Happy Monday, folks! We've reached that point in the year when bands stop releasing new music and the music critic turns his weary, bleary eyes toward compiling top lists. Top 10 albums! Top 25 albums! Top 100 albums of the year! In all the genres and styles one can imagine. I'm just gonna do a top ten. It's not that I couldn't find enough for a longer list, but I already do ten-song playlists, so why not stick with that?

Happy Monday, folks! I've returned from sunny, warm Florida to a much chillier Northern Virginia. But it was a good trip! We relaxed and had a lot of fun, I got to see a friend from college whom I had not seen in over 20 years, and I slept quite a bit. And the Wife's presentation went over well! Here's some songs.

Happy Monday, folks! I'm probably somewhere between Northern Virginia and Orlando, Florida, as you read this. The Wife is presenting at an education conference, and I'm joining her for moral and logistical support (and for the opportunity to not work for a week). Here's a list of covers that I've enjoyed recently. Aimee Mann, "Rainy Days and Mondays": A Carpenters cover?

Happy Monday, folks! It's Thanksgiving this Thursday, or "Thursday" as most of the world calls it. Americans call it an excuse to stuff ourselves silly with turkey and more pies than is advisable under any circumstances. America: We may be obese, but at least we also have shitty health care. Todd Snider, "Alcohol and Pills": Only just now discovering this guy's music is like learning about a great novelist who wrote all these books that you know you'll love but simultaneously discovering that he's also dead and there won't be anymore new stuff from him.

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Happy Monday, folks! The air is becoming crisper, it's a little colder in the morning, and all the leaves have fallen off the trees and are now piled up everywhere. It's actually feeling like fall! I'm here for it. Mavis Staples, "Anthem": Mavis Staples's latest album includes three straight-up amazing covers at the end, including this one. It takes some guts to cover Leonard Cohen, and to choose a Cohen cover that isn't "Hallelujah." Her vocals have the gravity to pull it off.

Happy Monday, folks. We've got a short week this week, what with Veterans Day happening tomorrow, but we've also got a historically-based playlist for you today. Starting with: Gordon Lightfoot, "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald": Fifty years ago today, the Edmund Fitzgerald went down in Lake Superior, taking twenty-nine men with it. Lightfoot apparently wrote and recorded the song just a month later, and it was released in August of 1976, giving him the biggest hit of his career.

Happy Monday, folks! I spent the weekend hanging out with visiting family, strummin' guitars and eating to much food. As one does. Here's some songs to get you through the week. Gin Blossoms, "Hey Jealousy": My dad had heard of the Gin Blossoms, he said, but couldn't place a song by them. This is probably their best-known song. If he's heard any of them, it's probably this one.

Happy Monday, folks! I was in a Bruce Springsteen mood over the weekend (thanks in large part to the release of Nebraska '82), so here's a list of ten of my favorite non-studio-album Bruce songs. "Thundercrack": This song always reminds me of "Rosalita." It's similarly-epic in scope and style, I feel, and features some great saxophone work from the Big Man.

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Happy Tuesday, folks. Yesterday was Diwali, a Hindu holiday, and one that FCPS takes off now. So naturally, I spent the day taking various individuals to the doctor - the cat, my wife - and doing laundry. So much laundry. Where did we even get all these clothes? Anyway, here's some songs to get you through the week. The Dead South, "In Hell I'll Be In Good Company": Whistling and stand-up bass and a title that's entirely too long?

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Happy Indigenous People's Day, folks! We don't talk about that other guy. Redbone, "Wovoka": As the best Native American rock band of the 1970s, Redbone put a fascinating wrinkle on rock and roll. Nice native rhythms. Counting Crows, "1492": Why does this song spend a whole verse talking about Christopher Columbus? What does this have to do with literally anything else in this song?

Happy Monday, folks. It's SAT week here in Fairfax County, so I get to help administer that test this Wednesday. Joy. I love testing. These songs will hopefully carry me through the week. Taylor Swift, "Wood": Yes, there's a new Taylor Swift album out, and it's all anyone is talking about. While I enjoy this song, it's also rather amusing to me.

Happy Monday, folks. A lot of new music came out last week that I really dug, and I'm still going through it and listening. But hey, the playlist waits for no man, except sometimes me when I forget that it's Monday and I have to post one of these. Neko Case, "Winchester Mansion of Sound": Case's music continues to grow and shift; she's never content to just coast by on what she's done before.