The Jester One Music Countdown By The Numbers - #19

#19

2009 - Parachute - She Is Love (Band Version)

Album: Losing Sleep 

Amusingly, I really can't stand the acoustic version of this song. This was one that I first heard on the work muzak at the Bob Evans I was working at at that time. The downside of the full band version is that it always sounds like it was recorded at a lower bit-rate without being remastered. It's still a great song and I didn't take it off my Walkman for several years after this. In fact, I think that old mp3 player broke before I could get this song out of my rotation. It's still a great jam and it's one of the first "love" songs that I associated with being with my wife.  Parachute isn't really a band I care terribly much for, and there are so many clones floating around like The Script that they're essentially dime a dozen, but for a long time this was absolutely my jam. In 2009, it was only my 19th best jam, though, which just goes to show how time causes us to appreciate things.

2010 - Demon Hunter - Collapsing (ft Bjorn Strid)

Album: The World Is A Thorn

Another year, another DH album on the countdown. Technically, this was the first Demon Hunter song on a countdown, but that's only because this was only the second countdown. I've said it before but I'm almost certain that "My Heartstrings Come Undone" and "Not I" and even "Thorns" would have been top 3 for the years that each of their albums were released. As it stands, this was a solid song off of what I consider the last really good Demon Hunter album. Sure, I like the 3 that have been released since, but it's just not the same anymore. TWIAT has some real bangers though, and I initially thought it would be "Shallow Water" or "Driving Nails" that were going to make the countdown. I remember my (future) mother-in-law being upset that I was blaring this song while driving up to their house a few times. Haha.

2011 - The Knux - Razorblade

Album: Eraser

Every now and then CD102.5 plays some great rap music mixed in with their "alternative" jams. The Knux were one that caught me totally by surprise. "They found you on a milk carton, performing disappearing acts" - what a great line. It's nothing but excellent lines all the way through the song, even if the album doesn't really live up to the hype this song created. Sadly, The Knux have only released one album since Eraser and it took them 5 years to do that. All the same, it was nice to hear a rap group that wasn't all autotune and crappy lyrics.

2012 - Silversun Pickups - Bloody Mary (Nerve Endings)

Album: Neck Of The Woods

Here's a scary thought - "Bloody Mary" was only #19 in 2012! I've spoken about this countdown before and how it was one of the truly amazing ones in the history of J1, and this just goes to show how deep things were (even if Reptar was the throw-away #20). What made 2012 different from 2011 and 2013, I have no idea. But this is one of SSPU's greatest tracks and it's mind-altering to think that something with as influential of a bassline as this one would only come in at #19. 

With that being said, Neck Of The Woods showed a newer, more poppy direction for the Pickups. There were still great tracks like "Skin Graph" and "Gun-Shy Sunshine", but then you hear the 2nd single "The Pit" and you realize that the group and their label decided on a certain flair to follow, and that's essentially all they've done since.  Of course, they self-produced their most recent record, and it would be unfair to hold any record against Swoon, but I guess that's just music for you.

2013 - Relient K - PTL

Album: Collapsible Lung

Haha, what? Relient K, the group I saw at a tiny church way back in 2001? Yep, that Relient K. The one who made it HUGE with "Be My Escape", was absorbed into a pop label and lost all of their punk-rock elements while churning out two trash albums, returned with Collapsible Lung, which by all accounts was still massively poppy but sounded significantly better (and less manufactured) than their previous two efforts. I'm not sure what caught me on PTL; maybe the falsetto chorus, maybe the hand-claps, maybe the obviously relevant subject line. But there it is. #19 in 2013 - a year where I must've only ever listened to Cd102.5 because it's nothing but Alt-rock and a few metal gems. Oh, and PTL. Who knows. It's kind of a fun song, right?

2014 - Destiny Potato - Take A Picture

Album: Lun

I didn't even bother checking out anything about Destiny Potato before downloading this album. I only needed to know the name and the fact that they were similar to other djent acts that I liked, except with a female lead. Come to find out this is a band from Serbia and have wonderful accents. Their music was good enough, although they've essentially gone dark the past few years except for a hint on their Facebook page posted a few months ago referencing a new page titled "Sordid Pink".

Lun sounds like what most other djent bands were producing at the time - a mash-up up Periphery, TesseracT and Veil of Maya, except for the whole female singer part. Take A Picture kicked hard and had cute lyrics, but didn't have enough depth to get further than #19 in 2014. I'd love to hear some sort of follow-up from these guys.

2015 - The Frozen Ocean - Kerosene

Album: Skeleton Key

The Frozen Ocean is David Swanson, a musician from Connecticut. David Swanson is a phenomenally talented human being with a beautiful soul. I've told this story a dozen times but it always bears repeating - I was a fan of his from years ago and was super excited when he started recording this record. His self-titled disc still stands as one of my all-time favorites, and 7 years later I was dying for more. For whatever reason I missed the pre-order on the album and I just kept forgetting to order it. When I finally did. I received an e-mail the next day from Dave saying that he was just about to launch a sale on his website and wanted to send me a free shirt as a thank you for ordering the record.

He didn't have to do that. He's a musician who probably makes his living off of sales like that, but it goes to show his character that he would take the time to reach out and do that for me. Annnnyways, Kerosene is one of several fantastically unique songs off of Skeleton Key, including the title track, "Light Years", "Grey Town", and an outstanding re-imagining of CCR's "Have You Ever Seen The Rain". Well worth the wait and equally deserving of a spot on my Top 20 that year.

2016 - Metric - The Shade

Album: Pagans in Vegas

I'm not sure how I had never seriously listened to Metric before 2009, because right now they're one of my all-time favorite bands. Well, let me rephrase that. Fantasties and Synthetica are two timeless records for me. Pagans in Vegas had exactly one song that I liked, and I didn't even like it until well after the album was released. It's the "bloop bloops", and we all know it.  Well. somewhere along the line they released a version without them and I was actually able to listen to the entire song without interruption. And it turns out that it's a pretty great song, lyrically. Musically it's somewhat annoying and my wife refers to it as "that terrible I Want It All song with the whiny girl singer", but it's here and that cannot be changed. I can only hope that Metric recovers for a better record next time around.

2017 - The Head and The Heart - Rhythm and Blues

Album: Signs of Light

Folksy alternative has made a massive explosion in recent years thanks to the likes of The Head and The Heart, The Lumineers, The Avett Brothers, and others. It's not really my style but man, THATH do a really great job of making beautiful and catchy music without a lot of glitz or polish. Signs of Light is just another solidly built record that shows that they have staying power despite their own personal struggles. "Rhythm and Blues" has so much feeling on it, it's a wonder it wasn't featured higher last year. 

But, I guess we'll talk about that more in the coming weeks. Stay tuned next Tuesday for the 18s!

The Jester One Music Countdown By The Numbers - #20

#20

Obviously, you have to start at the beginning right? Let's jump right in!

2009 - Collective Soul - Staring Down

Album: Collective Soul

I do remember at this time that I still enjoyed watching the VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown. The hosts were interesting, they played all 20 of the videos (in a 2 hour episode) and they had loads of interesting content to fill the rest of the time. Somewhere along the way VH1 shortened things down and in 2016 they got rid of music all together, but for a while there it was a great show. And it was on this show that I first learned that Collective Soul was still making music, despite not charting since 2009. I didn't really listen to the album much because it just didn't have the feel of the '90s grunge-era Collective Soul, but I did enjoy "Staring Down" a lot. Listening to it now, it has a good nostalgia feel to it but I can't put my finger on it otherwise why I liked it so much. 

The majority of my music listening at the time was built around stuff I heard at work, the Top 20 countdown, and listening to the radio in my spare time. If you've ever lived in Columbus, you know that my options for new music were therefor quite limited. But, this was the first of the last... or the first... well, however you want to look at it.

2010 - Dark Tranquility - The Fatalist

Album: We Are The Void

There used to be this torrent website called RockBox which almost exclusively featured metal torrents. I found most of my newer metal addictions through that site, and Dark Tranquility is a perfect example of it. I'd click on the site, listen to the track that was featured, read the bio, and decide if I wanted to listen to the rest of the album. There wasn't Spotify or other streaming platforms at the time. File-sharing was the way to go, and torrents were the easiest way to find what you wanted. These days the internet (at least for me) has shifted away from that, and I barely even spend any time on my computer any more.  As it stands, "The Fatalist" was the track previewed on the album page, and I listened to it heavily for several months. The album was garbage and even listening to the song now, I'm barely even able to recognize what I liked about it. Really, it's just a good solid metal chorus. I haven't enjoyed anything else they released, but there will always be this song, I guess... haha

2011 - Avril Lavigne - What The Hell

Album: Goodbye Lullaby

Oh man. My love affair with Avril started in high school and burned bright for several years. In many ways, Goodbye Lullaby was the end of that. Her previous effort The Best Damn Thing was overly poppy and her sound had completely morphed into bad bubblegum by 2011. But "What the Hell" hearkened back to what she used to be, and it stuck around in my head during that year long enough to break into the countdown. 2011 was a really really great year for the countdown, and starting with Avril definitely didn't hurt. I think the thing I remember the most about this song was that it was a favorite of the girl I was with at the time, before I started dating my (eventual) wife. Thanks for two great albums, Avril!

2012 - Reptar - Stuck In My Id

Album: Oblangle Fizz, Y'all

I'm somewhat embarrassed by this one. Not because it's a bad song or anything, but because this song was basically a last second addition because I had a spot that needed filled. I hadn't done my research and another song that I had been jamming to (I can't remember specifically which song off the top of my head) had been in the countdown up until the day that I was doing my final research and making sure all of my ducks were in a row. I realized that the song I had initially had was two years old and therefor ineligible for the 2012 Countdown. I had to scramble and just threw in the first song I had liked from that year. Obviously, I wasn't as meticulous about the countdown at the time, and I changed how I did my data compilation after that.

"Stuck In My Id" is a fun song, but I didn't like anything else from the band and I don't much care for them now either. It's more of an eye-roll to me now, but it doesn't hurt what was the tremendous year for the Countdown.

2013 - Grouplove - Ways To Go

Album: Spreading Rumours

Grouplove is one of the ultimate love-hate groups in my life. I cannot stand either of the vocalists and I feel like their music is cliche and dopey. Every new album they release, I roll my eyes as I hear them take over alt-rock stations and get played far more than they ever should be. Somehow, somehow each of their albums has produced exactly 1 song that I totally enjoy, and for Spreading Rumours it was "Ways To Go". The next single off of the album was titled "Shark Attack" and it still stands as one of the *worst* song I've ever heard on the radio. The part that I liked the most on "Ways To Go" was the part where Hannah sings after the chorus. That's basically it. The song has barely any substance and when I heard them performing it live I immediately was disgusted by it and really haven't been able to listen to it since. The end. Lol

2014 - I, The Breather - Swine:Cult (featuring Ricky Armellino)

Album: Life Reaper

Now we're talking! Here's an album I greatly enjoyed from a group that I also happened to like. It's a shame they broke up after this disc dropped, because I really felt like they had a chance to blow up after it was all said and done. "Swine:Cult" was my favorite thumping track on an album of absolute bangers. This was one that I'd turn up all the way in my car and just head-bang my brains out on. Ricky Armellino can be heard screaming and laughing on the 2nd verse. 2014 was a tremendous year for metal songs and "Swine:Cult" was the perfect kicker to get things started.

2015 - Florence + The Machine - Ship To Wreck

Album: How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful

I can remember listening to this album on my way to work one day and just falling in love with this song. If you've followed the Countdown for any amount of time you know that Florence + Co are a staple here and I 1000% guarantee you will see her on the 2018 edition. The lyric: "What's with the long face, do you want more, thousands of red-eyed mice scratching at the door" always catches me. Florence paints a wonderful picture on this song, as she often does. 

2015 had so many songs that could've been in the top 10 or 5 at any point, that I was wondering at one point if Ship To Wreck was even going to make it. She beat out Papa Roach, Genevieve, and Walk The Moon to just squeak in, but honestly what would be the Countdown be without her?

2016 - Safemode - Hold On

Album: Colodblind

Unlike the two previous years, it wasn't a huge battle of big songs trying to claw their way into the Top 20. Safemode and several other metal songs were kind of kicking around at the end of the year and they just happened to be the one that got the nod. It's not my favorite album of the year or one that even stuck out to me, but it did end up being a really solid song. Safemode always brings really good harmonies and pretty guitars to their songs while throwing in chunky breakdowns and pulsing drums. I haven't heard much from them since this album came out, and hopefully they'll have new music brewing soon.

2017 - Liam Gallagher - Wall of Glass

Album: As You Were

This one is pretty fresh so I don't have a ton to say about it. I'm kind of excited that both of the Gallagher boys have been putting out their own music in the past year and a half, but I'd really rather the two of them worked together and put their differences aside to make great Oasis music again. Haha.... right. I guess I should just be grateful that I got to hear Liam's voice again, even if it were just a solo shot. As You Were is a fairly good album, but "Wall of Glass" is really the only song that I took much out of on it. I only just recently shuffled it out of my usual rotation of goodies on Spotify. 

There you have it. The history of the number 20. Haha. I think I'll make this a bi-weekly thing, say Tuesdays and Fridays? See you in a few days!

 

#tbt Jester One Music Top 20 Countdown: By The Numbers

Hello friends, I hope you're having a wonderful 2018 so far. I know things have been quiet on this site in regards to the 2018 Countdown, but rest assured things are going ahead just as they do every year. 2018 marks the 10th year of compiling songs for a year-end excursion, and I've been trying to think what I could do to mark that occasion. I've done #TBTs in previous years, covering older countdowns by year and such, and I figured this year I could do something cool and look at the individual places where each song landed.

I might come up with other ideas along the way, but I felt like this would be a fun one to do. See you next week with #20!!