Post-Modern Drunk: Robots Who Are Happy Not-So-Random Ten (1/13/06)
Let's do something different, shall we? A selection of songs about robots, or about being happy.

Okay?

Good. I'm glad we're okay with this.

1. "Paranoid Android" by Radiohead, from OK Computer
   10/10 - Listen to this. Really listen to it. Or put it on in the background--you'll start listening to it eventually. Once you get over how the song has almost nothing to do with Douglas Adams' Marvin, this is still one of the coolest things ever recorded, almost ten years later. Apparently, it's an amalgamation of three songs, partly based on "Happiness is a Warm Gun." Did I mention how much it rocks?
   
2. "The Genocide Ball" by The Robot Ate Me, from On Vacation
   7/10 - Delightfully absurd song about going to a ball attended by countries committing genocide. Wat more could you ask for?
   
3. "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1" by The Flaming Lips, from Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
   9/10 - Ahhh, a song from perhaps the best robot themed album of the last five years. She's got a black belt in karate, which is important, because it'd be tragic if those evil robots won (even though we should be slightly distraught, since victorious robots would be ostensibly happy, and here at happyrobot we are pro-robots who are happy).
   
4. "I'm Happy But You Don't Like Me" by Asobi Seksu, from Asobi Seksu
   7/10 - Poppy music sung in Japanese by a cute New York girl. There's really not much else to say about this beyond it being more fun than it has any right being.
   
5. "Happy Phantom" by Tori Amos, from Little Earthquakes
   9/10 - Every girl I knew in college had this album, which meant if I wanted to communicate with them and be a sensitive guy, I had to have it as well. Luckily, it wound up being really damn good. This is not the best song on this album, but the least angsty.
   
6. "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" by John Lennon, from The John Lennon Collection
   1/10 - Oh, John Lennon. What the fuck happened to you? You used to be cool, man! You didn't deserve to be shot, but we didn't deserve to have to hear this song, either.
   
7. "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division, from Substance 1977-1980
   10/10 - Okay, so this is kind of cheating. "Joy" is in the name of the band, but a "Joy Division" is not really a positive thing, being the nickname of a mythical concentration camp brothel filled with Jewish sex slaves, but still, it's such a good song that I think we'll excuse it, for now.
   
8. "All Is Full Of Love" by Bjork, from Homogenic
   9/10 - Love makes you happy, but that's not why this song is here...this song is here because the video is of two lesbian robots being created and falling in love. So, basically everything a red blooded geek needs.
   
9. "The Robots In My Bedroom Were Playing Arena Rock" by The Soft.Lights, from Bedroom Recordings
   10/10 - They were. They are. And, god willing, they always will be.
   
10. "Run Into Flowers" by M83, from Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts
    9/10 - Dance music for robots. M83 gets a bunch of crap for being influenced by My Bloody Valentine--which is weird, since musicians are influenced by others all the time...I guess you only get crap if you are influenced by something that's a) very good, and b) not as well known as you think it should be. No one gets too much crap for being influenced by the Beatles or Bob Dylan or Led Zeppelin, but once you get off the beaten track just a little, you get called derivative. Well, fuck that. Good music is good music, and if good music makes you create good music, you've got my blessing.
    

8.1/10 - Though it's pretty arbitrary, since I chose mostly songs I absolutely adored to begin with. Damn you, John Lennon, for dragging me down. Thanks for "I'm So Tired," though.

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