How I Could Just Kill a Man by Charlotte Sometimes

The strummy Ex-Boyfriend Rock genre isn't exactly my cup of tea, but every once in a while, a song from this genre will just lodge itself in my head sideways and NOT LEAVE. It happened with Lisa Loeb's "Do You Sleep," it happened with Merideth Brooks' "Bitch," and it happened with this song.

The lyrics are twaddle, to be sure. I myself have never been told that sleeping spiders never lie, but Charlotte obviously has access to secret arachnoid intel. Regardless she's got sass for days, and not in that Katy Perry-ish way where you don't know whether to feel more embarrassed for yourself or her.

The track itself really chugs along, and the build from verse, to pre-chorus, to chorus defies you to not sing along in the shower. Let's just give it a listen, won't we?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtZqVE_OyzU

Asereje by Las Ketchup

I know very little about this song (that's why I'm wonderful), except that supposedly there is a dance that goes along with it, it was a nominal hit everywhere but America, and the whole thing might have been assembled by liquid-cooled computers in a dark room without any human involvement.

There are three or four official versions, but my favorite is the "Spanglish" version that ping-pongs between English and Spanish in such a way that you get the ideas that the Ketchup gals speak neither language.

The first time I heard "Asereje," it was playing on a TV in Target. It kind of looks and sounds like a Target ad, in that it's not telling you to buy any one thing in particular, it's telling you to just buy things, period. Buy frozen drinks. Buy toothpaste. Buy a new sundress. Buy ketchup.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP2dKI3PErE&feature=related

The World Should Revolve Around Me by Little Jackie

While I have a love/hate relationship with the first two songs, it's nothin' but love for Imani Coppola's Lauren Hill-ish hit. While she doesn't really get the depth of L-Boogie's classic "Miseducation" material, as long as Hill is committed to drugs and sadness, Little Jackie is a fine pinch-hitter.

As a side note, it's a nice change of pace to hear a 60's throwback soul song NOT done by a white teenage girl from the UK. No offense to the Duffys, Adeles, and Joss Stones of the world. Okay, Joss Stone, take offense. You're just awful. Put on some goddamn shoes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=129pN3dobGM