My Top 100 Favorite Songs part 1: #100-96
It's taken me quite a while to narrow my massive library down to my top 100 favorite songs (as of now, there are always new ones!). I've actually listened to my playlist a couple of times now as I've tweaked it and I'm finally happy with it. I'll post 5 songs at a time with a music video for each one. I'll also write a little bit about how I first heard it or became aware of it. Should be fun! Let's start, with #100 (#rank - song - artist - album (year)):
[#100]#100 - Publish My Love - Rogue Wave - Descended Like Vultures (2005)
I first heard this song thanks to last.fm's recommended playlist. It is one of quite a number that will be in this top 100. However, like most of those songs, I never dug any deeper in the artist's catalogs. This song grabbed me instantly with its driving drums and guitar mixed up with soft slow parts. I just love dynamics of this song. I've got no idea about meaning or lyrics for this one. It just sounds wonderful to me.
[#99]#99 - Jumper - Third Eye Blind - Third Eye Blind (1997)
Ah, 90's music. Pretty much all of my favorite 90's music came from listening the The Point radio station while living in Northern California. All those years listening to that station really formed the base for all the music that I've come to love and enjoy. Jumper was one of the early ones for me and Third Eye Blind was definitely a name that I remember from those days because of their vast amount of singles from the first 2 albums. If I actually bough CD's back then, I definitely would have picked up this album, as it also featured Semi-Charmed Life and How's It Going to Be. Anyway, back to Jumper. Like most songs, I don't really much attention to lyrics the first dozen listens. However, it's kind of hard to ignore the lyrics in Jumper. Singer Stephan Jenkins delivers quite a heartfelt song telling a friend that he would understand whatever problem the friend has. That the friend can tell him whatever is tearing them up inside and he won't turn away from them. At least that is my interpretation. It's truly a wonderful song with lots of emotion and a really awesome guitar solo.
[#98]#98 - Hello Benjamin - Melpo Mene - Holes (2004)
This one is a bit more complicated how I found it. First, there was the Volvo commercial back in 2008 that featured a new song by Swedish indy band Melpo Mene called I Adore You. The thing was, I Adore You wasn't available for another 2 months or so. So, I looked up the artist on iTunes and listened to a couple songs of their debut album Holes (which never released in the US and even today you would have to import the CD) and came across this beautiful song. I loved it on first listen and of course I still love it today. Easily the most noticeable thing about the song for me is Erik Mattiasson's voice. It's got this echo effect going on. Even then, there isn't a whole lot of singing in this 4.5 minute song. There is some really sweet guitar riffs between verses and some cool keyboard work. Not to mention the bass groove and AH I love it. Like with Rogue Wave, though, I failed to dig any deeper into his library. He actually released his 3rd album just last year, so I may have to check it out. And it's actually available in the US!
[#97]#97 - Behind Blue Eyes - The Who - Who's Next (1971)
This is easily the oldest song in my top 100. It's also one of the first songs I remember because it is one of my dad's very favorite songs. It's always fun when this song comes on the radio in the car, and dad and me just sing it together. The lyrics are pretty easy and its quite easy to sing as well. Maybe through his love of the song, I came to love it, though I always remember enjoying this song. I don't really like other Who songs nearly as much and as far as I can tell, neither does my dad. There's just something cool about Roger Daltry's singing and it's also got a really awesome guitar solo bridge. The lyrics are quite interesting now that I sit down and read through them instead of just singing it.
[#96]#96 - Crazy Life - Toad the Wet Sprocket - Coil (1997)
Ah, TTWS. There were quite a number of songs I fondly remember from The Point by this band, though at the time I didn't realize they were all done by them, much less what their name was. I rediscovered the band while perusing CD's at my local library branch. The selection was absolutely pitiful, so it was pretty easy to look at every single CD. I noticed the unusual band name and for kicks and giggles, I picked up the two albums they had their, Dulcinea and In Light Syrup. Some of the song titles sounded really familiar, like Fly From Heaven, Something's Always Wrong, and Good Intentions. Plus, there was a song called Hobbit on the Rocks (this was 2003-2004-ish, so Lord of the Rings was quite big at the time). So, I copied them onto my computer and listened to them quite a bit. A lot of fond memories of The Point came back to me. It wasn't until much later when I got iTunes, that I would look up some of their other music and realized there were songs I was missing by TTWS. One of those songs was this one. All of their songs have a similar sound to them and this one is no different, but there was just something I liked better about this one versus those ones. Once again, it wasn't the lyrics. I've never paid attention to their lyrics and that's probably my fault, since they could be brilliant and at simple listening its nonsensical to me. Then again, I usually have trouble hearing exactly what lead singer Glen Phillips is singing. Love the guitar and the melody in this one, though. Plus, the chords are easy to play on the guitar! Always a plus if I can play along :P
OK, that's it for now. For my top 100, I tried very hard not to overload on some artists (looking at you Coldplay, Guster, Switchfoot, etc.), and I think its more of an enjoyable top 100 because of that. I'm going to keep a running total at the bottom of each of these journals for songs from which artists.
[# of songs on the top 100 by artist]Toad the Wet Sprocket (1) - Crazy Life (#96)
The Who (1) - Behind Blue Eyes (#97)
Melpo Mene (1) - Hello Benjamin (#98)
Third Eye Blind (1) - Jumper (#99)
Rogue Wave (1) - Publish My Love (#100)
[#100]#100 - Publish My Love - Rogue Wave - Descended Like Vultures (2005)
Click to viewI first heard this song thanks to last.fm's recommended playlist. It is one of quite a number that will be in this top 100. However, like most of those songs, I never dug any deeper in the artist's catalogs. This song grabbed me instantly with its driving drums and guitar mixed up with soft slow parts. I just love dynamics of this song. I've got no idea about meaning or lyrics for this one. It just sounds wonderful to me.
[#99]#99 - Jumper - Third Eye Blind - Third Eye Blind (1997)
Ah, 90's music. Pretty much all of my favorite 90's music came from listening the The Point radio station while living in Northern California. All those years listening to that station really formed the base for all the music that I've come to love and enjoy. Jumper was one of the early ones for me and Third Eye Blind was definitely a name that I remember from those days because of their vast amount of singles from the first 2 albums. If I actually bough CD's back then, I definitely would have picked up this album, as it also featured Semi-Charmed Life and How's It Going to Be. Anyway, back to Jumper. Like most songs, I don't really much attention to lyrics the first dozen listens. However, it's kind of hard to ignore the lyrics in Jumper. Singer Stephan Jenkins delivers quite a heartfelt song telling a friend that he would understand whatever problem the friend has. That the friend can tell him whatever is tearing them up inside and he won't turn away from them. At least that is my interpretation. It's truly a wonderful song with lots of emotion and a really awesome guitar solo.
[#98]#98 - Hello Benjamin - Melpo Mene - Holes (2004)
This one is a bit more complicated how I found it. First, there was the Volvo commercial back in 2008 that featured a new song by Swedish indy band Melpo Mene called I Adore You. The thing was, I Adore You wasn't available for another 2 months or so. So, I looked up the artist on iTunes and listened to a couple songs of their debut album Holes (which never released in the US and even today you would have to import the CD) and came across this beautiful song. I loved it on first listen and of course I still love it today. Easily the most noticeable thing about the song for me is Erik Mattiasson's voice. It's got this echo effect going on. Even then, there isn't a whole lot of singing in this 4.5 minute song. There is some really sweet guitar riffs between verses and some cool keyboard work. Not to mention the bass groove and AH I love it. Like with Rogue Wave, though, I failed to dig any deeper into his library. He actually released his 3rd album just last year, so I may have to check it out. And it's actually available in the US!
[#97]#97 - Behind Blue Eyes - The Who - Who's Next (1971)
This is easily the oldest song in my top 100. It's also one of the first songs I remember because it is one of my dad's very favorite songs. It's always fun when this song comes on the radio in the car, and dad and me just sing it together. The lyrics are pretty easy and its quite easy to sing as well. Maybe through his love of the song, I came to love it, though I always remember enjoying this song. I don't really like other Who songs nearly as much and as far as I can tell, neither does my dad. There's just something cool about Roger Daltry's singing and it's also got a really awesome guitar solo bridge. The lyrics are quite interesting now that I sit down and read through them instead of just singing it.
[#96]#96 - Crazy Life - Toad the Wet Sprocket - Coil (1997)
Ah, TTWS. There were quite a number of songs I fondly remember from The Point by this band, though at the time I didn't realize they were all done by them, much less what their name was. I rediscovered the band while perusing CD's at my local library branch. The selection was absolutely pitiful, so it was pretty easy to look at every single CD. I noticed the unusual band name and for kicks and giggles, I picked up the two albums they had their, Dulcinea and In Light Syrup. Some of the song titles sounded really familiar, like Fly From Heaven, Something's Always Wrong, and Good Intentions. Plus, there was a song called Hobbit on the Rocks (this was 2003-2004-ish, so Lord of the Rings was quite big at the time). So, I copied them onto my computer and listened to them quite a bit. A lot of fond memories of The Point came back to me. It wasn't until much later when I got iTunes, that I would look up some of their other music and realized there were songs I was missing by TTWS. One of those songs was this one. All of their songs have a similar sound to them and this one is no different, but there was just something I liked better about this one versus those ones. Once again, it wasn't the lyrics. I've never paid attention to their lyrics and that's probably my fault, since they could be brilliant and at simple listening its nonsensical to me. Then again, I usually have trouble hearing exactly what lead singer Glen Phillips is singing. Love the guitar and the melody in this one, though. Plus, the chords are easy to play on the guitar! Always a plus if I can play along :P
OK, that's it for now. For my top 100, I tried very hard not to overload on some artists (looking at you Coldplay, Guster, Switchfoot, etc.), and I think its more of an enjoyable top 100 because of that. I'm going to keep a running total at the bottom of each of these journals for songs from which artists.
[# of songs on the top 100 by artist]Toad the Wet Sprocket (1) - Crazy Life (#96)
The Who (1) - Behind Blue Eyes (#97)
Melpo Mene (1) - Hello Benjamin (#98)
Third Eye Blind (1) - Jumper (#99)
Rogue Wave (1) - Publish My Love (#100)