#under-appreciated

The under-appreciated flag of the Solomon Islands

Hello. Why yes, it has been a while. Full-time work will do that to a man. Unfortunately, it looks like my schedule is going to remain horrifically inconsistent for the foreseeable future, as teaching’s erratic work schedule means I cannot guarantee my time. I have noticed, though, that the twelve of you who follow me have not ditched. Thank you a million times for that. As a peace-offering, I have decided to put together something light and fluffy, and it doesn’t get lighter and fluffier than a listicle. Thus, we are here.

A few provisos and quid pro quos:

1. I am going to state upfront that I have used two entries for one band on this list. Yes, it bothers some people, but they are my absolute favourite band and one song would not cut it.

2. It is entirely rock music. If fans of any other genre were getting hopeful, then I apologise, but I cannot satisfy you today.

Other than that, enjoy it. I love these songs and wanted to give them their due. Please comment entries you would love to have on here.

10. If These Trees Could Talk - Barren Lands of the Modern Dinosaur

If These Trees Could Talk are a band that really somehow should be much more respected in the post rock sphere than they are. Their latest album, “The Bones of a Dying World”, is a thunderous post metal colossus that impresses so much with its immense climaxes and stunningly beautiful interludes that it is almost required listening for those who want to know what metal would be like without the hit or miss vocals.

The album prior to that, however, features one of my absolute favourite post rock tracks: Barren Lands of the Modern Dinosaur. What begins as a soothing drifter of a song with delicate melodic lead guitars and a lumbering, deliberate bass-line slowly builds itself over the course of about 2 to 3 minutes before letting its guitars and drums growl with all the menace of the terrible lizards themselves. This song is a fantastically constructed piece of music. Why this song is not spoken about in post rock circles, I will never know, but I want to carry its banner for as long as I can. Find this on iTunes, buy it from the band’s website, stream it below, just do something to hear it. It’s worth every second.

P.S. This song has such a clever title. Seriously. It looks like gibberish at first, but if you think about it, it makes a heck of a lot of sense. What were the Dinosaurs? The dominant species which ruled the earth in their time. What happened to them? They became extinct. So that would mean that the “modern dinosaur” is the whatever rules the earth now as the dominant species. It also means that the “modern dinosaur” will one day be extinct. Think about it. Not so dumb, now, is it?

9. Brand New - Jesus Christ

I have never really been much of a fan of Brand New. I can respect their viciously raw, earnest approach for what it is, but my ears just cannot handle the wall of sound that they are so known for. This song is the one exception to this. Holy damn-diddly-skritt, this song is a doggone masterpiece. I’ve spoken in a previous review about how this song’s atmosphere is so soothing and serene that it transports me to a pastoral orchard in the mountains, and that perception hasn’t changed.

Every time this song comes on, I can smell the early-morning mist trickling down through the trees, and I can hear the leaves whisper in a light breath of wind. It is staggeringly beautiful in how well it handles its melody, but that isn’t the only part of the song that works. The lyrics are incredible, mapping out a man’s existential fears as he holds a one-way conversation with the titular son of God. He debates his misgivings with Christian doctrine, but ultimately admits how flawed of a person he is, and resigns himself to whatever fate comes of being himself in one of the most emotionally resonant pieces of writing I have ever heard in rock music. To cap it all off, it has one of the best closing lines in rock history. Find this song. Listen to it when you’re in a pensieve mood, and you may find yourself drifting off to that orchard, too.

8. Blink 182 - Rollercoaster

Blink-182 are still one of my favourite bands. I have such a weakness for their brand of catchy pop-punk that I should probably be on chronic medication for it. Even if you don’t know about them, you’ve probably heard “All the Small Things” enough times to want to drive a nail-gun through your skull, but there is so much more to this band than that song. The rest of Enema of the State (the unfortunate name of the album that All the Small Things comes from) is a fun, cheeky, if a little crass romp through a teenager’s world; The self-titled record is a masterclass in hard-edged pop-punk viscera; Neighborhoods is a highly underrated exploration of melancholy, and Take Off Your Pants and Jacket is a riot of stellar hooks and cheekiness. If you found that monster hit single to be a grating mess of a thing, then there is something in the band’s discography that should offer you a panacea.

It is off of Take of Your Pants that this entry comes. You’ve no doubt heard of “First Date” or “Stay Together for the Kids”, and I’ve heard many people say that “Reckless Abandon” is their favourite off of the album, but why in god’s name does nobody talk about “Rollercoaster”? This song is so infectious that if it were a baseball, everyone would catch it. It is made of one of the most joyous hooks Blink ever crafted and the lyrics do an infinitely superior job to “First Date” of capturing the awkwardness of teenage romance. Where “First Date” was all about the goofiness of not knowing what to do on a date, “Rollercoaster” is about the nightmare of feelings that happens before you even pick up the phone, something that relates to most any teen out there. And even if the band’s use of the metaphor of “love is a rollercoaster” is a bit on the stale side of cliche, when Tom de Longe lays down that riff, you won’t care, because you’ll be having too much fun.

[Friendly warning: Foul Language inbound]

7. Paramore - Careful

Paramore’s Brand New Eyes is a good album. To be more specific, a good album with a great song. If your immediate response was, “Hell yeah, ‘Ignorance’ is my jam,” then you and I are going to be exchanging words. Not that I have anything in particular against that song. It deserved to be the hit that it was. It is not, however, the band firing on all cylinders.

The song where that IS the case would be “Careful”. I’d go as far as to say that after “Careful” explodes Brand New Eyes into life, the album never really recaptures that level of hard-edged pop-punk glory, and for that reason, I’ve always had an issue listening to the album all the way through. If you’re looking for something to pump your blood on a slow day, then look no further than Josh Faro’s shrieking lead riff and brother Zach’s pelting drums for your thrills. Hayley Williams delivers the goods on vocals as per usual, and Bassist Jeremy Davis keeps pace with everyone else brilliantly, providing an under-appreciated layer of complexity underneath all the flash of the rest of the band. Take a listen to this song if you want to know why people go gaga over this band.

6. Jimmy Eat World - Clarity

I couldn’t go for too long without my favourite band making it on here. Jimmy Eat World at one point were inescapable during the early 2000s, when Bleed American was on every radio and in every teen movie. An entire generation lived their lives forever haunted by the phrase, “Hey! Don’t write yourself off yet”, but the tragedy of that album is that it’s the one everybody knows despite it not being remotely close to the band’s best work (fight me on that if you want). That title goes to the band’s magnum opus, “Clarity”.

Now heralded as one of the greatest album’s of the 90s, “Clarity” was a disappointment to fans and the record label initially, and was over-shadowed by its successor’s monstrous popularity. If you find the time to listen to it, however, you’ll be greeted by an absolutely breath-taking meld of alt-rock and punk, with some of the most ambitious production of any album to date. Each and every song on the album is an example of the band’s excellent and diverse song-writing skills, but it’s the title track that’s going to get my vote today. “Clarity” is an explosive and potent piece of pop-punk that pushes lead vocalist Jim Adkins to his absolute limit. The energy of the song constantly ratchets up all the way through until the final minute, in which Adkins unleashes the best vocal moment of his career, holding a terrific note for nearly ten seconds straight… twice in a row, all the while landing a simple but killer solo that swirls around him in a spectacular musical moment. Give this album a shake, but if you only want one song to sample, this is it. Or “For Me This Is Heaven”. Or “Lucky Denver Mint.” Or “Just Watch the Fireworks”. Any of those, really. The album’s great. Listen to it.

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My Most Overhyped and Under-Appreciated Films of 2021

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The Under-Appreciated Mountains BEHIND the Iconic Maroon Bells View in Colorado [OC] [5000x3091]

Taken from /r/EarthPorn/