Top Ten Tuesday: Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B "Girls Like You"

This song is really catchy and I enjoyed the video so much more than I thought I would. At first, I was like "That's not Cardi B, that's Camila Cabello" but then I waited a sec and I was like "Ohhhh"

New Countdown: Remember back in April?

Imagine Dragons

The long-anticipated Countdown #379 is finally here! You've been waiting and waiting but now your wait is over! Enjoy!


Countdown #379

***Featuring***
AJR featuring Rivers Cuomo
AWOLNATION
Big Boi featuring Phantogram
Foster the People
Imagine Dragons
lovelytheband
Maroon 5
Muse
Portugal. The Man
Vance Joy
Walk the Moon
30 Seconds to Mars

Top Ten Tuesday: Maroon 5 featuring SZA "What Lovers Do"

This is a weird music video but it turns out that that is due, in part, to it being directed by Joseph Kahn, who also directed a movie called Detention that we watched and talked about on my other podcast. It had some of the same weirdness.

Top Ten Tuesday: Maroon 5 featuring Kendrick Lamar "Don't Wanna Know"

This is an amazing video. I love so much about it. I was sad that they cut the Kendrick part, but I imagine they pitched the concept to him and he was like, "Um....I'll pass." :)

This song jumps from #56 to #9 this week which is quite an impressive leap!

Enjoy!

Top Ten Tuesday: Maroon 5 "Sugar"

I love a video with a cool story, even if, when you stop to think about it, it kind of falls apart. I like the idea of this video and it definitely helped improve my enjoyment of the song, which was fine, but it's certainly not my favorite song I've heard from the album. This is fun! Enjoy!

Top Ten Tuesday: Maroon 5 "Animals"

Well, it's 17 days early, but this is the perfect video for Halloween. We've got Adam Levine the Butcher stalking mostly naked model girl and also hanging out in a meat locker and then it ends in a bloodbath. The visuals are great and Adam Levine is super creepy (and believable) as a...well, Super Creep. Oh, I also really like the song which means 2/2 of the Top Ten Singles from this album.

Top Ten Tuesday: Maroon 5 "Maps"

Hmm. Well I think that the song is super catchy as per usual with Maroon 5, but the video is a little...I don't know. I mean, first of all, the lone profanity was gratuitous and surely intended to heighten the tension of the situation. Second, what's the message? I guess it's something like "Don't take loved ones for granted because they could be gone before you know it", but jeeez. This is kind of after-school-specialing it, isn't it?

Throwback Thursday: 2004

10. Akon featuring Styles P - Locked Up
9. Avril Lavigne - My Happy Ending
8. Alicia Keys featuring Tony! Toni! Tone! - Diary

I hadn't really heard of any of the songs on this top ten. Ok, that's not fair. I'd heard the Avril song, the Ashlee song, the Maroon 5 song, and P.O.S nipped the hook from "Lean Back" for "Half-Cocked Concepts". I nearly featured the Maroon 5 song, because it actually gives me memories of the time period, but this is such an amazing song, I couldn't help but feature it. She has an amazing voice and this is such a chill song. Very fun.

7. Ashlee Simpson - Pieces of Me
6. Maroon 5 - She Will Be Loved

Ok, I can't help it. This is a really good song too. This whole album, in fact, was quite enjoyable. This song got a little overplayed, but it's fun to watch a video and see the band NOT be huge rock stars and see Adam Levine relatively un-inked

5. Usher & Alicia Keys - My Boo
4. Nelly featuring Jaheim - My Place
3. Lil' Flip featuring Lea - Sunshine
2. Terror Squad - Lean Back
1. Ciara featuring Petey Pablo - Goodies

All Time Hot 100 (Part 4)

We're almost halfway through the All Time Hot 100, which Billboard has been releasing every day. I basically just go to the Main Site and that day's list is on the side-scrolly, featured articles thing right there.

70. Paula Abdul - Rush, Rush (1991)

69. Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder - Ebony and Ivory (1982)

68. Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera - Moves Like Jagger (2011)

67. Tag Team - Whoomp! (There It Is) (1993)

66. The 5th Dimension - Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In (1969)

65. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - I Love Rock 'n' Roll (1982)

64. Stevie B - Because I Love You (The Postman Song) (1990)

63. Brandy & Monica - The Boy is Mine (1998)

62. John Lennon - (Just Like) Starting Over (1980)

(No music video for this one, not very surprisingly)

61. J. Geils Band - Centerfold (1982)

All Time Hot 100 (Part 1)

To celebrate its 55th anniversary, Billboard is rolling out a countdown of the top 100 charting songs in its history. So, since that's kind of what I'm doing on an upcoming bonus episode, I thought I'd try to track down videos for each set of ten as they are rolled out.

Here's the first 10. And apparently, they're doing 10 a day for 10 days.

100. Usher - You Make Me Wanna... (1997)

99. Fun feat. Janelle Monae - We Are Young (2012)

98. Emotions - Best of My Love (1977)

97. Maroon 5 - One More Night (2012)

96. Phil Collins - Another Day in Paradise (1989)

95. B.J. Thomas - Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head (1970)

94. Puff Daddy and Faith Evans feat. 112 - I'll Be Missing You (1997)

93. John Cougar - Hurts So Good (1982)

92. Roberta Flack - Killing Me Softly With His Song (1973)

(15 years later than when it charted, but c'mon, the 70's weren't about music videos, people)

91. Elvis Presley - Are You Lonesome Tonight? (1960)

(Of course this is only 8 years later than when it charted. Good lookin' out, Elvis)

NYE

Well, according to the two clocks that are directly within my field of vision, it's either 9:10 pm or 9:01 pm on New Year's Eve. I'm really getting this in under the wire, but I just feel like maybe it won't be as relevant tomorrow.

I'm going to preface this list by saying that I still don't have the cords I left at my mother-in-law's house and, in fact, have lost another cord (the power cord to the external hard drive) to our little Bichon puppy. She's cute AND destructive. So, I won't be able to post any songs until I get that situation figured out. I'm going to try to call the company that makes the hard drive on Wednesday and see if they'll sell me another power cord, but if they won't do you think I could find a 12V DC/ 2.0 A power thingy on ebay and have it do the trick? I feel so lost without being able to add new music and I feel so cluttered not being able to update the 'Pod.

But aside from all that, here is my Best of 2007 List and it'll get songs associated with them as soon as I can manage it. Maybe I'll do another post with just the songs! Won't that be fun!?

Some of My Favorite Albums of 2007 (Because I balk at the use of the word "Best")

(in no particular order other than the order I wrote them down in)

1. Bright Eyes - Cassadaga - This was an album I was very much looking forward to, having absolutely loved several songs on Digital Ash in a Digital Urn and the entirety of I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning. And I wasn't disappointed. This album sees Conor at his finest. He's not bitching quite so much, and he retains the country-ish sound that made IWAIM so delectable.

Song I recommend checking out that I'd post if I could: Classic Cars

2. Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist - If you ask me, Smashing Pumpkins has always been mostly Billy Corgan's thing. It was nice when you could name the other members of the band and they stayed the same from album to album, but all you really need is Billy. In the same way that Tool and A Perfect Circle, to me, are really just Maynard James Keenan's bands that take different directions, Smashing Pumpkins is a genre of Billy Corgan Music. But enough generalities. How's the album? It's wonderful. Some of it may sound like Zwan or sound like an attempt to rekindle the past, but I just ate it up. The songs have textures and feelings to them in a way that niether of the Machina albums did. I hope we have a lot more Smashing Pumpkins albums to go before it's all said and done.

Song I recommend checking out that I'd post if I could: Death From Above

3. Radiohead - In Rainbows - Ok, I'm really not going to say anything that someone hasn't already said, so I'll keep it brief. It was a very cool marketing tactic. The album stands up to scrutiny and Radiohead maintain their place in the planet's Who's Who of music that kicks ass.

Song I recommend checking out if you seriously haven't heard anything from this album: Faust Arp

4. Fall Out Boy - Infinity on High - This is the much publicized band's first truly pop album. With any other band, that would not be a good thing, but FOB thrives on this kind of thing. They have put together a great album and I wish that they didn't have such a stigma of being teeny-bopper crap. Give it a listen if you can.

Here's a good starting point: You're Crashing, But You're No Wave.

5. Soundtrack - Across the Universe - OK, so an album full of Beatles covers. It could be hit or miss. Luckily this one is a hit. Unfortunately, I haven't seen this movie, though Andy tells me that the soundtrack gets even better after you've seen the movie. So Netflix will be hearing from very soon after that one's released. Oh, and if you decide to pick this one up, get the Deluxe Edition. It's two-discs full of (Andy tells me) all the songs that appear in the movie. When I went to buy it, it was only a dollar more. Worth it.

A Song From Disc One: Let It Be

A Song From Disc Two: Oh! Darling

6. Maroon 5 - It Won't Be Soon Before Long - This is another band that has a stigma of being MTV pre-prepared Top 40 crap and it's just not true. Songs About Jane was a geat album and this one is just as good. It's got a good beat and you can dance to it, I'd say. I just wish that they'd release a version of their cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" that they played in concert when we saw them with Less Than Jake and Rahzel at school.

Get Your Groove On to This: Kiwi

7. Soundtrack - Spider-man 3 - The first movie's soundtrack was a study in Mainstream Rock of the Nickelback/Saliva vein. The second movie's soundtrack was a collection of Emo/College Rock that worked very well with the themes of the movie. This soundtrack surpasses the movie by having music that was far better than the CGI-laden, constant-mask-removing silliness that made up the third installment.

Here's one example: Wolfmother - Pleased to Meet You

8. Pash - The Best Gun - Maybe I'm biased because I went to High School with the lead singer, but I think this is an incredibly strong sophomore album from an up-and-coming band that we're going to be hearing a lot more of in 2008! In fact, if you live in the DC/Metro area, they're playing a show at the 9:30 club on January 26th.(EDIT: It's at the Black Cat. You should still go!) You should go!

A Song That I'm Hoping to Hear: Cosmopolitan

9. Kanye West - Graduation - This is another album that has ventured out of the genre it came from and into the pop arena. Again, this is not a bad thing. Mr. West has delivered an album that is absolutely beautiful. It has one or two iffy moments, but overall, I could listen to this album all the livelong day.

Especially This One: Champion

And, as it was written the covenant, I'll stop right there. And it couldn't have come sooner. That was tougher than I ever imagined. I hope that you guys enjoyed reading this. It was fun, but I'm glad I have a whole year until I do it again. Happy New Year everyone!