Opinion | Dec 2008 | M.McKennedy

iPod Mini (click for a larger view)

First of all I must hand it to Apple for coming up with the iPod.  I have had my iPod mini for 4-5 years now.  I have dropped it many times, crashed on my mountain bike and landed on it and the thing still provides me with instant access to 1000 plus songs (yes, I am constantly adding and removing songs to keep things changing).  I use my iPod (which by the way, was a birthday gift from my wife Barbara) in the car, at work, while snowboarding, skiing, while posting to my blog (as in right now), at home – basically everywhere I can listen to music.  Sure I would still be listening to music even if the iPod was never created but having it right at your fingertips makes it much easier.  With that said I must thank Apple for such a wonderful, durable, functional devise.  Now on to the list of most listened to songs in November of 2008.

These songs are not in any particular order:

1. 

   Metric (click for a larger view)

   Metric – Help I’m Alive : This is the radio edit from the unreleased album rumored to be titled ‘Help I’m Alive’.  Seems like this one is about being afraid to find out what people will think of the new album”I tremble – They’re gonna eat me alive.  If I stumble- They’re gonna eat me alive“.  Then again, it could be about cocaine use, but I am not suggesting that the band has or has had a problem with drugs… “Help, I’m alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer.  Hard to be soft, tough to be tender. Come take my pulse, the pace is on a runaway train. Help, I’m alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer, beating like a hammer.”

   I have a feeling that after the release of Help I’m Alive Metric is going to experience much more attention than they are currently accustomed to.

2. UNKLE – Reign : The tune makes me want to grab my 1990′s attire, stuff a plastic pacifier in my mouth and drive to the nearest all night rave!  I have a feeling that since this is West Bolton, Vermont I would have quite a drive to find any all night raves around here!  All night hunting parties? sure!  All night logging adventures – yes, absolutely!  All night maple syrup binges – yes, this could happen! but raves??  Anyway…UNKLE kicks ass (accept when they bring rap into their songs – then they lose me, I really don’t care for rap at all, as a matter of fact I have been know to call it crap.  Sorry hommies….but I just can’t get into it!  There was a point where I truly enjoyed listening to the Beastie Boys but that was as far as it went for me.
3. Metric – Freddie : I really just can’t get enough of this song.  It’s rumored to be on the up and coming Metric release and I can’t wait to hear the studio version.  The songs has this driving force to it that keeps me listening over and over!
4. Digitalism – Pogo : This song made it to the Top 10 Most Listened To Songs Of October 2008 as well.  The song is great but one of the main reasons it made it to the top 10 two months in a row is because I made this video to go with it.  During the making of this music video I must have heard Pogo about one hundred times.
5. Radiohead – Weird Fishes/Arpeggie : How beautiful can one song possibly be? well…it is Radiohead!!  At this point in the song – “Turn me on to phantoms.  I follow to the edge of the earth, And fall off, Everybody leaves – If they get the chance, And this is my chance.” I get the chills every time!  I bet that I have listened to this song several thousand times (no exaggeration here!) since it’s official release in 2007!
6. Metric – White Gold : This is not a typical song that I would select as one of my favorites but Metric seems to take me down a different path every time I hear something else by them!  The lyrics begin with “Piss-poor, ridin high, sunbathin’ fire-side, We’re here for the porn of the sirloin, Get your T-bone, Let your backbone slide, Tunnel and sky collide, Lose friends to the air waves and the airlines.“  I wouldn’t say that this is one of my favorite songs of all time but any song that begins with ‘piss-poor’ deserves to be in some top 10 list!
7. 

   Radiohead (click for a larger view)

   Radiohead – The Gloaming : This song is f-ing great!  Enough said and I have said it before!  but I won’t stop there – this song drags you in to Thom’s world (if you allow it to).  It’s dark (Gloaming means – the time after sunset and before dark), mysterious and builds to this amazing climax.  It’s rumored to be a political song about how frightening it was that George Bush was elected into office!  but I am not Thom so I really don’t know what the true meaning is.  I do know that watching/listening to Radiohead head play The Gloaming live in Montreal (twice) was pure extacy! What a great way to begin a live show too! the lights flickering, smoke billowing up from the stage, guitars, drums and synths all working in perfect chaotic harmony, oh and Thom Yorke’s manic dancing always puts a smile on the face of the crowd!

8. 

   The Cure - The Top

   The Cure – Piggy In The Mirror : 1979!  I was 9 years old when The Top originally came out and Piggy In The Mirror this is one of my most listened to songs?  Yes it is!  I recently introduced a younger guy from work to the Cure (the older Cure, I am talking The Top, Pornography, Faith etc…all the way up to Disintegration (1989)) and in doing so I began a month long Cure listening party.  Robert Smith is a true poet, who else could write lyrics like “Footsteps on a wire, High above my head. The stain reveals my real intention. I’m the waiting beast. I’m the twisted nerve – As I dance dance – Back to the body in my bed.“

9. Metric – Torture Me : This one made it to the list for one unique reason.  My sons and I have a ‘game’ we play where if Torture Me comes up on the iPod (it’s on most of my play lists) I turn into a zombie and walk/run around the house trying to attack them.  When the song is over one of them usually runs to the iPod to replay the song!
10. Led Zeppelin – Babe I’m Gonna Leave You:  Rock and Roll!  This is rock and roll!  This is classic rock at it’s finest!  Robert Plant and the boys were on fire.  Originally written in the late 1950′s by Anne Bredon and covered by Zeppelin in 1969, this song still reminds me that Led Zeppelin were and will always be Rock Gods!  The song sends you up and over the emotional mountain wearing Jimmy Page’s famous ‘moon pants’ while carrying his legendary double-necked guitar and back down again to a bed of clouds.