Pannadora Radio ©: The Good Mood Songs

I've done a Pannadora Radio © edition once before and I've decided to cook up another little list of favorites for your general enjoyment. Lately, an issue of hot debate has been the pre-Thanksgiving-Christmas-music-enthusiasts. Some people are jumping the gun on the Christmas music this year. While on one hand I can relate to the pure bliss that follows the sweet sounds of Nat King Cole, Mariah Carey, and Frank Sinatra, on the other hand I can see the maddening senselessness of hearing this song every hour, on the hour.

So we have a problem. We want the happiness and general atmosphere of cheer that accompanies Christmas music, but NOT the loss of sanity with too much of a good thing. I have your solution.

Behold, the Good Mood playlist. These are some songs that will guarantee you the happiness you crave. I can't help but immediately smile when one of these comes on. This should hold you over until the day after Thanksgiving when Rudolph can prance freely through the radio waves once again. 

1. You Make My Dreams Come True - Hall & Oates (check out the video below - this may be the best of them all.)

2. Dog Days are Over - Florence and the Machine (this was in my first playlist post, but it's THAT good.)

3. Feeling This - Blink 182

4. Valerie - Amy Winehouse 

5. Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield 

6. Say Hey (I Love You) - Michael Franti & Spearhead

7. Photograph - Weezer

8. Anthem Part II - Blink 182

9. 500 Miles - The Proclaimers (Scottish twin brother singing duo? Sign me up!) 

10. What I Got - Sublime

11. Annie Waits - Ben Folds (Or change this to "Anna waits" for an extra bonus)

12. George Michael - Faith

13. Separate Ways - Journey

14. Cecilia - Simon and Garfunkel

15. Baby One More Time - Britney Spears (Don't act like you don't love this one.) 

16. The Way You Make Me Feel - Michael Jackson

17. Hey Ya - Outkast (Lend me some sugar. I am your neighbor.)

18. Beautiful Day - U2

19. I Believe in a Thing Called Love - The Darkness (justlistentotherhythmofmyheart!)
20. Yellow Submarine - The Beatles

You're Welcome. Go forth and be happy.

Pannadora Radio ©

I've had my fair share of the classic Student Abroad Syndrome. SAS is a real condition, go look it up. I was going to explain it by saying it's like a roller coaster, but that analogy is much too cliché. But it really is like that, so you'll just have to hear it one more time: It's like a roller coaster. Being thrown into a new country with a different culture and language allows for swinging between extremes of "Oh crap what am I doing here?!" all the way to "My life is so awesome!" and back again. What do you do when this happens? You listen to music, thats what! For your enjoyment, I whipped together two playlists to indulge these highs and lows.

The first playlist is when you want to wallow in your own loneliness and homesickness. For when you feel like you don't have friends, possess the language capacity of a mid-level Dora the Explorer viewer, and get served a whole baby squid on your plate for dinner. This perfect mix of self-pity and melancholy won't let you down. Here's the pity party playlist:

1. Transatlanticism - Death Cab for Cutie

2. All by Myself - Celine Dion (This is about as low as it gets. Only turn to Celine in extreme circumstances.)

3. Chicago - Sufjan Stevens (also "Sweet Home Chicago" by the Blues Brothers is optional for all my trin-munity's enjoyment.)

4. House That Built Me - Miranda Lambert

5. Father and Daughter - Paul Simon (Classic missing dad song.)

6. Carolina on my Mind - James Taylor

7. Breathe - Taylor Swift

8. Dark Blue - Jack's Mannequin

9. Homeward Bound - Simon and Garfunkel

10. Vanilla Twilight - Owl City

11. Rainy Days and Mondays - The Carpenters

12. I Miss You - Blink 182 (This selection is not complete without nasally yelling along to the first line when Tom DeLonge comes in.)

But then after sucking it up (perhaps after the pivotal song of "Big Girls Don't Cry" thanks to our friend Frankie Valli), you realize you are in Europe! And you aren't that bad at Spanish. And you made tons of friends and you get to do stuff like take pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower and sleep in the Barcelona airport. So this playlist is for when you are with your new friends from all over the place and you want to  sit around and soak up each other's awesomeness. Here is the "Spain Rules!" playlist:

1. The Adventure - Angels and Airwaves

2. Rocketeer - Far East Movement

3. Dog Days are Over - Florence and the Machine

4. Why Not - Hilary Duff (Yeah, that's right, I said it. Hilary Duff. Take a crazy chance.)

5. Wavin' Flag - K'naan (¡Campeones del mundo!)

6. Brand New Strings - Miranda Lambert

7. 21st Century Girl - Willow Smith (I really am a 21st century girl. I do what I like.)

8. Wide Open Spaces - Dixie Chicks

9. A Whole New World - Aladdin

10. Loca - Shakira (Yo soy loca. Pero te gusta eso.)

11. Don't Stop - Fleetwood Mac (I know this was Bill Clinton's campaign theme in the past, but I'm a big believer in redeeming things for higher purposes. The whole Abraham Kuyper thing.)

12. Suddenly I See - KT Tunstall


**Update - Rudi Gesch, tied for first place for the best brother award, has created the playlist on Youtube. So ch-ch-ch-check it out.**

Enjoy. 

Just call me DJ Jazzy Gesch.