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  • 2016 Song of the Year

    I have finally arrived at my 2016 Song of the Year. This is the song that has meant the most to me this year.

    Last year, in 2015, my song of the year was Hold Each Other by A Great Big World. This year, my Song of the Year is So Alive by the Goo Goo Dolls.

    So Alive is the first single off of the Goo Goo Dolls latest album Boxes. This single was released in April 2016, and the timing does factor in. To explain, I need to go back to what was one of the biggest stories of 2016: the Pulse shooting. It was the biggest mass shooting in recent American history and one of the worst attacks on the LGBT community.

    And it was very hard on all of us. This song was one I was listening to soon after and it really spoke to me on how to move on:

    Feeling like a hero, but I can’t fly
    No, you never crash if you don’t try
    Took it to the edge, now I know why
    Never gonna live if you’re too scared to die

    That was really it. You’re never going to live if you’re too scared to die. The video seems to reinforce this up as boxer Kristen McMurtree fights against … herself. The person you are often most scared of is yourself.

    Lead singer John Rzeznik said about this song “I don’t want to dwell on the sobriety stuff because it’s an old musician cliché and I’m no different, but the song is about finally feeling normal again, and how normal feels so completely alien when you’ve been sick for so long”.

    Not being sick, being scared, or living a half-life. Instead, living out life to the full, this is what I wanted to do in 2016 and that’s why this was my song for the year.

  • 2016 Top 10 – # 2 – Kids

    Only 2 are left, and number 2 of my 2016 Top 10 is Kids by OneRepublic.

    A I mentioned in my post for Wherever I Go, OneRepublic is one of my favourite bands, and they had 2 bigs hits this year. Kids ended up being the bigger of the 2 songs.

    This song is just infectiously upbeat, and it is impossible to not smile just a bit at this song. I also love this song because I am a tenor and the chorus is just a little bit below the top of my range (unlike guys who sing bass who are all about the low notes, tenors love the highs). I also like the music video which is shot in the style of a “long take”, which is pretty cool (although I think there’s some movie magic editing).

    And on most of the days we were searching for ways
    To get up and get out of the town that we were raised, yeah
    ‘Cause we were done
    I remember, we were sleeping in cars, we were searching for Oz
    We were burning cigars with white plastics tips ’til we saw the sun

    This song captures quite well some of the ambitions of youth. It has some stereotypes like wanting to get out of the town they grew up in, something that is relatable to a lot of people. It also has some of the fantasies of youth, like searching for Oz (or Hogwarts, Endor, Narnia, Gondor, or wherever people wanted to get away to). This ambition can wane over time, but it is something we should hold onto through life.

    I refuse to look back thinking days were better
    Just because they’re younger days

    This is a lyric that has always spoken to me, because I really, really hate it when people wax nostalgically about “the better times”. It is pretty much guaranteed that unless you live as part of the Top 0.1%, life will always get harder at some point and you look back to “better days”. The problem is that you are generally looking back through rose-coloured glasses to times that never really existed at all.

    In that way, this song can be subtly seen as a bit of an anti-Trump anthem. The “younger days” weren’t better. In fact, for many classes and groups of people, those days were actually pretty terrible.

    So don’t be kids thinking about the “better days”.

  • 2016 Top 10 – # 3 – Over and Over

    Down to the Top 3, and #3 is Over and Over by the Goo Goo Dolls.

    Ok, I guess first things first I have to explain the video. There is in fact an official video and a lyric video for this song by the Goo Goo Dolls (I believe the official video was fan created, and the lyric video is a bit … trippy). Unfortunately, both of them shorten the introduction by half for some inexplicable reason cause it’s so awesome. That small, 20 second intro to the song on the electric guitar is one of my favourite parts of this song. As I have pointed out before, I love the sound of the guitar.

    You can listed to a full, unedited version here, and wow is it ever awesome!

    Now, the Goo Goo Dolls are my favourite band, hands down. This song is the opening track of their new album Boxes and is also the song they are currently using to open shows with, including the one I saw in Toronto this past summer.

    (Above: Pictures I took at the concert from my seat. I was pretty close)

    Basically, I love this song because it’s rockin’! But I also like what it says.

    And we go over and over and over again
    Are ya lost in the past thinking what might have been
    You’re here and you’re now started over and then
    Take it over and over and over again

    Basically, what happened in the past is the past. You have the ability to move past it, and start again. That was something I really needed to hear this year, so that’s what makes it one of my top songs for 2016.

     

    Now a little housekeeping business. I’ve got 2 songs left, and my plan is to release those next Tuesday (Dec. 27) and Thursday (Dec. 29).

  • 2016 Top 10 – # 4 – Magnetised

    Number 5 of my 2016 Top 10 is Magnetised by Tom Odell.

    Yes, I realize right away that the title looks misspelled, but it’s not because Tom Odell is British, and the British spelling is “Magnetised” without the “z”. As I mentioned last week in 11 Blocks, I’m also going to be working again with analogous situations, but since Tom Odell joined the Human Rights Campaign’s “Equality Rocks” campaign, I feel like this is also fair game and he would probably support this.

    ‘Cause it’s not right, I’m magnetised
    To somebody that don’t feel it
    Love paralyzed, she’s never gonna need me

     What this song touches on is unrequited love, but I love the metaphor used to describe it: they’re not magnetized towards me. Back when I first discovered this song in the summer, I tweeted out the following:

     This is something that is especially applicable to those of us who are LGBT because people we find attractive are often not going to return that feeling (just statistically, there are more straight-oriented people).

    North to south, white to black
    When you love someone that don’t love you back

    This song really touches on a very real and existential part of life: disappointment. Life doesn’t always work out and that’s just how it is. Sometimes being in the minority sucks.

    That relatability to me is what placed this song so high on my list of songs for 2016.

  • 2016 Top 10 – # 5 – Be As You Are

    We’re now on the final 5 songs, and Number 5 of my 2016 Top 10 is Be As You Are by Mike Posner.

    I know I mentioned back in my post for Sound of Your Heart that I haven’t always watched the music videos for these. In this case, the placement of this song is more related to the music video, but also because I like this type of song.

    There are moments when you fall to the ground
    But you are stronger than you feel you are now
    You don’t always have to speak so loud, no
    Just be as you are
    It doesn’t matter if you become some star
    Life is better when you open your heart
    You don’t always have to act so hard, no
    Just be as you are

    This type of song which speaks about living as you are is a theme that comes across in many songs. I first remember this theme in I Don’t Want to Be by Gavin DeGraw (which people my age will probably recognize mostly as the theme song from One Tree Hill). This song sort of flips that a bit by looking at this from the perspective of someone who’s had the big breaks and became some star, but the message is similar: be who you are; live authentically.

    Now that’s probably enough to get on my list, but it was the reinforcement by the video that put it this high up my. The video takes aim at not just the inauthentic or fake life, but also at pejoratives aimed at people living the “imperfect life”. In the video a series of people hold up large cue cards with negative descriptors: failure, fat, bum, stupid, bitch, weird, whore, normal, shallow, thug, and finally afraid. These are quite often words we use to dismiss people or devalue their opinion or experience or otherwise judge them. In the video, each person rips the card up, saying that “these words don’t define me”.

    This does bring up an important social point: It’s not much help telling people just “be yourself” when society spends a lot of time and effort trying to tell them otherwise and trying to define you.

    So that’s what I’m taking away from this song: Don’t judge people, don’t try to fit them into little boxes. If they live differently, that’s fine. There are many paths to take in life, just be as you are.

  • 2016 Top 10 – # 6 – 11 Blocks

    Number 6 of my 2016 Top 10 is 11 Blocks by Wrabel.

     Wrabel is the stage name of out singer Stephen Wrabel, and according to him the song is actually very literal: it’s about an ex who moved 11 blocks away.

    So yes, I guess I am continuing the break-up theme of this week that has had Wherever I Go and Sound of Your Heart, but comparatively this one is seems a lot more, well, normal. There was a relationship and there was a breakup and all things considered everything seems to have gone over pretty fine.

    Well, I met someone
    And I think I’m in love

    But my mind won’t stop, it’s just 11 blocks
    I know that you’re home
    ‘Cause it’s Friday night, you’re not that type
    I know that you’re home
    And I met someone and I swear I’m in love
    But I’m two blocks away and you’re just like a drug
    My mind won’t stop, it’s just 11 blocks
    I know that you’re home

    So what is it about this particular song for me? Well, to put it simply, representation matters. What Wrabel is singing about is much more relatable to me because he is gay. You see, what we end up doing a lot when listening to music is understanding it analogously. So when Shawn Hook is singing “Sound of Your Heart” it’s about his relationship with a women, but it’s relatable analogously to a same-sex relationship.

    In this case though, there is no analogous, it’s straightforward (pun intended). Easy to relate songs take that one mental step away and makes it easier to simply lay back and listen.

    The other important point of the song is the ability to move on and and even start something new. That hope for the future makes this a good message, and my #6 song for 2016.

  • 2016 Top 10 – # 7 – Sound of Your Heart

    Number 7 of my 2016 Top 10 is my obligatory #CanCon: Sound of Your Heart by Shawn Hook.

    Being serious, this song ended up on my list because I like it, not because I needed CanCon.

    A second point before I actually talk about the song: Most of these songs I  discover through the radio (so via audio) rather than music videos, so several of these videos I actually haven’t watched before, like this one. This video is actually racier then I expected.

    Anyways, this is another upbeat song, but unlike Can’t Stop the Feeling or Without You, this one isn’t a happy-go-lucky song. Similar to my last song, Wherever I Go, this one is about love lost, but it’s also again a bit different. Whereas Wherever I Go was about a high-passion, intoxicating encounter and the thrill of it, Sound of Your Heart is about true love lost.

    You were my courage, my sword and shield
    Grace under pressure, my wall of steel
    I was a stone, weighing us down
    You were the angel I chained to the ground
    I miss the way you undress, I miss your head on my chest
    Can’t stop this bleeding, can’t stop believing

    I’m missing the sound of your heart beating
    Baby I’m in love with you
    Oh I’m missing the sound of your heart beating
    Baby you were mine to lose
    Oh, I’m missing the sound of your heart beating

    The lyrics of this song also give a second theme, which is that the person singing feels like the person they loved was much better than them. To put it in crude terms, he was a 6 and she was a 10, but she loved him anyways. In the end though was heartbreak, and the implications (from some lyrics and the music video) seems to be it’s somehow his fault, and the references to missing her heartbeat especially seem to imply her untimely death. This song is the grief and regret that follows.

    So it’s a bit of a Shakespearean tragedy of a song, but as fellow Brit Alfred Lord Tennyson once wrote, “Tis better to have loved and lost then never to have loved at all”.

  • 2016 Top 10 – # 8 – Wherever I Go

    Next up on my Top 10 of 2016 is Number 8: Wherever I Go by OneRepublic.

    The first thing I want to say is that OneRepublic right now is one of my favourite bands, probably like #2, and Ryan Tedder is one of my favourite songwriters.

    Now, if I had to describe this song in one word, I would say “haunting”. It stays with you. It’s an ear-worm. What is it about?

    I know I could lie but I’m telling the truth
    Wherever I go there’s a shadow of you
    I know I could try looking for something new
    But wherever I go, I’ll be looking for you

    This makes me think its about an ex. It’s about a very passionate encounter with someone, and from the lyrics about “magic” you could call it almost intoxicating or even addictive. This is a person who is a risk-taker, who goes for the thrill and the big payoff.

    You could say that the song composition matches the addictive message of the song. That makes it a very well written song and my #8 for 2016.

  • 2016 Top 10 – # 9 – Without You

    Next up on my Top 10 of 2016 is Number 9: Without You by Parachute.

    Parachute falls under the pop rock genre, which tends to be some of my favourite songs. Similar to my number 10 song, it’s an upbeat and happy sounding song, and of course it is because it’s about falling in love. Well, at least a certain type of love.

    This has been a staple of pop music since it’s invention: you’re out and about somewhere and there he (or she) is: the person of your dreams. In an instant, you want to know everything about them: what do they do, what movies do they like, do you think they find me attractive too? Have I gone red?

    I don’t want to fall asleep without you
    I don’t want to take one breath without you
    I don’t even know one thing about you
    But give me everything about you
    It’s only been a moment, it’s true
    But I could never live this life without you

    Is it the most realistic? Probably not, though we all wish it were. As I said last time, 2016 was a year where we need a little bit of hope, so maybe there’s nothing wrong with shooting for the moon just once in a while.

  • 2016 Top 10 – # 10 – Can’t Stop the Feeling!

    As I mentioned last time, I’m going to start counting down my Top 10 Songs for the year 2016, and first up in Number 10: Can’t Stop the Feeling! by Justin Timberlake.

    This is about as close as this list will get to a traditional hit song from this year. Called by some the song of the summer, Can’t Stop the Feeling! spent over 10 weeks atop SiriusXM’s The Pulse’s Top 15 countdown this year.

    What this song offers is something that musicians sometimes forget: music is fun! It’s an upbeat song with catchy lyrics and beat. The music video follows this with a happy, upbeat dance-along (something copied by covers, including one by YouTube artist Peter Hollens).

    Honestly, there’s not much I have to say about this song, other than in a fairly cynical and negative year, a fun, positive hit song like this was surly needed (along with others such as Hand Clap by Fitz and the Tantrums). It’s a fun song to sing along to, grove to, or dance to.