Thank you for making sure that I don't triple post, Ghostlysnaker. And for being around in the Best Of forum nearly as much as I am.
Honestly, I wonder if I'm placing this song too low. Not too high...too low. I probably got more visceral enjoyment out of "Lydia" than any other song in 2015. This song isn't just a really damn good radio rock song. It's the kind of rock song that's so good that it can help to inspire a shift in what radio rock listeners want to listen to. It's the kind of song that inspires imitators, that inspires lesser artists to strive to become better. That's what "Lydia" represents. The fact that this was such a big deal in the rock scene in 2015 is not surprising whatsoever, and it especially shouldn't have been surprising after Royal Blood roared onto the scene. The game, and the quality of that game, has changed. It's no longer good enough to just coast on your name. It's no longer good enough to create an average, bland tune anymore. Songs like "Lydia" are making it tougher and tougher to laze around. Sooner or later, songs like "Lydia" are going to be the norm, not the exception. When Johnny Stevens shouts "I CAN'T ****ING BREATHE", you can almost make it out to be the last gasps of the old radio rock giants. The time of the rock dinosaurs has passed. Welcome your new, New England overlords.
More than any other song in 2015, "Cardinals" will probaly be the toughest for me to talk about, and it's for very personal reasons. This song absolutely cuts me deep every time that I listen to it, because it hits so close to home that I can practically feel the punches this song hands out. Whenever I listen to "Cardinals" I think about a close family member where I feel like they are going down a path that can only end one way...and I feel really helpless to stop it, and I don't want that path to be so linear and want to change things before it's too late. "Cardinals" hits on those feelings way too much, and it doesn't hurt that "Cardinals" is also a really, REALLY good pop punk song based on the lead singer's loss of a close friend to drugs. It tugs on the heart strings and has just enough power with its music to really drive the point home. It's just really tough for me to talk about, because, again, the song hits really close to home. To say that "Cardinals" is effective, then, would be a massive understatement.
"Dead Inside" was my most played song of 2015. "Dead Inside" is also now my #1 most scrobbled song on Last.fm. It's at #3 on this list. I don't get myself, I really don't. Hell, this is the lowest I've put a Muse lead single since...god, I'd have to go back to 2006 and "Knights of Cydonia", which placed at #5...and was probably a little too low. Then again, "Starlight" was my #1 that year, and nothing was topping "Starlight". Suffice to say, Muse singles, and especially Muse singles in a new album year, are a big deal, and the fact that "Dead Inside" is #3 should surprise some people. But really, have you SEEN the love that I've lavished on some of the songs BELOW "Dead Inside"? I practically orgasmed while talking about how much I love "Lydia" and what it represents.
Make no mistake about it, Muse earned their #3 place this year with "Dead Inside", a song that is way too god damn catchy for its own good. Muse has always had a knack for catchy hooks, but "Dead Inside"..."Dead Inside" might be one of the five catchiest songs the band has ever made. Instead of relying on gimmicks to make a song catchier, Muse just did what they usually do and let the music (and Matt Bellamy's wanting vocals) do all of the talking for them, and it goes about as well as you'd expect for a band who has historically known how to make a damn catchy tune and has become quite adept at it. Muse also does on "Dead Inside" what they have done many times in the past: Build up to a showstopping climax that always inspires chills on my part. Honestly, I've begun to run out of superlatives to use when talking about Muse. It's hard to keep coming up with new ways to praise my favorite band. I really should just let their music do all the talking for me. "Dead Inside" is more than good enough (and catchy enough) to do just that.
Kind of insane to think that not one, but TWO songs are ahead of a first Muse single. Even when Muse doesn't hit #1 on these lists with a first single, it's usually #2. (Actually, who am I kidding? It's ALWAYS #2.) It would have to take something special to top a new Muse first single, but "See Hell" does just that by being as epic, melodic, and as roaring of a tune as I can remember hearing in a long time. Hell, in terms of songs first released in 2015, I only enjoyed another Muse song more than "See Hell". The first time that I listened to this song, I was simply not prepared for what I heard. "Dark Water" was a good (and not just good, GREAT) song, sure, but how could I possibly have been prepared for this beast? This is a tune that, from beginning to end, hits you with haymaker after haymaker of epicness and doesn't let go until you've been knocked down for the count. Both hauntingly melodic and earthshakingly heavy at the same time, "See Hell" strikes a perfect balance between two different mentalities and then brings them together in a glorious moment where Arnor Dan Amarson uses his amazing pipes to full effect as the heaviness surrounds him to provide a moment of absolute beauty that no other 2015 song quite matched. It's hard to imagine any other single in 2015 matching this song's raw power and beautiful melody...and no song released as a single in 2015 matched "See Hell". But a song from 2014 not only matched it, but surpassed it...
I think this is the first time a song has been in the top two of this list in consecutive years. It's probably the first time a song has been in the top ten in consecutive years. Such was the power of The War On Drugs' "Under the Pressure", however. This song didn't just stick with me into 2015. This song overwhelmed me, like a particularly tough to shake virus that also spits out some of the best music ever created. And I was already going crazy with hyperbole when talking about this song LAST year, so it's not like I needed much help in that matter...but the overdrive that started at the end of last year for "Under the Pressure" would only continue into 2015. This song was my first, my last, and my everything in a year where Muse came back. THAT is staying power.
When I wrote about this song last year, I noted that "Under the Pressure" was one of the most transfixing songs I have ever listened to. It was such a good song that it hypnotized me every time I listened to it. What I DIDN'T talk about all that much is the INCREDIBLE production surrounding this entire nine-minute long track. Every single second of this song is produced perfectly by singer/songwriter/guitarist extraordinaire Adam Granduciel. There are so many layers on "Under the Pressure" that it can be overwhelming to wade through them all, and it's only matched by the otherworldly atmosphere that is created by both Granduciel's production and the sounds emitted in the instrumental. And at the heart of it all remains the backstory, the heartbreaking look at a relationship falling apart without any means to stop the inevitable, being surrounded by some of the most uplifting and rapturous music possible.
But perhaps the most important thing of all is that, more than any other song in 2015, "Under the Pressure" was the omnipresent force that continued to wow me every time that I listened to it, even over a year after I first listened to it. That is usually a common trait of #1 singles for me. "No Cars Go", "Starlight", "Blue", "Only", "Will Do", "Goliath", "Midnight City", "Resistance", "All Nightmare Long", "Get Lucky", and last year's #1, "Out of the Black"...these were all songs that just kept chugging along for a year (or longer) and kept finding new ways to impress and amaze me. Honestly, other than, maybe, "Starlight", no #1 has continued to captivate me quite like "Under the Pressure" has. It's my #1 single of 2015, and even with the stiff competition provided in 2015, it's really no contest.
And that...is FINALLY that. Wow. We actually completed the top 100. Hasn't happened in FIVE years. This is the definition of a Christmas miracle...that really happened on New Year's Day 2016. So...a New Year's miracle, then. Still, this is incredible. I wouldn't have even predicted this.
Is this the end of this year's YECA? As I said a few posts ago, I'm not sure. I've had another list on the backburner that I've thought about doing, one I've been trying to do with the YECA for years, but I just haven't been able to get around to it. Maybe this year is the year? I'm not sure. Regardless, I hope everyone has a happy new year...and maybe, JUST maybe, this won't be the end of the 2015 YECA. If it is, though, thanks for making this journey with me, everyone.
And yes, I will be back next year. Of course I will. It's the YECA.
(I want a video for "Reapers" so bad) btw I went to their concert and it was EPIC! 
This year I finally checked out Ghost and loved them, and it was the first year of The Dear Hunter (the kind of Hunter that is acceptable to Peta 
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I'm happy because you published the whole list because I got to listen to See Hell for the first time and it was pretty heavenly.
Wait it was #2 last year? What even 
