1. When I Fall (live)- BareNaked Ladies

• "Can't look below me, or something might throw me, curse at the windstorms that October brings." "I wish I could step from this scaffold, onto soft green pastures, shopping malls, or bed, with my family and my pastor and my grandfather who's dead." On occasion guitarist Ed Robertson would handle lead singing responsibilities for the BareNaked Ladies. "When I Fall" is one of those occasions. Originally featured on the "Born on a Pirate Ship" album and later on the live "Rock Spectacle" (pronounced speck-tack) "When I Fall" finds Robertson singing the tale of a high rise window washer behind a beautiful acoustic guitar riff. This particular version comes from the band's 1st live concert performance since the departure of long time lead singer Steven Page. The "Barenaked Ladies Live at Universal Studios 3-7-09" album was available for free on the band's website and featured a number of shaky vocal moments, but "When I Fall" sounded about as good as ever. It closed that particular show and I'd imagine when the band resumes regular touring it would serve that role most nights.

2. 42 (live)- Coldplay

• "Those who are dead are not dead, they're just living in my head." "You thought you might be a ghost, you didn't get to heaven, but you made it close." Coldplay made the live "LeftRightLeftRightLeft" album available to fans who caught their last tour as a CD and those who didn't attend a show had the opportunity to download the songs from the band's website. The studio version of "42" comes from the hugely successful "Viva La Vida" album. The band is obviously radio friendly, but "Viva La Vida" has a few songs (42, Life in Technicolor) that fit well within the concept/flow of the album that wouldn't work as well as stand alone radio songs. "42" is made up of 2 musical movements in four sections. The 1st part is a mellow ballad built around Martin's vocals, piano and strings, the next section is an up tempo instrumental, the 3rd part features a catchy pop chorus and the final section a refrain of the beginning of the song. I'm not sure what the song is about lyrically but it's clear that Martin had salvation (or a lack thereof) on his mind when writing "Viva La Vida". "You didn't get to heaven but you made it close" and "I know Saint Peter won't call my name" being the best examples.

3. Crosseyed- Brendan Benson

• "My friends think you're ugly, mmmm they don't see what I see, I love my crosseyed baby your secret's safe with me." "I'll never tell about what I found out, about a crosseyed girl who can surely make you shout." Brendan Benson started off with a bang in 1996 with his album "One Mississippi" even if no one was paying attention. "Crosseyed" is one of many great songs from the alt rock singer/songwriter's debut. I was able to pick up a free copy of "One Mississippi" over ten years ago while doing an internship at a rock station in Philly and it remains one of my favorites to this day. The hard to find demo version of "Crosseyed" is available on a limited CD re-release of "One Mississippi" as well as on the even harder to find "promo-only not for sale" "Well Fed Boy Demos" vinyl LP....which I have framed on my wall. When you are a collector these types of items are invaluable. The movie Ghost World hit the reality of the collector mentality dead on. Steve Buscemi plays Seymour who is based on real life collector R Crumb- Seymour: "You think it's healthy to obsessively collect things? You can't relate to other people, so you fill your life with stuff... I'm just like all these other collector losers." Amen.