Top Songs of 2011
Jan. 1st, 2012 08:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sorcyressSo, the past two years, I have posted a list of "Top Songs of 20xx". Top is an extremely vague descriptor of course, but it's basically all the things that I couldn't help but listen to on repeat.
This year was the first time I was actually organized enough about the project to keep track of all the songs as they happened, and not have to scramble to remember them later. So, in roughly chronological order (yay!) I give you the Top Songs of 2011.
Mandelbrot Set by Jonathan Coulton, peaking January 11th, but being played a bit before and after then. I don't know why. It's a good song, though.
Black Sheep by The Clash at Demonhead, being played WAY TOO MUCH by both Ria and I that first month or two back from break. It's off the Scott Pilgrim soundtrack. I do recommend Scott Pilgrim --it's a weird movie, but good. I've heard it described as my generation's breakfast club, which is...weird but quite possibly apt.
Somewhere Out There sung by Danny Pudi and Donald Glover. Why yes, that is Troy and Abed from community. I got really addicted to the show my last semester of college, and binged on them over the course of several nights. This song (and the associated episode) is sweet as fuck --in part because everybody wins. The show needs more episodes where that happens.
Lisa Carew, from Jekyll and Hyde. You can tell I listen to the concept cast because it says Lisa and not Emma. Played a lot in February, and around whenever I saw J&H at MIT, and intermittently throughout the year when I needed it.
There is a notable hole on this list that was present on both 2009 and 2010. That hole is Amanda Palmer's "Oasis", which is the happiest song about rape and abortion you'll ever here. It certainly didn't leave my life (it is the number one most crucial song in "This Playlist is Theraputic1") but it was much less...needed than in previous years.
There are lyrics from Lisa Carew that fill the same need. There are lyrics in this song that slap me across the face with how far I've come. I am not the weak young thing you're seeking [Simon]. Someone seventeen, obedient, and sweet.
I am fucking complete.
Raise Your Glass, P!nk. Let me put it this way, I listened to it a ton on YouTube, added it to my iTunes on March 21st, and since then have played it 185 times. It's all Racheline's fault, but man, did I need the reminder that it's okay to be a freak. Wrong in *all* the right ways, after all.
The Future's So Bright, I've Gotta Wear Shades by Timbuk3. Played a lot in...March and April and May. Look, I know the songs actually about the nuclear apocalypse or something. But I take this one at face value. And when you're about to graduate college if you can survive a professor who makes you doubt your entire fucking career choice and your value as a human being, you need something optimistic as all hell.
Exile Vilify, from Portal 2. I did not actually play Portal 2, so I don't know where this song comes in. But somewhere in May, I found this page. And...it worked. It helped wash away a lot of madness, during the height of finals, stress, self-loathing, very legitimate fear that I wouldn't actually graduate. I needed it so badly. I'm glad I found it.
Also, spoilers I guess.
Only Anarchists are Pretty, by the World/Inferno Friendship Society. I found out that the night before my graduation, there was a W/IFS concert playing in Boston. Using my wiles, I convinced jere7my to come with me. Mostly I did this by telling him it would be awesome and handing him a copy of Only Anarchists, which he apparently got a bit addicted to. Which prompted me to get re-addicted to it, and man, I love this song.
Thirteen Years Without Peter King, by the World/Inferno Friendship Society. ...and while we were at the concert, they played this, off their new album. It was haunting and beautiful and ate my brain. A week or two later, I was spending time with ShadowKev, who told me the story behind the music, which is just as haunting and beautiful. Played through May and June, mostly.
Not a Virgin by Poe, played a lot around Pinewoods and the subsequent few weeks.
Don't read into it. It's a clever reference, not a strength song.
Sburban Jungle from Homestuck volume 4, also known as the song for End of Act Three. I got into Homestuck in August, which means I listened to this 177 times between mid-August and now. YEP. This was one of the first things in a long line of songs that were meant to be listened to while biking, because when I returned to Boston (to live, forever!) I started biking a damn lot. And music is a welcome distraction.
Anyway, I actually started writing the explanation of why you should read Homestuck, so you'll be seeing that in a few days. But one of the reasons? The music is pretty damn epic.
It's The End Of The World As We Know It by R.E.M. That's great it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, aaeroplanehurricane.
Hey, remember how the world ended in May and then there was a massive earthquake that destroyed the entire east coast and then a couple weeks later a hurricane that also destroyed the east coast and then the world ended in October? Anyway, this was the theme song of all that.
I am, because I enjoy parties, probably going to listen to this one way too much at the inevitable 2012 apocalypse party I attend. Pee-ess, you guys, I am totally calling dibs on hosting the "wait, fuck, our calendars don't go to thirteen" New Years party a week or two after the end of the world. If you're still around, ho ho.
Tik Tok Together mashup by Doctordude of Tik Tok and Come Together. I linked it in a sundries post, because I found it on tumblr and couldn't. stop. listening for much of the end of summer and start of fall. And then I found the mp3 and added it to my iTunes and YEP.
Violet Stars Happy Hunting by Janelle Monáe. Listened to in the early fall a whole bunch, sometimes with the rest of the album. Kickstarted by October obsession with fifties/sixties style art-deco spacepunk.
Rocket Ride by Tom Smith. Was my theme song for October. Great biking song, great song for Mad Lyric Battleship, great great all around song. And, again, see October obsession with fifties/sixties style art-deco spacepunk. This song fucking epitomizes it.
Completely unrelated, I want the statistics on how often I say "fuck" based on how many hours I've been awake. Because I'm pretty sure they're related.
Goodbye Earl cover by Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies. Played a lot in the later half of the year. So, you know how I mentioned bike music above? Sometimes I just set my iTunes to the "starred" playlist and let her go. Out of more than nine hundred songs, she thinks the right answer is to play this one, basically every day. I eventually gave up and let her.
Romeo Responds to Taylor Swift filk by the Moneyshot Cosmonauts. In 2009, I wrote of the original: I hate the lyrics of this song with an unimaginable passion. ...But part of being unashamed of my non-ironic enjoyment of pop music involves being relatively aware of the fact that much of pop music does have the terrible lyrics thing going on.
Boy howdy does this fix the terrible lyrics problem. It's the greatest thing the FuMP has ever posted and I'm including the song "Skeksis Back" (which I really hope I linked to Racheline --if not and you happen to be reading this, here.) Anyway, listened to from when it was posted to whenever I remember it exists. I get unreasonably excited every single time.
Savior of the Dreaming Dead from Homestuck volume 7, also known as one of the songs from Cascade (End of Act Five). So Cascade was posted. And I watched it. And the image of [spoiler] standing there with the [spoilers] circling around her, just before she lifts up her hands and [spoilers] ...I watched that again, and again, and again. Sent shivers down my spine, and this was the music playing then. It's perfect and I love it. And again, Homestuck stuff makes fantastic biking music.
This is, of course, the aside where I say that Homestuck was basically my "get stuff done" "alarm clock" and "mindless biking to an epic soundtrack" music for the ENTIRE SECOND HALF OF 2011. And my New Years present to myself is going to be album five. It is all just so damn good.
Forbidden Friendship from the soundtrack of How to Train Your Dragon. DragonMel and I watched this in November, and I died of cute and awesome. Then I wrote an entire chunk of NaNoWriMo while listening to this over and over again. I would like to put this song in my mouth, it makes me that happy2.
Lucky by Bif Naked, obtained for my waltz class at Splash and WOW did it eat me for a few weeks afterwards. The song is sad and hard-edged and wraps around me like a comfort. I am so glad I snagged it.
And then, in December, there was a waltz evening. One of the last waltzes (the Penultimate? Oh please, that would be hilarious) was introduced by our dancemistress as one of her favourites. I asked her to dance.
Dancing cross-step with the woman who taught Marc to cross-step is...strange. Because it's obviously not him. But if I close my eyes and force my brain, I can almost pretend.
Your Love is My Drug by ke$ha. Played lots the last two or three months of the year. Okay, look, so Tik Tok Together I can at least claim is a mash-up and that's why I wrote it. But in my fifth post of the year, I wrote there seems to be an awful lot of talk about someone [ke$ha] who doesn't provide any actual use, as far as I can tell.
I am eating my words. Not in the fun way like footnote two. And formally, to mek, you were right.
Santa Baby by I-don't-even-know, played constantly throughout fucking December. So, I started what is essentially a retail job, at the very end of November. Who listened to constant Christmas music? Yeah, that's right, Kat did. And I hate every single bit of it.
Except this song, which inexplicably decided to light up my day every time it played. I...don't even know, frankly.
Out Tonight from Rent. It has come up in the last few days of the year, because of lyrics in it: "So let's find a bar / so dark we forget who we are / and all the scars of the nevers and maybes / die".
I am putting my nevers -and maybes- to rest. That's my goal for this coming year.
And similar to last year, there were a couple things on YouTube that I listened to/watched way too much as well:
HE'S GOT A POSH NAME AND HE'S ON THE TELEVISION, SO IT COMES AS NO SURPRISE THAT ALL THE DIRTY GIRLS WANT BENEDIC-- okay no don't actually watch this it will earworm forever.
I'm behind on my Weird Al love, but Perform This Way was awesome.
And because "fuck you, Homestuck, that's why." I present [S] Everyone: Have Sweet Rave Party. Okay, and because seriously "Homestuck, that's why", there is also Moves Like Homestuck. They recently played "Moves Like Jagger" at Squares and I couldn't stop grinning like an idiot. It's mostly Tavros, and yes I know exactly how terrible a human being I am for that. Okay, and Eridan. And Terezi. And Nepeta doing Carameldansen. And _dammit, this is just my favourite fanwork, okay?_
HOLY FUCK.
THAT WAS A LOT OF WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.
Happy New Years, y'all. And now I am going to go make a playlist and entitle it "Top Songs of 2012" and see if anything interesting comes of it...
~Sor
MOOP!
1: Something I don't think I've ever intentionally mentioned: the filter on livejournal in which I discuss rape is called "TherapyFilter". Or more accurately, "TheRapyFilter". Hence.
2: I don't know exactly where this construct came from, but "I want to put it in my mouth" is totally my current way of saying I really like a thing. This works really well until I accidentally(intentionally) mix it up with "I want to have your babies" and say to Ria "I want to put your babies in my mouth."
Luckily, Ria is the best moirail, and thinks I am only a little entirely weird. It's okay, she keeps threatening to pee on everything I love.
This year was the first time I was actually organized enough about the project to keep track of all the songs as they happened, and not have to scramble to remember them later. So, in roughly chronological order (yay!) I give you the Top Songs of 2011.
Mandelbrot Set by Jonathan Coulton, peaking January 11th, but being played a bit before and after then. I don't know why. It's a good song, though.
Black Sheep by The Clash at Demonhead, being played WAY TOO MUCH by both Ria and I that first month or two back from break. It's off the Scott Pilgrim soundtrack. I do recommend Scott Pilgrim --it's a weird movie, but good. I've heard it described as my generation's breakfast club, which is...weird but quite possibly apt.
Somewhere Out There sung by Danny Pudi and Donald Glover. Why yes, that is Troy and Abed from community. I got really addicted to the show my last semester of college, and binged on them over the course of several nights. This song (and the associated episode) is sweet as fuck --in part because everybody wins. The show needs more episodes where that happens.
Lisa Carew, from Jekyll and Hyde. You can tell I listen to the concept cast because it says Lisa and not Emma. Played a lot in February, and around whenever I saw J&H at MIT, and intermittently throughout the year when I needed it.
There is a notable hole on this list that was present on both 2009 and 2010. That hole is Amanda Palmer's "Oasis", which is the happiest song about rape and abortion you'll ever here. It certainly didn't leave my life (it is the number one most crucial song in "This Playlist is Theraputic1") but it was much less...needed than in previous years.
There are lyrics from Lisa Carew that fill the same need. There are lyrics in this song that slap me across the face with how far I've come. I am not the weak young thing you're seeking [Simon]. Someone seventeen, obedient, and sweet.
I am fucking complete.
Raise Your Glass, P!nk. Let me put it this way, I listened to it a ton on YouTube, added it to my iTunes on March 21st, and since then have played it 185 times. It's all Racheline's fault, but man, did I need the reminder that it's okay to be a freak. Wrong in *all* the right ways, after all.
The Future's So Bright, I've Gotta Wear Shades by Timbuk3. Played a lot in...March and April and May. Look, I know the songs actually about the nuclear apocalypse or something. But I take this one at face value. And when you're about to graduate college if you can survive a professor who makes you doubt your entire fucking career choice and your value as a human being, you need something optimistic as all hell.
Exile Vilify, from Portal 2. I did not actually play Portal 2, so I don't know where this song comes in. But somewhere in May, I found this page. And...it worked. It helped wash away a lot of madness, during the height of finals, stress, self-loathing, very legitimate fear that I wouldn't actually graduate. I needed it so badly. I'm glad I found it.
Also, spoilers I guess.
Only Anarchists are Pretty, by the World/Inferno Friendship Society. I found out that the night before my graduation, there was a W/IFS concert playing in Boston. Using my wiles, I convinced jere7my to come with me. Mostly I did this by telling him it would be awesome and handing him a copy of Only Anarchists, which he apparently got a bit addicted to. Which prompted me to get re-addicted to it, and man, I love this song.
Thirteen Years Without Peter King, by the World/Inferno Friendship Society. ...and while we were at the concert, they played this, off their new album. It was haunting and beautiful and ate my brain. A week or two later, I was spending time with ShadowKev, who told me the story behind the music, which is just as haunting and beautiful. Played through May and June, mostly.
Not a Virgin by Poe, played a lot around Pinewoods and the subsequent few weeks.
Don't read into it. It's a clever reference, not a strength song.
Sburban Jungle from Homestuck volume 4, also known as the song for End of Act Three. I got into Homestuck in August, which means I listened to this 177 times between mid-August and now. YEP. This was one of the first things in a long line of songs that were meant to be listened to while biking, because when I returned to Boston (to live, forever!) I started biking a damn lot. And music is a welcome distraction.
Anyway, I actually started writing the explanation of why you should read Homestuck, so you'll be seeing that in a few days. But one of the reasons? The music is pretty damn epic.
It's The End Of The World As We Know It by R.E.M. That's great it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, a
Hey, remember how the world ended in May and then there was a massive earthquake that destroyed the entire east coast and then a couple weeks later a hurricane that also destroyed the east coast and then the world ended in October? Anyway, this was the theme song of all that.
I am, because I enjoy parties, probably going to listen to this one way too much at the inevitable 2012 apocalypse party I attend. Pee-ess, you guys, I am totally calling dibs on hosting the "wait, fuck, our calendars don't go to thirteen" New Years party a week or two after the end of the world. If you're still around, ho ho.
Tik Tok Together mashup by Doctordude of Tik Tok and Come Together. I linked it in a sundries post, because I found it on tumblr and couldn't. stop. listening for much of the end of summer and start of fall. And then I found the mp3 and added it to my iTunes and YEP.
Violet Stars Happy Hunting by Janelle Monáe. Listened to in the early fall a whole bunch, sometimes with the rest of the album. Kickstarted by October obsession with fifties/sixties style art-deco spacepunk.
Rocket Ride by Tom Smith. Was my theme song for October. Great biking song, great song for Mad Lyric Battleship, great great all around song. And, again, see October obsession with fifties/sixties style art-deco spacepunk. This song fucking epitomizes it.
Completely unrelated, I want the statistics on how often I say "fuck" based on how many hours I've been awake. Because I'm pretty sure they're related.
Goodbye Earl cover by Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies. Played a lot in the later half of the year. So, you know how I mentioned bike music above? Sometimes I just set my iTunes to the "starred" playlist and let her go. Out of more than nine hundred songs, she thinks the right answer is to play this one, basically every day. I eventually gave up and let her.
Romeo Responds to Taylor Swift filk by the Moneyshot Cosmonauts. In 2009, I wrote of the original: I hate the lyrics of this song with an unimaginable passion. ...But part of being unashamed of my non-ironic enjoyment of pop music involves being relatively aware of the fact that much of pop music does have the terrible lyrics thing going on.
Boy howdy does this fix the terrible lyrics problem. It's the greatest thing the FuMP has ever posted and I'm including the song "Skeksis Back" (which I really hope I linked to Racheline --if not and you happen to be reading this, here.) Anyway, listened to from when it was posted to whenever I remember it exists. I get unreasonably excited every single time.
Savior of the Dreaming Dead from Homestuck volume 7, also known as one of the songs from Cascade (End of Act Five). So Cascade was posted. And I watched it. And the image of [spoiler] standing there with the [spoilers] circling around her, just before she lifts up her hands and [spoilers] ...I watched that again, and again, and again. Sent shivers down my spine, and this was the music playing then. It's perfect and I love it. And again, Homestuck stuff makes fantastic biking music.
This is, of course, the aside where I say that Homestuck was basically my "get stuff done" "alarm clock" and "mindless biking to an epic soundtrack" music for the ENTIRE SECOND HALF OF 2011. And my New Years present to myself is going to be album five. It is all just so damn good.
Forbidden Friendship from the soundtrack of How to Train Your Dragon. DragonMel and I watched this in November, and I died of cute and awesome. Then I wrote an entire chunk of NaNoWriMo while listening to this over and over again. I would like to put this song in my mouth, it makes me that happy2.
Lucky by Bif Naked, obtained for my waltz class at Splash and WOW did it eat me for a few weeks afterwards. The song is sad and hard-edged and wraps around me like a comfort. I am so glad I snagged it.
And then, in December, there was a waltz evening. One of the last waltzes (the Penultimate? Oh please, that would be hilarious) was introduced by our dancemistress as one of her favourites. I asked her to dance.
Dancing cross-step with the woman who taught Marc to cross-step is...strange. Because it's obviously not him. But if I close my eyes and force my brain, I can almost pretend.
Your Love is My Drug by ke$ha. Played lots the last two or three months of the year. Okay, look, so Tik Tok Together I can at least claim is a mash-up and that's why I wrote it. But in my fifth post of the year, I wrote there seems to be an awful lot of talk about someone [ke$ha] who doesn't provide any actual use, as far as I can tell.
I am eating my words. Not in the fun way like footnote two. And formally, to mek, you were right.
Santa Baby by I-don't-even-know, played constantly throughout fucking December. So, I started what is essentially a retail job, at the very end of November. Who listened to constant Christmas music? Yeah, that's right, Kat did. And I hate every single bit of it.
Except this song, which inexplicably decided to light up my day every time it played. I...don't even know, frankly.
Out Tonight from Rent. It has come up in the last few days of the year, because of lyrics in it: "So let's find a bar / so dark we forget who we are / and all the scars of the nevers and maybes / die".
I am putting my nevers -and maybes- to rest. That's my goal for this coming year.
And similar to last year, there were a couple things on YouTube that I listened to/watched way too much as well:
HE'S GOT A POSH NAME AND HE'S ON THE TELEVISION, SO IT COMES AS NO SURPRISE THAT ALL THE DIRTY GIRLS WANT BENEDIC-- okay no don't actually watch this it will earworm forever.
I'm behind on my Weird Al love, but Perform This Way was awesome.
And because "fuck you, Homestuck, that's why." I present [S] Everyone: Have Sweet Rave Party. Okay, and because seriously "Homestuck, that's why", there is also Moves Like Homestuck. They recently played "Moves Like Jagger" at Squares and I couldn't stop grinning like an idiot. It's mostly Tavros, and yes I know exactly how terrible a human being I am for that. Okay, and Eridan. And Terezi. And Nepeta doing Carameldansen. And _dammit, this is just my favourite fanwork, okay?_
HOLY FUCK.
THAT WAS A LOT OF WORDS ABOUT MUSIC.
Happy New Years, y'all. And now I am going to go make a playlist and entitle it "Top Songs of 2012" and see if anything interesting comes of it...
~Sor
MOOP!
1: Something I don't think I've ever intentionally mentioned: the filter on livejournal in which I discuss rape is called "TherapyFilter". Or more accurately, "TheRapyFilter". Hence.
2: I don't know exactly where this construct came from, but "I want to put it in my mouth" is totally my current way of saying I really like a thing. This works really well until I accidentally(intentionally) mix it up with "I want to have your babies" and say to Ria "I want to put your babies in my mouth."
Luckily, Ria is the best moirail, and thinks I am only a little entirely weird. It's okay, she keeps threatening to pee on everything I love.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2012-01-01 06:29 pm (UTC)And still maintain that EVERYONE goes "AHAHAHA! TAVROS! Iamahorribleperson BUT IT'S FUNNY!"
no subject
on 2012-01-01 05:55 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2012-01-01 10:01 pm (UTC)In other news, I am going to have to look up some of these songs - I'm not that adventurous when it comes to music and I have come to rely on friends saying "THIS song is GREAT because X, Y and especially Z!!!" which you do with such great abandon. Thank you!
no subject
on 2012-06-30 09:32 pm (UTC)Also, good to know that some people appreciate these, since I intend to keep doing them. :D!
~Sor
no subject
on 2012-01-02 03:37 am (UTC)Except this song, which inexplicably decided to light up my day every time it played. I...don't even know, frankly.
I suppose it's too much to hope that it was Eartha Kitt singing it?
no subject
on 2012-06-30 09:32 pm (UTC)~Sor