Sunday, January 15, 2017

Some pre-Best-of-2016 Stuff

As I mentioned recently, it's looking good for me to publish my 2016 Best Of music lists early this year. By early, I mean earlier than March, which is when I usually finish them. I had so many albums to work through this year that I went into hyperdrive, changing the number of listens in my car from 4 per CD to 3 per CD, and working through some of the CDs (epecially EPs and compilations) in the house instead of waiting for them to make the car rotation. So right now, I've got my last batch of 2016 CDs in the car, and as soon as I've given them all a thorough listen, I'll be able to finalize the 2016 lists.

So as I get closer to doing that, there are a couple of other things I want to mention. For one, since last year, I've been posting a My Favorite Songs list on YouTube. What this mostly is is a playlist of the top song off of every album I've listened to in a given year. For one or two albums, I've posted two songs to the list if I felt that two were exceptionally strong. Some of the videos only contain audio tracks if the artist didn't make an official video, and in one or two spots I've had to use placeholder spots if an artist hasn't posted any video at all to YouTube for a given. You can find this year's playlist at:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWprWK6AVnu7yTxpg1t7ilPL3GhCWEeK8. It's been updated so that it contains all of the songs except for the entries for those last four CDs. I'll add them when I finish with them. This playlist is the master list from which I choose my Top 20 songs.

If you're interested in last year's list, it's at:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWprWK6AVnu4TaeGq1hTiu-jmFmABMFjW

As I was thinking about the list for this year, I was thinking how once again, Bayside seems to have eaten Taking Back Sunday's lunch on my lists. What I mean is that although I really do like Taking Back Sunday, none of their albums have ever quite made my Top 10 Albums of the Year list, and although a couple have come close, none of their songs have ever made my Top 20 Songs of the Year list either. In contrast, it seems as though almost every album Bayside puts out winds up making my Top 10 list, frequently near the top, and almost every time they put out a new album, at least one of their songs makes my Top 20 list. If you see my video playlist, you'll see that this year, Bayside is one of those few bands who have two songs in contention. And to add insult to injury, it seems like Bayside and Taking Back Sunday usually release their new albums in the same year as one another, which really drives the slight home. So sorry about that, Taking Back Sunday. But it is possible that this year, one of your songs will make my Top 20 list -- it's in contention, and to tell you the truth, I'm kind of rooting for it. Of course, Bayside already has one in there for sure.