#12
2009 - Breathe Carolina - Show Me Yours
Album: It's Classy, Not Classic
Breathe Carolina is one of those weird instances where I don't actually remember where I picked up on them from. They're not really a style I care for, with vocals that I really don't enjoy much, but for what ever reason they always hover around on my radar and make a song here and there that I really enjoy. It might have been their appearance on Punk Goes Pop 2 that turned me towards them, but "Show Me Yours" shows their talented approach to electronic music that immediately gets wired into your brain... provided you can ignore the vocals. The band is absolutely massive on the club scene and has essentially just been doing remixes for the last several years, without really even coming close to re-joining the countdown except for in 2010 with "Dressed Up To Undress".
2010 - Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man
Album: Sigh No More
It's weird to think that, like Imagine Dragons, there was a time when Mumford & Sons were a small, largely unknown band with a massive debut single playing literally everywhere. No one knew what to do with them. All at once, you had Edward Sharpe, Mumford, The Head and the Heart and Of Monsters and Men catapulting folksy music back into the mainstream eye. You honestly could not go anywhere in 2010 without hearing "Little Lion Man" or "The Cave". Suddenly everyone was a huge fan of that style, but there was a catch. Marcus Mumford just didn't have the depth as a songwriter as his contemporaries, and so they threw and overwhelming banjo into every song and made their lead single one that coined the line "I really fucked it up this time, didn't I my dear?". Inabilities be damned - the band sells like crazy even if I haven't been able to listen to them outside of this album.
2011 - Fitz and the Tantrums - Don't Gotta Work It Out
Album: Pickin' Up The Pieces
Speaking of bands bringing back a tremendous sound and making it their own, Fitz and the Tantrums exploded in 2011 meshing some sort of neo-soul sound with jazzy, danceable beats and a perfect male/female vocal dynamic. I thought for sure after playing the hell out of Pickin' Up The Pieces that I had found a new favorite band. Looking back on it, I'm actually kind of surprised that "Don't Gotta Work It Out" beat our "MoneyGrabber" for the #12 spot, but they're both fantastically nostalgic. Especially considering that it only took F+TT half of their second album to completely abandon their fun sound for straight up pop. Now, "Out Of My League" just missed out in 2013, and from tracks 1-6 More Than Just A Dream was a fantastic album, but you could feel the band leaning away from it and trying to be more accessible. What a shame.
2012 - Florence + The Machine - (A.) What The Water Gave Me; (B.) Shake It Out
Album: Ceremonials
Life, death, and Florence + The Machine just flat out killing it with every record. You can set your watch to it. Florence Welch just doesn't make bad music. In fact, in 2012 I was faced with a conundrum.
See, the Countdown was young then. 2012 was a year of massive hits and Flo had two that I played non-stop off of Ceremonials. What could I do? I couldn't decide how to separate the two, and I couldn't really put one above the other, or above the #11 spot. And so, we had ourselves a twofer; something that ended up happening in the next 3 years as well. Even listening to the two right now, I cannot truly distinguish feelings towards one or the other. They're both equally fantastic and perfect for so many moods. Thank you, Florence. See you in a few months...
2013 - Shining - I Won't Forget
Album: One One One
Haha, surprise! A little Blackjazz, anyone? You wanna talk about one of the more intriguing acts in the history of the countdown, here is Norway's Shining, with their extreme metal sound mixed with... well, blackjazz. You can call them whatever you want, but worth telling that I love this disc and the song "I Won't Forget" shines brighter than anything else they've put out for me. You kind of have to be in the right mood to really appreciate how avant-garde they are in their methods. Jørgen Munkeby's vocals will always have a place on this countdown, and I am eagerly awaiting their new material building off of their last record, International Blackjazz Society.
2014 - Walk The Moon - Shut Up And Dance
Album: Talking is Hard
The most interesting thing about Shut Up And Dance is that the song was released in September of 2014. As in, 3 months before the year ended. Two months before the Countdown premiered. You want a rocket to the moon? Hot damn. The band didn't even release the album until the 2014 Countdown had premiered. It's not just because the boys are based out of Cincinnati, no, this is a band that is legitimately fun. They've also worked towards a more poppy sound but still embrace their new-wave, synth-rock styles while just having a great time. For a moment there in 2015, this song almost had a chance to be the first song to appear on two countdowns, but it just wasn't meant to me.
2015 - Fear Factory - Expiration Date
Album: Genexus
Look man, Fear Factory is the truth. As long as Burton and Dino are making music together, I'm pretty sure they're going to slay. Mechanize was an outstanding comeback record, and while The Industrialist failed to yield any songs on the 2012 edition, 2015 was given a jolt of darkness in the form of another fantastically slowed down track in "Expiration Date", which as I said at the time is essentially a part 2 for their song "Final Exit". It is equal parts beautiful and brutal, despite not being what you might expect from the fellas. The album had a couple other solid tunes, including "Dielectric" and "Protomech", which gives me hope for the future. There's talks that they might even bring back the original lineup for the group. Keep on keeping on, Burton.
2016 - 3 Doors Down - The Broken
Album: Us And The Night
Speaking of surprises, I had no idea 3 Doors Down was even still a thing when they popped up in my Spotify release radar. Obviously I listened to their first two albums like nothing else, but ever since then they faded away and got less and less edgy. Suddenly, out of nowhere, here's a new in your face record from a band you had forgotten about! What's that all about? Haha. I don't know what to say. I'm still surprised it's here and it's this good. Lol
2017 - Incubus - No Fun
Album: 8
2017's album of the year for me was 8, Incubus' first record in 6 years. "No Fun" is the opening track, which kicks you into the mood and keeps you going all the way through. I was surprised at how tight Incubus were still, and overly excited that a band from my younger days was actually still great... kind of like Fear Factory from two years before. This record was packed with solid hits, including "Glitterbomb", "Loneliest", "Undefeated", "Nimble Bastard", "State of the Art"... I could go on.
Here's to more great Incubus going forward!
Here's to more great Incubus going forward!
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