The day iTunes started calculating playcounts should be celebrated as a revolution – finally, a way to track all of our most-fetished tracks! But there's a downside, too - those 37 plays of Rihanna’s “Umbrella” aren’t a secret anymore, you’ve gotta own up to your less-than-hip pop tendencies. Our playcounts serve as a surprisingly concise snapshot of our musical demeanor, not just the particulars we choose to show. We recently asked our staff to write a little bit about their top five most-played songs in their library. The results were predictably eclectic.

Ira Brooker:

“Mother of Pearl” - Roxy Music- 181 plays

The play count is a little misleading, as I once forgot my iPod in the car overnight playing this song on repeat. But the fact that I was driving around with this song on repeat – and not for the first or last time – pretty much sums up my feelings on it. The point around the 1:23 mark where the rock-out fades into the piano rhythm is maybe my all time favorite musical moment. Bryan Ferry’s lyrics here come pretty damn close to out-Dylaning Dylan. Fun fact: All of my current Twitter lists are named for this song.

“Springfield, Or Bobby Got a Shadfly Caught in His Hair”
- Sufjan Stevens - 43 plays

There’s no question that Illinois is Mr. Stevens’ crowning achievement, but for my money, the album’s best song didn’t make the cut. I’ve always favored this track from The Avalanche, his collection of outtakes from the Illinois sessions. There’s a majestic mundanity in his narrative of a sad little extramarital affair in the shadow of the state capitol. It keeps me coming back, especially on grey days.

“The Past is a Grotesque Animal” -of Montreal- 39 plays

The greatest love song – and maybe the greatest song, period – of the past decade, if you ask me. Kevin Barnes pushes beyond the clichés and digs disturbingly deep into the passion, obsession and destruction that often comes bundled with a heartfelt relationship. I’m generally a fan of long, complicated songs, but it takes something special to make me play a 12-minute track with this much regularity. This one makes it worth my while by revealing more with every listen, both about itself and about me.

“The Mixed-Up Kind” - Trader Horne - 31 plays

What music snob doesn’t love coming across a fantastic album that nobody else knows about? That how it was with me and 1970’s Morning Way, Trader Horne’s lone album. I sought it out after hearing the haunting title track on a British psychedelic rock sampler and was pleased to find that there was plenty of good stuff where that came from. “The Mixed-Up Kind” is the group’s masterpiece, a lyrically cryptic showcase for the incomparable Judy Dyble’s eerie vocal work. There was a period in 2007 when I was convinced that I’d unlock the secret of the universe if I listened to this song often enough. Still waiting on that...

“Marlon Brando" - Black Randy and the Metrosquad - 26 plays

This is another beloved obscurity, discovered because I liked the satirical cover art of Pass the Dust, I Think I’m Bowie enough to buy the album (again, the band’s only LP) sound unheard. In a just world, Black Randy would be cherished as the godfather of California punk-funk, if not the only guy to ever really do it well. This is arguably his best song, a smirking tribute to Brando’s bizarre boycott of the 1973 Academy Awards. It’s one of my go-to tracks when I need to crank out some copy on a tight deadline.