Song of the Year:
Waiting On The Sun - Sixpence None The Richer
The reason this song is my favorite this year is what immediately came to my head listening to it. I heard this song a lot as a kid because I heard the album a lot as a kid, completely forgetting about its existence until now. With this song, I thought of a whole animated project (!) to try and do much, much later down the line. It's also one of the few upbeat songs out there I genuinely enjoy listening to.
2) Rule #4 - Fish in a Birdcage - Fish in a Birdcage
This was really close to taking it. The song has a simple message and simple music. It's somewhere between telling a story and describing a lot of people's situations over the past few years. I first heard this song from a Spotify playlist. Others probably heard it first from its music video they put out this year.
3) Unholy, Dirty and Beautiful - David Usher
This one took a close third. It reminds me of how I treat this account, honestly. The lyrics don't seem to match the tone of the music on purpose, like the words mean one thing in someone's mind but something different to the listener. What you say versus how you say it and whatnot. I like it. The Youtube animation community also seems to like it. I learned it from Cow of the Wild, like some of those animators.
4) Lift Me Up (From Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) - Rihanna
This song is going to be on a lot of playlists, a lot of people's favorite one this year, and played at many memorials. This song would've never existed if Chadwick Boseman hadn't suddenly died, but it puts it to words how people might feel with the sudden death of a loved one. It isn't so simple and upbeat that it can be danced to at a party, but not so soul-crushingly depressing that it can only be listened to every so often. It reminds me what making art for others looks like in its best forms. This song deserves all the awards it'll probably win.
5) Leave Out All The Rest - Violet Orlandi; Linkin Park
Keeping up with enjoying acoustic recreations of my favorites, one came across my Youtube feed. I didn't really like it but knew what I wanted to look for. Violet Orlandi does a lot of covers, including this song. This is exactly the style I wanted to find for this song. Covers that genuinely change the tone of a song are, in my opinion, the only reason to make a cover. Violet Orlandi nails it.
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January
Happy Birthday - The Birthday Massacre
Blood Moon - Converge, Chelsea Wolfe
Royal Morning Blue (live) - Damon Albarn
Waiting On The Sun - Sixpence None The Richer
February
Rivers - Epica
Burn Away - The Birthday Massacre
Paraklesis, Small Supplicatiory Canon to Theotokos - Nektaria Karantzi
The Rumbling - SiM
March
Sister of Charity - The 69 Eyes
Secret - The Birthday Massacre
Ruby - Tweaker, Will Oldham
The Place I Left Behind - The Deep Dark Woods
April
Bicycle - CHUNG HA
Once Again - The Birthday Massacre
Lost - Beautiful Sin
Piano Sonata No. 14, Op. 27 No. 2 "Moonlight": 1 - Claudio Arrau, Ludwig van Beethoven
May
Veins of Glass - Lacuna Coil
Dead - The Birthday Massacre
Unholy, Dirty and Beautiful - David Usher
Falling - Lacuna Coil
Dos Oruguitas ("Encanto") - Sebastián Yatra
June
St. Lawrence River - David Usher
Cold Lights - The Birthday Massacre
Rule #4 - Fish in a Birdcage - Fish in a Birdcage
Mean - The NYChillharmonic
July
N95 - Kendrick Lamar
The Other Side - The Birthday Massacre
Leave Out All The Rest - Violet Orlandi; Linkin Park
Ode To The Dark - Melissa VanFleet
Mouth (feat. Luke Krutzke) - Maddie Medley
August
If You're Shooting with the Left It Means the Right Side Is Working - Ashbury Heights
Violet - The Birthday Massacre
Bright Eyes - Frayle
Nightmares - CHVRCHES
September
Veins of Glass - Lacuna Coil
Walking With Strangers - The Birthday Massacre
Nobody - Ravenscry
Take Over - League of Legends, MAX, Jeremy McKinnon of A Day To Remember, Henry
October
The Entertainer - Ravenscry
All Of Nothing - The Birthday Massacre
Passing Through - Cult Of Luna
The Bishop - Battle Of Mice
Hounds of Hell - Dead Soul
November
Gravedigger - MXMS
Photo Voltaire – Acoustic - Julien-K, The Birthday Massacre, Chibi & Chris Nix
Beneath the Brine - The Family Crest
Die From Within - Eleine
December
Lift Me Up (From Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) - Rihanna
Nonbeliever - Lucy Dacus
Two Winters Only - My Dying Bride
Hymn of the Cherubim - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, The USSR Ministry Of Culture Chamber Choir
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