Song twenty to six...COMING AT CHA!
[20] Deftones - Hole In The Earth
--
Saturday Night Wrist was the Deftones' first studio album in close to four years and man, was it ever worth the wait. It's one of their best albums(behind the awesome
White Pony) and this song is the first one on the album. It's a very fitting opening song that prepares you slightly for what's in store. Well, actually, the second song, "Rapture", prepares you for that moreso than "Hole In The Earth", but this is my description, damnit. Anywho, Chino Moreno's vocals are beautiful here and the closing instrumental is all kinds of rawk.
2005 #20: Weezer - Perfect Situation | 2004 #20: Korn - Word Up
[19] Cold - A Different Kind Of Pain
-- The saddest song of 2006(well, 2005 also, but stay with me here..), for various reasons. The vocals are absolutely heartwrenching and the music alone should have made this song a gigantic hit, though it wasn't meant to be. Sadly, that's not exactly why this is the saddest song of 2006. This is also Cold's last single. After going on a hiatus and then announcing their return, Cold announced another hiatus, this one "indefinite" and possibly permanent. If this truly is their last single, it's a hell of a song to go out on, but it also shows off just how potentially good Cold could have gotten down the line had they stuck together.
2005 #19: Avenged Sevenfold - Beast And The Harlot | 2004 #19: Blink-182 - I Miss You
[18] Avenged Sevenfold - Seize The Day
-- One of the more powerful tracks of 2006 and one that has been lambasted everywhere I look, either by rock radio or by arrogant, conceited people. Whatever. I know Avenged Sevenfold isn't the most popular band among my age group, but damnit, when they make songs like "Seize The Day", I can't help but like them. The solo in this song, in particular, is awesome. At five minutes and thirty-two seconds, "Seize The Day" is one of the longest songs in my top 50, but also one of my favorites and a song that i'm almost certain will live on with me for years to come.
2005 #18: A Perfect Circle - Passive | 2004 #18: Green Day - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
[17] Gnarls Barkley - Smiley Faces
-- The second of three Gnarls tracks is the one that, honestly, I will like the most in the end. It's hard for me to describe this song without jumping up and down like a giddy schoolgirl. I'm especially ecstatic because this beautiful song will see the light of day here in the US after being released elsewhere around the world. I should also mention that I think this is Cee-Lo's best vocal performance on
St. Elsewhere, which is a pretty bold statement if you've ever heard the album.
2005 #17: Nine Inch Nails - The Hand That Feeds | 2004 #17: Lostprophets - Make A Move
[16] Nas - Hip Hop Is Dead
-- The moment I listened to this song, I knew right away that it was going to have a major impact on me. It hasn't even been out that long but, already, it's one of my favorite songs of the year. Nas' flow, of course, rules and the chorus is very fun to rap along to, but what makes this song is its beat. See, I have actually listened to both "Thief's Theme" AND "Hip Hop Is Dead". They both use samples from the Iron Butterfly classic "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vidda", but while "Thief's Theme" uses a much slower sample, "Hip Hop Is Dead" uses its sample faster and outright better. In a year where I opened up to rap music more than I have in years, this was tops.
2005 #16: Beck - Girl | 2004 #16: Brand New - Sic Transit Gloria...Glory Fades
[15] AFI - Love Like Winter
-- Honestly, i'm not going to bother giving this any comments because not only have all of you heard this song anyway, Johnny will almost CERTAINLY give a better description for this song than I ever could. So yeah. Do love this song, though.
2005 #15: MCR - The Ghost Of You | 2004 #15: Beastie Boys - Triple Trouble
[14] Rammstein - Benzin
-- The highest song on this year's top 50 that was on last year's top 50 belongs to the coolest scary german band in the world. In 2005, "Benzin" was a minor blip on my radar. In 2006, it was everywhere. From January 1st to December 31st, I cannot think of a single day where I didn't at least think about this song. It's not one of the most original Rammstein songs you'll ever hear, but it sums up Rammstein in every which way possible. Everything you've ever come to expect from Rammstein here, like a killer instrumental, funny vocals, a kickass chorus and a bridge that belongs in the awesome hall of fame. From top to bottom, this is one of my favorite songs, not just of this year, but of the decade so far.
2005 #14: Gorillaz - DARE | 2004 #14: Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
[13] Evanescence - Lithium
-- "Call Me When You're Sober" was the popular hit. "Lithium" is the better song. With its release in early 2007 on rock radio imminent, only time will tell if it will be any sort of hit for Amy Lee and her band, but regardless of how much success it has, it is one of my personal favorite Evanescence songs. I kind of had a feeling i'd love this song when Kworb debuted it on his quirky countdown of his when "Call Me When You're Sober" didn't do a damn thing, but it wasn't until listening to the song for the fifth time when it really hit me that I was listening to Amy Lee at her absolute finest. This is about as good as Evanescence is going to get. Cherish it while it last, kids.
2005 #13: 30 Seconds To Mars - Attack | 2004 #13: Loretta Lynn ft. Jack White - Portland Oregon
[12] The All-American Rejects - Move Along
-- This is the point of the top 50 where the cream of the crop begin to surface. "Move Along" was in my top ten ever since I began calculating this list over three months ago, but since then, a couple of songs have surpassed it. No matter. Yes, the video has something to do with this song being so high. Yes, it is a relatively mainstream song at my #12 spot(if you think that's bad, wait until a couple songs from now.
). But it's so damn catchy. It's one of the few songs that I can say stuck with me for the entire year from beginning to end. Just for that, it deserves its spot, but it also has some of the coolest drumming of the year and one of the most exciting endings to a song of this or any year(though it's not even the most exciting ending AAR has ever done...that would be "The Last Song"). I adore this song. There simply wasn't another song like it this year.
2005 #12: Candiria - Down | 2004 #12: Velvet Revolver - Slither
[11] Johnny Cash - God's Gonna Cut You Down
-- Probably the single most out there song Johnny Cash has ever performed. I mean, seriously, this is the closest Cash has ever come to being an R&B star. Cash does his damn finest to try and keep up, but the music is so wonderful that it simply overtakes him, until "WHEN HE SAID, "JOHN, GO DO MY WILL!" comes over the speaker and Cash takes back the song. From that point on, you're simply captivated by Johnny Cash's withered and frail voice, wondering where the song is going to go next, letting the spirit of Johnny Cash lead you through the darkness. This song is the ultimate way to send Cash off into the sunset. From "I Walk The Line" to this. What a ****ing career.
2005 #11: Coheed & Cambria - Welcome Home | 2004 #11: Jet - Cold Hard Bitch
[10] Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
-- The most liked song of 2006, and I don't even think it's close. Hell, even Johnny liked it at one time.
The first time I heard of Gnarls Barkley was when I randomly checked FMQB one day to check out what songs were going to the radio and I saw this name, "Gnarls Barkley", with this song called "Crazy". I also noticed it was impacting pop radio as well. I wrote it off as some new pop punk outfit. But then Ben starts GUSHING about the Gnarls and how good it is, so it can't possibly be a pop punk band. So I listen to "Crazy". Holy crap. This is Cee-Lo Green! I later find out it's Cee-Lo Green and Danger Mouse teamed together and I must seek out the album. I haven't looked back. This is going to go down as the song that EVERYONE remembers when you think of the year 2006. There were bigger hits, but no song had as much of an impact on the music world as "Crazy" did.
2005 #10: Rise Against - Swing Life Away | 2004 #10: Jimmy Eat World - Pain
[9] TV On The Radio - Wolf Like Me
-- Speaking of very popular artists in 2006, TV On The Radio. I already told you about how I got into these guys, but "Wolf Like Me" was the second song I fell in love with from their classic album
Return To Cookie Mountain. The very moment the instrumental kicked in, I was hooked. The second chorus made my heart soar and then, the sudden rhythm change...and i'm simply entranced. Looking back at this song five years from now, this might be a revised top five song. Then again, you never know. Probot's "Shake Your Blood" was #40 in 2004 and now it's one of my favorite songs from that year. One thing I DO know, though, is that I WILL like this song five years from now. This(and the album) is just timeless.
2005 #9: Avenged Sevenfold - Bat Country | 2004 #9: U2 - Vertigo
[8] Mastodon - The Wolf Is Loose
-- The single most important metal song of 2006 for yours truly. I was already getting to be a metalhead thanks to artists like Motorhead, Slayer, Alice In Chains and Faith No More. Then, I found out about this band named Mastodon. Listened to the songs "Sleeping Giant" and "Crystal Skull" and thought they were fantastic metal tracks. Then I notice, "Hey, wait, these aren't the first songs on
Blood Mountain!" And so, I listen to the first track of said album for the first time. Three minutes later, my jaw is still on the floor. So I listen to the song again...and again...and again...and then some more. More than any other song this year, this transformed me into the metalhead standing before you today. It's possibly the most fun you'll have listening to metal this decade. Just get
Blood Mountain, will you?
2005 #8: System Of A Down - B.Y.O.B. | 2005 #8: Modest Mouse - Float On
[7] Tool - The Pot
-- This song was immediately the song that stuck out to me the most the first time I listened to
10,000 Days and, to this day, still is. The vocals are just not Tool-like, but they are absolutely fantastic for what they are. Maynard James Keenan may just be my favorite singer ever and, in this song, he even outdoes himself. It's almost as if something went off in his head and he came up with this. The song itself is probably the most mainstream Tool has ever been and, naturally, it was a radio hit for Tool, but it's also one of their finest tracks ever. Above all else, the ending deserves special mention. Maynard DESTROYS his vocals for our sins. That last note still sends chills down my spine.
2005 #7: The Bravery - An Honest Mistake | 2004 #7: Incubus - Megalomaniac
[6] Beck - Nausea
-- "Nausea" came THIS close to making the top five. In the end, even the fact that it beat out "The Pot" is an amazing accomplishment, considering how important that song was to me this year, but this is probably the best Beck single i've ever heard, maybe even better than "Where It's At". This goes beyond being just a good song. It's a STATEMENT. It's a statement song, shouting out to the world, "This is Beck and he is going to make you dance your ass off".
The Information might just be Beck's best album and, to go along with that, this might just be Beck's best single as well. Nearly three minutes of absolute sheer bliss.
2005 #6: System Of A Down - Question! | 2004 #6: Linkin Park - Lying From You
Alright, the top five will be coming up sometime either later tonight or tomorrow. It will all be posted in seperate posts, because I can, and I have a LOT to say about a few of these songs. Just get ready, damnit.
this is totally unexpected: I remember when you said that "Suffer Well" was one on the weakest single of DM 
, hopefully you realized that you were wrong 
