Album: Having a Beard is the new Not Having a Beard
Man I love The Beards. Being a bearded man myself, it's hard not to love this band. You may think that this is a silly parody band that sing about beards... and if you think that then you are correct with your assumption. But don't think that just because they're a silly parody band that a): they can't play music and b): they don't take their craft seriously and c): they're any lesser band than any other band out there. They're a fantastic band. I saw them in Manchester in 2014 and it was one of the best gigs I've been to. They're hilarious and more importantly, they play live incredibly well. "I'm in the Mood... for Beards" is a great single. It's not one of my favourite songs by The Beards so that says something about how good they are. They've done four albums about beards and they're all full of great tracks. So what I'm saying is, if this song isn't one of my favourites, then listen to the song below, I'm sure you'll like it and if so, definitely check out their other stuff because they have a vault full of good quality, comedy tracks about beards. Seriously, check them out!!
Here's the song if you want to hear it!
If you missed #96 go here. For the latest updates on my work, including all my latest radio shows, follow me on Facebook and Twitter here!
This website is around 6 years old now. I've been writing for over a decade. I've been listening to Saul Williams for pretty much all that time. I'm finally going to be seeing him live, all being well, next month. And yet very few people still have heard of him. I have little impact on the music world unfortunately because if there's one artist I could try and convince people to try and give a chance, it's Saul Williams. "Explain My Heart" isn't my favourite song by him, or my favourite single in this time frame we're covering. A fantastic song, with a great music video; "Explain My Heart" goes through the mental process of trying to understand one's ability to love and feel. Saul Williams has covered many genres in his career, from rap to rock, to industrial metal to hip-hop, to electronic music and African tribal music. This time round he mixes traditional African drum beats with his more modern hip hop musings. Please check it out.
Here's the music video if you want to hear it!
If you missed #97 go here. For the latest updates on my work, including all my latest radio shows, follow me on Facebook and Twitter here!
Ah, good old Mazza. It's well documented if you know me and have followed my journalism for over a decade that he used to be my favourite musician. Manson lost the plot big time at around the 2007 mark and, to my opinion, he has never fully recovered. "Born Villain" however was a solid album. It wasn't as good as his first five albums, but it's not far behind. As an album it's very good, and this was the main single. I mean, it's not an amazing song but it's good. There was some corkers on the album however, better songs than this for sure. But "No Reflection" as a song... it's very good indeed. With an interesting video as well. Check it out.
Here's the music video if you want to hear it!
If you missed #98 go here. For the latest updates on my work, including all my latest radio shows, follow me on Facebook and Twitter here!
I'd like to start off by saying that "Seldom Seen Kid" is one of my favourite alternative rock albums of the past 10 years or so. I did like "Build a Rocket Boys!" but I didn't love it... if that makes sense. I did actually review it for this site, you can read that review here. Regardless of how I feel of that album, "Neat Little Rows" as a song and single is very good. It actually has aged very well; I thought it was quite a weak choice for a single when I first heard it but over time it's really settled with me very nicely, and I do certainly think it's one of the best songs off the album. It's pretty much Elbow as a band in a nutshell, full of Guy Garvey's penetrating tones, gorgeous piano and an underlying funky riff. It's a solid track.
Here's the music video if you want to hear it!
If you missed #99 go here. For the latest updates on my work, including all my latest radio shows, follow me on Facebook and Twitter here!
For a long, long time I really disliked dubstep. And a large part of me still does. But there are select song in the genre that really make my ears perk. For the last few years I've developed a like for certain dance tracks. A few years back I went clubbing a lot, due to having a lot of spare time on my hands. Those times made me appreciate songs like this. It's a belter of a track in fairness and deserves to be played loud and proud.
Here's the song if you want to hear it!
If you missed #100 go here. For the latest updates on my work, including all my latest radio shows, follow me on Facebook and Twitter here!
Five years ago I revealed my 100 favourite songs between the years 2000 and 2009. If I were to do the list again I'm sure certain entries would change but it got me thinking, what were my favourite songs from the last half decade? I could wait another five years and do the full decade but I thought, well, simply that five years is a long time so I can do both lists can't I! If you want to know what my 100 favourite songs were from the last decade click here. Like my other list, there's a couple of rules. The first one is that the songs are singles only. There's no album tracks on here that weren't released as a single. And secondly, I've once again set a cap of three songs per artist, with the exception of if it's a duet or something special like that. Another thing that's different this time round is that I'm not setting limits on any genres. Last time I tried to stick with mainly rock and metal, but this time round I've put whatever songs I like in the list. Put it this way, there's a lot more RnB, rap, pop and dance in here than I'd expect from myself but that's no matter! But without further ado, for the next 100 days, here's my favourite songs from the last half decade! Enjoy!
#100. “Madness” – Muse
Released: 20/8/12
Album: The 2nd Law
The last two or three Muse albums have been underwhelming in my opinion. That's not to say they're bad but just... inferior to their earlier stuff. But one thing that's consistent is that there's always some very good singles. "Madness", even if there's a not-so subtle homage/ripoff of Queen in there, is still a very enjoyable single. It got decent airplay as well, but then again, Muse haven't exactly lost their popularity over the years, even if I don't fancy their music as much as I used to.
Here's the music video if you want to hear it!
To go to #99 go here, or to go straight to #1 go here!
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The Mercyside 100: 2015 Edition Happy New Year people. For the last three years I've been calculating all my play counts on my personal media player, to see what songs I listen to the most. And then at the start of the next year I reveal what the 100 most listened to songs were that year. Last year I revealed The Mercyside 100 2014 and before that I did The Mercyside 100 2013, click on those if you're interested in what I played most on those years.
This year I did The Mercyside 100 2015. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to do DJ shows of these songs. One of the reasons why is because I'm having problems with my computer at the moment, sound wise. The main reason however, without revealing too much, is because there's a lot of entries in this list by a certain band called Slaves. Slaves are by far my favourite band at the moment and unfortunately, Mixcloud won't allow you to play more than three songs by one artist in the same show. And that means it's difficult, because, well, they appear a lot. I was going to make this into a playlist on YouTube but I can't do that either, because certain songs are not on YouTube which is frustrating. So, in reverse order, here are is The Mercyside 100 2015! These are 100 songs I played more than anything else last year.
So, what was the most played song of the year for me? Here it is...
#1: The Hunter - Slaves ("Are You Satisfied?", 2014)
So there we go! I hope you find some interesting entries in here, and if so, check them out on Youtube if you can, most of the songs are easily available on there. And if you don't like the band Slaves then this list clearly isn't for you! If there's something on this list you've not heard before and you end up really liking, let me know, comment below! I'd be happy to have gotten you into a song or an artist you've not heard before!
"Green text" If you don't listen to The Mercy Side, my radio shows which you can find on Mixcloud, then you may not know that I reveal every month what was my "Song of the Month". Basically, those tracks where played more than any other track, on a particular month of 2015. Here's the list in order, with Youtube links attached: January 2015: The Hunter - Slaves February 2015:House of Pain - Hot Action Cop March 2015:Feed the Mantaray - Slaves April 2015:Rise - David Guetta (feat. Skylar Grey) May 2015:Take It - King 810 June 2015:Do Something - Slaves July 2015:Blame it on the Boom Boom - Black Stone Cherry August 2015:Superhero - Faith No More September 2015:Reapers - Muse October 2015:Waiting - Green Day November 2015:Complexity - Eagles of Death Metal December 2015:The Hunter - Slaves If it confuses you why I added "Waiting" by Green Day at the start of my Top 100 reveal despite it not actually being one of the 100 most played songs last year, hopefully it makes more sense now - it was "Song of the Month" for October. Multiple Artist Entries
Here's a list of artists with more than one entry in The Mercyside 100 2015: 12 Entries - Slaves 8 Entries - King 810 4 Entries - Foo Fighters, Royal Blood 3 Entries - Arctic Monkeys, The Beards, Eagles of Death Metal, Jamie N Commons, Kasabian, The Prodigy, The Queens of the Stone Age, Slipknot 2 Entries - FFS, KoRn, Muse Multiple Album Entries
Here's a list of albums with more than one entry in The Mercyside 100 2015:
9 Entries - "Are You Satisfied?" by Slaves 8 Entries - "Memoirs of a Murderer" by King 810 4 Entries - "Royal Blood" by Royal Blood 3 Entries - ".5: The Gray Chapter" by Slipknot; "48:13" by Kasabian; "AM" by Arctic Monkeys; "The Beard Album" by The Beards 2 Entries - "…Like Clockwork" by The Queens of the Stone Age; "Drones" by Muse; "FFS" by FFS; "Sugar Coated Bitter Truth" by Slaves; "The Day is My Enemy" by The Prodigy
Here's some charts showing you how often songs appeared by the year, or decade...
Also, if you're interested, 46 songs on this list were not singles, which means that 54 of them were!
So I'm listening to less "older" music now than I have been in the previous two years doing this list. That's 80% by the way, from the last half decade. Also, considering I haven't mentioned them once yet, I have to honour King 810, another one of my new favourite bands. Seriously, check them out, they're the best new metal band out there, in my opinion. Think Slipknot meshed with KoRn, which is no coincidence, because that's how I discovered them, by seeing both Slipknot and KoRn last year! Great band, checkem out!! Well that's it from me at the moment, I'll be back very soon with another website project! All the best and thanks for reading!
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