"Pay for the Piano" still does a lot less for me than the other songs save "Secret Curse". I wonder if it's because I find the verse parts less engaging. The chorus is alright. And I guess that the second verse, where the band brings it down a bit, is OK too. (They come back up before the second chorus though.)

Note regarding minimal musical materials still being interesting: the guitar part, that eventually turns into a solo at about 4 minutes in, on "Superpowers".

In "The Face of the Earth" the part where he sings, "It's been a couple years and I guess I'm fine about it" seems to stick out a lot more than the preceding verse; I think this has something to do with the song's appeal, as far as misunderstanding-lyrics-so-they-make-more-of-a-personal-connection goes.

(That is, the fact that the line sticks out makes it easier to ignore the possible lack of fit. Even to the point where the following line, "It's not like we were married it was 3 or 4 months", can be blithely ignored or mutated to fit the listener's own life, etc.)

Phrase to keep in mind: "keyed up".

I never noticed before but I cannot sing along at all to "Sentimental Man" from Change if I want to do it in the right range. I bet they never do that one live.

"Iron Man" was playing during a flashback on King of the Hill tonight (the one where Bill rejoins the football team to re-take his touchdown record) and it was really, really really really good.

Why isn't "Speedballin'" on the Outkast best-of, dammit?

The new Wu-Tang, Iron Flag, is built out of very short samples and loops.

Jay-Z's Unplugged appearance is great even though I wish he were a little looser, especially on the midtempo songs. The crowd interaction is fun. It's not just something special to this album; I get a little thrill out of any live recording where the audience takes a part in the proceedings, and where they do it as a group. Like here, where they fill in some of the gaps, like the "faaaame" and "laaaame" bits on "Takeover", or "vamoose/son of a bitch" on "Izzo", or plenty of other ones. Or some songs where you can hear everyone rapping along to all of the words. I don't remember people singing along on Nirvana Unplugged, but maybe that would have been inappropriate.