The Unicorns - "I Was Born (A Unicorn)" (original version). With everyone making so much noise about the Unicorns lately - well, with Pitchfork and Exclaim making so much noise about the Unicorns - I figure I might as well chime in with my own thoughts about these pseudo-Montrealers. First off, they're gloriously inconsistent. Their records are inconsistent, their live shows are inconsistent, their personalities are inconsistent. Corresponding with Niel Diamonds before they signed to Alien8, he was cordial, enthusiastic, and even slightly twee. Now, I'm told, they're smug, cool, and arty. But forget that - they're joyous, weird pop iconoclasts, with creative kick and googly-eyed genius.

Still, as much as people seem enthusiastic about their new record, Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone, I don't enjoy it as much as I did their first, Unicorns Are People Too. The new one sounds better - and the Unicorns' bristling and juicy guitar sound rises more to the surface - but things aren't quite so much fun, or so true. Unicorns Are People Too is full of (literally) the first drafts of songs that were rerecorded for Cut Our Hair, and the jumbled originals are often superior to the more arranged 'finished versions'. Case in point, "I Was Born (A Unicorn)" - present on both albums, and among the best tracks of both. (The very best Unicorns song, by the way, is called "Thunder and Lightning.") While the newer version has a ringing guitar that kicks more melodic ass, this ramshackle original is more charming, less pleased-with-itself. In short: it's spastic, peculiar and fun, with a pop hook to hang your robin hood hat on.

Charles Wright - "Express Yourself". I said here that this was the Best Song in the World, and it might still be. The jingling guitar in the left speaker makes the greyest december day glad, the drums are as good as anything Four Tet's put together, and Charles Wright, he's a natural wonder, like a mega-tsunami or a whirlwind, something big and human and free and better than caramel corn. hooray!