End of Decade Blowout pt 3: Top 60 Singles, 30-16

Into the top 30 now. What joys await?

30. Marit Larsen - "Only a Fool"
Year: 2006
Chart Peak: n/a
Youtube: "Only a Fool"
Commentary: Very fun and original country sounding song out of Norway, featuring a catchy melody and amazing, unique instrumentation. Truly, one of the most re-playable songs of the decade. Marit's got a great voice too, which just adds to everything.

29. Kelly Clarkson - "Behind These Hazel Eyes"
Year: 2005
Chart Peak: #6
Youtube: "Behind These Hazel Eyes"
Commentary: This is the song that made me love pop again, so it's indirectly responsible for about 90% of the other entries on the list. I still love the dark instrumentation and melody combined with the incredible power of Kelly's voice and the lyrics. It makes for a truly emotional, original, and ultimately wonderful experience. For personal influence, it probably deserves top 10, but I've decided to slot it here.

28. Eminem - "Stan"
Year: 2000
Chart Peak: #51 (#22 Rap, #1 UK)
Youtube: "Stan"
Commentary: Speaking of totally original songs, this is possibly the most original on the whole list. Note that the youtube linked above is the single version, which is edited for language and significantly worse. The thing is, I don't really like "Thank You" that much ("White Flag" and "Hunter" are so much better), but it just sounds so perfect here. A really weird choice for an extended sample, but so perfect. Not much to say about this song; Eminem is a great rapper and this song has really great dark lyrics.
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27. Aly & AJ - "Rush"
Year: 2005
Chart Peak: #59
Youtube: "Rush"
Commentary: Aly & AJ (oh sorry, 78violet) have come a long way since their debut album, as their album Insomniatic is a much better overall work than Into the Rush. But I still think that "Rush" is their best individual single ("Not This Year" is better, but never a single). It has a wonderful driving rhythm, great harmonies, and good inspirational lyrics about drug use (just kidding! But they really do sound like they are about drugs). A catchy, rocking song that holds up very well.

26. Anna Nalick - "Breathe (2AM)"
Year: 2005
Chart Peak: #45 (#4 AC)
Youtube: "Breathe (2AM)"
Commentary: I feel like I've already said my piece on this song: "Thhis song is perfect. It find a genre and sticks to it to the letter and just perfects it, just like that. The lyrics provide insight without being big or cliched or uplifting. Anna's voice is nice and kinda generic and forgettable, but she's a good singer and she's got great phrasing. The verse rolls along with a nice little groove to it, into the pre-chorus, which feels like it's leading to something BIG and TRIUMPHANT. Something like "White Flag", some declaration of freedom or some kind of big catchy melody. It leads instead, in a nice bit of misdirection, to a flowing, fading harmony. Friend calls her having troubles. She details all the crap she's going through. Anna tells her, well you've gotta live life, there's nothing you can do about it. So cradle your head in your hands, and...do what, go out? Solve your problems and be proactive and have fun and make the best of it? No, just BREATHE. Just sit down and take stock of the situation. And there's a light at the end of the tunnel and you'll keep making mistakes so what's the point in getting so upset. And it flows through and fades away from the building melody, dropping into a beautiful breathy harmony. A relaxing, soothing harmony. Something that just makes me smile. It doesn't have to be so bad."

25. A*Teens - "Floorfiller"
Year: 2002
Chart Peak: n/a
Youtube: "Floorfiller"
Commentary: Besides the Bloodhound Gang, this is probably the silliest song on the entire list. It's just really silly catchy melody with truly awful lyrics and a generic dance beat. So why do I love it so much? I don't really know, but it just makes me happy to listen to and it's been known to get stuck in my head for days. Definitely a personal pick here.

24. Keith Urban - "Stupid Boy"
Year: 2006
Chart Peak: #43 (#3 Country)
Youtube: "Stupid Boy"
Commentary: It seems odd to follow up arguably the most silly song on this list with arguably the most serious song on the list, but that's how it goes. I love this song to pieces, with it's long epic melody, great guitar sound, and amazing lyrics, with a nice heartbreaking twist at the end. Probably the most genuinely affecting song on the list, and even if the pure melody isn't as catchy as a lot of the other songs on the list, it's still works fine in the context of the song. The song doesn't really get kicking until a few minutes in, with a scorching guitar solo and heart rending finale. Incredible.

23. New Pornographers - "Letter from an Occupant"
Year: 2002
Chart Peak: n/a
Youtube: "Letter from an Occupant"
Commentary: While the song does initially sound grating, I found that the melody and guitar sound, which sound so at odds at first, really come together on multiple listens. Neko is a great singer, and what she's given here is one of the hookiest songs of all time. And as a lover of a good hook, that's really saying something. The fact that the lyrics are 100% nonsensical doesn't even really matter when the sound of the song is so good otherwise.

22. Rachel Stevens - "Sweet Dreams My LA Ex"
Year: 2003
Chart Peak: n/a (#2 UK)
Youtube: "Sweet Dreams My LA Ex"
Commentary: Rachel Stevens (spoiler alert!) has two songs on this list, despite the fact that as a singer and a pop star she's pretty bland. BUT, she's been given some pretty amazing songs to work with, and this is definitely one of them. The guitar riff is one of the catchiest, the melody in the chorus is amazing, and I love love love the bridge. Truly a triumph of pop music.

21. Shooter Jennings - "4th of July"
Year: 2005
Chart Peak: n/a (#26 Country)
Youtube: "4th of July"
Commentary: Almost certainly the best country rock song of the decade, as well as one of the rockinest, this has a really fun tempo and rhythm. Combined with a simple but great melody and some great rock singing by Shooter. Definitely one of the most fun songs I've heard.

But what's in the top 20??? Let's see.

20. Alizee - "Moi...Lolita"
Year: 2000
Chart Peak: n/a (#2 UK)
Youtube: "Moi...Lolita"
Commentary: Fun fact: This is the only foreign language song on the list. Funner fact: I think the melody in the chorus of this song is the very best melody of the entire decade. The verses are good too, the beat is serviceable, and Alizee has a good pop voice. But man, the melody in the chorus.

19. Lee Ann Womack - "I May Hate Myself in the Morning"
Year: 2005
Chart Peak: n/a (#10 Country)
Commentary: Deservedly extremely acclaimed at the time, for it's wonderful understated melody, sweet sounding country guitar, incredible vocals, and interesting, original lyrics. All of those factors still hold up today and this deserves recognition as one of the very best country songs of the decade.

18. Annie - "Heartbeat"
Year: 2005
Chart Peak: n/a
Youtube: "Heartbeat"
Commentary: It feels like such a cop out here to have THE indie approved pop song charting so high on my list, but it's a genuinely great song. I don't know why indies love this song and not a similarly amazing song like "Sweet Dreams My LA Ex", but like that song this one has a great melody and beat combined with fairly bland singing. Enough to land it here though.

17. Twista ft. Jamie Foxx & Kanye West - "Slow Jamz"
Year: 2003
Chart Peak: #1
Youtube: "Slow Jamz"
Commentary: Here it is, my very favorite #1 hit of the decade. There are many huge US hits to come, but none with hit the top of the charts. I don't even really like Kanye that much, but he slots 2 songs on this countdown. This song has funny lyrics though, the chorus is catchy and the sample is amazing. Plus Twista's super fast rapping! Awesome.

16. t.A.T.u. - "All the Things She Said"
Year: 2002
Chart Peak: n/a (#1 UK)
Youtube: "All the Things She Said"
Commentary: The lesbianism gimmick was clearly genius from a marketing standpoint, but I think it actually does t.A.T.u. a disservice from a critical standpoint. I think more critics would realize the brilliance of this song and "Cosmos (Outer Space)" (just as good, but never a single) if they were just put out there as straight pop songs. Because they are good singers and this one has amazing instrumentation and melody. Another one known to get in my head for weeks straight.

Tune in for the top 15.

Top 10 Albums of 2007

I'm positive that my top 10 albums and movies will change over the next couple months, as I finally get fully caught up with 2007 stuff. But that's life. I was going to do all 3 of these in one post but I'll split them out to pad my post count.

Top 10 Albums of 2007
1. Britney Spears - Blackout
2. Miranda Lambert - Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
3. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
4. Aly & AJ - Insomniatic
5. Fall Out Boy - Infinity on High
6. Blake Shelton - Pure B.S.
7. Avril Lavigne - The Best Damn Thing
8. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
9. Jordan Pruitt - No Ordinary Girl
10. Kelly Clarkson - My December

Where is?:
Amy Diamond - Haven't absorbed the album enough to place it yet. Possible top 10 material, a step down from Still Me, Still Now.
Little Big Town, They Might Be Giants, Girls Aloud - Haven't heard
Tegan & Sara - 100x better than I expected, still not quite good enough. Late cut.
New Pornographers - I thought this album was extremely disappointing
Hannah/Miley - Just too much filler
Hilary Duff - Never got into it. Aside from "Play With Fire", nothing on here that grabbed me as especially memorable.
Rihanna, Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Great hits, too much filler
All indie albums except Spoon and LCD - I don't like indie music
Any rap or R&B - Just how it turned out this year. I loved Ciara last year and will probably love Cassie next year.

Comments: The Britney album stands up as extremely solid start to finish. Not only is almost every track very good (it tails off in the last few tracks), but it has a real personality as an album and it all adds up well. My favorite album since Come and Get It. I really thought Miranda would be my album of the year as I love every track on it, but it just doesn't have enough personality to push it over the top. I still think it's great.

LCD and Spoon are the indie favorites I really loved this year. Spoon especially is my favorite indie rock album in the last few years, much better than anticipated. Both are packed with great pop melodies. Is it possible to love an album and be really disappointed with it at the same time? That's my reaction to Insomniatic, where I love most of the tracks & the album so much better than I thought I would, but I don't love it in the way I'd hoped from Aly & AJ. Nothing here comes close to packing the emotional punch of "Rush" or "Not This Year", but it's great pop music anyways.

Fall Out Boy is a great pop album overlayed with electric guitar and sung by a great emo singer. Blake Shelton is hit or miss male country, but the hits ("The More I Drink", "She Don't Love Me", "This Can't Be Good") more than make up for the misses. Avril's album is my favorite by her yet, very fun. Jordan Pruitt still has an amazing singing voice and I still like the teen angst lyrics and the music is still blah. Kelly Clarkson was disappointing but very unfairly treated and still a very good album.

TCR Top 30 Singles of 2007

I going to wait until the new year to post this, but screw it. I'm probably not going to get the chance to post it for another couple weeks, so I'd rather get it out while I've been tinkering with it than leave it alone for a couple weeks.

30. Enrique Iglesias - "Do You Know (The Ping Pong Song)"
This is Enrique's best single in a very long while, very possibly ever. Sure, it follows the normal Enrique formula and there's not a whole ocean of difference between this and "Escape" or "Be With You", but the melody to this is just so sharp and the ping pong percussion is amazing. Just ridiculously catchy. Of course really catchy pop songs are kinda dime a dozen, which is why it doesn't rank higher, but I appreciate it for what it is.

29. Lori McKenna - "Unglamorous"
One of the best country singles of the year barely even qualifies as a country song at all. Nevertheless, it's a great celebration of ordinary life, with a good melody and a great twangy country singer. A great pop song with a slight country twang, I recommend this to anybody, even people who don't normally like country.

28. Colbie Caillat - "Bubbly"
For whatever reason, I feel free to openly proclaim how much I like Hilary Duff or Aly & AJ, but I just feel so embarrassed for liking this. It's "inoffensive" and "vanilla". Somewhere along the line, those became the biggest insults you can give a song. But I don't mind inoffensive and vanilla (both of which this definitely is). It lacks a huge vocal hook. But it's sweet and cute and infectious. I think there's a place for sweet and cute in music. I love the way the over-cuteness and preciousness of the lyrics interact with the over-cuteness of the music to make some kind of pure, uncut cute. It's like the Milo and Otis of pop songs.

27. Finger Eleven - "Paralyzer"
This is a song that I originally was not too big a fan of, but I've come around on it. Yeah, it's a "Take Me Out" ripoff, but "Take Me Out" is one of my very favorite songs of the decade so that doesn't bother me. I like the disco-fied indie rock a lot better than normal indie rock, so I'm glad that a song like this can come around a become a hit. Danceable and catchy, and one of the five or ten best choruses of the year. Not much to like about this song beyond the chorus, I'm not a big fan of the vocals, the instrumentals are boring "Take Me Out"-lite, and the verses go nowhere. This is scientifically exactly how far a great chorus can take a mediocre song.

26. Ciara - "Like a Boy"
Possibly underrated here. I love the minimalist beat and the vocals are great. The lyrics do nothing to grab me, and while I like the melody I don't love it. It's still one of the best R&B songs of the year and it's a real damn shame it wasn't a bigger hit. I just wish it had a bigger hook.

25. Miley Cyrus - "Start All Over"
A great slice of catchy teen pop-rock, manages to keep an extremely high energy throughout without becoming tiresome. Great for dancing around to, and one of my very favorite melodies of the year. A true highlight from Miley's sophomore album, which even though it was exactly as good as her first album was still disappointing.

24. Sara Evans - "As If"
Really weird and unsettling to think about these lyrics in the context of her personal life, so I just ignore that aspect. It does have good lyrics though, about ignoring all the bad crap in a relationship in a desperate grab to hold on to the good stuff. Easily relateable and not too common in song lyrics. What is harder to ignore than the lyrical context is the awesome pop country melody and Sara's knockout vocal performance. Better instrumentation/production could have pushed this a lot higher.

23. Ashley Tisdale - "He Said, She Said"
Ashley Tisdale's vocal performance is very, very bland in this song and the lyrics are very generic and boring. Which means there's nothing to recommend this song beyond the melody and the production. Fortunately, they manage to be strong recommendations. I love the clappy, stuttering percussion on this song, it really lends a sense of urgency to the verses. It's all building up with a stuttering rhythm and swelling music in the pre-chorus, then it all falls out into a gorgeous, spare chorus. Amazing.

22. Tim Armstrong ft. Skye Sweetnam - "Into Action"
A ska song in my top 25! A song off the Tim Armstrong solo album in my top 25! I never would have guessed, even though I do like a lot of the old Rancid ska songs like "Time Bomb" and "Ruby Soho". This is the natural extension of the sound he had there, and it rolls along nicely into the second or third catchiest hook of the year, as sung amazingly by Skye Sweetnam. It's a lumbering rhino of a song, but it's a great one nevertheless.

21. Cupid ft. DJ Unk and Fabo - "Cupid Shuffle (Remix)"
I think it's well established by now that I love novelty songs an unhealthy amount, and this is one of the best in a long time. I've never actually danced this song, nor have I heard it played on a dance floor, I just genuinely like the song on its own merits.

20. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - "Catch You"
The best Blondie song never released by Blondie. A real dizzying delight, and the first song of 2007 that I really loved, even if it is a bit of a pure pop overload.

19. Katharine McPhee - "Over It"
I have long been a fan of Katharine McPhee, ever since I first saw her on Idol. She was my favorite that season, despite a bad tendency to oversing songs and her seeming compulsion to be the big Whitney/X-tina diva that she totally is not. I worried that would spill over to her music, but turns out her album is mostly just a bunch of warmed over R&B stuff. There are some highlights on there, like "Open Toes" and especially this song, a direct "Too Little, Too Late" rip that works because the formula is so awesome and because Kat sings the hell out of the song. In it's own subtle way it manages to be one of the prettiest ballads of the year. (Not that I mind blatantly pretty ballads a la Mariah but they just aren't right for Kat).

18. Ne-Yo - "Because Of You"
Speaking of which, this mid-tempo ballad is one of the prettiest songs of the year in an unsubtle way. The strings and bass in the musical backdrop are awesome, and the melody is just such an awesome gliding, soaring triumph. This is what Ne-Yo excels at, and he sings the hell out of it. It's the male "Irreplaceable", and though I don't like it quite as much as that song, it's still a really great one.

17. My Chemical Romance - "Famous Last Words"
"It starts out fairly standard, but ends up being nothing short of a genuine rock epic, weaving about 3 or 4 different, equally big, parts together with a great deftness, and all 3 or 4 parts are great, especially the main chorus! It sneaks up on you, but once it hits, it hits hard: emo-rock has met its peak with this song." -- That's my singles jukebox review of the song, and I'm a little bit lower on it now than I was then, but it's basically true. (In particular, it is not even the highest rated emo-rock song on this list).

16. Vanessa Anne Hudgens - "Say OK"
I think I've run out of words to say about this song. I still think it's the second-prettiest dang song of the year and that Vanessa's blank, piercing voice is just startlingly perfect for this song. Nobody appears to like this as much as I do, and I've come to terms with that. I'll just keep listening.

15. LeAnn Rimes - "Nothing Better to Do"
The best country song of the year is this barn-burning stomper by LeAnn, that is probably underrated on this list, but this is where it felt right. High energy and catchy and awesome in the same way that the best Miley songs are high energy and awesome. It hits you right in the face. Probably the best song she's ever released.

14. Fall Out Boy - "The Takeover, The Break's Over"
This is emo-rock only because of who it's by. It sounds like a normal rock song to me, and Patrick Stump is one of my favorite rock vocalists working today. It intricately weaves melodies together just as deftly as "Famous Last Words" and while it's not nearly as anthemic as that song, it's just as well-constructed. The way it bursts into its main chorus is great, and it manages to hold it all together with a simple but great "We don't fight fair" hook and a simple but great guitar line.

13. LCD Soundsystem - "Someone Great"
This was immediately my favorite song on the LCD Soundsystem album, which is possibly a sign of rapidly approaching middle age. Actually, I just love the hooks to this song, though the emotion is apparent throughout and lends it a certain depth. I don't have much to say about this song that any other publication doesn't.

12. Amy Diamond - "Stay My Baby"
Man, it's so awesome. Amy's made a habit of actually releasing her best songs as singles (except "All The Money In The World"), which allows her to do really well on my lists. This Max Martin penned ballad is just as catchy a ballad, it's own way, as most of his classic boy band ballads were. A great return to form from both Max and Amy.

11. Eve ft. Sean Paul - "Give It To You"
For whatever reason, I've always really loved Sean Paul, even though his hooks kinda are all the same. This is his best song since "Get Busy". Not to minimize the accomplishments of Eve, who provides amazing rapping, and this is all on top of a ridiculously catchy guitar loop. A real surprise.

10. Girls Aloud - "Call the Shots"
Much better than anything off Chemistry, and just as good as all of their classic hits. I guess "The Show" and "No Good Advice" are still their best songs, but this is a great ballad. I never thought they would release another song I loved this much, much less a ballad! I love love the bouncing rubber bandy musical backdrop to this, and the slight electro-flair in the chorus. I often think that GA songs go too far on the electro stuff, but it's really restrained here and I think the song really benefits from it. Another real surprise.

9. Britney Spears - "Gimme More"
IT'S BRITNEY BITCH. Not that much better than a few other similar songs on her album, I guess, but the melody to this grabs me. Who could have guessed this song would be this good? More on Britney in the rest of my year end stuff. "Gimme gimme more/gimme more/gimme gimme more" is my #1 favorite hook of the year.

8. Shop Boyz - "Party Like a Rockstar"
Awesome novelty song+really catchy chorus+rap song glorifying golf+genuinely funny lyrics+"t-t-totally dude"= top 10 spot on Greg's list, guaranteed.

7. Natalie Imbruglia - "Glorious"
The higher we get up the list, the more we get to songs I've already written a lot about, which makes it hard to add more. This is still the absolute prettiest song of the year and Natalie is still probably my favorite female vocalist. Oh hell, I'll quote myself: "A really pretty acoustic ballad from Natalie. OK, all of Natalie's songs sound kinda the same -- that's true, and this will win her no new fans. But I'm a previously declared fan of Ms. Imbruglia, and I really, really love this song. It's so pretty and summery! It's got a very catchy melody, and Natalie continues to be one of my 3 or so favorite vocalists in pop music today. This contends for her best non-"Torn" song. Really fun and amazing."

6. My Chemical Romance - "Teenagers"
This is bratty, entitled pop-punk in the way a lot of people hear Avril, but I always just find Avril silly. Not that I don't like Avril. Anyways, this is MCR's "Girlfriend", and it beats Avril at her own game, as it manages to have an even more infectious chorus, and be self-entitled in a much less annoying way.

5. Rihanna - "Shut Up and Drive"
I love the lyrics to this though, even if the central analogy is a bit obvious (Prince, for one, made the same analogy 20 years ago). The melody grabs me too, and yeah the "Blue Monday" sample is a bit too obvious for my tastes, but I think it all works.

4. Spoon - "The Underdog"
Yeah, this one shocked me. I thought there was no way I could like another indie song this much, and had basically written off that "Take Me Out" was a fluke and I was done with indie after that. This, on the other hand, is definitely the best indie song since "Take Me Out", with it's stuttering guitar line, hand claps, and great horn hook. The vocal hook is deceptively simple on this, it seems like he's just rambling on and on, but it gets hella stuck in my head anyways. It's all about the instrumentation on this, and it manages to be really danceable too!

3. Aly & AJ - "Potential Break Up Song"
OMG Greg likes an Aly and AJ Song. I dedicated an entire post to this song. It is located here.

2. Natasha Bedingfield - "I Wanna Have Your Babies"
I'm absolutely shocked that TashBed released a song that I like even more than "Unwritten", but here we are. If Natalie Imbruglia is not my favorite female vocalist in pop today, then TashBed is. I dunno what it is about her mannered vocals I love, but it just works for me. This is completely bonkers in both the music and the lyrics, and I admire its sheer dedication to bonkers-ness. Tash's performance really sells here that she's holding in, about to explode, ready to burst. The whole song is just bursting just below the seams with warmth and energy and love. It makes this the most true to new crush/first love song I've heard in a long, long time. This was #1 on my list for a lot of the year, and I keep liking it more and more. I like this song more than I liked "Sweet Temptation", but less than I liked "Not This Year".

1. Miley Cyrus - "See You Again"
Obviously, this is not a surprising placement. I have written very much about this song already, which is my favorite Miley song ever and has the best pure melody since "Come Clean", at least. And NOT ONLY that, but it features Miley's best ever vocal performance, by far. The whole chorus is just pure musical genius. Best part is still "My best friend Leslie says 'Oh she's just being Miley'."

Thus we have the best 30 singles of the year. Future posts will explore best albums, TV shows, and movies (featuring a TRUE SHOCKER at #1), but not for another week or two probably.

Potential Break Up Song

After 6 weeks of not posting, only Aly and AJ can hope to stir me enough to get a-writin' again.


(Have not yet seen Nancy Drew, and I guess I'm not alone in that. Have seen several bloggable movies lately, so maybe a compendium post or something.)


Aly & AJ - "Potential Break Up Song"

Review: Starts up with a pounding pulse that never lets out. Aly & AJ give what is, by a good margin, their best vocal performance ever. There are three melodies in this song (verse, pre-chorus, chorus) are strong enough to carry a pop song on their own. It even features some pretty neat non-vocal hooks. And yet, none of these are the best part of the song. What great lyrics! They are so evocative and emotional and they tell a real story and a sad story and they do it in a really funny way. Gut punch right from the start "It took too long for you to call back, and normally I would just forget that except for the fact it was my birthday, my stupid birthday". Brilliant! Then how after a whole song of bashing the poor guy, there's the twist at the end: It's not just a potential break-up song, it's a potential make up song too!

The song represents a significant stylistic shift from Aly & AJ, and I loved their old style, but how can I complain? Actually, I'm still a touch skeptical, but whatever, this one is good. Aly & AJ still continue to work within the strict confines of the Disney environment and expand and deepen it. I mean, seriously, compare this to other Disney fare. Compare it to other Disney fare that I truly love, like "Say OK" or "I've Got Nerve" or "Breaking Free". Diz is perfectly capable of, as in those three songs, producing a staggeringly brilliant melody and producing nicely uplifting lyrics. But this song is on a different planet from those. The level of complexity and depth in the lyrics, the level of sophistication to the music and melody are just well beyond any other Diz fare.

OK, OK, I don't want to overstate my case here. This song is no more impressive or brilliant than any of Hilary Duff's best work, but the Diz formula has changed since then and it's heartening to see that it can still produce works like this. Plus, Wikipedia lists Aly and AJ as the sole writers on this song, and if true I'm just insanely impressed that at their young age they can write such brilliant melodies and lyrics and deliver such a heartbreaking and powerful vocal performance. And a great acting job in the video!

This is a song of sweeping, stunning brilliance, and there's a pretty good chance I like it even more than "Rush" and a pretty good chance that it will be my single of the year. 10 out of 10. (I wussed out and gave this song a 9 on the jukebox).

Song Analysis: Aly & AJ - "Speak for Myself"

Intrepid readers: It's been a while, but my schedule has recently cleared up so hopefully that will give me more postin' time. I have a few ideas for posts in the works, that I didn't have a chance to do because of business. In the meantime, sure been a while since I've done a song analysis, so here's the newest entry in this occassional series:

Previous song analyses:
Hilary Duff - "So Yesterday"
Lee Ann Womack - "I'll Think of a Reason Later"
Natasha Bedingfield - "Stumble"
Charlotte Church - "Moodswings (to Come at Me Like That"

Youtube: "Speak for Myself" (ugh, accompanied to Zack and Cody content. I recommend you listen with your eyes closed.)




Lyrics:
Do you see me, do you care?
You talk about me like I'm not there.
Don't get a word in when you're around.
I bet you don't know what I'm about.

(chorus)
'Cause I will, I will speak for myself
What you see isn't all I am
I need a place to stand
I will, I will speak for myself
There's so much you're missing
If you cared you'd listen

You suffocate me, you drown me out.
I'm tired of waiting without a doubt.
I feel I'm fading, I flicker out.
My heart is screaming without a sound
(chorus)

I'm not sorry for who I am
Take it or leave it
It's my time to take a stand
Throw it or keep it
Know that I don't mean to understand
Won't say it again
(chorus)

Song Analysis/Comments: This song contains the pained, pleading lyrics and the anguished, piercing voices that characterize much of Aly & AJ's best work ("Not This Year", "No One", etc.). The song has no immediately straightforward interpretation, other than that it's obviously a triumphant anthem to standing up for yourself. But as to who is keeping her down and whose grasp she is freeing herself from, I suppose there's no definitive answer, at least not one that I'm aware of. But that won't stop me from analyzing away!

OK, so where are we getting at with this song? First verse plays through pretty standard ignoring lyrics. She is not noticed, they don't care about her, they leave her on the outside (shades of Jordan Pruitt here, though it's worth mentioning this song predates "Outside Looking In" by a good year). And it obviously bugs them. Heck, when you care about somebody and want them to like you and you can't even get them to acknowledge that you exist, that rubs wrong. And the girls (believe it's AJ, but I could be wrong) sing it with just a heartbreakingly anguished and pinched tone to their voice. The very tone to her voice and inflections on the phrasing imply an intense pleading, as if they are pleading to be noticed. Then we go into the chorus, which is just one big kiss off of a "If you don't wanna notice me that's your own fault". Hey, their self esteem doesn't rest on what the popular people thing of them. They are their own girls, and they are gonna do their thing and screw anybody else who doesn't like them. Very triumphant thing to hear from the high school girls. Or, on the other hand, is it a triumphant kiss off to an inattentive boyfriend? I can speak for myself, and you don't really know me, and if you REALLY loved me, you'd want to get to know me.

The second verse plunges way deeper into the despair than the prior ones. It's so melancholy in fact, that it makes me doubt the certainty with which the chorus is presented. Really, she's "suffocating", her heart is "screaming without a sound"? I find the last line in this verse to be extremely fascinating, though I'm still not sure if it actually means anything. This very verse in fact, makes me doubt that it's an anti-bully sentiment, as it seems to be sung to a boyfriend who is treating her badly. That's an interpretation that I tend to reject because they don't seem to sing about relationships and love very frequently, but this really seems like a level of emotional pain that is beyond what we would typically expect from the schoolyard bullies. But on the other hand, it is still fairly consistent with that interpretation.

One way or another, in any event, the song is about getting yourself noticed in the fact of inattentiveness. And not getting yourself noticed by pretending to be somebody else, but of putting yourself out there, in the face of all who have done you wrong, and daring them to get to know the real you. Daring them to stare you down. Only, the air of anguish and of defeat permeates the entire song. The girls' voice just adds an extra layer of despair atop the whole thing that's almost crushing, even when it's triumphant. Even when they are kissing off their opressors, you never forget what they are standing up against. That they are standing up, but that they are still hurt. And that it's OK to let these people hurt you, as long as you are willing to do something about it. But just the decision to stand up for yourself doesn't take the despair away. That's what I think is really going on underneath this seemingly straightforward triumph here. This song is a perfect example of how the vocals can affect the interpretation of the lyrics.

What's the moral of the story here, after all that rambling nonsense: You need to stand up for yourself and never stop being yourself. But, standing up for yourself is hard, and the mere decision to do so doesn't take away all the pain people have caused you. But that's what makes it even more important to do so! This song makes me feel really bad for the girls. It makes me want to go out and slap whoever this song was written about.

Or is it just about trying to be religious in the face of a sinful world? Is it about being crushed and suffocated and ignored in the face of a world that glorifies sins such as violence and lust and turns its nose at the fundamentalists? In a nation where more than half of people say they are Christian but that turn their noses up at public Christian displays. Is it about being yourself, and rubbing it in the nose of that world, and triumphing over sin and not letting the world get what it wants. And I am gonna speak your mind and be myself, and if you only listened to me you would understand.

Aly & AJ's lyrics are constantly toeing the line between the religious and the secular and that is one of the things I find most fascinating about them. I mean, listen, I don't agree with any of the above sentiments, but I love the way that they have managed to integrate their evangelical Christianity into their lyrics without beating our head over them. These aren't explicitly Christian lyrics here, and they can't possibly be offensive to anybody, as they can just as easily be interpreted in a secular way. But if you listen to the song with that interpretation specifically in mind, it falls out pretty naturally, and I can't believe that's just a coincidence. And listen, again, just to make things perfectly clear here, I find their brand of evangelical Christianity (or at least what I know of it from their interviews, etc.) to be rather distateful, but at least they are being real. I get the impression from listening to Into the Rush that this album, this really is a document of Aly & AJ. A kind of sense I don't get from, say, Fall Out Boy or Hannah Montana or Paris Hilton or most pop stars. And if evangelical Christianity is clearly a part of who they are, then by gum, that's what I wanna hear.

Continuing on the above point, I've been doing a lot of self-reflection lately, and thinking about what it is exactly that draws me so heavily towards teen pop. I love pop music in general, and I love lots of different types of music, but lately it's the teen pop that's been drawing me in. And it's just the intense personal nature of it. I just get this despaired sense of real personal nature from Ashlee and from Jordan Pruitt and from Aly & AJ, like they are too young to know that you shouldn't really put yourself out on the record like that. And when I can listen to the album and really feel like I've gotten to know and love the singer/songwriters of that album, that to me is the height of the music listening experience. And I get that experience from lots of different genres, but I think teenpop is where I've found the most raw emotions, the most ebullient love and the most despairing sadness, and the most crushing loneliness, etc., etc. And you hear it all on Into the Rush: the high highs and the low lows (but, yeah, the low lows are presented a lot more convincingly than the high highs. The girls know how to pull off drama.) And you've got the explicitly relgious songs ("Protecting Me") and the explicitly secular songs ("Chemicals React") and the maybe religious, maybe secular songs (this song, "Rush"), and it all adds up to Aly & AJ. Or if it doesn't actually add up to who Aly & AJ really are, it all adds up to somebody and something, and who I love and identify with isn't really Aly & AJ but is "Aly & AJ", as an image they calculatedly present of themselves. Heck, I don't care. It's something.

The point being, of all this fractured prose, that there are a lot of different interpretations to this song, and I don't even know myself which one I'd lean towards. Is it an anti-bullying sentiment, or a kiss off to an inattentive boyfriend, or a song about remaining Christian in a secular world? It's all 3! I picked this song partly as an excuse to run that real emotions rant, but also to highlight a song with multiple interesting interpretations and to highlight a song where the vocal performance really adds to the lyrics.

Final Rating: A powerhouse vocal effort, truly anguished lyrics, and one heck of a catchy melody make this my favorite album track off of their debut effort and one of my top 5 favorite Aly & AJ songs overall ("Not This Year" --> "Rush" --> "Greatest Time of Year" --> This song --> "Chemicals React"). 8.5/10.

Final Year End Listamania

Year End Miscellany:

Contrary to previous posts I've decided to forgo a top 10 albums list this year. The reason being that I am laughably behind in album listening this year. By the time I get around to processing all of the albums there's a good chance that I'll like from this year, it will be well beyond the point at which it would be reasonable to release a 2006 year in review list. There are about 5 albums this year that I am pretty confident will make my top 10 this year, when I've finally processed all the relevant albums. They are, in approximately this order, Amy Diamond's Still Me Still Now Marit Larsen's Under the Surface Gothic Archies' The Tragic Treasury Paris Hilton's Paris and Ciara's The Evolution. You could call that a top 5, I guess, except that there are in all likelihood at least one (maybe more) albums I have yet to listen to that might make the top 5, and I'm still processing Ciara, and she might move up. I'm pretty confident in declaring Amy Diamond's Still Me Still Now as the album of the year, at this point. Top 5 artists of the year: Aly & AJ, Miley Cyrus, Dr. Luke, Amy Diamond, Fergie. Fergie, not because she made the best music of anybody not above her, but because she managed to shatter my previous extreme hatred of her prior to this year, which was a remarkable accomplishment. I'm counting Miley's TV work, which may be unfair, but it is what it is. And it's better for Aly & AJ overall if I don't count Cow Belles. I do count Aly's work on Phil of the Future because as explained I consider that to be a key part of their image, but it doesn't matter because they'd rank number 1 without it anyways. And like I said before I didn't even see 10 movies this year, but my favorite movie that I DID see was, of course, High School Musical with The Departed being the best real movie that I saw.

So congrats to Lillix, The 4400, Amy Diamond, Aly & AJ, and High School Musical for winning all the TCR awards this year.

Top 11 Things to Look Forward to in 2007

OK with all year end content out of the way, let's look forward instead of backwards and see what we have to look forward to in 2007. Unlike all the prior year in review stuff, I will confine this to the theme of my blog. So it's solely things in the entertainment media that are in a broad sense relevant to teen culture. This is for entertainment purposes only, I'm just basing this on what I know for a fact is coming out in 2007, with little research to figure out what else is gonna be out. TV and movies, for whatever reason tend to take me by surprise more than music, so there is more music on this list than the other two. OK, with those caveats, here goes:

11. Ashely Tisdale
Coming out with a new album in 2007, starring in High School Musical 2 and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, 2007 looks like it may be an even better year for The Tis than 2006 was. She was always my favorite of the HSM stars, and while her new singles aren't outstanding, they are pretty good, and I'm certainly looking forward to seeing what she has in store for us in 2007. Her acting will, I'm sure, be excellent as always, though wasted on the cesspool that is The Suite Life

10. Jordan Pruitt - No Ordinary Girl
The full album by Jordan Pruitt promises to be a good one, as I've enjoyed all the songs she's released so far, though to varying degrees. I can only hope they are going more with the confessional sound of "Outside Looking In" than the R&B sounds of her other songs.

9. Natasha Bedingfield - Blank Canvas
Her first album, Unwritten, is not impossibly one of my top 10 albums of the 2000's, and it spawned several great singles. Including the title track, which was one of my 10 favorite singles of 2005. I have no particular reason to think that this one will be inferior to her debut, but for whatever reason I am not super psyched for this release. Still, for all my (possibly unfounded) doubts that this one will rise to the heights of her debut, I'm obviously looking forward to this release by one of my favorite current British pop stars (probably my second favorite, behind Rachel Stevens. [Hey when's her comeback gonna be?])

8. New Brie Larson Album
Contrary to the above, I'm actually not 100% sure that this is coming out in 2007. But I'm listing it anyways because I think it is and I love Brie Larson. Anyways, even though her last album wasn't great, the three tracks she's since posted on her Myspace ("Coming Around" [Greg's #28 single of the year], "Stilts and the Titanic" and a cover of "A Day in the Life") have all been better than any of the songs on her first album. This, plus the great writing on her blog, makes me extremely excited for the full new album to be released.

7. Hannah Montana
New season of the show and new songs? Awesome! I guess I'm not 100% sure that new Hannah Montana songs will be released in 2007, which is why this doesn't rank higher, but it's probably a safe assumption. The new season of Hannah Montana, presumably featuring the return of Jake Ryan and showcasing improved acting talents from the kids, promises to be superior to the first year of the show. My number 2 artist of 2006 may well by my number 1 artist of 2007 if she is able to keep up.

6. Nancy Drew
I've hardly seen a movie with more disparagingly negative comments about it prior to its release. Everywhere that I've read about it has been an attack on the proposed casting of the roles. Apparently they are cast too young or against type or whatever. I don't know and I don't care because I never have and never intend to read a Nancy Drew book. Mystery movies and books bore me. BUT, this movie stars Emma Roberts as Nancy, and Kay Panabaker and Amy Bruckner as her best friends, so I'm extremely excited for it. Kay Panabaker doesn't have much to make me excited for 2007, just this movie a mediocre looking horse movie called Moondance Alexander (that I surely will nonetheless see on opening day) and a likely straight to DVD release of an update of the Prince and the Pauper starring the Sprouse twins. A fairly weak slate, but she plus Emma make this movie one that I am marking in my calendar.

5. New Hilary Duff album
Hilary has yet to release a consistently great album, and I have no reason to think that this will be the one. But she has been a consistently great singles artist, and her two albums so far have all featured several excellent songs. Even Most Wanted had a great original ("Wake Up") and a pretty good original ("Beat of My Heart"). "Play With Fire" was amazing, "With Love" sounds pretty good, and there's no reason to think there won't be at least a couple other songs on this new album that I will absolutely love. I can't wait.

4. High School Musical 2
Well, I have my doubts that they will be able to re-capture the magic of the first movie, but how could I not be really excited for this film. Will it be as effortlessly enjoyable as the first movie? Will it spawn another single as great as "Breaking Free"? Who knows! Like I said, I have my doubts, but I certainly hope so, and I'm certainly looking forward to finding out. The whole main four of the cast is great, so if nothing else, I'm sure they will salvage entertainment out of the film.

3. Season 3 of Unfabulous
My favorite teen/tween TV show currently on the air returns for a third season this year, delayed way too long since the end of season 2. Season 2 ended on a high note with Addie and Jake getting together. I hope they can run with that and produce a season even better than they've gotten so far, propelling this into the list of the truly great shows of its type, such as Phil of the Future. OK, maybe that's not very likely. But as long as it's got Emma Roberts on board it's gonna stay one of the most entertaining shows on television.

2. New Aly & AJ album
You know what, I think I've finally written enough about them. Please though let this be their first consistently great album.

1. New Kelly Clarkson album
The number one slot on this list was a lock before the list was even drawn up. Breakaway remains, as I have noted several times before, my favorite album of the decade to this point (Come and Get It is close). The new songs that she's debuted on tour, including "Maybe" and "Anymore" have been absolutely amazing. So, I'll conveniently ignore that the most recent song she's released, a song called "Go" written for Ford, was completely mediocre. There is not a piece of entertainment media that I have ever looked forward to as much as I am looking forward to this.

Of course, I'm sure most of my favorites by year-end won't be represented on this list, but that's part of the fun! We can check how good my predictions were later.

Top 50 Singles of 2006

I said I'd wait until 2007 before I made another post, but, hell, I'm sitting at home sick and don't really have anything better to do.

Here is my list of my top 50 favorite singles of 2006. So thus, it had to be released as a single this year, and though there are some with questionable eligibility, there is no out-and-out cheating. So, no "Not This Year" et al. Maybe later I'll make a post on the songs of 2006 that would have made the top 50 but for lack of eligibility. This considers all singles in 2006, teenpop or no, so let's just set aside the blog's theme for now. Presented with minimal commentary. If you're really curious what I have to say about a song with no commentary you can noodle around the blog and you'll probably find it. Or else leave a comment or email, of course.

I want to say that this was an excellent year for singles (much better than 2005 and 2004, less strong at the top than 2003 but just as deep). I really had to squeeze to get it down to 50, and I left some great stuff out. So if a song's not listed here that doesn't mean I don't like it. Pretty much every song here is ranked lower than I feel it should be, but that's the way it is in a deep year.

TCR TOP 50 SINGLES OF 2006:

50. Toby Keith - "A Little Too Late"
Most (all?) of Toby's previous great singles have been uptempo rockin' ravers ("How Do You Like Me Now", "As Good As I Once Was"), but this is a catchy ballad! Good work Toby.
49. Kelly Clarkson - "Walk Away"
My least favorite single off Breakway, but still a great song. I would have preferred "Gone" or "Addicted"
48. CSS - "Let's Make Love and Listen Death From Above"
A really great pop song that edges out many other top 50 contenders because of its originality. For a pop song, it's not catchy enough and doesn't have good enough lyrics to merit a higher spot than this. That being said numbers 38 or so to 50 are incredibly tightly bunched.
47. Peter Bjorn & John - "Young Foks"
Sometimes the indie crowd IS right after all. That being said, this song is worse than it could be (Kogan terminology: The band is at war with their talents). I wish a proper pop band would do a cover of it. Could be rated too low by me here, but despite the great chorus + whistling, the verses and production don't seem to go anywhere really. Nevertheless I'm liking this more and more the more I hear it.
46. Aly & AJ - "Chemicals React"
Not the last time A&A will show up on this list. Lyrically below a lot of the rest of their material, but it still has plenty of evocative imagery and good lines, and of course one hell of a catchy tune. The girls can rock! Probably Aly & AJ's worst vocal performance though.
45. Jessica Simpson - "A Public Affair"
"Push Your Tush" shoulda been a single! This is a really fun song.
44. Young Joc - "It's Going Down"
May be kicking myself in a few months for putting this so low, but this is where it feels right at this time.
43. Hannah Montana - "If We Were a Movie"
Hannah in love. How cute.
42. Sara Evans - "Coalmine"
Kinda like a second rate version of "Suds in the Bucket", but "Suds" is one of my top 10 singles of the decade to this point, so...Anyways, I have a huge blindspot for Sara Evans, admittedly, so this placement may need to be taken with a grain of salt. But why was "You'll Always Be My Baby" a single over, say, "New Hometown" or "These Four Walls"? Those would both rank above this, though this is a fun song.
41. Shakira ft. Wyclef - "Hips Don't Lie"
By my estimation, the fourth best number one single of 2006 (in America). It was a good year for number ones. Now bubble with anticipation as to which three will rank above it. I'm not a big fan of Wyclef's or Shakira's voices, but they work for this song. It's all rather ridiculous, but it does work. Great horn sample.
40. Paris Hilton - "Stars are Blind"
So out of place on the album! One of several great songs on the album, there's a few non-singles that would rank ahead of this one (say "Screwed" or "Jealousy"). The pop-reggae stuff is maybe getting a bit played out, but this is pretty, and Paris' personality-less vocals actually work in its favor, I think.
39. Nelly Furtado - "Maneater"
Nelly F. reinvents herself to great results. Well to the results of a few great singles and a bunch of filler. More Nelly F. to come. This song started out much, much higher but has been falling all year. Not a whole lot of replay value. I think this is about its floor.
38. Montgomery Gentry - "Some People Change"
"Hey Country" is better, but not a single. I like the lyrics to this song, plus the chorus is a genuine powerhouse.
37. LeAnn Rimes - "And It Feels Like"
A Europe-only release, for whatever reason. Totally not country, but really good. I do like some of her country releases this year too. "Some People" was a late cut from the top 50.
36. Christina Aguilera - "Hurt"
A pretty ballad. Probably worse than "Beatutiful", but not by much. Possibly my favorite song on the disappointing Back to Basics album ("Candyman" is good too).
35. Ciara - "Promise"
Possibly ranked way too low, but I just heard this song for the first time a couple weeks ago and don't feel comfortable rating it higher at this point. Thems the breaks. Not a top 10 single of the year in any event.
34. Jordan Pruitt - "Outside Looking In"
I did half of a post on this song here.
33. Rihanna - "SOS (Rescue Me)"
I don't mind the blatant sample. They make the sample feel like a natural part of the song, which is hard to do, and plus the song has a lot more going for it than just that sample. Very catchy.
32. Meg and Dia - "Monster"
"Indiana" would be much higher, but this is the second best song on the album. And that's probably one of my top 10 albums of '06 (whoops, spoiler alert!) A great, extremely dramatic and original song. You can have your Grizzly Bear or Hold Steady or Band of Horses, these girls do indie rock better than any of them.
31. Amy Winehouse - "Rehab"
A great song on an album full of consistently great songs. Luv the lyrics and the melody. This would (probably) have been top 20 in 2004 or 2005. When it comes to modern day updates/revivals of old R&B sounds, I'll take Amy Winehouse over the Pipettes any day.
30. The Research - "Lonely Hearts Still Beat the Same"
Stylus fave is also a Greg Fanoe fave. Great lyrics and a pretty melody. The female vocalist is not a great singer, though.
29. Aly & AJ - "Greatest Time of Year"
One of the great Christmas pop songs of recent times. Of all time, really. 9/9 cutoff. All the songs ranked below this on this list are rated 8/10 (I'm a big ol softie of a grader).
28. Brie Larson - "Coming Around"
I fully admit to being an absolute sucker for this type of song: Pretty, acoustic instrumentation, cute and sweet melody, and a good female singer on top of it. Pretty good, though pretty generic, love song lyrics. Better than anything on Brie's first album. Questionable eligibility. For some reason I decided this song was eligible and "Stilts and the Titanic" wasn't. Both would have made it if both were eligible. This is kind of included to represent both, I guess. So even though neither song is individually higher than an 8/10, I cheated and moved this song higher than it really deserves. Not to say I don't love this song, because I do!
27. Hannah Montana - "The Best of Both Worlds"
Still more to come from my favorite singles artist of the year. (Aly & AJ would be very close if not ahead were "Not This Year" a single).
26. Nelly Furtado - "Promiscuous [Girl]"
A consensus seems to have developed that this is the best song on the Nelly F album, but I actually have one other rated above it (among the singles at least).
25. Morningwood - "Nth Degree"
Their best song ever, by far, and I have my doubts they'll ever make anything else so good. But yet this is great.
24. Julie Roberts - "Men & Mascara"
Nashville country song of the year. There are actually 3 country singles rated above it but they are either not country or were on albums released last year. I love Julie's voice, plus it has a really sweet, pretty melody. Like I said I'm a sucker for it.
23. Hannah Montana - "This Is the Life"
Still sad that this flopped on Radio Diz.
22. Teddybears SHTLM ft. Mad Cobra - "Cobrastyle"
Very original and awesome. I prefer it to the Robyn version, personally, though I'm not a huge Robyn fan in general.
21. Charlotte Church - "Moodswings (to Come at Me Like That)"
Charlotte Church's debut pop album had 2 great songs and this was one of them. Seems to me to be a totally underrated single. I didn't realize until the very last minute that this was even eligible this year.
20. Natasha Bedingfield - "The One That Got Away"
Questionable eligibility, but it did have a chart life on the dance charts this year, so I declare it to be eligible. One of my favorite tracks off of one of my top 10 or 20 albums of the decade to this point. Rated based off the original, spare instrumentation and not the dance remix that charted on the dance charts and is included on the album. Cheating, perhaps, but I like the original mix better!
19. Britney Spears - "And Then We Kiss"
Europe only and questionable eligibility, but a great song. Why didn't this get an American release? Whatever, it makes me really look forward to her new album (if ever made). Possibly underrated, but I didn't hear the song until really late in the year, and this is where I feel comfortable ranking it right now.
18. The Veronicas - "4Ever"
Maybe the chorus of the year, but it doesn't seem to have much else going for it. The verses, production, and lyrics don't seem to be adding anything to the song for me.
17. High School Musical - "Breaking Free"
The TCR was, of course, far from immune from the HSM phenomenon this year. This is the best song from the film by far. I love the "Stick to the Status Quo" number in the movie, but it feels oddly lifeless on record. Rated too high because I also love the movie? I dunno. But come on, isn't "We're breaking free/SOA-ring/FLY-ing" one of the great moments in pop this year? I believe it is.
16. Fergie - "Fergalicious"
Like the Morningwood, this is the only song by this artist that I really love. Actually I hated it at first (I have a long history of hating Black Eyed Peas and Fergie, and I hated "London Bridge"). But one day as I was listening to it on the radio, it just clicked for me for whatever reason. Anyways, I still think the general sound/lyrics Fergie is going for is uninteresting, but she's perfected it here. Best music video of the year, as well. Musical acts with only one great song: Morningwood, Fergie, Anna Nalick ("Breathe (2AM)"), Sixpence None the Richer, Delta Goodrem ("Electric Storm").
15. T.I. - "What You Know"
Rap single of the year in what seems to me a pretty weak year for rap music. Like all of the other songs rated 11-16, it really pains me to leave this out of the top 10.
14. JoJo - "Too Little, Too Late"
JoJo has a breakthrough success with an R&B song with teen confessional lyrics. This makes me very happy. The album was a letdown, and "Leave (Get Out)" is still better.
13. Nelly Furtado - "Say It Right"
From the first time I heard Loose, this pretty ballad was my favorite song on it. My opinion has yet to be swayed on this, and I'm thrilled it's caught on with radio like "Maneater" never did. I bumped this out of the top 10 at the very last minute.
12. Camera Obscura - "Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken"
This was in my top 10 for most of the year until some better songs pushed it out. "Let's Get Out of This Country" was a late cut from the top 50. This is the indie band of the year. At least, defining "indie" in the way it is commonly used.
11. Texas Lightning - "No, No Never"
My favorite Eurovision entry this year by far, and my favorite in years. I wish their album had more original songs, or at least that the other original songs were this good. Anyways, German country music! This plays as almost a pastiche of country music, but it works to me, because of the pretty melody and good vocals.
10. Hilary Duff - "Play With Fire"
Hilary rips off Rachel Stevens and Greg rejoices. Hilary has now had one of my top 10 singes of the year for at least 3 years in a row ("Wake Up" in the bottom reaches of the top 10 in 2005 and "Come Clean" number 1 or 2 in 2004). I say "at least" because in 2003 "So Yesterday" would be close but that was such a great year for singles I think it would probably be left out of the top 10. But it would get top 10 consideration. The nearly spoken-word bridge is my favorite part of the song.
9. Paris Hilton - "Nothing in this World"
The best song on Paris' album. Dr. Luke proves himself again to be a genius.
8. All-American Rejects - "Move Along"
Rock song of the year. Fun video. I don't know or understand why "Dirty Little Secret" was a bigger hit, because this is a much better song. Good work AAR. This is the 10/10 cutoff, P-Hilt gets a 9 (would be a 10 but I don't like the "da da" part. And realistically it's like a 9.5). This 10/10 cutoff is incosistent with a previous post, but I decided I was rating too harshly there.
7. Carrie Underwood - "Before He Cheats"
The best song on her debut album, by far (though I like the album). So awesome. Proves that American Idols can flat out rock better than any Chris Daughtry song ever could. A genuine surprise, given that she did almost all country ballads on the show. This is one of the very few American Idol contestants I like better off the show than I liked on the show (though I also liked her on the show).
6. Hannah Montana - "I Got Nerve"
Possibly my favorite melody of the year, and Miley's a great singer. But it doesn't have much going for it lyrically and the production is nothing to write home about. But seriously, I could just listen to this melody all day long.
5. Marit Larsen - "Only a Fool"
2-5 are so awesome and so close in quality (at least rated based on how much I like them). I spent way too long sorting them out. It's nearly a coinflip as to the order of the songs. I really hate to rate this number 5, but I don't like it better than any of the above songs and it lost out on tiebreakers. Would have been comfortably number 2 in 2005 (not as good as "I Said Never Again (But Here We Are)", but well ahead of anything else released that year). Country song of the year.
4. Beyonce - "Irreplaceable"
Beyonce's best single. In a year full of great R&B ballads, this was the best. Tiebreaker for this over "Only a Fool" is lyrics. Though I like the lyrics to "Only a Fool" too.
3. Aly & AJ - "Rush"
Frank et al have convinced me that it deserves eligibility this year. Whatever year it's counted in, it's amazing. Tiebreaker over "Irreplaceable" is my fasciation with/love of Aly & AJ in general. Plus bonus points for "Not This Year"s non-inclusion. Oh plus I love the first half of the first chorus.
2. Amy Diamond - "Don't Cry Your Heart Out"
When 2-5 are absurdly close, as they are here, a good tiebreaker to move this to the top of the heap is that this is probably the song that I have listened to the greatest number of times in 2006. When I've heard a song that many times and still love it so much, that means something.
1. Lillix - "Sweet Temptation (Hollow)"
I've said numerous times that this is my favorite single of the year, so maybe that takes ome of the surprise out of this selection. A discrete chunk above the 2-5 cluster as the single of the year. My top 3 this year were all teenpop songs, which strikes me as odd, but that's just how it played out.


Explaining some exclusions:
Cassie, Scissor Sisters, Knife, Pipettes - All very meh to me. I still fail to understand the appeal of The Knife. "Your Kisses are Wasted on Me" is the only Pipettes song that received even the barest consideration, and even then it was a pretty early cut.
Justin T, Gnarls, Killers, "LDN" and "Who Said" were all late cuts but I like the songs.
"Not Ready To Make Nice" is not one of my 10 favorite Dixie Chicks songs. It's one of the better songs on their album, but it's probably my least favorite of the Chicks 4 major label studio albums. The love of the song, methinks, depends too strongly on factors external to the song itself. Not that it's inherently bad for the song to exist in an outside context, but the song itself doesn't do anything for me. I don't like the chorus at all and, yeah, the lyrics are good but if the music doesn't grab me, what's the point. And now I'm trying to be told this is the career masterpiece by a band that has "Travelin' Soldier" and "Goodbye Earl" in its catalogue? Puh-leeze.
"Kick, Push" will probably ultimately make my top 50 of the year, but I only just heard it for the first time a day or two ago and didn't feel comfortable including it right now. Not sounding like top 20 material at this point (too repetitive), but I like it.

I just realized that this list only has 10 songs with male vox on it (not counting Morningwood)! And only 9 if you half-count "Breaking Free" and "Hips Don't Lie". But whatever, I'm not going to shove in male vocalized songs that I like worse just to force an artificial balance. Still, it does make me think.

Why "Not This Year" Is My Favorite Song of 2006 (Part 2)

Subtitle: Why my previous review significantly underrated Acoustic Hearts of Winter.

Read Part 1 first, or else this won't make too much sense.

Day 10 of the TCR Christmas Extravaganza (this day has at least some relation to Christmas too!)

OK, now I want to explore how my previous statements on the image of Aly & AJ, and the inherent contradictions in their image reflect upon my analysis of their music. And since this is Christmas season, I'm going to apply it to Acoustic Hearts of Winter and, remember, this whole two part post is meant to explain why "Not This Year" is my favorite song of 2006, in what has been in my opinion an incredible year for singles.

OK, before I get into "Not This Year", I need to first get into "Greatest Time of Year", which is the opening track and single on AHOW. First, here are the lyrics to the song:

"It's the greatest time of year, and it's here
Help me celebrate it
With everybody here, friends so dear
Let me simply state it
It's our favourite way to spend the holiday

There's a special kind of feeling in the air
It only happens at this time of year
When everyone is filled with love and cheer
'Cause that's what matters
Pretty paper boxes tied with bows
Walking in the sun or in the snow
We can feel the excitement growing, growing

It's the greatest time of year, and it's here
Help me celebrate it
With everybody here, friends so dear
Let me simply state it
Joy to the world and everyone
Lift up your hearts and feel the love
It's our favourite way, to spend the holiday

We can get all cozy by the fire
Turn the music up a little higher
I don't think that I could ever tire
Of being together
Decorate the tree, hang mistletoe
And stand by me
It's a picture perfect moment captured
Memories that we'll have after"

After this it repeats the chorus a few times and fades out.

Clearly this song is extremely positive about Christmas, but what is it specifically that they love about Christmas? In keeping with the separate personas idea fleshed out in the last post, there is no religious content in this song at all, even though a majority of their covers are religious . Based on these lyrics, the reason why Christmas is "the greatest time of year" is your standard: traditions, being with family and friends, everybody being more living and nicer, etc., etc. But what, specifically is their favorite way to spend the holiday? That line still seems to come out of nowhere in the chorus, but I suppose they mean that they love spending the holiday with loving friends. Anyways, the key section of the song is "There's a special kind of feeling in the air/It only happens at this time of year/When everyone is filled with love and cheer/'Cause that's what matters". THIS is what matters, that everybody is filled with love and cheer. And presumably that's what they mean when they say it's the greatest time of year. Notice that they don't mention presents just "pretty paper boxes tied up in bows". So it's just the aesthetic feel of Christmas and the way it makes other people act that they love about the season so much. Listening to this song, you obviously get the idea that they love the Christmas season. The lyrics are maybe a bit hokey and unoriginal, but they seem to be good to me, and the performance totally sells them.

I'm not sure how this song fits into the overall catalogue of Aly & AJ's work. You have 3 basic categories of Aly & AJ songs: the religious (which play into their public persona, and include songs like "Shine" and "Never Far Behind"), the inspirational/positive, but still serious and not fun ("Rush", "No One") and the sad ("I Am One of Them", "Sticks and Stones"). This song and "Chemicals React" are in categories by themselves, seemingly outside their work as a whole. But, this song does, contrary to part 1 of this post, flow directly from their public image and acting work. It's just a fun song, and certainly the type of song you might expect an evangelical Christian to sing. It's not about the religious aspects of Christmas, but it's not about the materialistic aspects of Christmas either. And unlike the majority of "happy Christmas" songs in modern pop the song IS actually about Christmas and not a veiled love song. Great tune, and I think the only genuinely positive, fun, non-religious song in their catalogue. It's an explosion of joy the likes of which they haven't done before [edit: Other than the covers, the likes of which I usually ignore because they don't fit into their work as a whole. But the covers definitely flow from their acting image]. Still don't know how "Chemicals React" fits into all this.

All of which, I think, serves to give "Not This Year" even more punch. I did my analysis of this song in the previous post, but here's a new & more in depth one. First, the lyrics:

"This Christmas card is so contrived
A mannequin looks more alive
Haven't meant a word I've written here
The page is full not one thing sincere

(chorus)
I can't, I can't
I can't, I can't take it
This is the time to smile,
I can't fake it
Please allow me the chance now
To break it down

It's not snow, It's rain coming down
And the lights are cool,
But they burn out
And I can't pull off the cheer
Not this year
Not this year
Not this year
(end chorus)

When I look into the mirror
No happiness is present here
Not supposed to whine,
Not supposed to cry
Try to hold it in, but not this time

(chorus)

Don't know, don't know
If you can hear me
I will, I will
Speak louder for you

No more whispering
Are you listening
I am pleading
I am pleading

(chorus)"

Unlike last time, let's assume this song is intended to be written and sung within the context of their other work, and analyze it based on that. This song does have the same slate of writers as "Greatest Time of Year", so this is not an unreasonable. So here we have some fun loving evangelical Christian girls, but with a really strong serious side. We have two girls who love the Christmas season, and everything that it stands for and all of the ways that it makes people feel. It makes people feel happy! and cheerful! and full of love! That's just who they are. But something is different this year....and what is it? Who knows, because it's never said. Maybe they just broke up with their boyfriend, or a family member died or whatever. I like to think it's just end of the year blues. A tough year, frustration and sadness have set in, you don't like the direction your life is headed in, who knows. The point is, this year they aren't feeling it.

And there they are writing Christmas cards, writing your standard platitudes about what a great year it's been, how happy they are, how they hope you have a happy Christmas, when suddenly they realize: I'm not feeling the Christmas cheer! They are just going through the motions and pretending to be happy. And all of this pretending is giving them stress, plus seeing everybody else so happy is just making them spiral further and further into depression. They've hit the breaking point. They're ready to break down and they can't handle putting up a front any more, they just want to scream out and cry. The pre-chorus states this excellently: "I can't, I can't I can't, I can't take it This is the time to smile, I can't fake it Please allow me the chance now To break it down". They just can't keep it up. And they can still appreciate all of the great beauty of Christmas that they sang so joyfully about in "Greatest Time of Year": "And the lights are cool," but they still have the knowledge in them deep inside that after Christmas, after all the joy and the beauty and the peace, they are still back in their misery. They can't put this off forever, and the pain will return: "But they burn out". The knowledge and dread of which can be worse than the actual feeling! This is somebody who desparately WANTS to be caught up in the Christmas season but just can't do it because of the knowledge of the sad things in their life. They are looking in the mirror, trying to salvage any semblance of happiness to exploit upon. Any nugget they can build on.

The real question is, who is this song spoken to. They only break into the "you" one time in the whole song (well three times, but they are all in the same part): "Don't know, don't know If you can hear me I will, I will Speak louder for you No more whispering Are you listening I am pleading I am pleading". This is a heartbreaking part of the song. And I think one of the things that really makes it extra affecting is that despite oblique references throughout the song to people who are forcing them or expecting them to be happy, this is the one time the person is directly referenced. I normally don't like "you" heavy songs, but "Are YOU listening" is just great. But seriously, they've tried pretending and beating around the bush but the "you" just isn't getting it. They need to just scream it out "I'M NOT HAPPY AND REFUSE TO PRETEND TO BE JUST BECAUSE IT'S CHRISTMAS. PRETENDING JUST MAKES IT ALL THAT HARD WHEN I REMEMBER THE SADNESS WILL RETURN POST CHRISTMAS." And I don't interpret the pleading as literal begging, but just the silent desparation that seems to characterize this song. This is somebody who really doesn't want to rock the boat. Who doesn't want to ruin everybody's Christmas by saying that she can't get into this year. It's a quiet pain that she's been suffering, and she's just begging to be let free of it. But she can't just sit down and cry and scream, she just needs to silently beg, through her feelings and actions for her to be let off the hook. So when this part of the song seems to imply there's been some sort of resistance to her sadness at Christmas time, I interpret the resistance as being primarily internal, projected out to whoever is the subject of the song. Because nowhere else in the song is it stated anybody is giving her grief.

So let's return to the question of who "you" is. It's pretty clearly not God, despite the girl's other Christian output, based on the lyrics. At least not by the interpretation that I'm choosing here. This is somebody who is forcing them or pressuring them or otherwise expecting them to be happy at Christmas time. My first thought was their parents, but this kind of rebellion seems unbecoming of Aly & AJ and anyways I don't find that intepretation particularly satisfying. I would like to submit that the "you" is not any one person in particular but is society as a whole and the pro-Christmas season. You can hardly watch TV without seeing a commercial for some saccharine Christmas special, listen to the radio without hearing stations dedicated to Christmas music (we're up to at least 4 stations in Atlanta) or go shopping without seeing Christmas decorations and hearing that sappy Christmas music piped over the store speakers. It's a bombardment of forced joy, the likes of which can magnify any sadness, and which is obviously unstoppable. Society expects you to be happy at Christmas and there's nothing you can do but put up your front until you just completely break down.

This is a song about the self-perpetuating cycle of sadness at Christmas, sung from the perspective of somebody who has a deep love for the holiday. It's an inherently Christmas song, but an inherently human song too. I know I've been there before. Aly & AJ songs can have great lyrics, and this one has the best, but I think that when you view it kaleidoscopically through the lens of all the various contradictions of their public image, it brings a lot more depth to the sadder songs. The sad songs are given an extra punch by the evangelical Christianity, and the fun persona they put on by acting, and the inspirational rah-rah songs. These are people who desparately want to be good role models for kids, and who desparately want to have a good time, but who are also attuned to the sadness in the world. Compared to this song, the other songs I've loved this year seem shallow and silly. It has an amazing, catchy melody, good music, and a GREAT singing performance by the girls. Their performance is what really sells the lyrics. Anybody who thinks that pop music is incapable of the kind of depth that rock and indie can have needs to listen to the recorded output of this band (and Ashlee too of course).

I find myself agreeing with Frank Kogan that these are the best artist of 2006 by far. I was wrong, Aly & AJ ARE great singers, both of them, at least on their recorded output. Still unsure about the live stuff I've heard. Aly & AJ released a grand total of 4 new original songs this year: "Greatest Time of Year", "Not This Year", "Chemicals React", and "Shine". They put out one album which isn't in my top 20 of the year, though it is better than I originally gave it credit for and isn't too far away. But I can't think of anybody else, not even Ashlee or Lindsay in my opinion, who have done more in a 12 month period to demonstrate and legitimize that teen pop can have just as much depth as any other genre of music. And not just hrough their lyrics, but through their acting, their interviews, their overall public image. Like I said, they are a mess of contradictions, but I love them.

And THAT's why "Not This Year" is my favorite song of 2006.

Why "Not This Year" Is My Favorite Song of 2006 (Part 1)

Subtitle: Why Lauren was right and I was wrong.

Day 9 of the TCR Christmas Extravaganza (admittedly, this one is only tangentially related to Christmas and it's gonna be long)

Like I said in the Lohan post, I'm getting bored of writing Christmas album reviews, and I get the distinct impression that you all are getting bored of reading them. So I'm not going to do any more. On the schedule before Christmas is a post or two on some of the original songs from the albums I'm skipping reviewing, a special teen pop Christmas mix CD, and hopefully (if I can come up with any ideas) some non-music content. Then the blog will likely take a break until the new year, when I'll start up with the year-in-review content. More on which later, of course.

Aly & AJ

You know, I've written a lot about Aly & AJ on this blog. I've written a hell of a lot about Alyson Michalka, way more than anybody else (including Kay Panabaker). But yet, I still haven't quite said what I want to say about them, but it's frustrating because I don't really know what I want to say about them. I don't really know what to THINK about them. Anyways, here's a short summary:

On June 5 in the post "Disney Channel Live Action Series - An Overview" I write: "Alyson I think has a really good chance of breaking out to be a star, but she needs to make better decisions as an actress going forward, and it pains me to say it, but just drop the sister thing. She needs to do solo work. I'm excited about their music career based on their first album but unfortunately general pop doesn't really have a huge market now, and I'm not sure what the shelf-life of this is gonna be. I'm abnormally nervous that her career is just gonna crash and burn after Phil but I really really hope that doesn't happen."

On August 28 in the post "Recent Teen Pop: A Non-Comprehensive Guide" I write: "Don't be fooled by their Disney Radio hit cover songs ("Do You Believe In Magic?" and "Walking on Sunshine"), Aly & AJ, in an era of ironic and humorous light-hearted teen pop, probably have the least sense of humor of any of the artists listed here. Take "I Am One of Them", a song about teenage kidnapping, written from the perspective of a kidnapped teen. Probably one of the darkest and most harrowing songs in recent teen pop. But then there's "Rush". This is SUCH A GOOD song, with the explosion in the chorus, and proper uplifting lyrics, quite possibly my favorite song of 2005. It's an absolute classic of teen pop, and some of their other songs are OK too (such as "Chemicals React", "No One", and "Collapsed"), but they really make it mostly on the strength of "Rush". That being said, "Chemicals React" is one of my favorite singles of the year."

On September 11, in the post entitled "Teen Culture: A General Discourse" (which was the first official post of this blog) I write: I'll use Aly Michalka as an example. Aly & AJ have a huge, really rabid fanbase. They absolutely love them. I have to say that, despite my better judgment, I would have to count myself a fan of the group. And it's not all about the music. It's never all about the music, of course, image always sneaks itself into the picture, especially in pop music, and really especially in teen pop music. Aly Michalka is just so warm, so funny, just so downright loveable on Phil of the Future that it's nearly impossible for any POTF watcher to separate out that persona. Dave from Cure For Bedbugs learned this when he made a post that quite correctly pointed out the oddly dark lyrics on the Aly & AJ album. He has been assaulted with e-mails and comments from enraged Aly & AJ fans since. They (and me too!) just associate a certain warmth with Aly the actress that it's impossible to separate from Aly the musician.

On October 4, in my post on the best teenpop songs of the decade, I write: "In all seriousness, I love the inspirational lyrics to this song, the Michalkas have really good singing voices (espeically the one with the low voice, whichever that is), and so catchy! What an apt title this song has, as the rush I get from listening to it (esp. the chorus of course) exceeds maybe any of the other songs on this list. Owes a huge debt to "Everywhere" of course, but it's original enough on its own merits. I also really love the production on this song, especially in the verses. I like their album as well but honestly though there are other good songs, there's nothing else the girls have recorded that really approaches this. Mild bonus for having no connection to Cow Belles whatsoever. Am I rating it too high because I love Aly in Phil of the Future so much? It's possible, but I really did try to separate that stuff out."

On October 12, I write: "Alyson Michalka is a great actress, but a robotic singer. AJ Michalka is a terrible actress but a great singer. So together they are great at both!"

On October 15, I do a long review of the Aly & AJ Christmas album entitled, imaginatively, "Album Review: Aly & AJ - Acoustic Hearts of Winter". Lots of A&A content in there of course, but in particular I write: "It's hard to say what I think about this album. Two excellent originals surrounding a bunch of mediocre cover songs. Much as I love "Greatest Time of Year" and "Not This Year", I'd say to save your money and buy one of those Very Special Christmas albums from the bargain bins, for a better value. Into the Rush was, I think, underrated, but Aly & AJ are in serious danger of becoming a chronic "singles band". THUMBS DOWN."

Finally, my most recent reference to Aly & AJ is on November 25, when I write: "I will say that "Sweet Temptation (Hollow)", "Don't Cry Your Heart Out", and "Not This Year" are my only 10/10 songs of the year, and that "Not This Year" would seriously contend for number 1 if it were included. A good year for singles, far better than last year in any event."

[Emphasis was added by me now and doesn't appear in the original posts. This leaves out a few immaterial references to Aly & AJ and Alyson Michalka in some other posts.]

Yeah, that's a lot of stuff. TCR reader Lauren calls me out on my Acoustic Hearts of Winter review in my comments: "I think their goal was to show off their pretty voices and guitar skills. You get exactly what you pay for with Acoustic Hearts of Winter. These songs weren't meant to released as singles; it's just a holdover under their next album is released. Fans of Aly and AJ will just like to hear their voices singing Christmas tunes, so it's worth the money if you enjoy their sound."

She also says, in a different comment: "I don't see how Alyson is robotic, unless you're referring to her more limited range than AJ's."

Mea Culpa: First of all Aly's singing is definitely not robotic. I don't know why I wrote that. What I meant to say, was that she seems way more comfortable acting than singing, based on what I've seen from her on Phil of the Future and some of their live performances on YouTube. Second, I've heard a LOT of modern pop Christmas albums since I listened to this Aly & AJ one, and I can say that Acoustic Hearts of Winter is one of the best of them. Lauren's right, you're getting what you pay for out of this, and if you want a pop Christmas album, this is one of the least offensive suggestions for you. The originals are amazing and some of the covers (especially "I'll Be Home for Christmas") are among the best of the covers I've heard during this exercise. So, yes, Lauren was right and I am wrong. Good work Lauren, and I hope you and all my readers continue to call me out on my sloppy prose, if appropriate.

Now to get to the main body of the post. Reading through the posts in chronological order, I think you get a pretty good idea of my historical relationship with Aly & AJ and their music. I liked "Rush" right from the get go, but I immediately fought against liking Aly & AJ. Ultimately, I came to accept liking them more and more, until I stated that "Not This Year" was a contender for the best song of the year. (But still ranked it below "Sweet Temptation" at the time). I always knew that liking Alyson Michalka from Phil of the Future before I even knew of Aly & AJ gave me a different perspective on the band than others who just know their music have. I knew that, but tried to fight against it, trying to be an OBJECTIVE MUSIC CRITIC. That's the story you get from the writing above. And with all that, I still haven't written what I want to say about them. There's no band in 2006 that has made me think half as much as this band has.

There are three components to Aly & AJ's image: There are their lyrics, which are generally serious, either sad or happy, but never fun; there is their evangelical Christian, home-schooled, creationist, etc. image they portray in interviews and seem to be in real life; and there is the cute, fun loving, light-hearted image from their TV appearances. This third aspect to Aly & AJ is an important one that I think people who don't get to see them on TV may be missing. And it's why it is silly for me to try to separate out the music from the TV, because their music is made IN THE CONTEXT of their other two images.

So I have to respectfully disagree with Cure for Bedbugs (and with myself, because I repeated the sentiment a few times above). Aly & AJ are not any more serious, or more sad, or less fun than any other teen pop act out right now. They have a serious side, and they have a very fun and lighthearted side. But the fun and lighthearted side has yet to be reflected in the music. There's no reason for it to be, because they know that kids follow the entire careers of people they love. So most of the kids who are listening to Aly & AJ (and to be honest, that IS the target audience) have seen Phil of the Future and they've seen Cow Belles and whatnot. That's the outlet for their fun side. So viewed from the lens of the entire spectrum of their careers, they have the complete package in their image, of the serious and the fun. Which is why the A&A fans get all up in arms when people say they are too serious, because the music doesn't provide the full picture.

Not that this has or necessarily should have any relevance to criticism of their music specifically. But, this is what makes Aly & AJ really genius and what really separates them from their Disney brethren. In one of the earlier posts (and I didn't quote it because it was too embarrassing), I said what a lot of people have said, that what separates them from their Disney brethren is that they have actual talent: They cowrite their songs, are good singers, play guitar, etc. Eek, the legitimacy argument. But here's what really separates them. If you look at Hilary the singer, Hilary the actress, Hilary the public figure, they have taken great pains to make sure that all gibe with each other. They all represent individually the complete image of Hilary Duff. If you only know her for her music, or only know her for her acting, it's no different, you will get the same impression with her either way. Same with Hannah Montana, all 3 images flow right from each other. The one exception is Lindsay Lohan, who is similar to Aly & AJ in this respect, only not as extreme. And is Dave's EMP proposal trying to say that there IS one cohesive public image to Lohan, reflected in her music and public life? Maybe. But the difference with A&A is NIGHT AND DAY. If you only know Into the Rush or you only know the acting, you have a completely different perspective on them. Which is how, I think, Aly & AJ's image has been intentionally set up. Aly & AJ the singers, Aly & AJ the actresses, and Aly & AJ the public figures cannot and should not be taken apart and viewed and analyzed separately. Because you are missing a significant piece of the pie either way! But yet, they need to be viewed and analyzed separately, because each of the three have no relation at all to the others, and I think that's by design. But kids are obsessive, and by watching and following all 3, only then do you get an idea of the image that Aly & AJ are really trying to put forth. Like I said, I'm not sure what to think about them.

So yes, Aly & AJ are all about contrasts and contradictions. You've got fun and not fun. Super Christian, and just a normal teen wanting a boy. Nervous and uncomfortable, and completely confident in who they are and what they are doing. Deeply thoughtful, and just ready to party. Inspirational, and yet telling kids it's OK to be unhappy & sad. Joyful and sad. In some senses all 3 aspects of their careers are completely unconnected, and in other senses they are intimately connected. And that's how they want to be. So who are they anyways? I have no idea, they are complete enigmas, and that's what fascinates me about them so much. So how does this realization impact my thoughts/analysis on Acoustic Hearts of Winter and "Not This Year" in particular? I'm saving that for part 2, which will be posted later today or tomorrow.