Rock/Pop

You can never step in the same river twice, as the saying goes. A hit song is no different — it might perfectly encapsulate not only how the singer was feeling at the time and how the audience was feeling at the time, but how the whole culture was feeling. But time passes, and people change, and while a song can tap into a particular moment, that moment is soon gone; what once struck a chord might lapse into mere nostalgia. But in good hands, the best songs can strike whole new chords. The musicians, seasoned by time...

One. The primest number, especially when it comes to a song. Though I do celebrate the album-as-conceptual-entity, there is something of a purity — especially in these mix-and-match downloadable times — about the idea of a solitary cut that appeals to your personal and peculiar sensation of taste, chosen as you might a friend, or even a lover; heard on its own, as a single was always meant to be.

To focus on an individual song is to appreciate its unique virtues, a start-to-finish asking to be started ...