Weekly Playlist 3/6

Every Friday, I share the highlights of what I’ve been listening to over the course of the week, from old favorites to new discoveries. Playlist best enjoyed in order.

Of all of Lana Del Rey’s work, “Video Games” remains among the best — perhaps the best. She has a tendency to sound…gimmicky, with the way often she puts on a playful, childlike voice to sing about things like sex. And if her songs don’t sound gimmicky, they’re repetitive, playing with the same styles and themes over and over again, bleeding into each other. But “Video Games” is a major exception. It’s a beautiful love song, showing Del Rey at her best all around.

Pretty much everyone knows Duran Duran for “Rio” and “Hungry Like the Wolf,” but I submit that one of the best tracks on Rio is actually “New Religion” — admittedly not the earworm the way the other two huge hits are but still with a lot to love. It’s a little bit moodier rather than a full-blown pop masterpiece, with layered vocals that have a little attitude.

Speaking of pop masterpieces, “Stupid Love” might be one of the most fun songs Gaga has released. Like Lana Del Rey, Lady Gaga gets a little gimmicky. Much of her early work in particular feels lazy, like the goal was to be edgy more than anything — I’m looking at you, “Judas” — and yet she’s capable of some great pop songs. “Bad Romance” is undeniable, and “Fashion of His Love” is the best of big hooks and synthesizers. “Stupid Love” leans closer to those, albeit without the intensity of “Bad Romance,” with a fun beat that feels very much like a ’90s dance song. Its one flaw is, again, laziness, with overly repetitive lyrics and not a whole hell of a lot of variety in its structure, but it’s so fun that it hardly matters.

We lean away from the synths and into the guitars, starting with “The Queen Is Dead” by The Smiths and its post-punk fuzziness. Then we have “Stone in Love” by Journey, similar to “New Religion” in that it gets overlooked by the other chart-topping heavy hitters in the band’s discography — but it’s probably one of my favorite Journey songs. And finally, we close with ’90s classic “Two Prices” by Spin Doctors, which spawned this gem.

For your weekend reading, check out this look at how crucial streaming revenue is for artists.