private property" which is usually not performed.

Beyond that, this arrangement is so fully and perfectly realized as to boggle the imagination. The horn charts alone are to die for.

Anyway, they turn this hoary old chestnut into a hard swinging piece of precision southern soul. Stax/Volt ain't got nothing on these Dap-Kings.

16 - "Bedlam" Elvis Costello
This has a pretty catchy tune, but it's mostly an just an overpowering groove. Those bass and drums are worthy of prime Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts. On top of which it has some highly entertaining if disjointed lyrics, some of which seem to be a bit of mockery of the Iraq adventure. I particularly enjoyed the stand alone opening couplet, "I've got this phosphoresent portrait of gentle Jesus meek and mild/ I've got this harlot that I'm stuck with, carrying another man's child." It's tough being Elvis.

17 - "Mrs O'Leary's Cow" Brian Wilson
In his principle and laudatory approach, Brian Wilson has focused his efforts by funneling them into commercial radio pop music standards. This commercial discipline has been very useful in keeping this art-boy honest.

In another aspect, Brian is the artiste, and willing to get all weird. Thus, this instrumental representing the fire theme. It starts out all vaudeville and cutesy with the penny whistles. Then once the fire takes over, it gets considerably heavier, maybe even a little creepy if you're a sensitive soul. It's real neat.

18 - "Monkey to Man" Elvis Costello
Although it was his featured track played both on Letterman and Conan, this is probably not the favorite of the Elvis hardcore. The misanthropy might be perceived as too easy or formulaic- to the extent that such a thing could ever be said of Elvis. This would probably be the same people who thought that "The Other Side of Summer" was a bit too obvious an approach to the Beach Boys for someone of Elvis' stature. I'd probably be one of them.

Nonetheless, this is a sharp rock song. If it's "formula" Elvis, it got to be one by working- and by not being run into the ground. The live performance of this song on his show caused Letterman to declare that Elvis was "single handedly saving rock and roll."