Handsomeboy Technique — Your Blessings

That'll be an album track on a Japan-only CD. I do have the first album, and yes, it is quite rare.

I know I said at the beginning that this round-up was in no particular order, but I did save my favourite until last. Ever since I heard it one July morning in Carrboro, I've been deeply in love with this song.

If I told you that the band seem to be a Japanese version of The Avalanches (it's been, what, five years, lads? Get back to work!), it'll probably give you a good idea as to what they sound like; lots of sound collage and blissed-out grooves. But oh, this.

I can feel a new expression on my face
I can feel a growing sensation every place

This song sounds like every crush you've ever had. Every time you've looked over at someone at a party, every time you've smiled a bit too long at somebody, or tripped over your tongue in a failed attempt not to embarrass yourself. That giddy rush when she smiles back, or when she says "hello" when walking down the street. It's all here.

I wish I could tell you how much I care
every time that you, that you, that you…

It's a song for hopeless cases, for winter nights that last into four in the morning, for mixtapes and hand-made books, and for giving yourself alcohol poisoning in an attempt to build up courage.

I can feel a new expression
every time that you that you, that you…

Hints of a Chic guitar, the British Dreambabes of the 1960s, synthesised strings, sprinklings of glitter, and those 1970s computer sounds building up into that explosion of a chorus. And than all over again. And again. And again. Then, just as you feel that the song is beginning to end, it comes back for one final time:

I wish I could tell you how much I care
every time that you, that you, that you…

Your cheeks flush red as the singer sings "I wish I could tell you how much I care" with a quiet desperation. You look over towards the other side of the room, and sigh as the song begins its stuttering conclusion.

It's a song that I can't listen to regularly, as it completely drains me. But when it crops up on random rotation, it gives me the sensation of a crush in a five-minute shot. Nothing else in 2005 even came close.

BONUS EXTRA LIFE! HYPER SONIC IMPROVEMENTS! ARTICLE POWER-UP!

Jackie Deshannon — When You Walk In The Room

This is the song that Your Blessings is based on. I think we can safely say that Handomeboy Technique's version is much better…