Six thoughts I had while listening to satellite radio this week

1. Rihanna's "S.O.S. (Rescue Me)" continues to be a great track with no fewer than three ways to interpret one of the Spelling Bee sections:

- Y-O-U are making this hard
- Why? Oh, you are making this hard
- Y-O-U-R (sic) making this hard

The grammar nerd in me hopes Rihanna opted for one of the first two. And the music fan in me wishes "Unfaithful" never was released.

2. I'm digging the new Wolfmother track, "Woman." I'm sure I'm not the first person who wants their lead singer to do an Ozzy cover, because his voice is to The Prince of Mother (Bleeping) Darkness as Jamiroquai's lead singer is to Stevie Wonder. (Congratulations to Jamiroquai, by the way, for being referenced for the first time since people stopped talking about the Napoleon Dynamite dance sequence.)

3. Although I hadn't listened to either version of the song in forever, I heard not only Nena's "99 Red Balloons" on the way to work Thursday, but also the original German version of "99 Luftbalons" on the way back. That's 198 bilingual spheres of awesome(ly bad?)!

4. I know Strong Bad covered this already, but Cascada's "Miracle" reminded me that every dance song since 1986 sounds exactly the same. With the forced rhyme schemes ("I need a miracle; I wanna be your girl"), thumping bass and machine-gun snares, and a synth that sounds like a screeching cat caught in a blender, "Miracle" might be the prototype for every dance track of the last two decades. And I'm embarrassed to say I like it. Ashamed, even.

5. Cheyenne Kimball seems like a very nice girl. And she's a pretty girl. And she appears to play basic guitar chords well. But, um, her voice is ... interesting. Let's just say Britney Spears is a veritable Charlotte Church compared to her.

6. How many Oscar-winners sing on an embarrassingly and instantly addictive new cut that repeats the phrase "Good Googly Moogly/That thang is juicy" an estimated 4,298 times? Well, yeah, Paul Newman*. But also Three 6 Mafia.

*Not really. But he can do no wrong.