2015 Recap

There it is, the first year of my personal hall of fame. I must say, I love how it's turning out.

When I first had the idea to do this back in the summer of 2014, I had a lot of questions for myself.

Foremost, isn't it a bit pretentious to think that you're special/cool/respected enough that anyone's going to care about this?
A: I ruled out that concern when I decided that, ultimately, I would be completely satisfied with doing this for myself alone. Any others who came to care would be a bonus.

Second, what will something being in the list actually mean?
A: Putting something in the list is pointing out in some more-or-less official way that it has had a profound effect on my life, much more than the thousands of other movies, music, games, etc. that are out there. It means that they have shaped me in some way. It means they mean more to me than anything else.

Third, how long will you keep this up?
A: As long as I can.

Let's write out the list (with links!) and then chat about it.

Artist
Enigma (Feb)

Songs
Don't Panic - Coldplay (Jan)
Run - Snow Patrol (Apr)
Brothers on a Hotel Bed - Death Cab for Cutie (Jul)
Love is the End - Keane (Sep)
18 - Moby (Dec)

Albums
Carnavas - Silversun Pickups (May)
Demon Days - Gorillaz (Oct)

Movies
Spirited Away (Mar)
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Aug)

Video Games
Diablo II (Jun)
Dungeon Siege (Nov)

First, my all-time favorite artist, Michael Cretu, the man behind Enigma. When I wrote about him and his music back in February, I was swept away by nostalgia. The last album he released was in 2008 when I was 15. He blew my mind by announcing a few months ago that he is working on a new album to be released in 2016, 8 years later. The story of Enigma continues! There's nothing I'm looking forward to more right now.

Then my five songs. No future group will even mean quite the same to me as this one. Coldplay, Snow Patrol, Death Cab for Cutie, and Keane, what I call the 'four core bands' of my youth, are all represented here. It was with them that my love for music really began to blossom. I then took that love to other genres and artists, Moby included (you'll see others here soon). We closed with "18", the only song I've ever called my absolute favorite.

Then albums! The grand stories of the music world and my favorite way to listen to music. First, there was Carnavas, from my newly-decided favorite band Silversun Pickups, with its adrenaline-infused sincerity. Demon Days, from the rap/hip hop/alternative project Gorillaz, seemed really out of place among my other musical picks, but I enjoy it just as much.

Film - a medium I'm much less experienced in, but still thoroughly enjoy. Spirited Away stirred my imagination more than most things I'd seen at that age. Then The Fellowship of the Ring provided the best example to date of the sort of dream-team story I prefer above all others.

The video games aren't just important to me because I spent a lot of time with them and because they were a blast. They are also incredibly influential in my love for storytelling and writing in general. Diablo II impressed me with one of the strongest plots and some of the best fictional atmospheres I knew at the time. Then Dungeon Siege allowed me to construct my own story as I explored its amazing team-based combat and diverse biomes.

There are other categories I'd like to include one day (books, TV series, music videos, etc.), but because I don't know them so well and don't have so many of them I see being here, I'll hold off until I know exactly what I want to do with them.

Twelve down, hundreds to go!
Onward to 2016!

December 2015 - 18 by Moby

18 - Moby

Why?

Even if I really set my mind to it, I don't think I'd be able to pick a favorite song considered the wealth of music I've collected over the years and the large number of songs that have come to mean a lot to me for many different reasons. There is, however, one song that used to hold that #1 position, the only one I've ever confidently called my very favorite song. I thought it fitting to end my first year of hall of famers with that song, "18".

As I've put more and more time into discovering new music and picking favorites over the years, I'm continually stunned to find that the most beautiful songs are often also the most simple, with "18" as one of the most simple and beautiful of them all. First, there are no words, which is rare among my favorites. The song is pure music. Second, the same melody (on piano/synthesizer) is repeated over and over, and that melody contains the same pattern again and again, starting high and then descending down the scale until it starts at the top again. No distinction between chorus, verse, and bridge.

The power comes in the progression, the addition of a new element every time the melody starts at the top once again. A pristine keyboard plays the melody high, alone at first. Then a real piano sound joins in to play the same exact thing at a lower octave. Next, artificial string tones offer simple, but lovely harmonies. Then the overriding blur of a synthesizer furthers the harmonization. Some subtle complexities begin to trickle in as the strings then take on a moving pattern in the song's peak. At this point, you've probably forgotten about the melody we started with, but then it'd center stage once again for the soft ending.

I think most would label it 'boring'. I remember one time telling a friend it was my favorite before having her listen. At the end, her expression read as "that's it?". But something about it elicits such a powerful emotional response for me. I find it serene.

If you've ever seen a Bourne movie, you know Moby's "Extreme Ways", which plays in one form or another in every credits roll in the series. "18" comes three tracks after that song on the same record, which is also called 18 because of its 18 songs. The song "18", strangely enough, comes 12th on the album, which is arguably Moby's finest.

Since there aren't any lyrics to take a look at, I'll leave it at that. One full year of hall of famers now in place. Many more to come. If you've read this far, thanks for caring. I truly appreciate it.

November 2015 - Dungeon Siege

Dungeon Siege

Why?

The fantasy genre quickly became home to my rampant imagination as a kid and it still often is. Early on, I decided that my favorite part of storytelling was constructing the characters and organizing them into to teams. Stories with groups of main characters, rather than solo protagonists, have always been my favorite. Dungeon Siege, which allows the player control of up to 8 characters, was my dream game because it combined a beautiful fantasy story with freedom to pick my characters' paths and my team as a whole.

(more commentary coming soon!)

"None could foretell that one humble farmer would stand between vengeance from the past and the survival of the kingdom."

October 2015 - Demon Days from Gorillaz

Demon Days - Gorillaz

Why?

Music from the Gorillaz is certainly out-of-place when placed next to the rest of my favorites. Although I'm strongly opposed to rap music general because of its of the indecency that rules the genres, I could have completely refuse it because I came to love Demon Days early on. It isn't a straight rap album (keep in mind that the Gorillaz project is lead by Blur's singer Damon Albarn), but I've come to appreciate every bit of it, especially the rapping. At a time when I was just starting to explore new genres, Demon Days won me over with an overwhelming diversity in sound and made me comfortable with types of music I'd previously rejected.

Let's take it track by track.

(Song-specific commentary coming soon!)

Track 1: Intro

Track 2: Last Living Souls

Track 3: Kids With Guns

Track 4: O Green World

Track 5: Dirty Harry

Track 6: Feel Good Inc.

Track 7: El Manana

Track 8: Every Planet We Reach Is Dead

Track 9: November Has Come

Track 10: All Alone

Track 11: White Light

Track 12: DARE

Track 13: Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head

Track 14: Don't Get Lost In Heaven

Track 15: Demon Days

"In these demon days, it's so cold inside, so hard for a good soul to survive."

"Maybe in time, you'll want to be mine."

September 2015 - Love Is The End by Keane

Love Is The End - Keane 

Why?

As we've gone through the music portion of this first year, I've often mentioned what I call the 'four core bands' of my youth. Even though each one of them has a number of extraordinary songs that I will never forget, they each have a single song that, in my eyes, clearly outshines the rest. We've seen those songs from three of the bands already. For Keane, this song came several years later in 2008 and, for me, marked the end of these bands' best years. Love Is The End radiates a profound sincerity from solemn beginning to desperate end in one of the greatest song crescendos I've ever heard. It also currently reads on my iTunes account as my most played song of all time.

"I still do depend on you so don't say those words. You wrung me through."

August 2015 - The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Why?

The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy transformed the film industry, that much is undeniable. It had an outstanding, definitive soundtrack, a believable portrayal of a fantasy world, and visuals like no one at the time had ever seen. My favorite part of a good story, however, will always be the characters, and my favorite stories are often the ones that have a lot of them to root for. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring not only blew me away with the best-depicted fantasy world I'd ever seen at the time, it also offered the most entertaining and well-constructed set of main characters I'd ever known, and it remains one of the best.

"Keep it secret. Keep it safe."

July 2015 - Brothers On A Hotel Bed by Death Cab for Cutie

Hall of Famer #3:

Brothers On A Hotel Bed

Death Cab for Cutie

2005

Why?

We've already seen songs from two of the so called 'four core bands' of my youth, Coldplay and Snow Patrol. Death Cab for Cutie was another and is the one that stands out most to me this very moment because of their excellent recent album and my terrible mistake of letting laziness keep me from their concert last week. There are a lot of Death Cab songs I'd like to put here, but "Brothers On A Hotel Bed", for me, was the clear choice. This songs carries with it a profound musical sacredness, an immediately overwhelming peace that begs my attention with the very first chord as if not giving this song all the attention I have is a disservice. Few songs hold such an emotional weight in my life, and it achieved that value with its flawless composition and the simple sincerity of its words.

"Brothers On A Hotel Bed" currently ranks as my 15th most played song of all time, which is a position only reached by songs that have been with me for a long time. In fact, out of my top 20, it hit my iTunes collection the earliest when I started using my first iPod in 2006. My first taste of Death Cab came in the form of two of their albums simultaneously: Plans, the album we're pulling from here, and the earlier Transatlanticism. Included here are songs like "I Will Follow You Into The Dark", "Soul Meets Body", "The Sound of Settling", and plenty of other popular greats -- really no weak song whatsoever, but Brothers was always my favorite. At a time when I was starting to realize that quieter, more sentimental songs were usually the ones that meant the most to me, Brothers was an invaluable addition to my small library.

The song is, of course, led by piano, but just as important as its introductory chords is their background, which can easily go unnoticed. Very faintly, we hear a mixture of sounds that's hard to pinpoint. The best description I've got is that it sounds like a casino room in the distance, which, somehow, pours a lot more emotion into the piece than the silence they could have left there. One minute in, and we get drums, electric guitar, and bass instead. Synthesized sounds and an acoustic guitar join in later, helping the song build slightly more and more energy as it goes along. Overall, it never strays far from its initial sense of serenity, thanks in great part to Ben Gibbard's fitting voice.

And, as always, the lyrics are a huge factor in why I came to love this song like I do. Let's take a look.

You may tire of me as our December sun is setting

Cause I'm not who I used to be

No longer easy on the eyes 

But these wrinkles masterfully disguise the youthful boy below

Who turned your way and saw something he was not looking for: 

Both a beginning and an end 

But now he lives inside someone he does not recognize 

When he catches his reflection on accident.

On the back of a motor bike 

With your arms outstretched trying to take flight 

Leaving everything behind 

But even at our swiftest speed we couldn't break from the concrete 

In the city where we still reside. 

And I have learned that even landlocked lovers yearn for the sea like navy men 

Cause now we say goodnight from our own separate sides 

Like brothers on a hotel bed 

Like brothers on a hotel bed 

Like brothers on a hotel bed 

Like brothers on a hotel bed

My interpretation of the message here is the first phrase itself: you may tire of me. Ben sings of growing older, touching on the change in physicality and identity, the yearning for things gone by, and a subtle fear of what age brings -- or doesn't bring -- with it. It's not just about the age of a person, however, it's about the age of a love, one that time beats upon until the two who are in this love feel it slipping away. Eventually, although they try to escape the descent, they reach the point where it seems awkward for them to be sleeping together... like two grown brothers in the same hotel bed. This portrayal speaks volumes and I could go on and on about each line and concept, but that's not quite what I want to accomplish here. The band's always especially strong with lyrics, but this is a highlight for me in that regard.

Please, enjoy this song yourself.

Here's a live recording.

Here's a cool jazzy cover.

And one more interesting take

"Now he lives inside someone he does not recognize"
Brothers On a Hotel Bed
Song #3