#5. Silversun Pickups - Alone on a Hill
Title: Alone on a Hill
Artist: Silversun Pickups
Album: Physical Thrills
Every year there's a certain point where the Countdown goes from good songs to OMG songs. As much as the last 3 or 4 got listened to in the last year, there is a significant jump here to #5. In Silversun Pickups, we have a band that first hit in the inaugural year with "It's Nice To Know You Work Alone" (#15) and again in 2012 with "Bloody Mary (Nerve Endings)" (#19). Those two albums were so big for me that I genuinely thought the band was going to become an absolute all-timer for me, but things just kind of tailed off. Physical Thrills is the first SSPU album that didn't reach the top 5 independent charts, finishing its rise at #35, while failing to chart on the Billboard 200 at all.
All that being said, it also isn't one of my top favorite albums of the year, but I knew I was in love the moment I heard bassist Nikki Monninger's voice. She doesn't usually sing lead, and the song has a very simple piano and bass/snare opening that sounds nothing like the band's original sound. But the emotion in Monninger's voice is absolutely captivating as she sings about loneliness and emptiness. I listened to this song at least 10 times on the day it was released, and things never really slowed down from there.
Favorite line: "Isn't at all complicated? This isn't all about this wave that's crashing in."
Previous five #5s:
2021: Meryl Creep - Spiraling
2020: Empathy Test - Monsters
2019: Within Temptation - In Vain
2018: Andrew WK - Music Is Worth Living For
2017: Chris Cornell - The Promise
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