a thumbnail from nugporn.com:

http://nugporn.com/2009/10/23/violet-hill-2/

Coldplay – “Violet Hill”

I’m such an emotional wreck.
Such a beautiful song, have you already listened to the lyrics yet?

“If you love me
Won’t you let me know?”

(Violet Hill – Coldplay)

PS.: é só pq gosto muito dessa música que coloquei… essa parte sempre aparece no comercial doER.

By James Grimes

Stars:  *|*|*|*|*

Summary:  A great battle between life and death is played out in subtly, wit, emotion and energy.  Great hooks, thoughtful lyrics, and a lasting impression of hope are given to the listener.

Art Assessment: Classy, bold, and striking

Review:  Coldplay has, for the first decade of the new millennium, wowed lovers of alternative rock consistently.  Last year’s ‘Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends’ was by far my favorite of their works, thus far.  I honestly haven’t heard all of ‘Parachutes’, though, so that may change.  Nevertheless, it’s great, and song-by-song, here’s why.

‘Life In Technicolor’:  Slowly building up into a gorgeous swirl of soft electronic keyboard sound, it’s a great way to start it up.  It establishes an ethereal, introspective tone for the whole album.  There’s no lyrics, only a couple background vocals, and they quickly dissipate as it fades into…

‘Cemeteries of London’:  This track is dark, and quite enigmatic.  This is where we first see the major themes of the album: Life, death, and the constant choice between them.  The people that the lyrics speak of are lost in darkness, a kind of living death, because their hearts are not open to God, the source of life.  Coldplay is not a Christian or religious band, but here we see evidence of sympathy with Christianity’s central ideas.

‘Lost!’:  This song is about, well, being lost.  In a mental or spiritual sense.  It’s also about holding on, persevering, despite this fact, and looking for home.

‘42′:  My personal favorite song on the album.  Its sound, simplistic and piano-driven at first, leads into an awesome guitar riff.  The lyrics are concerned with grief.  The protagonist of the song is being held down by the memories of “those who are dead”, who are “living in my head”.  The second half of the song is a bit more difficult to discern.  Here’s what’s sung: You thought you might be a ghost… you didn’t get to heaven but you made it close. This, which sounds mournful on paper, when contrasted with the hopeful tune, seems to indicate one person in grief encouraging another.  In any case, it’s awesome.  Why is it called ‘42′?  Because a lot of bands, such as U2, have at one time had certain songs that were inexplicably called by random numbers.   So Coldplay did it… because they could.

‘Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love’: Light, airy, mystical and adventurous, it’s a relatively straightforward love song, but seeing that this is Coldplay, the lyrics have that extra layer of depth.  Not a disappointment, but not my favorite song on the album.  The second half of the song switches gears and is much more calm and reflective.

‘Yes’:  The darkest track on the album.  The protagonist struggles with sexual temptation in an intimate relationship with a possible future wife.  He’s trying to get her to say “Yes”, but her reluctance is making it hard to keep himself pure before marriage.  A “hidden” song appears after the song draws to a close, and it’s clear why it was placed directly afterward.  Airy and hard to discern lyrics repeat behind thick, melodic guitars and percussion.  The name of the song is “Chinese Sleep Chant”, and it seems to be intended to show the emotional satisfaction in the protagonist’s heart when she finally does say “Yes”, but that’s just my assumption.

‘Viva La Vida’:  The title is a Spanish phrase that translates as “long live life”, but the song itself isn’t a celebration of life so much as a lament.  A mighty ruler, overthrown in a revolution, sings about what he lost, and how he feels God cannot accept him.  Appropriately, this is immediately followed by…

‘Violet Hill’:  This could be easily and reasonably taken as the story of a soldier under the dictator’s command.  He longs to see his lover again, but he’s been taken away to a terrible, misguided war.  This is obviously a protest song, and done with great style and wit.  My second favorite song on the album.

‘Strawberry Swing’:  After the darkness of the past few tracks, this is an awesome relief.  A great electronic sound.  The lyrics are beautiful and concerned with the wonder and preciousness of life.

‘Death And All His Friends’:  The beginning wraps up the love theme of the album.  It speaks of patience before marriage, possibly picking up the story from ‘Yes’.  After this, and a great piano-to-percussion-to-guitar build up, Chris Martin and the other band members yell out the last piece of lyrics, directly challenging death.  It’s awesome and quite uplifting.  After this fades away, the last hidden track, ‘The Escapist’, gently comes into play.  Another brief ode to hope.  Kind of cool to fall asleep to, actually.

And now that’s it all said and done, I’d like to talk about the effects of the album.  It’s hard to see, in the relatively brief period of time this album has been out, what sort of societal change will be made.  It’s much more introspective than most folks are probably used to.  I know I’ve heard a lot of crap about Coldplay being “pretentious”, which is, in my opinion, ridiculous and reeks of misunderstanding.  It’s easy to confuse sophistication–or rather, depth–with being haughty, especially if you happen to be talking about a group of popular musicians.  What I’d like to see come from this album is a heightened sense of appreciation for religion, and for the topic of death in general.  Most people avoid talking about it, for the obvious reason that it’s inevitable.  But as a group so sympathetic to Christianity, Coldplay has the the inclination to directly challenge the inevitable.  And it’s that kind of thinking that leads to hope in something, or Someone, more.

En cherchant une vidéo spécifique de la soirée … je réalise qu’il y en a des tones et des tones !!! Voici quelques vidéos que j’ai sélectionées des moments clés du show ….

Quelle belle journée ! Le tout y étaient ! Soleil, chaleur, amis, boissons mais surtout muzika ! Merci à mon amie Karine qui m’a offert ce beau présent pour ma fête !!

On avait des amies, fans mordues de Coldplay, qui sont arrivées à 9h00 le matin pour pouvoir avoir le spot en avant pour le show du soir. Merci à ces gentles dames car nous sommes arrivées en debut d’après midi et en se relayant, on a pu rester up front pour le show… Du people ? Il y en avait. Toute la journée les médias et les ‘twiters’ défilaient !

Pour ma part, j’ai débuté le tout effectivement avec Kitty Daisy Lewis. Très charmant de voir chacun des membres du groupe s’échanger d’instruments de la guitard au piano par l’harmonika, au xylo…ils ont sû nous faire danser ! Du moins, moi si!

Après quelques rencontres et jasettes sur le terrain, je suis allée voir LA ROUX avec quelques amis. Un incontournable ! J’étais vraiment contente ! Plusieurs fois entendu, mais première fois que je la voyais en show! Elle nous a fait les In for the Kill -Quicksand – et bien sur Bulletproof

Après avoir attendu 45 minutes pour mon hot-dog, je vais rejoindre mes amies prêt de la scène…Jason Mraz commence, on est capable d’apprécier LA toune qu’on connait de lui … Petite pensée pour mon amie Anne-Laurence ici. Mais le show de Coldplay…wow ! C’était tout simplement magique! L’avant première débutant

avec une chanson classique nous déstabilise et ensuite embarquent les hits! Violet Hill, Fix you, Yellow, Talk, Scientist, Viva La Vida et j’en passe. Coldplay joue, les feux de la ronde éclatent, la température idéale: chaud et pas trop humide, aucun nuage pour laisser place à la lune, bref, beau mix pour dire aie aie aie !!

Même le Chris en se mettant en plein milieu de la foule nous a improvisé une chanson qui nous disait qu’il appréciait cette soirée … C’est clair que tu ne peux écouter du Coldplay sans que ça te rappele des moments de ta vie…this is it, enjoy it !

Bref, j’ai eu l’occasion d’apprécier plusieurs groupes dans la journée, peut-être pas eu l’occasion de voir Lykke li et Girl Talk en soirée, mais non non … l’expérience Coldplay d’aussi proche … rien de comparable!! Innoubliable !! – Paix –

Há tempos não coloco música alguma nesse blog. Isso é porque preciso de um bom tempo para fazer upload da música em um ftp para então adicionar no post, pois o wordpress não aceita outros players embutidos que não o próprio. Seria muito mais prático usar um mp3tube por exemplo…

Coldplay lançou Viva La Vida em 2008 e se tornou um dos álbuns mais famosos da banda. A música homônima tocou em todas as rádios.

Como sempre, vasculhando o lado B de tudo que existe, encontrei minha música preferida de todo o disco. Viva La Vida todo mundo conhece. Violet Hill não.

.

Chris martin anunció que Coldplay está filmando los conciertos de Vancouver para sacar un nuevo DVD en vivo.
Le dijo al publico al final de Violet Hill: “¿Qué pasa si les digo que estaremos filmando las próximas dos noches?”
Mencionó después de The Hardest Part: “De los 90 paises que podríamos haber filmado, elegimos Canadá”

Vía: http://coldplay.mundoforo.com/nuevo-dvd-de-coldplay-filmando-en-vancouvercanada-vt1645.html

BONUS 1: http://www.myspace.com/duelostnt

BONUS 2: Viva La Vida – Pet Shop Boys

Las sonrisas vienen envueltas en bolsas de Sfera y no tengo ni idea de que decir, ni cómo lo tengo que decir, porque estar como Houdini a veces hace dificil hasta la cosa más sencilla.

Esto es algo que se queda en una mesa de trabajo compartido mientras construimos en las playas del sur olas que nos lleven hasta Londres.

Los agradecimientos vienen en forma de canción porque yo ayer me quede sin palabras.

Y yo mientras tanto aquí sigo, con viva la vida, en mi azotea.

Llegando a casa no podía quitarme esta canción de la cabeza… no sé, me gusta… y bueno, ya veis el modo en el que estoy, sin más os la dejo, canción de Coldplay, del disco “Viva la Vida”… Me encanta *__*

Was a long and dark December
From the rooftops I remember
There was snow
White snow

Clearly I remember
From the windows they were watching
While we froze
Down below

When the future’s architectured
By a carnival of idiots on show
You’d better lie low

If you love me
Won’t you let me know?

Was a long and dark December
When the banks became cathedrals
And the fog
Became God

Priests clutched onto bibles
Hollowed out to fit their rifles
And the cross was held aloft

Bury me in armor
When I’m dead and hit the ground
A love back home unfolds

If you love me
Won’t you let me know?

I don’t want to be a soldier
Who the captain of some sinking ship
Would stow, far below

So if you love me
Why’d you let me go?

I took my love down to Violet Hill
There we sat in snow
All that time she was silent still

So if you love me
Won’t you let me know?

If you love me,
Won’t you let me know?

Como eu gosto de fuçar no lastfm alheio quando tenho tempo… como gosto MESMO.  Normalmete é assim que conheço bandas e cantores ‘novos’ ( O leigo). Descobri essa manha no lastfm da Fezoca pega famosos a Alison Sudol, conhecida como A Fine Frenzy.  Seu som é muito parecido com Sara Bareilles, Ingrid Michaelson,  Rachael Yamagata, Anna Nalick, Maria Mena e Missy Higgins.

Alison também estava imersa em música clássica, Motown, Aretha Franklin, bandas de Swing, Ella Fitzgerald, Elton John, Louis Armstrong, os Beatles, filmes Technicolor e televisão clássica da década de 50.  Depois de aprender sozinha a tocar piano, Alison investiu em suas narrativas na forma de músicas. Ela encontrou abrigo na melancolia melódica de novas bandas Britânicas como Aqualung, Radiohead, Coldplay, Keane. Ela também foi influenciada pelo minimalismo diatônico de Philip Glass e a atração da música islandesa (Björk, Sigur Rós). Inspirada, Alison desenvolveu o som de A Fine Frenzy – Arranjos hipnóticos de piano sobre uma melodia clássica Americana misturada com irresistíveis, e atmosféricas músicas com o poder de alcançar todo o mundo.

Segue o Link para download do albúm “One cell in the sea”

From/De: Activision Publishing & BHPR

FACT SHEET

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION:
Handheld guitar gods can now choose how they raise-up their band from the underground music scene to worldwide rock stardom in Guitar Hero® Modern Hits. Featuring a set list comprised of more than 25 master tracks from influential artists including Coldplay, Fall Out Boy and Weezer, Guitar Hero Modern Hits expands on the innovative Guitar Hero gameplay on the Nintendo DS by introducing an all-new Fan Request system that challenges players to jam like never before. Fret board fanatics can once again unleash their inner rock stars anytime, anywhere as they hone their shredding skills and jam to face-melting modern rock tracks from the last five years in Guitar Hero Modern Hits.

KEY FEATURES:

* Rock out to today’s hottest tracks – Shred along to more than 25 master tracks, all modern rock hits from some of the hottest bands including Coldplay, Fall Out Boy, Tenacious D, Weezer, The Strokes and more. Players will tour through five all-new venues that are as extreme as the tunes played in them.

* Choose your path to stardom – For the first time ever, players can choose how they take their band from the underground music scene to worldwide rock stardom with the exciting non-linear gameplay progression in Guitar Hero Modern Hits.

* Do it for the fans – Guitar Hero: Modern Hits delivers an all-new gameplay experience with Fan Requests. By completing Fan Requests players build their fan base and open up new challenges to rock-out like never before including jamming to an entire song in Hyperspeed, battling it out in a Guitar Duel with active Bomb Notes or whammying every single hold note in a song.

* Rock out anytime, anywhere – Fans can take the Guitar Hero experience wherever they go with Guitar Hero Modern Hits. The Guitar Hero Guitar Grip™ is an ergonomic extension that mimics a guitar fret board and fits seamlessly in people’s hands to deliver the same core gameplay that defines Guitar Hero.

* The party never stops – Song streaming features allow players of Guitar Hero Modern Hits and its predecessors, Guitar Hero: On Tour and Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades, to share songs via local wireless connectivity. Players can rock out together in multiplayer modes, jamming to tracks from all three versions of the game.

REVEALED VENUES:
* Rusty Rocco’s Venue
Opening Act:
Wolfmother – Dimension
Coldplay – Violet Hill
Lenny Kravitz – Where Are We Runnin

Headline Act:
Evanescence – Sweet Sacrifice
The Strokes – Reptilia
The Bravery – Unconditional

* Casino Vicarious Venue
Opening Act:
Fall Out Boy – This Ain’t A Scene
Weezer – Everybody Get Dangerous
The Kaiser Chiefs – Ruby

Headline Act:
12 Stones – Adrenaline
Tenacious D – The Metal
Atreyu – Falling Down

Publisher: Activision Publishing/RedOctane
Developer: Vicarious Visions
Release Date: TBC

“Oh, I have slept… for nine moons. What I did for you wasn’t easy.”

That great little quote right there is from Merlin (played by Nicol Williamson) in the film ‘Excalibur’. Awesome film – check it out if you haven’t seen it yet.

I thought the quote summed up pretty well how I felt after writing the ‘25 Facts About Ian Mardell’ a few days back. Looking back it was a hell of a lot of thinking, remembering and writing (6207 words to be precise), but fun too.

So, although I haven’t literally slept for nine moons, what I did wasn’t easy and I hope it was enjoyable to read.

I just got an email from Beth about the Brit awards the other night and about how:

“Fearn Cotton interviewing Duffy = bland off”.

I agree with this. In fact, if Duffy and Fearn Cotton were flavours in a tub of Neapolitan ice cream Duffy would be vanilla and Fearn Cotton would be the tub.

Fern Cotton is one of those female type humans who, as a guy, I probably should find her attractive but looking at her is the equivalent of eating porridge without honey; bland, time consuming and unexciting. I mean, she has all her lady bumps in the right places (which is a good start), and is moderately good looking but there’s something about her that just smells wrong. It’s not her voice, even though her horse-y poshness voice is one of the bigger reasons I don’t like her. Maybe she’s an android or something. Like Lucy Liu-bot. The world would be a lot simpler if certain people were androids.

Anyway, thanks to Beth making me aware that the Brit Awards have happened I can turn my over-opinionated typing fingers’ attention to them and rant on about the subject for a good 1000 words or so without actually having seen the ceremony.

I should declare my position on the Brits now, at the outset, to avoid any possible confusion later on: my interest in the Brits couldn’t be measured by anything less sensitive than an atomic force microscope.

Due to my festering hatred of pretty much everything that gets into any of the ‘Tops’ (top 10, top 20, top 40, Top of the Pops) I’ve never watched the Brits and have absolutely no interest in anything associated with it, especially the whoring ‘our logo must be on everything’ MasterCard company.

I’m sure, if you look deep enough, the MasterCard was a Nazi initiative. If they’d won we’d be bombarded by a very different ad campaign.

Instead of the lovely, inoffensive, non threatening (and very fucking boring) Jack Davenport with his comforting warm brown voice glibly informing us:

“some things money can’t buy, for everything else; there’s MasterCard”

we’d see starving gypsies, trade unionists, political activists and Jews being turned away from supermarkets while a prototypical Aryan male dances around the aisles tossing items into his trolley without a care in the world then, when paying for his shopping, turns to camera, smiling as the voice over man (whoever the equivalent of Davenport would be in this alternate reality) happily declares:

“MasterCard, the card for the Master Race”.

Bastards.

The next right wing political party to get any sort of power will be sponsored by MasterCard, mark my words.

Anyway, despite never having watched it, I do remember the 1989 Brit Awards being laughed almost off the planet by news outlets and Spitting Image at the time.

The unintentional visual gag of having presenters Mick (‘I’m a big, tall guitarist’) Fleetwood and Sam (ample-bosomed short arse) Fox stood next to each other for an entire evening was brilliant to behold. Add to that the fact that they were both rubbish at presenting and screwed their lines up, mis-introduced people (Boy George is not the Four Tops), and were utterly out of their depth it was essential car-crash television. I’m just gutted I missed it live.

It’s not as if correcting the heights of the two presenters so they wouldn’t look quite so stupid stood next to each other was even that difficult. Two simple solutions were open to them: Fleetwood kneels down or Fox stands on a box.

Hmm…

Idea for a TV show; ‘Fox on the Box’.

Sam Fox stands on a box topless in the middle of a busy town centre for the amusement of passers by while her song “Touch Me (I Wanna Feel Your Body)” plays through the ‘ghetto blaster’.

Anyone who actually touches her (or feels her body) in any way is tasered & arrested on the spot by a riot squad who were hiding in the box all along.

Sam Fox not essential to project.

Possible replacements: real fox, Michael J Fox, Fox Mulder (off of the X Files) or the Crack Fox from the Mighty Boosh.

Alternatively, a half hour clip show of Sam Fox career ‘highlights’ to act as a guide/warning to wannabe celebrities about exactly how far you can go with no talent, a big pair of tits & a blond perm.

The answer? Actually, pretty far, even now.

I guess men just haven’t tired of looking at ‘fiery biscuits’ yet (although the blond perm would be updated to a blond ‘rachel’, or whatever the name is now for straightened dyed blond hair).

I’ve now typed and said the word ‘Fox’ too many times and am starting to forget what it means.

Anyway, the Brits.

Like I said, I didn’t watch the thing but I’m gonna bloody well have an opinion about it. After all, how many of the people who complained about Russell Brand & Jonathon Ross actually heard the phone call?

The list of winners & nominees makes me realise how far out of the current mainstream my own music tastes are, and also serves to make me glad of this considering most of what makes it into the top 40 is just utter overproduced drivel.

Ok, Paul Weller, Elbow and The Pet Shop Boys (Best Male Solo Artist, British Group and Outstanding Contribution To Music respectively) are the exceptions to this.

I’m very surprised Elbow won ‘Best Band’ over the everso-slightly-less-interesting-than-self-harming-collection-of-moon-faced-shoegazers; Coldplay. Elbow must be highly fashionable to be into at the moment.

Surprisingly, Elbow seem to have won on the merit of actually making very interesting music rather than being relentlessly forced without remorse into the ears and down the throats of anyone unlucky enough to stumble across Radio 1 (or any BBC station) while looking for a good radio station to listen to.

Seriously, when that god awful ‘Viva La Vida’ album landed I counted five plays of the ‘ok-the-first-3-times-you-hear-it’ first single ‘Violet Hill’ and FOUR plays of the ‘always-shit-no-matter-how-many-times-you-hear-it’ title track ‘Viva La Vida’. Still, they found a formula 2 albums back and bloody well clamped onto it like the combined offspring of limpet and koala.

I’ve put my time in, I’ve suffered. When it comes to Radio 1 I’d probably describe the experience of having to listen to it at work for over a year in a very similar way to how a Vietnam veteran might describe being in a very beautiful country in a very ugly war;

“I saw some things. I heard things. You weren’t there man, YOU WEREN’T THERE.”

I get flashbacks of smug voiced Jo Whiley banging on for ages about the latest bunch of tossers to pick up a bontempi organ and learn how to use Acid or FruityLoops. Incessantly namechecking every emerging act with even the slightest bit of potential in the hope of appearing cool and being able to say “you heard it/them/this here first”.

And then there’s the Critic’s Choice Award.

All I could think when I heard there’s a category for ‘Critics Choice’ was

“oh great, here’s the band everyone is gonna pretend they’ve been into for ages for the next 6 months.”

Here’s the band that Whiley herself will namecheck at least twice an hour in her daily homage to anything labelled as ‘cool’ for that week. And who are this band who have been named so ultimately cool that only the critics are clever enough to appreciate? Why, it’s ‘Florence And the Machine’.

I have never heard of these people, but at least they have a name that is pleasing to say, as in; it rolls off the tongue nicely like ‘KT Tunstall’ or ‘Lily Allen’ and ‘Jolene & The Jing Jang Jong’. Which has to be the fucking stupidest name for anything I’ve ever heard. I fucking hate that name. And I hate how it’s fashionable to namedrop certain bands/artists for a while and then forget they were ever on the earth a few months later. Fucking Jo Whiley. She does that all the time.

Luckily though, the singer (the titular ‘Florence’) already has a defined look and image that definitely did notcome off the peg from a music industry stylist. Oh no, she just goes around looking like a crying crack addict all the time anyway coz, y’know, she’s so cool n that.

This Critic’s Choice award means every twat who’s head is 70% fringe and clothed in epilepsy inducing neon shirts & skintight ’sparrowleg’ jeans from Topshop/man will claim they’ve been into them for ages and at least 1,000 people will now claim to have been at the pub where she did her first gig.

Am I the only one who’s pretty sure interest will drop off in her within a year? Just as it has with every other disposable female twentysomething indie/soul chart botherer that’s hyped up beyond belief until everyone gets utterly sick of the sound and sight of them.

Still, Pet Shop Boys? Awesome.

Duffy can fuck right off though. Don’t even get me started on that.

Viva la vida

Life in techicolor

Violet hill

Clocks

Fix you

Life is like a symphony, where the orchestra has infinite players. Each musician has a special role. One of the players may be just clapping or giving the chords. Someone may be giving the lead. What the violin plays may be very different from what is being played by the trumpet. The singer may be singing a different melody all together.

If one listens to each instrument separately, some may dazzle with their grandness and charm, some may look insignificant, but like a little mouse in the house. But every member of the symphony has a place. The conductor is perfect. And he won’t have something in his grand orchestra unless it is not essential, either as the batter, or as the essence.

We may be players in others’ lives, but in ours we are the one who listens to the symphony. We must sit and listen to the grand orchestra being played, dance to the music, and joyfully surrender to the symphony.

Violet hill is that perfect hillock to sit and listen ones life’s symphony, and to the symphony of many others’…

Was a long and dark December
From the rooftops i remember
There was snow
White snow 
Clearly i remember
From the windows they were watching
While we froze down below 
When the future’s architectured
By a carnival of idiots on show
You’d better lie low 
If you love me
Won’t you let me know? 
Was a long and dark December
When the banks became cathedrals
And the fog
Became God 
Priests clutched onto bibles
And went out to fit their rifles
And the cross was held aloft 
Bury me in honor
When i’m dead and hit the ground
A love back home unfolds 
If you love me
Won’t you let me know? 
I don’t want to be a soldier
With the captain of some sinking ship
With snow, far below 
So if you love me
Why’d you let me go? 
I took my love down to violet hill
There we sat in snow
All that time she was silent still 
So if you love me
Won’t you let me know? 
If you love me,
Won’t you let

Ya se ha dado a conocer cuál será el cuarto single que nos acompañará a todas horas durante los próximos 2/3 meses de “Viva la vida”, album que ha facilitado a Coldplay poder colarse entre el gran público. El año 2008 no pudo ser mejor para los británicos, en donde han logrado consagrarse como una de las agrupaciones musicales con las tirón del panorama musical y con unas ventas cercanas a los seis millones y medio de copias de su último trabajo.

Tras Violet Hill, Viva la Vida y Lost llega el turno de Live in Technicolor.El video se estrenará a nivel mundial el próximo martes 20 de enero a las 7 de la tarde (hora británica) en Channel4. Durante la madrugada del martes al miércoles estará disponible en la web del grupo.  El videoclip de éste último tendrá como protagonistas a varias marionetas carecterizadas como Chris Martin y demás componentes de Coldplay…

Lots of good songs came out this year, but what were my favorites? After seeing my list below (and watching the accompanying video), tell me your favorites in a comment.

10. The Day That Never Comes - Metallica

I don’t normally like Metallica, but this song had a great, accessible sound to it. It’s instantly recognizable with the opening guitar arpeggios, and the band builds at a good pace.

9. A Milli – Lil Wayne

It takes a lot for me to like a rap song, but “A Milli” had just enough appeal to hook me in. Lil Wayne’s unique voice goes into no chorus – it’s just straight rap the whole way through. The more you listen to the lyrics, the better appreciation you have for them.

8. Troublemaker – Weezer

A beastly song that starts right up and doesn’t let up. It has such a great swing to it.

7. You Don’t Understand Me – The Raconteurs

Being a piano player, it’s great to hear a piano being put to good use in today’s rock music, and “You Don’t Understand Me” does just that.

6. American Boy – Estelle (feat. Kanye West)

There’s something different about this song – something better about this song – than all its fellow pop chart-toppers. Kanye West is fine as the guest in this, but Estelle’s vocals and the laid-back feel are what makes it… “Shine”.

5. Inside the Fire – Disturbed

Catchy hard rock/metal… what isn’t to like about it? Disturbed has definitely  gotten better from its past days, and even then they had the ingenious “Down With the Sickness”. I look forward to what they have in store next.

4. Violet Hill – Coldplay

Coldplay isn’t my favorite band by any means, but this song’s strong piano and vocals put this into near-classic territory.

3. Becoming the Bull – Atreyu

Listen to the first 20 seconds or so of this song, and it’s hard not to love it.

2. The Shock of the Lightning – Oasis

A little over-distorted, but then again if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t be Oasis. The first time I heard this song, I was instantly obsessed with it.

1. Re-Education (Through Labor) – Rise Against

YES! This is the kind of music we need more of! Just put this song on loop, and leave it like that for a day or two. Don’t worry – it’s impossible to grow tired of this loud, angry, fist-pumping, “hey!”-shouting rock.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Notice What’s Not Here:

I Kissed a Girl – Katy Parry

The very definition of over-played. I liked this song at first… don’t get me wrong. But now I want to smash the radio into pieces when it comes on.

Heroes of Our Time – Dragonforce

Hm… I feel like I’ve heard this before. Oh yeah, it sounds like EVERY FREAKIN’ DRAGONFORCE SONG IN EXISTENCE.

Burnin’ Up – The Jonas Brothers

This shows only that as long as you have the right age and Disney behind you, any random teenager can become world famous.

Chinese Democracy – Guns ‘n Roses

Any song that starts with 45 seconds of ambient noise needs something really good to make up for it when the real music does start. In other words, if you’ve got a Dark Side of the Moon type opening, you sure as heck had better be leading to a Dark Side of the Moon. Needless to say, this song fell flat on its face.

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By Josh60502