Song of the Year:
Embrace - Ravenscry
This was the song running through my head the most throughout the year. I listened to it a lot when it came out and that hasn't stopped now. I think it's a great blend of energetic music and wayward lyrics. I also have a bias towards songs that give me ideas, and this song is one of them.
2) Maggot Belly - awfultune
I first heard this song in a Warrior Cats MAP. I love songs with unsettling lyrics and abstraction. It's kind of the opposite of what I've spent most of this year listening to. The soft music and lyrics are deceptively smooth, luring you into its subject matter with a heavy bias towards the 'narrator'. I just wish it wasn't interrupted by the non-musical story bits.
3) Live Forever (feat. Kotomi & Ryan Elder) (from "Rick and Morty: Season 7") - Rick and Morty, Kotomi, Ryan Elder
I love Rick and Morty, and not much changed this season like everyone thought it would. Regardless, they usually come out of nowhere reminding me of a song I used to like or something new. This is a remix of another song, but I prefer this one. It's got a no-nonsense approach to its delivery (ironic for the episode it appeared in even by Rick and Morty standards) all the way through and doesn't stray from it one bit. You know what you're in for listening to this one.
4) Land of All - Woodkid
I also heard this song in a Warrior Cats MAP (though it was broken into dozens of smaller pieces in a playlist for some reason). It's one of those songs that immediatly paints a picture in my head and either floods me with ideas or distracts me from whatever I'm doing. That makes it an immediate win for me. The lyrics, subject matter, and music are just abstract enough for me to paint my own picture as to what's happening, but not so abstract the lonely nature of the song is lost.
5) You're Going Down - Sick Puppies
I used to listen to this song all the time when it was new. Like everyone else at the time, Alternative Rock/Metal was an identity. This song was absolutely that for me. Just the right amount of intelligible rage, consistency, and abstraction to insert myself into whatever fight was playing out in my mind at the time. I was reminded of this song's existence by 'The Stolen Hope,' a web series by galemtido. I probably would've loved this song even more if the web series came out when I was still in middle school.
-
January
Waiting On The Sun - Sixpence None The Richer
Land Of All - Woodkid
Embrace - Ravenscry
February
No More Words - Cryoshell
Living Today - Ravenscry
Panic Attacks - Icon For Hire
March
Oscillation - Ravenscry
Freeze - Cellar Darling
You're Going Down - Sick Puppies
Oblivion - M83
April
Paper Boat - Ravenscry
God's Whisper - Raury
May
Luxury of a Distraction - Ravenscry
When We Fall - The Gathering
Let's Go - Stuck In the Sound
Cry Little Sister - Vomitron
June
Calliope - Ravenscry
Never Dawn - Lacuna Coil
Fall To Pieces (Acoustic) - Noctura
July
Ink - Ravenscry
Nightshades - The Nychillharmonic
Maggot Belly - awfultune
Open Up Your Eyes - Emily Blunt (Tempest Shadow)
August
Your Way - Ravenscry
Rut - The Killers
The Spell - Cellar Darling
September
Monsters Inside - Ravenscry
Andy, You're A Star - The Killers
DIE SLOW - HEALTH
October
The Witness - Ravenscry
Sorrow of Sophia - Draconian
GODS - League of Legends, NewJeans
November
Missing Words - Ravenscry
Live Forever (feat. Kotomi & Ryan Elder) (from "Rick and Morty: Season 7") - Rick and Morty, Kotomi, Ryan Elder
... Of Ruins and a Red Nightfall - Tristania
December
Nobody - Ravenscry
Sleeping on the Blacktop - Colter Wall
Still Alive - Idum Sessions - Lisa Miskovsky
YOU ARE READING
Odds And Ends (random book)
RandomA collection of literature, art, personal thoughts, contest entries, and various things that have no other place to be.
