Downloads

“Mighty ‘O’ ”

OutKast

www.outkast.com

The track is available as a buyable download from iTunes, Napster and Rhapsody, but you can hear it stream on OutKast’s website. It provides a good example of how Andre 3000 and Big Boi’s talents are undiminished since the supernova of “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.” They are at the top of their game and hopefully their upcoming film, “Idlewild,” will reveal more of the same capacity for exploring the orchestral possibilities of hip-hop. So many smart, hilarious lines fly by that it is impossible to select just one, but taking center stage is an organ that sounds like an old Hammond B-3 taken right out of a local Baptist church, a loping train of a bass, and the duo boasting about their indomitable abilities: “Category? Ain’t got one. You know I’m right.”

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“You Got Away With It (A Tale of Two Fraternity Brothers)”

Todd Snider

play.rhapsody.com/toddsnider/thedevilyouknowdidAutoplayBouncetrue

Bearing the kind of trenchant satire we have come to expect from Randy Newman, Snider blithely strums his acoustic, talkin’ ‘bout his criminal runnin’ buddy from a misspent childhood. Of course, this rogue turns out to be someone we all know and that surprise is telegraphed fairly early on. But when the electric guitar kicks in and the harmonies are wailing on the chorus, we’re shouting and laughing along with the track, downing Lone Stars and at the same time knowing, deep in our souls, that this fellow is a baaaaad man.