4 hours and that's your top listened artist on Spotify this year, shows how many different things you listen to compared to me lol.
With that I make my year end mixtape, on a 90 minute, for the 5th year! The sounds that soundtracked my year. For me talking about my musical year in detail click the spoiler tag.
Spoiler
This year belonged to The Smiths and BAND-MAID. I held back to only include 2 songs from each and 1 Morrisey song on here, because man I listened to hell out of both bands. The Smiths I had started listening to in 2016 but only this year did I fully understand the band. BAND-MAID had been low-key on my radar, and I liked the band before but when WORLD DOMINATION came out this year I grew obsessed with the band. Thank God for "anemone" without that song I might not have got this into the band, it was the song that scooped me in. The Clash's Give 'Em Enough Rope was one of the only shocking new to me albums I found this year, I fricking love the hell out of that album, EASILY the best Clash album, NO CONTEST, and one of the best pure Rock 'n Roll albums and guitar power projects I've heard! "All The Young Punks" is a total anthem, it needed to conclude the tape along with BiSH's powerful song "FOR HiM".
"Shinigami" is the crown defining song of my 2018, Seiko's greatest song since "Nama Kill The Time 4 You", and an absolute soul destroyer. Kusokawa Party will always be special since it came out the same day I came home from Kansas, so when I put the album on and "Shinigami" started, it just grabbed me in such a profound manner. Seiko keeps on giving, she's so exciting and though Kusokawa Party has 2 mediocre tracks near the end, the first 7 songs are badass. Although she's been a music hero of mine since 2016, she hasn't faded to a "legacy" artist to me because she keeps on doing awesome things. Seiko Oomori is my Rock 'n Roll star of the modern day.
About 3 songs on here relate to KC, "Subdivisions" struck me because of the lyrics, it related deeply to my life in the beginning of the year and then it became the first song I listened to on my first ever flight. Of course Rush has been around in my life for so long because you can't be Canadian and not have lived through a Rush song before, but I hadn't really heard "Subdivisions" until this year. "Some will sell their dreams for small desires, or lose the race to rats. Get caught in ticking traps, and start to dream of somewhere to relax their restless flight". The Beatles' "Kansas City" was a natural choice. There was a Beach Boys second coming mini era, "Let Him Run Wild" was a song I hadn't heard before, it's an addicting song. I also finally understood the Smile songs. Sometimes artists come around for that second raid. I almost put the Replacements' "Alex Chilton" especially because it played in a bar in KC, but the Replacements faded later in the year.
Ghost's "Rats" is an odd choice because I hated this song. It was played (and still plays) on Rock radio that we sometimes listen to on the job everyday. I came to love it very very slowly however and finally admitted it was an awesome song. The Smith songs "Ask" and "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle" where the most important of their songs I hadn't known prior to this year. Both are maybe Top 5 best from the band, I adore "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle" for it's repetitive jangly music and Morrisey's stunning lyrics. I do think however this line from "Nowhere Fast" is his #1 best lyric, "and if the day came when I felt a natural emotion, I'd get such a shock I'd probably jump in the ocean". I was very close to putting that song on here. My other two favorite Morrisey lyrics are "If you're so funny, then why are you on your own tonight?" and "Everybody's got to live their life, and God knows I've got to live mine". I don't really know why on that last one, I just kind of love it. I think "The National Front Disco" is an interesting tune, the music is good and the lyrics are written from an unclear perspective, only Morrisey could write a song like this in this way. It and "Everyday Is Like Sunday" are the only solo songs of his I really like.
The big shock this year was how fast I came to dislike Nirvana and stop listening to them complete. I have shunned them away, I have never got sick of a band this quickly before. I'm just done with them. Though I still think "Sliver" is one of the best ever Rock songs I have no intent to listen to the band again for now. I just don't like the feeling. Weezer as well I've come to dislike a lot and I don't want to listen to the Blue Album again, I kind of hate The Sweater Song and Say It Ain't So now. I still have a big place in my heart for Sonic Youth even if I don't listen to them much anymore it would be impossible to not have Daydream Nation in my top 10 albums. I also didn't listened to a Kendrick album all year and have ignored rap altogether outside the J Alt Idol stuff. It's just not my kind of tone and music. Another year and J-Pop and Rock reign high once again with a lot of nice soft breezy eletro tracks being on my tape (thanks for "Things" Pipe I fricking love that song so much it became an instant classic that made it on my mix right away).
I think my music tastes have become set in place. I love Rock 'n Roll in spirit and genre, Hard Rock & 50's the most but also other variants, J-Pop (Alt-Idol, electo style, anything with a girl singer pretty much), Dream + Jangle Pop, well made feel good Pop and Jazz the most (though I don't listen to it very often it's still one of my favorite styles, piano led jazz). I kind of want to go outside my norms, because I was doing that in 2016 then I grabbed Sonic Youth, The Smiths, MBV & The Misfits and firmly exited "Wack Town". I was getting into Jazz Fusion for a bit but didn't look more into it. I want to find more new to me music next year. This year was really just focused on two bands and other stuff. Not a lot of "new discoveries".
I'll talk more about some of the other stuff and freak out about the guitar part in the chorus of Haru's song in the 2018 music thread. Carly Rae's song was not good enough to make my list, it's not a new classic at all. I like it but I really hope the album is better and this is just a weaker first single like "I Really Like You" was. But ya that's all. 2018 was once more a year focused on my own music, I made my three best albums Skywalk, Post America and My Nonsense, maybe there was no Sonic Youth, Bruce Springsteen discovery, but there was The Smiths and BAND-MAID to give me motivational power so it worked.
Topic: What are you listening to (Read 312591 times)
