Link to original post: 2011: Firus's Music Year In Review
In true Firus fashion, I’ve decided to make a long retrospective of sorts on the year, mostly focusing on music, since I feel like sharing my opinions on the over 2000 songs I’ve added to my music library this year.
However, for the sake of my sanity and for the sake of those reading, I will not be discussing each and every album I got like I did last year, and I won’t even list each and every album I got.
What I am going to do is post up each of my 52 weekly music charts from this year, as well as my mid-year and end-of-year charts and a list of which song was #1 on my chart each week, ranking each song based on the points I assign them each week while making my music chart. Even though I don’t imagine anyone will look at each and every music chart in-depth (I don’t think even I could be bothered to look through all of my music charts in their entirety), however much you care to glance at them, they are pretty close to a summary of how my music listening has gone this year. I’d also like to give a brief summary of notable albums of the year, both bad and good.
As for 2011 as a whole…well, it has been the best year of my life up to this point, by far, in stark contrast to the low point that 2010 was for me. It has, essentially, been a very hectic year full of changes, both physically and mentally. There have certainly been some negative changes, but for the most part, I’d say it’s been a change for the better. Despite there being an entire half a year between then and now, what happened in the first half of the year (and the events leading up to that) has changed my life to such an extent that it has greatly affected the rest of the year, and I see it going on to affect my entire life.
Music has pretty much defined this year. While music has always been a pretty significant piece of my life, and while I had a great year of music last year – a year which I did not imagine could be matched in 2011 – 2011 has been full of great, new music, and memories to accompany both new and old music. From the rejuvenation I felt while blasting Yellowcard’s “Be The Young” at the conclusion of my final AP exam, to the sadness I felt as I listened to Avril Lavigne’s “Goodbye” when I had to say goodbye to someone dear to me, and the memories of winter, snow, and Minecrafting I have when I hear The Script’s “Science & Faith,” to the memory of first hearing the techno remix of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” as my AP U.S. History teacher blasted it at full volume, the songs that I’ve really enjoyed this year are associated with a lot of emotions and memories.
As far as my music charts go…well, I’ve spent more than a little bit of time on them. Last year, it started out as quickly picking twenty songs I’d liked that week, arranging them as best I could, and then taking a quick screencap and cutting it down. That evolved to my system throughout 2011, where I keep track of songs I’m particularly enjoying throughout the week and at the end of the week, I put together an ordered list of 50 of them, update their peak positions and the weeks they’ve been on my chart, calculate the points earned on that week and add it to the current total. Then, I screencap it and compile it along with the single artwork for the top ten songs on my chart; this proves to be a particular pain because many of the songs I chart have not been singles in and of themselves, and I enjoy it enough that I will make single artwork as best as I can. Some attempts have been better than others; as you glance through my music charts (that is, those from the end of March onward, as I usually just used the whole album’s artwork before that) you can judge for yourself how successful that was.
My points system, which allowed me to make my mid-year and year-end charts somewhat accurately, is what ultimately took the longest. I don’t feel like explaining the entire system here, but the points were based on inverse points (song #1 gets 50 points, #2 gets 49, etc.), how many weeks it had on my chart consecutively, and then multiplied by my assigned strength value of the week, plus bonus points for songs returning to #1 or the top five.
The overall accuracy of the system is actually pretty decent; there are some songs in my year-end chart which I don’t understand being there, like “Till The World Ends” – I like that song, but I wouldn’t say it was one of my top 50 songs of the year, or even top 100 – and some songs – like “Goodbye” by Avril Lavigne – deserve to be higher than they are, but my top 5 is extremely accurate, my top 10 is fairly accurate, and my chart as a whole has most of my favorite songs of 2011.
That said, my points system gave far too many points for songs charting for a number of weeks in a row. This is because, as much as my songs switch from week-to-week now, a song rarely stayed on there for more than a week or two when I made the system.
Back to my music charts, though, as is probably evident, I highly recommend the songs on my year-end chart, but I very, very highly recommend the top few. Imogen Heap (who was half of Frou Frou) is an amazing artist, and “Hear Me Out” is one of my favorite songs by her. The lyrics are great (and unfortunately, far too relatable for me), her vocals are excellent as always, and the instrumentation is wonderful, and what really amazes me is that the song samples “An Ending (Ascent)” by Brian Eno in the background of a good portion of the song. You wouldn’t think that an ambient song sampled in the background like it is would necessarily work well, but it is pulled off excellently; so excellently, in fact, that I charted the original song, a self-made instrumental version of it (through the use of Audacity), and a live version of the song (despite the poor recording quality) throughout this year.
Which leads me to my next point; “An Ending (Ascent),” my #3, is probably the most beautiful song I have ever heard. I’m not big on instrumental songs, generally, but it is such a calming, beautiful piece of music that I’ve listened to it extensively this year, particularly as a good song to which to fall asleep.
Anyway, that’s enough summary of my music charts. Here are all of my music charts, my #1 songs, and then some of my most notable albums of 2011.
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[collapse=Number Ones]01-07-11 Pearl – Katy Perry
01-14-11 Cry – Faith Hill
01-21-11 Right On Back To You – Keith Urban
01-28-11 Hear Me Out – Frou Frou
02-04-11 Wait It Out – Imogen Heap
02-11-11 Pearl – Katy Perry
02-18-11 Recover – Natasha Bedingfield
02-25-11 My Best Friend – Tim McGraw
03-04-11 Hear Me Out – Frou Frou
03-11-11 I Love You – Avril Lavigne
03-18-11 I Want You – Faith Hill
03-25-11 Stealing Kisses – Faith Hill
04-01-11 Wait It Out – Imogen Heap
04-08-11 Smile – Avril Lavigne
04-15-11 Sinéad – Within Temptation
04-22-11 Die Alone – Ingrid Michaelson
04-29-11 You Belong Here - Anberlin
05-06-11 Hear Me Out – Frou Frou
05-13-11 So I Thought - Flyleaf
05-20-11 Me & Tennessee – Tim McGraw & Gwyneth Paltrow
05-27-11 The Edge Of Glory – Lady Gaga
06-03-11 Everybody Hurts – Avril Lavigne
06-10-11 Everywhere – Michelle Branch
06-17-11 The Way I Loved You – Selena Gomez & The Scene
06-24-11 Goodbye – Avril Lavigne
07-01-11 The Way I Loved You – Selena Gomez & The Scene
07-08-11 Setting Of The Sun – Ben Jelen
07-15-11 Brand New Day - Fireflight
07-22-11 Long Hallway With A Broken Light – Thriving Ivory
07-29-11 Hair – Lady Gaga
08-05-11 Moonlight – Thriving Ivory
08-12-11 Comfort Me – Tim McGraw
08-19-11 Comfort Me – Tim McGraw
08-26-11 Lots Sometimes - Glasvegas
09-02-11 Everybody Hurts – Avril Lavigne
09-09-11 Goodbye – Avril Lavigne
09-16-11 Cry – Faith Hill
09-23-11 Repeat – David Guetta feat. Jessie J
09-30-11 Hear Me Out – Frou Frou
10-07-11 Day Of Rain – Thriving Ivory
10-14-11 I Do But I Don’t – Tim McGraw
10-21-11 On Your Side – Thriving Ivory
10-28-11 Our December – Thriving Ivory
11-04-11 Long Hallway With A Broken Light – Thriving Ivory
11-11-11 Come Home – Faith Hill
11-18-11 Something To Sleep To – Michelle Branch
11-25-11 Everywhere – Tim McGraw
12-02-11 All I Want Is You – U2
12-09-11 Hear Me Out [Live] – Imogen Heap
12-16-11 Farewell - Rihanna
12-23-11 Counting Down - Ben Jelen
12-30-11 Come November - Thriving Ivory[/collapse]
Most Unexpected Album of 2011
From Beyond The Sea by Ethereal Beings
Of all the music I listen to, ambient music has not made it into my library very often. Aside from video game music, instrumental music isn’t something I have very much of at all; I find that vocals are generally my favorite thing in music. As such, this ambient album was not one I’d have expected to be in my library by the end of this year, nor did I expect to enjoy it as much as I have. Nevertheless, when I found out that my roommate-to-be had put out this album with a friend of his, I looked into it and was pleasantly surprised. On one hand, I do prefer vocals; on the other hand, there’s a certain effect achieved in From Beyond The Sea in the lack of vocals which works very well. My personal favorites are “S15,” “Shiver in the Wind,” and “Lens Flare”; if you’re looking for something new in your music, I’d definitely recommend giving some of the songs a listen (you can stream / download the album here).
Biggest Disappointment of 2011
Born This Way by Lady Gaga
No matter where you stand on Lady Gaga, there was a lot of hype surrounding the release of her new album. She hyped it up, and as a fan of The Fame and The Fame Monster, I was highly anticipating a new release by her. My initial reception of Born This Way was very poor. After a few listens, it grew on me a bit, but over time, I came to reflect on it further and further and realize that…it fell completely short of expectations, and overall was not that terrific of an album. It has some very catchy songs on it, and I think the saxophone used on the album was very effective. That said, there are some weird-*** songs on the album. “Government Hooker” has a catchy beat and a good beat, and as a history nerd, I love that the entire thing appears to be a reference to the Marilyn Monroe / JFK affair, but was the creepy, seductive male voice necessary? I never understood the hype about “Judas” because it follows the exact same pattern as “Bad Romance,” but I don’t think it’s as good musically or lyrically. I could go on about the strange songs on BTW, but it’d take more time than I’m willing to spend to cover them all. There are songs that I like on the album, but my main problem is that the songs are all either a motivational anthem – or at least something extremely upbeat and catchy – or something weird and outlandish. Even “Yoü And I,” a song which Gaga performed live as a ballad before the album, didn’t end up as the ballad I’d hoped it would be. “Brown Eyes” is probably my favorite song by Lady Gaga – aside from maybe “No Floods,” some of her pre-Gaga work – and it’s because it’s a very raw song; it’s mostly comprised of Gaga playing the piano and singing, which is where I think she shines the most. Even though BTW has 17 total songs, including the three deluxe tracks, not a single ballad can be found on it. Even worse, there isn’t a single mellow song. Slow, mellow, emotional songs are usually my favorite, and there’s not a single sad song on the album. Catchy pop songs are great, but they don’t stick with me for very long. The fact that BTW is comprised either of weird songs that I don’t like or catchy, upbeat songs means that it has little to no lasting value to me. “The Edge Of Glory” is the biggest standout track on the album to me, but that got so overplayed by the radio I hardly enjoy it that much anymore. I don’t know exactly what happened with this album and I don’t know if Lady Gaga will do better on her next album, but for an album which she claimed could be the best album ever, it failed to even match up to her last two albums.
Best-Flowing Album of 2011
Ghost by Devin Townsend Project
On a similar note to From Beyond The Sea, this is not an album I would have expected to become a part of my collection. However, it’s quickly become one of my favorite albums of all time. The new age-y / ambient overtone of the album – despite the presence of lyrics this time – is likely to turn off a lot of people, but I absolutely love it. What impresses me the most about the album is how well it flows together. Individual songs can be appreciated, but I find far more value in listening through the entire album. Very few albums are composed such that they work like this, but it always amazes me when they are. Transitions between song lead directly from one song to another without a break, shining particularly in a few parts; the flow from “Kawaii” to “Ghost” to “Blackberry” in particular is absolutely amazing. I found on more than one occasion in the past semester that playing this album from start to finish helps me just zone in and do what I need to do, because of how beautiful and calming the music is. If you’re big on albums you can take as a whole, or even if you’re just looking for something new, seriously look into Ghost.
Best Song of 2011
"Goodbye" by Avril Lavigne
It might not have made it into my top 10 on my year-end chart, and it may not have even ended up on my chart as much as some other songs that were released this year, but I have a very strong bond with "Goodbye." The first time I listened through Goodbye Lullaby, I wasn't terribly impressed with this song; I gave it 4 stars (I enjoyed the song, but it just didn't have enough to it, I felt). When I watched the bonus DVD that came along with the album and Avril explained how much it meant to her and that it had the most meaning to her of any song she's written, I didn't initially understand, because I didn't feel that much in relation to the song. I didn't end up listening to the song for a while after my first couple listens, and knowing that a goodbye of my own was coming up...I decided to leave it until that day to listen to again. It may seem a bit silly and arbitrary to do, but I think it was a good idea. When I listened to the song for what was almost the first time (I hardly remembered it at all) on that day, I understood exactly why Avril said what she did about the song; it is now one of the most meaningful songs to me in my library. Musically, Avril's vocals are the focal point of the track, and the only instrumentals are acoustic guitar, string instruments, and piano, all of which are soft. Avril's voice shines and expresses the emotion well, I think. Lyrically, the song isn't necessarily poetic...but the lyrics combined with the music, and Avril's expression of those lyrics creates quite an emotional effect if you can relate to the song. To this day, every time I listen to the song, I can vividly recall the car ride home during which I listened to it on that day. When a song can bring me that much emotion, it has to be pretty powerful.
Best Album of 2011
Goodbye Lullaby by Avril Lavigne
Despite Avril’s brief period of massive popularity in her Let Go days, she received that label of “poser” quickly afterward and people generally stopped caring about her. I think people gave up on her even more after her third album (for non-Avril-fans, the one with “Girlfriend” on it) when it featured far more meaningless pop songs. I have, however, been a fan of hers over the years (although slightly less of one for her last album), and was incredibly excited for Goodbye Lullaby’s release. While I was a bit worried after “What The Hell” and its similar feel to “Girlfriend,” Avril promised that the rest of the album was much more meaningful and more similar to her first two albums. This is a promise on which she definitely followed through. I can’t say “What The Hell” has held much significance to me, nor “Black Star,” solely for its short length – although the piano part is quite beautiful – but all the rest of the songs, I’ve had a pretty strong connection to at some point. What I especially love about Goodbye Lullaby is that, in a day and age where you’re hard-pressed to find pop music that isn’t completely dance-y (not that I don’t enjoy that too, but I enjoy other music more), Avril has stuck to her old style of pop-rock. Acoustic guitar and piano make up almost the entire album, Avril’s voice is excellent, and you can feel raw emotion throughout; as Avril said, she tried to make her voice the main instrument on the album, and not only did she succeed at that, but it’s very effective in making the album excellent. Avril fan or not, I would highly recommend that you look into Goodbye Lullaby if you’re looking for some good music.
In true Firus fashion, I’ve decided to make a long retrospective of sorts on the year, mostly focusing on music, since I feel like sharing my opinions on the over 2000 songs I’ve added to my music library this year.
However, for the sake of my sanity and for the sake of those reading, I will not be discussing each and every album I got like I did last year, and I won’t even list each and every album I got.
What I am going to do is post up each of my 52 weekly music charts from this year, as well as my mid-year and end-of-year charts and a list of which song was #1 on my chart each week, ranking each song based on the points I assign them each week while making my music chart. Even though I don’t imagine anyone will look at each and every music chart in-depth (I don’t think even I could be bothered to look through all of my music charts in their entirety), however much you care to glance at them, they are pretty close to a summary of how my music listening has gone this year. I’d also like to give a brief summary of notable albums of the year, both bad and good.
As for 2011 as a whole…well, it has been the best year of my life up to this point, by far, in stark contrast to the low point that 2010 was for me. It has, essentially, been a very hectic year full of changes, both physically and mentally. There have certainly been some negative changes, but for the most part, I’d say it’s been a change for the better. Despite there being an entire half a year between then and now, what happened in the first half of the year (and the events leading up to that) has changed my life to such an extent that it has greatly affected the rest of the year, and I see it going on to affect my entire life.
Music has pretty much defined this year. While music has always been a pretty significant piece of my life, and while I had a great year of music last year – a year which I did not imagine could be matched in 2011 – 2011 has been full of great, new music, and memories to accompany both new and old music. From the rejuvenation I felt while blasting Yellowcard’s “Be The Young” at the conclusion of my final AP exam, to the sadness I felt as I listened to Avril Lavigne’s “Goodbye” when I had to say goodbye to someone dear to me, and the memories of winter, snow, and Minecrafting I have when I hear The Script’s “Science & Faith,” to the memory of first hearing the techno remix of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” as my AP U.S. History teacher blasted it at full volume, the songs that I’ve really enjoyed this year are associated with a lot of emotions and memories.
As far as my music charts go…well, I’ve spent more than a little bit of time on them. Last year, it started out as quickly picking twenty songs I’d liked that week, arranging them as best I could, and then taking a quick screencap and cutting it down. That evolved to my system throughout 2011, where I keep track of songs I’m particularly enjoying throughout the week and at the end of the week, I put together an ordered list of 50 of them, update their peak positions and the weeks they’ve been on my chart, calculate the points earned on that week and add it to the current total. Then, I screencap it and compile it along with the single artwork for the top ten songs on my chart; this proves to be a particular pain because many of the songs I chart have not been singles in and of themselves, and I enjoy it enough that I will make single artwork as best as I can. Some attempts have been better than others; as you glance through my music charts (that is, those from the end of March onward, as I usually just used the whole album’s artwork before that) you can judge for yourself how successful that was.
My points system, which allowed me to make my mid-year and year-end charts somewhat accurately, is what ultimately took the longest. I don’t feel like explaining the entire system here, but the points were based on inverse points (song #1 gets 50 points, #2 gets 49, etc.), how many weeks it had on my chart consecutively, and then multiplied by my assigned strength value of the week, plus bonus points for songs returning to #1 or the top five.
The overall accuracy of the system is actually pretty decent; there are some songs in my year-end chart which I don’t understand being there, like “Till The World Ends” – I like that song, but I wouldn’t say it was one of my top 50 songs of the year, or even top 100 – and some songs – like “Goodbye” by Avril Lavigne – deserve to be higher than they are, but my top 5 is extremely accurate, my top 10 is fairly accurate, and my chart as a whole has most of my favorite songs of 2011.
That said, my points system gave far too many points for songs charting for a number of weeks in a row. This is because, as much as my songs switch from week-to-week now, a song rarely stayed on there for more than a week or two when I made the system.
Back to my music charts, though, as is probably evident, I highly recommend the songs on my year-end chart, but I very, very highly recommend the top few. Imogen Heap (who was half of Frou Frou) is an amazing artist, and “Hear Me Out” is one of my favorite songs by her. The lyrics are great (and unfortunately, far too relatable for me), her vocals are excellent as always, and the instrumentation is wonderful, and what really amazes me is that the song samples “An Ending (Ascent)” by Brian Eno in the background of a good portion of the song. You wouldn’t think that an ambient song sampled in the background like it is would necessarily work well, but it is pulled off excellently; so excellently, in fact, that I charted the original song, a self-made instrumental version of it (through the use of Audacity), and a live version of the song (despite the poor recording quality) throughout this year.
Which leads me to my next point; “An Ending (Ascent),” my #3, is probably the most beautiful song I have ever heard. I’m not big on instrumental songs, generally, but it is such a calming, beautiful piece of music that I’ve listened to it extensively this year, particularly as a good song to which to fall asleep.
Anyway, that’s enough summary of my music charts. Here are all of my music charts, my #1 songs, and then some of my most notable albums of 2011.
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[collapse=Number Ones]01-07-11 Pearl – Katy Perry
01-14-11 Cry – Faith Hill
01-21-11 Right On Back To You – Keith Urban
01-28-11 Hear Me Out – Frou Frou
02-04-11 Wait It Out – Imogen Heap
02-11-11 Pearl – Katy Perry
02-18-11 Recover – Natasha Bedingfield
02-25-11 My Best Friend – Tim McGraw
03-04-11 Hear Me Out – Frou Frou
03-11-11 I Love You – Avril Lavigne
03-18-11 I Want You – Faith Hill
03-25-11 Stealing Kisses – Faith Hill
04-01-11 Wait It Out – Imogen Heap
04-08-11 Smile – Avril Lavigne
04-15-11 Sinéad – Within Temptation
04-22-11 Die Alone – Ingrid Michaelson
04-29-11 You Belong Here - Anberlin
05-06-11 Hear Me Out – Frou Frou
05-13-11 So I Thought - Flyleaf
05-20-11 Me & Tennessee – Tim McGraw & Gwyneth Paltrow
05-27-11 The Edge Of Glory – Lady Gaga
06-03-11 Everybody Hurts – Avril Lavigne
06-10-11 Everywhere – Michelle Branch
06-17-11 The Way I Loved You – Selena Gomez & The Scene
06-24-11 Goodbye – Avril Lavigne
07-01-11 The Way I Loved You – Selena Gomez & The Scene
07-08-11 Setting Of The Sun – Ben Jelen
07-15-11 Brand New Day - Fireflight
07-22-11 Long Hallway With A Broken Light – Thriving Ivory
07-29-11 Hair – Lady Gaga
08-05-11 Moonlight – Thriving Ivory
08-12-11 Comfort Me – Tim McGraw
08-19-11 Comfort Me – Tim McGraw
08-26-11 Lots Sometimes - Glasvegas
09-02-11 Everybody Hurts – Avril Lavigne
09-09-11 Goodbye – Avril Lavigne
09-16-11 Cry – Faith Hill
09-23-11 Repeat – David Guetta feat. Jessie J
09-30-11 Hear Me Out – Frou Frou
10-07-11 Day Of Rain – Thriving Ivory
10-14-11 I Do But I Don’t – Tim McGraw
10-21-11 On Your Side – Thriving Ivory
10-28-11 Our December – Thriving Ivory
11-04-11 Long Hallway With A Broken Light – Thriving Ivory
11-11-11 Come Home – Faith Hill
11-18-11 Something To Sleep To – Michelle Branch
11-25-11 Everywhere – Tim McGraw
12-02-11 All I Want Is You – U2
12-09-11 Hear Me Out [Live] – Imogen Heap
12-16-11 Farewell - Rihanna
12-23-11 Counting Down - Ben Jelen
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Most Unexpected Album of 2011
From Beyond The Sea by Ethereal Beings
Of all the music I listen to, ambient music has not made it into my library very often. Aside from video game music, instrumental music isn’t something I have very much of at all; I find that vocals are generally my favorite thing in music. As such, this ambient album was not one I’d have expected to be in my library by the end of this year, nor did I expect to enjoy it as much as I have. Nevertheless, when I found out that my roommate-to-be had put out this album with a friend of his, I looked into it and was pleasantly surprised. On one hand, I do prefer vocals; on the other hand, there’s a certain effect achieved in From Beyond The Sea in the lack of vocals which works very well. My personal favorites are “S15,” “Shiver in the Wind,” and “Lens Flare”; if you’re looking for something new in your music, I’d definitely recommend giving some of the songs a listen (you can stream / download the album here).
Biggest Disappointment of 2011
Born This Way by Lady Gaga
No matter where you stand on Lady Gaga, there was a lot of hype surrounding the release of her new album. She hyped it up, and as a fan of The Fame and The Fame Monster, I was highly anticipating a new release by her. My initial reception of Born This Way was very poor. After a few listens, it grew on me a bit, but over time, I came to reflect on it further and further and realize that…it fell completely short of expectations, and overall was not that terrific of an album. It has some very catchy songs on it, and I think the saxophone used on the album was very effective. That said, there are some weird-*** songs on the album. “Government Hooker” has a catchy beat and a good beat, and as a history nerd, I love that the entire thing appears to be a reference to the Marilyn Monroe / JFK affair, but was the creepy, seductive male voice necessary? I never understood the hype about “Judas” because it follows the exact same pattern as “Bad Romance,” but I don’t think it’s as good musically or lyrically. I could go on about the strange songs on BTW, but it’d take more time than I’m willing to spend to cover them all. There are songs that I like on the album, but my main problem is that the songs are all either a motivational anthem – or at least something extremely upbeat and catchy – or something weird and outlandish. Even “Yoü And I,” a song which Gaga performed live as a ballad before the album, didn’t end up as the ballad I’d hoped it would be. “Brown Eyes” is probably my favorite song by Lady Gaga – aside from maybe “No Floods,” some of her pre-Gaga work – and it’s because it’s a very raw song; it’s mostly comprised of Gaga playing the piano and singing, which is where I think she shines the most. Even though BTW has 17 total songs, including the three deluxe tracks, not a single ballad can be found on it. Even worse, there isn’t a single mellow song. Slow, mellow, emotional songs are usually my favorite, and there’s not a single sad song on the album. Catchy pop songs are great, but they don’t stick with me for very long. The fact that BTW is comprised either of weird songs that I don’t like or catchy, upbeat songs means that it has little to no lasting value to me. “The Edge Of Glory” is the biggest standout track on the album to me, but that got so overplayed by the radio I hardly enjoy it that much anymore. I don’t know exactly what happened with this album and I don’t know if Lady Gaga will do better on her next album, but for an album which she claimed could be the best album ever, it failed to even match up to her last two albums.
Best-Flowing Album of 2011
Ghost by Devin Townsend Project
On a similar note to From Beyond The Sea, this is not an album I would have expected to become a part of my collection. However, it’s quickly become one of my favorite albums of all time. The new age-y / ambient overtone of the album – despite the presence of lyrics this time – is likely to turn off a lot of people, but I absolutely love it. What impresses me the most about the album is how well it flows together. Individual songs can be appreciated, but I find far more value in listening through the entire album. Very few albums are composed such that they work like this, but it always amazes me when they are. Transitions between song lead directly from one song to another without a break, shining particularly in a few parts; the flow from “Kawaii” to “Ghost” to “Blackberry” in particular is absolutely amazing. I found on more than one occasion in the past semester that playing this album from start to finish helps me just zone in and do what I need to do, because of how beautiful and calming the music is. If you’re big on albums you can take as a whole, or even if you’re just looking for something new, seriously look into Ghost.
Best Song of 2011
"Goodbye" by Avril Lavigne
It might not have made it into my top 10 on my year-end chart, and it may not have even ended up on my chart as much as some other songs that were released this year, but I have a very strong bond with "Goodbye." The first time I listened through Goodbye Lullaby, I wasn't terribly impressed with this song; I gave it 4 stars (I enjoyed the song, but it just didn't have enough to it, I felt). When I watched the bonus DVD that came along with the album and Avril explained how much it meant to her and that it had the most meaning to her of any song she's written, I didn't initially understand, because I didn't feel that much in relation to the song. I didn't end up listening to the song for a while after my first couple listens, and knowing that a goodbye of my own was coming up...I decided to leave it until that day to listen to again. It may seem a bit silly and arbitrary to do, but I think it was a good idea. When I listened to the song for what was almost the first time (I hardly remembered it at all) on that day, I understood exactly why Avril said what she did about the song; it is now one of the most meaningful songs to me in my library. Musically, Avril's vocals are the focal point of the track, and the only instrumentals are acoustic guitar, string instruments, and piano, all of which are soft. Avril's voice shines and expresses the emotion well, I think. Lyrically, the song isn't necessarily poetic...but the lyrics combined with the music, and Avril's expression of those lyrics creates quite an emotional effect if you can relate to the song. To this day, every time I listen to the song, I can vividly recall the car ride home during which I listened to it on that day. When a song can bring me that much emotion, it has to be pretty powerful.
Best Album of 2011
Goodbye Lullaby by Avril Lavigne
Despite Avril’s brief period of massive popularity in her Let Go days, she received that label of “poser” quickly afterward and people generally stopped caring about her. I think people gave up on her even more after her third album (for non-Avril-fans, the one with “Girlfriend” on it) when it featured far more meaningless pop songs. I have, however, been a fan of hers over the years (although slightly less of one for her last album), and was incredibly excited for Goodbye Lullaby’s release. While I was a bit worried after “What The Hell” and its similar feel to “Girlfriend,” Avril promised that the rest of the album was much more meaningful and more similar to her first two albums. This is a promise on which she definitely followed through. I can’t say “What The Hell” has held much significance to me, nor “Black Star,” solely for its short length – although the piano part is quite beautiful – but all the rest of the songs, I’ve had a pretty strong connection to at some point. What I especially love about Goodbye Lullaby is that, in a day and age where you’re hard-pressed to find pop music that isn’t completely dance-y (not that I don’t enjoy that too, but I enjoy other music more), Avril has stuck to her old style of pop-rock. Acoustic guitar and piano make up almost the entire album, Avril’s voice is excellent, and you can feel raw emotion throughout; as Avril said, she tried to make her voice the main instrument on the album, and not only did she succeed at that, but it’s very effective in making the album excellent. Avril fan or not, I would highly recommend that you look into Goodbye Lullaby if you’re looking for some good music.
