#17
2009 - DevilDriver - Another Night In London
Album: Pray for Villains
Pray for Villains ended up being a surprisingly good album for me. After DevilDriver released The Last Kind Words I kind of wrote them off as having two great albums and then fading into mediocrity. Fortunately, I was mistaken. This was a good year for listening to a lot of metal, as I was still working for BE and still filled with a whole lot of anger. I distinctly remember sitting out by the pond behind my apartment under a tree while having a cold, listening to this record. I just wanted to be outside after being sick for a few days and this record essentially rocked me into feeling better. The rest, as they say, is history. Unfortunately, I haven't cared for a lot of what DD has done recently, but they've got an intriguing album coming up, covering old outlaw country hits. We'll see, Dez.
2010 - Slash - Baby Can't Drive (featuring Alice Cooper and Nicole Scherzinger)
Album: Slash
Slash's Snakepit was okay. Velvet Revolver had a few hits. But before he acquired the services of Myles Kennedy, Slash put out his own solo record which was fantastic. He had some of the best names in rock and metal as guest vocalists (Ozzy, Iggy Pop, Lemmy) as well as some big name popstars too (Adam Levine, Fergie, Kid Rock...). It ended up sounding excellent all the way through, even including the singers I wasn't too particularly fond of... which of course leads us to this track. It was a bonus track on the record, featuring one of my all-time favorites (Alice) and someone who I would honestly never listen to (Nicole). In listening to the song now, I remember the allure of it but I don't remember Nicole sounding so bad. Woof. Still a fun song to kick while speeding down the highway.
2011 - The Lonely Island - Jack Sparrow (featuring Michael Bolton)
Album: Turtleneck and Chain
My goodness. I still don't understand how the guys over at The Lonely Island are so good at this. Perhaps it's the sheer absurdity of their music, but the fact that people like Natalie Portman, Michael Bolton, and otherwise unsuspecting artists agree to participate in songs like this just boggles the mind.
With all that being said, this is truly the jam and I have no idea how it was only 17. Maybe because TLI are just too much sometimes, maybe because 2011 was just all jams. Either way, a great memory and I'm glad it actually made it to the Countdown that year.
2012 - Morning Parade - Headlights
Album: Morning Parade
Before Morning Theft, we had Morning Parade, who are obviously not from Columbus, haha. The band had 2 albums and have 2 songs that I liked, both of which made the Countdown and made a big impact on their respective years. Go big or go home, I suppose, but the band has broken up now (like many other J1 alums) and are simply a fantastic memory for me. This was another song that was a good one to crank while driving. I remember the first few times I heard this song I was driving to work and kind of thought it was dumb, but it hit me driving home late one night and from there it was etched into my brain. Maybe they'll reunite some day, but until then this is what we have. Rabbits in headlights.
2013 - Sevendust - Decay
Album: Black Out The Sun
Life, death, and a Sevendust album every two years. Some things are just that consistent, except that Sevendust took a little time between their previous effort, Cold Day Memory and Black Out The Sun. Cold Day Memory featured a track called "Ride Insane" that just missed in 2010, but there was no way BOTS would miss out. It was truly packed with hard hitters (as any 7D record should be) and Decay hit the hardest of all. It was the first single released and showed that the group still had plenty of aggression and crushing licks to share. They missed out in 2016 and have a new record this year which I'm somewhat undecided in - it's not bad but it's not nearly as catchy as I've come to expect. At least they haven't barrelled out of control like a lot of the other hard rock/metal groups from my teenage years.
2014 - Foster the People - Coming of Age
Album: Supermodel
I'll admit, I was late to the Foster the People discussion. I remember thinking "Pumped Up Kicks" was a cute song and being annoyed by the other 3 singles off of Torches, but upon hearing Coming of Age I had to go back and do a double take. As it turns out, I really only cared for one other song on that record ("Helena Beat", of course), but it made me appreciate the strangeness that Mark Foster brings to the table. I haven't really liked much since this song either, but it's a real dandy. Sometimes you have to get over his hilariously high-pitched voice and 80s grooves and see through to some seriously poignant lyrics. Coming of Age is a goodie and fits just about any mood I'm feeling.
2015 - Big Data - The Business of Emotion (featuring White Sea)
Album: 2.0
We sure do have a lot of guests on tracks at #17, huh? Here's a fun piece of information. Perhaps my least favorite song of this time period? "Dangerous" by, you guessed it, Big Data. I essentially wrote off anything from this record before even giving it another half-spin just because of the absolute inundation of that annoying song from 2014 onward. And then, one evening I was driving home from work (when I was still at Gahanna, must've been late fall) and CD102.5 was doing a double exposure on Big Data. I caught the end of the aforementioned "Dangerous" and then the beginning synths of "The Business of Emotion" started, and I was hooked. I got home as quick as I could to figure out what the hell I had just listened to, and from then on this song bolted through the ranks, ending at 17.
Now, I still think Big Data is annoying and blame him for making Joywave famous, and I have no feelings for White Sea either. This song is tremendous regardless of all of that, which I believe is the true beauty of music.
2016 - Trivium - Until The World Goes Cold
Album: Silence in the Snow
This one kind of came as a surprise to me. I hadn't given Trivium a serious listen since 2008, but I happened to be listening to an internet station specializing in new rock and metal when the thundering opening riff of this song came on. It's weird to think that Matt Heafy is a month younger than me, seeing as how Trivium have been a massive article in the New Wave of American Heavy Metal scene since 2005 and are still kicking it hard. I didn't enjoy their newest record as much but I'm sure they'll still be around for quite some time.
2017 - Tinashe - Flame
Album: Flame (single)
And... then we have this. Well, I'd say 17 has definitely been the strangest number so far. I don't know if that's good or bad, but here's Tinashe. I suppose this is still a pretty good song, even if it was a surprising one to catch my ear. It seems like it would've been a more relevant song for me if I was dealing with relationship issues, but it's here just the same. I mean, I guess if this is what pop music is now, eventually a song or two will catch me.
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