Willie Nelson Gets Dylanesque

1. Willie Nelson and Calexico, “Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)”
From the soundtrack to I’m Not There, a film in which Dylan is played by half a dozen actors, a song in which he’s played by half a dozen musicians. Calexico is now the backing band of choice for rootsy singers of every generation. [Rogo 2000]

2. Jay-Z feat. Nas, “Success”
A song title like this calls to mind any number of easy jokes, but with the track’s dirty organ sample and Nas’s inexplicable references to Google Earth, “Success” actually is one. [Red Threat]

3. David Gray, “You’re the World to Me”
A new song from Gray’s forthcoming greatest-hits collection, and he sounds pretty much the same as he did in 1998. Be careful, though — the sorority girls have moved on, even if you haven’t. [Mixtape Maestro]

4. Menomena, “Weird (Dekoder Remix)”
Competing with Battles for the title of ‘raddest nerd band’, this remix attempts to extract something approaching 4/4 time and Hot Chip-like danceability from a song on their most recent release, with mostly agreeable results. Now how badly do you want to hear Hot Chip remix a Battles song? [Crushd Tin Box]

5. UTD (Urban Thermo Dynamics), “My Kung Fu”
Mos Def’s musical debut with his kid brother and sister in 1994 at the tender age of 20 sees him spitting fun rhymes over simple beats. Makes you realize that the literally sophomoric output of his early life is better than the figurative stuff he’s put out lately. [Amie Street] —Ehren Gresehover