My Life PlaylistA list of ten songs that have shaped me and my musical life.
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01. "Ultra Violet (Light My Way)" - U2
I've been listening to U2 as long as I've been seriously listening to music. If I had to pick one group that makes some truly spiritual music, it's U2. They have a ton of great albums and fantastic songs, but my favorite would have to be "Ultra Violet". It's a song that is as much about reaching out to God as it is reaching out to a lover. When I feel like trash, you make me feel clean. Hearing this song played live last year was one of the best moments of my musical life. It's an essential. 02. "Xanadu" - Rush Progressive rock isn't known for being accessible or spiritually deep. If anything, the kind of long, drawn out epics that the genre is known for are excessive and overblown. But for me, "Xanadu" hits something so right. From the synth intro to the guitar strums that signal a triumphant entrance of the band's most energetic moment all the way to the bells at the end, "Xanadu" is sugar to my ears in all its phases. It represents a pinnacle of rock composition. 03. "Empire" - August Burns Red When I was sixteen, my best friend and I got into "the scene." You know, the emo bands like Sleeping with Sirens, Asking Alexandria, Black Veil Brides, Memphis May Fire, the like. Much of this music remains in high school for me. However, one of the few groups that stuck with me into college in a big way was August Burns Red. Really technical metalcore with lyrics about God? Yep. The guitars and drums are punishing, but the lyrics are often explicitly about humans' relationship with God. All the members are Christians, but ultimately their music is about spiritual empowerment. Here is one of their best. 04. "White Walls" - Between the Buried and Me On the other side of progressive rock is progressive metal. I'm a sucker for stuff like this. Long, technical song structures with virtuosic playing and cool ideas bouncing off the wall. BTBAM is one of my favorite metal bands, and this is my favorite song by them. Fourteen minutes of amazing musicianship, if you're not turned off by the sheer length. 05. "Coffee Shop Soundtrack" - All Time Low During my senior year of high school, I had my first serious relationship. We bonded a lot over the infectious pop punk band All Time Low and their songs about teenage relationships. Although it's been years since the relationship ended, I still hold on to this band. I like to listen to them on Fridays especially after a week of school. I feel like I can kick back and enjoy a weekend with All Time Low as the soundtrack. "Coffee Shop Soundtrack" is one of their first hits, and it's still one of their best songs. 06. "Helplessness Blues" - Fleet Foxes I've always leaned to harder music over softer music. The visceral immediacy of rock, metal, and a good deal of hip hop are more attractive to me at the outset than folk or singer-songwriter material. There are a few exceptions, and Fleet Foxes are one of them. I've grown quite fond of this band over the past two years, and it was after hearing this song that I became interested. The harmonies, the texture of the guitar, the composition is all so perfect. Feast your ears. 07. "Hiiipower" - Kendrick Lamar I've heard it said that Kendrick Lamar is a modern-day prophet, and songs like this are what convince me this is true. The closing track to his first album, "Hiiipower" contains everything I love about conscious hip hop. Cool beat, great instrumentation, and thoughtful lyrics that plant your feet into the ground. I started seriously listening to Kendrick about two years ago, and this is still my favorite track by him. 08. "Parabol/Parabola" - Tool I feel like I've gotten to Tool late. It's only in the past couple of years that I've been listening to one of the biggest metal bands of all time, and for good reason. This band makes music that I can only describe as obtuse ass-kicking. The tones and talents of all the instruments, including frontman Maynard James Keenan, combine to make some of the most well-composed, though-provoking metal of the past twenty-five years. "Parabol/Parabola" is a perfect example of what this band is capable of. 09. "Close Your Eyes (and Count to Fuck)" - Run the Jewels ft. Zack de la Rocha Sick beat. Sick lyrics. Sick feature. A friend of mine pointed me to this specific song to introduce me to Run the Jewels during my freshman year. They immediately became my favorite hip-hop act and still are. El-P and Killer Mike are two of the best MC's to touch a mic, and the feature from the Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha, make this song even better. Lyrically, the song touches a lot on police brutality and incarceration, but also works as a generally kickass track. 10. "Touch" - Little Mix Okay, I may have to defend this one. I started listening to Little Mix right at the tail-end of 2016. I'd heard about this song and decided to check them out. Partly because they're a British group, I'd never heard of them. Well, I'm hooked. The four women in Little Mix won The X-Factor in 2011 and have since been making some of the most fun pop songs of the decade. "Black Magic" and "Shout Out to My Ex" are also absolute favorites, but their absolute best is the one I heard first, "Touch". |