The Whining Stranger on Music: Five Songs To Lift Your Spirits (Or Mine Anyway)

These are melancholy times, friends. The evening news gets me down. Sushi helps. Pop music too. Check these out:

1. Stevie Wonder, "Sir Duke"

[If you can't feel this all over, your heart has stopped. A celebration of jazz legends, with an infectious chorus, and a tasty horn part. Stevie saves me.]

2. Ben Folds Five, "Jackson Cannery"

[Poor-kids-who-grew-up-in-ramshackle-neighborhoods-in-working-class-towns unite! It's anthemic; it's about being a have-not; it has funky piano. Nuff said.]

3. Joni Mitchell, "Carey"

[I get the chills always over the second verse: "Come on down to the Mermaid Cafe, and I will buy you a bottle of wine, and we'll laugh and toast to nothing and smash our empty glasses down..." Life is fleeting; enjoy your friends; enjoy your wine.]

4. Donald Fagen, "New Frontier"

[A number about throwing a wingding in a bomb shelter amidst the paranoia of the Cold War. The bomb might fall tonight, kids, but if you've got that blonde you've had your eye on in your arms at last then how bad can mass annihilation really be?]

5. Randy Newman, "Tickle Me"

[If you can listen to this without laughing--or at least smirking--then you are more curmudgeonly than I am even. About being bored with your loved one and settling on something fun to do.]