Hey, would you look at that? This series just keeps going, and on time this time!

I've got five hot songs for you, and as always, we'll begin with a heavy metal song.

This one is from a band I've recently seen live in concert, Sonata Arctica. They're a power metal act out of Finland, in the vein of Stratovarius (and in fact, when they first started out, they were almost a carbon copy of them, but have since developed a much different sound. This song is from their newest album, The Ninth Hour, which has an environmentalist theme to it. The song in question, Rise a Night, is a take on the ever-popular aliens invade Earth concept. What makes the story of this song different and memorable however is that the aliens are portrayed as fleeing their own dying planet, and while their motives are still not noble ("we'll kill them all/ enslave their poor"), they justify the destruction of human civilization by how badly humans have taken care of their own planet ("we found discarded beauty/ these creatures hate their home?")

Next is a song from a band that needs little introduction. If you haven't ever listened to Modest Mouse, I feel bad for you, and if you have and are one of those people who don't like them, I feel even worse. This song, "Talking Shit About a Pretty Sunset" has probably one of the best titles for any song ever, and serves as just another explication of singer-songwriter Isaac Brock's depressed-yet-sometimes-somewhat hopeful worldview.

Three words for this next one: Run the Jewels. One note about this music video: the behavior of the rappers (El-P and Killer Mike) playing EMTs is pretty damn accurate from all the EMTs I've known. Something about driving around in an ambulance, handling dying people that turns them into nihilists. This is Blockbuster Night, Pt 1:

Next up is a song I don't have much to say about, because I think its sonic brilliance and catchiness speak for themselves. This is "Don't Save Us from the Flames" by the electronica act M83 out of France.

And now let's go back in time to the far off year of Nineteen Hundred and Sixty One! Short, sweet, simple, and complete with a marvelous doo-wop vocal performance by Cornelius Harp (great name for a singer). The song is actually a cover of an older ballad from 1934, and other versions have been recorded by artists such as Elvis Presley, though this is my favorite version. Here's The Marcels' version of Blue Moon.