The 885: Essential songs, part 5

Been really loving the 885 Essential XPN Songs Countdown on WXPN. What a great mix of tunes. Kinda like an iPod on steroids.

I mentioned previously how difficult it was for me to vote for JUST ten songs. I started with a larger list and argued with myself (out loud at times) to try to whittle it down to ten. I've been sharing my list with you over the past weekd, and admittedly if I had to do it all over again, I might pick a completely different set of ten songs. In fact, I could come up with a new list every day. So with that in mind, there are a few artists who didn't make my final list, but I very easily could have voted for them. For instance, I'm a big R.E.M. fan...and for some reason they didn't make my final cut. Others I coulda/woulda/shoulda voted for include: Johnny Cash, Sufjan Stevens, Ingrid Michaelson, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Beth Orton, T-Bone Burnett, Arcade Fire, Sam Phillips, Over the Rhine...and the list goes on. I even could've voted for some of my favorite local bands, such as The Shackeltons, The Sleeping World, Farewell Flight, the Mint, or Slimfit. Maybe even Philly old-school faves the Hooters or Robert Hazard.

But I could only vote for ten. And my number one song really isn't a "favorite" per se, but I really like it. And if you stay within the parameters of what we were looking for in the countdown, it fits nicely. My #1 song was "Falling Slowly" from The Swell Season (Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova).



This just seems to be one of those songs that has found a home at XPN. It is from the soundtrack to the movie Once (which I still haven't seen!!!), and really speaks to me about what XPN is all about. A song from some indie artists featured in an indie film about indie music. Or something like that. The song even won an Oscar for Best Original Song.

This is why I really love working for XPN. I'm in marketing for the station, which means its my job to tell other people about the station. Not a hard job. I'm passionate about what we do at XPN and my friends can tell you, I get really excited when I talk about it. That doesn't mean I like every song or every show that we air. But even when I hear a song that I don't particularly care for, I won't hit the button to switch to another station. Because I know that coming up will be another song that I probably love.

Enough gushing. What are your Essential XPN songs? Or even your top ten songs? I'd love to know. And what do you think of my list? love it? hate it? Let me know.