Keith Pille's Weekly Shuffle

Every week, I will fire up the Shuffle Songs option on my iPod; the first song to come up, no matter what it is, will get an instant, unvarnished review. We're at the mercy of random chance and the limits of my digital music collection. Let's see where this takes us.

Wherever I Go
Steve Earle, Transcendental Blues

I like Steve Earle quite a bit—his voice and line delivery are lovably idiosyncratic, his songs are generally rollicking portrayals of interesting characters, and his backing band is always top-notch. Since El Corazon, the production on his albums is clean and uncluttered without sounding like shellacked Nashville country. His self-destructive-rebel-struggling-to-walk-the-line persona is appealing, if a little familiar.

But I can't shake the feeling that, for the most part, Earle's songs are fungible. They're all good but, with some exceptions, they're almost a commoddity. Like, there's a big barrel somewhere that just says "Quality Steve Earle Songs" on the side of it, and you could just reach in and pull something out knowing that it'll have a good melody and cool husky-voiced lyrics. Could be "Wherever I Go," could be "Telephone Row," could be "Another Town." It doesn't really matter—if it's late-stage Steve Earle, it'll probably be pretty much the same song.

It's a good song, so I don't really mind. Bit still…

Weekly Shuffle Scoreboard (Best to Worst):
1. "Rock N Roll Radio V2," Derailleur
2. "Back from Somewhere (live)," Husker Du
3. "The Ride of the Valkyries," Richard Wagner
4. "Powderfinger," Neil Young
5. "Sliver (live)," Nirvana
6. "Whiskey Bottle," Uncle Tupelo
7. "Don't Be Afraid of the Robot," Electric Six
8. "Gassed & Stoked," Lou Reed
9. "Shooting Star," Golden Smog
10. "Wherever I Go," Steve Earle
11. "You Are the Everything," R.E.M.
12. "Nicotine & Gravy," Beck
13. "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart (live)," Wilco
14. "The Calming Sea," Beachwood Sparks
15. "John, I'm Only Dancing," David Bowie
16. "Take It or Leave it," The Strokes
17. "Is It Too Late?", World Party
18. "P'twgs," The Honeydogs
19. "Monkey Dot," Money Mark
20. "I Wanted to Tell You," Matthew Sweet
21. "Dazed and Confused," Led Zeppelin
22. "Soldier's Joy," Mark O'Connor
23. "Blue-Eyed Soul," Wilco
24. "Masoko Tanga," The Police
25. "Scenery," Neil Young and Pearl Jam
26. "We Got The," The Beastie Boys
27. "The Big Foist," The Minutemen
28. "Climbing up the Walls," Radiohead
29. "That's When I Reach for My Revolver," Mission of Burma