This week, my favorite songs continued to stem from a place of loneliness and anger, and led by the work of Hans Zimmer. I’m such a fan of his work, I learned how to play last week’s “The Kraken” and this week’s “Davy Jones” on the piano, which is the first thing I’ve ever really learned on the instrument. So if you’re driving down the darkened streets of Terrell, Texas and hear the sounds of a waterlogged organ drifting out of a nearby abode, think of me. Sorry neighbors.

1. “Davy Jones – Score” – Hans Zimmer
   While this three-minute reverie on anger and heartbreak is not as intense as “The Kraken,” it’s still an excellent track that, through varying layers of instrumentation, dives deep into the root of what made Pirates of the Caribean‘s Davy Jones such a bad son of a bitch… and such a great character.
2. “Big Bang Baby” – Stone Temple Pilots
   When I first heard this song shortly after Scott Wieland died, I thought it was good. But with every subsequent listen, it goes from good to great to out-of-this-world awesome. This is Wieland at his most serpantine, practically slithering through his lines, sacrificing the deep-throated delivery that was prevalent in the ’90s for something that was all his own.
3. “Friend of the Devil” – Grateful Dead
   In the past when I thought about The Grateful Dead, I thought about overlong jam sessions that, while musically excellent, were not really my cup of tea. But this 3-minute Folk track that sounds like it was ripped straight from Bob Dylan circa 1965, is just as perfect as the rest of their work, and endlessly more accessible.
4. “Deep Six” – Marilyn Manson
   Who would’ve thought that Marilyn Manson would be relevant again 20 years after the release of Antichrist Superstar? Ok, maybe he isn’t exactly relevant, but the music he’s making today may surpass what he did in his prime. This track takes the Industrial sounds Manson helped revolutionize in the mid-’90s and repackages them for a new generation. His vocal delivery is better than ever, and when he lets loose that paint-peeling, Axl Rose-esque scream toward the end of this track, it’s goosebump-inducing.
5. “Just for a Thrill” – The Ink Spots
   Sometimes it’s fun to listen to a song and think “I might be the only person in the world listening to this right now.” To be fair, if you listen to any of the tracks on Seansational’s great EP, this is almost assured. But as my cousin Brett Fox and I drove the streets of Terrell last week listening to my collection of 49 Ink Spots songs (we got through about 10 of them before Brett was ready for something different), we marveled at how unique our situation was. Personally, I have loved The Ink Spots since I first heard them in the irradiated ruins of downtown D.C. in Fallout 3, and this is my favorite thing they ever recorded.

For more playlists, including my master Burnes’ Turns playlist that contains nearly 2,000 songs, search for Andrew Burnes or Burnes’ Turns on Spotify.