The Playlist: From Joy Division to The Thompson Twins, what we're listening to this week

There's always a random assortment of tracks making their way through my little Genius contraption, ahhh how it knows me so well. I look forward to the day the Genius will be able to tell me what I want to eat and Siri can run out and get it. I'm hoping perhaps I might be able to act as your Genius this week and let you in on some of the oldies, the newbies and the not so newbie oldies that'll be flowing through my speakers the whole week through. "Talk About the Past," by The Wake: This is one of those songs you hear and think to yourself, "Why haven't I heard this before? Why haven't I been listening to this for the last 23 years of my life?" It might have had something to do with the fact that this is the perfect gray day track. Haunting in that beautiful new wave kind of way. "It's Hard to Be an Egg," by John Dowie: Super hard track to find (unless you have iTunes), but YouTube doesn't have it except this weird tiger beat track below. Try digging on it, but definitely find the John Dowie track, it'll make you want to eat breakfast all day. "Messidor," by Durutti Column: Another perfect moody track. All instrumental, so reserve for dinner party use. Play only after everyone is stuffed and sitting around questioning their existence. It's one of those? "Glass (2007 Remastered)," by Joy Division: You know it. We know it. Go back and learn some more child. "Getting Away With It," by Electronic: Eerily sounds a great deal like Psychedelic Furs' "Love My Way," but can you really complain about that? But seriously? They really kind of ripped it off. A lot. But check out the music video, it's like a peak inside the mind of Jack Nicholson's Joker. "What Is Love," by Howard Jones: It's a great question, right? In my opinion love is a really ripe pickle. Jones takes the cynical stance, "Does anyone love anyone, anyway?" "Hold Me Now," by The Thompson Twins: Look it was raining all weekend, cut me a break. But how good is this song. The tinkling of a keyboard in the beginning. The wind up doll sound effects. How cracked out was the writer of this song? "Falsetto," by The-Dream: This song was weirdly stuck in my head all week. For a while I thought it was Rick Ross' "Aston Martin Music," but realized soon enough that it was just too falsetto to be Big Boi Ross. "Freaky In The Club," by R. Kelly: With the release of Kelly's latest literalli (my word for his literal musical genius) "Shut Up," I've been forced to work through his trackography of brilliance. "(Ain't That) Good News," by Sam Cooke: Put a smile on your face.