End of the year/decade blog post part 2: The Top 100 songs of the 2010's!!!

Here it is, everyone! The moment you've all been waiting for! The top 100 songs of the entire decade!! Hope you like it!!

100. “Red Hands” – Walk Off the Earth
99. “Fever” – The Black Keys
98. “Social Cues” – Cage the Elephant
97. “It’s Time” – Imagine Dragons
96. “The High Road” – Broken Bells
95. “Ready to Let Go” – Cage the Elephant
94. “Sedona” – Houndmouth
93. “Dark Necessities” – Red Hot Chili Peppers
92. “Mess Around” – Cage the Elephant
91. “Dreams” – Beck
90. “Gloria” – The Lumineers
89. “Chocolate” – The 1975
88. “Trouble” – Cage the Elephant
87. “Carry On” – fun.
86. “Cleopatra” – The Lumineers
85. “San Francisco” – The Mowgli’s
84. “Mess Is Mine” – Vance Joy
83. “You Worry Me” – Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats
82. “Lo/Hi” – The Black Keys
81. “Stubborn Love” – The Lumineers
80. “Come A Little Closer” – Cage the Elephant
79. “First” – Cold War Kids
78. “Fire” – Barns Courtney
77. “No Roots” – Alice Merton
76. “Broken” – lovelytheband
75. “Unsteady” – X Ambassadors
74. “Don’t Wanna Fight” – Alabama Shakes
73. “Go” – The Black Keys
72. “Trojans” – Atlas Genius
71. “Angela” – The Lumineers
70. “Saw Lightning” – Beck
69. “Ship to Wreck” – Florence and The Machine
68. “Way Down We Go” – Kaleo
67. “Demons” – Imagine Dragons
66. “Live In the Moment” – Portugal. The Man
65. “Move” – Saint Motel
64. “Out of My League” – Fitz and The Tantrums
63. “Radioactive” – Kings of Leon
62. “Come With Me Now” – Kongos
61. “Cigarette Daydreams” – Cage the Elephant
60. “Ophelia” – The Lumineers
59. “Cough Syrup” – Young the Giant
58. “Don’t Stop (Color on the Walls)” – Foster the People
57. “I Bet My Life” – Imagine Dragons
56. “My Type” – Saint Motel
55. “Human” – Rag ‘N’ Bone Man
54. “Dangerous” – Big Data
53. “Anna Sun” – Walk the Moon
52. “Believer” – Imagine Dragons
51. “Sweater Weather” – The Neighbourhood
50. “Up All Night” – Beck
49. “Safe And Sound” – Capital Cities
48. “The Walker” – Fitz and The Tantrums
47. “Get Lucky” – Daft Punk
46. “Tongue Tied” – Grouplove
45. “Some Nights” – fun.
44. “Budapest” – George Ezra
43. “Hold On” – Alabama Shakes
42. “Down By the Water” – The Decemberists
41. “Shine” – Mondo Cozmo
40. “Mountain Sound” – Of Monsters and Men
39. “Lover of the Light” – Mumford and Sons
38. “Lost In My Mind” – The Head and the Heart
37. “Stolen Dance” – Milky Chance
36. “Sweet Disposition” – The Temper Trap
35. “S.O.B.” – Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats
34. “MoneyGrabber” – Fitz and The Tantrums
33. “Best Day of My Life” – American Authors
32. “Roll Away Your Stone” – Mumford and Sons
31. “Team” – Lorde
30. “Hero” – Family of the Year
29. “Gone Gone Gone” – Phillip Phillips
28. “On Top of the World” – Imagine Dragons
27. “Wake Me Up” – Avicii
26. “Shake It Out” – Florence and The Machine
25. “Wish I Knew You” – The Revivalists
24. “Home” – Phillip Phillips
23. “Renegades” – X Ambassadors
22. “Ex’s And Oh’s” – Elle King
21. “Gold On the Ceiling” – The Black Keys
20. “Do I Wanna Know?” – Arctic Monkeys
19. “Shut Up And Dance” – Walk the Moon
18. “Pompeii” – Bastille
17. “Howlin’ For You” – The Black Keys
16. “Lonely Boy” – The Black Keys
15. “I Will Wait” – Mumford and Sons
14. “Riptide” – Vance Joy
13. “Home” – Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros
12. “Little Talks” – Of Monsters and Men
11. “The Cave” – Mumford and Sons
10. “Little Lion Man” – Mumford and Sons
9. “Take Me to Church” – Hozier
8. “Dog Days Are Over” – Florence and The Machine
7. “Ho Hey” – The Lumineers
6. “Feel It Still” – Portugal. The Man
5. “Radioactive” – Imagine Dragons
4. “Royals” – Lorde
3. “Pumped Up Kicks” – Foster the People
2. “Tighten Up” – The Black Keys

Annddd....the number one song of the whole decade isss...


"SOMEBODY THAT I USED TO KNOW" BY GOTYE!!!


Happy Holidays and Happy New Year everyone!! And happy new decade, too! See y'all next year for more blogging...and my 10th blog-iversary, once February rolls around!! :)

The Top 20 Songs of 2012!!!

IT'S FINALLY HERE!!! The moment you've all been waiting for! Here they are, from 20 to 1, the best songs of the year!


20. "Little Talks" by Of Monsters and Men
19. "Chains of Love" by Ryan Adams
18. "Runaways" by The Killers
17. "Never Go Back" by Grace Potter and The Nocturnals
16. "I Ain't the Same" by Alabama Shakes
15. "If Only" by The Dave Matthews Band
14. "North Side Gal" by JD McPherson
13. "Mercy" by The Dave Matthews Band
12. "Mountain Sound" by Of Monsters and Men
11. "Stubborn Love" by The Lumineers
10. "Doom And Gloom" by The Rolling Stones
9. "Reboot the Mission" by The Wallflowers (and Mick Jones from The Clash)
8. "Love Interruption" by Jack White
7. "Live And Die" by The Avett Brothers
6. "Gold On the Ceiling" by The Black Keys
5. "Hold On" by Alabama Shakes
4. "I Will Wait" by Mumford and Sons
3. "Ho Hey" by The Lumineers
2. "Simple Song" by The Shins

annnnddd....the number one song of 2012 is...

"SOMEBODY THAT I USED TO KNOW" BY GOTYE!!!!

Well, that's it for this year folks. Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!!

My 100th post...could it be?!?

According to what I read on my dashboard for this site, it is!! :D What better way to celebrate than with nine new songs?!? Here goes!!!



“Eyes Wide Open” by Gotye: It’s gotta be tough to follow up a song that’s both as unique and popular as “Somebody That I Used to Know”, but Gotye has finally done so after almost half a year since that song first the airwaves! Gotye continues in a Peter Gabriel-esque, world music meets alternative pop/rock type direction here for the sound of “Eyes Wide Open”, with enough exotic sounding but thrilling orchestration in the background to make it sound like something from “The Lion King”! The music video for “Eyes Wide Open” is, perhaps, even more impressive than the song, in which Tim Burton-ish robot monsters run rampant in a post-apocalyptic landscape across the ocean! The video for “Eyes Wide Open” can be viewed here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyVJsg0XIIk Here’s hoping more songs (and videos) from Gotye’s catalog will make it into this blog, and onto playlists, sometime in the near future!


“Full Circle” by Ben Kweller: And here is yet another musician getting a second song noticed from his latest CD! Ben seems like the ‘60s would have suited him well, I must say! In January of this year, I reviewed his “Jealous Girl”, which sounded like a “missing” song from the British Invasion. And now, Ben’s latest song, “Full Circle” shows another side to him, a more subdued, gentle side that recalls the sunny country-rock vibe of The Byrds circa ’68. Ben’s chipper disposition in “Full Circle” is matched by both the sage advice (“There’s so much that you don’t see/Don’t judge anyone, because everybody comes full circle”) and surreal imagery (“Sand-shark tooth girl won’t cry for you”) in the lyrics of the song. I don’t think Ben’s QUITE come “full circle” YET, though. There should be plenty more songs of his coming up around the corner for people to hear!


“Hey Jane” by Spiritualized: Perhaps not the most immediately likable song on this week’s list, but certainly one of the most interesting! The first three minutes of “Hey Jane” recall the tougher, more rock-and-roll oriented songs Lou Reed did for The Velvet Underground, with its defiant, New York influenced attitude (even though Spiritualized are actually British!) Coincidentally, both the title of the song (“Hey Jane”) and the title of the album it appears on (“Sweet Heart, Sweet Light”) recall The Velvets’ material (“Sweet Jane” and “White Light, White Heat”, respectively). After the three-minute mark, “Hey Jane” lifts more from the trippy, just plain weird part of The Velvets’ catalog, to the point of where it almost becomes unlistenable, unless maybe you like progressive rock, free jazz, or some other form of complex, lengthy, surreal music. If you prefer your music to be more casual, though, spare yourself by only listening to three out of the eight minutes (and eleven seconds) of “Hey Jane”. It’s one of the only two songs in which I prefer the edited version (the other being Death Cab for Cutie’s “I Will Possess Your Heart”, which was also around 8 minutes in its unedited form).


“Lucky That Way” by Joe Walsh: Joe Walsh was usually the man who turned rock legends, The Eagles, from a country-rock band to more of a hard rock band! His solo songs were typically in a hard rock vein as well. Not this time, though! “Lucky That Way” sounds a bit more like a song from the country-rock side of Tom Petty’s musical repertoire (think “Into the Great Wide Open”). The lyrics are simple, but honest, just Joe reflecting on how good his life is. Perhaps the mellowness of this song, as opposed to most of Joe’s other material, is just indicative of him getting older, or maybe wanting to surprise his listeners with another style of music. Whatever the case, though, Joe is doing what he does best on “Lucky That Way”, and I don’t mean playing guitar. I mean having fun!


“Somebody” by Jukebox the Ghost: You can’t tell me you don’t feel happy when listening to this song! Well, I guess you CAN tell me that, since everyone has his/her own opinion about songs, but this is the type of song that just sounds so upbeat (and different) that it would appeal to just about anybody! It has a stick-in-your-head chorus reminiscent of Annie Lennox’s “Walking On Broken Glass” (only a bit catchier), a danceable beat (with hand clapping in the background), and a theme that everyone can relate to (wanting a relationship). “Somebody” has just as much potential of hitting the Top 40 charts as it does indie and alternative charts, and it would probably hold equal appeal to both audiences! The verses are mostly piano-based, but they build up to a more guitar-oriented chorus. There are just too many things I like about this song and I hope it reaches a larger audience someday soon! Highly recommended!!


“Spread Too Thin” by The Dirty Heads: I was reluctant to explore the music of The Dirty Heads at first, but I soon found their blend of folk, rock, and reggae to be quite appealing! They had three songs that became popular from their debut album and now I feel kinda bad I didn’t blog any of them! Well, it’s never too late to catch up, though, right? So now that their sophomore album has come out, I feel like I should discuss how I feel about their latest song, “Spread Too Thin”. The lyrics to the song are actually a lot more angst-ridden than the song itself is. Where The Dirty Heads’ most popular song so far, “Lay Me Down” was a song that reflected their sound, about just having a good time out on the beach, “Spread Too Thin” is more about trying to deal with pent up emotions (most obvious on the line, “I’ve bottled up all these emotions, babe/A monster ‘bout to rage”). I guess The Dirty Heads know that when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, and “Spread Too Thin” is some of the best musical “lemonade” I have ever tasted!


“The Only Place” by Best Coast: Just the name of this band reminds you of California, doesn’t it? Well, no surprise there! Best Coast are from LA, and this song is about California, perhaps the best one since Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.”, as lyrics to “The Only Place”, like “We’ve got the babes, we’ve got the sun, we’ve got the waves”, illustrate oh so well (lead singer Bethany Cosentino IS a “babe” coincidentally). California dreamin’, on such a summer’s day! It seems like that’s the vibe “The Only Place” sends out with its bright energetic chords and rhythm contrasted by its more wistful sound. Best Coast started out with a more surf guitar influenced sound a little over a year ago, but “The Only Place” sends them in a new direction, with more influence from the bittersweet but fun, folk-y flavor of bands like The Byrds, R.E.M., Big Star, and The Lemonheads! Being a Californian myself who was born and raised the same city Bethany was, I can’t help but love this song!


“We Almost Lost Detroit” by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.: Between the sunny indie-folk-pop of “Simple Girl” and the more organ-driven, Zombies-meets-Foster-the-People sound of this song, I’d say Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. are a band whose choice in sound is as quirky and unpredictable as their name!! Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. are from Detroit, as the song title indicates, but the way this song sounds, they sound more like some British band, or perhaps even a band that came from outer space! “We Almost Lost Detroit” was originally a protest song from the late jazz musician Gil Scott-Heron, but DEJJ put a whole new spin on it! Their version is more upbeat, and their video for it (which seems to be becoming somewhat of an underground “hit”) depicts Detroit as a city that is still surviving, rather than the bleak vision Scott-Heron offered of it back when a nuclear meltdown outside of one of Detroit’s power plants inspired him to write and perform the song. The video can be viewed here (http://allthingsgomusic.com/dale-earnhardt-jr-jr-we-almost-lost-detroit)



“You Don’t Have to Love Me” by Blues Traveler: Blues Traveler were a nostalgic but catchy (and sometimes clever) band back in the ‘90s. Once the next decade rolled around, though, it seemed as though the harmonica-loving jam band was left in the dark with songs that just didn’t have the spark of their old material! After twelve long years, though, Blues Traveler are back on their feet again with “You Don’t Have to Love Me”!! With John Popper covering Sublime and providing harmonica solo on reggae band Rebelution’s most recent track earlier this year, though, I kinda knew BT were bound for the “cool radar” once again. I had no idea how good they still were though! For the first time since “But Anyway”, John Popper and co now have a song with just as many harmonica solos as there are guitar solos! BT haven’t been this gritty in quite a long time! The contrast between the apocalyptic opening lyrics concerning global warming and the more generic lyrics of the chorus (“You don’t have to love me, tonight I’ll be your man”) show that they still have their sense of humor as well! Welcome back, guys, I’ve missed you for ever so long!!

New songs for April 11th, 2012

here they are:

“April Fool” by Patti Smith: It’s no joke! Patti Smith decided to release her latest CD right around April Fool’s Day, with a fitting song to go with it! Those expecting something punk-y but free-spirited along the lines of Patti’s charmingly bizarre cover of Van Morrison’s “Gloria” might be a bit disappointed since this a “softer” song of hers. That’s not to say that Patti’s mellower material is bad (“People Have the Power” and “Dancing Barefoot”, for instance, are both absolute classics!) However, “April Fool” brings nothing new to the table in terms of passion or musical innovation. It is a sweet, bouncy, almost naïve sounding song. However, Patti revealed that even back in her punk rock days she was a big softie (in a good way) underneath it all in her recent autobiography, “Just Kids”, so “April Fool” is an apt song for her in that aspect.

“Blood For Poppies” by Garbage: Hmmmm…don’t exactly know what qualifies this song as “adult alternative” since it’s a rather dark song that combines grunge with techno, but for some weird reason it’s gotten airplay on so many adult alt stations by now, that I thought I’d give it a go and review this one! For old school Garbage fans, this has gotta be quite a treat! “Blood For Poppies” doesn’t have the techno-pop sound of “Stupid Girl” or the bittersweet alt-pop sound of their biggest hit, “Special”, but rather the angst-ridden, Nirvana-goes-dance-pop sound of songs like “Only Happy When It Rains” and “I Think I’m Paranoid”, and it seems like that is the sound Garbage’s fans like the most from their catalog. The lyrics seem rather haphazardly thrown together, and the song itself does too, to a certain extent, but it’s things like that which prove that Garbage’s music…wel…ISN’T “garbage”!!

“Settle Down” by Kimbra: Now that Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” has become such a huge hit, there are probably enough people who know that the song featured a “guest” female vocalist during the last verse. This, ladies and gentlemen, is that very female vocalist, and this time without the aid of Gotye! So how does Kimbra fare on her own?! She does so quite well, if I do say so myself. “Settle Down” comes off as a song with a minor key “alternative” take on contemporary female R & B musicians (mixed with Bobby McFerrin-style “instruments” at the beginning). The video for “Settle Down” is also very inventive and quirky. It appears to take place in a fake “dollhouse” of sorts. It also shows what a cutie (and good dancer) Kimbra is! The video for “Settle Down” can be viewed here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHV04eSGzAA)

“The Wolves” by Ben Howard: The latest in a long line of people that could be considered the “new Nick Drake” (Damien Rice, Iron & Wine, and Jose Gonzalez among them), Ben Howard’s debut song fits only two verses (with a six-line chorus between each verse) into a nearly 5 minute space, with a “running” drumbeat accompanying urgent acoustic guitar strumming. “The Wolves”’ urgency peaks once Ben’s vocals quiver into an unusual yet memorable trill in the middle, and towards the end of the song. Like many songs of the “singer/songwriter” subgenre, “The Wolves”’ lyrical content can be interpreted in multiple ways. In particular, the song’s refrain of “We lost faith, in the arms of love”, could be about struggles with religion just as much as it could be about struggles with a relationship.

“Tongue Tied” by Grouplove: A growing trend in indie/alt music seems to be combining the singsong melodies and technology used in dance-pop with rock attitude and instrumentation. Few songs today illustrate this trend better than Grouplove’s song “Tongue Tied”, with its almost bubble-gum-y, stick-in-your-head chorus that hides a capoed acoustic guitar beneath all its glitz and glamour. It’s easy to mistake this song for just another Top 40 hit at first (in fact I’m surprised it hasn’t even made the “Hot Adult Contemporary” charts yet!) but there does seem to be SOMETHING “indie” about it nonetheless (perhaps the similarity it bears to an indie/dance-pop crossover from around 5 years earlier, “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’” by Scissor Sisters). I guess if you want to impress people both on the dance floor and at coffeehouses, playing Grouplove’s “Tongue Tied” would be a good way to do so!

7 new releases, 2 Christmas songs, and a partridge in a pear tree...

Happy Holidays everyone!! :) 'Tis the season to review new Christmas songs from She & Him and The Killers, not to mention 5 other non-Christmas related tracks. Here goes:

"I Didn't Mean It" by The Belle Brigade: Why is the sky blue? Who (or what) created the universe? Of all these age old questions that have never quite reached a universally agreed upon answer, the one I'd like to know the most right now is this - why do so many great songs and artists end up on the "Twilight" soundtracks?! While I don't think I'll have an answer for that in quite a long time, it just so happens that the latest song to get attention from indie rockers The Belle Brigade is on the "Breaking Dawn" soundtrack of the "Twilight" series. This doesn't mean The Belle Brigade have become "sellouts" (yet), but I can't help but notice how strikingly different this sounds to their other big song, "Losers", released earlier this year in the summer. Where "Losers" was a somber, regretful folk-rock song, "I Didn't Mean It" approaches more of a catchy, alt-pop type sound, almost as if Ben Folds were female and tried covering the Linda Ronstadt version of "You're No Good". Perhaps most interesting of all is how, out of the two songs I know so far from The Belle Brigade, the slower, sadder one ("Losers") is written in a major key, yet the pop-ier, faster one ("I Didn't Mean It") is written in a minor key!! That being said, there must be some really clever people involved in that band!

"Lights" by Ellie Goulding: Is anyone here sick of how much attention Lady Gaga has gotten ever since she debuted? (I know I am!) Looking for a fresher, less sexually excessive alternative to her that sounds kind of like an indie-pop version of Lady Gaga? Perhaps not, but now there is one!! The first major song to get attention from British pop starlet Ellie Goulding, "Lights", is like a hip dance-pop song for those who prefer Tori Amos to Madonna. Like Gaga, Ellie's a blond haired girl who knows how to dance. Unlike Gaga, Ellie seems like she dances more for fun than for promiscuity and/or (desperate) attention. "Lights" is a unique, catchy song, and probably one of the few that can appeal to both the hipsters and the just plain hip!

"Somebody That I Used to Know" by Gotye: In the 21st century, the world-music-meets-rock-music flame that Peter Gabriel and Sting became well known for using in the '80s has been kept alive by musicians like Robbie Robertson and Paul Simon (both of whom also used that sound frequently in the '80s). Have there been any new artists that have been successful in using that sound, though?! With the possible exception of Vampire Weekend, probably not (and even Vampire Weekend's songs were a bit too bouncy to fully emulate the more reflective Gabriel/Sting sound). After all these years, however, someone has come along to return the world-music-meets-rock-music-sound to the music world as if it were fresh and brand new again, and he goes by the stage name of Gotye (pronounced GO-tee-yay). The ambiance of Gotye's first major song, "Somebody That I Used to Know" (not to be confused with the Elliott Smith song of the same title), is icy and haunting, and seems to borrow heavily from Peter Gabriel's almost equally haunting "Games Without Frontiers", and his vocals are somewhat similar to Sting's, especially as the song draws closer towards the chorus. The "cold shoulder" vibe of the lyrics, combined with the already frigid atmosphere of the song itself makes "Somebody That I Used to Know" the perfect non-Christmas listen for the winter season!!

"That Old Black Hole" by Dr. Dog: So far, Dr. Dog have gotten attention with two songs on adult alt radio, with the jaunty, Beatlesque "Stranger", and the folk-rock-y, Neil Young-ish "Shadow People" (which also manages to sound like The Beatles during the second half). Dr. Dog's latest song, then, "That Old Black Hole", marks a musical departure from the typical neo-psychedelic, "retro" indie-pop of their music, as it sounds more like the type of song a band like Modest Mouse might have done. Speaking of "mouse", another way Dr. Dog have, perhaps, sought for a larger audience in "That Old Black Hole" is through its video, whose only consistent image is of a hamster on a wheel. Other images appear in the video, but they are a bit too brief and surreal for me to find truly memorable in comparison to the hamster. The video for "That Old Black Hole" can be viewed here!! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmq7MSwUUAQ)

"The Christmas Waltz" by She & Him: 'Tis the season to be Zooey!! The most beautiful woman in indie-land (and her performing partner, fellow indie musician Matt "M." Ward) has released a heartwarming, sentimental version of the classic Christmas song that states the time it is performed in ("and this song of mine, in three-quarter time...") Zooey's vocals in this are absolutely irresistible!! Matt does a good job at this song too, though, bringing jazz chords to his acoustic guitar in the finest, most tender fashion since Sammy Davis Jr. The whole ALBUM ("A Very She & Him Christmas") that this is on is great, actually, but this song is a standout, for being the opening track, the track that's gotten the most attention so far on adult alt radio stations, and for having the most snuggly, cozy feel of all the songs on the CD!!

"The Cowboys' Christmas Ball" by The Killers: Ever since 2006, Brandon Flowers and his fellow elves, umm, I mean, musicians, have released one Christmas song each December, perhaps the best of which was the one they put out during that year ("A Great Big Sled"). "The Cowboys' Christmas Ball" might not be the best Christmas song The Killers have released, but it's a breath of fresh, energetic air compared to the decent (but dreary) "Boots" they released last year. The uptempo beat and tinkly keyboards set the mood for a Christmas song that takes place in the Wild Wild West, with quirky lyrics, and Brandon Flowers singing as though he had a slight "Southern" drawl in his voice. A surprisingly friendly, bubbly song for The Killers, but it still manages to work!!

"The Same Thing" by Cass McCombs: Before I get on with my review for this song, "Cass" might sound like the name of a female performer, but is, in fact, a guy in this case. Its sound is suggestive of Pete Yorn, while the lyrics take on a more Dylan-esque quality ("Nothing in common, our blood thicker than broth/We're cut from different sides of the same cloth"). Both Dylan and Yorn are known for composing melancholy folk-rock songs, and "The Same Thing" also has that sort of sound. Vocally, McCombs seems to derive from Elliott Smith, who, again, has a melancholy folk-rock sort of sound. Cass McCombs seems to have that "lonely guy with a sad, sentimental acoustic guitar sound" pretty good! Perhaps not everyone's cup of tea, but it certainly is mine!