#3
2009 - Owl City - Fireflies
Album: Ocean Eyes
One of the more surprising bands that I fell in love with around this time was Owl City. It was a bizarre transition for me because while I liked darker EBM, techno and industrial, I wasn't as much into the bubbly synth-pop genre. Adam Young's earlier stuff was heavily auto-tuned and downright silly but somewhere in between getting signed he found the right balance for a good amount of his music. "Fireflies" was the breakout single on an album that has a lot of goofy tracks ("The Bird and The Worm", "Hot Air Balloon") but a lot of more serious numbers ("The Saltwater Room", "Meteor Shower") that really dig into you. I had been hearing "Vanilla Twilight" everywhere and assumed that it was Deathcab for Cutie transition their sound to a more keyboard heavy approach.
Instead, I found a dude who was genuinely talented at writing catchy hooks and intertwining the silly with the solemn. The band struck massive gold with their next record landing at #2 and just missed out in 2012. It seems like Adam has transitioned his focus into more profitable affairs (e.g soundtracks) and has gotten significantly more serious about writing songs. I haven't had the chance to listen to his newest record, but I still love listening to him sing on his record, and I feel like he's a good enough guitarist to make good music to matter what direction he takes his mega-project.
Still, in thinking back to this time, I felt downright silly loving "Fireflies", even if the song is about insomnia and such things. I didn't realize it would be a band that would get MASSIVE amounts of play for me over the next several years. Hindsight, hah.
2010 - Fear Factory - Final Exit
Album: Mechanize
I was excited when it was announced that Dino Cazares had rejoined Burton Bell in Fear Factory. Divine Heresy was a great project for Dino, but he belonged making beautiful industrial jams with the Factory. One of the beautiful things about Mechanize is that they brought in Gene freaking Hoglan, the Atomic Clock, on drums. That brought another level of drumming heaviness to the record, and it shows on songs like "Powershifter", "Controlled Demolition", and "Designing the Enemy". The album was a thunderous return to form for the band, and showed that even after a long hiatus, they had the gel to keep the engine running.
2010 was a great year for metal records, including Periphery's 1st disc, Haste the Day's final offering before breaking up, new Demon Hunter, Rammstein, and Nevermore's last disc. In listening to the record for the first time, I was pumped about every track leading up to the very end. It's a killer record, but "Final Exit" was the song that cut me straight to the core. Assisted suicide, whew. What a serious topic. Living with the pain you can no longer tolerate, in a world that no longer cares. "Contemplate your last breath, as you see the face of death", wow. Just every line in this song really stings me. There was no way this song was escaping the top 5 this year.
The group dropped a somewhat lame concept album, The Industrialist, which had a lot of bad programming, including some exceptionally lame sounding drum machines. Not that anything could compare to Gene freaking Hoglan, but it was mediocre at best. Fortunately they put everything back together for 2015's Genexus, including our #12 from that year. I've heard rumblings that they might bring original bassist Christian Olde Wolbers and drummer Raymond Herrera.
2011 - Matt and Kim - Good for Great
Album: Sidewalks
After spending 1 month scaling the Countdown up to #5 in 2010, it was an almost certainty that Matt and Kim were going to make an appearance again in 2011. At first I thought it might be their 2nd single off of the record, "Block After Block", but the inescapable keyboard melody on "Good for Great" and catchy synths propelled the song past the rest, ending up all the way at #3. "Today, leave good for great" was a solid message I needed to keep me going that year. The interesting thing about 2011 is that #'s 1 and 2 were in a dead heat all the way til the final bell (more on that later this week), but after that it fell off massively. In fact, I would say this was a rare year where only 2 songs really had a chance at taking the top spot the entire year. That doesn't detract from the excellence of "Good for Great", it just makes for an interesting footnote for the future. Like I said, more on that on Friday!
After spending 1 month scaling the Countdown up to #5 in 2010, it was an almost certainty that Matt and Kim were going to make an appearance again in 2011. At first I thought it might be their 2nd single off of the record, "Block After Block", but the inescapable keyboard melody on "Good for Great" and catchy synths propelled the song past the rest, ending up all the way at #3. "Today, leave good for great" was a solid message I needed to keep me going that year. The interesting thing about 2011 is that #'s 1 and 2 were in a dead heat all the way til the final bell (more on that later this week), but after that it fell off massively. In fact, I would say this was a rare year where only 2 songs really had a chance at taking the top spot the entire year. That doesn't detract from the excellence of "Good for Great", it just makes for an interesting footnote for the future. Like I said, more on that on Friday!
2012 - Walk the Moon - Anna Sun
Album: Walk the Moon
Before Walk the Moon became a massive alt-pop juggernaut, they were a small band out of Cincinnati just trying to make things work. "Anna Sun" quickly caught the attention of the national media, and a music video shot in the OTR area of Cincinnati (of which I love to visit) got significant play on MTV. The rest, of course, is history. But in looking back, it feels like "Anna Sun" was the perfect mix of fun, catchy, and energetic. The song touches on living in college, and has a feeling to it that just about any 20something in the world can relate to. Amusingly, I had listened to and sang along with the song about a dozen times before my wife asked me "did he just say, 'your shoulder in my mouth'?". I had to laugh, because I hadn't really thought about the depth of the lyrics until that very moment.
Part of me wishes that Walk the Moon still subscribed to this smaller, more DIY approach to music. Another half of me is happy that a local group of kids from Cincy made it big and are touring the world. You just never know where you're going to find the next great group of musicians, which is why I love doing my job in the scene. I love this song, too. 6 years later and it's still the perfect dance tune.
2013 - The Airborne Toxic Event - Timeless
Album: Such Hot Blood
Ye gods. Can we have this version of The Airborne Toxic Event back? After the brilliance of All At Once, TATE was primed to go just about anywhere they wanted in the rock world. At the beginning of 2013 they dropped a new EP titled The Secret. I immediately got the download code and got work. All 4 of the songs were solid, but oh my God, "Timeless" legitimately knocked me off my feet. I was listening to the EP while driving to work one morning and I had to go back and listen to it about 4 more times before really processing what had just happened. Even in hindsight, I don't understand how a song so amazing came out in the past 5 years.
Such Hot Blood ended up being a tremendous record, with hits like "Elizabeth" and "Bride & Groom" to go with the 4 standout tracks from The Secret. But for my money, nothing could reach the heights of "Timeless". It almost put the band on such a pedestal that they could never even dream to reach again, but it didn't help that the band ditched their strings for synths on the next record. As I said previously, Mikel Jollett is more interesting in getting views on Twitter these days than making great music, but hey, that's his prerogative. As far as I'm concerned, there will probably never be another song that emotionally touches me like "Timeless", and it just speaks to the massive nature of 1 and 2 from 2013 that it is only #3.
2014 - Future Islands - Seasons (Waiting On You)
Album: Singles
I'm gonna do a little post edit on this one. I just saw Future Islands perform life for the first time on Tuesday, and my goodness they're amazing. After hearing this song for the first time in 2014, I looked up the video, and found a performance of them on Letterman shortly after Singles was released. There I found raw emotion and passion, and a performance ethic that remind me of myself on stage. Singer Samuel T Herring was literally throwing himself into every note, dancing and swaying and jumping and fist pumping and everything in between. The live version of Herring is even more excitable; punching his face, pounding his chest, rolling around on stage, and singing with a ferocity you would not expect from a band that makes synth-pop music.
The production on Singles is tremendous. "A Dream of You and Me" is the other song that I loved off of the record, but I'm going to say honestly I did not truly appreciate the group until Tuesday night when I saw them live. I'm going to have to re-examine their entire catalogue to see what I've missed over these years. I honestly saw them as a group who makes great singles and a bunch of filler, but I can see now that I was tragically mistaken. As it stands, they actually made it to #2 last year, which makes me believe that their next record will probably produce a #1 hit. Haha.
The production on Singles is tremendous. "A Dream of You and Me" is the other song that I loved off of the record, but I'm going to say honestly I did not truly appreciate the group until Tuesday night when I saw them live. I'm going to have to re-examine their entire catalogue to see what I've missed over these years. I honestly saw them as a group who makes great singles and a bunch of filler, but I can see now that I was tragically mistaken. As it stands, they actually made it to #2 last year, which makes me believe that their next record will probably produce a #1 hit. Haha.
2015 - Slipknot - Skeptic/The Devil In I
Album: .5: The Gray Chapter
Brother, I waited six long years between All Hope Is Gone and The Gray Chapter. It honestly felt longer because All Hope Is Gone was easily the weakest of Slipknot's records, even if it did spawn a hit like "Psychosocial". It was basically half of an album, falling to pieces early and never really recovering. With Paul Gray passing in 2010, Joey Jordison taking off for his own projects in '13, and Corey and Jim making big $$ with Stone Sour, I figured that Slipknot was essentially done. They had a good run; 3 blistering albums plus their demo EP and the better parts of their 4th record. Happy to be proved wrong, news started percolating in 2014 that there was NEW Slipknot with two new members.
Unfortunately, the band decided that the first single they'd release would be "The Negative One", which is a solid song but was not a good precursor for what they were about to unleash. A few weeks later "The Devil In I" dropped, and the band laid waste to any preconceived notions that they might have gone soft or were just writing Stone Sour knockoffs. While "The Devil" was the first song to really concuss me, it was "Skeptic" that really hit me in the nards. A tribute to their late bassist that was equal parts heavy and heinous. I'm glad this record was made, because it perfectly re-asserts Slipknot's dominance on the world of metal.
Unfortunately, the band decided that the first single they'd release would be "The Negative One", which is a solid song but was not a good precursor for what they were about to unleash. A few weeks later "The Devil In I" dropped, and the band laid waste to any preconceived notions that they might have gone soft or were just writing Stone Sour knockoffs. While "The Devil" was the first song to really concuss me, it was "Skeptic" that really hit me in the nards. A tribute to their late bassist that was equal parts heavy and heinous. I'm glad this record was made, because it perfectly re-asserts Slipknot's dominance on the world of metal.
2016 - POP ETC - What Am I Becoming?
Album: Souvenir
See now, here's an interesting one. Every other artist leading up to this song at #3 had either been on the countdown previously or were featured again later. Most of them are bands that I really like, love, or for a while had good feelings for (ahem, Matt and Kim). And that's not to say that POP ETC won't have another hit on the countdown in the future, but in listening to Souvenir you could tell that the band caught their lightning in a bottle for one song and tried to build a record around it. It's not a failing for the group; plenty of bands only ever have one worthwhile song, and no amount of record labels or money can change the fact that sometimes you're just a really good one hit wonder. Again, it's not fair to say that after just 2 years, but I really didn't feel anything else coming from this group.
However, the line "I couldn't smell the smoke, and now I watch the flames" really rocked me around in 2016. "What Am I Becoming?" is a great song for someone as self-destructive as me; almost like a softer Slipknot. Ha! What a bizarre comparison. I got nothing else on this one.
However, the line "I couldn't smell the smoke, and now I watch the flames" really rocked me around in 2016. "What Am I Becoming?" is a great song for someone as self-destructive as me; almost like a softer Slipknot. Ha! What a bizarre comparison. I got nothing else on this one.
2017 - The Naked and Famous - Higher
Album: Simple Forms
If memory serves, I was listening to this record before I pulled out the Christmas music, and I must've played "Higher" a dozen times in a two day span. In spite of The Naked and Famous just missing on their previous record, they sat at the top of the chart throughout 2017, battling with #2 before #1 exploded past the two of them. #3 is quite a respectable spot, and it's worth every little bit of its ranking. "Better believe the sea of changes, and put these battered bones to rest. Nothing invisible or nameless, leave no reason to confess", that was the lyric of the year for me. There's just something about Alisa Xayalith's voice that hits me in the right spot.
If memory serves, I was listening to this record before I pulled out the Christmas music, and I must've played "Higher" a dozen times in a two day span. In spite of The Naked and Famous just missing on their previous record, they sat at the top of the chart throughout 2017, battling with #2 before #1 exploded past the two of them. #3 is quite a respectable spot, and it's worth every little bit of its ranking. "Better believe the sea of changes, and put these battered bones to rest. Nothing invisible or nameless, leave no reason to confess", that was the lyric of the year for me. There's just something about Alisa Xayalith's voice that hits me in the right spot.
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