Episode 27 – Mid-Year Top 10

Welcome to Songs That Don’t Suck with your host, Mark Bradbourne.

Welcome to Episode 27, the mid-year review of Songs That Don’t Suck. In this episode, I’m going to do something a little different and I’m going to share my top 10 from the first half of 2023. Next week, I’ll be back and I’ll cover two weeks of new music, so I hope you enjoy this retrospective of what we’ve done so far this year. I personally have had a blast putting this podcast together each week and I truly hope you’ve enjoyed listening to it. I hope you’ve been exposed to some artists that you normally wouldn’t have heard and I hope you’ve found some favorites.

When I started this podcast, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I didn’t realize honestly how difficult it would be some weeks and there are other weeks that I’m really pleasantly surprised with what I’ve been able to find and thankfully I’ve heard from a few of you who have been listening to the show and you have found music that you’ve added to your playlist, so honestly that is a huge win for me.

Coming up with a top 10 was a bit of a challenge and I based it on three things. The first being data. I was able to download my streaming data and I looked at how often I was playing new songs that had come from the podcast in comparison to songs that I would consider kind of my normal rotation. This gave me some directionally correct songs to start this process. Now I did notice that there were some songs that were being pushed by Spotify, especially when I used features like their AI DJ or Spotify generated playlists. So I took those things into account.

The second factor that I took into account was gut feel. So this had more to do with how often I might think about the song or it popped into my head or I caught myself singing the melody and honestly like how loud I would turn it up when I was driving around and one of these songs would come on a playlist.

The third factor was me just disqualifying bigger bands like Foo Fighters and Dave Matthews Band.

So here’s the really interesting thing about the first 26 episodes. Some sets of songs are better than others, right? Every episode is kind of contained within its own musical ecosystem. And when I went back and reviewed the 140 songs that I shared either through the podcast or on social media, there was times when I was wondering what I was thinking and I had to go back and look at that episode to see what other songs were grouped within the context of that episode. And it was kind of interesting when I recognized those were the weeks that were a little bit more difficult to come up with a set of songs to share. So let’s take a look back.

Now I’m going to present these in no particular order basically from the oldest episode up through the most recent and I’m going to start with episode one.

First song has to be Applause by Liily. I remember when I heard this track and I recorded the episode a day or two before New Year’s Eve and I remember watching the Miley Cirus New Year’s Eve special and Liily ended up performing on it and they performed applause and it probably fed my ego a little bit as I was suddenly a person that had a music podcast and I had picked this band out of a myriad of other songs and hey look at me now they’re on national TV. Now honestly the jury’s still out on that whole you know how good is my ear but I still think this song is fantastic and I’ve actually rolled a few of their other songs into my playlists as well.

The second song in the top 10 is from episode 4 and it is called Chosen to Deserve by Wednesday. This song is very much in a regular rotation for me and it’s weird because like I’ve listened to the band’s other stuff and it just doesn’t resonate with me the same way as this song did at the time and does today. I love the lyrics of the song it paints such a great picture of kind of teenage angst. I think I kind of phrased it the same way back in episode 4 but just the feel of this song overall yeah it’s really really great song.

The third song in the top 10 is also from episode 4 and it’s by the Bytes and it’s called Do Me a Favor. Of all the bands that I’ve discovered through the last six months of putting this podcast together the Bytes are probably the band I’m most excited about and their new album should be coming out in July. I remember when I heard the song I was completely blown away I was super excited about the Bytes and Do Me a Favor and it was just like it’s still in a fairly regular rotation but I remember like just listening to that song constantly when I first found it. It’s such a throwback to 80s glam days and it’s not a fair comparison because it doesn’t feel as cheesy as the hair bands were at the time but man you know exactly where the DNA is coming from. Such a great song and the other ones that have come out as well as they’ve kind of been prepping for the new album coming out in July have been just as good.

Number four on the top 10 is from Fritz Hager and the song is called Caroline. This is another song that lyrically paints a really awesome picture with the lyrics and just the way that Fritz kind of describes this one night stand becoming something more. You know you can kind of close your eyes and kind of picture if you were directing a video in your head on the way that you would direct it and how it would look or maybe that’s just me I don’t know but the artist here really kind of nailed the storytelling of this song. This is another song that is just in very regular rotation and if I’m in kind of a certain mood that I really want to just kind of sing loud this song is the one.

The fifth song comes from episode 10 and it’s from Drayton Farley and it is called Devil’s in NOLA. Speaking of storytelling Drayton Farley’s Devils and Nola is another great example and I’m really starting to see a trend here in the things that really really resonate with me as I’m sure you are too. The seedy underbelly of a club in Louisiana the temptation that exists inside on full display and this song just paints that picture. I don’t have a ton of country in the podcast in general because I’m not a fan of where country music is today but this one in particular man this checked all the boxes lyrical content instrumentation just the overall feel of just fantastic love this one.

Number six is that right number six yes number six on the top 10 is from episode 14 and it is Watching the Credits by the Beths. This song very much snuck up on me when I was doing the review initially I remember it well I liked it when I initially put it in episode 14 but I honestly didn’t expect it to kind of get into my ear as much as it has it has really grown on me in many ways it’s another song that like when I’m driving around I have to listen to it the windows come down the volume goes up and I am singing it the chorus on this song is just so catchy I honestly can’t ask for anything more from a song and this is just chef’s kiss fantastic.

Number seven is from episode 17 and the song is called Find a Better Way by the Commoners. I remember that when I started to kind of research the commoners I was blown away the fact they were from Canada because the kind of southern fried goodness of find a better way was very undeniable and the more and more I’ve listened to it the more and more they remind me of the Black Crows which is just another phenomenal kind of blues rock band and yeah this is you’re going to see a trend here because all of these songs very much fit into the I just want to sing this song I just want to play it loud because honestly that’s just the way I want to feel when I listen to music and it’s just another fantastic example of some of the stuff that I’ve been able to find it’s fantastic.

Number eight in the top ten is from the Murlocs and it’s called Undone and Unashamed. The more I’ve listened to Undone and Unashamed the more and more it actually reminds me of a happier folkier White Stripes or anything that Jack White has done musically it’s kind of got that kind of bluesy just jangly kind of thing going on and it’s just a good feeling song honestly. That week in particular I think there was some struggle in finding music but this one really stood out from episode 18 as a really really strong track.

Number nine comes from episode 23 and it’s called 9Beat from Half Moon Run. This one is very quickly becoming not just one of my favorite songs but one of my favorite new bands they’re doing some just really really cool things and 9Beat in particular just as the musical nerd that I am I just so appreciated the you know the nine eight time signature and the nine beat name. I know Dave Matthews did a very similar thing with the song called Seven which I believe is in seven four seven eight I forget but just fantastic lyrically it’s a great song and the more and more I listen to this band not just 9Beat but the rest of their songs as their album just came out shortly after 9Beat came out as a single it’s just been fantastic to honestly listen to so I hope you really dig that one.

The tenth song comes from episode 25 and it’s Clean-Up Crew from Spanish Love Songs. I mentioned it in episode 25 when this song came into the episode that I immediately started thinking about the Talking Heads when I heard it I still find that to be very true and this is one of the songs even though it’s been a recent discovery for my playlists it’s one of those songs that I keep going back to with very regular cadence and I just love it I love this song more than I honestly thought I would it’s so funny as you put together the episodes you know there are certain songs where you’re like oh you know it’s good for this week I enjoy listening to it right now and you never know what the longevity of a song might be and I think I talked about this in an earlier episode about you never know kind of the longevity of an artist you never know what’s going to resonate about a set of songs or an album but this is you know granted it’s two weeks but it’s one of those songs that I just really like and who knows if we’ll be listening to it six months from now it’ll be interesting.

So that is the top ten from the first half according to my ears. If you’ve got a different opinion I’d love to hear it two things that you can do tag me on Twitter and tell me the song that I missed from the first twenty six episodes or if you’re using Spotify you can actually leave me a voicemail message you can talk for up to a minute basically make your case for the song that you want to talk about I’d love to hear your thoughts around the music.

That is it for the first half of songs that don’t suck for 2023, next week new episode I’m going to cover two weeks of new music so it might be a bigger episode it might not be we’ll just have to see if those songs suck but again thank you for listening for the first half of 2023 totally appreciate your time and as always thanks for listening and until next week keep searching for and listening to songs that don’t suck.