Various

It’s too bad that Austin, Texas label Business Deal Records chose to put quirkiness before brains on this CD. Compilations are put out by various labels in a much more successful and considerably less annoying way. Business Deal Top 40 of 2005 attempts to be cute and silly by doing an actual radio Top 40 throughout the disc, counting down and backwards on the disc’s track listing (how clever!) with the help of an announcer and jingles. If you can get over the obnoxiousness of the faux radio theme, and focus on the great music on this compilation, you can dig up several gems such as "Manute Bol” by La Junta High School, which coincidentally sounds much like Toronto’s own Ninja High School. The 20 seconds of "Reba McEntire” by the Uncanny Lunkheads hits in the same way that "Steak for Chicken” by the Moldy Peaches does the first time (and gets stuck in your head in the same way). "Static” by Zom Zoms is a jumpy little Devo-esque number that is brief but fun. But it would have been much more interesting if the CD had focused more on the music and less on being artsy-cutesy via presentation.