Monthly music, March 2017

It’s finally starting to feel like spring which calls for spring music. That being said let’s dive into what I listened to last month.

Total plays

2,200 an average of 70 a day, which is approximately 144 hours or six days. It’s a bit less than last month despite three extra days which I’ll chalk up to time spent studying without music in the background, I tend to focus too much on the music if I listen to any while reading or studying.

Artists

505 unique artists. Some new faces on this list which is always exciting.

1. Arctic Monkeys – 63 plays

2. A Day to Remember – 62

3. In Flames – 55

4. Neck Deep – 47

5. Ghost – 40

ADTR got oh so close to dethroning Arctic Monkeys but they hold on to that honor at least another month. Although the plays were fairly close to last month’s total, Arctic Monkeys dropped a bunch in plays which I find interesting. Neck Deep has my all time (meaning since I started tracking this mid-December) most popular song but it’s the first time they have been on the artist list. Also, Ghost beat two Finnish bands which were at 39 each and would’ve been the first Finnish ones on the list.

Songs

899 different songs, most of them were great and here were the greatest, at least in terms of times played.

1. Neck Deep – Gold Steps, 31 plays – that’s a lot of plays. I can’t for the life of me remember how I found this song which bothers me, I don’t think it was recommended to me by anyone. This song was motivation for me to get through my finals as well as insuring me that life would go on no matter the result of said finals. I listened to it 5 times almost in a row after my biology final and another 5-ish before math, let me tell you something: if you’re ever feeling down put this song on, crank up the volume and things will start to look brighter.

2. Children Of Bodom – Oops!…I Did It Again, 30 plays. So yeah, this was an addiction of mine last month, I was surprised to see that Gold Steps beat this but I guess this one kind of dropped of after finals came. I already wrote more about this one in my post about covers which you can check out via this link if you want to.

3. A Day to remember – If It Means a Lot to You, 27 plays. This might be the best song I discovered last month, when I wrote about Paranoia I thought about ADTR and figured I liked all of their songs which I had heard and decided to listen to their top track on Spotify since I hadn’t heard it before. Instantly fell in love with it and if you only listen to one of the songs I mention in this post (you should check out all of them) I recommend this one. By the way each of the top three songs this month had more plays than last month’s number one.

4. Jimmy Eat World – A Praise Chorus, 18 plays. This song also falls to the category of motivation before and after finals. I don’t know what I would’ve done without these songs because the stress was killing me before some of them, this one was especially calming and definitely helped me perform better.

4. Leslie Odom Jr. – Guns and Ships, 18 plays. Another month passes and another Hamilton song finds it way to my list, it’s always surprising for some reason and it’s also always a different one although I don’t go out of my way looking for new Hamilton songs. What can I say though, I love Hamilton – never seen any of it mind you but I’ve heard plenty and this is one of the best it has to offer.

4. Saint Deamon – No Man’s Land, 18 plays. Crowded fourth place last month. This one was a slow burn, I had to listen to this one a few times before making up my mind whether or not I liked it. After hearing it as one of Spotify’s weekly recommendations I thought it was pretty good and put it on a list where I have songs that require another listen before deciding their fate. Eventually it earned an upgrade to the big leagues aka to my main playlist and well here it is now.

Random related thoughts

Dear Maria, Count Me In by All Time Low didn’t make the cut for top songs this time or in February but there was a 30 day period during those two months where I listened to it 26 times so it deserves an honorable mention. A Day to Remember had four songs in the top 25 while Arctic Monkeys had none. The two Finnish bands which I mentioned almost made the artist list were Children of Bodom and Haloo Helsinki! I have a feeling they’ll make an appearance in the future, though maybe not on that list. Oh and I didn’t forget about the picture thing, I just didn’t really take pictures last month.

Monthly music, February 2017

The shortest month of the year is over and done with and I’m excited to see what I’ve been listening to. Let’s get to it!

Total plays

2,272, with an average of 81 per day which is roughly 148 hours, using last week’s 474 songs which totaled 31 hours. That’s about six days, six days out of the 28 in February. Now I’ll have to admit I was sleeping during about five of those hours but nonetheless it’s a lot of music. It’s also 20% more than last month (1,889) but that’s largely because I hadn’t realized you had to connect desktop Spotify and the mobile app individually so I lost most of my desktop plays to the void last month.

Artists

525 different artists in total, 234 of those were ones that I only listened to once last month. I’m not sure what to take away from that fact. Anyway these are the five I listened to most and how many times exactly:

1. Arctic Monkeys – 101

2. Jeff Williams – 68

3. In Flames – 60

4. Ghost  – 59

4. Royal Republic – 59

Not at all surprised to see the top two, they’re well represented in most of my playlists but after that it gets close. In Flames narrowly maintained their spot as the third most popular band but two other Swedish bands were just one play away from getting there. Ghost almost doubled the plays from January and while Muse got almost as many plays as in January they dropped three positions.

Songs

I listened to 956 different tracks last month, here’s the top five with some sort of an explanation as to why I listened to it that often.

1. Papa Roach – She Loves Me Not, 20 plays. It’s songs like these why I listen to Spotify’s suggestions to me every week. It’s not like 100% of their suggestions are great, or 50% for that matter, but almost weekly there’s at least a few songs worth saving and a couple each month that are just amazing, this being a prime example of that.

1. The Front Bottoms – Twin Size Mattress, 20 plays. This one is an interesting story… We all know of tinder and the general purpose of the app. What you may not know is that you can link Spotify to your profile and pick songs and bands to display on your profile. Well I tend to pay attention to those songs and a person on there had this song as their ‘anthem’ and I kinda fell in love with the song. Great music is everywhere if you just keep your ears open.

3. Renee Elise Goldsberry – Satisfied, 19 plays. This is an interesting one, it’s a song from Hamilton (the play you definitely should’ve heard of) and I’m not sure why this happened now. I have a few Hamilton songs in my regular circulation and I do like to add this to my up next list whenever it feels appropriate but I was under the impression that the biggest Hamilton obsession was more of a January thing for me. Guess I was wrong. I do have to mention specifically just how much I love the ‘to the groom’ and ‘to the bride’ chants at the beginning and end of the song, so very singable even when you’re somewhere where you probably shouldn’t sing, like public places in my case.

4. Zico Chain – Mercury Gift, 17 plays. Another example of great songs I discovered through Spotify’s suggestions. I’m kind of in the middle of obsessing over this song and I’m planning on listening this to a whole bunch this week. Might also check out other songs by the bands because this one is a gooden.

5. FamilyJules – Dance For Your Life, 16 plays. I’m a big fan of FamilyJules and the game crypt of the necrodancer. Jules has a metal version of the game’s soundtrack which I like but I’ve heard it a bunch in the two years it’s been out. This song somehow slipped through the cracks, it’s the only one with vocals which may have originally been what was off about it being used to just instrumental stuff. After kind of randomly hearing it late in January I quickly forgot everything I had against it.

Once again none of the top artists had songs that made the top five so I’ll list the top track for each of my top artist for funzies.

Arctic Monkeys – Cornerstone, 11 plays. 13th most played track last month, the top Arctic Monkeys song like it was last month.

Jeff Williams – Mirror Mirror part II, 8 plays. 32nd most played track last month.

In Flames – The Chosen Pessimist, 8 plays. 32nd most played track last month.

Ghost – He Is, 13 plays. 8th most played track last month.

Royal Republic – Here I Come (There You Go), 13 plays. 8th most played track last month.

Other cool stuff

I had eight days last month that I listened to at least 100 songs which is almost every three days. I also thought of including a short list of song suggestions on this post but I might end up making a suggestion post later, we’ll see. You probably also noticed the image in the post, it’s from Royal Republic’s gig, I’m thinking of slapping a random picture I’ve taken in the given month to go along with the monthly post, don’t expect it to be music related too often, and who knows I might even forget to do it altogether, only time will tell.

Ghost, smooth and sweet Swedish metal

I’m a huge fan of Swedish music and metal so it’s no wonder that I love Ghost (Ghost B.C in America). Self-described as a mix of pop music and death metal, their songs are satanic and very melody-driven, and include some of the smoothest vocals in music. In 2016 they won a Grammy for the best metal performance with this music video.

I first recall hearing of them in 2015 while in America from a friend if mine who was one of the few people there who liked metal. I didn’t really start listening to them actively until July of last year, though. The band has been wildly successful lately and are performing in Helsinki in two months, I’m currently trying to figure out the best way to attend the concert after being especially addicted to them in the last two months.

Back to their music, the reason I love them so much isn’t the message they convey or their lyrics, although their message isn’t actually satanic, but instead their sound. I can’t quite figure out how to describe their sound other than hymn-esque and grand, eerie at times, too. I mentioned the smooth vocals already but what I didn’t mention is my obsession with them, for me that’s what truly lifts Ghost above so many of my favorite bands. I could listen to them all day and not feel one bit guilty about the lack of variety.

I’ll end this by linking my top three Ghost songs. I can’t think of a better way to rank them by than number of times I’ve played them on Spotify so if you’re curious about how I came to this order, there you have it.

1. He Is

2. Square Hammer

3. Monstrance Clock