Over in the realm of X (or Twitter, for those of us without more money than branding expertise), a musician named Nick Worrall posed a challenge to the world. It is not a silly challenge meant for the likes of influencers of TikTok or YouTube Shorts. This challenge was far more mentally taxing.
The challenge was to make a list of your all-time favourite songs. I’ll reference the Tweet/re-post itself as it far better describes the task we had at hand.
Honestly, my list took a slightly different direction than what was recommended. The key word here was joy. Call it what you will, but that word isn’t one I would typically associate with myself now or in the past.
That is not to say that my life has no positive aspects. It is more that most of the little joys in my life don’t tend to come from music. Music, for me, is more about stasis. A way to relax, unwind, or return from the brink of losing my fucking mind.
Though the original list had little order, I organized it here to showcase a spectrum. At the beginning, we start with arguably hopeful and inspiring songs. However, this is soon overtaken by far more dominant negative emotions of cynicism, depression and, of course, irritation and anger. I figured it would be more fitting to base my list on the side of the dichotomy that tends to be far more domineering than the positive. After all, I am far more familiar with the various layers of inner demons (and how they interact with music) than the reverse. It ends on a high note, however.
Thus far, every dark tunnel has had a light at the end. This list is no different.
Either way, here is the list as it stands for 2024 (it started in August 2023 and was completed in April 2024).
I don’t like the all-time aspect of the challenge since it insinuates that nothing can usurp any of it in the future. This is only possible if I get hit by a bus tomorrow.
Nonetheless, it serves as an interesting check-in. Even if it ends up changing eventually.
1. ) Innocent – Our Lady Peace
2.) Leave Them All Behind – Billy Talent
When hearing these songs, I can’t help but feel hopeful. However, there was a time when I had more or less given up on hope (considering it hopeium. It was good for the nerves but useless overall). But having a nephew (and seeing people around you raising a new generation) tends to change that. I may have been a cynic bordering closer to pessimism than much else, but I’m not a psychopath.
This and life isn’t worth living without anything to look forward to. There is only the same 9 to 5 schedule without hopes and dreams.
Day after day. Week after week. Month after month. Year after year.
Until you get to your so-called Golden Years. Just before you are dead (if lucky), you can enjoy your last 10 to 20 years on your terms. Now, worn out and feeble, you get to enjoy life.
3.) The Fight Song – Marilyn Manson
I loved this song from the first time I heard it in Micheal Moore’s film Bowling For Columbine. The song was essentially an anthem for a now faithless teenager coming off of a borderline traumatic grade 9 experience. A sort of fuck you to everyone who turned their backs when I needed them most. Like many acts and artists hated by the mediocre mainstream (Slipknot?), there was an inherent positivity in the bonds formed between the fans and their often shared situations. What might outwardly look slightly cultish can actually serve as both a giant emotional support center and an outlet for pent-up feelings.
This is something that said artists have been saying the whole time. But it is interesting to look back at it now from the point of view of an adult.
Of course, adulthood does change some things.
For one, the quality of the music didn’t really hold up as the years went on. Like most pop-punk of the early 2000s (Blink, Sum 41 etc.), you KNOW The Fight Song was aimed at the teenage demographic. Though Manson has been musically active since this now-ancient song was released, he’s never really grabbed my attention since, unlike Billy Talent (who only seems to get better with age) or even ACDC. Though their formula never seems to change, it does not necessarily have to.
Take their fun with the song Money Shot versus the similarly pandemic-themed Quarantine from Blink 182. Which song do you think people will still listen to on occasion 20 years from now?
I only listened to Quarantine in full once. And have never had any desire to do so since.
I was also profoundly disappointed when more than one individual exposed Marylin Manson in his own #ME2 scandal. The most disappointing part is that the allegations are entirely in character and believable. Indeed, there are two sides to every story. But I also don’t doubt that the power and untouchability that comes with stardom might be too much for many mortal humans to handle, including Brian Warner / Marylin Manson.
Though I’ve started occasionally listening to his music again, I will never see him the same way as I once did.
Some say that it is unwise to meet your heroes. I’m starting to think it is unwise to outlive them.
4.) These Days – The Foo Fighters
How could I not include this fantastic tune, whose lyrics are more in contrast to the instrumentals backing them than a bright yellow dot on a purple wall. The music says positive, while the lyrics say we’re fucked.
What’s not to love.
5.) Outta Know – Alanis Morrisette
Though Alanis has many iconic songs that I could have chosen, the aggression of this hit has always been great to hear. Compared to newer subdued crap like Taylor Swift’s Before He Cheats, you can feel the emotion.
Alanis was mad and wanted us to know.
6.) The Sound Of Silence – Disturbed
I loved this song from the first time I heard it. And I do think it is better than the original Simon & Garfunkel hit that it covered. This may be a biased response since I listened to their version after the cover and since Disturbed is another band I’ve held in high regard for a long time.
Nevermore also covered the song nicely on their album Dead Heart In A Dead World in 2000. Though I love what Nevermore did with the source material, I still appreciate the Disturbed variation. I find it hard to put one ahead of the other since they both shine in their own way.
7.) The Count Of Tuscany – Dream Theater
Though the Dream Theater catalogue has many songs I like and love (most from their 2009 album Black Clouds and Silver Linings), The Count Of Tuscany outdoes them all. With a runtime of just under 20 minutes and a musical script that takes you all over the place melody-wise, it is not for everyone. Most of Dream Theater’s best songs are not for everyone, really.
But if you want to relax, close your eyes and go on a journey, this song is for you. Really, the whole album is for you. Though it sometimes contains some rather overt Christian messaging, I am willing to overlook it, given what accompanies it. Even if the author’s stance is made evident, this is far more beefy than your average Christian rock or metal offering.
Though I have never listened to this song (or its accompanying album) high, it occurs to me that it might be an interesting experience. A low dose of cannabis certainly made for an excellent introduction to many songs in the following group’s catalogue.
8.) It’s Only Smiles – Periphery
Though I have heard Periphery before (I am fond of Letter Experiment on their first album), it was not a band I was all that familiar with. It was one of those bands that I tended to skip a lot of (short of a few known songs) since the first minute often didn’t appeal to my sober mind.
But then I found myself painting one night listening to a Periphery playlist. Having popped an edible candy earlier, I painted a daisey with colourful petals after the words Crazy Daisy! Inexplicably popped into my mind earlier that evening. And for music, I put on a Periphery playlist.
Though Periphery and Dream Theater are alike in many ways, Periphery is much less story-driven than Dream Theater. This isn’t a comparison (which one has better lyrics?), It’s more about how I interpret the music. While the meanderings of Dream Theater songs take us on a journey, the meanderings of Periphery paint the mind with colour, like the randomized visualizations of XP-era versions of the Windows media player.
I chose It’s Only Smiles because it’s uplifting and not too over the top, unlike the song Satellites (from the same album), which I can only describe as bipolar. I love it, but it certainly isn’t for everyone.
I first heard this song (and Nevermore as a group) from a CD I bought on impulse at a local CD Plus. I don’t know exactly what made me pick it up, but I’m sure the cover had much to do with it.
It was full of good songs, but the one that stuck out the most was Sentient 6. The storyline of the sentient robot switches from seeing itself as an omnipotent leader of humanity to calling for humanity’s annihilation. Even before the questions and concerns of AI were brought to the forefront of discourse in the past few years, this song was poignant.
10.) The Unnamed Feeling – Metallica
From the band’s not-so-well-received St. Anger album (come on, people, it wasn’t that bad!), this song struck a chord when I first heard it on a Metallica music video compilation DVD bought at Best Buy sometime in 2006 or 2007. I liked it because it highlighted something I sometimes felt but could not pinpoint how to describe it.
The unnamed feeling.
The best adjective to describe these episodes would probably be a profound emptiness. I would not say it felt negative or numbing, just . . . a profound emptiness.
Hearing a musical description of something I’d felt on and off for years was interesting. Even if I don’t really endure such spells anymore.
Though I will be forever fond of the raw vocals and sound of Siren Song Of The Counter Culture, no song quite approaches the resonance evoked by this song. While this was more poignant when I was younger (being more aware and in control of one’s emotions seems to be a product of maturity), I still occasionally can’t help but find myself in the same frame of mind. It’s hard not to have at least an occasional “FUCK THE WORLD!” episode, given the era in which we live. If it doesn’t happen to you, you are not paying attention, or I applaud your ability to turn a blind eye.
In high school, my nemeses were exams, cyber bullies, future education and career prospects. Now my nemeses are work issues, financial problems, worldwide political actions and movements, and many, MANY idiots that buy into some form of horseshit therein.
As long as capitalism exists, I feel this song will find relevance. As long as there is neoliberalism?
This song will remain relevant as long as the wealthy control the vast majority of human progress’s wealth.
12.) The Almighty Dollar – Ozzy Osbourne
Though I have known about this song since its release in 2007 (I bought the album at Best Buy), it took on a new meaning around Earth Day 2010. It was less that it took on an explicitly NEW meaning and more that I became hyper-aware of the message that Ozzy was conveying with the album (and pretty much every album after).
Around mid-April of that year, many of us became aware of the blowout surrounding BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. At first, it was just another story of many (overshadowed by the Olympics, which was happening then). But it would soon come to encompass my whole reality. You can read more about this turbulent part of my existence HERE.
I could not listen to The Almighty Dollar during the first months of my panicked reaction (May, June, July). If it came on while listening to a random playlist, and I had to turn it off. Even though I had heard the album and song many times before (it’s the only album I know most of the lyrics by heart), the lyrics suddenly became so real.
Death, doom and disaster. The point of no return.
No earthly life ever after. Is it to late to learn??
The Almighty Dollar – Ozzy Osbourne
Though I can again appreciate the album in its entirety (though I don’t listen to it often anymore), it took me a long time (probably over a year afterward) to go back to it.
I did have a cynical (bordering on pessimistic) phase in the years immediately following this period. This was nothing new (I have never trusted humans). What was new was a profound cynicism realized by acknowledging the wider world and realizing what a miracle it would probably take to turn things around. To accomplish what is required to right our sinking ship of a species seems nearly impossible.
How the late George Carlin handled this realization has always fascinated me. He said that everyone who is born gets a ticket to the freak show, and people born in America get a front-row seat. He also claimed to no longer have any stake in the outcome of the human race, opting just to sit back and be entertained by the show.
Though I greatly respect George Carlin, I always struggled with the last part of his equation. While I considered myself quite the misanthrope, I suppose I still didn’t want to fully grasp how bleak our reality was (at least as dictated by Carlin). If one does so, there is not much point in living.
Here we go again.
It is a weird thing. You would think that with what I know about our collective fate, I would welcome the dark embrace of death. I certainly did in high school when faced with far fewer high-stakes problems.
And yet, jump off a bridge, I have not. Nor has the thought ever really occurred to me for a long time. Despite a combination of the mind-numbing banality that comes from being in the workforce and the nerve-wracking awareness that comes from living the ultra-connected lives we all do today. If a supervolcano blew in Java, I/we would know within minutes.
By all measures, I have never felt more meaningless and hopeless as I have in the past few years. Yet, I don’t feel like hanging up my hat and saying, “Fuck it!” nor do I feel like just watching as the whole thing burns around me. I would love to be able to do something about it, though fuck if I know how I can make that happen.
While I’ve always had a bit of this in me, the rebellious nature of many within Gen Z has undoubtedly helped rekindle that flame for me. Though it is hardly a rebellion . . . more like a fight for their lives.
* * *
Then, there is my battle with nostalgia.
I am old enough that the music and media I was surrounded with in my teens are approaching (if not now beyond) 20 years old. It occurred to me when I realized Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory was now two decades old (as of last year). And my favorite movie (Gone in 60 Seconds, circa 2000) . . . 24!
Nostalgia isn’t necessarily a BAD thing. It can just become significantly limiting very quickly.
I’ve always been annoyed at boomer nostalgia, probably because I don’t fully understand the cultural context (cultural artifacts like Grease or Footloose can shed some light on this). Similarly, I’ve started to run into instances where people are unfamiliar with my cultural anecdotes (for example, South Park references).
I read somewhere that the 30s tend to be a time when this cultural stuff tends to solidify for life. No matter what quality comes next or what crap came before, people tend to become dead-set on what they know and love (or at least are familiar with). Having seen that process start to take hold (with modern-day streaming algorithms not helping the matter in their super-tailored nature), I try my best to fight the bias. Instead of automatically labelling anything new and trendy as trash (at times, going against a part of me that actually doesn’t mind the material), I try to be a neutral observer. I don’t always have the patience I would have if I were evaluating something new and appealing to me (particularly country music. I’ve never been a big fan), but I certainly try.
As for how this relates to The Almighty Dollar, in a way, it does not. This is certainly far more concerning of my inner workings than anything about the song or its concerns. Nonetheless, there is a connection.
A calcified mind is unlikely to help anyone seeking significant change in favour of the greater good. You don’t have to take my word for it—just put on CSPAN (for Americans) or watch a few debates of your nation’s national parliament.
Calcified minds sit idle even as the fires are being lit at the gate’s edge of the empire. Maluble minds can react better to these changes.
13.) Under The Blade – Twisted Sister
Twisted Sister will always have a soft spot in my heart as arguably the first stepping stone on my journey to discover metal.
Growing up, my dad owned Twisted Sister – The Essentials, and I heard the first 3 songs on the album (We’re Not Gonna Take It, I Wanna Rock and Leader Of The Pack) many times over the years. However, during a picnic wherein the CD was playing (and the adults weren’t paying much attention), I heard the greatness of the rest of the disk.
Under the Blade. Come Out And Play. Stay Hungry. Shoot ’em’ Down. That entire album is a rarity with back-to-back bangers.
I chose Under The Blade precisely because of the energy. Slowly, slowly, we revved it up . . . BLADE!!!!
It’s a song that makes it hard not to jump up, grab a broom and start air guitaring and headbanging like a crazed madman.
The fact that the song (through Dee Snider’s arguments) ended up making Al Gore’s wife look like a complete ass in front of Congress and millions of watching viewers is but the icing on the cake.
It’s not about weird, kinky sex shit. It’s about surgery. But sure, you can read into it whatever you want :P.
I would be remiss to write a list of songs that have affected me without including Sevendust in the mix. In this case, it was less a song than an entire album that helped me through a rough period of life.
It all started with a walk home from school in what must have been 2000. Laying on the side of the road was a blank white burnt CD amongst the trash blown over from a nearby 7/11 store. I picked it up and brought it home, but I didn’t pay much attention to it then.
Eventually, it ended up in the household collection of CDs shared between me and my sister. I wouldn’t listen to the CD until sometime in late 2003/early 2004, but the album would have a profound effect on my life at the time.
High school (as I probably stated before) was not a period of happiness for me. Though most of the strife was limited to the 9th grade, that year pretty much set the tone for the rest of the time there. The songs on this CD seemed to perfectly match the turmoil I was living through. However, I didn’t know who the artist was behind the songs.
On the CD were two albums. The first was the aggressive nu-metal album, which resonated with my life at the time. The second was a more comedic album. Seemingly a weird combination (looking back on it now), it almost served as comedic relief to the aggression that came before it. However, I’m sure that was never the intention of the original curator.
It would not be until well after high school that I learned the identities of both artists burnt onto the now-long-lost white CD. Three years later, while listening to a metal station on Sirius XM, they played the band Sevendusts’ newly released single Driven. Not only did I like what I heard, but I also recognized the lead singer’s voice and the band’s overall sound. A quick search of the name on YouTube brought up both the songs I was familiar with and the album on which they were released.
Animosity. It could not have been more aptly named.
As for the song I chose, the message is mirrored in the title. I wasn’t in a great headspace for a long time, and it was sometimes hard to find people who would understand that, let alone relate to the sentiment. But the song essentially said to keep pushing on because you are stronger than anything that anyone can throw at you.
YOU can live again.
It took many years for me to realize that the song was correct. But I am glad I had the song around seemingly right when I needed it.
Who knows? Maybe I was always too weak to do something as drastic as offing myself. I’m glad I had the song to help keep things in perspective.
15.) F**k Her Gently – Tenacious D
In the previous entry, I mentioned that the long-lost CD had 2 different albums recorded onto it, the group identities of which I didn’t know. I learned that one of these groups was Sevendust. Not long after this, likely after another YouTube encounter, I realized the other group’s identity. The band was Jack Black’s Tenacious D, and the album was their first release, which was self-titled.
Though this one arguably doesn’t have as much meaning to me as Sevendust, I got a lot of amusement from songs like Rock Your Socks and Kielbasa. This kind of music was a treat because my childhood home did not get broadband internet until early 2005 / late 2006, the time period during which I discovered Limewire and (among many others) Weird Al and Maclean and Maclean.
Though both are in the realm of comedy, their discographies could not be further apart. Weird Al is family-friendly and silly. Meanwhile, Maclean and Maclean are NOT family friendly in the slightest.
Nuff said, lol.
If Sevendust helped me deal with my inner angst and animosity with the humans around me, then that partially playable Tenacious D portion at the back of the album (the disk had been outside for a while before I’d found it. Its outer edges were damaged) certainly helped take the edge off. I may have been angry, depressed and suicidal, but at least I was able to have a good laugh at this hilarious album.
For that, I thank Jack Black and Kyle Grass.
16.) Hurt – Johny Cash
Knowing what I have just written, it shouldn’t be surprising that I would resonate with this Nine Inch Nails cover. However, I admit that I was surprised to learn precisely who the cover artist was (me being a Marylin Manson fan and knowing about Personal Jesus). Nonetheless, Johny certainly stole the thunder regarding that end result.
While some may disagree with how this turned out, I see no issue with it. Here is the original for context.
17.) Wherein Lies Continue – Slipknot
Though I have been a metal fan since my teenage years, it took me some time to become a fan of Slipknot. While I have explored forms of metal other than nu and Thrash, most of that focus has been in the progressive range.
Back in around 2011, I talked to a fan of both Dream Theater and Periphery regularly, and as such, both groups became prominent in my music rotation. As stated previously, I liked DT’s album Black Clouds and Silver Linings and Periphery’s song Letter Experiment. Though I’ve been keeping up with Dream Theater’s releases since I didn’t become reacquainted with Periphery’s newer catalogue until last year with the help of cannabis edible.
This is by no means an insult. Unlike alcohol, cannabis is hardly a drug that makes bad music tolerable. Though increasing one’s alcohol input is a great way to decrease one’s standard of quality in terms of music, cannabis is more like a magnifying glass for every little detail. And as such, lousy music becomes as apparent as a red dot on a snowy white cardigan.
For example, Katy Perry’s Dark Horse. In my quest to listen to some pop music and not become a snob of anything but the heavy, I decided to try some pop. I heard Dark Horse a time or two sober and didn’t think twice about it.
Then I listened to it under the influence of an edible. I could not help but burst out laughing at the absurdity. Not so much with Katy Perry’s input, but more when Juicy J chimes in with his nonsense.
Though I was doing something else at the time (possibly painting), I had to stop because the absurdity was unbelievably distracting. On the one hand, the background melody showcases one mood, but on the other, this rapper spews utter nonsense. My mind struggled to make sense of the utterly senseless.
Needless to say, I have not listened to the song since. There is no unhearing that.
Now, Slipknot . . .
I did not become acquainted with them until around 10 years ago, when I worked with (and subsequently befriended) a big fan of all things Corey Taylor. I was quickly introduced to Slipknot and Stoned Sour. While I feel like calling SS a sort of hard rock brother group to Slipknot, some may take issue with that classification.
But who gives a shit. They are both incredible in their own right.
When it comes to Slipknot, I first became fond of their album All Hope Is Gone, which was one of their more recent albums (despite already being 6 years old at the time). The song Wherein Lies Continue perfectly reflected my very atheistic and cynical stances towards life and the future of civilization as we know it.
Though I have since toned down many of the more annoying aspects of these 2 traits (particularly those concerning my Atheist stance), the song still resonates.
I like some songs from The Grey Chapter (released in 2014), but I am far more fond of 2019’s We Are Not Your Kind. Namely All Out Life.
Though Slipknot’s older catalogue does contain some gems, I can not get into most of it (even now). Something which makes sense since the group’s sound has obviously changed over time. I’m just glad I don’t have the task of categorizing them into one genre. Now, there are not as much of a pain in the ass in this regard as Tool would be, but still . . .
I liked Stoned Sour’s album Audio Secrecy, probably because I was heavily exposed to it around 2014/2015. Come What(ever) May also has a few gems. I’m not so much a fan of what the band has put out since (aside from a couple covers from Burbank), but they also haven’t put much out since (being on hiatus since 2020).
18.) Comfortably Numb – Pink Floyd
This is another tune that I’ve come back to again and again since I was a teenager (though it has been a while since my last listen, come to think of it). While I enjoy the entirety of the song, my favourite portion is the instrumental that finishes the track off. Though I would probably vote Dream Theater’s The Best Of Times as #1 and Periphery’s Satellites as #2 in a personal list of best song-closing instrumentals, Comfortably Numb still occupies the #3 spot.
Interestingly, the song was written to describe, quote, a “state of delirium; a feeling of being detached from reality.” Though one can no doubt also attribute drugs to the meaning of this song, that doesn’t seem to be the primary source of the material (according to Roger Waters).
Though I kept returning to the song as a teenager for its instrumental exit, it is interesting that I was drawn to the song being the state I often felt myself in as a teen. I wouldn’t necessarily call it delirious (I know that feeling, having lived it a time or 2). But certainly empty.
19.) Suburbia – Mathew Good Band
From the 1999 album release A Beautiful Midnight (my favourite album from the band), I’m not sure why I was drawn so much to this song. Part of it could have been the name. As a teenager, I always envied the suburban lifestyle portrayed in shows like Desperate Housewives and pretty much every American movie based even partially in a neighbourhood. Though I lived in a single-family home with a perfectly reasonably sized backyard, it wasn’t enough.
Maybe it never is. The flaw of the human condition.
Either way, despite my interpretation being antithetical to the song’s entire premise (it is hardly the first piece of media to critique the tedious nature of suburban life), I probably felt similar boredom. Once my various social battles of grade 9 fizzled out over the summer and into the following year, my life was filled with boredom. Though I knew that this state was, in fact, better than the previous one, I did at times (oddly enough) yearn for the days of ole.
At least I had a nemesis to focus on, as opposed to a lot of nothing interesting happening—just the same old stuff every day.
In hindsight, I’m glad I never had either the money or the social connections to start using drugs at this time (mostly the money). I was very much anti-drug at this time. But I also was at age 18 when my best friend handed me a grape cigarillo for the first time. And that was all it took to make me a smoker. Given the right conditions, I may have chosen a different path earlier.
But fortunately, that didn’t happen. Thus, my relationship with drugs over time remained healthy. I neither became the cited example of why drugs are BAD, nor (worse) the “I couldn’t handle my drugs, so; therefore, you should NEVER EVER TRY THEM!!” version of social insufferability.
20.) Hallelujah – Leonard Cohen
I am not a godly person. Quite the opposite, actually. I would say that I am proudly Atheist, but I hesitate to associate myself with many others who call themselves proud atheists. So-called rationalists can be just as dogmatic, judgemental and idiotic as the theists they often go out of their way to shine a light on.
Despite my heathenistic ways, I must admit that this song strikes a chord within me—not so much in its original form (Sorry, Leonard), but more in the many covers made by others over the years. And the doubtless many more renditions that were sung by novices and professionals alike but never recorded.
Though I have definitely heard the song before, the first rendition that struck me was at my former company’s holiday party. One of my coworkers also happened to be a singer, and she did an excellent job in singing it.
The original source material’s magic lies in the slow buildup to the chorus. It serves as a good test of a singer’s low and high notes and allows them to put their stamp on it.
Alexandra Burke’s version demonstrates this. It helped her win 1st place on X-factor and became the UK’s #1 selling single of 2008.
With that, I round up my 20 most resonating songs as of April 2024. This journey has brought us all over the map in terms of the music landscape and a relatively small map compared to my overall map of music preferences. I also now include a bit of modern hip hop (drill rap), pop, and even a little country.
I have to blame/thank another co-worker for exposing me to drill rap on our many rides home after work between 2019 and 2021. Then, there were many trips in the delivery van in 2020 and 2021, while The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights and Billy Eilish’s Bad Guy were often played on the radio. Both songs (along with modern pop music) started to grow on me again.
Anyway, that is my list of 20 all-time favourite songs.
A Raindrop In The Ocean 