#2
2009 - August Burns Red - Rationalist
Album: Constellations
An all-time song from an all-time record. August Burns Red's journey on the countdown started at #2, fittingly. Is every song on this record fantastic? Probably. "White Washed" is arguably ABR's biggest hit, but you've also got songs like "Paradox", "Marianas Trench", "Thirty and Seven", "Indonesia", "Meddler".... the list goes on and on. This song has always been one of the best workout jams I could ask for, so much so that it pushes me beyond my limits to a dangerous level. I suppose that means it's also one of my worst workout songs... hahaha.
There wasn't really any question what song was going to be #1 the first year of the countdown, but it was an interesting battle between ABR, Owl City and Alice in Chains at the top. As time has passed, I think I see that these songs had a better and longer lasting effect, whereas #1 was really just the jam for that year. It's still a great song, but it's hard to place anything about "Rationalist" or "Check My Brain" from AiC. I cannot imagine any other ABR song being better than "Rationalist", but I could see future songs from them claiming the top spot. It's a paradox, I suppose. Haha.
2010 - Periphery - Icarus Lives!
Album: Periphery
Oh man. Where one metal band ascended the charts, Periphery came in with a ton of promise and crashed. The self-titled record was a hit machine - "The Walk", "Insomnia", "Light", "Letter Experiment", "Zyglrox", etc etc etc. Unfortunately, after listening to the record a dozen times, I realized that several of the riffs were directly lifted from Meshuggah songs. No, seriously. Go listen to "Ow My Feelings". It doesn't taint the record for me; it's still solid, experimental and outstanding. "Icarus Lives!" is the pinnacle of that record, but it lives on as one of the strangest oddities. The song was initially written by vocalist Casey Sabol, who left the group. The vocals were then recorded by Chris Baretto, who wrote and sang most of the rest of the songs on the record.... except that he left the band before it was released. So then current vocalist Spencer Sotelo added his voice to several of the songs, creating a bizarre 3 screamer melody in some of the tracks, including "Icarus Lives!".
You still with me? Periphery has lived their existence with at least 3 guitarists on every record. They have tried to one-up their personal strangeness code on every record, which is probably why "Icarus" is the only one of their songs to ever even sniff the countdown. It's a shame, but I also don't think Sotelo is a good lyricist. As it stands, this song broke my ears on several occasions in 2010, and very much deserved its #2 ranking. I think my falling out with the group started late in 2010 when I saw them perform live. For all the editing and technical work they do to make their songs great, they can't actually play them live. It's a curse that a lot of cut-and-paste, tech heavy metal bands face; they make a glimmering project in studio but can't actually reproduce it live.
Howwwever, that show was not all for naught. I went to grab a beer between sets of the opening acts (The Contortionist was the best performer of the night) and Misha Mansoor (guitarist extraordinaire and machine behind Periphery) was standing at the bar. I was slightly star-struck, but I extended my hand, introduced myself and offered to buy him a beer. He said "nah man, if you're a fan then I wanna buy you a beer!". I must've had the dumbest look on my face because he grabbed one for me, shook my hand and went back to his business. I also met 4 dudes from The Netherlands who were in the US and wanted to see their favorite band, Textures. It was a great show minus Periphery's set. The end. Long live metal.
2011 - Owl City - Galaxies
Album: All Things Bright and Beautiful
Ah, so here's the story about Owl City that I alluded to the other day. 2011 was essentially a battle between two songs, with a sporadic filter of solid songs throughout the rest of the year. As far as I'm concerned, it was the weakest year for the countdown, but there was an epic battle happening for the #1 spot. Back then, I didn't write detailed articles on each song, just a short blurb on my Xanga as well as posting the song on Facebook. I had already written and posted numbers 20 through 3, and I remember sitting at my parents house for some pre-Christmas decorating, desperately agonizing over which song would be #2 and which would be #1. I listened to the songs, back-to-back-to-back for a good half an hour, and I still didn't have a clear view on which one could be #1. When I say that the Countdown is truly serious business for me, this is the year I'm really referencing.
"Galaxies" was such a great jam. "Oh telescope, keep an eye on my only hope" was a bridge that knocked me off my feet that year, but All Things Bright and Beautiful had a couple of other jams for me that year too, including "Deer In The Headlights" and the embarrassingly silly "Honey And The Bee". But by the end of the night, I decided on which song would be the champion of the year, and there was no turning back. Unfortunately Adam Young was on the outside looking in, and you'll have to wait until next Friday to find out who beat him. Sorry!
2012 - Meshuggah - Do Not Look Down
Album: Koloss
It felt like half of forever in between Meshuggah releasing obZen and Koloss. Of course, by that team I had had enough time to truly appreciate the former, which made the latter so much better. The group was super cryptic about releasing the record as well, playing cat-and-mouse about releasing the first two singles. The first one was "Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion", a preposterously heavy song that is equal parts slow and trudging. I was hoping that Meshuggah wasn't going in a slower direction, and had to wait an agonizing week before "Do Not Look Down" was released. Haha, yeah. It was well worth the wait after hearing that song, and everything that followed.
Now, where 2011 was a battle for 1 and 2, 2012 was more similar to 2009, where there was really only 1 song that could've been #1, and a couple of really great runners up. Walk the Moon, Garbage and The Shins gave the top 2 a run, but nobody was catching Meshuggah at the end of the race. I mean, they're frigging Meshuggah, what do you want me to say? Now, alls fair in love and war, but their newest album has a weird feel to it. Yes, it's heavy. Yes, it's lethal. But... it just doesn't measure up to the last 18 years of Meshuggah's poisonous reign.
Here's the thing - all of the dudes in the band are pushing 50. Tomas Haake is one of the all-time greats on the drumkit, but he can barely swing the sticks these days. Jens Kidman's voice is worn down, and Fredrik Thordendal had to take leave from their most recent tour. I saw the boys in 2012 after Koloss dropped, and believe you me it was the best metal show I've ever had the pleasure of enjoying. I just don't think their bodies can keep up with it. There's no shame in it, and I'm sure they've got a few more his up their sleeves. I sure would love to see them one more time before that time comes, though.
2013 - Aeon Zen - Warning
Album: Enigma
Meshuggah and August Burns Red are two of my all-time favorite metal bands. They both have extensive catalogues that I love, and have made huge jumps on every countdown they've been included within. Then you've got Aeon Zen, a band I had never listened to before 2013, who just happened to release the biggest metal song of that year. "Warning" has the biggest and most incredible opening 2 minutes of any song in recent memory, building slowly and exploding into you eardrums. The rest of the song is really good too, but it was that opening 2:42 that really cemented the song in the #2 spot.
It's an interesting thought; as a man who appreciates great music, I tend to obsess over lyrics first. "Warning" was musically the best song of the year, but certainly not lyrically. The entire Enigma album is a concept record that lyrically tells an intriguing tale, but it's not the greatest thing ever. It's good, yes, but it's that minute and a half from when the rest of the band joins in until the vocals kick that really makes the song. The chugging guitars, the splashing drums, and the symphonic keys - it's a soaring tribute of a song for a tremendous record. In hindsight, is it better than "Timeless"? I don't think so, because it doesn't have that emotional lyrical connection. Musically, it's still the best song of the year and I don't have any shame having it at #2. I could use another record from the band, though...
2014 - Morning Parade - Alienation
Album: Pure Adulterated Joy
Morning Parade is certainly a curiosity. The band had two records, two J1 hits, and hung it up. I legitimately did not like any of the other songs off of either Pure Adulterated Joy or their self-titled records. It was just "Alienation" and "Headlights". Of course, one was way up at #17 and the other hung around #1 before being surpassed late in the year. I've said it before, but 2014 was all hammers, and "Alienation" is no slouch. It's just a shame that the band broke up shortly after releasing the record.
The interesting story that comes from this song is that I first heard it while driving to work in the morning one day. I can't remember the specifics other than the fact that I was running a little late and didn't have the time to look the song up. I knew that I wanted to hear it again, so I made a mental note to make sure to look it up later in the day. As I was driving home that day (I remember where I was on 270, in fact), the song came on again and I focused in on it's exciting lyrics. The DJ announced that it was the newest song from, who else, Morning Parade. That's about all I've got for this band. I don't much listen to their songs anymore, and although they have a special place in their respective years, it's really more of an oddity than anything else.
2015 - Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness - Cecilia and the Satellite
Album: Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness
I don't care if Andrew McMahon is the yuppy vocalist from Something Corporate or Jack's Mannequin. "Cecilia and the Satellite" is a beautiful song that I was constantly singing the harmonies to in 2015. "Through all the places I have been, I'm no place without you" is just one of the great lyrics in a song full of brilliance. The video was pretty, the keys were lovely... there really isn't much else to say. I cannot stand McMahon, but for some reason he keeps creeping up on me these days.
2015 was similar to the year before in that there was one song holding the top spot early, only for another to surpass it late and claim the #1 spot. I'm actually grateful for that, because I really like the bands that got #1 in 2014 and '15, and I really don't like McMahon and don't care for Morning Parade. They're just there. End of story.
2016 - Broods - Free
Album: Conscious
2016 had another great battle for the top spot. Not quite as deep as 2011, but Broods very nearly became the second consecutive female fronted synth-pop duo to take the grand prize. Featuring the most scintillating video of the year (which is weird to say, because I don't really find Georgia Nott attractive?), "Free" was a rocket straight to the top from the moment it first dropped until long into 2017 when I finally put the song down. For what it's worth, the song features one of the greatest chorus lines I've ever heard in my entire life.
"Gritting your teeth, you hold onto me. It's never enough; I'm never complete. Tell me to prove, expect me to lose. Pushing away, I'm trying to move. Hoping for more, wishing for less, when I didn't care was when I did best. I'm desperate to run, desperate to leave, if I lose it all at least I'll be free."
I listened to that over and over and over again in 2016. It was all I needed to hear it uttered over and over again. It defined the shackles I felt in my life from both my job and my family at the time. I tried to listen to the rest of the record, but I really only wanted to hear this song continually. I really thought it might take the #1 spot, and if I had to do a do-over, it might even make it up there. The beauty of the countdown is that it is entirely linear and captured at the moment of its completion.
2017 - Future Islands - Ran
Album: The Far Field
I said the other day that I had just seen Future Islands perform live, and that they were fantastic. They opened with "Ran", and incredibly strong song for a band that is incredibly single-heavy. I actually spent a lot of time in 2017 trying to decide whether "Ran" was as good as "Seasons", 2014's #3. The former is such a fantastic and monumental song; I honestly thought it was going to be #1, or at worst #2 behind The Naked and Famous by the end of the year. The latter has the emotional attachment of being the first song I heard from the group, and the first true explosion of sentimentality towards the band. I really cannot put one above the other, as they are very similar to each other yet oh so different.
I can tell you that the song that did end up at #1 last year very much deserved it, and it will be nice to look back and talk about it next week. I've actually seen that band live several times. #2 is a good spot for bands that I've seen though - I saw ABR two years ago, Meshuggah in 2012, and Periphery in 2010. Morning Parade played here a few times and I actually won tickets to see them around the time of Pure Adulterated Joy, but I didn't end up going because of work. I don't think Aeon Zen have toured in the US since I started listening to them, and Broods will probably be touring again soon since they're making new music. Owl City would be a fun one, too. Anyways, I'm gonna hold the final installment of this series until next Friday. I hope you've all enjoyed it so far!
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