Closer to the Edge by 30 Seconds to Mars

I'm posting this song today because I think I have been very disciplined in not posting any 30 Seconds to Mars songs, but on this New Years Eve, as people prepare to begin New Years resolutions, I think this song is very appropriate. In the coming New Year, don't forget or regret what you did in the past (unless you did something really horrible, like murdered someone, or robbed a bank, because you should probably regret that). But otherwise, live your life. If you made mistakes, learn from them, make changes, and start fresh. What else is the New Year for? What's one of my new years resolutions? STOP SPENDING MONEY ON THINGS I DON'T NEED! I guess I better go on a shopping spree tonight before I have to start tomorrow :)

Here's the original version of the song:

And an acoustic version which is just lovely, there's some clapping and talking at the beginning, but the song gets started eventually. In the meantime, just enjoy Jared's adorableness.

Secretly I'm also posting these songs in honor of my 30 STM concert tix coming in the mail yesterday!

Deciphering Me by Brooke Fraser

I think this song is brilliant. Actually, I think this whole album is brilliant and the girl who makes the music, she too is brilliant.

No Need to Cry by British Sea Power

What do I love about this song? It's titled No Need to Cry, and yet the tone of the song kinda makes me wanna cry. I guess I love irony, and sometimes I love sad songs. It's just as a very wise man by the name of Elton John once proclaimed..."Sad songs say so much."

Time After Time by Quietdrive

I love the original version of this song as sung by Cyndi Lauper, but seeing as I just posted a Cyndi Lauper song, I decided to post the Quietdrive version. In general though I just love this song, it's hard to go wrong with it. I have a bajillion different versions sung by a bajillion different artists. What do I love about THIS version? It's got more of a rock vibe to it, and it's sung by boys. Most of the other arrangements I have are all by girls. I also love it cuz they use it in the movie John Tucker Must Die, which I also love.

You Could Be Happy by Snow Patrol

Because I love pretty much EVERYTHING snow patrol!

Fearless by Cyndi Lauper

Christmas Songs From the Movies by Various

One of the best things about the Christmas season? The Christmas movies! What contributes to making them so great? The music! Here are some of my favorite songs from some of my favorite Christmas movies.

Where Are You Christmas by Faith Hill

Carol of the Bells

When Christmas Comes to Town by Matthew Hall and Meagan Moore

The Bells of Christmas by Loreena McKennitt

Who Would Imagine a King by Whitney Houston

We Wish You a Merry Christmas by John Williams

Happy Holidays by *NSync

You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch

One More Sleep Till Christmas

Some Other Random Favorites by Various

These are just some random Christmas songs that I love.

Christmas in the Northwest

Mary Did You Know

The Little Drummer Boy

Breath of Heaven

Noel by Josh Groban and Currier and Ives by London Symphony Orchestra

I love Josh Groban's Christmas album. It's beautiful. And this Currier and Ives album is one that I picked up in the dollar bin at Target. Well worth the dollar!

O Holy Night by London Symphony Orchestra

Hark the Herald Angels Sing by the London Symphony Orchestra

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear by Josh Groban

Little Drummer Boy by Josh Groban

Vintage Christmas Songs by Various

I love old Christmas songs, the kind that are easy to imagine playing from an old Victrola. Some of the ones I have are actually old, by artists like Bing Crosby, others are just good imitations. Here are my favorites.

The Christmas Waltz

Santa Baby

Do You Hear What I Hear

Silver Bells

A Marshmallow World

Let it Snow Baby...Let It Reindeer by Relient K

I absolutely love Relient K. They are one of the quirkiest bands ever, and if you didn't know that already from the previous albums they've released, one of which includes the song titled "Crayons Can Melt On Us For All I Care," which is comprised of a short melody and the lyrics "I just wasted 10 seconds of your life." The end. So if you didn't already know that Relient K was a fun, creative, and quirky band, you'd know it from their Christmas album. They take some liberty with the 12 Days of Christmas lyrics and add "What's a partridge? What's a pear tree? Well I don't know so please don't ask me. But I can bet those are really terrible gifts to get." Near the end of the album is their rendition of Good King Wenceslas, which they totally sing as a joke, and actually start cracking up in the middle of. It's great, and I love this album for the variety it brings to my collection of Christmas music. Here are some of my favorites!

Sleigh Ride

12 Days of Christmas

Silent Night/Away in a Manger

Good King Wenceslas

Merry Christmas by Mariah Carey

This is another Christmas album I grew up on as well, in my "later" years of life. Let's just say it's one of the first CDs my sister purchased, and she's 4 years older than me, and I bought my first CD in middle school so I was probably...I have no idea. I'm going to look up the release date for it because I'm pretty sure she bought it the year it came out, and that will give me a better idea. Okay it came out in 1994 so I would have been almost 9, and that would put my sister in middle school so yeah, that's probably right. Anyway, so from the age of 8 and up, I listened to this album every Christmas, thanks to my sister :) Here are some of my faves.

All I Want For Christmas Is You

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

Jesus Born On This Day

Glee: The Christmas Album by the Glee Cast

I love Glee and I love Christmas music, so this season I purchased the Glee Christmas album and it's fantastic. Here are some of my favorites.

Deck the Rooftop

Baby It's Cold Outside

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Christmas Portrait by the Carpenters

Christmas Portrait by the Carpenters and An Osmond Family Christmas by the Osmonds, are two of the Christmas albums I grew up listening to, so naturally I love them. There aren't any other Christmas albums that make the Christmas spirit stronger for me.

Christmas Portrait by the Carpenters

Winter Wonderland/Silver Bells/White Christmas

Selections from the "Nutcracker"

Osmond Family Christmas by the Osmonds

Winter Wonderland

Let it Snow!

Pine Cones and Holly Berries

New Christmas Songs by Various

I like it when musicians attempt to write new Christmas songs. As great as the classics are, even the same song arranged 15 different ways gets old after a while, and it's nice to have something new to listen to. I also like pop/rock versions of Christmas songs. They also add a little variation to the same old Christmas songs. Here are some of my favorites. There are a few :)

Rock versions of Christmas songs:

Baby Please Come Home by Anberlin

Last Christmas by Hawk Nelson

Completely new Christmas songs:

Merry Christmas, Here's To Many More by Relient K

I Celebrate the Day by Relient K

Christmas Lights by Coldplay

Christmas Song by Owl City

Christmas From the Heart by David Archuleta

I wish I would have thought of this a couple days ago, but I didn't, so instead of the 12 Days of Christmas it's going to be the 10 Days of Christmas. Each day will feature one of my favorite Christmas albums with my favorite songs from each.

I love this album, Christmas From the Heart by David Archuleta, and I love this kid. He's so adorable and his voice is pure ear candy. I kind of wish he would take the Josh Groban path versus the pop thing he's been doing. He could definitely pull it off. I also saw David Archuleta perform the majority of these Christmas songs live and he was as flawless live as he is in on the record. Take a listen:

O Holy Night

Angels We Have Heard on High

Pat-A-Pan

Something to Believe In by Aqualung

Dandy Life by Collective Soul

This is a nostalgic song for me and sometimes that's all it takes.

Trouble is a Friend by Lenka

Forbidden Friendship by John Powell

How to Train Your Dragon was such a fantastic movie. Equally as fantastic was the score. This song is one of my favorites from it.

Undisclosed Desires by Muse

One of my all time favorite Muse songs, though I have many so that's not saying much.

Where I Stood by Missy Higgins

Mr. Turner by Ruth

When Evan and I went to a Relient K/Switchfoot concert, Ruth was the opening band. They played this song Mr. Turner and I loved it. All their stuff is pretty good but this is one of my favorites. This band is from Seattle and if I remember correctly, I think Mr. Turner was a teacher one of the band members had and I THINK he was from Everett. Anyway. It's a good song :)

Boy With a Coin by Iron and Wine

One of my favorite Iron & Wine songs. I love how mellow this guy is.

Good Enough by Cindy Lauper

One of my favorite movies of the eighties is The Goonies, so naturally I love this song.

Dawn of the Dead by Does It Offend You, Yeah?

I love this song cuz it's so upbeat and fun. It's a must have for anyone's music library. Check it out.

Blinding by Florence & the Machine

Florence & the Machine is another one of my all time favorite bands. I have a hard time picking my favorite song by them so I'll probably post several in the near future. But for right now it's the song Blinding.

World Spins Madly On by the Weepies

New Soul by Yael Naim

Because it's unique.

Wake Up by The Arcade Fire

The only redeeming factor about the movie Where the Wild Things Are. The trailer. What made it good? This song.

Iridescent by Linkin Park

I absolutely love this song. Nuf said.

Sometime Around Midnight by The Airborne Toxic Event

I like songs that start slow and gradually build to be totally energized. This is a good example.

Cat People by David Bowie

I'm surprised I still like David Bowie after he scared me half to death when I was a young and impressionable child watching the Labyrinth. But alas I still like him. Like him, but not love. I do love this song however, mainly because I associate it with the greatness that is Quentin Tarantinos Inglourious Basterds.

I forgot to post a song yesterday, and just barely got this one posted before todays end. Man, I need to stay on top of this.

Whoops!

I just realized I forgot to post one Wednesday as well. Geez. I'm such a slacker...

It's All Coming Back Now by Celine Dion

I got lost in the excitement of Thanksgiving and Black Friday the last two days and forgot to post songs. Sorry! Here's todays SONG OF THE DAY.

I'm posting this song because it's one of those nostalgic songs. First of all, it reminds me of my middle school days. Second, it reminds me of driving with my sister when Celine Dion was her artist of preference. Third, it reminds me of some awesome road trips with my roommate Laura, in which we'd scream this song at the top of our lungs. As well as late nights when we were supposed to be doing homework, but would instead scream this song at the top of our lungs. I don't like Celine Dion as much as I used to, but whenever this song randomly comes on, I can never bring myself to skip it, and just find myself screaming it at the top of my lungs. It's a good song for belting it out :)

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da by The Beatles

In the excitement of FINALLY seeing Harry Potter yesterday, and the crazy weather, I forgot to post a song yesterday. But here's todays SONG OF THE DAY. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da is one of my favorite Beatles songs ever. It's so much fun!

One Day by Hans Zimmer

I love movie scores. One of my favorite composers, though I have many, is Hans Zimmer, and I love the last Pirates score. This is one of my favorite songs from it.

The Diary of Jane (Acoustic) by Breaking Benjamin

I absolutely love this song. I was originally just going to post the acoustic version, although I love both the acoustic and original versions. But I thought this was an opportune moment to point out something that kind of bothers me, which required the posting of both songs.

So I love music, and I like a lot of different genres. I don't really care for extremes in music though, like rap (i like hip hop), country (some pop country is okay, if it's more pop), and I don't really care for heavy metal music where the lead vocalist screams the entire song to the point where it hurts to listen to it or I can't understand what they're saying. I DO however, love rock that incorporates a little screaming into it, example the original version of Diary of Jane. Although this one is pretty mellow, I don't even mind a little more screaming to be honest. It bothers me however, when people say that musicians who scream in their songs aren't really singing or are trying to mask their lack of singing ability, which I've actually heard from people quite often. Though that might be true in some cases, it's certainly not true in the majority. In actuality, it's just their style and they still have the capability of singing without screaming, and can actually produce really beautiful vocals. Example: The Diary of Jane (Acoustic). This song is really pretty, where as the original, not really classifiable as "pretty" is just a fun rock song.

I thought these two songs also served as a perfect example of how music can elicit different emotions. The exact same song, composed and performed in two different ways by the same artist bring about two completely different emotions.

The Diary of Jane (Acoustic)

The Diary of Jane

Strawberry Swing by Coldplay

I don't really know what it is about this song, but I love it. I love most Coldplay songs, but this one has a slightly different sound then their others, which is maybe why I like it so much.

Tranatlanticism by Death Cab for Cutie

Because it's a pretty and mellow song

Lifeline by Angels & Airwaves

I was never a huge fan of Blink 182, but Angels and Airwaves, which happens to be headed by Blink 182s Tom DeLonge, I love. I also just found out that Matt Wachter, who was the bassist for 30 Seconds to Mars until he left the band in 2007, is now the bassist for Angels & Airwaves. What a small world, eh? I love pretty much every Angels & Airwaves song. The thing I love about this one; the fact that the beginning reminds me of the opening credits to that show "Reading Rainbow." You know the show I'm talking about? It was the one hosted by the guy that played LaForge in Star Trek: The Next Generation. You know, the guy with the eye vizor thing? Oh man, I'm such a nerd. Thanks dad.

Poison & Wine by the Civil Wars

I just barely found this song due to Jeremy from Safetysuit posting the music video for it on his twitter. Thank you Jeremy. I liked it so much I'm even posting it before I've got my blog designed. Give it a listen. It's really pretty, in a melancholy sort of way.