Hello music fans, and welcome back to another Miscellaneous Monday post! I kind of explained what this is all about last time, so I don't feel like I need to do it again. Let's get started!
INTRODUCTION
This month has been kind of boring for me in terms of music. I did go back through the alternative charts over winter break, though, which gave me lots of fresh songs to add to my playlists. And it turns out that six of the seven songs I plan to talk about in this post were ones I discovered from doing that. The other one is one I planned to talk about last month but decided not to for certain reasons. I really just went through my rock playlist and picked out seven songs I don't see myself talking about in future posts, and those are the seven songs I will be discussing. Most of them are from kind of little-known artists because I want to save the bigger artists for possible top 10 posts, but we'll just roll with it and see how that goes. I have these songs ranked in alphabetical order by artist, by the way. So yeah, time to grind!
1. Dashboard Confessional - Hands Down
This is not a song I should be enjoying because of the edgy nature of it, but I do anyway. I remember hearing one of their other songs, "Vindicated", along with some other songs I talked about last month for that rankdown I did on Pulse. I enjoyed that song, and I think that somehow got me to this one. I'm pretty sure it was someone on Discord that told me that this song was better or something like that. So I did listen to this song, just randomly, and I really liked it. I think I prefer it over "Vindicated" actually. I think that the verses sound cool, with the different nature that it has over the chorus. The chorus reminds me a lot of a weird emo song, but that's because it kind of is one. And I don't really mind that. It still sounds really cool. I always felt weird listening to songs like "Vindicated" because of how emo they sounded, but this is more towards my comfort zone and I enjoy that. Really cool song overall, and it's one of the only emo songs I would recommend to anyone who doesn't like emo music.
2. Lifehouse - Spin
I don't really know what to say about my overall thoughts on Lifehouse. I am only familiar with about four of their songs, although I have listened to a few of their albums, which is why I feel hesitant to say I really love them. But I guess I can say that considering how much I love their two hits "First Time" and "Hanging By a Moment". "You and Me" was always good, but not great to me. Those three were the only three Lifehouse songs I was really familiar with, up until about a month ago when I found this. It doesn't nearly blow me away like the former two of those songs do, but it is a nice little listen. The chorus doesn't make it a super awesome banger, but it's not kind of slow and mellow either. It's right in between and I like that. I think I can say the same for the rest of the song. It's showed me some things about Lifehouse that I didn't know before. That's really all I have to say now. Definitely not their best song, but it's good to hear something else from them for a change.
3. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - The Impression That I Get
Ever thought ska was a cool music genre, but never got a chance to hear what it sounds like? Well, don't say that anymore now that you've read this, because I'm hooking you up right now. This is the perfect example of a great ska song. The only other one I can think of that was in my rock playlist at one point was "Sell Out" by Reel Big Fish, but I prefer this song. I've tried to interpret the lyrics by myself because they sound like they sound be telling an interesting story, but I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter because of how happy the song sounds. It just has all kinds of cool instruments and stuff in it that makes it sound like something extremely uplifting that will make you feel good no matter what occasion it is. I'm pretty sure that might be what ska is all about, so if that's true then I might want to check out more of it. But yeah, there's really nothing bad about this song, other than that it might be a little weird compared to what was popular at the time. This song was in the top five most popular alternative songs of 1997 list compiled by Billboard, along with some legendary songs like "Semi-Charmed Life" by Third Eye Blind, "Fly" by Sugar Ray, "Walkin' On The Sun" by Smash Mouth, and "Push" by Matchbox Twenty. I do love all of those songs and still think that the first of those four is the best of them, but this song does play a huge part in making that loaded group of songs as good as it is, which says a lot. And along with "Sell Out" I think there were a couple more good ska songs on that list, so you can check it out if you want to. I think I've said enough now, let's move on.
4. The Offspring - Can't Repeat
Okay, call me a fake stan or whatever you want, but I cannot BELIEVE I didn't know this song existed until about a month ago when going back through the alternative charts. I guess that's what I get for not listening to greatest hits albums ever. I am kind of disappointed that this had to turn out this way, because I'm a month in and I still can't get enough of this song. And if I redid my top 10 Offspring singles list...yeah, this would've been pretty high on it. But I guess I can thank myself for these posts because now I get to talk about it! I think the bass intro is really cool and helps set the stage for the song pretty well. Then the guitars and drums come in and things start getting awesome. I like that guitar riff that comes in after that short build-up, and like I do with pretty much any Offspring song I listen to and find cool, I start playing it on the guitar all the time, and that just gets me closer to the song. I love the lyrics in this song. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the song is just about getting older and moving along in life, and I enjoy how Dexter Holland wrote about this theme very much. The chorus of this song just strikes me so much because of how good it is. It's full of energy and does a great job in showing the theme of the song. It really defines it and helps make it what it is. Everything else throughout the song is amazing, especially the bass that holds it all together. The song is also really fun to play on the bass, at least for me. This is an overall awesome song that doesn't really have any flaws in it, which is always good. I don't really know when I'll finally get enough of it, but I don't see that being soon because of how much I love it. Great job, guys. You really made me happy with this song.
Oh, you thought I was done talking about them in this post! Key word: you THOUGHT.
5. The Offspring - Defy You
So my story with this is very similar to my story with "Can't Repeat": I did not know that this song existed until I heard it when going back through the alternative charts, mainly because this is a greatest hits-exclusive song. However, I just want to put down that no matter how much I praise the song and how good I think or say it is, it is not, and never will be, better than "Can't Repeat". Anyway, this song didn't click with me too much at first. It just didn't sound like a typical great Offspring song to me. But with a few more listens I got into it, especially after paying close attention to the lyrics and understanding what they meant. I have two possible interpretations of it: A. It could be about standing up for what you believe in, like in a political or argumentative situation, or B. It could be about a bully that you're more than tired of dealing with. I like to think of it as situation B because I can relate way more to that one, but regardless, I still think that what the lyrics are talking about is cool. The guitars don't stand out nearly as much as they do in "Can't Repeat", but I still think they're cool. The chorus is the main part of this song that gets me hyped, as it's energetic and more typical Offspring than I thought. I can see myself finally getting enough of this song way sooner than with "Can't Repeat", but for now it's something fun that I will always enjoy listening to.
6. SR-71 - Right Now
This song, to say the very least, is weird. It's definitely on the weird and flashy side of pop punk music rather than the one I'm used to. But that doesn't bring it down. It has just as much of a great pop punk vibe as I hear in a lot of other pop punk songs I enjoy. And I really don't have a personal connection to this song, I just sometimes like hearing the lyrics for the entertainment factor. Mitch Allan has a great voice and it fits well with the style of this song. The guitar riff also sticks out. It gives the song a good amount of energy. And I don't really know about the lyrics or what they mean. They just sound well-written. It's no wonder that Allan was the original songwriter for Bowling For Soup's hit song "1985", because this song proves that he has talent. And looking even more he also co-wrote many hit pop songs, including "Heartbeat Song" by Kelly Clarkson, "Want to Want Me" by Jason Derulo, "Irresistible" by Fall Out Boy, and "Heart Attack" by Demi Lovato, so maybe I should check out more from them. But we'll see. I do enjoy this song quite a bit and was glad it was somewhat popular.
7. Tantric - Breakdown
This is one of two songs called "Breakdown" in my rock playlist at the moment (the other one is by Seether). That's getting to be a common thing for me, as I also have another song in my playlist called "Right Now" (that's by Korn). Then I have two more songs called "Pain"...and stuff like that. But out of the two songs called "Breakdown" that are in my rock playlist, this is easily the more superior one. I like the Seether one, but it has a little something in it that brings it slightly down for me. This one doesn't have that. I enjoy pretty much everything about it. It's kind of a chill song, and that's nice. It has a really cool acoustic guitar riff that sets the song up pretty well. And I don't know why, but something about this song or this band sounded familiar to me when I first heard it about a month ago. So I did some research on this band, and I found out why: It's because this band was formed by three former members of another band I am somewhat familiar with, Days of the New. It didn't have the singer of the band or anything, but it still had something I felt like I knew in there. I can tell from listening to this song that Hugo Ferreira is a pretty talented music artist because he does a great job in this song. I haven't paid attention to the lyrics of this any so we won't talk about those. This isn't a hugely catchy or insanely energetic song, unlike a lot of others I discussed in this post, but that's okay because not every song is like that. Sometimes, something slightly different like this can be good to hear, and I like that.
And with that, we are now done with this post! Thank you to anyone who read this, and don't forget that if you want to suggest an idea for a future post, feel free to do so because I am extremely open to your suggestions. If any of the songs I talked about in this post sounded cool to you and you think you want to give them a listen for yourself, then you can use the YouTube embeds I posted when introducing each song, or just search up the songs on whatever streaming services you use. But yeah, that was this month's post, and I will see you guys next time! Peace out!
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