It’s appropriate that chance has put me in a position to choose as my 300th Song of the Day a tune I consider one of my very favorites ever.

Indeed, Rufus Wainwright’s third album Want One is itself on my short list of very favorite albums. Want One was released in 2003, two years after Poses, as the first half of a two-album arc. Want Two would hit stores a year later, but I’ll save that for another post. The two albums don’t have many specific connections apart from their cover art.

While it might hint at some grand concept, Want One is essentially nothing more or less than a collection of 14 excellent songs. Songs both amusing and poignant, both simple and complex. As a document of what this singer-songwriter is capable of, this album really can’t be beat.

It’s funny that I can remember exactly when I first heard each of the songs I’ve highlighted so far this week. In the case of ‘Go or Go Ahead,’ it was in a car wash. Even though it takes me a few listens to really hear a song rather than learn it, even that first time I thought to myself, “This is the shit.”

The song is about Wainwright’s rebound from an addiction to crystal meth, a topic that often creeps into his lyrics. Here he uses mythological language — invoking Medusa and Mars — to capture the drama of the situation.

I adore the quiet early verses, so beautifully melodic and sung so well… particularly this line in the second verse: “But the brightest of the planets is Mars.” That’s Mars, the God of War, and not the planet that’s actually brightest — Venus, the Goddess of Love. To drive home the point, he asks “What has happened to love?”

And then there’s that crescendo into the soaring first chorus… “I’ll never know what you have shown to other eyes… go, or go ahead and surprise me.” I love songs that start small and go big, and this one does that in spades.

If I were recruiting new friends and using pop culture appreciation as my criteria, this would be a song that new applicants would have to love to make the cut. You don’t like Lost, the Coen Brothers and Rufus Wainwright? Sorry, sucker… back of the line!