Top songs of 2012
Jan. 6th, 2013 10:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sorcyressSo, ever since 2009, I have kept a list of the Top Songs of any given year --songs that I played over and over again, that earwormed into me, that had a serious impact, or meant something meaningful, or changed my life (in big ways and little).
This has actually been a really quiet year, musically. I haven't been listening to stuff as much, I haven't been music trancing as much. In the first half of the year, I was doing a lot of howling my pain into song --that hasn't been nearly as true for the past several months. I'm not really sure what happened, but it makes me a little sad. I _like_ having noise to help soothe my mind.
But anyways, in mostly chronological order, the songs that grabbed me this year and wouldn't let go:
Dirty Little Secret by the All American Rejects (or the bluegrass version by Pickin' On Series, yes _really_). There are...reasons for this. As years go, this was a big ol' fucking theme song for some big parts of my life. The end result being that there is a difference between being closeted and being secret. Only one of them is a thing I'm willing to do, moving on.
Oh, and this was like...the single song I actually enjoyed while being employed at Dunkers. And they only had about a days worth of music, so I listened to this fucking piece of music a LOT.
Canyon by Akchizar. Yes, like the "Tho" Akchizar. I don't know how long ago he tossed this track at me (or whether it's fully original or a modification), but it's a thing, and I spent a lot of January and February listening to it. I appreciate good nonvocal sometimes.
There She Goes, My Beautiful World, by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. I wrote in February about being given a mixtape by my sir. The 22 songs within that album certainly comprised the most listened to body of music this year. There was a lot of wonderful, all meant for me (that there is a song called "Turning into Stone" has not escaped my heart and my love of subtleties) and it meant an incredible amount to receive this gift. Anyways, "There She Goes" is by far my favourite off the mix.
My first instance of my abiding love for mashups, Gucci Gucci Girl Power mashed by A plus D. Aug. What can I even say. POP EVERYWHERE! Also, knowing this mashup helped me earn major points with my sister when I could sing one of the songs used in it almost verbatim.
Rolling in the Deep by Adele, and Show Me in the Deep (Adele versus Robin S) by DJs from Mars. See, there was a Square Dance weekend in March, and at that, Clark utilized a singing call designed by someone for Rolling in the Deep. That was the tipping point that pushed me into "okay fine this song is EPICMAZING". The mashup version features because it took me a while to actually getting around to buying the proper version. This is a usual weird thing I do, it takes me forever to realize I can just _buy music_ when I want it.
The Easthill weekend was also the first time I remember ever hearing, or dancing to, Riverboat. Hells yes! This is a singing call to leave all other singing calls shamefaced in the dust. It is something that feels good dancing, that begs for singing along, for gentle competition between the dancers. It's a square dance where the number of couples in your square is basically irrelevant. I have a lot of love for this dance, and that carries over to the tune it uses.
Unfortunately I still don't own a copy of Riverboat, but I did manage to find the _only version on YouTube_ and listen to that until my ears fell off. Lovely!
Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You) by Kelly Clarkson. I was driving somewhere, and probably a little braindead (my musicplayer indicates I bought this in the last few weeks of working at Dunkers, which means _definitely_ fucked up) and this came on the radio. It grabbed me with the very first line: "You know the bed feels warmer, sleeping here alone"
It's a breakup song. But all that means is that it's a song about being strong, and those have always been so, SO necessary to who I am and what I need.
My Word by Rachel Sage. This was played one night when Tricia was giving me a ride home from dancing, and I was immediately transfixed. Tric dug around in her bag and handed me a card good for a free download of some of Ms Sage's music and that was all I needed. Just lovely.
Seize the Night(alternate version) by Kyle Gordon. From Dance of the Vampires. And do know that I am plenty pretentious enough about both German and musicals to know the difference between that and Tanz der Vampire. Thass right, spend enough time on the seedy parts of the internet (Tumblr) and you'll wind up with a collection of English demo tracks for the dead-too-soon English retelling of the best ever German musical with Jim Steinman music.
Firebird's Child by S.J. Tucker.
And then, chronologically, it's Balticon. And my goddess is singing and there is nothing for me to do but sob because I could never talk to her, not once, not ever.
Except I accidentally fall in with her manager, and we wind up at some of the same parties, and she is small and cute and enthusiastic and compliments my pants (!) and waltzes with me when I invite her (!!) and gives me the nickname of "Sorcy the Waltz-Pirate" which is basically the greatest nickname ever because it came from her (!!!!!!!!!).
S00j is fucking amazing. And this is a song I danced to outside in the starting rain, leaping and twirling and sacrificing everything I could because that's what it deserved.
Cheshire Kitten (We're All Mad Here), also by S00j.
...and at the concert she performed, this was the very first song she sang. I was not feeling very stable, and I knew I would cry very much. So I was up the spotlight tree, house right, somewhere safe I could sob.
And she tells me "we're all mad here and it's okay" and I did not even have a fucking chance to breathe. I listened to this over, and over, and over this summer. It is a *very* good reminder to me.
Back to business as usual, I traveled to Chicago in...July or so, to spend some time with the family. While there, we watched a movie mum had rented called St Trinian's, about a girls school for very bad girls. It was excellent, and the closing number is so upbeat and triumphant that I had to add the St Trinian's Theme to this year's list.
Somewhere in my riding to work, I discovered a mash-up called "Titanium 500". It's by DJ Schmolli, and features some epic current radio hit (seriously, I've heard it on the radio and everything! It's hip!) mashed up with I Would Walk 500 Miles. My listens of this picked up considerably across the end of the summer, because how could I *not* love what is essentially a technoversion of The Proclaimers?
When I helped Brenton drive from Boston to Seattle, it gave us a chance to listen to fucking EVERYTHING. Mash-ups? Awesome. Sad Girls with Pretty Voices? Bring on the Vienna and S00j! Acapella? Certainly, the weirder the better! Showtunes? SHOWTUNES! Brenton and I have *exceptionally* compatible taste in music, is what I am trying to say here.
So the first time he played the LabNotes version of Here With Me, I took notice. And even more so the second and fourth and sixth. It was beautiful and longing and strong and romantic despite the desperation. And completely the wrong song for helping someone I adore move so far away it feels I'll never see him again. But I made him send me a copy anyways.
Then I was in Maryland, and with ShadowCaptain, and the thing one does when one is with ShadowCaptain is go to Amanda Palmer concerts. I mean, like completely separate from any of my opinions of the woman, this is the natural habitat of the ShadowCap! How could I miss an opportunity to take notes and make fun of his adorable swooning crush?
...Amanda might have sung a song that includes the line "It's the street I live on, Massachusetts Avenue!" It's totally just the fact that I also lived on Mass Ave (essentially) for four years and not the fact that it's super pop-addictive. *coff*.
Okay, and I have no excuses for Want it Back except further pop-addiction. This makes Amanda tied with s00j for "most songs on this playlist" and I just can't even begin to express how weird that makes me feel.
And for the last three months of the year, I only have three songs --none of them especially new. Just... given new meaning as I struggle to be an adult, to survive, to live.
Whenever I have opportunity to waltz, I have been putting on Bif Naked's Lucky. I have two versions, an original, and one cut for the Buffy the Vampire Soundtrack. I had mostly listened to the Buffy one, which meant the sadness I felt upon hearing it, and my conviction that this was a song being sung by someone abused, was totally unreasonable. Come November, I listened to the full cut, and caught the half-verse I had been missing --"the first time we made love I, I wasn't sober / and you told me you loved me over and over". (Not I told you I loved you, and the one-sidedness makes all the difference)
There's the horror for me. Compounded by "you took my pictures in all sorts of poses" and you have a slow, sad-sounding waltz with lyrics that sting too close to my own abusive relationship. Chilling. And still wonderful.
In November, my life took a turn for the "what, are you fucking kidding me?" levels of drama. Those haven't exactly been sorted out. To put it simply, it involves someone flouncily declaring that they're not sure they should ever talk to me or acknowledge I exist again. And then repeatedly contacting me. Just...so done here.
Anyways, my reaction to emotionally manipulative drama has been, since sometime in 2009, "excuse me, but I've had that happen to me before, and I'm actually so done here." So, in recollection of my abuser, and to celebrate the wankery of this former friend, Lisa Carew makes the list again. I'm not the weak young thing you're seeking. Someone seventeen, obedient, and sweet. I am so complete, and it makes it damn hard for me to take your dramatic blow-up seriously.
Finally, there's one song that I've been feeling pretty hard for the last six or seven months. It's from Little Shop of Horrors. It's the song that opens the musical. "Please won't somebody say I'll get out of here". Skid Row (Downtown).
I'm not an adult yet, not properly. I'm slowly getting there, clawing my way up. Finding jobs, finding references, everything I do giving me a little bit better days wage. Some months I'm so broke I pay the rent with a roll of dimes. I don't turn down babysitting jobs unless I absolutely have to. I've survived for months on pasta and leftovers stolen from my roommates.
But slowly, I'm getting my feet under me. And I know it never really compares, because I have never really been poor (I have parents who will pay for my doctors appointments, friends who will help me get a new bike.) But the last minute of this song has been my screaming ritual --I want to make it as a real adult, as someone competent and surviving and not afraid of starving. I want to get out from living hand to mouth --I want to have savings oh god do I want to have savings, real savings, not the few scant dollars I squirrel away a month.
And despite this post being long enough already (serves me right for doing this *before* the yearly recap), there are a few songs that I watched over and over on YouTube.
*The newest Where the Hell is Matt: Trip the Light
*jere7my got me hooked on Macklemore and Lewis's Thrift Shop (best. rap. ever!)
*Tumblr now has an entirely accurate anthem: I Live Life on Tumblr
*There were possibly forays into "Call Me Maybe", "Gangnam Style", and "Party Rock", but if you can't find those on your own, you're probably better off. What can I say, I really like pop!
*And by far my favourite YouTube sensation of the year, Bad Romance: Woman's Sufferage. Unf. Hits me right in the activism. And the video is ten times better if you've seen Lady Gaga's original video as many times as I have.
It's over!
~Sor
MOOP!
This has actually been a really quiet year, musically. I haven't been listening to stuff as much, I haven't been music trancing as much. In the first half of the year, I was doing a lot of howling my pain into song --that hasn't been nearly as true for the past several months. I'm not really sure what happened, but it makes me a little sad. I _like_ having noise to help soothe my mind.
But anyways, in mostly chronological order, the songs that grabbed me this year and wouldn't let go:
Dirty Little Secret by the All American Rejects (or the bluegrass version by Pickin' On Series, yes _really_). There are...reasons for this. As years go, this was a big ol' fucking theme song for some big parts of my life. The end result being that there is a difference between being closeted and being secret. Only one of them is a thing I'm willing to do, moving on.
Oh, and this was like...the single song I actually enjoyed while being employed at Dunkers. And they only had about a days worth of music, so I listened to this fucking piece of music a LOT.
Canyon by Akchizar. Yes, like the "Tho" Akchizar. I don't know how long ago he tossed this track at me (or whether it's fully original or a modification), but it's a thing, and I spent a lot of January and February listening to it. I appreciate good nonvocal sometimes.
There She Goes, My Beautiful World, by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. I wrote in February about being given a mixtape by my sir. The 22 songs within that album certainly comprised the most listened to body of music this year. There was a lot of wonderful, all meant for me (that there is a song called "Turning into Stone" has not escaped my heart and my love of subtleties) and it meant an incredible amount to receive this gift. Anyways, "There She Goes" is by far my favourite off the mix.
My first instance of my abiding love for mashups, Gucci Gucci Girl Power mashed by A plus D. Aug. What can I even say. POP EVERYWHERE! Also, knowing this mashup helped me earn major points with my sister when I could sing one of the songs used in it almost verbatim.
Rolling in the Deep by Adele, and Show Me in the Deep (Adele versus Robin S) by DJs from Mars. See, there was a Square Dance weekend in March, and at that, Clark utilized a singing call designed by someone for Rolling in the Deep. That was the tipping point that pushed me into "okay fine this song is EPICMAZING". The mashup version features because it took me a while to actually getting around to buying the proper version. This is a usual weird thing I do, it takes me forever to realize I can just _buy music_ when I want it.
The Easthill weekend was also the first time I remember ever hearing, or dancing to, Riverboat. Hells yes! This is a singing call to leave all other singing calls shamefaced in the dust. It is something that feels good dancing, that begs for singing along, for gentle competition between the dancers. It's a square dance where the number of couples in your square is basically irrelevant. I have a lot of love for this dance, and that carries over to the tune it uses.
Unfortunately I still don't own a copy of Riverboat, but I did manage to find the _only version on YouTube_ and listen to that until my ears fell off. Lovely!
Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You) by Kelly Clarkson. I was driving somewhere, and probably a little braindead (my musicplayer indicates I bought this in the last few weeks of working at Dunkers, which means _definitely_ fucked up) and this came on the radio. It grabbed me with the very first line: "You know the bed feels warmer, sleeping here alone"
It's a breakup song. But all that means is that it's a song about being strong, and those have always been so, SO necessary to who I am and what I need.
My Word by Rachel Sage. This was played one night when Tricia was giving me a ride home from dancing, and I was immediately transfixed. Tric dug around in her bag and handed me a card good for a free download of some of Ms Sage's music and that was all I needed. Just lovely.
Seize the Night(alternate version) by Kyle Gordon. From Dance of the Vampires. And do know that I am plenty pretentious enough about both German and musicals to know the difference between that and Tanz der Vampire. Thass right, spend enough time on the seedy parts of the internet (Tumblr) and you'll wind up with a collection of English demo tracks for the dead-too-soon English retelling of the best ever German musical with Jim Steinman music.
Firebird's Child by S.J. Tucker.
And then, chronologically, it's Balticon. And my goddess is singing and there is nothing for me to do but sob because I could never talk to her, not once, not ever.
Except I accidentally fall in with her manager, and we wind up at some of the same parties, and she is small and cute and enthusiastic and compliments my pants (!) and waltzes with me when I invite her (!!) and gives me the nickname of "Sorcy the Waltz-Pirate" which is basically the greatest nickname ever because it came from her (!!!!!!!!!).
S00j is fucking amazing. And this is a song I danced to outside in the starting rain, leaping and twirling and sacrificing everything I could because that's what it deserved.
Cheshire Kitten (We're All Mad Here), also by S00j.
...and at the concert she performed, this was the very first song she sang. I was not feeling very stable, and I knew I would cry very much. So I was up the spotlight tree, house right, somewhere safe I could sob.
And she tells me "we're all mad here and it's okay" and I did not even have a fucking chance to breathe. I listened to this over, and over, and over this summer. It is a *very* good reminder to me.
Back to business as usual, I traveled to Chicago in...July or so, to spend some time with the family. While there, we watched a movie mum had rented called St Trinian's, about a girls school for very bad girls. It was excellent, and the closing number is so upbeat and triumphant that I had to add the St Trinian's Theme to this year's list.
Somewhere in my riding to work, I discovered a mash-up called "Titanium 500". It's by DJ Schmolli, and features some epic current radio hit (seriously, I've heard it on the radio and everything! It's hip!) mashed up with I Would Walk 500 Miles. My listens of this picked up considerably across the end of the summer, because how could I *not* love what is essentially a technoversion of The Proclaimers?
When I helped Brenton drive from Boston to Seattle, it gave us a chance to listen to fucking EVERYTHING. Mash-ups? Awesome. Sad Girls with Pretty Voices? Bring on the Vienna and S00j! Acapella? Certainly, the weirder the better! Showtunes? SHOWTUNES! Brenton and I have *exceptionally* compatible taste in music, is what I am trying to say here.
So the first time he played the LabNotes version of Here With Me, I took notice. And even more so the second and fourth and sixth. It was beautiful and longing and strong and romantic despite the desperation. And completely the wrong song for helping someone I adore move so far away it feels I'll never see him again. But I made him send me a copy anyways.
Then I was in Maryland, and with ShadowCaptain, and the thing one does when one is with ShadowCaptain is go to Amanda Palmer concerts. I mean, like completely separate from any of my opinions of the woman, this is the natural habitat of the ShadowCap! How could I miss an opportunity to take notes and make fun of his adorable swooning crush?
...Amanda might have sung a song that includes the line "It's the street I live on, Massachusetts Avenue!" It's totally just the fact that I also lived on Mass Ave (essentially) for four years and not the fact that it's super pop-addictive. *coff*.
Okay, and I have no excuses for Want it Back except further pop-addiction. This makes Amanda tied with s00j for "most songs on this playlist" and I just can't even begin to express how weird that makes me feel.
And for the last three months of the year, I only have three songs --none of them especially new. Just... given new meaning as I struggle to be an adult, to survive, to live.
Whenever I have opportunity to waltz, I have been putting on Bif Naked's Lucky. I have two versions, an original, and one cut for the Buffy the Vampire Soundtrack. I had mostly listened to the Buffy one, which meant the sadness I felt upon hearing it, and my conviction that this was a song being sung by someone abused, was totally unreasonable. Come November, I listened to the full cut, and caught the half-verse I had been missing --"the first time we made love I, I wasn't sober / and you told me you loved me over and over". (Not I told you I loved you, and the one-sidedness makes all the difference)
There's the horror for me. Compounded by "you took my pictures in all sorts of poses" and you have a slow, sad-sounding waltz with lyrics that sting too close to my own abusive relationship. Chilling. And still wonderful.
In November, my life took a turn for the "what, are you fucking kidding me?" levels of drama. Those haven't exactly been sorted out. To put it simply, it involves someone flouncily declaring that they're not sure they should ever talk to me or acknowledge I exist again. And then repeatedly contacting me. Just...so done here.
Anyways, my reaction to emotionally manipulative drama has been, since sometime in 2009, "excuse me, but I've had that happen to me before, and I'm actually so done here." So, in recollection of my abuser, and to celebrate the wankery of this former friend, Lisa Carew makes the list again. I'm not the weak young thing you're seeking. Someone seventeen, obedient, and sweet. I am so complete, and it makes it damn hard for me to take your dramatic blow-up seriously.
Finally, there's one song that I've been feeling pretty hard for the last six or seven months. It's from Little Shop of Horrors. It's the song that opens the musical. "Please won't somebody say I'll get out of here". Skid Row (Downtown).
I'm not an adult yet, not properly. I'm slowly getting there, clawing my way up. Finding jobs, finding references, everything I do giving me a little bit better days wage. Some months I'm so broke I pay the rent with a roll of dimes. I don't turn down babysitting jobs unless I absolutely have to. I've survived for months on pasta and leftovers stolen from my roommates.
But slowly, I'm getting my feet under me. And I know it never really compares, because I have never really been poor (I have parents who will pay for my doctors appointments, friends who will help me get a new bike.) But the last minute of this song has been my screaming ritual --I want to make it as a real adult, as someone competent and surviving and not afraid of starving. I want to get out from living hand to mouth --I want to have savings oh god do I want to have savings, real savings, not the few scant dollars I squirrel away a month.
And despite this post being long enough already (serves me right for doing this *before* the yearly recap), there are a few songs that I watched over and over on YouTube.
*The newest Where the Hell is Matt: Trip the Light
*jere7my got me hooked on Macklemore and Lewis's Thrift Shop (best. rap. ever!)
*Tumblr now has an entirely accurate anthem: I Live Life on Tumblr
*There were possibly forays into "Call Me Maybe", "Gangnam Style", and "Party Rock", but if you can't find those on your own, you're probably better off. What can I say, I really like pop!
*And by far my favourite YouTube sensation of the year, Bad Romance: Woman's Sufferage. Unf. Hits me right in the activism. And the video is ten times better if you've seen Lady Gaga's original video as many times as I have.
It's over!
~Sor
MOOP!