Every week, we are highlighting the rad, the bad and the straight-up sad in music. Thisweek: Dinosaurs make a comeback, Eurovision spits out a summer jam and Usher does what hedoes best. Check outlast week's hip-hop roundup here. --> Download This

"Tapes & Money" by Totally Enormous Extinct DinosaursAs a proud child of '90s Europe,my heart involuntarily beats a little more whenever I sense a rave breakdown coming orhear a cheesy synth riff. Similarly, rave horns have an effect not unlike Proust'smadeleines, time-traveling me back to high school basement parties and MTV videosfeaturing prominent laser displays. This tune by the abominably named Dinosaurs pushes allmy buttons, starting with the sampled "feet don't fail me now" bit from Funkadelic andresulting in a less quirky Hot Chip jam I find impossible to resist. Now, don't worry, youcan totally refer to them as T.E.E.D."Euphoria" by LoreenEurovision's most recent incarnations can perhapsbest be described to baffled North American audiences as the Eurozone's original HungerGames, in which each precarious little nation sends in a hapless young singer, armed onlywith a mid-song key change and a quirky costume change or pyrotechnics display (if they'relucky, that is). They are then thrown to the wolves in an epic televised performance,ridiculed by both former political allies and enemies at home and abroad, until a votingprocess determines which song is the sole survivor. This year, Loreen proved Sweden'sKatniss Everdeen, ninja-dancing herself worthy of her country's esteemed Eurovisionheritage (Abba's "Waterloo," anyone?) and singing the hell out of her ravetastic summerjam."Lemme See" by Usher, featuring Rick RossWhere R. Kelly is a maximalistdown to his every perverted bone, Usher is at his minimalist best when recording in whatat its best sounds like a perfectly tuned fortress of solitude -- all icy synths andstalactite beats. After the anticlimactically underappreciated single "Climax," Usher'snew album campaign peaks with single "Lemme See," a tune that sounds just as glacial butis much less melodramatic. And where "Climax" confusingly wasn't actually about theorgasmic state, "Lemme See" is much more explicit, all about "show, don't tell." Checkit.
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"Reunion" by M83These French gothsters are nostrangers to John Hughes references, but the opening salvo of "Reunion" is so reminiscentof Simple Minds' "Don't You Forget About Me" that I still helplessly convulse into a JuddNelson air punch whenever I hear it. Still, we could all use a little more real (meaning,not Coldplay-related) grandiosity in our lives, no? The video, as always, hasastonishingly high production values (what Eurozone crisis?) and revolves aroundtelekinetic children (never a safe skill set). Those whose allegiances lie closer to "daclub" might prefer the fantastic "Mylo" remix, which seems to feature another '80sclassic, the keytar.
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"Home" by Phil PhillipsThe problem with Idol orThe Voice or any other realty singing competition is that theyreward bland mass appeal over the shock factor we really need -- nay, crave -- in our popstars. The hosts might plead week after week for singers to step out of their comfortzones, to surprise the audience, but what they truly value is consistency. Now, all we cando to counter this development is to step out of our comfort zones ourselves, choose adifferent Pandora or Spotify channel, surprise ourselves for a change, and start next yearby skipping Idol and its many-headed demon spawn.
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