Johnny Mercyside

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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Noughtie: My 100 Favourite Songs of the Decade (Part 10)



To view part 1, click here.
To view part 2, click here.
To view part 3, click here.
To view part 4, click here.
To view part 5, click here.
To view part 6, click here.
To view part 7, click here.
To view part 8, click here.
To view part 9, click here.


Welcome to the Top 10! These ten songs are very important to me. They may not all have the best lyrics, but man, they all sound good. They all get my head noggin, get me singing the lyrics, and make me feel like pressing the repeat button (not that I do). I just love these ten songs and I hope you like some of them too. If you like the respective genres (usually metal) and have not heard these songs, give them a listen. If you like the songs, you’re welcome. Let’s get down to it.

#10. “This is the New Shit” – Marilyn Manson
Released: 1/9/03
Album: The Golden Age of Grotesque
I said it before and I’ll say it again. Manson had a shit decade. I can’t see the next one being any better, I really think he’s lost it. He’s lost the magic he once consistently possessed to make quality metal tracks. But Marilyn Manson is the only artist to get two songs into my Top 10. Kudos to him.
This was his last brilliant song. I absolutely fucking love “This is the New Shit”. From the first ever listen; I fell in love with this song. It’s just great. The “babble babble, bitch bitch, rebel rebel, party party, sex sex sex and don’t forget the violence” hook is just awesome. The chorus is good too. This song lyrically, is about the fact that Manson is done being Anti-God all the time, and wants to explore different horizons lyrically. He did just that but his music waned in the process. But not with this song, it is just a piece of magic. As I said, Manson in the late nineties had the magic on a consistent basis but in the early noughties he started to lose it. Now it feels it’s pretty much disappeared. But still, this song is just so catchy, it’s hard to dislike it.

#9. “Knights of Cydonia” – Muse
Released: 13/6/06
Album: Black Holes and Revelations
Listings: Best Videos
Where to start with this song? “Knights of Cydonia” was at the time, Muse’s most overdramatic Queen-inspired song (until they made United States of Eurasia, that’s for sure). Queen-esque or not, it sounds great. From the first strums of that guitar to the last, it sounds brilliant. The video only adds to the song. On its own, you can really hear Matt Bellamy’s similar guitar playing to Brian May, and his vocals at times are very comparable with Freddie Mercury. But there’s enough of Muse’s own talent in there to make it more than good. It’s brilliant. It’s difficult to go into why it’s so good; it’s one of those songs that more than speaks for itself. “Knights of Cydonia” is my favourite Muse single and I don’t know if it will be beat in honesty.

#8. “Keine Lust” – Rammstein
Released: 28/2/05
Album: Reise, Reise
Listings: Best Riffs
If people aren’t familiar with industrial metal and want a taster of what it’s like, I’d definitely point them in the direction of “Keine Lust”. This song, in my humble opinion, is perfect to introduce people to the world of industrial metal. Not only is it a brilliant song with a good video, but it’s also got a very simple and heavy riff. I love the riff for this song, it’s not the most complicated, but it just sounds amazing. You get the feeling that it would vibrate the floors if you blasted it in a club (I’ve not heard it in a club yet, which is a shame) and it’s just deliciously heavy. The familiar machine-guitars are perfect to introduce people to the sound of industrial metal.

#7. “Romantic Rights” – Death From Above 1979
Released: 4/11/04
Album: You're a Woman, I'm a Machine
Listings: Best Riffs
I said it before and I’ll say it again, the noises that are made from the bass in this song are just unbelievable. I’m so happy to know that they’ve got back together as I hope to hear more songs like this. I love listening to this song, it’s just one of the most amazing things I’ve heard. The song itself is great too, the drummer is very good and the chorus is nice and catchy. But it’s all about the riff man, it’s all about the riff.

#6. “Only” – Nine Inch Nails
Released: 25/7/05
Album: With Teeth
Back when I did actually review songs, a silly idea I had back when I was 13 or 14, I actually gave this song five stars. It was the only song I have actually given a perfect score to. At that time I was basing it on the sound of the song, the lead singer’s voice, the lyrics, the value as a single release and the music video rating. I gave it full marks on all of them. I don’t review songs now in that format as I think it’s a bit pedantic, I think all songs have different purposes and all those purposes progress to the full album, in which as a piece of work is worth rating.
Anyway, I gave this song full marks because I believed it was perfect. I still maintain that opinion today. There’s not a flaw in this song. It sounds awesome, it’s so funky, the lyrics are fantastic, the song deals with the selfish, paranoid perspective that the world revolves around the narrator of the song and everyone else are there to support him, like a main character in a story. It’s a brilliant story, and Trent sings it in a fantastic way, very reminiscent at times to Talking Heads. I believed it was the perfect choice for a music single and the music video is absolutely phenomenal. It was between this music video and Starfuckers in terms of what I chose for NIN and this narrowly lost out. Anyway, “Only” for me is a brilliant song, and is perfect in terms of what it’s trying to portray.

The next five songs aren’t “perfect”, but I like the sound of them more. As I said I’m not rating songs anymore, it’s a bit too silly for me. But as we’re approaching the top 5, I just thought it’d be good to explain that this list is simply based on the sound, I love listening to these songs, possibly more than any other songs in the decade. So let’s do this.

#5. “Down with the Sickness” – Disturbed
Released: 31/10/00
Album: The Sickness
When I think of angry metal heads feeling sorry for themselves I always imagine this song. The lyrics are woeful, they truly are. “Drowning deep in my sea of loathing” is definitely a contender for worst lyric ever. But you accept that, you make an exception for the lyrics because the song sounds so good. The buildup in the start is one of the best intros of all time, in my opinion. You know exactly what song is about to play when you hear those drums. And while the “Don’t do it again, don’t do it again” can make hard hearing sometimes, the rest of the song just really sounds fantastic. It’s a true metal anthem and is always played in clubs; it’s one of the biggest metal songs of the decade and was a contender for an entry in the unbiased list.

#4. “Y’all Want a Single” – KoRn
Released: 4/10/04
Album: Take a Look in the Mirror

A very catchy song that, because it wasn’t one of the first releases off the album, doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. This song has one of the catchiest hooks of the decade, “Y’all want a single say fuck that, fuck that, fuck that”. It’s just so simple yet so effective, anyone who has not heard this song and likes metal really should sample it. KoRn don’t often go for simple in their metal songs, yet I think if they did it more often they’d be even more successful than they are. This is possibly their simplest song and it just kicks so much ass. Seriously, give it a listen.

#3. “Disposable Teens” – Marilyn Manson
Released: 7/11/00
Album: Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)
Disposable Teens was definitely the best Manson song of the decade. The debut track off his Holy Wood album, Disposable Teens mixes a riff reminiscent from “The Beautiful People” and merges it into the new millennium. It’s just a quality song, a brilliant guitar riff and Manson’s vocals are great. The lyrics are pretty damn good too. Disposable Teens is one of Manson’s finest efforts but it does say it all that it was released on the cusp of the decade, it’s better than stuff he released later in this 10 year period but not quite as good as the stuff in the 10 years prior. But it’s still a fantastic song, extremely catchy, and Manson in his prime.

#2. “What?” – Rob Zombie
Released: 6/10/09
Album: Hellbilly Deluxe 2
This was the first major album I reviewed when I started doing this site again. The album came out in 2010 but this single was released in 2009… thank fuck for that! This song is just epic. It’s possibly my favourite Rob Zombie song, it just sounds so good, I love that very simple riff, and Zombie’s vocals are just brilliant. If people are debating whether or not Rob Zombie can still cut it today all they have to do is listen to this song, it’s as good as anything he has ever released in his entire career. I apply that rule to Hellbilly Deluxe 2 as well, that album is almost if not as good as Hellbilly Deluxe 1. Rob Zombie is back baby!

#1. “Bodies” – Drowning Pool
Released: 5/6/01
Album: Sinner
And that brings me to my #1 single of the decade. “Let the bodies hit the floor, let the bodies hit the floor, let the bodies hit the floor, let the bodies hit the… FLOOR!” It’s just fantastic. It’s one of the catchiest, coolest, most ass kicking songs of all time. Drowning Pool have never bettered this song and they never will. It’s just a song that when you think about all the ticks that are needed for a song to kick some ass, this ticks the lot. It’s a fantastic metal anthem, and it’s a song that will be played in metal clubs for a long time. You can put it up there with any metal song from the nineties and eighties, and it’d sound fantastic. Everything is perfect, for a metal anthem. The brilliant hook “ONE, nothing wrong with me, TWO, nothing wrong with me, THREE, nothing wrong with me, FOUR, NOTHING WRONG WITH ME!” It’s just unbeatable.

I did have some struggle in terms of struggling to come up with this list. I found it harder to do the biased list than I did doing the unbiased list. Choosing your favourite songs is a difficult process, and I think I did myself justice here. I’m proud of this list, it’s got songs that are well known, and songs that aren’t. But every song means something to me, every song kicks ass, in my opinion. I hope you all find something in this list and think, “I like that song”. An even bigger bonus would be choosing a song on here that you previously never heard and then like. If I do get you into any band or song in this Naughtie series, please let me know, it’ll make my day.

Oh yeah, this award goes to you, Drowning Pool, congrats!

Also, I thought I'd put this in Mixtape form. The caps are simply, I want at least one song from each year, and no more than one song per artist.
  1. Fever for the Flava - Hot Action Cop
  2. Rock Star - N.E.R.D.
  3. Dance Commander - Electric Six
  4. Romantic Rights - Death From Above 1979
  5. No Pussy Blues - Grinderman
  6. Lucid Dreams - Franz Ferdinand
  7. Knights of Cydonia - Muse
  8. Renegades of Funk - Rage Against the Machine
  9. I Hate People Like That - Jerk
  10. Turn Me On Mr. Deadman - The Union Underground
  11. Vicinity of Obscenity - System of a Down
  12. Bombshell - Powerman 5000
  13. Down with the Sickness - Disturbed
  14. Shut Me Up - Mindless Self Indulgence
  15. Keine Lust - Rammstein
  16. Only - Nine Inch Nails
  17. Ya'll Want a Single - KoRn
  18. Disposable Teens - Marilyn Manson
  19. What? - Rob Zombie
  20. Bodies - Drowning Pool
And the five alternative songs will be:
  1. Hurt - Johnny Cash
  2. Blue Orchid - The White Stripes
  3. Grounds for Divorce - Elbow
  4. Low - Foo Fighters
  5. Fire - Kasabian
That’s the end of the biased listing. But on Thursday, the big one begins. 100 days, 100  music singles. I’ll be counting down the unbiased listing, one at a time, explaining why I think the 100 songs chosen will be remembered as greats in this decade, and any decade after it. I believe the 100 songs you’re about to see, shaped up the decade, in rock and metal. I hope to see you back here then. Have a good night.

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