Top 5 CD-Rs of 2011

I was raised on rock music, and in rock music the album format is of crucial importance. To this day how my brain interprets music is based around the album mindset, except that what I listen to is increasingly culled from a variety of sources rather than strictly from standard albums. So I've gotten into the habit of putting together definitive mixes that end up feeling and acting to me as though they were real albums.

2011 has been far and away the most lucrative year for music in my life, and that applies to CD-Rs & mixes as well. Here are just a handful of the mixes that have been most important to me this year.


#5 Raps

1. Fuck Wit Dre Day (And Everybody's Celebratin') -- Dr. Dre feat, Jewell, RBX, Snoop Dogg
2. Let Me Ride -- Dr. Dre feat. Jewell, Ruben
3. Who Am I (What's My Name?) -- Snoop Dogg
4. Gin and Juice -- Snoop Dogg
5. The Next Episode -- Dr. Dre feat. Nate Dogg, Snoop Dogg
6. Still D.R.E. -- Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Dogg
7. Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang -- Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Dogg
8. Tha Shiznit -- Snoop Dogg
9. The Day the Niggaz Took Over -- Dr. Dre feat. Daz, RBX, Snoop Dogg
10. Only God Can Judge Me -- 2Pac & Rappin' 4-Tay
11. Holla at Me -- 2Pac
12. Wonda Why They Call U Bitch -- 2Pac
13. Life Goes On -- 2Pac
14. Caught in a Hustle -- Immortal Technique

I'm not the most dedicated rap fan in the world, but I'm extremely passionate about the material that hits me. While most of this year was spent on exploring very recent pop music, I also had a soft spot for older g-funk rap. It's not a very diverse set but it's excruciatingly badass and combines, with a few notable omissions, most of my favorite rap songs of all-time.


#4 Pop 6: Dark Billboards


1. Skyscraper -- Demi Lovato
2. In The Dark -- Dev
3. Pocketful of Sunshine -- Natasha Bedingfield
4. Intuition -- Jewel
5. On The Floor -- Jennifer Lopez feat. Pitbull
6. Shots -- LMFAO feat. Lil Jon
7. Promiscuous -- Nelly Furtado feat. Timbaland
8. Electric Feel -- Katy Perry
9. Livin' The Vida Loca -- Ricky Martin
10. I Wanna Go -- Britney Spears
11. Friday -- Rebecca Black
12. Hold It Against Me -- Britney Spears
13. Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites -- Skrillex
14. Stay Here Forever -- Jewel

There have been so many great additions to my Pop series this year. This humble little collection I threw together to soothe my boredom when a new work schedule added a lot of walking to my routine, ended up gathering some of the the best songs I've ever heard: year-end classics Skyscraper & In The Dark, Nelly Furtado's magnum opus Promiscuous, and Jewel's beautifully sentimental Stay Here Forever, one of my favorite love songs.


#3 Mockingjay


1. Revolution Is My Name -- Pantera
2. American Flag -- Cat Power
3. Love The Way You Lie (piano) -- Rihanna
4. Straitjacket -- Alanis Morissette
5. Life Eternal -- Mayhem
6. Il etat une foret... -- Gris
7. The Fletcher Memorial Home -- Pink Floyd
8. Posession (piano) -- Sarah McLachlan
9. Glittering Blackness -- Explosions In the Sky
10. Fix a Heart -- Demi Lovato

I adore each of my three playlists inspired by the incredible Hunger Games series, but Mockingjay is the clear superior. It really captures the essence of the book's slide into disruption, madness, and psychological fatigue, while commanding an all-star cast of bands (considering none of them had to agree to be featured here).


#2 Annie On My Mind (Soundtrack)


1. Candlelight -- Imogen Heap
2. Super Bass -- Nicki Minaj
3. Again & Again -- The Bird & The Bee
4. The Best Day -- Taylor Swift
5. On The Radio -- Regina Spektor
6. In McDonalds -- Burial
7. We Are Broken -- Paramore
8. Fearless -- Pink Floyd
9. Thrasher -- Juniper Tar
10. Endorphin -- Burial
11. Brick By Boring Brick -- Paramore
12. All The Way to Heaven -- Melissa Etheridge
13. Misguided Ghosts -- Paramore
14. Fearless -- Taylor Swift

I felt Nancy Garden's all-time classic romance Annie On My Mind deserved a movie rendition so much, that I made up an imaginary soundtrack for it myself. I imediately couldn't stop listening to it, as it perfectly painted the novel in my head scene by scene, as well as culling several of my favorite love songs.


#1 Pop 4: Accelerating Horizons


1. Whip My Hair -- Willow
2. 21st Century Girl -- Willow
3. Tonight I'm Fucking You -- Enrique Eglasias
4. Fuck You -- Cee-Lo Green
5. Till The World Ends -- Britney Spears feat. Ke$ha & Nicki Minaj
6. Piece of Me -- Britney Spears
7. S&M -- Rihanna
8. What's My Name -- Rihanna & Drake
9. Thriller -- Michael Jackson
10. Billie Jean -- Michael Jackson
11. Beat It -- Michael Jackson
12. Who Says -- Selena Gomez
13. Never Say Never -- Justin Bieber
14. Grenade -- Bruno Mars
15. I'm Coming Home -- Diddy feat. Skyler Grey

While there are a few cuts I ought to have axed, this is probably the single strongest Pop collection since the original "Immaculate Pop, Volume One." With year-end bests like Selena's greatest accomplishment to-date Who Says, and the indelibly cool all-star Till The World Ends remix, 2010's greatest hits Fuck You and What's My Name, and a trio of the legendary Michael Jackson's primary jams, I sometimes wonder if I should have called it "Immaculate Pop, Volume Two."


Honorable Mentions: Dance Ether 1, Dance Ether 2, & Dance Ether 3


Over the year I made a trio of discs featuring the most jaw-droppingly siq extended dance club remixes by my favorite artists. There are some truly incredible remixes out there, in fact most of my favorite Lady Gaga tracks are on these collections rather than any of her standard albums. However, each individual mix is merely decent. If I put together the best songs from each into one mix, it would easily have made the list.

The New ThunderCats

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Pop 7: Liberation Jingles

Well, it's here! The seventh volume of my now-mamoth series where I cull great odds and ends pop tracks which I run into randomly through my daily life (often at work, on TV or on the radio). With this being the fifth volume of the year, I suspect I'll take a chill pill and wait a bit before the next one.

Pop 7

1. Hollaback Girl -- Gwen Stefani
2. Daughter -- Pearl Jam
3. What the Hell -- Avril Lavigne
4. I Don't Want to be a Bride -- Vanessa Carlton
5. Hair -- Lady Gaga
6. Criminal -- Fiona Apple
7. Lights (Bassnecter Remix) -- Ellie Goulding
8. I Know What Boys Like -- The Waitresses
9. White Wedding -- Billy Idol
10. Smile -- Avril Lavigne
11. Superman -- Taylor Swift
12. Here We Go Again -- Demi Lovato
13. Love You Like a Love Song (Dave Aude Club Mix) -- Selena Gomez
14. Criminal (Single version) -- Britney Spears

Named it "Liberation Jingles" after I realized I had unwittingly stacked the set with a variety of songs featuring empowerment themes: romantic liberation in What The Hell, I Don't Want to be a Bride, and I Know What Boys Like, and interpersonal liberation in Daughter, Hollaback Girl and Hair. I almost called it "Year of Pop" since this will be the last edition of the Pop series I make in 2011, which has been the year of pop for me. But I didn't want to cap it off as though 2012 won't necessarily be another incredible year of pop in its own right. Also, in preparation for my 2011 year end lists I've been looking into a lot of the highest rank albums I've missed out on. I get the best albums in full, but sometimes only one or two fantastic tracks will habitate an otherwise unnecessary album, so several of those tracks wound up here. They make up more than half the album, actually.

Top 25 Neil Young Guitar Solo Songs

As you know, more often than not I prefer succinct, immaculately paced pop songs. No filler, no meandering. And I'm not much of a guitar head.... but Neil Young is the exception. Neil's the one guy whose guitar jams send me to another plane of existence. The longer, the slower, the more meandering the better! I saw an article detailing the top 10 Neil Young guitar tracks, and it was a pretty crumby list, so I decided to try my hand at it myself. Here are the top 25 best songs you need to listen to if you're looking for the venerable Neil Young's guitar pyrotechnics.

25. T-Bone

-- This 9 minute f-all existential jam from 1981's Re*Ac*Tor annoys many with its unrelenting repetition, but it also provides a bed of mashed potatoes for some meaty guitar solos that a Crazy Horse fan will love.

24. Last Dance

-- This bleak rocker from the 1973 Time Fades Away tour provides pounding sensibilities to mimic the drudgeries of daily life. It also provides an agitated and unhinged Neil with his chance to channel all of his anger from this hazard-prone tour into siq guitar grooves.

23. Ten Men Workin'

-- This rambunctious opener from 1988's This Note's For You became a guitar solo highlight when Neil hit the road with a rocking bluesy band in '87 and '88.

22. World on a String

-- Simple and short, this little rocker from 1975's catharsis-charged Tonight's The Night simmers in just the right way, providing one of shortest, sweetest, and undeniably tastiest little solos of Neil's career. It may be dirt cheap but it's damn satisfying.

21. This Note's For You

-- This 1988 2-minute title track turned into a blazing extended firestorm when the band played it live, thankfully being released in a live version on the 1993 "Lucky Thirteen" compilation.

20. Peace and Love

-- When Neil hooked up with Pearl Jam for 1995's Mirrorball, the prime results were smooth, spacey headjams and this track embodies that kind of guitar glory about as well as any.

19. Goin' Home

-- Neil scrapped the 'Toast' album in favor of 2001's Are You Passionate? But one track made it into the production cut -- this untouchable jam ranks as the last true new Crazy Horse track released in ten years! And yes it's as good as you'd imagine it.

18. Scenery

-- This long, slow burning cut from 1995's Mirrorball with a stark riff and a loose atmosphere is possibly that album's finest track and an unprecedented guitar haven which is sure to send you flying by the end.

17. Cinnamon Girl

-- This archetypal hard rocker from 1969's Everybody Knows This is Nowhere introduced the world to Crazy Horse and to Neil's most ingenius technique: the "one-note" guitar solo. It's not a sprawling jam like Crazy Horse excels in, but as far as succinct rockers go this is Neil's all-time best.

16. Loose Change

-- 1996's Broken Arrow gifted Crazy Horse fans with the most guitar-oriented album Neil has ever made. Loose Change exemplifies the style with a plodding, serenely shimmering lucidity full of guitar goodness and a 9 minute runtime.

15. Slip Away

-- This ethereal jam, also from Broken Arrow, takes you farther above the clouds than the rest of the already atmosphere-orbiting album. Neil's punctuated riff and lingering licks transport me into a cosmic pool hall on a night out half-way between reality and dream.

14. Fuckin' Up

-- 1990's Ragged Glory returned Neil not only to the pique of the cutting edge (the uninhibitedly noisy album, praised by punk guru Steve Albini, effortlessly predated the breaking of grunge to mainstream audiences) but to the guitar rock fervor he had been beloved for through much of the 70s. This disillusioned cut burns with X'er cynicism and handles some of Neil's most timely solos.


13. Love To Burn

-- One of two heavy rocking, 10 minute love-themed jams from Ragged Glory, Love To Burn slides fluidly across a terrain of crunchy licks that are bound to stick in your head.

12. Drive Back

-- Hidden among the many gems on Crazy Horse Mach II's debut album, 1975's Zuma, Drive Back contains without question the most ferocious riffage Neil has ever committed to disc. Though initially very short, on the much praised Zuma live tour, the song took on new dimensions and approached epic jam status.

11. Dangerbird

-- This slug-paced fuzzy anti-social proto-grunge cult classic from Zuma was also home to insane live jams, most notably c/o a 13 & 1/2 minute version from the 1997 live album Year of the Horse.

10. Tonight's The Night

-- Though this eerie bleak title track from 1975 wasn't initially a guitar favorite, it's become a jam classic ever since then, as Neil consistently brings it out to at live gigs in order to groove on its dark emotion, inspiring powerful licks. It has a presence on almost every Crazy Horse tour.

9. Rockin' In The Free World

-- Neil's hit anthem from 1989's Freedom doesn't boast a 10 minute jam but what it does boast is some of the best, most inspired and possessed anti-solos of Neil's career that I just can't help but to freaking adore.

8. Big Time

-- The opener from the guitar-based Broken Arrow offers up contented lyrics and cascading solos for a good 7 minutes. It pretty much exemplifies latter-day Crazy Horse with unparalleled build-up and lingering, illustrious passages.

 7. Change Your Mind

-- 1994's Sleeps With Angels may be Neil's slickest and coolest album. The album's centerpiece is this sprawling, foggy midnight exercise in pure electric emotion, boasting expertly crafted solos that seem to carry you through the wee hours of the pitch black morning by pure ethereal osmosis. The band jams at its finest here and racks up the longest studio runtime in Crazy Horse jam history.

6. Love and Only Love

-- The second of two Ragged Glory's love-themed jams recalls more closely the guitar god mastery of Down By The River in its simple marauding chord progression and indelible licks. Live it absorbs even more biting electricity as the destructive 1991 Weld version will show you.

5. Southern Man

-- While 1970's After the Gold Rush was largely a soft, folky affair, Southern Man rages and boils over with some of the most immaculately catchy, tasty, spider-crawling guitar solos of Neil's career. Neil's early forays into guitar mayhem contained a special spark of fury that makes them indelible.

4. Down By The River

-- What more really needs said about this iconic Everybody Knows This is Nowhere jam? It's a jam like no other, the guitar goes places no other guitarist ever has, in history, period.

3. Like a Hurricane

-- From 1977's American Stars N Bars, this perennial favorite is perhaps Crazy Horse's signature song. The windy barrage of sweet juicy licks flows from home off into a dream. The 14 minute live version from Weld is likely my favorite, but every version of this song is freaking fantastic.

2. Cortez the Killer

-- This, Zuma's ultimate track, is the song that proved Crazy Horse, despite the loss of Danny Whitten, was still a formidable beast. The lengthy instrumental intro alone stands as one of the greatest achievements in guitar history, with its beyond immaculate, note-perfect ascension and foreboding atmosphere.

1. Cowgirl in the Sand

-- The final track on Crazy Horse's debut album, Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, is unparalleled in its gorgeous supremacy. From the unstoppable cool of the unassuming, almost tribal intro into it's fiery emergence and all-time great ferreting guitar army, it's not just Neil's best guitar track, but his best track, period.

There are plenty of honorable mentions, though!

Five Essential 'Deluxe Edition' Tracks

With the recent release of three simultaneous singles from Taylor Swift's deluxe edition of Speak Now, I  figured it was time to take a look at this inescapably widespread phenomenon.

These days, I'm convinced that the 'Deluxe Edition' may literally be obligatory. I can't even think of any full-lengths that don't get the deluxe edition treatment anymore, even if the deluxe setup only includes a lackluster prize like a 'Making Of' or a couple music videos.

Whether you get the deluxe edition or the regular edition just depends on how big of a fan you are. Can you live without hearing those extra 5 tracks? If you're a casual fan, the answer is clearly "yes." After all, those are just songs they didn't consider good enough for the actual album, right? They're outtakes, filler material that would have been junked in the age of 45 minute vinyl records, right?

But more and more, I'm becoming convinced that labels are hiding some highlights from the album's better half on the expensive version. Not that anyone would be foolhardy enough to cripple an album for the sake of the deluxe edition -- you won't find anyone slipping "Mine" or "Till The World Ends" onto Disc 2. But it's increasingly common to see deluxe edition tracks becoming the fourth or fifth singles in an album's bid for chart success, thus confirming that some of these tracks are ranked higher than the standard album's lesser works.

I'd personally estimate that when you have deluxe editions with new songs (not just remixes or extras), you're bound to find at least one song on the deluxe edition that's better than at least the worst few songs on the standard album. So here are a few of the true gems that casual fans have been missing out on.


#5 Broken Glass -- Matt Bennett (Victorious Soundtrack)

This preposterously devilish ode to the wonders of broken glass (written in-universe as Robbie's idea for a song to entertain children) is only available on the iTunes edition of the Victorious Soundtrack. Set to a jaunty piano tune and propelled by an uninhibited Matt Bennet, a variety of uncouth and highly dangerous activities are praised in succession, befitting the playfully grim and brutal comedy of Victorious which never fails to surprise me.


#4 Untouchable -- Taylor Swift (Fearless)

Taylor might be the master of the deluxe edition, consistently beefing up her extended albums with material that should really have been incorporated into the standard edition (at the expense of lesser tracks). Untouchable is especially a loss to casual fans, as its slow burning enthralling mystique conjurs the ghosts of some of rock and folk music's greatest moments. It's eerie and groovy and beautiful, and it's criminal that a lot of fans will never know it exists.



#3 Beautiful Mess -- Miranda Cosgrove (Sparks Fly)

Miranda's debut "full-length" only ran at 25 minutes to begin with, so it was obligatory that a beefier deluxe edition accompany it. All the bonus tracks are pretty good but only Beautiful Mess would rank among her top 5 accomplishments thus far. The always eclectic Miranda channels late-90s r&b gods Destiny's Child on this indelibly cool, slick icey ballad about unrequited love. Comparing the loss of love to a tear in a new dress seems a bit brash to me (maybe because I'm a guy??) but the jam is so gorgeously smooth that it less than matters.

 
#2 Forever & Always (Piano Version) -- Taylor Swift (Fearless)

The standard edition of Taylor's breakout hit record features a rockin' electric version of this sweet ballad, which falls into mediocrity next to more powerful jams like the fierce The Way I Loved You. But this tender, thankfully under-produced, Sarah McLachlan-channeling ballad drips with the embers of pure emotion and ranks unabashedly as one of Taylor's greatest songs. It's easily my favorite piano track Taylor's done and it makes me crave to see her do an all-piano album.


#1 Super Bass -- Nicki Minaj (Pink Friday)

How this ultimate jam missed out on the standard release will forever perplex pop music historians. It wasn't a hidden holdover -- this song had to be dragged kicking and screaming before the suits would release at as a whopping seventh single from Nicki Minaj's debut album. It wasn't until such formidable acts as Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez praised the song with the sincerest flattery -- by covering it -- that it was released to charts and it became Nicki's biggest hit. With an immaculate feel good delivery reminiscent of rap classics such as Nuthin' But a G Thang, and a joyously anthemic instrumentation, the song became an instant classic. Nicki's number one greatest song to date? Absolutely without question.

Halloween Movie Marathons

As you *might* have realized, I harbor a deep, pervasive love of television. And over the years, this has translated into a genuine interest in the art of television programming. So, seeing as how it's Halloween-time and all, I figured I would compose the ultimate blocks for all my favorite scary movies, c/o all-night Halloween-weekend horror marathons.

Each night begins with a brutal primer at 6pm (the witching dinner hour), followed by a solid block of theme from 8 until 4am featuring four of my all-time favorite films... one traditional classic, usually one from After Dark's now defunct but gorgeous Horror Fest series, then two from my favorite genre, found footage. Then I took the liberty of affixing each theme with an atmospherically similar episode of the found footage show Lost Tapes, and topped it all off with a non-theme horror flick of a much more light-hearted nature to carry us into the early morning. Except for Halloween, which I decided to make extra-scary...


Friday


6pm: The Company of Wolves
8: Fire in the Sky
10: Communion
12: Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County
2: The Wicksboro Incident
4: Lost Tapes: Alien
4.30: Ginger Snaps




Saturday


6pm: The Gate
8: 28 Days Later
10: Perkins' 14
12: [Rec]
2: [Rec] 2
4: Lost Tapes: Bear Lake Monster
4.30: Pinata: Survival Island




Devil's Night


6pm: Jacob's Ladder
8: Carnosaur
10: Penny Dreadful
12: The Blair Witch Project
2: Eyes in the Dark
4: Lost Tapes: Jersey Devil
4.30: The Craft




Halloween


6pm: Trick 'r Treat
8: From Within
10: Paranormal Activity 2
12: Paranormal Activity
2: Lake Mungo
4: Lost Tapes: Vampire
4.30: Ghostwatch

Enjoy!! Now if only I had my own TV station...

Hunger Games Soundtrack

I had so much fun putting together (and listenng frequently to) my Annie On My Mind soundtrack, I decided I would put together a collection inspired by the Hunger Games, too.

Of course, The Hunger Games series is already being made into actual movies, the first REAL soundtrack will probably be coming out in a couple of months. So I focused more on capturing the mood and themes of each book instead of picking particular songs to accompany particular moments. The filmmakers will take care of that in their own way.

In accordance with the themes of the books, I tried to put together a contrast between hollywood action, and brutal depression with a heavy aspect of biting political satire. I imagine scenes of ironic, almost humorously anthemic gore juxtaposed against more serious scenes where the aftermath is confronted.

The Hunger Games


1. Russian Roulette -- Rihanna
2. The Gunner's Dream -- Pink Floyd
3. Epidemic -- Slayer
4. Kill Everybody -- Skrillex
5. I'll Cast a Shadow -- Pantera
6. Fear -- Sarah McLachlan
7. Out of Hand -- Entombed
8. The Fall of Seven Diamonds... -- Tortoise
9. Cleansing -- Wolves In the Throne Room
10. Masters of War -- Bob Dylan




Catching Fire


1. Welcome, Ghosts -- Explosions in the Sky
2. The Good That Won't Come Out of Us -- Rilo Kiley
3. Postmortem -- Slayer
4. Holocene -- Bon Iver
5. The Post War Dream -- Pink Floyd
6. Skyscraper -- Demi Lovato
7. Swinging the Dead -- DevilDriver
8. Creature Fear -- Bon Iver
9. Innocent -- Taylor Swift
10. Ice (Freedom Sessions) -- Sarah McLachlan




Mockingjay


1. Revolution Is My Name -- Pantera
2. American Flag -- Cat Power
3. Love The Way You Lie (piano) -- Rihanna
4. Straitjacket -- Alanis Morissette
5. Life Eternal -- Mayhem
6. Il etat une foret... -- Gris
7. The Fletcher Memorial Home -- Pink Floyd
8. Posession (piano) -- Sarah McLachlan
9. Glittering Blackness -- Explosions In the Sky
10. Fix a Heart -- Demi Lovato
 

(EXTREME SPOILER WARNING: absolutely do not read the following paragraphs unless you have read Mockingjay, the final game of The Hunger Games series!)

You might see a lot of identical themes (and the same bands) in each soundtrack, but it's the nuances that flesh out each book's.... well, each book's nuances lol! Hunger Games is the most anthemic, full of metal. And the political message is sort of basic, universal but impersonal. Katniss is still just a tool of the capitol at this point, focused only on survival,. Catching Fire is just a haze, Katniss is caught between all of this consternation and she is powerless to do much else than stare into space and try to keep the pain from bubbling over.

Mockingjay is my favorite, it details Katniss's descent into... if not necessarily madness, extreme disorientation. The pain, the losses, the unspeakable horrors she herself has visited upon fellow humans start to overcome her, and while her "side" of the fight wins out, there is no triumph in the soul left behind. While the soldiers celebrate victory, all Katniss sees is a world too damaged and unfair to contain any winners.

Revolution Is My Name would fit perfectly for Katniss's rooftop battle scene when she finally becomes "the mockingjay" in action as well as name, while I imagine Love The Way You Lie for the aftermath of Peeta's second propo. Il Etat Une Foret (the saddest song I know) would accompany the death of Prim, the only person Katniss loved. I imagine Fletcher Memorial Home to play as a dazed Katniss kills Coin and then spends the subsequent days in a hospital bed. Fix a Heart sounds like a good place to end it, it just sort of lingers, not overtly sad but certainly far from happy. Phrases like "I just ran out of band aids" and "you never really can fix a heart" seem to fit Katniss's defeated state down to a T.