(insert more interesting title than ‘A-Z of Music @ the Start of 2010′ here)

I thought it might be interesting to document my music taste at the start of 2010 and see how different it is by the end. (I did say might be interesting… it might not)

So, 1 song for every letter of the alphabet to represent my musical taste at the start of 2010 (to make it easier, the letter could be the first letter of the song title, artist, or album title)…

A – Angels & Airwaves – The Adventure

B – Bublé, Michael – Haven’t Met You Yet

C – Cash, Johnny – In My Life

D – Dreams – Fleetwood Mac (I like this more after hearing the story behind it)

E – The Empyrean – John Frusciante – Song to the Siren

F – Fly Me To The Moon – Frank Sinatra (Pete Allen Jazz Band concerts with fish & chips included are what all concerts should be like)

G – Gramercy Arms – Looking at the Sun (first heard this on Chuck)

H – Hey There Delilah – Plain White T’s (played and attempted to sing along to this A LOT)

I – I’m Taking You With Me – Relient K

J – Jason Mraz – Lucky (feat. Colbie Caillat)

K – Kings of Leon – Beneath The Surface (shame about the A-side to this song)

L – Lille – Lisa Hannigan

M – McFly – That Girl (again, played & sung along A LOT. sorry housemates.)

N – Now You’re Gone – Basshunter – Angel In The Night (just heard this a couple of days ago for the first time in ages)

O – Oopsy Daisy – Chipmunk (don’t know why I like this, but it’s had quite a few listens)

P – Paramore – My Hero

Q – Queen – Save Me

R – Röyksopp – What Else Is There? (classic Alphabet Soup)

S – Swift, Taylor – Hey Stephen (I may have had green hair, but Taylor thinks I look like an angel )

T – This Is Your Life – The Killers

U – Undisclosed Desires – Muse

V – Venice Queen – Red Hot Chili Peppers (I watched the Slane Castle DVD many many times before I realised the point of the intro to this song)

W – Weezer – (If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To

X – You Me At Six – The Consequence (There’s an x in their name, that’ll have to do.)

Y – You Really Got Me – The Kinks (hearing this as someone’s ringtone reminded me what a great song it is)

Z – Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! – Hellogoodbye – Baby, It’s Fact

That’s a fair amount of time I probably should have spent revising, and if you’ve got this far, the same probably goes for you… unless you don’t have exams coming up. You probably still could have spent your time better though.

So Exciting You Might Wee…

That’s right, it’s time for the Raps Then Jives Top 5 Christmas Songs.

No. 1: Rage Against The Machine – Killing in the Name… just kidding…

In no particular order:

This is a great singalong (once the song starts, at around 2:36) that says it’s ok to get still excited about Christmas, even if it is “too commercial these days” (and it is, but that’s so clichéd it was painful to type, get over it):

This is random, but I love it:

Ok, you might get some presents that don’t fill you with joy and surprise, but don’t feign that you despise Christmas, you know you love it really.

Not sure why, but I think this song’s pretty cool too:

Finally, much as I don’t want to like a Mariah Carey song, this is an undeniably great Christmas anthem:

To be honest, I like pretty much any Christmas song, as long as it’s not Slade’s hideous Merry Xmas Everybody.

While we’re on Top 5′s, here’s my Top 5 2009 albums; I only bought 8, so maybe not saying a whole lot, but here we go anyway. (Clicking on the album covers will take you somewhere you can listen to them for free.)

Again in no particular order, except this is well out in front, and I think it’s quite popular among you lot too. Only Michelle Dessler is a more popular search term for this blog:

The 4 runners up:

In case you hadn’t noticed (and you probably hadn’t, especially if you’re reading this via facebook), the cover of John Frusciante’s The Empyrean is the image that appears at the top of my blog page.

Not A Dream Anymore

It’s been out for 3 weeks now, Paramore’s Brand New Eyes, long enough for me to get some idea what I think of it.

It’s weird, the bottom line is I like Paramore more now than I did before, but I don’t actually think the album is all that great.

None of the songs on it are bad, there are some that I really like, but I don’t think it’s as consistently awesome as Riot!.

My Top 3 songs off of Brand New Eyes would be:

Ignorance – Nice & loud, what you expect from Paramore, but without sounding exactly the same as other songs.

Misguided Ghosts – I like the softer songs on this album, I think mainly because I like Hayley’s voice sounding more relaxed.

The Only Exception – Probably my favourite. I think this sounds like it really means a lot to her. “I’ve always lived like this, keeping a comfortable distance, and up until now I had sworn to myself that I’m content with loneliness, because none of it was ever worth the risk. Well, you are the only exception.”

Looking Up is really good too (where I took my title from), one of several songs that are clearly about the band getting through some difficulties.

It’s not just the songs that have increased my liking for Paramore though. The songs are more enjoyable knowing a little bit about the people playing them.

In her thankyous, Hayley quotes 2 Corinthians 12:10: “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”, and thanks God for being everywhere and in everything.

All the others also “thank/praise” Jesus, their “saviour”/ for his “loving grace!”

Love

Manly people like me don't say stuff like this, but in the video (click the picture) she looked even more adorable than she does in this screen capture.

This post was prompted by a friend who responded to my facebook status when I said I missed the ginger hair, by claiming he’d “never quite understood the obsession” with Hayley Williams. I don’t think he was saying I’m obsessed, but that some people go a little overboard with the Hayley-love.

I’d already sort of been thinking about whether obsession could be understood.

I had a pretty long discussion with another friend about whether it’s reasonable to believe supernatural events could have occurred. He was arguing that even the most improbable natural explanation for any perceived event is preferable to an explanation involving the supernatural. His field of expertise is Psychology, so he has natural explanations for the widespread belief in a God or gods that don’t actually exist.

This made me wonder if people who have a natural explanation for all their own thoughts can believe in things like love.

I’m far from well qualified to write on this subject, but I imagine if I told someone I ‘loved’ them and then went on to describe in detail how the feeling could be fully explained by natural causes, that they would not be particularly impressed. It would be a bit like programming two robots to be ‘in love’ with each other. It seems to me that kind of the point of love is that there’s something about it that can’t be explained, but I could be wrong.

This would be reflected in God’s love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). If he’d waited for us to turn to him, no one would’ve been saved.

Hopefully it’s clear that the point of this post is not to declare that I’m in love with Hayley Williams, but I think she would agree with the above. In her thankyous for Riot! she thanks Jesus for “blessing me even though I definitely don’t deserve it”.