Recent iTunes downloads

• Armed with a gift card and bloating the digital library some more.

Here (In Your Arms) • Hellogoodbye // This is apparently "climbing the charts," but the charts haven't made sense to me in about 10 years, so I wouldn't know. It's a pleasant single that sounds like one of the little punk bands accidentally remade Cher's "Believe." Is vocoder so old now that it's "in" again?

Le Disko (Radio Edit) • Shiny Toy Guns // The bridge is really the only good part of this, isn't it?

Axel F • Harold Faltermeyer // I'd forgotten how much I loved this little slice of synth, a rare instrumental chart-topper which has been tragically covered in recent times by the criminal abomination called Crazy Frog.

Falling in Love (Uh Oh) • Miami Sound Machine // I know, you're doubled over laughing, but there's something about this early MSM ballad that grabs me and won't let go. The moody chords, the strings, the chirpy background vocals … it's calculated pop perfection.

Say It Right • Nelly Furtado // I don't disagree with the "sellout" accusations being hurled at the talented Furtado, but I don't entirely blame her, either. Given a choice of fading into obscurity with all of her artistic integrity intact or sexing it up and hitting it big, many would follow in her Loose footsteps. And it's worth suffering through several embarrassments like "Promiscuous" to get to one single as good as "Say It Right."

Electrobix (Radio) • Scissor Sisters // In some parallel universe, this must have been as huge as "YMCA."

Silent Night • Sarah McLachlan // My interest in McLachlan has been on the wane, but she outdid herself with this haunting, masterful treatment of a classic.