“The Modern Age” was one of three tracks included on The Modern Age EP that prompted a record label bidding war and later appeared on their debut studio album Is This It.

The track is an observation of life’s idiosyncrasies in “modern” times. It stomps like a renegade elephant with bashed kickdrums and turbulent guitar riffs while Casablancas passionately reels off in an unsteady sing-speak that invokes all the right elements of a great rock leadman.

Palmer expounds on the many advantages an artificial partner has over real ones in a tick-tock rhythm reminiscent of automata. The song has broad overtones of loneliness and a desire for a relationship with idealized physical affection but no personal sacrifice or chance of emotional hurt.

“White Christmas” is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the version sung by Bing Crosby is the best-selling single of all time, with estimated sales in excess of 50 million copies worldwide.

Accounts vary as to when and where Berlin wrote the song. One story is that he wrote it in 1940, in warm La Quinta, California, while staying at the La Quinta Hotel, a frequent Hollywood retreat also favored by writer-producer Frank Capra, although the Arizona Biltmore also claims the song was written there. He often stayed up all night writing — he told his secretary, “Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I’ve ever written — heck, I just wrote the best song that anybody’s ever written!”

This hit song also made an appearance in Berlin’s ever-popular Christmas movie, “Holiday Inn” where it was awarded the 1943 Academy Award for Best Original Song.