Donny F.T.W. Presents...: Protest The Hero

Showing posts with label Protest The Hero. Show all posts

Sunday, 17 January 2021

Special: 2020 In Review: Top 100 Singles Of 2020: 90 - 81

90. You Me At Six - Beautiful Way

89. Echosmith - Love You Better

88. Body Count - Bum-Rush

87. Point North - No One's Listening

86. Protest The Hero - The Canary

85. Too Close To Touch - Pick Me Up

84. Machine Gun Kelly - Drunk Face

83. We Came As Romans - From The First Note

82. Anti-Flag Ft. DE'WAYNE, Marcia Richards, Jalise Della Gary & Tom Morello - A Dying Plea Vol. 1

81. Neck Deep - Fall

Special: Spotify Wrapped 2020

I'm pretty sure I did not discover this many artists this year. It's more likely that I listened to a bunch of artists for the first time on Spotify that I already knew and loved since this was the first year I really, really used Spotify.

See above, I'm pretty sure I didn't branch out to that many new genres however I am still surprised I dabbled in that many though I'll be the first to admit I don't really know how Spotify categorizes things.

Pop punk doesn't surprise me at #1 neither does Dance Pop or Screamo at #2 and #3 respectively. If Machine Gun Kelly, jxdn and Mod Sun are considered pop rap then I suppose I could buy into that but again I'm really not sure what's categorized as what. I'm a little surprised normal Pop music didn't take a spot but I won't complain that Political Hip-Hop made the list.

I wouldn't have pegged this as my most streamed though I understand Wrapped gets capped on Halloween so maybe other songs didn't have a chance to catch up to the sum (heh) of streams I gave to Big Vibe as this was definitely my personal song of the summer.

Sleeping In at #2 does not surprise me. Complicated is a solid tune that I don't really skip but I also don't go out of my way to listen to it. Chalk this one up to it's early 2020 release date so it had more time to rack up listens. Sway at #4 conversely just got released in September so I racked up the streams on that in September and October to get it on the list. Getaway Green is a surprise but again I think we can chalk this up to the early 2020 release date. Ones I was surprised didn't make it: Forget Me Too by Machine Gun Kelly and Halsey just didn't have the time to crack the top #5 with it's late release date I guess. Greatest of All Time by New Found Glory came out in late spring and I thought I listened to it a lot but I guess not enough.

Thanks to COVID I actually listened to podcasts this year. The Scrubs Rewatch podcast I have listened to every episode so it's unsurprising I guess that it's my #1 even though I'm working through a deep dive at the minute on a different one.

Alright so I just remembered the Halloween cut off so that played a role as I really didn't attack the deep dive until end of October so I now see based on this screen that Scrubs took up 80% of the podcasting this year.

So Lead Singer Syndrome is what I'm currently going through an with 5 years worth of content I think it'll keep me busy for a while and will account for most of my podcasting in 2021 Wrapped. Baseball BBQ I have started just recently (end of October I guess?) but since it's primarily a news podcast it's probably not worth doing a back catolog deep dive but worthy of listens going forward.

I'm going out on a limb here and guessing this happened in the last week of October since as previous mentioned the deep dive started pretty recently.

This is my pioneer badge! At first I thought this was Leave Me Alone by I Don't Know How But They Found Me and I was shocked. I now see it's Leave It Alone by Rarity. That's less shocking as I would not be shocked if that track didn't even have 50,000 streams yet.

I'm assuming this was outside of current decade which really isn't surprising. Neither is the banger of a song that was my most streamed as Hit The Lights' Drop The Girl off 2008's Skip School, Start Fights is among my favourite songs of all time so it definitely deserves the spot here.

Going in I figured Neck Deep would be my most listened to artist however when I saw tow All Time Low songs in my top 5 I expected that might take over but Neck Deep managed to hold on. Congrats to them and to me for being in their top 3% of listeners.

Just wanted to add this to say how shocked I am that I listened to that many different artists as I feel like I generally just listen to my pre-made playlists but good for me I guess!

So I already touched on Neck Deep and All Time Low above. Had you of told me Echosmith was on here I would've thought maybe they snuck in at #5 since there wasn't a lot to listen to at the beginning of the year yet. That being said I'm floored they made it to #3. The Used at #4 is another surprise though I guess their larger number of singles allowed them to sneak up. MGK at #5 isn't all that surprising as going in I thought he might be #1 but realized it was unlikely with the album not dropping until September, the singles wouldn't have been able to keep it afloat the rest of the year. I also expected Silverstein to make an appearance here but I guess because I bought the album I was less likely to listen on Spotify.

Background Songs:

Four Year Strong - Learn To Love The Lie
Echosmith - Love You Better
Neverkept - Complicated
Seaway - Big Vibe
All Time Low - Sleeping In
Machine Gun Kelly Ft. Halsey - Forget Me Too
Katy Perry - Smile
Protest The Hero - The Canary
Pvris - Deadweight
Rarity - Leave It Alone
Hit The Lights - Drop The Girl
Neck Deep - Lowlife
All Time Low - Getaway Green
You Me And Everyone We Know - F.I.N.E.
Courage My Love - Everybody's Lonely

Sunday, 2 August 2020

Special: First Listen Thoughts: New Found Glory "Forever And Ever x Infinity", Protest The Hero "Palimpsest", Casa Loma "This Is Coping"

New Found Glory - Forever And Ever x Infinity:

Label: Hopeless Records

Press release: NEW FOUND GLORY will release its tenth studio album, "Forever + Ever x Infinity", on [June 19] via Hopeless Records. The band has put together a quintessential record, supremely catchy with sing-along anthems, trademark breakdowns, and sweetly poignant lyrics.

My thoughts: It's a great New Found Glory record overall however I will say that there are a few songs (Himalaya and Same Side Sitters mostly) that have subpar chorus' but are otherwise great. Stay Awhile, Like I Never Existed and Trophy are the non-preview tracks that stand out after one listen but I'm excited to give it multiple listens.

Protest The Hero - Palimpsest

Label: Spinefarm Records

Press release: “Palimpsest is by far the most challenging record we have worked on,” says lead guitarist Luke Hoskin. “The writing and recording process saw so many delays, it’s honestly hard to keep them straight. We are very proud of how each hurdle was handled though, and the end result is a record that we believe is deserving of such an endeavour.”

My thoughts: Palimpsest is a strong Protest The Hero album. I'm not a music nerd but I'm well aware the band are great musicians, that being said in past albums it seems they were trying to hard to impress the music nerd crowd which made for a less enjoyable experience for me however they've toned that down here and upped the lyricism and story-telling which makes for an interesting dive into American history.

Casa Loma - This Is Coping

Label: Pure Noise Records

Press release: “I did this for sanity” is the bold opening statement from bassist and co-vocalist of Man Overboard Nik Bruzzese, as to how his new solo project Casa Loma was born. The upcoming debut EP This is Coping showcases a collection of songs Nik recorded as an artistic expression to channel events in his life the only way he knew how.

My thoughts: I'd love to say that this is a great project but I just can't see myself getting into it. Nik's vocals are so different than what I'm used to. It's not until track 4 & 5 that I get what I know of Nik, the instrumentation is also best on those songs. I can appreciate this was a personal project for Nik but I'm just not sure it's for me but I'll give it some time before I put a nail in that coffin.