10 Songs for Late Summer

By Josh Tyrangiel

YING YANG TWINS

SHAKE

The Ying Yang twins album has a few smart, socially conscious songs. This is not one of them. Shake is very dirty, but it's also top-notch club music, with an instantly addictive keyboard line and enough kinetic energy to make body parts move by themselves.

FOO FIGHTERS, FEATURING NORAH JONES

VIRGINIA MOON

A Dave Grohl-Norah Jones duet shouldn't really work, and for a few bars this ballad doesn't. Grohl sounds like a punk kid in a tuxedo, unsure if he's ready to get beyond irony. But with Jones' earnestness to guide him, the awkwardness melts away, giving the harmonies surprising grace.

OK GO

A MILLION WAYS

The trend in which grunge-ish bands crank up the elastic disco bass and coax fans to dance is rock's most pleasant development since Creed broke up. This bouncy tune about a woman with "a million ways to be cruel" is the catchy song of the summer.

KRONOS QUARTET

BELOVED, OH BELOVED

The very classy quartet takes on one of Bollywood composer R.D. Burman's trashiest melodies, and the musicians are wise enough to keep the meticulousness of their playing from overwhelming the main attraction--the exuberant juxtaposition of Indian tabla, Chinese lute and rock rhythm.

SLEATER-KINNEY

JUMPERS

If you haven't kept up with the best band of the past decade, Jumpers is a 4 1/2-min. refresher course. The lyrics--about considering a leap from the Golden Gate Bridge--read smart on the page, but they take on a tragic intensity in Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker's interwoven vocals.

LIZZ WRIGHT

OLD MAN

This signature Neil Young hit has turned bathetic with age, but Wright, a relatively unknown jazz singer, rescues it with a dry, smoky and spooky rendition.

RICKY MARTIN

I DON'T CARE

Where has Martin been this century? The first single from his upcoming album (scheduled for October) provides no answers, just a reminder of his stock-in-trade--superpolished pop songs that exist in a universe entirely their own.

FOUR TET

SMILE AROUND THE FACE

Four Tet's electronic maestro Kieran Hebden loops and layers a series of joyous chirps and cymbal crashes until an honest-to-goodness tune emerges, then he moves it around with the dexterity of a veteran shell gamer.

ROBERT EARL KEEN

THE GREAT HANK

Many a song has been written about Hank Williams, but this is the first in which he plays a bar in drag and his mascara runs. Williams' fans should give a close listen before they shout for Keen's scalp; his mix of irony, folk and honky-tonk is a tribute to Hank's influence.

FEIST

LET IT DIE

With a bracing lack of melodrama, Canadian Leslie Feist whisper-sings her way through a classic fadeaway ballad. The instrumentation is spare, and the lyrics are of the "Don't you wish/ We could forget that kiss" variety, but Feist's warm vocal performance makes failing relationships sound so romantic. --By Josh Tyrangiel