Songs of the Week: August 14-20

First off, I promise I will have a review of the We The Kings show very soon! I intend to have it up before the next concert I go to (Blink 182!), which is on September 7th, so that really doesn't give me too much time to get cracking. So look for that this week!

Now for this week's song picks!

The Spill Canvas: The Tide -- This song is so outrageously wonderful in every way possible. Nick Thomas's voice is smooth, sincere, and overflowing with emotion. The music is melancholy, and so simplistic that it really makes the lyrics the focus of the song. And the lyrics? Very sad, but tell the story beautifully. It also contains one of my favorite lines ever: "Heaven's not a place that you go when you die, it's that moment in life when you actually feel alive." Perfection.

Bring Me the Horizon: Blessed With a Curse -- I love this song because I feel like it approaches screamo much differently than what one would usually expect. It's still heavy and screamtastic, but it's very slowed down, and even beautiful -- definitely not a word I'd generally associate with screamo. While some screamo bands tend to let the vocals go more melodic on slower songs, BMTH keeps the harsh vocals, which creates an awesome contrast with the instrumentals. Crossing my fingers they play this one when I see them September 13!

Holiday Parade: Crimson Red -- OK, the best way I can describe the sound of this band is Jack's Mannequin meets Jimmy Eats World. Not a bad combo, huh? Musically, "Crimson Red" is fantastic. Piano-backed, simple, and includes all those chords that make you feel something. Lyrically, it sort of feels like it's been done before, but the lyrics are sweet and meaningful, so we'll look past that.


Blink 182: First Date -- Let me say from the get-go, my personal opinion is that Take Off Your Pants and Jacket is Blink's best album (and not just because of the wordplay!). I'm sure a lot of people would disagree with me on that, and that's fine. That being said, "First Date" gets the distinction of being a song of the week. I think this song is awesome, and more accurately describes the awkwardness/nervousness that accompanies first dates than most songs.

Mayday Parade: Miserable At Best -- So, I have actually hated this song for about 3 years, due to the way I first heard it. My boyfriend at the time broke up with me for another girl, and decided that I was going to be his go-to person to talk to about her and how much he liked her and how she didn't like him back, blah blah blah. Well, every time he would call "Miserable At Best" would be playing in the background. And it absolutely sucked knowing that he was listening to that song, and the lyrics "I can live without you, but without you I'll be miserable at best," bummed about the fact that he couldn't have her, and that I wanted to be with him but instead had to listen to him crying over another girl. Awful, awful, awful. As a result, during that whole situation the song would make me sob uncontrollably every time I heard it. Even after that, when we got back together, it still made me cry because I associated it with that really bad time. So yeah, really long time despising the song because of the emotions/memories it brought back. Well, now it makes the Songs of the Week list because for the first time in 3 years I heard it and, while it still made me sad, I did not cry. Didn't even tear up. Big step for me! Emotional growth based on this song? Pretty much.