Michael's Top 40

Est. 2001

My favorite 40 songs of the week, and other music-related thoughts

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DATE WEEKS January 15, 2005 1 When I went to Stuyvesant High School in the early 2000s, I'd take the A train from my house in Queens to...

Nov 20, 20249 min read

DATE WEEKS December 11, 2004 10 One night, my wife and I were out and about when we decided to go to a bar in Bushwick that has karaoke. ...

Nov 13, 20247 min read

DATE WEEKS November 20, 2004 3 It starts "one, two, three, fourteen" in Spanish. If any other artist tried to start a song that way, I...

Nov 6, 202410 min read

DATE WEEKS October 30, 2004 3 Whenever an artist or artists come along to define a particular sound from a particular region, there's...

Sep 11, 20246 min read

This column should not exist. That's not to say I don't like this song, or that there's anything illicit that happened with this song. ...

Aug 21, 20245 min read

DATE WEEKS October 2, 2004 3 At the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, then-Illinois State Senator Barack Obama gave a speech...

Aug 14, 20247 min read

The story of alternative rock in the 2000s shouldn't have had room for the The Killers. It was supposed to be about a bunch of weirdos...

Aug 7, 20246 min read

It's not fair that I only get one post to write about the Meteora album cycle. It was a significant album for me during the last two...

Jul 31, 20248 min read

It was a big deal when I was accepted into Stuyvesant High School in the spring of 2000. Stuyvesant is considered the most prestigious...

Jul 24, 20248 min read