"Best of" Tunes

1. Mr. Brightside - the Killers - This is my theme song. I can't tell if it's just my own projection onto their songs, but it seems like the Killers were thinking of me when writing most of their music. Nearly all of their songs reflect pieces of my life. It's interesting to me that I see this in their music. I'm sure that there's a little bit of projection on my part, but mostly they did a good job of capturing my life on their own. Unintentionally, of course.
2. Champagne - Sugarcult - I can listen to this song over and over and over again. There's something so amazingly bittersweet about it that I just love. I don't even know where I heard it the first time, but I feel like I've known it for a very long time.
3. Shape of my Heart - Noah and the Whale - It's happy, it's peppy, it's dark. Awesome. With this song, I get the feeling of conquering sadness and finding the "oh well, it's done, i'll just be singing over here" feeling in life.
4. Change of Seasons - Sweet Thing - This song gets stuck in my head soooo easily. But I like it. It's got a catchy tune, a nice beat, good harmonies, and fun lyrics. Really, it's just a super fun song. I just wish the band had more music I could find. The only place I could get this song was from the Easy A soundtrack. No problem there, it's just a shame that these guys seem to be a one-hit not-quite-wonder.
5. I'm Not Okay (I Promise) - My Chemical Romance - I used to be a little ashamed to like MCR because I considered them Screamo. I mean, really, they scream  a lot of their songs and, let's face it, they're pretty damn emo. It wasn't until recently that someone told me they're not Screamo. I don't know how I feel about that, but I'd gotten over my shame a while ago. This song is wonderfully sarcastic and biting. I love it. Most of my family has a huge problem where we hide our emotional problems and say we're fine, only to have them explode eventually and create a big ol' mess. I tend to do the same thing, but I've been working on that. This song reminds me to let people know what's going on with me and to not be so passive aggressive. If people can't see I hurt, it's not their fault. I swear it's genetic that I'm good at hiding it.
6. Adventures in Solitude - The New Pornographers - You hear a lot about the overplayed songs and the bands that have sold out, but you don't hear about the underrated bands. Why is that? Why can't they have equal popularity?! The New Pornographers are like this amazing secret that you keep trying to tell everyone but they just won't believe you. "What? Clever, yet heartening lyrics? Harmonies like no other? Classic guitar stylings? Awesome rock feel? It can't be. I don't believe you." Well, believe it. The New Pornographers are like this modern re-vamp of a 1950s mystery-show band. Like Josie and the Pussy Cats or Jabber Jaws. They've got the campy feel of one of those classic mystery solvers, with a contemporary twist. It is sincerely the most underrated band I have ever heard.
And about the song: It's just lovely. It reminds me of some comic book where superheroes gather around a once-presumed-dead comrade to welcome him back tot he world. And they're all crying from joy and it's like that moment in a series that everyone remembers as the most heart-warming part.
7. In the Summertime - Mungo Jerry - I don't know how I end up with so much music that people seem to have never before heard. And I don't know how I learned these songs that seem to be the singular hits of super obscure bands. I've never heard another Mungo Jerry song and very few people I know have heard of him either. This song is fun and great to dance to and it really captures my feelings about summer (minus the "women on your mind" part).
8. Wild World - Cat Stevens - I have no idea where I first heard this, but while watching the show Skins, I heard their cover of it and thought, "I remember this song!!" It's a great tune with a catchy chorus and it's awesome to sing along to.
9. If You Be My Bodyguard - Paul Simon - Again, one of those songs that I seem to remember from the vague recesses of my mind, with no actual recollection of how I remember it or from where. The lyrics are fun, it's catchy as hell and really just a great song.
10. Come On Eileen - Dexy's Midnight Runners - This one has all of my friends stumped. Everyone seems to know it, but nobody recognizes the band's name or knows how they learned it. Yet we all sing along at the chorus. TOO RA LOO RA TOO RA LOO RAI - AYE!!! This song is a blast.
11. Dog Days are Over - Florence and the Machine - This song's got some etherial feeling like waking up from a dream and you feel like you're still in it, like you're just some cloud floating through your life. And then it goes into this shouting chorus and you can't help but feel empowered. I first heard this song in my senior year of high school and it definitely gave me the feeling of moving past something crazy. I was in charge of my class's Senior Slideshow, an assortment of photos of the kids growing up, and I wanted to put this song in to give everyone in my class the message of "YOU MADE IT. FUCK YEAH. SCREW THESE HIGH SCHOOL BITCHES." But then my principal told me to cut the slideshow down. So much for princiPAL. But I still get that feeling whenever I listen to this song.
12. Romeo and Juliet - the Killers - Opening with a lovely guitar and piano riff, this song goes into fun lyrics like "You and me babe, how about it?"and pays homage to dorky songs from the nineties. All in all, this song exemplifies the sad bitterness of a bad break-up and speaks out on the dangers of young love. Yay for good messages!
13. The Fear - Lily Allen - Her songs are always fun. Laced with sarcasm and the only good example of cleverly-used swear words, her music is like a bombed photo (in a good way). At first you think it's this lovely family photo; everyone's wearing their Christmas sweaters and there seems to be a halo around everyone's head. But you pass by without a glance. It's a lovely family photo and you're more interested in the pictures of the kids at wild drunken parties. It's not until you stop and look at the photo that you realize there's a giant dick in the background and everyone's holding a doobie, even the baby.
Did I extend that metaphor too far?
14. Stutter - Maroon 5 - I always felt like they were pretty underrated. Pretty much all of their music has a great dance beat and they are fun to sing along to. It's just a shame that all of their songs... wait.... nope, ALL of their songs are about bad relationships. Maybe Adam Levine just has terrible luck with the ladies. Whatever the case, he makes me s-stutter.
15. Send Me On My Way - Rusted Root - Definitely their best song by FAR, Send Me On My Way has the feeling of "Hey, I'm independent!" and it rounds off with a "WOOHOO!" This song is a party all in itself. I know it only because it's in Matilda, one of the greatest movies ever created, and it is such a feel-good song that I downloaded that shit immediately when I had a Matilda flashback not too long ago. Seriously. Matilda.
16. To Binge - Gorillaz (ft. Little Dragon) - This entire album (Plastic Beach) is amazing to sleep to. It's all so chill and laid back. A friend of mine goes crazy for the Gorillaz saying, "They're so minimal, ya know? Man, it's so savage." Yeah, I don't really know what that means, but I agree that their minimalistic beats and melodies in Plastic Beach are exemplary. The rapping, though not featured in this song, is also note-worthy. It seems arhythmic and slightly off, but, like all Gorillaz rapping, is clever and well thought out. In all, they work to really draw you in and, after listening to it more and more, you start to see the really amazing patterns inside their outwardly-apparent lack of rhythm. Bravo, Gorillaz.
17. Did You See the Words - Animal Collective - These guys are just plain wacky. But their lyrics are poetic and just plain beautiful. Every one of their songs is like an acid trip in itself and I'm always transported to some crazy-colorful world of fun and wonder. With Animal Collective, it's like they don't write music with notes and bars and rhythm, but they shape their feelings and emotions into raw sound. And it's beautiful.
In the book The Last Days by Scott Westerfield, he explains this genre of music called New Sound. Unbeknownst to the people in the central band, (spoiler. ya know, if you care) New Sound is actually a literally magical kind of music that can only be made by Peeps, Scott Westerfield's off-vampire super-creature. When the Peeps sing, shit goes crazy and it's like everyone in the room is on drugs. Little fireworks go off in the air, things start to glow, the floor looks like a kaleidoscope of gasoline rainbows and snakes/dragons/writhing tentacle monsters seem to do serpentine movements in the ground. While all of this sounds like wacky fun, Peep music also summons giant, man-eating worms. Bummer.
But I imagine that if New Sound was a real thing, Animal Collective would be the forerunner of the genre.
18. Every Man I Fall For - Cold War Kids - This song is melancholy yet driven and purposeful. I tend to listen to it whenever I'm sad and I'm calmed by it, but even when I'm happy, I feel the purpose and I connect with it. I feel an overall sadness in this song, yet I get just a little happy inside at the image of Nathan Willet falling for men. *swoon
19. Worst Day Since Yesterday - Flogging Molly - Despite the lyrics, this song has a pretty upbeat feeling and an overall not-sad temperament. This song says to me, "Yesterday sucked. Today sucks. But whatever. That's life." It's a song about surviving and just putting up with all of the little shit we deal with day to day. Don't think about the bad stuff, focus on the good parts of life. Because life sucks. That's not negotiable. But you can be happy if you endure.
20. Sweetest Goodbye - Maroon 5 - This song is one of my favorites simply because of the bridge: "Pushing forward and arching back, bring me closer to heart attack." The syncopation and lyrics are just so.... sexy. I always sing along to this song. Sometimes, I imagine I'm singing with Adam Levine. And then it just turns into a dream band with Nathan Willet and Brandon Flowers. Now THAT would be a concert I'd go to.
Front. Row. Seat.