Top 12 Songs That Made Me Happy in 2015

Music never fails to work magic on me, but this was a really cool year for music. It was about simultaneously looking back at music I’ve loved for 20-plus years, and looking forward to the bright future of music.

35. “Twist and Shout,” The Beatles

I think I own Beatles music because I feel it’s my duty as a music fan.

Sort-of Review: Dear Rouge at The Mod Club in Toronto, November 5, 2015

Maybe something good is gonna happen.

I was just starting to formulate the theme of this “sort-of review,” of my last 27 hours, when Drew and Danielle McTaggart of Dear Rouge sang that line to a sold-out Mod Club in Toronto. And that cemented it.

13 Creepy Halloween Songs

Boo! Scared you, didn’t I? It’s okay, you can admit it. After all, it’s Halloween and we’re all super-primed for spooks. Speaking of which, I love watching spooky movies this time of year (well, any time of year, really). And there are a bunch of songs sitting in my phone that turn my brain into its own little creepfest. Fittingly, here are the 13 creepiest (in no particular order).

34. “Bailero” from Chants d’Auvergne, Frederica von Stade with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Remember mix tapes?

Um. No.

Okay, I get it, Valley-Girl-Voiced Imaginary Reader. You’re younger than me. You can un-pause Spotify now.

Anyway, I would pick my songs and add up the times of each song to make sure I could maximize each 45-minute side of a 90-minute tape.

33. “Where the Streets Have No Name,” U2

Bono, impressed by Edge’s riffage, about 10 feet in front of me.

Almost two months ago I went to my first U2 show ever. In my review of four dudes in their 50s keeping my eyes as wide as a five-year-old who just got a puppy for two hours, I said something kind of important that I never really elaborated on much: I realized that U2 has been with me throughout my life more than I knew.

32. “White is Red,” Death From Above 1979

You can’t listen to this song. This song is mine. All mine. You can’t have it. You couldn’t handle it, anyway. No, seriously, log out of Spotify or YouTube or Apple Music or whatever you’re using to listen to it. Right now. This song is not for you. It’s for me. Only me.