Earlier this year I set out to find a song released within the calender year of 2010 that I actually liked.
I failed.
I realize that I am getting old, and I also know that probably for as long as there has been recorded music, one generation has been saying to the next, “How can you listen to this trash? That’s not music, it’s noise!” I wonder if we have reached the point for the first time in history where we instead look kids in the eye and ask, “How can you listen to this trash? It’s so boring!” Sad times.
At some point I started listening in my truck to a CD by the band Hole that I received for Christmas one year back when they were popular. (Was Hole ever “popular”? Back when they were on the radio anyway.) It was surprisingly good. Certainly better than what is essentially a glorified vanity project by the widow of a music legend has any reasonable expectation of being. (I miss the ’90s.) I particularly recommend Boys on the Radio.
I did, however, manage to keep a list of songs that I found entertaining this year, even if they weren’t actually released this year:
The Funeral – Band of Horses (2006) There was a show called FlashForward this year that took a fairly interesting premise and a generally talented cast and threw it all away with unlikeable characters making mind-boggling poor decisions. It was mercifully canceled, but I watched the whole season, perhaps out of a combination of boredom and morbid curiosity. Yet somehow, the final scene set to this song made me want MORE. (Maybe I’m just a sucker for a good montage?)
Walk Like a Zombie – The Horrorpops (2005) First let me say that I really do not understand the whole “zombie” phenomenon. A lot of people (a lot of geeks anyway, a category with which I usually identify) seem to think that zombies are inherently awesome, but I simply do not see the appeal. Never-the-less, this song is excellent. I find it to be the absolute perfect blend of macabre and old-timey goodness.
Those songs are several years old though. Since it is my blog and my list, and who honestly cares or even reads this crap at all, I decided to bend the rules and consider songs released in the final months of 2009.
Until the Day You Die – Abney Park (2009) I like to drop the name “Abney Park” now and then with the assumption that no one has any idea who they are. Perhaps I have done it often enough by now that some of you might have bothered to look them up, perhaps not. In any case, speaking of “old-timey goodness”, this song has it in spades.
Since I have previously established that today’s music is boring, I find myself drawn to cover songs and remixes. In that vein we have:
Bohemian Rhapsody -The Muppets (2009) If you happened to be wondering if The Muppets are still relevant in the twenty first century, the answer is “Yes”. I don’t know what else to say, if for some reason you haven’t seen this yet, you absolutely need to stop what you are doing and correct that right now.
United States of Pop 2009 (Blame it on the Pop) – DJ Earworm If you are at all interested in mash-ups, this guy is a master. This song is so much more than the sum of its parts… which is truly a feat considering that many, if not most, of those parts are downright unlistenable on their own. (Although if you happen to feel that the end result is likewise unlistenable, I can respect that.)
The Lovecats – Tanya Donnelly & Dylan in the Movies (2009) Listening to Hole got me thinking about another female fronted ’90s band, Belly, and wondering what Tanya Donnelly was up to these days. It turns out that she is collaborating with some unknown band to really sultry up an old song that, despite being a fan of The Cure, I had never liked in the first place. So that’s something.
My pick of the year for “2010” is:
White Noise – Lauren O’Connell (2009) Remember what I said about girls and acoustic guitars? Nevermind, I don’t either. I discovered this songstress via the much more popular Pomplemoose, who use the same “videosong” production technique*, but I like this song more. It is a bit “folky” and a rather slow starter, but what it lacks in face-melting rock, I think it more than makes up for in bowed banjo solo!
*Which clearly influenced my own Christmas song, which I don’t know, maybe you missed?