Friday Playlist: I’m a few years older than you.

It’s Friday! That means it’s playlist time. Since I didn’t get to do one last week — what with prepping to fly cross-country to attend 48 hours’ worth of PAX — this week’s playlist has a few additional tracks.

When you’re done here, for your further listening pleasure, there is also a new Fatcast available.

1. “Yr Mangled Heart” // Gossip. This first time I heard Gossip was right before Movement came out. The sound was spare, practically unfinished — it was completely different from any of the music I was listening to at the time, and yet there was something irresistibly compelling about it. It made my chest hurt; it still does. “Yr Mangled Heart” is off the followup to Movement, and it maintains that original rawness while being a bit more accessible.

2. “Cold War” // Janelle Monae. This woman should be the queen of the pop-music world right now. The ArchAndroid is brilliant through and through with the small exception of the collaboration with Of Montreal; I actually find that track unlistenable. But I blame Of Montreal for that, as Janelle Monae is clearly brilliant on her own. Monae is currently one of Elle magazine’s “25 Women at 25″ to, like, watch out for or whatever, and they ID Monae as a “Diddy protege” which is really annoying. This woman does not need help from anyone to be talented.

3. “Hounds of Love” // Kate Bush. Whenever Kate Bush comes on shuffle in the car, my husband slowly shakes his head and says, dubiously: “Craaaazy Kate Bush.” Nobody sounds like her. This is good or bad depending on your taste.

4. “Leeds United” // Amanda Palmer. Too soon? This woman has made some truly boneheaded comments and been guilty of a few really problematic artistic choices of late, and we likely would have been saved from all of them if she weren’t so ferociously representing herself in the marketplace, and had handlers and PR people to tell her no. I’ve been very nearly ruined on her more than once but my endless faith in people keeps me hoping that some part of her is listening. Because she really is a grand performer.

5. “Mowgli’s Road” // Marina & The Diamonds. The album whence this song is taken has not left my daily rotation in months.

6. “Destroy Everything You Touch” // Ladytron. Arguably the finest Ladytron track ever. I can almost be okay with the death of old-school synthpop so long as Ladytron keeps making music.

7. “Edge of Seventeen” // Stevie Nicks. I have a lifelong fascination with Stevie Nicks; I remember finding Rumours amongst the vinyl in my childhood home and being mesmerized just by the cover photo. Nicks sort of encapsulated a perfect mixture of badassery-in-elaborate-dresses for me. “Edge of Seventeen” is a classic.

8. “100 Games of Solitaire” // Concrete Blonde. What can I possibly say about this band? They were critical to my teenage years; this song in particular spoke — and continues to speak — to my tendency toward solitude, and particularly my love of solo long-distance driving, something I get to do very little of now.

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