15 Songs on Shuffle

A little sampling of 15 songs my iTunes just randomly played from my 8,000-song library, with some commentary:

"The Bike Song (feat. Kyle Falconer with Spankrock)," Mark Ronson & The Business: I have no idea what this song is and don't even remember listening to it.

"The Trooper," Iron Maiden: I have deleted most Iron Maiden from my iTunes because the singer is often quite bad and out of tune.


"Just You 'n' Me," Chicago: A somewhat guilty pleasure from my childhood (my mom was a big fan).

"Away," The Toadies: I really dig the Toadies, with their propulsive music and dark, twisted vibe. I have all their albums.

"Liberate," Disturbed: I'm pretty tired of Disturbed and don't buy new albums, but I still have some songs.

"Alive," P.O.D.: Eh, this is a CD I once bought that has survived in my iTunes. My favorite song of theirs is "Satellite," but the rest is pretty forgettable for me.

"Roll The Bones," Rush: For me, the best Rush is Permanent Waves and earlier. Moving Pictures and Signals are OK even though they're starting to get too synthesizer heavy, but then there's a stretch of New Wave–flavored albums that are so bad I've simply deleted them. However, I don't mind some of the more recent albums with more guitar, such as the album this song comes from. (My favorite relatively recent Rush album is Counterparts.)

"Senses Working Overtime," XTC: This must be a song from some compilation. Not a fan, but I don't dislike it enough to delete.

"You And Me," Neil Young: This is from my wife's CD, and I keep it around as a mellow flavor.

"Indefinitely," Travis: Don't mind this rather mellow album, but I don't like it enough to pursue more Travis.

"Scared Money," Saul Williams: This was some freebie I picked up. It's somehow connected to Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame.

"Colder World," EchoBrain: I really like EchoBrain and wish they had continued beyond two albums.

"My Friend of Misery," Metallica: I love the black album, and my next-favorite Metallica album is actually the cover songs collected in Garage, Inc.

"Rock 'n' Roll Doctor," Black Sabbath: I love me some Ozzy-era Sabbath, although I wouldn't say this particular song is one of my favorites. For one thing, the song title sounds too much like something Kiss would do. I like Sabbath's deeper stuff, like "After Forever" and "Symptom of the Universe."

"All Secrets Known," Alice in Chains: When it comes to grunge, the groups I still listen to most are Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. Pearl Jam is OK, and I like the Nirvana mystique but don't actually enjoy listening to their music very much. This song is from Alice in Chain's recent comeback album, which I think is quite strong.

(Bonus points to anyone who can identify the connection between Metallica and another band in this list.)