So every month or so, my sister comes in from New York. I meet her at the train station in New Haven, we spend the night at my apartment and then she and her daughter and I and my son all pile in the VW and head to New Hamster Hampshire to visit our stepmother and any other relatives who forgot to be away that weekend.

Music’s always a problem. She doesn’t like Radiohead, Jeff Beck, Sneaker Pimps, Portishead, etc – my music. And I don’t generally like her music.

Last time, she made a wonderful five CDs of songs she thought we would both like – and I did! The Cure, Elvis Costello, Human League, all sorts of great 80s stuff.

I scoured my CD collection (hundreds of them) and distilled them down to one CD that has songs I like and she might… I hope… Nothing too weird… Here’s what I came up with:

  • Aretha Franklin – House that Jack Built

  • Blue Oyster Cult – Harvest Moon

  • Boa – Duvet

  • Boston – Something About You

  • Crash Test Dummies – Superman’s Song

  • Dream Theater – Pull Me Under

  • Echolyn – Best Regards

  • Gorillaz – Feel Good, Inc.

  • Jethro Tull – Cold Wind to Valhalla

  • King Crimson – Heartbeat

  • Wanderlust – I Walked

  • The Seatbelts – Tank!

  • Gary Numan – Down in the Park

  • Throwing Muses – Freeloader

  • Oingo Boingo – No Spill Blood

  • The Ataris –  So Long, Astoria

  • Matchbox 20 – Disease

  • Tracy Bonham – Mother, Mother

Do people even like rock anymore? Sometimes I feel like the last fan of a dying genre…