#RadioheadTop30 2️⃣5️⃣ The Daily Mail The Daily Mail/Staircase-2011 You got away with it, but we lie in wait. "With lyrics as venomous a Hail To The Thief cut, TDM discards the distorted, jagged weirdness of The King of Limbs for menacingly insincere sweetness." -John Robb, Louder Than War, 12/15/11.

#RadioheadTop30 2️⃣6️⃣ Optimistic Kid A-2000 You can try the best you can, dinosaurs roaming the earth. "It was written during 'the block.' From the context of being in a band, writing about personal experience and one's own problems, I'd had enough of it." -Thom, BBC Radio 1, Lamacq Live, 9/18/00.

#RadioheadTop30 2️⃣7️⃣ Pyramid Song Amnesiac-2001 There was nothing to fear, and nothing to doubt. "I think it's probably the best song that we've recorded. Thom did vocal and piano, Phil on drums, all one take. After strings were added, it was pretty much finished." -Ed, KCRW, Ground Zero, 1/25/01.

#RadioheadTop30 2️⃣8️⃣ Morning Mr. Magpie The King Of Limbs-2011 Now you've stolen all my magic, and took my melody. "Phil Selway's incredible restless drumming and the cleanly plucked cyclical guitar figures on this track make it an obvious touchstone." -Thom Gibbs, Drowned In Sound, 2/21/11.

#RadioheadTop30 2️⃣9️⃣ Knives Out Amnesiac-2001 Look into my eyes, it's the only way you'll know I'm telling the truth. "We thought, ‘We’ve gotta put that in the bin, it’s too straight.’ It took 373 days to be arse-about-face enough to realise it was alright the way it was." -Thom, NME, 5/19/01.

#RadioheadTop30 3️⃣0️⃣ Give Up The Ghost The King Of Limbs-2011 Gather up the pitiful, into your arms. "An evaporation song, one that seems to be exiting and entering your consciousness at the same moment. Built on a patiently rocking, palm-muted JG guitar strum." -Jayson Greene, Pitchfork, 2/27/11.

How I’m turning up to the Bluesky Christmas party

For everyone whom I've met through the countdowns, Bluesky, and my fellow Twitter defectors, here's the songs that moved me in the past 12 months. ⤵️💜❤️ #2005SongsTop20 #2000SongsTop20 #1993AlbumsTop20 #1994AlbumsTop20 #1995AlbumsTop20

Album: 1️⃣ Dire Straits-Brothers In Arms Song: 1️⃣ Kate Bush-Running Up That Hill Mark Knopfler's masterpiece is the winner that takes all for '85. 🏆 That's it! 👏🏻 Thank you folks, it's been real! Thank you, Barry @musiccountdownguy.bsky.social for all of the times you've hosted us! ❤️ #1985AlbumsTop20

Album: 2️⃣ Kate Bush-Hounds Of Love Song: 2️⃣ Madonna-Crazy For You As brilliant as Hounds Of Love is, it only had middle-of-the-road success in The States in '85. Three years ago, Stranger Things happened. Kate and her opus finally got the recognition they deserved here all along. 🏆 #1985AlbumsTop20

Album: 3️⃣ Prince-Around The World In A Day Song: 3️⃣ Prince-Raspberry Beret Two shades of purple for The Purple One today. 💟💜 We're closing in on 10 years since Prince departed-it's still unreal. MPR's The Current will play his music that whole day in late April to honor his legacy. #1985AlbumsTop20

Album: 4️⃣ The Replacements-Tim Song: 4️⃣ Tears For Fears-Everybody Wants To Rule The World The Mats were poised to break out of the Minneapolis scene with Tim. Regardless of how things went, they're legendary here. May Bob Stinson's swan song ring on in garage amplifiers everywhere. #1985AlbumsTop20

Album: 5️⃣ Phil Collins-No Jacket Required Song: 5️⃣ The Dream Academy-Life In A Northern Town I was quite the Phil Stan when I was a kid. That decade of '81-'91, his music-solo & Genesis-was everywhere. I ignored the haters here, and stayed with it for the duration of that ride. 🎵🎶❤️ #1985AlbumsTop20

Album: 6️⃣ Talking Heads-Little Creatures Song: 6️⃣ The Cure-In Between Days Bickering aside, one reason a band like The Heads has a limited shelf life is there's too much talent overall. One entity isn't enough to contain all that creativity. Good to see them reunite a bit lately. #1985AlbumsTop20

Album: 7️⃣ Hüsker Dü-New Day Rising/Flip Your Wig Song: 7️⃣ The Replacements-Kiss Me On The Bus With these two individual albums released in the same year, the signs were there for yet another double Dü studio album. Both albums score the #7 spot, as they're practically inseparable. #1985AlbumsTop20

Album: 7️⃣ Hüsker Dü-New Day Rising/Flip Your Wig Song: 7️⃣ The Replacements-Kiss Me On The Bus With these two individual albums released in the same year, the signs were there for yet another double Dü studio album. Both albums score the #7 spot, as they're practically inseparable. #1985AlbumsTop20

Album: 8️⃣ Tears For Fears-Songs From The Big Chair Song: 8️⃣ The Jesus And Mary Chain-Just Like Honey '85 reflects my youth in music. E.g., first hearing that guitar lick for Rule The World and not deciphering the 12/8 time signature until the song kicked in-my first TFF memory. 🎵🎓🎶 #1985AlbumsTop20

Album: 9️⃣ R.E.M.-Fables Of The Reconstruction Song: 9️⃣ Huey Lewis And The News-The Power Of Love Right in the middle of an annual 6 album run in the 80s, Fables is Stipe & Co's most adventurous early work. Without many in-depth looks at Southern Gothic at the time, they nailed it. #1985AlbumsTop20

Album: 🔟 Run-DMC-King Of Rock Song: 🔟 USA For Africa-We Are The World Rap music and its ingenuity was destined for more than a local music style out of New York. Joe Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jason Mizell took the NYC game that was just getting started to a worldwide stage. #1985AlbumsTop20

Album: 1️⃣1️⃣ Whitney Houston-ST Songs: 1️⃣2️⃣ Hüsker Dü-Makes No Sense At All 1️⃣1️⃣ Talking Heads-Road To Nowhere In the 80s, The States had 4 black superstars whose careers' skyrocketed at once. Prince, MJ, Eddie Murphy, and Whitney. For most of them, their time here was way too short. 💔 #1985AlbumsTop20

Album: 1️⃣2️⃣ LL Cool J-Radio Songs: 1️⃣4️⃣ R.E.M.-Driver 8 1️⃣3️⃣ 'Til Tuesday-Voices Carry Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons were forming Def Jam when James Smith's demo came their way. Soon after, Radio became the first album (Raisin' Hell, Licensed To Ill) of the 'Rubin Reduction' trilogy. #1985AlbumsTop20

Album: 1️⃣3️⃣ John Fogerty-Centerfield Songs: 1️⃣6️⃣ The Waterboys-The Whole Of The Moon 1️⃣5️⃣ Dire Straits-Why Worry Post-Creedence for John was practically never post-controversy, as he faced legal problems with his publishing for years. Glad to see that finally, all those songs are his. #1985AlbumsTop20

Album: 1️⃣4️⃣ John Cougar Mellencamp-Scarecrow Songs: 1️⃣8️⃣ New Order-Love Vigilantes 1️⃣7️⃣ Phil Collins-One More Night After seeing The Coug at the 40th Farm Aid in Minneapolis this year, this album's message, and its voice as the American farmer could not be more relatable 40 years on. #1985AlbumsTop20

Album: 1️⃣5️⃣ The Waterboys-This Is The Sea Songs: 2️⃣0️⃣ Simple Minds-Don't You Forget About Me 1️⃣9️⃣ The Smiths-How Soon Is Now? Unfortunately, The Waterboys didn't have their moment when they caught on in The States. Regardless, Mike had Karl and this rad song on board with him in '85. #1985AlbumsTop20

Album: 1️⃣6️⃣ Sting-The Dream Of The Blue Turtles Songs: 2️⃣2️⃣ Whitney Houston-How Will I Know 2️⃣1️⃣ Run-D.M.C.-King Of Rock Sting setting forth on his own was the George Harrison setup. Both were definitely sitting on material they knew weren't going to get to use in their former bands. #1985AlbumsTop20

Album: 1️⃣7️⃣ The Power Station-ST Songs: 2️⃣4️⃣ John Parr-St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion) 2️⃣3️⃣ Stevie Wonder-Part Time Lover TPS was the shooting star of one-off side project bands. One album and one live performance on SNL with all four original members. We blinked, and it was gone. ✨🌟☄️ #1985AlbumsTop20

Album: 1️⃣8️⃣ Miami Sound Machine-Primitive Love Songs: 2️⃣6️⃣ Paul Young-Everytime You Go Away 2️⃣5️⃣ Robert Palmer-Addicted To Love Sometimes the stars align, and your music is the itch that everybody wants to scratch. No denying that Gloria Estefan was going to be a superstar either way. #1985AlbumsTop20

Album: 1️⃣9️⃣ INXS-Listen Like Thieves Songs: 2️⃣8️⃣ Mike + The Mechanics-All I Need Is A Miracle 2️⃣7️⃣ Simply Red-Holding Back The Years Album #5 from INXS was the first mainstream repetition us kids in The States got from them. What You Need was such a massive hit here. One more time! ▶️🔊 #1985AlbumsTop20

Album: 2️⃣0️⃣ The Outfield-Play Deep Songs: 3️⃣0️⃣ Beastie Boys-She's On It 2️⃣9️⃣ Howard Jones-No One Is To Blame Hey, Everyone! Let's make Barry's last countdown the best! Starting with The Outfield's debut, which made the impression on me as a 9 year old kid to learn to play guitar. 🎸🎸 #1985AlbumsTop20

1️⃣ Radiohead-How To Disappear Completely This track has vintage RH sound, but Kid A remains a world-stopping album on originality alone. Either way, easy #1 choice. 🥇🏆 Thank you so much, Barry! @musiccountdownguy.bsky.social Take care, folks! ❤️❤️ I'm not here, this isn't happening. #2000SongsTop20

2️⃣ U2-Walk On While dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi 25 years ago, a deeper lyrical connection certainly exists as a coping mechanism when facing brutal times in life. Of Bono's affirmations, Walk On might be his best. The only baggage you can bring is all that you can't leave behind. #2000SongsTop20

3️⃣ Green Day-Warning This song ranks this high because of my boy. ❤️ 2000 was his birth year and Warning was his first favorite song that we can recall. Him wobble-stepping to this song at 8 months old-proud Dad moment. 🥲 Question everything, or shut up and be a victim of authority. #2000SongsTop20

4️⃣ P.J. Harvey-You Said Something Seeing Polly live when she toured for this album-her and U2, Minneapolis, 2001-wow! 👏🏻 Amazing night. More importantly, I think of deep talks I've had with anyone when this one comes on present day. When you said something that I've never forgotten. #2000SongsTop20

5️⃣ Eminem-Stan (w/Dido) Obsessives taking a song about being an obsessive and defining it to describe an obsessive is something that is predictable, but smart. Good choice for a song to make their own, too. My fave by MM. You got some issues, Stan. I think you need some counselin'. #2000SongsTop20

6️⃣ Tracy Chapman-Telling Stories Out of Tracy's many great songs, this one is the most underrated. Not a big hit in the States, but, one of those hooky songs that's an attention getter and has a memorable refrain. Hers can lock you in right away. Give us one more sad sordid story. #2000SongsTop20

7️⃣ Wilco-Secret Of The Sea Maybe someday more Woody Guthrie lyrics will be discovered again so Wilco and Billy Bragg can give us another round. Until then, both parties at last are performing Mermaid Ave I & II together next June. 👏🏻 You claim to know the secret of a kiss and a hug. #2000SongsTop20

8️⃣ The Jayhawks-I'm Gonna Make You Love Me These days, Minnesota is becoming known as the land of 10,000 bands (we do have many). Gary Louris started the Jayhawks here-and new MN bands follow their blueprint of under-the-radar success. We're gonna stay together for a million years. #2000SongsTop20

9️⃣ Pearl Jam-Insignificance After PJ's heights of the 90's, 2000 was a rough landing. Outer-band turmoil made Binaural lose direction; the album turned out uneven in the end. This track most resembles vintage Pearl Jam. The full moon is dead skin, the one down here's wearing thin. #2000SongsTop20

🔟 Rage Against The Machine-The Ghost Of Tom Joad When you do a covers album, go big with your own twist, or go home. Rage's version moved The Boss so much that now, he covers it repeatedly with Tom Morello. The highway is alive tonight, nobody's fooling nobody as to where it goes. #2000SongsTop20

1️⃣1️⃣ Bob Dylan-Things Have Changed Zimmy's Time Out Of Mind resurgence kept going when this gem dropped out of nowhere in The Wonderboys. Bob's resurgence has since continued. The last 25 years of his new releases have far more ups than downs. I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range. #2000SongsTop20

1️⃣2️⃣ Sleater-Kinney-All Hands On The Bad One SK's 5th album smartly played into their strengths again with spontaneous songwriting and quick studio sessions. Of the All Hands tracks, the title cut typically makes the setlists today. You can't get into heaven with a three-chord song. #2000SongsTop20

1️⃣3️⃣ The White Stripes-Hello Operator Though not their humble beginnings as De Stijl was TWSs sophomore release, they were up and coming; fine-tuning a solid garage rock sound. Today, this tune could pass as a Jack White solo cut. Mailman, bring the paper, leave it on my windowsill. #2000SongsTop20

1️⃣4️⃣ Eels-Mr. E's Beautiful Blues With a sunny 65° F late October day coming today in Minnesota, it's easy to have this song's chorus rolling through your head. Also, who else hears the intro and remembers their Nokia phone? 🤚🏻📱📳📳📳 The ringmaster's Telecaster sings on an empty stage. #2000SongsTop20

1️⃣5️⃣ Oasis-Go Let It Out A new Oasis album was another opportunity to see which one of Noel's influences would be featured in what song. Strawberry Fields threads right into this bugger seamlessly. Life is precocious in the most peculiar way, sister psychosis don't got a lot to say. #2000SongsTop20

1️⃣6️⃣ Doves-Catch The Sun MTV'S video channels are going dark overseas 1/1/26. Sorry to any in our countdown group that are viewers. 😔 Original MTV overnight binges was my new music discovery-like this one-and many others. I've always been up and down, never wanted to hit the ground. #2000SongsTop20

1️⃣7️⃣ Matchbox 20-If You're Gone With Rob Thomas coming off of the white-hot heels of Smooth, the pressure was high to feature a pop sound for Matchbox's sophomore album. Though they reluctantly did, a few songs-like this one-hold up. I can't relate, and that's a problem I'm feeling. #2000SongsTop20

1️⃣8️⃣ Incubus-Drive Make Yourself has a great slow burn to double platinum album story because of Drive. It sat on the bench as an album cut for over a year, Incubus released it as a last minute single, then it becomes their biggest hit. It seems to have a vague haunting mass appeal. #2000SongsTop20

1️⃣9️⃣ Shaggy-It Wasn't Me (w/Rikrok) Boombastic was quotable and had that dancehall/reggae fusion groove that got us teens at the time moving. When Shaggy came back with this one, we were in our 20s and he got the same results. 💃🏻🕺🏻 Trespasser and witness, all the hacklin' a ya pillow. #2000SongsTop20

2️⃣0️⃣ The Wallflowers-Sleepwalker Hey again, everyone! 👋🏻 Hard to believe we've already gone a quarter of a century down the road with these songs! Starting out with The Wallflowers, Jakob Dylan's solo vehicle to date. Cupid don't draw back your bow, Sam Cooke didn't know what I know. #2000SongsTop20

RIP, Space Ace. 🚀☄️✨💫🌟 From your long-lost child of the '90s who's now a 2000 man, Haze Frehley. 🤘🏻❤️