Onto 40-31, and this should be a fun, popular little set. There's even a Hot 100 #1 in this set...aaaaaaand I just gave it away.
This song inspired the biggest flip flop for yours truly of 2009. I really didn't care too much for "Crying Lightning", at first. Something turned me off instantly. I want to say that it was Alex Turner's very odd and off-putting vocals. The music was fine. A little too dreary, for the Monkeys, but still good. But it took a couple months before I finally saw the brilliance of this song. It's BECAUSE this song seems low-tempo for the Monkeys that makes this song so brilliant. But hey, even with the down tempo, this song can still kick some serious ass, as the last chorus proves. Yeah, you're crying lightning now, too. Sorry.
From one song that kicks ass to another, though "Medicate" goes about kicking your ass in a more traditionally AFI manner. It doesn't beat you over the head with it too much through the majority of the song, but you know that Davey Havok's quintessential vocals and the band's rapid-fire chorus will get stuck in your head and will refuse to come out. It's just classic AFI, right down to the slow down part in the middle of the song. But this song quickly gets pushed down onto its ass right at the end by a blazing guitar solo that quickly became one of my favorite song parts of the year. It just comes out of nowhere, and provides all of the evidence that I need for another AFI song placing in the top 40. Oh, but it's not the only one. Stay tuned.
Oh yes, the song that features the dreaded "BA DA BA, BA DA BA BA DA" part that can only be described as "The Joy of Pepsi, Paramore Version". But am I the only one who thinks it's quite easy to overlook that part when you look at the meat of the song? This song is not just "The Joy of Pepsi, Paramore Version", dammit. This song is yet another showcase in a series of them for Hayley Williams, the robot with the vocals to match. I also quite dig the music here, for once. While I will readily admit that my love for Paramore is Hayley-deep (and that's about it), sometimes, her backing band comes through with some inspired moments, such as the end of "Decode". The music here is very simple, but it also gets the job done, including a drum beat that is deceptively tricky.
I still don't understand how this song didn't become a hit. Did the radio stations even bother to listen to "I Don't Know"? I mean, what the hell? The music, the vocals, the message, they are all screaming for radio success. But NOOOOOOO. Instead, we have to put up with more generic crap making it to the top, while this gem of a tune becomes another in a series of songs that deserved far more success than they actually got. Have I mentioned that I hate the radio of today? No? Because I do.
Oh, everyone forgot about this one! While "Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?" is getting all the talk and love during this year's Best of, "Half-Truism" gets shunned. I think that's unfair. That's not to say that K,AYDO? isn't deserving, but I think this song gets too much of a bad rep. I realize that it sounds a bit like My Chemical Romance's "Helena". A bit. Is that REALLY enough to make this song ****? Almost everything sounds alike nowadays. There's going to be overlap. That's the story of the music business, for crying out loud. I understand the criticism and logic, but it's unwarranted here, and it overshadows an awesome tune that has quickly become one of my favorite Offspring singles.
I hate putitng these two together, but I have no idea what else to do about this. Both of these songs are similar in their design to kick asses all over the world, and both of them are equally impressive. So, what to do in a situation like this? Well, I could have made them two separate entries, but that would knock a very deserving song out of the top 100. Instead, I'll do something I haven't done in years: the dreaded two-fer. Oh, and I also forgot that "Hate Worldwide" was a single. That could be another reason why, too.
Yeah, I found myself on the ESoM bandwagon, too. I realize that this song has become so played out. However, you must also understand that I don't fall victim to overplay syndrome (unless I do it myself, which does happen, but it's rare), mostly because I don't listen to the radio. Thus, I never fell out of love with "Empire State of Mind", and it's still a fantastic ode to the most bombastic and wonderful city in the universe, with the most uplifting chorus of the year. Yeah, I said it. Wanna fight about it?
I think that "The Night" makes me a very sad panda. No, it's not because the song sucks. It's in the top 40 of my top 100. Obviously, it rules. It makes me sad, though, because this was the third, and, more importantly, last single off of their latest album, Indestructible. Are you kidding me? You had "Haunted" staring you RIGHT IN THE DAMN FACE. That's a GUARANTEED HIT. Do I really have more sense within me than music execs nowadays? Really? It also gave me one of my favorite lyric quotes of 2009, as well, as I channeled the spirit of Billy Ocean: "Hey (hey), YOU (you), GIVE INTO THE NIGHT!"
When I first listened to "Hard to See" back in the summer, I never imagined that this song would be with me well into December, let alone in my top 40 of the entire year. But I feel like I have a special connection with this song. The lyrics, as cliched as they may be, connect to me on a more personal level, and I found myself enjoying this song far beyond its (admittedly awesome) music and vocals. See, I CAN have more personal connections with songs still. And you thought that was unpossible.
Now, I did say that "Crying Lightning" was the source of my biggest turnaround of the year, musically. And it is. That said, "For What It's Worth" was the source of the most surprising jump in love of a song. I liked this song, at first. I did. But it just wasn't clicking for me, like it was with other people at the time. It took about five months before "For What It's Worth" became more than just a good song. You want to know what caused me to finally "click"? The toy keyboard after the second chorus. No, I'm not kidding. The rest of the song would grow to become one of my favorites over time, but, for some reason, the fact that Placebo decided to use sounds from a toy keyboard is so ridiculous, so mind-blowingly awesome, that it inspired me to listen to the song over and over. And hey, guess what? I began to love the song! Funny how that works out.
30-21 will probably be posted tomorrow. And no, it will NOT be hard to see. Ha ha ha.
Other set: KoL, La Roux, and YYY for the win. Too much talk about Followill's sexuality though.
New set: Great pepsi Paramore reference. Awesome sauce for Arctic Monkeys, much better track than Cornerstone. Oh and I agree about ESOM - not played out for me at all.
I just can't get on the ESOM bandwagon. I'm from NY and just don't get all the love for it. Don't get me wrong. I don't hate it. I simply just don't get the love for it.
Slayer rocks in ways that many bands can't dream to accomplish.
lol @ "The Joy of Pepsi, Paramore version". I have a love/hate relationship with the BA DA BA ending of the song. Sometimes I make sure to listen to the whole song and other times I press skip when it reaches that point. That song would definitely have made my top 20 along with "Ignorance"
I love "For What It's Worth". Probably a top 10 for me if I had a chart (now you can slowly piece my chart together as I'm giving you hints).
Well, I said that it would be up in an hour. It took about nine hours. This is standard protocol, people! NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT!
Just another in a series of Rancid songs that ponder about how they've outlasted their fellow punk brethren? Maybe. But it's also one of the most uplifting songs of the year, period. I will say that this song probably would not have been that high in a normal year, but "Last One to Die" hit home to me, because it was definitely a metaphor for my own life, as well as certain other aspects, including the party zone, which refuses to die after eight years. To say that this song was a part of my 2009 would be a huge understatement.
If you ever followed the Blokk of Rokk or the short-lived revival of the BRC, then you know that I shafted "Zero" pretty badly. It was never a success, for some odd reason. I guess, at the time, that I didn't really see anything THAT special, unlike most other people. When the summer ended is when I started to connect to this song, and I found myself listening to it over and over again, even when other, newer songs came to the forefront. I find myself listening to the song RIGHT NOW, as of this writing. Karen O is just fantastic here, and I believe that this is the song that finally changed my mind about her relatively unique vocal style.
"President Bush, come out with your hands up. You're under arrest." I loved quite a few songs in 2009, but very few had me singing along *every single time* quite like "Ordo" did. It's an incredibly catchy, yet intense song that not everyone will like, but quite a few will love. Actually, when I look back at music in 2009, there were very few songs that instantly connected with me. This was one of them, and it did it on the basis of just being so very fun and brutally awesome. Sometimes, that's all you need.
Scooter Ward has always been one of those more underrated singers that never got the respect that he clearly deserves. He has such a unique voice, and it helped make Cold a household name, for a little while, at least. While Cold announced in 2009 that they would be making a return, Scooter decided to make a solo effort, titled "The Killer and the Star". I haven't heard the album that "Starts When You Fall" comes from, which makes me a sad panda, but I did get to listen to the one true single from the album, and it shocked me, when I first listened to it. I won't say that it sounds nothing like Scooter, because you can still hear that distinct sound come from his mouth, BUT it sounds more etheral and soothing than his voice ever did in Cold. It's such a beautiful song that got overlooked throughout 2009.
Now, you remember my "Again" blurb, right? Where Flyleaf was "staying in their comfort zone" with "Again", right? Well, "Beautiful Bride" doesn't really stay in the same comfort zone. It sounds like Flyleaf, Lacey Mosley is singing, but there's something structurally different. There's a harder bite to this song than most of their material. Maybe it's the biting and jarring lyrics, or maybe it's the drudgy sounds coming from the guitars, but I definitely dug this song more than I do most songs of theirs.
I think the easiest way to kick off this writeup is to say that this is unlike anything in Slipknot's discography. I've made sweeping statements like this before, but, in this case, it's not hyperbole. It more resembles something that Corey Taylor's other band, Stone Sour, would create, but just dark and bleak enough to retain that Slipknot touch. I still find it hard to believe that Slipknot (SLIPKNOT) could create a song that is legitimately touching, but they did so with "Snuff".
The lead-off track from Mastodon's latest sea of awesome that they call Crack the Skye, "Oblivion" is a different beast compared to the songs around it. It's basic...well, basic for Mastodon, anyway. It's got more of a mainstream sound. The chorus is genuinely memorable. But yet, despite all of this, Mastodon still makes it sound like their own, and not some carbon copy version of Mastodon. It's so refreshing to see bands like Mastodon branch out into songs that are more simple, but can be more enjoyable on the surface, and you can damn well bet that it is enjoyable.
I still don't understand why I love this song so much, when it more than resembles one of their biggest hits, "What I've Done". Fitting, because that song came off of the original Transformers soundtrack, and "New Divide" came from the sequel, Revenge of the Fallen. I guess that "New Divide" hit me on a way more personal level than "What I've Done" ever did. This song motivated me beyond just being a good little tune. It pushed me to strive to do more with my life and with my studies, and it has DEFINITELY played a hand in more than one scenario of my life. Sometimes, songs just make the list based on their impact on my life, and "New Divide" definitely impacted my life.
So, "New Divide" impacted my life. Well, if "New Divide" impacted my life, then "Perfect" shattered it. "Perfect" described so many of my own personal feelings at the time of its release, and it was such a "perfect" way to release my pent-up emotions. Yes, that was a case of "pun intended". It doesn't hurt, either, that I definitely enjoyed "Perfect" as a song more. Dave Gahan's voice is always welcome, no matter the year, and the beat of the song has stuck with me in a multitude of ways. Still, nothing about the music could overtake the importance of the actual song itself to me, personally.
From two songs that meant the world to me in 2009, we go to a song that didn't quite have the same effect on me, personally, but did make an impact musically. I've already mentioned that there have been Killers comparisons to TGA (which I think is *********, and other people would agree with me, I think), but it went into overdrive when "Old White Lincoln" was released. To my dismay, I heard normally intelligent people say that this song was...a Killers rip-off. I immediately lost some respect for these people. Yes, Brian Fallon's voice SLIGHTLY resembles Brandon Flowers', but that is the only comparison that you can make. The music is miles different, the mood is definitely different, and the message is different. Every time. I'm tired of the comparison. It needs to end NOW.
And so, we have reached the top 20. If I get motivated enough, you will see it tonight. If not, then tomorrow, for SURE. Eight of the next ten songs will, without a doubt, have a lot of fans. The other two? Who knows? Maybe I'll get lucky.