When the world goes to shit, I won't be paying attention because my enormous playlist will be covering up the noises of destruction for me. Over the past few weeks, I've found an estimated twenty new artists that are warming up to me almost as fast as I hooked onto The Beatles. I might as well showcase at least a few of them, so I picked Gnarls Barkley, James Blunt, Björk, U2, Beck, and Radiohead; however, as a disclaimer, I'm not going to rate them. I was never good at assigning my criticism to numbers or percentages, so you'll have to put up with a lot of words. Hopefully, since you've been putting up with that for about 52 entries, you'll be all right with that and the sounds of utter devastation outside my window won't be your anger.

Gnarls Barkley

Something about St. Elsewhere seems to convey that hip-hop doesn't have to be within any boundaries. It can have a little of everything — intelligence, fun, and definitely talent. If I was hooked from the minute I saw the MTV Star Wars version of "Crazy", then even being able to listen to the rest of St. Elsewhere — Smiley Faces, Go Go Gadget Gospel, Gone Daddy Gone — was absolutely wonderful.

James Blunt

I can't really express what it is about his songs that makes me want to sing them as loud as possible, but they just seem so much more intelligent than mainstream alternative. It's all sort of ethereal, and the theme of the songs varies just as much as the texture of them. You have somewhat trippy ones like Out Of My Mind, and then really sweet ones like Goodbye, My Lover. The next second you get lively songs like Billy (HE SAYS PRODIGAL OMG) and So Long, Jimmy (a tribute song to Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, etc.) so it's a constantly changing experience but the very fact that You're Beautiful is still in the top whatever is telling of the entire album [Back To Bedlam] and how good it is.

Björk

At first, I thought Family Guy most accurately described Björk until I bothered to listen to some more of her songs. She's a good vocalist, but it's just so strange to listen to. At times, I pretty much think she's singing some random assortment of notes that don't even mix, and at other times when she's backed by an insanely famous orchestra, I realize how good she actually is. People overlook this because of her limited ability to MAKE SENSE in English, but I'm catching on, slowly. She's always going to be a little out of my comprehension range. Every snake is a lily?

U2

U2 is feel-good music, no matter which song you listen to. Bono's insane vocals combined with an innovative and intensely relaxing melody create this sort of atmosphere where it doesn't matter what you're singing — Bono's singing with you, so it's all good. Now, their charity in recent years would be something entirely different if they weren't good musicians, but they are and have been for more than 20 years. They experiment with new styles yet retain the concretes of good music. And they will never let you down on any song.

Beck

At first, I couldn't tell if Beck was actually singing his songs. It doesn't seem like he would have such a deep voice, but now that I know he does, not only are his songs entertaining, but they seem to showcase so many different aspects of casualness that we seem to forget. Beck can sing a song about anything and make it completely delightful to listen to. It almost seems like a folk music revival somewhere in all of his songs, although that's just an opinion. My favorites include Que Onda Guero, E-Pro, Girl, and Go It Alone.

Radiohead

Something about the intense criticism in every song appeals to me. The songs are contagious, the vocals are subdued but so much a part of the song that you can't necessarily tear them away. No one can quite do it like Thom Yorke. Radiohead mixes intelligent somewhat trippy lyrics with beautiful melodies, and then goes on to express any arrangement of things with the variety inside each song. Every Radiohead song is bound to be a little different at least 3 times per song, and when you compare songs, you can perhaps find a little common ground in the vocals but each song is so it's own entity that Radiohead helps me settle into this strange other place where I don't have to worry about being bored with a song. Karma Police, Let Down, Street Spirit, There There, Airbag, Paranoid Android — I LOVE YOU ALL.

And that concludes my musical frenzy! I actually had uploaded pictures for this but I decided not to stick them in because I had to restrict them to such a small size that half of both Radiohead and U2 got cut out of the picture. I think I phased out several times during the writing of this. Enjoy!