#11
2009 - Kings of Leon - Use Somebody
Album: Only By The Night
I can't say there's ever been a time that I really, really liked Kings of Leon. And in 2008/09 you couldn't go anywhere on the planet without hearing "Use Somebody" or "Sex Is On Fire". I remember at the same time that Cage the Elephant was exploding on to the scene, giving me two "alt-rock" bands that were essentially just pop with guitars and bad voices. Well, "Use Somebody" is inescapable for the lonely and I honestly haven't been able to stand the band as they've risen to meteoric levels in recent years. But this song speaks to me, and 11 was definitely the right place for it to land that year.
2010 - Taio Cruz - Dynamite
Album: Rokstarr
Confession time. Back in 2010 the Countdown was a baby. The rules weren't fully formed, the amount of music I listened to was overwhelming, and I honestly had the entire thing written down in a notepad file. I was posting the songs to my Xanga blog a few at a time every couple of days, which was an idea that I have no idea where I came up with. I wrote small blurbs about each song and then it was on to the next. Initially, I had "Sweet Disposition" by The Temper Trap in at #11, until I realized that the song had been released way back in 2008, and I had just been obsessing over it because it was getting newfound love on the radio due to being in a movie soundtrack.
Whoops. I was already a week into the Countdown so I couldn't just go back and put something in at 20 and move the previous songs up. So I had to scramble and find a song I might have overlooked or else find some sort of chaotic solution for my own egregious error. "Dynamite" was a song that had caught on later in the year for me, and looking back I probably would have had it at 18, pushing Rammstein's Fruhling in Paris up to 17, and so on. BUT, as it stands, "Dynamite" became the number 11 hit of 2010, sight unseen to all but myself. I told myself that I would have to be much more aware of what I was doing in the Countdown after this snafu.
Confession time. Back in 2010 the Countdown was a baby. The rules weren't fully formed, the amount of music I listened to was overwhelming, and I honestly had the entire thing written down in a notepad file. I was posting the songs to my Xanga blog a few at a time every couple of days, which was an idea that I have no idea where I came up with. I wrote small blurbs about each song and then it was on to the next. Initially, I had "Sweet Disposition" by The Temper Trap in at #11, until I realized that the song had been released way back in 2008, and I had just been obsessing over it because it was getting newfound love on the radio due to being in a movie soundtrack.
Whoops. I was already a week into the Countdown so I couldn't just go back and put something in at 20 and move the previous songs up. So I had to scramble and find a song I might have overlooked or else find some sort of chaotic solution for my own egregious error. "Dynamite" was a song that had caught on later in the year for me, and looking back I probably would have had it at 18, pushing Rammstein's Fruhling in Paris up to 17, and so on. BUT, as it stands, "Dynamite" became the number 11 hit of 2010, sight unseen to all but myself. I told myself that I would have to be much more aware of what I was doing in the Countdown after this snafu.
2011 - Power Quest - Glorious
Album: Blood Alliance
There are usually two things that happen to songs after they are featured in the Countdown. They either fall off my radar, usually due to overexposure and my own need to find new music, or else they keep climbing and get stronger as years pass. The latter surprisingly happened for me with "Glorious", a song that I loved in 2011 but only loved more than all but 10 other songs. Amusingly, several of the songs ahead of this in 2011 are songs that I really haven't listened to much since then, but "Glorious" continues to be an all-time banger for J1. The band broke up after this album was released but have recently reformed and put out a new album at the end of last year. Will it be on the 2018 edition? Only time will tell.
Album: Blood Alliance
There are usually two things that happen to songs after they are featured in the Countdown. They either fall off my radar, usually due to overexposure and my own need to find new music, or else they keep climbing and get stronger as years pass. The latter surprisingly happened for me with "Glorious", a song that I loved in 2011 but only loved more than all but 10 other songs. Amusingly, several of the songs ahead of this in 2011 are songs that I really haven't listened to much since then, but "Glorious" continues to be an all-time banger for J1. The band broke up after this album was released but have recently reformed and put out a new album at the end of last year. Will it be on the 2018 edition? Only time will tell.
2012 - Swimming With Dolphins - Sleep to Dream
Album: Water Colours
The "OMG" factor of 2012 continues on with "Sleep to Dream", a song born from a friendship behind mega-celeb Adam Young and his friend Austin Tofte. The band hasn't done much of anything since then because, you know, Owl City, but "Sleep to Dream" is still a gem of a song with one of my favorite lines from 2012. "I had a strange dream the other night, everything was better than I knew. The roads were gold, water was wine and when we kissed the magic grew". The band is essentially drawn along the same lines as Owl City's earlier work, just with a different singer. This song pushed me through some difficult times I was having with my then-girlfriend (now wife) and helped me realize how real love can be. These guys haven't released more than a handful of songs since 2011, sadly.
Album: Water Colours
The "OMG" factor of 2012 continues on with "Sleep to Dream", a song born from a friendship behind mega-celeb Adam Young and his friend Austin Tofte. The band hasn't done much of anything since then because, you know, Owl City, but "Sleep to Dream" is still a gem of a song with one of my favorite lines from 2012. "I had a strange dream the other night, everything was better than I knew. The roads were gold, water was wine and when we kissed the magic grew". The band is essentially drawn along the same lines as Owl City's earlier work, just with a different singer. This song pushed me through some difficult times I was having with my then-girlfriend (now wife) and helped me realize how real love can be. These guys haven't released more than a handful of songs since 2011, sadly.
2013 - Vampire Weekend - Diane Young
Album: Modern Vampires in the City
Speaking of bands that haven't released anything since their featured album, Vampire Weekend have been on a LONG hiatus since releasing the vividly successful Modern Vampires in the City in 2013. Granted, they've always been a band who do things exactly how they want to do it with no substitutions, but the band stopped touring a few years ago, and until just recently haven't done much to signify they're even still around. They've been touring a little this year and for the 2nd year in a row they're "slated to release a new album". I heard it was going to be late 2016, all throughout 2017 and now 7 months into 2018, so I'll believe it when, oh I dunno, a song is released? "Diane Young" is the jam, though. It's a clever play on words and certainly the most fun song on a solid record that includes hits like "Ya Hey" and "Step". Hurry up and get us a new record, Ezra!
Speaking of bands that haven't released anything since their featured album, Vampire Weekend have been on a LONG hiatus since releasing the vividly successful Modern Vampires in the City in 2013. Granted, they've always been a band who do things exactly how they want to do it with no substitutions, but the band stopped touring a few years ago, and until just recently haven't done much to signify they're even still around. They've been touring a little this year and for the 2nd year in a row they're "slated to release a new album". I heard it was going to be late 2016, all throughout 2017 and now 7 months into 2018, so I'll believe it when, oh I dunno, a song is released? "Diane Young" is the jam, though. It's a clever play on words and certainly the most fun song on a solid record that includes hits like "Ya Hey" and "Step". Hurry up and get us a new record, Ezra!
2014 - Meg Myers - Desire
Album: Make A Shadow EP
Meg Myers, whew. She plays bass, has a sultry voice, and is equally beautiful to boot. She writes exciting music and draws it back to earth with her simplistic styles. She's kind of an interesting story because she was signed to Atlantic Records when Make A Shadow came out but it took quite a while before she was really noticed by the rest of the musical world. Still, Desire was all over Cd102.5 in 2014 and you better believe I was all over that jam. It's such a hot song, my goodness. Every line in this song is dripping with passionate lust. "Desire, I'm hungry. And I hope you'll feed me. How do you want me?" What a chorus. I'm not usually swept up by sexually charged lyrics because they're generally so boring and adolescent that I can overlook them without blinking. Meg is my girl, though. Her new record is a little difference, but you might be seeing a piece on it in a few months!
Meg Myers, whew. She plays bass, has a sultry voice, and is equally beautiful to boot. She writes exciting music and draws it back to earth with her simplistic styles. She's kind of an interesting story because she was signed to Atlantic Records when Make A Shadow came out but it took quite a while before she was really noticed by the rest of the musical world. Still, Desire was all over Cd102.5 in 2014 and you better believe I was all over that jam. It's such a hot song, my goodness. Every line in this song is dripping with passionate lust. "Desire, I'm hungry. And I hope you'll feed me. How do you want me?" What a chorus. I'm not usually swept up by sexually charged lyrics because they're generally so boring and adolescent that I can overlook them without blinking. Meg is my girl, though. Her new record is a little difference, but you might be seeing a piece on it in a few months!
2015 - Catfish and the Bottlemen - Cocoon
Album: The Balcony
Catfish and the Bottlemen are what alternative rock should sound like in 2018. Whether I like the music or not, as least they're still trying to stay true to the roots of music and, hell, at least they still play their instruments. Their first single "Kathleen" made waves throughout the alternative landscape in 2015 and "Cocoon" especially caught my ear. It's fast-paced, catchy and has a scream-along bridge that catches every ear. There are a few new hands here and there that are still keeping rock music going, but I fear that the rise of editing software and the ease of keyboards and dead lyrics might been digging the final graves for what I used to love.
Catfish and the Bottlemen are what alternative rock should sound like in 2018. Whether I like the music or not, as least they're still trying to stay true to the roots of music and, hell, at least they still play their instruments. Their first single "Kathleen" made waves throughout the alternative landscape in 2015 and "Cocoon" especially caught my ear. It's fast-paced, catchy and has a scream-along bridge that catches every ear. There are a few new hands here and there that are still keeping rock music going, but I fear that the rise of editing software and the ease of keyboards and dead lyrics might been digging the final graves for what I used to love.
2016 - Circle of Dust - Contagion
Album: Machines of our Disgrace
The year is 1998. Circle of Dust have just released Disengage, a fantastic industrial bastion of heavy and chaotic reverb. The band encounters many issues with their quickly dissolving record label and is barely able to even put the record out, which ends up being a mash-up of a single record and a remix EP. It would be 5 years before Klayton, the genius behind Circle of Dust resurfaced with Celldweller. In the years that followed, ol Jesse Jester spent hours and hours listening to the 3 Circle of Dust record, pining for their rebirth and trying to find ANYONE who had ever even heard of them. The reception was few and far between, and I had essentially given up hope for years when Klayton came out and announced that he had re-acquired all of his original material and was going to make NEW CoD music.
Needless to say, Machines of our Disgrace was the most anticipated album release for me that I can remember in my lifetime. What was the band going to sound like after almost 20 years of decay? Celldweller was a unique project that morphed between electronic genres and honestly everyone who I mentioned it to had no idea that Circle of Dust had ever even existed. Thusly, no one really cared that this new record was happening. But Klayton promised to re-release his original 3 records, and each of them featured a new track off of the upcoming release. The 2nd track released was Contagion, and it was enough to get me catapulted into obsession mode. The rest, of course, is in the 2017 Countdown.... and I'll write about that in a few days!
Needless to say, Machines of our Disgrace was the most anticipated album release for me that I can remember in my lifetime. What was the band going to sound like after almost 20 years of decay? Celldweller was a unique project that morphed between electronic genres and honestly everyone who I mentioned it to had no idea that Circle of Dust had ever even existed. Thusly, no one really cared that this new record was happening. But Klayton promised to re-release his original 3 records, and each of them featured a new track off of the upcoming release. The 2nd track released was Contagion, and it was enough to get me catapulted into obsession mode. The rest, of course, is in the 2017 Countdown.... and I'll write about that in a few days!
2017 - Haim - Want You Back
Album: Something to Tell You
Haim, sisters, catchy music. There's no escaping "Want You Back" but after having a year to sit on it, there really isn't much else on this record that really piqued my interest. It's a solid disc and the girls do a great job making music together, but I think they're going to end up being a group that just releases great singles without much to go along with it. That's fine by me, especially if they sound like this song or "The Wire" or "Forever", or what have you. I still love this video to death and I love their harmonies on this track.
Album: Something to Tell You
Haim, sisters, catchy music. There's no escaping "Want You Back" but after having a year to sit on it, there really isn't much else on this record that really piqued my interest. It's a solid disc and the girls do a great job making music together, but I think they're going to end up being a group that just releases great singles without much to go along with it. That's fine by me, especially if they sound like this song or "The Wire" or "Forever", or what have you. I still love this video to death and I love their harmonies on this track.
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