Favourite Music of 2019!

Here's the playlist of my top 25 favourite songs of the year: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2yk50Dqv70OlWG7P5Yz3db

If I had to pick a top favourite it would probably be "Forest Lawn" by Better Oblivion Community Center, or at least that's the one I listened to most. But it could easily be "Crowbar" or "Everyday" or "Elephants" or "Born Cold." Also Patty Griffin's "Ruby's Arms" is one of my favourite covers ever. Weezer's rockin' "End of the Game" has me actually excited for their next album, and Creeper just announced they're dropping theirs on MY FREAKIN' BIRTHDAY! What a time to be alive.

On to albums! Somehow, my fave this year happens to be a critical darling and I'm not sure how to handle that?? I'm not a Pitchfork-reading hipster, I just like what I like. And this year, I loved the lush, gorgeous 70s singer-songwriter style album by Weyes Blood, Titanic Rising! Last year my fave was a mainstream country album, a few years ago it was a Letters to Cleo EP. You just never know! (And more on LTC later...) Yeah, this album hit the exact vibe that I, and I guess many others, were craving this year. It's like a time machine that's also a UFO. I love it so much. Fave songs - Everyday, Andromeda, Picture Me Better, Something to Believe

My second-fave is of course, the new New Pornographers In the Morse Code of Brake Lights. A band that has never made a bad album, and this is almost up with Brill Bruisers for me. Another collection of perfect, catchy power pop songs. I don't know how they keep doing it! Fave songs - Leather on the Seat, Falling Down the Stairs of Your Smile, Colossus of Rhodes

And the rest of the albums I enjoyed, in no particular order: (This is so much less stressful than when I made ranked lists and wrote freakin' paragraphs about each album!)

Diva Sweetly, In the Living Room - Sure, let's start with a pretty obscure one I just lucked into by chance! If you were a 120 Minutes devotee in the 90s like I was, you might dig this. Quirky, 90sesque alt rock. Fave Songs - Detox Island, The Floor Caved In, Comfort Food

Better Oblivion Community Center - A chill, low-key catchy folk-pop album I played all year. Fave songs - Forest Lawn, Little Trouble, Chesapeake

Bleached, Don't You Think You've Had Enough? - And my theme of the year, "retro girly rock." Fave songs - Hard to Kill, Somebody Dial 911, Daydream

Ex Hex, It's Real - More retro girly rock! Fave songs - Cosmic Cave, Radiate, Another Dimension

The Regrettes, How Do You Love? - MORE retro girly rock? You're spoiling me, 2019! Fave songs - I Dare You, Fog, California Friends

Randy Houser, Magnolia - And my traditional-leaning mainstream country album of the year! Randy is back in form, big time. Hope he keeps this up. Fave songs - What Whiskey Does, No Stone Unturned, Evangeline

Karly Driftwood, Too Mean to Die - A fun, super catchy and even kinda horror-themed country debut! I love when it feels like an album was made just for me! Fave songs - Dodged a Bullet, Bake You a Cake, Too Mean to Die

Alice Wallace, Into the Blue - California canyon country that feels both 70sesque and fresh! Fave songs - Elephants, Top of the World, The Lonely Talking

Jenny Lewis, On the Line - More on the pop side, but some of that California country feel at times. Jenny Lewis has been with me my whole life, first as a child in that iconic Toys r Us jingle I used to sing constantly and annoy my parents, then with Rilo Kiley, a band that got me through some rough times, and now with this beautiful album. She kinda feels like my sister I never met at this point. Fave songs - Wasted Youth, Red Bull and Hennessey, Hollywood Lawn

Jetty Bones, - (yes, the album is called "-") This is only 6 songs so I guess it's technically an EP, but it feels like a complete album to me. Paramore fans, check this out! Fave songs - "better," The Rest of Them., To Know You...

Women Sing Waits - Some beautiful voices sing some of my favourite Tom Waits songs! Fave songs - Ruby's Arms, Downtown Train, Time

Sturgill Simpson, Sound and Fury - This one took a little getting used to. I dug the songs, but wasn't sure I could vibe with the vocal production. Then I realized it was supposed to sound like a cowboy transmitting from space. Then I realized that's AWESOME. Fave songs - Mercury in Retrograde, Make Art Not Friends, Remember to Breathe

EPs:

Sunflower Bean, King of the Dudes - Oh, MORE retro girly rock you say? Fave songs - King of the Dudes, Fear City, Come for Me
Ghost, Seven Inches of Satanic Panic - This is only two songs, but they both rock.
Charlie Marie - Wow, super promising country vocalist from... Rhode Island? Yeehaw! Fave songs - Rodeo, Rhinestones, Countryside
Letters to Cleo, OK Christmas - What better way to end the year than with a Christmas album I actually like! Leave it to LTC, of course. My fave band at the end of the 90s, still my fave at the end of the 2010s.

It was a really good year! I listened to a lot of music between the 450+ movies I watched, and while some of it was disappointing (*cough Black Album cough*), a lot of it will be with me for a long, long time. Let's see what my first fave of the new decade will be! Creeper in May, or something before then? I'm excited for the journey!

I'll also make a favourite albums of the decade post... sometime this decade. ;)

Spring playlist

Between the crushing bleakness of winter and the blinding brightness of summer, lies the brief hopefulness of spring. A green time full of wistfulness; looking forward while looking back. In other words, it's a great time to listen to some indie shit past and present!

Music to Frolic Through Meadows To or w/e!

Top 60 fave songs + hon. mentions breakdown

Okay, let's commentary this bitch! First, some stats. These apply to the top 60 only.

Oldest song - A Lover's Concerto, 1965
Newest song - I Can Feel it Calling, August 2018 (!)

Songs by decade:

60s - 3
70s - 8
80s - 11
90s - 10
2000s - 18
2010s - 10

Well, that was interesting. I was always "80s pop girl," then "90s country girl," but I seem to have settled into "2000s indie girl." Progress? Or maybe that's just the mood I've been in for the last... two or three years. I know I will never be "2010s girl," unless I decide I just wanna listen to Creeper forever. Which is possible, actually. There are the same number of songs from the 2010s as the 90s though, so that's something!

I wanted to break it down by genre too, but so many songs fall into a gray area, where would I even put them? "Indie?" Under the general umbrella of "rock?" What are the New Pornographers, or the Shins? What is Fleetwood Mac? What is Tom Waits? What is love, baby don't hurt me no more?

If this list made one thing clear, it's that I like big, anthemy-feeling songs. I like wistful, hopeful melancholy. I like songs I'd get tattooed on my body, if I had the slightest bit of pain tolerance (srsly, I might as well be made of tissue paper). I like the "carry on, we'll carry on" of "Welcome to the Black Parade," the "it's just a spark, but it's enough to keep me going" of "Last Hope," the "everything will be alright in the end" outro of "Foolish Father." I like the chills I get from "House on a Hill," particularly "I am not afraid, I won't burn out in this place. My intention is to fade, and I will." I like the righteous "fuck you" of "forget your high society, I'm soakin' it in kerosene." I like the comforting yet heartbreaking "what a beautiful face I have found in this place." I like to yell "let's get hexed, let's hang out!" to no one in particular. These songs are all iconic to me, and I can't imagine life without them.

A few more notes -

9. The hardest choice for this list was between Tom Waits' "Time" and "Take it With You." I could have easily picked either one.
12. This is actually "Pizza Cutter" by Letters to Cleo, not "Little Rosa." Spotify oopsed up. "Little Rosa" is also great through.
13. I think "Hotel California" and "Welcome to the Black Parade" are the two greatest rock songs ever written. That shit sets MOODS.
18-20. Some Boston band love. Also, how many times can I include my girl Kay Hanley while still sticking to my rule? The answer is three.
24. Yes, my favorite Green Day song is from Uno! Sorry? rofl.
25. Yes, a song released this month made my top 60 of all time. This isn't something I'd usually do, but sometimes you just know, y'know? This has so many of those anthemy-feeling moments I can't even narrow it down to one. This is the best Killers song the Killers never made.
27. The second-hardest choice was between "My Maria" and "Neon Moon." I went with the upbeat one, but it could have been either. There isn't a lot of country on this list for two reasons. 1, it got hit hard by the one song per artist rule and 2, no Garth on Spotify.
35. There's only one hip hop song, and it's Macklemore. Sorry? rofl. But "Downtown," damn. This is a hip hop song with a glam rock chorus about buying a moped and riding it through the streets of Seattle. That is a thing that exists, and it's gloriously weird and I can't imagine it not existing. This is the "Bohemian Rhapsody" of the 2010s. Mow yer damn lawn and sit the hell down!
47. This song calls back to my #22 song, "Crimson and Clover." That's awesome.
52. I used to joke "ALL songs are about death," because of "The Way." Like, what a happy-sounding song! Where are they going, Disneyland? To have a picnic? Yay! ...oh, wait. This is about death. They're not coming back from this picnic, ever. So, any song can be about death. "It's a Small World?" Yeah, we all share the fact that we're all gonna DIE. And I never explained the joke, so plenty of people probably think I'm crazy. Yay!
57. If your favorites list doesn't include at least one ABBA song, you're not living your best life.
60. And we end with more Boston love, a song specifically about the Red Sox. This song has the most personal meaning for me than any other really. I moved to New England in 2004. I was already a big Sox fan. This song also came out in '04, and I basically adopted it. When the Sox eventually won the World Series that year, I took partial credit (for being there, y'know) and gave the rest to this song. I kinda blended the two together. Am I the reincarnation of Tessie? Maybe! I used the name "Tessie" on social media for years. This was my shit. Damn I miss the Sox.

Hon. mentions -

2. "Hotel California" was an easy pick, but if it didn't exist, "Take it to the Limit" would have easily made the main list.
3. Same deal with "Strawberry Fields" and "Blackbird." Some bands just write too many amazing songs.
7. "The House that Built Me" is probably a better Miranda song than "Kerosene," and it's also deeply meaningful to me, but "Kerosene" is such a huge song in my life. I might never have gotten back into country after 9/11 if I hadn't heard it.
11. I also managed to fit Kay Hanley in twice on the honourable mentions, teehee. I probably should have included the Dropkick Murphys' "Dirty Glass" to make it another three.
19. "After Hours" has some of my favorite lyrics and yeah, I'm pretty sure this one's about death too. "If you close the door, the night could last forever." But "Science vs Romance" was MY song for years and it got me through some tough times. So many hard choices!

This was a lot of fun to put together and make. Long live music. Peace!

Top 60 Favorite Songs EVER! (1 per artist)

Been working on this for awhile, super excited to have it done! One song per artist for the sake of my sanity. A solo member of a band counts as a different artist. I'll do some commentary in a new post. Enjoy!

https://open.spotify.com/user/emperorcupcake22/playlist/4pOfmu4suTRXgDPNlhkWPR

Honourable mentions, the toughest songs I had to cut:

https://open.spotify.com/user/emperorcupcake22/playlist/5HFNkxErdOGIVGRKJ5pwJf

Music Monday

Really freaking random spring playlist. This kind of encapsulates my odd assortment of music tastes. Only a few songs are really spring-themed, others say spring to me for whatever reason, like I just like to listen to them in the spring. idk. The idea was inspired by "In Bloom," so there's that.

https://play.spotify.com/user/12177235955/playlist/4lPJRRBa704WuQ3tsJCyZj

I feel like you should be able to embed from Spotify? But I don't see how to. Maybe you have to pay for that. I buy actual music instead, so enjoy my ugly ass text link.

My summer playlist will be more "on the nose," for the most part. And it will top 50+ songs. Just the ZBB stuff alone...