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Link to original post: [drupal=3917]To The Music: Firus's Personal 2010 Music Review[/drupal]
2010 has been the most influential year of my life for my music collection. I got music from 21 new artists (that’s only new artists from which I got at least one whole album, not artists from which I got individual songs), a total of 51 new albums, and 49 new individual songs, to make for a whopping total of 672 new songs throughout the year.
However, it’s not in raw amount of music that 2010 has shaped me; I’ve reached out and expanded into genres I’d never explored before.
Before this year, I was never able to get into country, and I legitimately disliked rap; I had no intentions to explore either genre. Yet I now own three rap albums – all of which I love – and a handful of country albums, and can confidently say that I love the country genre. Through Meta-Kirby introducing me to some really good rap, my AP U.S. History teacher inspiring me to look into country, and Steel being incredibly nice and giving me a huge sample of country to listen to in order to get an introduction to the genre, I’ve broken through those walls.
I’ve pretty much scattered any sense of shame when it comes to my music, too, which I view as a good thing. I don’t see any reason not listening to music I like just because someone else doesn’t like that music, and I’m not sure why people have that expectation.
Not that this keeps me from being judged, of course – only a few weeks back, I was sitting with some friends listening to Taylor Swift’s “Breathe”. They wanted to know what I was listening to, but I didn’t want to – only because I was feeling too tired to go through the explanation of why I like the music I like and all of that junk. Eventually, I finally gave in, after much pressure and insistence by my friends that they wouldn’t judge me.
I showed them and they laughed.
It wasn’t an ill-intentioned laugh, just one of surprise, but it still irks me.
However, I digress. Ultimately, I’m still confused as to why people care so much why other people listen to the kind of music they listen to, but over this year I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter.
I’d like to give a huge thanks to everyone and everything that has contributed to my music library and experience, so I’ll refer to my last blog for those shout-outs, adding Steel to the list, once again, for really helping me out with getting introduced to country.
Without further ado, I present to you the biggest wall of text ever: a personal review of every album I got throughout the year. Accompanying each album is a summary of how I got it, my overall thoughts about the album, and my favorites from the album, in order (the number of favorites I gave was more or less depending on the size of the actual album).
I know it’s huge and I spent far too much time writing it, but I enjoy writing about my music, by the time I realized it was going to be so lengthy I’d made too much progress to throw it out, and I don’t expect anyone to read the whole thing (unless they really want to) – but you can skim through and maybe listen to a couple of my favorites from the albums throughout the year, and perhaps I can help to expand your music library as well.
(And just to note, I don’t pirate my music, and I buy the physical CDs pretty much whenever possible. So yes, I did spend far too much on music this year.)
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- The World Ends With You (Original Soundtrack)
After having gotten The World Ends With You (henceforth TWEWY) for Christmas and starting it three days later, I fell in love immediately – the same night I started it, I was already engrossed. I grew to love the music very quickly as well, causing me to buy the entire soundtrack off of iTunes before I even finished the first week of the game. Considering it’s a 36 song soundtrack for only $9.99, I figured it was well worth it, and it certainly proved to be – the game has a very diverse set of music and I listened to almost only TWEWY music for quite some time, either through regular methods or because I was playing the game constantly. My one gripe with the album is that it, for some reason, does not include the amazing credits theme, “Lullaby For You”, but I managed to track it down by myself anyway. I haven’t listened to music from TWEWY very much recently, but it certainly set a tone for the rest of the year – a mix of all sorts of music types. Seriously, if you own a DS and haven’t played this game you’re doing yourself an extreme disservice; it’s one of the best games for the system for sure.
- Subarashiki Konosekai + The World Ends With You
Pretty much the same stands for this album as the original TWEWY soundtrack – for simplicity, I just refer to this album as “The TWEWY Remix Album” since that’s essentially what it is. I initially just bought four of the regular songs exclusive to the English version of the game, but later ended up purchasing the whole album from iTunes. Not the best deal in the world, but there are some decent songs on the album, at least the four songs only in the English version.
- Dear Agony by Breaking Benjamin
I heard Breaking Benjamin for the first time years ago when they were playing “So Cold” and “Sooner or Later” from their We Are Not Alone album, and I’ve been following them since. Not one of my absolute favorite bands, but they’ve got some good stuff. Overall not my favorite album by them – I think their last one was better – but it’s a good album.
- LOVE by Angels & Airwaves
I've been a fan of Angels & Airwaves ever since I first heard "The Adventure" way back and got their first album, and I-Empire is one of my favorite albums of all time, so you can imagine my surprise when I was trying to find out if they had any plans to release a new album and found out that they had released LOVE a month prior. Even more surprising was the fact that they had released it for free download alone, allowing me to get it immediately. Overall, however, I'd say that this was actually worse for me in the long run because it made getting the album incredibly anticlimactic and I've barely listened to it because I keep forgetting that it even exists. I haven't even really formed much of an opinion of the album as a result. It's definitely good...I just can't say to what extent.
- 10,000 Days by Tool
After Spire introduced me to “Rosetta Stoned”, I looked into more of 10,000 Days and liked it, so I ended up going out and getting the album. I honestly have to say that I’ve found listening to the album to be an experience in and of itself – it’s a really intense album, musically and lyrically. As Spire said when he first introduced them to me, “It's an incredibly important album in regards to mankind.” The whole album is really deep lyrically. I almost feel it’s unfitting to pick “favorites” from the album because it flows so well as a whole and really goes best that way, but nevertheless…
- Bleed American by Jimmy Eat World
I've loved Jimmy Eat World's Futures album ever since I got it years and years back, and over the past two years I've grown from feeling passive towards their Chase This Light album to growing pretty fond of it. I also liked "The Middle" and bought it off of iTunes years back, and I decided it was high time that I bought their first album. Because I knew far less about Jimmy Eat World than I do today, I was confused by Bleed American seeming to be self-titled instead and thought it was their first album. (It turns out they renamed the album Jimmy Eat World after the September 11th terrorist attacks, and Bleed American was the original title.) In any case, I initially latched onto "My Sundown" and "Hear You Me" and didn't listen to the rest of the album very much, but after listening to it more of it over time, I've come to like it quite a bit.
- The Fame Monster by Lady Gaga
While I was introduced to Lady Gaga by Meta-Kirby back in mid-2009 and liked what I heard of her stuff, it wasn’t until one of my co-workers began to whine about Lady Gaga and her “Bad Romance” video that I ended up revisiting her stuff. I watched the “Bad Romance” video as per her suggestion so I could see how weird it was, and initially was swayed by her extremely negative opinion of Lady Gaga, but over time, the song grew on me, and after hearing “Telephone” and “Alejandro” liked her music even more. I was on the border of getting The Fame Monster when Meta-Kirby linked me to “Dance In The Dark” – at which point I was blown away and decided to get the album for sure. The mere eight tracks on the album does leave me wishing there were some more songs, but “Teeth” is the only one on the album I’m really not all that fond of; I enjoy every other song quite a bit.
- The Fame by Lady Gaga
While “Poker Face” and “Just Dance” were the first songs I heard by Lady Gaga and those which initially piqued my interest in her music, I didn’t wind up getting The Fame until a year afterward, at the same time as I was getting The Fame Monster – it was almost an afterthought. Overall, despite being longer, I think The Fame is weaker than its expansion; however, it’s a very “fun” album, so when I’m in the right mood, it works very well; and it still has a good number of strong songs.
- Eyes Open by Snow Patrol
I actually first heard Snow Patrol two years ago, when my sister played “Open Your Eyes” in the car. I loved the song and got that one individually, but it wasn’t until I heard “Chasing Cars” on the radio at work multiple times and grew fond of it that I decided to look more fully into Snow Patrol’s music. Since both of the songs I had already heard and liked were from Eyes Open, I decided to get it. Ultimately, I’m not terribly impressed with the album; a handful of the songs on the album are a little bland and difficult to distinguish from each other. However, when the album shines, it shines pretty brightly, so I’m still pretty pleased with my purchase, given the discovery of some really solid songs.
- Crash Love by AFI
For a while after I got my first album by AFI, Decemberunderground, I got pretty into them, also getting their Sing the Sorrow album (if there are any hardcore AFI fans out there, I’m sure there will be rage at the fact that I don’t have any of their earlier albums). After I listened to almost nothing but them for at least a month, however, I finally couldn’t stand it anymore and haven’t listened to much of them since – AFI has good music, but a lot of it is really depressing, and even though I listen to a lot of depressing music I can only handle so much of their kind of depressing. As a result, I first learned that AFI had a new album months after it had come out, and didn’t wind up getting it until months after that on somewhat of a whim. Overall, I felt the album was far less depressing than some of their previous work, but my feeling for the album is somewhat similar to my feeling for Eyes Open – not much stood out to me, but when something did stand out, it stood out pretty well. Honestly, I haven’t listened to much of the album aside from my initial favorites from the album since the day I got it; but I do still feel it was worth the money.
- Animal by Ke$ha
I was first introduced to Ke$ha when Meta-Kirby mentioned “Your Love is My Drug” in an IM conversation back in June (I don’t keep up on popular music by myself). I thought the song was catchy and all for sure, but wasn’t fully willing to buy it and was apparently too lazy to look into any more of her music at the moment. About a month later, Ke$ha came up again in a conversation with Meta-Kirby and I was introduced to the song “Animal” – Ke$ha’s best song, in my opinion – and absolutely loved it, but after listening to “TiK ToK” and “Take It Off” I wasn’t initially impressed – I think it was pretty much because the lyrics are fairly shallow. About a month after that, I randomly remembered Animal and listened to it again, and after listening to a couple of her other songs decided it would probably be worth getting the album. While the liberal use of autotune does get to me a little, Ke$ha has some really good, catchy music, and seriously – “Animal” alone gave me a lot of respect for her, because that song is great lyrically and musically, in my opinion. In any case, she’s got a lot of good, fun music, and that can be good for all sorts of occasions.
- A Thousand Suns by Linkin Park
Okay…as I’m sure anyone who’s heard anything about Linkin Park’s newest album or any of the album itself will know, this album is extremely different from anything Linkin Park’s put out before, including Minutes to Midnight which was a pretty big departure itself. Nevertheless, I’m not so close-minded as to write it off immediately as a result – in fact, quite the opposite, as I’ve found myself getting minimal enjoyment from their first two albums at any time in recent memory. That said, this sixteen-track album is full of transition-filler tracks that I don’t feel add anything to the album – I think there were five or six of them, but I deleted them from my library because I know I’ll never listen to them. Overall, I’d say the album is decent – half of it is actually pretty good (if you don’t look at it from the perspective of different = terrible, that is), but the other half was really kind of painful to listen my way through, and I’m not exaggerating.
- Dark is the Way, Light is a Place by Anberlin
I’ve been into Anberlin since one of my sisters introduced me to them prior to attending a concert with my other sister and me – while I think their first album is very generic and loud, I’m very fond of the rest of their work. Initially, I was incredibly disappointed with their newest album, save for two songs; however, after listening to the album again about a week later, I found myself very impressed, as well as confused as to why I had seen it so negatively before. I wouldn’t say it’s Anberlin’s best work, but it’s a very good album.
- Winterheart’s Guild by Sonata Arctica
I was introduced to Sonata Arctica when I saw Nightwish in concert a few years back and they opened for Nightwish, and ended up getting their live For the Sake of Revenge album. Recently, I decided that I wanted to hear more of their older stuff, and to hear the songs I’d already heard in studio quality (to be perfectly honest, I’m not entirely sure what the point of live albums is – live versions are generally worse than studio recordings and just have a bunch of concert noise – but I digress). I made this particular selection based on liking the live versions of “Gravenimage”, “The Cage”, and “Victoria’s Secret”. That said, while I like the album, I haven’t been able to enjoy it very much because I haven’t really been in the mood for much metal since the earlier half of the year. It is still a good album, though, to be sure.
- Ecliptica by Sonata Arctica
In the same vein as my reasoning for getting Winterheart’s Guild, I got Ecliptica due to liking the live versions of “Fullmoon” and “Replica” especially; and again, I haven’t been able to enjoy it much despite being a good album, because I simply haven’t been in much of a mood for metal.
- Page Avenue by Story of the Year
This one is a bit of a blast to the past, but I heard “Until The Day I Die” and “Anthem Of Our Dying Day” way back when they were played on Fuse (and back when I still watched Fuse), and sometime recently I randomly looked up “Anthem Of Our Dying Day” on YouTube and liked it, as I always had to an extent. I looked up some of their other songs and liked them as well, so I got the album. Story of the Year has a tendency to be very scream-y, and I’m not a big fan of screaming, so the album isn’t one of my favorites; but there are some pretty good songs on Page Avenue, so I’m overall pleased.
- Invented by Jimmy Eat World
By far, this was one of my favorite albums of the year. Following up from my decision to look into them more back when I got Bleed American, when I learned that Jimmy Eat World had a new album coming out, I was pretty excited and got it right after release. Invented has its ups and downs to be sure, but the more I listen to it, the more I like it. I have to say, though, for some extremely odd reason, I find that the cover of the album and the overall sound of the album makes me think of the ‘50s…it’s not really good or bad, just…odd. In all seriousness, though, it’s a very good album, to such an extent that I can’t even cut it down to four favorites from the album.
- Greatest Hits by Bob Seger
I’m not going to lie, this one was a completely on-a-whim purchase essentially to get one song which wasn’t available on iTunes. After hearing “You’ll Accomp’ny Me” while watching Freaks & Geeks, I wanted to buy it off of iTunes, but it turns out that the original version isn’t available on iTunes, so after a while, I decided to bite the bullet and just buy a whole album with the song, after hearing a couple other songs and deciding it would be worth it. I haven’t really listened to the album a whole lot, so it’s hard to make an overall judgment. As to if it was worth the money to essentially get one song…I don’t remember how much I spent on it, so that’s kind of hard to say as well. It’s decent enough, though; I just need to actually give it a close listen.
- The Breakfast Club: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
I love The Breakfast Club and I found this CD for $3; that sums up my entire reasoning for getting this album. So, I essentially got this album on a whim, and I need to listen to it more, just like Bob Seger’s Greatest Hits – so I suppose it’s fitting that I got both albums at the same time. For $3 and the four songs I’ve actually paid some heed to on the CD, it was definitely worth it, but one of these days I’ll actually get around to listening to the rest of it some more.
- The Script by The Script
Having heard “Breakeven” on the radio, I sampled more of The Script’s music on YouTube and was relatively impressed, so I got their album. Initially, I was dissatisfied, and that impression actually stuck with me pretty strongly until just now. While The Script has a handful of songs that I really don’t enjoy at all, there are a few that are decent, and the remainder are actually pretty good. One thing of note: it irked the hell out of me to find out that people are so oversensitive that they changed the line “Just prayed to a God that I don’t believe in” in the song “Breakeven” for radio playing. It shouldn’t surprise me, but I can’t believe people would be offended by even the potential of someone else not believing in God.
- Stay On My Side Tonight (EP) by Jimmy Eat World
While looking up lyrical interpretations of the song “Cut” from JEW’s Invented album, I saw someone compare it to “Disintegration”. Interested, I listened to the song and found that I loved it. After discovering that there was a cover of “Half Right” also on the album – a song which is referenced in one of my favorite songs by JEW, “Kill” – I decided I had to get the album, even if only an EP. Honestly, aside from the remix of “Drugs Or Me”, I love every song on the EP. Between the amazingly haunting atmosphere of “Disintegration”, the amazing guitar interlude in “Closer” (and I’m usually not a huge fan of guitar solos and the like), and the calmness of “Half Right”, it works perfectly (“Over” is good too, but I can’t think of any particular defining trait of the song). It’s not that the Styrofoam Remix of “Drugs Or Me” is bad, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the original song and I’m not very big on remixes of real songs (i.e., not video game music).
- Clarity by Jimmy Eat World
While looking at comments on the lyrics for various other JEW songs, I noticed people talking about all of their long songs and referencing their longest song, “Goodbye Sky Harbor”, which is a whopping 16 minutes long. Loving long album-enders such as “23”, “My Sundown”, and “Mixtape”, I decided I had to get the album it was on – which it turns out is Clarity. It was while looking up information about Clarity that I realized exactly how wrong I was in thinking Bleed American was their first album, learning that Clarity was actually a pretty influential album (yay Wikipedia). Overall, while the album has a handful of more generic-sounding songs, its good songs are really good, so I’m thoroughly pleased. (Do note that after I ripped this CD, it refused to come out and has done so for the past three months. I have since had to rip every CD I get to my very old desktop computer and move the files over to my laptop. I hate technology a little bit.)
- Played In Space: The Best of Something Corporate by Something Corporate
Following with the theme of chain reaction albums, while reading comments on JEW’s “For Me This Is Heaven” I learned that the song was referenced in a song by Something Corporate, “Konstantine”. I’d never heard of Something Corporate before – apparently they were big years ago and I completely missed their existence. However, I loved “Konstantine”, and while I initially considered buying the song alone, I liked the piano rock style of Something Corporate and liked a few other songs I listened to decently enough, so I got their ‘Best of’ album, the only one with “Konstantine” on it. When I first listened to the album, nothing stood out at all except for “Down” (and “Konstantine”, of course), but as time has passed and I’ve randomly listened to more songs from the album, it’s grown on me immensely, and I’m really happy with it.
- Speak Now by Taylor Swift
This was one of the most surprising albums of the year because of how suddenly and randomly I got it, and how much I ended up enjoying it. My dad apparently ordered the album, and as he sometimes does if he has an album he thinks I may have interest in, offered to let me borrow it. I had recently been inspired to try and get into country a little more, and I knew that Taylor Swift was country-pop, so I was eager to take him up on it. Especially with her later work, her music is much closer to pop than country, but I figured I had to start somewhere. So I took my dad up on his offer, not sure what to expect, and was incredibly impressed with it – my opinion of it has only grown over time. I’d heard “You Belong With Me” and “Love Story” played on the radio at work and I remember hearing her performance of “Innocent” at the VMAs and thinking it was pretty good, but I had never really paid much heed to Taylor Swift. I have a tough time even choosing favorites from the album – there are a few songs on it that are definitely weaker, but there isn’t a single song on the album I would call “bad”.
- Thriving Ivory by Thriving Ivory
I’ve gotta give major props to Meta-Kirby and Xiivi for tag-team introducing me to Thriving Ivory – Xiivi linked Meta-Kirby to the song “Angels On the Moon”, and Meta-Kirby proceeded to link me to it. I loved the song and found it was only $.69 on iTunes, so I bought it. About a month later, I decided to look into their other music to see if it might be worth getting an album of theirs. Relatively pleased with what I heard, I got their first album. My initial listen had me somewhat disappointed – I felt like the album was good, but I couldn’t really discern any particularly good song. Over time since then, I started to enjoy each song more and more, bit by bit, until I liked every song on the album and loved a bunch of them. Despite my initial disappointment, this was by far one of my favorite albums of the year, and it introduced me to Thriving Ivory, which has quickly risen to become one of my favorite bands. Both lyrically and musically, Thriving Ivory is really good.
- Red and Blue (EP) by Stefani Germanotta Band
Anyone who’s somewhat familiar with Lady Gaga will recognize the name “Stefani Germanotta” as being Lady Gaga’s real name. While this EP was never officially released, it was fully recorded and the files are up on the internet. Months back, after I had first gotten into Lady Gaga, Meta-Kirby linked me to a demo of an unreleased song of hers – “No Floods”. I absolutely loved it, so when I was looking around at unreleased Lady Gaga songs on YouTube months later and found a good quality, actual recording of it, I had to get the album immediately. Even if you don’t like Lady Gaga’s music, Red And Blue is a completely different style – if it weren’t for the voice, you probably wouldn’t be able to recognize it as her at all, because it’s very much rock as opposed to pop. Being an EP, it is short, but it’s very good, and if you don’t believe she has a good voice, this album proves pretty clearly otherwise.
- Fearless by Taylor Swift
Following my very good experience with Speak Now, I listened to some more of Taylor Swift’s music and decided to get both of her previous albums, starting with Fearless. I’m not going to lie, I’m a little disappointed in Fearless, especially considering that it’s the album that really seemed to make her popular. That’s not to say it’s a bad album, or that I’m not glad I got it – I’m sure at least part of it is because I was expecting something of a similar caliber to Speak Now, while it is, in my opinion, her best album. I’d always liked “You Belong With Me” when I heard it on the radio at work, but I’d never been very fond of “Love Story”. Honestly, though, both songs grew on me a lot when I heard the album versions as opposed to the pop versions from the radio – especially “Love Story”. As a whole, the album is definitely not as good as Speak Now, but it’s still a solid album.
- And The Dancehall Doctors by Tim McGraw
This album was actually an accident – a good one, but an accident nevertheless. After I had mentioned something about wanting to get into country in my last blog, Steel offered to give me suggestions of where to start, and I gladly took him up on the offer. He gave me a ton of great suggestions – for which I’m extremely thankful – and Tim McGraw was one of the artists I was particularly interested in, so I decided to get his Greatest Hits album. Unfortunately, people are either stupid or cheap, because I got it used, and when I opened it up, the CD turned out to not be the one for Greatest Hits, but for And The Dancehall Doctors. But again – this worked out for the best in the end, because I’m very pleased with what I got. As one of my first two country albums (I tend to buy multiple albums at once, so I got this at the same time as Keith Urban’s Golden Road), I’m very happy with it.
- Love is Dead by Kerli
On three different occasions, Meta-Kirby linked me to Kerli’s “Walking On Air”, because he really liked the song and wanted me to give it another shot (something for which I’m thankful). I thought it was all right the first two times, but not enough to buy it. On the third link, I clicked the link even though in my head I was sure that nothing would change this time – but it did, and five minutes later I bought the song off of iTunes. Of course, I probably should have waited, because about two weeks later, Meta-Kirby said he was planning to get her whole album and I decided to listen to more of her stuff and decided to do the same. It didn’t blow me away, but Love Is Dead is a really good album, albeit incredibly hard for me to peg genre-wise – not that I care, I’ve pretty much purged any regard for what specific genre music is at this point. Props to Meta-Kirby for being persistent here, I’m really glad I got the album.
- Golden Road by Keith Urban
Keith Urban was another one of my favorites of Steel’s country suggestions, so after a little consideration, liking both “Somebody Like You” and “Who Wouldn’t Want To Be Me”, I decided on his Golden Road album. I actually didn’t realize until I was listening to the album that “You’ll Think Of Me” is occasionally played on the radio at work. Initially I remember hearing it on the radio and neglecting it, not really liking it; but it’s grown on me a lot. In fact, with this album in general, I didn’t listen to it too much after I’d just gotten it, but in the past month or so I’ve begun to listen to the whole thing a lot more. Just as with And The Dancehall Doctors, I’m very satisfied with one of my first two country albums.
- Cannibal by Ke$ha
After getting more and more enjoyment out of Animal and hearing about Ke$ha’s plans to release an extension to it similar to Lady Gaga’s The Fame Monster, I got pretty excited, and ended up buying Cannibal on the day it was released. Before I got the album, I already had “We R Who We R” and “Cannibal” and was listening to a fair amount – something I probably shouldn’t have done, in retrospect. The album is a solid one for sure, but the shortness of it combined with the fact that I was already pretty used to two of the songs made it less satisfying. It is a good album, though – the only song I don’t really like on the album is “Sleazy”.
- Carnival Ride by Carrie Underwood
Carrie Underwood was another artist who caught my attention in Steel’s country suggestions. While I hear “Before He Cheats” fairly regularly on the radio at work, I’ve never been a huge fan of it; but after listening to some of Carrie Underwood’s other songs, I was pretty impressed, and decided on her Carnival Ride album. I’m very pleased with my choice – Carnival Ride is a really good album. As I listened through the album my first time, I found myself liking every single song. I haven’t listened to the album quite as evenly since, but it really has some great songs on it.
- Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager by Kid Cudi
By far, this was probably the album I least expected to be getting this year. I’ve never been a fan of the rap genre, at all. I like the rap-metal of Linkin Park, and I like “Handlebars” by Flobots, which is rap-rock of sorts; but straight up rap, I’d never liked. However, one night, Meta-Kirby linked me to “REVOFEV”, and not only did I love the message of the song, but the actual musical aspect of the song was really appealing to me as well. After looking into some more of his music, I decided to get his full second album. I have to say, my first full listen to the album was mindblowing. None of the songs really sunk in all the way – I wasn’t able to pick out most of my favorites until I further listened to it – but just listening to the album from start to finish was just…really heavy. Maybe it was because I was listening to it in the early hours of the morning when the rest of the house was asleep, maybe it was because I was listening to it while I wrote an essay dealing with societal constructs and binarisms and delving into your consciousness and other such fun concepts, or a combination; but the music itself definitely played a part in it. Especially with the closer of “Trapped In My Mind”, The Legend of Mr. Rager creates a really intense atmosphere. But beyond my first listen, I really like the album. For my first rap album, I’m incredibly impressed. While I wasn’t hugely impressed initially, as time goes on I love more and more of it.
- Taylor Swift by Taylor Swift
Continuing in my love of Speak Now, I got Taylor Swift’s first album. Despite being somewhat disappointed with Fearless, I’m actually quite pleased with her first album. I still wouldn’t say it’s quite as good as Speak Now, but it’s still a very good album (and also her most country album, albeit still more country-pop).
- Get Closer by Keith Urban
After being happy with Golden Road, I was looking for some more country to get and some more Keith Urban music to get. At some point, I stumbled upon Steel telling Jungle (yeah, I have a tendency to get bored and stalk VMs sometimes) that Keith Urban had just released a new album that was really good, so I decided to get it. I was truly impressed with the album on first listen, but I was somewhat distracted while I listened to it so I wasn’t able to pick out any big favorites initially. Over time, though, I’m finding myself listening to each song and realizing how good the album is. Given that it’s only 8 songs, it’s a little short, but there isn’t a single bad song on the album.
- Pink Friday by Nicki Minaj
In efforts by Meta-Kirby to get me into some more rap, he linked me to “Check It Out”, and I liked the song quite a bit. When he linked me to “Last Chance” and I liked that one as well, I decided to get Nicki Minaj’s album for sure, and I wasn’t let down at all. Nicki Minaj has some really good lines. Even though her songs aren’t the most meaningful in the world, she’s got a lot of really good motivational/angry music.
- Number One Hits by Tim McGraw
Following my failure to get Tim McGraw’s Greatest Hits the first time, I intended to go back and actually get that album, until I learned that Tim McGraw had his Number One Hits album coming out soon, which would have more songs than the regular Greatest Hits, as well as the song “Felt Good On My Lips”, which I liked. As such, I decided to hold off and get Number One Hits instead – and it turns out it was definitely for the best, because I absolutely love the album.
- Speak Now [Deluxe Edition] by Taylor Swift
This album was an absolute pain in the butt to find. After loving Speak Now so much, I decided that, since I had only borrowed the album to rip and didn’t have a copy myself, I wanted to have my own copy and figured it would be good to get the Deluxe Edition of it. Unfortunately, the Deluxe Edition is only sold at Target, and the Target by me decided to be terrible at stocking Speak Now at all, so it took me over a month before I finally found it. The deluxe tracks of the album didn’t blow me away, but they’re still decent enough, and it’s nice to have my own copy of the album, so I’m glad I got it.
- Man On The Moon: The End Of Day by Kid Cudi
When Meta-Kirby first introduced me to Kid Cudi, he cited off one of his favorite lines, which came from his first album: “I’ll be the underdog all along ‘til I’m gone/I will live through this song/I’ll be strong through the haters”. At some random point a month later, I remembered that line and decided to look up the song it came from, and liked it. Afterward, I looked up another random song from the album – “Up Up & Away” – and was thoroughly impressed, so I decided to get the album. It was somewhat of a pain to find, but I found it and was blown away. Not only does the album flow as well as – if not better than – Kid Cudi’s second album, but I also like every song on the album to some extent. This album was definitely one of my best purchases of the year.
- Strip Me by Natasha Bedingfield
Natasha Bedingfield has some fairly good music, but they play her two most popular songs (“Unwritten” and “Pocketful of Sunshine”) ad nauseam on the radio at work, so I can’t really stand them anymore. However, when Meta-Kirby linked me to her new song, “Strip Me”, I was pretty impressed and considered getting her album. When I looked into it a little and found out her new album was coming out the following day, I looked up a couple more songs and decided it was worth getting. I’m thoroughly impressed with the album – the songs are all very powerful and motivational.
- Enjoy the Ride by Sugarland
Though the getting of this album was a little delayed, Sugarland was another one of the country artists Steel introduced me to that I liked. It turned out my dad had the album, so I borrowed it from him. I haven’t listened to the album too much (which tends to happen when I don’t buy an album myself – I tend to remember it less for whatever reason), but I definitely like Sugarland and the album itself, so I need to make an effort to listen to it some more.
- Southern Voice by Tim McGraw
Since I’ve grown to absolutely love Tim McGraw’s music, while I was borrowing Enjoy The Ride from my dad, I decided to borrow Southern Voice as well. As with the other two albums of his that I have, Southern Voice hasn’t disappointed. It’s not the best album, but it’s got some really good songs on it.
- Need You Now by Lady Antebellum
Since it first came out, I’ve heard Lady Antebellum’s song “Need You Now” on the radio at work. Initially, I sort of liked the song, but as time went on, I grew to hate it because it was overplayed. Then, more recently, I began to like it again (this is a fairly typical cycle for me with songs that they play a lot on the radio at work), and one day at the mall I listened to a few samples from the album and decided to buy it on somewhat of a whim. Need You Now didn’t blow me away, but it’s definitely a good album, and I’m glad I got it.
- Static Prevails by Jimmy Eat World
The album which completes my Jimmy Eat World discography (the only other full-length album they made – their first album – isn’t in production anymore) was, unfortunately, somewhat of a letdown. I noticed a slightly more punk sound in Clarity, and Static Prevails is almost all punk. I’m not a very big fan of punk – I find it incredibly hard to discern punk songs from one another, because they all sound so generic to me. That said, I don’t sorely regret getting the album or anything. It still has some good songs and it’s good to be able to see how far JEW has come.
- Through Yourself & Back Again by Thriving Ivory
After falling in love with Thriving Ivory’s first album, I decided to get their second album. In typical Thriving Ivory fashion (for me, at least), my initial impression wasn’t bad, per se, but nothing really stood out. None of the songs blew me away. Within a week, however, that changed, and I’ve already grown to love the album even more than Thriving Ivory’s first album. While I love their first album, Through Yourself & Back Again takes what their first album did and improves it, adding diversity all the while. Between the vocals, guitars, and piano, and their fusion with great lyrics, this album was easily one of my best of 2010 despite the fact that I got it a week before the year ended.
- North by Something Corporate
After being very satisfied with Something Corporate’s “Best Of” album, I decided to get a regular album of theirs, which had a few songs I already knew I liked. Unfortunately, I didn’t fully take into account the fact that the album had a lot of songs I’d already gotten from Played In Space (5, to be exact), so ultimately I only got 7 new songs. Nevertheless, for only seven new songs, I’m very happy with North.
- For Those Who Wait by Fireflight
I’ve had Fireflight’s The Healing of Harms album for a while, and it’s a decent album, so when my sister offered to let me borrow For Those Who Wait I figured I’d give it a shot. I really like Fireflight’s style of music and the lead singer’s voice is really good; however, the one issue is that Fireflight is a Christian band…which does not bother me in and of itself, don’t get me wrong; but with a lot of their songs there’s a clear religious influence in the lyrics and it just makes it very hard for me as an atheist/agnostic to relate to. Some songs that do have a clear religious influence can have another meaning and it’s therefore not impossible for me to listen to it and relate to it, but many of the songs I can’t listen to very well at all and didn’t keep the songs which did that. Nevertheless, For Those Who Wait has enough somewhat ambiguous songs that I’m pretty satisfied with what I got.
- Civil Twilight by Civil Twilight
When my sister saw Anberlin in concert a few months back, Civil Twilight opened for them and she was impressed, so I ended up getting her their first (and only) album for her birthday. When she was letting me borrow a handful of albums (and I was lending to her a handful of albums), she offered Civil Twilight to me too, and since I’d heard some of their stuff and liked it, I took it. Civil Twilight’s musical style isn’t my favorite, but it’s pretty intriguing and unique. That said, as unique as it is, I haven’t given it a whole lot of attention yet, so I don’t feel fully able to make a judgment on it yet; but Civil Twilight’s pretty good.
- Unbreakable by Fireflight
At the same time as my sister was lending For Those Who Wait and Civil Twilight, she lent me Unbreakable. Ultimately, my feel for the album is essentially the same as that of For Those Who Wait, though I think I like it a little better.
- Teenage Dream by Katy Perry
I hadn’t really listened to much of Katy Perry’s music (aside from hearing “Hot N Cold” on the radio frequently) until Meta-Kirby linked me to “Firework” back in late August. I really liked the song, but didn’t end up buying it off of iTunes until about a month later when I randomly remembered it again, and I absolutely loved (and still do love, for that matter) that song. On top of being a great song in general, it’s been one of my top motivational songs over the past few months, attempting to keep me optimistic when I’m at my worst. I also heard “California Gurls” pretty frequently on the radio for some time (they spontaneously stopped playing it for some reason). Anyway, I considered getting the full album for a while, and finally, in the last week of December, I listened to a couple other songs and decided to do it. Katy Perry has a bad rap, and some of her songs are a little shallow and promiscuous, but her music is generally very catchy, and her voice is really powerful, so I’m happy with Teenage Dream and don’t really care what other people say.
- Speak for Yourself by Imogen Heap
I first heard Imogen Heap’s music over a year ago, when Meta-Kirby linked me to “The Moment I Said It”, which is by far one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. It also works beautifully for Mirror’s Edge, something which I found out that same night. Earlier this year, Meta-Kirby also linked me to her song “Hide and Seek”, which I also bought. Towards the end of the year, Meta-Kirby was introducing me to a few more songs by her and I decided it was finally time to get her whole Speak for Yourself album. Ultimately, I’m extremely impressed. Imogen Heap has a beautiful, poignant voice, and her music style is unique and great. It’s also worth noting that all of her music works absolutely perfectly with Mirror’s Edge, which is a big plus seeing as it’s my favorite game of all time.
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If I made any mistakes that you notice, particularly with wrong links or anything (my copy feature has a tendency to fail me), be sure to let me know, it’s a little hard to go back through the whole thing carefully.
Going into 2011, I hope to continue exploring music and expanding my world, but I’m extremely pleased with the progress I made in 2010.
Thanks to anyone who read any part of this blog!
- Firus
2010 has been the most influential year of my life for my music collection. I got music from 21 new artists (that’s only new artists from which I got at least one whole album, not artists from which I got individual songs), a total of 51 new albums, and 49 new individual songs, to make for a whopping total of 672 new songs throughout the year.
However, it’s not in raw amount of music that 2010 has shaped me; I’ve reached out and expanded into genres I’d never explored before.
Before this year, I was never able to get into country, and I legitimately disliked rap; I had no intentions to explore either genre. Yet I now own three rap albums – all of which I love – and a handful of country albums, and can confidently say that I love the country genre. Through Meta-Kirby introducing me to some really good rap, my AP U.S. History teacher inspiring me to look into country, and Steel being incredibly nice and giving me a huge sample of country to listen to in order to get an introduction to the genre, I’ve broken through those walls.
I’ve pretty much scattered any sense of shame when it comes to my music, too, which I view as a good thing. I don’t see any reason not listening to music I like just because someone else doesn’t like that music, and I’m not sure why people have that expectation.
Not that this keeps me from being judged, of course – only a few weeks back, I was sitting with some friends listening to Taylor Swift’s “Breathe”. They wanted to know what I was listening to, but I didn’t want to – only because I was feeling too tired to go through the explanation of why I like the music I like and all of that junk. Eventually, I finally gave in, after much pressure and insistence by my friends that they wouldn’t judge me.
I showed them and they laughed.
It wasn’t an ill-intentioned laugh, just one of surprise, but it still irks me.
However, I digress. Ultimately, I’m still confused as to why people care so much why other people listen to the kind of music they listen to, but over this year I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter.
I’d like to give a huge thanks to everyone and everything that has contributed to my music library and experience, so I’ll refer to my last blog for those shout-outs, adding Steel to the list, once again, for really helping me out with getting introduced to country.
Without further ado, I present to you the biggest wall of text ever: a personal review of every album I got throughout the year. Accompanying each album is a summary of how I got it, my overall thoughts about the album, and my favorites from the album, in order (the number of favorites I gave was more or less depending on the size of the actual album).
I know it’s huge and I spent far too much time writing it, but I enjoy writing about my music, by the time I realized it was going to be so lengthy I’d made too much progress to throw it out, and I don’t expect anyone to read the whole thing (unless they really want to) – but you can skim through and maybe listen to a couple of my favorites from the albums throughout the year, and perhaps I can help to expand your music library as well.
(And just to note, I don’t pirate my music, and I buy the physical CDs pretty much whenever possible. So yes, I did spend far too much on music this year.)
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- The World Ends With You (Original Soundtrack)
After having gotten The World Ends With You (henceforth TWEWY) for Christmas and starting it three days later, I fell in love immediately – the same night I started it, I was already engrossed. I grew to love the music very quickly as well, causing me to buy the entire soundtrack off of iTunes before I even finished the first week of the game. Considering it’s a 36 song soundtrack for only $9.99, I figured it was well worth it, and it certainly proved to be – the game has a very diverse set of music and I listened to almost only TWEWY music for quite some time, either through regular methods or because I was playing the game constantly. My one gripe with the album is that it, for some reason, does not include the amazing credits theme, “Lullaby For You”, but I managed to track it down by myself anyway. I haven’t listened to music from TWEWY very much recently, but it certainly set a tone for the rest of the year – a mix of all sorts of music types. Seriously, if you own a DS and haven’t played this game you’re doing yourself an extreme disservice; it’s one of the best games for the system for sure.
- ”Underground”
- ”Calling” [This makes for a wonderfully punny ringtone, by the way.]
- ”Amnesia” [Such a sad song; I’ve had it as my title screen music since the moment I got the CD in-game.]
- ”Someday [English]”
- ”Ooparts”
- ”Game Over” [I love that this song actually references 2chan, at about 1:07.]
- ”Twister (Remix)”
- Subarashiki Konosekai + The World Ends With You
Pretty much the same stands for this album as the original TWEWY soundtrack – for simplicity, I just refer to this album as “The TWEWY Remix Album” since that’s essentially what it is. I initially just bought four of the regular songs exclusive to the English version of the game, but later ended up purchasing the whole album from iTunes. Not the best deal in the world, but there are some decent songs on the album, at least the four songs only in the English version.
- Dear Agony by Breaking Benjamin
I heard Breaking Benjamin for the first time years ago when they were playing “So Cold” and “Sooner or Later” from their We Are Not Alone album, and I’ve been following them since. Not one of my absolute favorite bands, but they’ve got some good stuff. Overall not my favorite album by them – I think their last one was better – but it’s a good album.
- LOVE by Angels & Airwaves
I've been a fan of Angels & Airwaves ever since I first heard "The Adventure" way back and got their first album, and I-Empire is one of my favorite albums of all time, so you can imagine my surprise when I was trying to find out if they had any plans to release a new album and found out that they had released LOVE a month prior. Even more surprising was the fact that they had released it for free download alone, allowing me to get it immediately. Overall, however, I'd say that this was actually worse for me in the long run because it made getting the album incredibly anticlimactic and I've barely listened to it because I keep forgetting that it even exists. I haven't even really formed much of an opinion of the album as a result. It's definitely good...I just can't say to what extent.
- 10,000 Days by Tool
After Spire introduced me to “Rosetta Stoned”, I looked into more of 10,000 Days and liked it, so I ended up going out and getting the album. I honestly have to say that I’ve found listening to the album to be an experience in and of itself – it’s a really intense album, musically and lyrically. As Spire said when he first introduced them to me, “It's an incredibly important album in regards to mankind.” The whole album is really deep lyrically. I almost feel it’s unfitting to pick “favorites” from the album because it flows so well as a whole and really goes best that way, but nevertheless…
- ”Rosetta Stoned”
- ”Vicarious”
- ”10,000 Days (Wings Part 2)”
- ”Viginti Tres” [An odd song to be sure, but no other song has ever left me so creeped out so I have to give it props for that.]
- Bleed American by Jimmy Eat World
I've loved Jimmy Eat World's Futures album ever since I got it years and years back, and over the past two years I've grown from feeling passive towards their Chase This Light album to growing pretty fond of it. I also liked "The Middle" and bought it off of iTunes years back, and I decided it was high time that I bought their first album. Because I knew far less about Jimmy Eat World than I do today, I was confused by Bleed American seeming to be self-titled instead and thought it was their first album. (It turns out they renamed the album Jimmy Eat World after the September 11th terrorist attacks, and Bleed American was the original title.) In any case, I initially latched onto "My Sundown" and "Hear You Me" and didn't listen to the rest of the album very much, but after listening to it more of it over time, I've come to like it quite a bit.
- ”My Sundown” [Between the mood and the great lyrics, this is one of my favorite songs of all time.]
- ”Hear You Me”
- ”Get It Faster”
- ”Cautioners”
- The Fame Monster by Lady Gaga
While I was introduced to Lady Gaga by Meta-Kirby back in mid-2009 and liked what I heard of her stuff, it wasn’t until one of my co-workers began to whine about Lady Gaga and her “Bad Romance” video that I ended up revisiting her stuff. I watched the “Bad Romance” video as per her suggestion so I could see how weird it was, and initially was swayed by her extremely negative opinion of Lady Gaga, but over time, the song grew on me, and after hearing “Telephone” and “Alejandro” liked her music even more. I was on the border of getting The Fame Monster when Meta-Kirby linked me to “Dance In The Dark” – at which point I was blown away and decided to get the album for sure. The mere eight tracks on the album does leave me wishing there were some more songs, but “Teeth” is the only one on the album I’m really not all that fond of; I enjoy every other song quite a bit.
- The Fame by Lady Gaga
While “Poker Face” and “Just Dance” were the first songs I heard by Lady Gaga and those which initially piqued my interest in her music, I didn’t wind up getting The Fame until a year afterward, at the same time as I was getting The Fame Monster – it was almost an afterthought. Overall, despite being longer, I think The Fame is weaker than its expansion; however, it’s a very “fun” album, so when I’m in the right mood, it works very well; and it still has a good number of strong songs.
- ”Brown Eyes”
- ”Summerboy”
- ”Just Dance”
- ”I Like It Rough”
- Eyes Open by Snow Patrol
I actually first heard Snow Patrol two years ago, when my sister played “Open Your Eyes” in the car. I loved the song and got that one individually, but it wasn’t until I heard “Chasing Cars” on the radio at work multiple times and grew fond of it that I decided to look more fully into Snow Patrol’s music. Since both of the songs I had already heard and liked were from Eyes Open, I decided to get it. Ultimately, I’m not terribly impressed with the album; a handful of the songs on the album are a little bland and difficult to distinguish from each other. However, when the album shines, it shines pretty brightly, so I’m still pretty pleased with my purchase, given the discovery of some really solid songs.
- Crash Love by AFI
For a while after I got my first album by AFI, Decemberunderground, I got pretty into them, also getting their Sing the Sorrow album (if there are any hardcore AFI fans out there, I’m sure there will be rage at the fact that I don’t have any of their earlier albums). After I listened to almost nothing but them for at least a month, however, I finally couldn’t stand it anymore and haven’t listened to much of them since – AFI has good music, but a lot of it is really depressing, and even though I listen to a lot of depressing music I can only handle so much of their kind of depressing. As a result, I first learned that AFI had a new album months after it had come out, and didn’t wind up getting it until months after that on somewhat of a whim. Overall, I felt the album was far less depressing than some of their previous work, but my feeling for the album is somewhat similar to my feeling for Eyes Open – not much stood out to me, but when something did stand out, it stood out pretty well. Honestly, I haven’t listened to much of the album aside from my initial favorites from the album since the day I got it; but I do still feel it was worth the money.
- ”Okay, I Feel Better Now”
- ”Darling, I Want to Destroy You” [I couldn’t find a single regular version of this song that hadn’t been removed, a live one is the best I could find.]
- ”It Was Mine” [Any 1984 fans out there, I can’t help but think of the novel every time I hear this song.]
- ”End Transmission”
- Animal by Ke$ha
I was first introduced to Ke$ha when Meta-Kirby mentioned “Your Love is My Drug” in an IM conversation back in June (I don’t keep up on popular music by myself). I thought the song was catchy and all for sure, but wasn’t fully willing to buy it and was apparently too lazy to look into any more of her music at the moment. About a month later, Ke$ha came up again in a conversation with Meta-Kirby and I was introduced to the song “Animal” – Ke$ha’s best song, in my opinion – and absolutely loved it, but after listening to “TiK ToK” and “Take It Off” I wasn’t initially impressed – I think it was pretty much because the lyrics are fairly shallow. About a month after that, I randomly remembered Animal and listened to it again, and after listening to a couple of her other songs decided it would probably be worth getting the album. While the liberal use of autotune does get to me a little, Ke$ha has some really good, catchy music, and seriously – “Animal” alone gave me a lot of respect for her, because that song is great lyrically and musically, in my opinion. In any case, she’s got a lot of good, fun music, and that can be good for all sorts of occasions.
- A Thousand Suns by Linkin Park
Okay…as I’m sure anyone who’s heard anything about Linkin Park’s newest album or any of the album itself will know, this album is extremely different from anything Linkin Park’s put out before, including Minutes to Midnight which was a pretty big departure itself. Nevertheless, I’m not so close-minded as to write it off immediately as a result – in fact, quite the opposite, as I’ve found myself getting minimal enjoyment from their first two albums at any time in recent memory. That said, this sixteen-track album is full of transition-filler tracks that I don’t feel add anything to the album – I think there were five or six of them, but I deleted them from my library because I know I’ll never listen to them. Overall, I’d say the album is decent – half of it is actually pretty good (if you don’t look at it from the perspective of different = terrible, that is), but the other half was really kind of painful to listen my way through, and I’m not exaggerating.
- Dark is the Way, Light is a Place by Anberlin
I’ve been into Anberlin since one of my sisters introduced me to them prior to attending a concert with my other sister and me – while I think their first album is very generic and loud, I’m very fond of the rest of their work. Initially, I was incredibly disappointed with their newest album, save for two songs; however, after listening to the album again about a week later, I found myself very impressed, as well as confused as to why I had seen it so negatively before. I wouldn’t say it’s Anberlin’s best work, but it’s a very good album.
- ”The Art Of War”
- ”You Belong Here”
- ”Pray Tell”
- ”Closer”
- Winterheart’s Guild by Sonata Arctica
I was introduced to Sonata Arctica when I saw Nightwish in concert a few years back and they opened for Nightwish, and ended up getting their live For the Sake of Revenge album. Recently, I decided that I wanted to hear more of their older stuff, and to hear the songs I’d already heard in studio quality (to be perfectly honest, I’m not entirely sure what the point of live albums is – live versions are generally worse than studio recordings and just have a bunch of concert noise – but I digress). I made this particular selection based on liking the live versions of “Gravenimage”, “The Cage”, and “Victoria’s Secret”. That said, while I like the album, I haven’t been able to enjoy it very much because I haven’t really been in the mood for much metal since the earlier half of the year. It is still a good album, though, to be sure.
- ”Gravenimage” [I absolutely LOVE the first three minutes of this song; I sort of wish the whole song maintained that mood.]
- ”The Cage”
- ”Victoria’s Secret” [Obvious joke is obvious, but the actual song has nothing to do with that.]
- ”Draw Me”
- Ecliptica by Sonata Arctica
In the same vein as my reasoning for getting Winterheart’s Guild, I got Ecliptica due to liking the live versions of “Fullmoon” and “Replica” especially; and again, I haven’t been able to enjoy it much despite being a good album, because I simply haven’t been in much of a mood for metal.
- Page Avenue by Story of the Year
This one is a bit of a blast to the past, but I heard “Until The Day I Die” and “Anthem Of Our Dying Day” way back when they were played on Fuse (and back when I still watched Fuse), and sometime recently I randomly looked up “Anthem Of Our Dying Day” on YouTube and liked it, as I always had to an extent. I looked up some of their other songs and liked them as well, so I got the album. Story of the Year has a tendency to be very scream-y, and I’m not a big fan of screaming, so the album isn’t one of my favorites; but there are some pretty good songs on Page Avenue, so I’m overall pleased.
- Invented by Jimmy Eat World
By far, this was one of my favorite albums of the year. Following up from my decision to look into them more back when I got Bleed American, when I learned that Jimmy Eat World had a new album coming out, I was pretty excited and got it right after release. Invented has its ups and downs to be sure, but the more I listen to it, the more I like it. I have to say, though, for some extremely odd reason, I find that the cover of the album and the overall sound of the album makes me think of the ‘50s…it’s not really good or bad, just…odd. In all seriousness, though, it’s a very good album, to such an extent that I can’t even cut it down to four favorites from the album.
- ”Heart Is Hard To Find”
- ”Littlething”
- ”Cut” [Couldn’t find it on YouTube.]
- ”Invented”
- ”Mixtape” [Again, couldn’t find it on YouTube.]
- Greatest Hits by Bob Seger
I’m not going to lie, this one was a completely on-a-whim purchase essentially to get one song which wasn’t available on iTunes. After hearing “You’ll Accomp’ny Me” while watching Freaks & Geeks, I wanted to buy it off of iTunes, but it turns out that the original version isn’t available on iTunes, so after a while, I decided to bite the bullet and just buy a whole album with the song, after hearing a couple other songs and deciding it would be worth it. I haven’t really listened to the album a whole lot, so it’s hard to make an overall judgment. As to if it was worth the money to essentially get one song…I don’t remember how much I spent on it, so that’s kind of hard to say as well. It’s decent enough, though; I just need to actually give it a close listen.
- The Breakfast Club: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
I love The Breakfast Club and I found this CD for $3; that sums up my entire reasoning for getting this album. So, I essentially got this album on a whim, and I need to listen to it more, just like Bob Seger’s Greatest Hits – so I suppose it’s fitting that I got both albums at the same time. For $3 and the four songs I’ve actually paid some heed to on the CD, it was definitely worth it, but one of these days I’ll actually get around to listening to the rest of it some more.
- The Script by The Script
Having heard “Breakeven” on the radio, I sampled more of The Script’s music on YouTube and was relatively impressed, so I got their album. Initially, I was dissatisfied, and that impression actually stuck with me pretty strongly until just now. While The Script has a handful of songs that I really don’t enjoy at all, there are a few that are decent, and the remainder are actually pretty good. One thing of note: it irked the hell out of me to find out that people are so oversensitive that they changed the line “Just prayed to a God that I don’t believe in” in the song “Breakeven” for radio playing. It shouldn’t surprise me, but I can’t believe people would be offended by even the potential of someone else not believing in God.
- Stay On My Side Tonight (EP) by Jimmy Eat World
While looking up lyrical interpretations of the song “Cut” from JEW’s Invented album, I saw someone compare it to “Disintegration”. Interested, I listened to the song and found that I loved it. After discovering that there was a cover of “Half Right” also on the album – a song which is referenced in one of my favorite songs by JEW, “Kill” – I decided I had to get the album, even if only an EP. Honestly, aside from the remix of “Drugs Or Me”, I love every song on the EP. Between the amazingly haunting atmosphere of “Disintegration”, the amazing guitar interlude in “Closer” (and I’m usually not a huge fan of guitar solos and the like), and the calmness of “Half Right”, it works perfectly (“Over” is good too, but I can’t think of any particular defining trait of the song). It’s not that the Styrofoam Remix of “Drugs Or Me” is bad, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the original song and I’m not very big on remixes of real songs (i.e., not video game music).
- ”Disintegration”
- ”Closer”
- Clarity by Jimmy Eat World
While looking at comments on the lyrics for various other JEW songs, I noticed people talking about all of their long songs and referencing their longest song, “Goodbye Sky Harbor”, which is a whopping 16 minutes long. Loving long album-enders such as “23”, “My Sundown”, and “Mixtape”, I decided I had to get the album it was on – which it turns out is Clarity. It was while looking up information about Clarity that I realized exactly how wrong I was in thinking Bleed American was their first album, learning that Clarity was actually a pretty influential album (yay Wikipedia). Overall, while the album has a handful of more generic-sounding songs, its good songs are really good, so I’m thoroughly pleased. (Do note that after I ripped this CD, it refused to come out and has done so for the past three months. I have since had to rip every CD I get to my very old desktop computer and move the files over to my laptop. I hate technology a little bit.)
- ”Goodbye Sky Harbor” [Couldn’t find a full studio version, as it is this demo is short ten minutes.]
- ”For Me This Is Heaven”
- ”Just Watch the Fireworks”
- ”Table For Glasses”
- Played In Space: The Best of Something Corporate by Something Corporate
Following with the theme of chain reaction albums, while reading comments on JEW’s “For Me This Is Heaven” I learned that the song was referenced in a song by Something Corporate, “Konstantine”. I’d never heard of Something Corporate before – apparently they were big years ago and I completely missed their existence. However, I loved “Konstantine”, and while I initially considered buying the song alone, I liked the piano rock style of Something Corporate and liked a few other songs I listened to decently enough, so I got their ‘Best of’ album, the only one with “Konstantine” on it. When I first listened to the album, nothing stood out at all except for “Down” (and “Konstantine”, of course), but as time has passed and I’ve randomly listened to more songs from the album, it’s grown on me immensely, and I’m really happy with it.
- ”Konstantine”
- ”Me And The Moon”
- ”The Astronaut”
- ”Down”
- ”Watch the Sky”
- Speak Now by Taylor Swift
This was one of the most surprising albums of the year because of how suddenly and randomly I got it, and how much I ended up enjoying it. My dad apparently ordered the album, and as he sometimes does if he has an album he thinks I may have interest in, offered to let me borrow it. I had recently been inspired to try and get into country a little more, and I knew that Taylor Swift was country-pop, so I was eager to take him up on it. Especially with her later work, her music is much closer to pop than country, but I figured I had to start somewhere. So I took my dad up on his offer, not sure what to expect, and was incredibly impressed with it – my opinion of it has only grown over time. I’d heard “You Belong With Me” and “Love Story” played on the radio at work and I remember hearing her performance of “Innocent” at the VMAs and thinking it was pretty good, but I had never really paid much heed to Taylor Swift. I have a tough time even choosing favorites from the album – there are a few songs on it that are definitely weaker, but there isn’t a single song on the album I would call “bad”.
- Thriving Ivory by Thriving Ivory
I’ve gotta give major props to Meta-Kirby and Xiivi for tag-team introducing me to Thriving Ivory – Xiivi linked Meta-Kirby to the song “Angels On the Moon”, and Meta-Kirby proceeded to link me to it. I loved the song and found it was only $.69 on iTunes, so I bought it. About a month later, I decided to look into their other music to see if it might be worth getting an album of theirs. Relatively pleased with what I heard, I got their first album. My initial listen had me somewhat disappointed – I felt like the album was good, but I couldn’t really discern any particularly good song. Over time since then, I started to enjoy each song more and more, bit by bit, until I liked every song on the album and loved a bunch of them. Despite my initial disappointment, this was by far one of my favorite albums of the year, and it introduced me to Thriving Ivory, which has quickly risen to become one of my favorite bands. Both lyrically and musically, Thriving Ivory is really good.
- Red and Blue (EP) by Stefani Germanotta Band
Anyone who’s somewhat familiar with Lady Gaga will recognize the name “Stefani Germanotta” as being Lady Gaga’s real name. While this EP was never officially released, it was fully recorded and the files are up on the internet. Months back, after I had first gotten into Lady Gaga, Meta-Kirby linked me to a demo of an unreleased song of hers – “No Floods”. I absolutely loved it, so when I was looking around at unreleased Lady Gaga songs on YouTube months later and found a good quality, actual recording of it, I had to get the album immediately. Even if you don’t like Lady Gaga’s music, Red And Blue is a completely different style – if it weren’t for the voice, you probably wouldn’t be able to recognize it as her at all, because it’s very much rock as opposed to pop. Being an EP, it is short, but it’s very good, and if you don’t believe she has a good voice, this album proves pretty clearly otherwise.
- ”No Floods” [Seriously, one of the most motivational songs ever. I can’t listen to it without getting totally pumped.]
- ”Words”
- Fearless by Taylor Swift
Following my very good experience with Speak Now, I listened to some more of Taylor Swift’s music and decided to get both of her previous albums, starting with Fearless. I’m not going to lie, I’m a little disappointed in Fearless, especially considering that it’s the album that really seemed to make her popular. That’s not to say it’s a bad album, or that I’m not glad I got it – I’m sure at least part of it is because I was expecting something of a similar caliber to Speak Now, while it is, in my opinion, her best album. I’d always liked “You Belong With Me” when I heard it on the radio at work, but I’d never been very fond of “Love Story”. Honestly, though, both songs grew on me a lot when I heard the album versions as opposed to the pop versions from the radio – especially “Love Story”. As a whole, the album is definitely not as good as Speak Now, but it’s still a solid album.
- And The Dancehall Doctors by Tim McGraw
This album was actually an accident – a good one, but an accident nevertheless. After I had mentioned something about wanting to get into country in my last blog, Steel offered to give me suggestions of where to start, and I gladly took him up on the offer. He gave me a ton of great suggestions – for which I’m extremely thankful – and Tim McGraw was one of the artists I was particularly interested in, so I decided to get his Greatest Hits album. Unfortunately, people are either stupid or cheap, because I got it used, and when I opened it up, the CD turned out to not be the one for Greatest Hits, but for And The Dancehall Doctors. But again – this worked out for the best in the end, because I’m very pleased with what I got. As one of my first two country albums (I tend to buy multiple albums at once, so I got this at the same time as Keith Urban’s Golden Road), I’m very happy with it.
- Love is Dead by Kerli
On three different occasions, Meta-Kirby linked me to Kerli’s “Walking On Air”, because he really liked the song and wanted me to give it another shot (something for which I’m thankful). I thought it was all right the first two times, but not enough to buy it. On the third link, I clicked the link even though in my head I was sure that nothing would change this time – but it did, and five minutes later I bought the song off of iTunes. Of course, I probably should have waited, because about two weeks later, Meta-Kirby said he was planning to get her whole album and I decided to listen to more of her stuff and decided to do the same. It didn’t blow me away, but Love Is Dead is a really good album, albeit incredibly hard for me to peg genre-wise – not that I care, I’ve pretty much purged any regard for what specific genre music is at this point. Props to Meta-Kirby for being persistent here, I’m really glad I got the album.
- Golden Road by Keith Urban
Keith Urban was another one of my favorites of Steel’s country suggestions, so after a little consideration, liking both “Somebody Like You” and “Who Wouldn’t Want To Be Me”, I decided on his Golden Road album. I actually didn’t realize until I was listening to the album that “You’ll Think Of Me” is occasionally played on the radio at work. Initially I remember hearing it on the radio and neglecting it, not really liking it; but it’s grown on me a lot. In fact, with this album in general, I didn’t listen to it too much after I’d just gotten it, but in the past month or so I’ve begun to listen to the whole thing a lot more. Just as with And The Dancehall Doctors, I’m very satisfied with one of my first two country albums.
- Cannibal by Ke$ha
After getting more and more enjoyment out of Animal and hearing about Ke$ha’s plans to release an extension to it similar to Lady Gaga’s The Fame Monster, I got pretty excited, and ended up buying Cannibal on the day it was released. Before I got the album, I already had “We R Who We R” and “Cannibal” and was listening to a fair amount – something I probably shouldn’t have done, in retrospect. The album is a solid one for sure, but the shortness of it combined with the fact that I was already pretty used to two of the songs made it less satisfying. It is a good album, though – the only song I don’t really like on the album is “Sleazy”.
- Carnival Ride by Carrie Underwood
Carrie Underwood was another artist who caught my attention in Steel’s country suggestions. While I hear “Before He Cheats” fairly regularly on the radio at work, I’ve never been a huge fan of it; but after listening to some of Carrie Underwood’s other songs, I was pretty impressed, and decided on her Carnival Ride album. I’m very pleased with my choice – Carnival Ride is a really good album. As I listened through the album my first time, I found myself liking every single song. I haven’t listened to the album quite as evenly since, but it really has some great songs on it.
- Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager by Kid Cudi
By far, this was probably the album I least expected to be getting this year. I’ve never been a fan of the rap genre, at all. I like the rap-metal of Linkin Park, and I like “Handlebars” by Flobots, which is rap-rock of sorts; but straight up rap, I’d never liked. However, one night, Meta-Kirby linked me to “REVOFEV”, and not only did I love the message of the song, but the actual musical aspect of the song was really appealing to me as well. After looking into some more of his music, I decided to get his full second album. I have to say, my first full listen to the album was mindblowing. None of the songs really sunk in all the way – I wasn’t able to pick out most of my favorites until I further listened to it – but just listening to the album from start to finish was just…really heavy. Maybe it was because I was listening to it in the early hours of the morning when the rest of the house was asleep, maybe it was because I was listening to it while I wrote an essay dealing with societal constructs and binarisms and delving into your consciousness and other such fun concepts, or a combination; but the music itself definitely played a part in it. Especially with the closer of “Trapped In My Mind”, The Legend of Mr. Rager creates a really intense atmosphere. But beyond my first listen, I really like the album. For my first rap album, I’m incredibly impressed. While I wasn’t hugely impressed initially, as time goes on I love more and more of it.
- ”MANIAC”
- ”Mr. Rager” [The reverberation effect in this song is amazing.]
- ”Trapped In My Mind”
- ”REVOFEV”
- ”Erase Me”
- Taylor Swift by Taylor Swift
Continuing in my love of Speak Now, I got Taylor Swift’s first album. Despite being somewhat disappointed with Fearless, I’m actually quite pleased with her first album. I still wouldn’t say it’s quite as good as Speak Now, but it’s still a very good album (and also her most country album, albeit still more country-pop).
- Get Closer by Keith Urban
After being happy with Golden Road, I was looking for some more country to get and some more Keith Urban music to get. At some point, I stumbled upon Steel telling Jungle (yeah, I have a tendency to get bored and stalk VMs sometimes) that Keith Urban had just released a new album that was really good, so I decided to get it. I was truly impressed with the album on first listen, but I was somewhat distracted while I listened to it so I wasn’t able to pick out any big favorites initially. Over time, though, I’m finding myself listening to each song and realizing how good the album is. Given that it’s only 8 songs, it’s a little short, but there isn’t a single bad song on the album.
- Pink Friday by Nicki Minaj
In efforts by Meta-Kirby to get me into some more rap, he linked me to “Check It Out”, and I liked the song quite a bit. When he linked me to “Last Chance” and I liked that one as well, I decided to get Nicki Minaj’s album for sure, and I wasn’t let down at all. Nicki Minaj has some really good lines. Even though her songs aren’t the most meaningful in the world, she’s got a lot of really good motivational/angry music.
- ”Fly”
- ”Roman’s Revenge” [Such a weird song, but so good at the same time.]
- ”I’m The Best”
- ”Last Chance”
- Number One Hits by Tim McGraw
Following my failure to get Tim McGraw’s Greatest Hits the first time, I intended to go back and actually get that album, until I learned that Tim McGraw had his Number One Hits album coming out soon, which would have more songs than the regular Greatest Hits, as well as the song “Felt Good On My Lips”, which I liked. As such, I decided to hold off and get Number One Hits instead – and it turns out it was definitely for the best, because I absolutely love the album.
- ”Angry All The Time”
- ”Everywhere”
- ”Last Dollar”
- ”Felt Good On My Lips”
- ”Where The Green Grass Grows”
- Speak Now [Deluxe Edition] by Taylor Swift
This album was an absolute pain in the butt to find. After loving Speak Now so much, I decided that, since I had only borrowed the album to rip and didn’t have a copy myself, I wanted to have my own copy and figured it would be good to get the Deluxe Edition of it. Unfortunately, the Deluxe Edition is only sold at Target, and the Target by me decided to be terrible at stocking Speak Now at all, so it took me over a month before I finally found it. The deluxe tracks of the album didn’t blow me away, but they’re still decent enough, and it’s nice to have my own copy of the album, so I’m glad I got it.
- Man On The Moon: The End Of Day by Kid Cudi
When Meta-Kirby first introduced me to Kid Cudi, he cited off one of his favorite lines, which came from his first album: “I’ll be the underdog all along ‘til I’m gone/I will live through this song/I’ll be strong through the haters”. At some random point a month later, I remembered that line and decided to look up the song it came from, and liked it. Afterward, I looked up another random song from the album – “Up Up & Away” – and was thoroughly impressed, so I decided to get the album. It was somewhat of a pain to find, but I found it and was blown away. Not only does the album flow as well as – if not better than – Kid Cudi’s second album, but I also like every song on the album to some extent. This album was definitely one of my best purchases of the year.
- ”Pursuit of Happiness (Nightmare)”
- ”Up Up & Away”
- ”Soundtrack 2 My Life”
- ”Heart Of A Lion (Kid Cudi Theme Music)”
- Strip Me by Natasha Bedingfield
Natasha Bedingfield has some fairly good music, but they play her two most popular songs (“Unwritten” and “Pocketful of Sunshine”) ad nauseam on the radio at work, so I can’t really stand them anymore. However, when Meta-Kirby linked me to her new song, “Strip Me”, I was pretty impressed and considered getting her album. When I looked into it a little and found out her new album was coming out the following day, I looked up a couple more songs and decided it was worth getting. I’m thoroughly impressed with the album – the songs are all very powerful and motivational.
- ”Can’t Fall Down”
- ”Try”
- ”Recover”
- ”Strip Me”
- Enjoy the Ride by Sugarland
Though the getting of this album was a little delayed, Sugarland was another one of the country artists Steel introduced me to that I liked. It turned out my dad had the album, so I borrowed it from him. I haven’t listened to the album too much (which tends to happen when I don’t buy an album myself – I tend to remember it less for whatever reason), but I definitely like Sugarland and the album itself, so I need to make an effort to listen to it some more.
- Southern Voice by Tim McGraw
Since I’ve grown to absolutely love Tim McGraw’s music, while I was borrowing Enjoy The Ride from my dad, I decided to borrow Southern Voice as well. As with the other two albums of his that I have, Southern Voice hasn’t disappointed. It’s not the best album, but it’s got some really good songs on it.
- ”Still” [This song is so beautiful musically and lyrically, it’s quickly become one of my favorite songs.]
- ”Good Girls”
- ”Mr. Whoever You Are”
- ”If I Died Today”
- Need You Now by Lady Antebellum
Since it first came out, I’ve heard Lady Antebellum’s song “Need You Now” on the radio at work. Initially, I sort of liked the song, but as time went on, I grew to hate it because it was overplayed. Then, more recently, I began to like it again (this is a fairly typical cycle for me with songs that they play a lot on the radio at work), and one day at the mall I listened to a few samples from the album and decided to buy it on somewhat of a whim. Need You Now didn’t blow me away, but it’s definitely a good album, and I’m glad I got it.
- Static Prevails by Jimmy Eat World
The album which completes my Jimmy Eat World discography (the only other full-length album they made – their first album – isn’t in production anymore) was, unfortunately, somewhat of a letdown. I noticed a slightly more punk sound in Clarity, and Static Prevails is almost all punk. I’m not a very big fan of punk – I find it incredibly hard to discern punk songs from one another, because they all sound so generic to me. That said, I don’t sorely regret getting the album or anything. It still has some good songs and it’s good to be able to see how far JEW has come.
- ”Episode IV” [I’m still trying to figure out if this is a Star Wars reference or not.]
- ”Digits”
- ”Claire”
- ”Caveman”
- Through Yourself & Back Again by Thriving Ivory
After falling in love with Thriving Ivory’s first album, I decided to get their second album. In typical Thriving Ivory fashion (for me, at least), my initial impression wasn’t bad, per se, but nothing really stood out. None of the songs blew me away. Within a week, however, that changed, and I’ve already grown to love the album even more than Thriving Ivory’s first album. While I love their first album, Through Yourself & Back Again takes what their first album did and improves it, adding diversity all the while. Between the vocals, guitars, and piano, and their fusion with great lyrics, this album was easily one of my best of 2010 despite the fact that I got it a week before the year ended.
- North by Something Corporate
After being very satisfied with Something Corporate’s “Best Of” album, I decided to get a regular album of theirs, which had a few songs I already knew I liked. Unfortunately, I didn’t fully take into account the fact that the album had a lot of songs I’d already gotten from Played In Space (5, to be exact), so ultimately I only got 7 new songs. Nevertheless, for only seven new songs, I’m very happy with North.
- For Those Who Wait by Fireflight
I’ve had Fireflight’s The Healing of Harms album for a while, and it’s a decent album, so when my sister offered to let me borrow For Those Who Wait I figured I’d give it a shot. I really like Fireflight’s style of music and the lead singer’s voice is really good; however, the one issue is that Fireflight is a Christian band…which does not bother me in and of itself, don’t get me wrong; but with a lot of their songs there’s a clear religious influence in the lyrics and it just makes it very hard for me as an atheist/agnostic to relate to. Some songs that do have a clear religious influence can have another meaning and it’s therefore not impossible for me to listen to it and relate to it, but many of the songs I can’t listen to very well at all and didn’t keep the songs which did that. Nevertheless, For Those Who Wait has enough somewhat ambiguous songs that I’m pretty satisfied with what I got.
- Civil Twilight by Civil Twilight
When my sister saw Anberlin in concert a few months back, Civil Twilight opened for them and she was impressed, so I ended up getting her their first (and only) album for her birthday. When she was letting me borrow a handful of albums (and I was lending to her a handful of albums), she offered Civil Twilight to me too, and since I’d heard some of their stuff and liked it, I took it. Civil Twilight’s musical style isn’t my favorite, but it’s pretty intriguing and unique. That said, as unique as it is, I haven’t given it a whole lot of attention yet, so I don’t feel fully able to make a judgment on it yet; but Civil Twilight’s pretty good.
- Unbreakable by Fireflight
At the same time as my sister was lending For Those Who Wait and Civil Twilight, she lent me Unbreakable. Ultimately, my feel for the album is essentially the same as that of For Those Who Wait, though I think I like it a little better.
- Teenage Dream by Katy Perry
I hadn’t really listened to much of Katy Perry’s music (aside from hearing “Hot N Cold” on the radio frequently) until Meta-Kirby linked me to “Firework” back in late August. I really liked the song, but didn’t end up buying it off of iTunes until about a month later when I randomly remembered it again, and I absolutely loved (and still do love, for that matter) that song. On top of being a great song in general, it’s been one of my top motivational songs over the past few months, attempting to keep me optimistic when I’m at my worst. I also heard “California Gurls” pretty frequently on the radio for some time (they spontaneously stopped playing it for some reason). Anyway, I considered getting the full album for a while, and finally, in the last week of December, I listened to a couple other songs and decided to do it. Katy Perry has a bad rap, and some of her songs are a little shallow and promiscuous, but her music is generally very catchy, and her voice is really powerful, so I’m happy with Teenage Dream and don’t really care what other people say.
- Speak for Yourself by Imogen Heap
I first heard Imogen Heap’s music over a year ago, when Meta-Kirby linked me to “The Moment I Said It”, which is by far one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. It also works beautifully for Mirror’s Edge, something which I found out that same night. Earlier this year, Meta-Kirby also linked me to her song “Hide and Seek”, which I also bought. Towards the end of the year, Meta-Kirby was introducing me to a few more songs by her and I decided it was finally time to get her whole Speak for Yourself album. Ultimately, I’m extremely impressed. Imogen Heap has a beautiful, poignant voice, and her music style is unique and great. It’s also worth noting that all of her music works absolutely perfectly with Mirror’s Edge, which is a big plus seeing as it’s my favorite game of all time.
- ”The Moment I Said It”
- ”The Walk”
- ”Hide and Seek” [Note that this song is completely vocal – there’s merely effects added to her voice to give the sound of instruments accompanying her.]
- ”Closing In” [The background of this song really reminds me of one of the combat songs from Mirror’s Edge, though I can’t remember which.]
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If I made any mistakes that you notice, particularly with wrong links or anything (my copy feature has a tendency to fail me), be sure to let me know, it’s a little hard to go back through the whole thing carefully.
Going into 2011, I hope to continue exploring music and expanding my world, but I’m extremely pleased with the progress I made in 2010.
Thanks to anyone who read any part of this blog!
- Firus
