Top 10 Songs From Artists I Hate

So, for my first Top 10 list, I will be talking about my favourite songs from some artists I hate. I could probably do multiple of these, so I might. This will be based on a mix of factors, how much I hate the musician, and how much I like the song. At the end of the day, it's mostly interchangeable. I love all these songs. Starting off with...

10. Michael Jackson - "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough"

I know, the pitchforks and torches. You don't like Michael Jackson? Burn the witch! Wait, just hear me out before we start re-enacting the Salem Witch Trials. Now it may sound hypocritical coming from me. As I have a feminine voice and I love voices like Mitch Grassi's or Chris Colfer's, his androgynous sound always sounded fake to me. Like a man trying to sound like a woman. Not a man that naturally has a feminine touch, or like Grassi, just straight can sound like a woman, Jackson sounds like he tries too hard. Really evident from the more spoken sound at the beginning of the song. It's airy. And Jackson's voice seems to think volume equals power. But yeah, this song is really good. The 80s production, Jackson's upper range sounding pleasant, and his lower notes sound powerful. I love the six-piece horn section as well.

9. Drake - "Best I Ever Had"
Oh, when Drake was good. Not all that good, mind you. I can't even really point out why I like this song. His singing and rapping doesn't sound lazy, and he actually sounds invested. But he tends to go off-topic, and this song comes off as cocky. No one knows who you are at this point really, and girls think your songs are about them? Please, bitch.

8. Maroon 5 - "Won't Go Home Without You"
Back when Maroon 5 wasn't the worst thing ever, I didn't dread a new song from them, and Adam Levine was a competent vocalist. Neat. Well, I love this song to this day. Getting a very similar guitar line to The Police's excellent song "Every Breath You Take", Levine of Maroon 5 delivers a heartfelt track, that's affectionate. Please, Maroon 5, go back to this. Don't continue to be garbage.

7. Kanye West - "Stronger"
Now, with West, it's mainly his ego. Because he's a very good producer and rapper. But there are times like with 'The Life of Pablo', he can just be terrible. Make more stuff like this and "Gold Digger".

6. Skrillex - "Purple Lamborghini" (with Rick Ross)


Not much to say. Rick Ross is a decent rapper here and Skrillex actually does the production quite well.

5. David Guetta - "Titanium" (ft. Sia)
Now this song's just beautiful. Sia's beautiful voice telling about no matter the hardships in life, whatever "bullets" get to us... that we're bulletproof and they'll just bounce off. You know, after I saw this video, I found the Christina Grimmie cover... and I just got depressed as hell, so let's just end this here, shall we?

4. Black Eyed Peas - "Where Is The Love?"


Such an excellent track before the Black Eyed Peas went to shit. Being an actual hip-hop group rather than EDM, the group tackles issues such as terrorism, racism, war, and even violence against gay people. And it goes along with very good uncredited vocals from Justin Timberlake. If they went back to making music like this... I probably would have been a fan.

3. R. Kelly - "I Believe I Can Fly"
He could be good, but R. Kelly is too garbage of a human being. And that forever taint his music for me. Look, this song was a part of my childhood, and R. Kelly definitely has a good delivery. But since he thinks it's okay to marry 15 year olds and run sex cults... all I gotta say is fuck you!

2. Thomas Rhett - "Craving You" (ft. Maren Morris)
Now, this one's a bit more lighthearted. I always hated Thomas Rhett for the nepotism and the fact country radio gives him hits despite his songs being bottom of the barrel when it is country, and there's some pop disguising itself as country. This song is a full pop song, and I admit, it's pretty good. Thomas Rhett should be focusing on pop radio. Very nice, albeit familiar sounding melody, the harmonies from Maren Morris are pretty good, though I wish she got a bigger part. "Star Of The Show" definitely could have qualified for this list as well.

1. Justin Bieber - "Maria"


I feel like this song is very similar thematically to "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson, "Stan" by Eminem, or "Loretta" by Will Smith. Crazy fans. And I tend to like these songs. And while this one's a bit brighter toned, it's amazing. Bieber has a strong falsetto, the production is catchy. This is Bieber at his best. If he did music like this on a regular basis, I'd probably be a fan. Good work.

Conclusion
So, yeah, that's my list. Let me know of what you think in the comments, and maybe give a list of your own. Thanks for reading!

Fearless by Taylor Swift - Album Review

The stellar country pop release from Taylor Swift released almost a decade ago, getting only my second 10/10 so far on this blog. 

Release date: 11 November 2008

Record label: Big Machine Records

Genre: Country pop

Best songs: "Fifteen", "You Belong With Me", "Love Story", "Forever and Always"

Worst songs: "The Best Day" (if I had to pick one)

Rating: 10/10

See, I was only 9 in 2008, so I really wasn’t too much into music, and what I grew up was Usher, TLC, 90s-2000s R&B, along with a bit of the classics like The Beatles. Taylor Swift was one of the mainstream acts, one of the first, that I got exposed to. Granted, I didn’t put it together, because again, I was 9. But I loved “Love Story” and “You Belong With Me” as a kid, such excellent songs. I didn’t know who they were from - I never kept track of artists. Skip to 2012-2013, and we had “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”. Arguably, her sellout anthem that everyone I knew hated, and to be honest, I hopped on the bandwagon. Not knowing that the teenage girl I used to love listening to turned into this. So, we get 2008’s ‘Fearless’. Her best-selling album so far, and getting pretty good reviews. Does it hold up past nostalgia?

Well, it definitely does. I always went back to listen to the two aforementioned singles. But, then I got into “Fifteen”, and it made me want to go back and look at the whole record. And it holds so well. You get the Romeo & Juliet referenced “Love Story”, the friendzone anthem of “You Belong With Me”. Sure, she did it with “Teardrops On My Guitar”, and while that song is good, it came off as a bit petty compared to this one. And the fact I can kind of sympathize with this song (not the having a crush on a jock part as referenced from the video), but feeling that you could be a better match for the one you love. Although, this is where my bit of a crush on Taylor comes in, because who the hell would friendzone Taylor Swift? Like, seriously? Personal feelings aside, it has a surprising bit of energy and a nice build-up behind the melody. Then you get the advice song that is “Fifteen” saying that you may not know who you’re supposed to be, that life hasn’t truly started even though you may think so. And that boy you may love may not be the right one, being told from her own high school experiences. And that’s where she definitely shines on this album. Her charisma, her relatability. This is why I don’t feel good about bashing those who have teenage fanbases, especially when they’re teenagers themselves. If she can emotionally connect with them, then that’s pretty good. The breakup anthem of “Forever And Always” abou Joe Jonas has some good energy and is more a question of why this went wrong. The nice ballad of “White Horse” doesn’t get boring, where she realizes that this boy won’t be sweeping her off her feet, he’s a different person than she thought. And hell, while I can’t relate to the love part, and certainly can the misconceptions about a person. It shows that she can move on pretty well, while other songs show a bit of difficulty at times, this pulls it off really well with a nice guitar melody.

If I had to pick a song I don’t like, it would be “The Best Day”. While it does do a nice sentiment, a song about her growing up, the composition is so basic and dull. It gets boring really easily. Something that doesn’t happen with songs like “Tell Me Why” or even the ballad “White Horse”.

But really, I had to be forced to nitpick at one song specifically, and there’s not really any overarching problem. I love this album, I guess I’m a bit biased as a fan of Taylor Swift and someone who’s also 18, like she was on this album. I didn’t think a musician barely considered an adult could impress me so much, but she showed strength in songwriting, that was at times sloppy, but honest. I had a ton of charm and personality, it had a nice country pop sound, the production was done pretty well. And while Swift doesn’t do much range wise, her charisma sure makes up for it. 10/10.

Taylor Swift - Artist Review

Artist grade: B-

Vocal grade: C-

Vocal range/type: Soprano, C3-A5 (Two octaves, five notes)

Best album(s): Fearless

Worst album(s): Red

Best song(s): "Love Story", "You Belong With Me", "Our Song", "Picture To Burn", "Style", "Back To December", "I Heart?"

Worst song(s): "Bad Blood" (ft. Kendrick Lamar), "I Knew You Were Trouble.", "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", "Shake It Off", "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" (with ZAYN)

Positives: Charming, charismatic voice with a lot of personality. Can portray emotion very well through vocals. Despite being a soprano, sports a very good lower range, and has a relatively low tessitura. Has songwriting talent, and writes often basic, but very good sounding compositions.

Negatives: Relatively poor range, has a tendency to be off-key during live performances. And again, despite being a soprano, her upper range is pretty poor, often having to rely on her head voice. As shown in her live performances, her breath support isn't great, as she often sounds tired after a song or two. No vibrato. Despite her songwriting talent, it could be argued her compositions and lyrics are very "safe", with her public presence and mainstream support, she can afford to take risks, and has the potential to do so... but doesn't. Her change to pop has been criticized, as her songwriting seems to have lost a bit of that authentic feel often portrayed in her work prior to the Red album.

Yeah, Taylor Swift. This review was finally put up. I can't give her higher than a B- for now. While she has a few positives, her negatives often outweigh that. Her charisma does help a lot, and the fact she's such a talented woman, to take the sellout switch to pop was disappointing, to say the least. Next, I will be looking to do an anime review, but next on the artist review chopping block is Drake Bell, so stay tuned.