Top 25 Archives · I Will Dare

The COVID Diaries: 15 Years of Top 25s

Jodi Chromey — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 01:16:03 +0000

Hello Darling Ones,

I spend roughly six to eight hours a day listening to music. This isn’t an exaggeration. I usually put my headphones on as soon as I’m done with breakfast and don’t take them off until it’s time to make dinner. Sometimes I put them back on after dinner. It’s why 90% of my selfies include headphones, my hair has a permanent headphone divot in it.

My sisters laugh at me because I wear headphones all the time even though I’m the only one here and I won’t disturb anyone with my loud rock & roll music. I like them. I find it nearly impossible to work without headphones on. I blame all those years in corporate America.

After rediscovering The Kooks, I decided to take a stroll through the music I loved in 2006 via my Top 25.

For many, many years I would keep track of the Top 25 most-played songs in my iTunes. It is a wonderful time capsule and as I was perusing 2006, I wished I had kept up with that. I had kinda given up the ghost when I stopped using iTunes in 2012.

Since I only had 30 minutes of work to do today (for real, the lack of work is killing me) guess what I did? I logged into last.fm and then I created seven years worth of Top 25 lists. It was the most fun I’ve had, well, I had some fun when I woke up at 6 a.m. this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep, but other than that it’s the most fun I’ve had all week.

So far. I think I might watch “Twister” tonight while eating a frozen pizza, because this spinster knows how to party.

It was fun watching my musical taste evolve. The early aughts lists are very dude dominated and you can watch them virtually disappear once the Turnip was elected. You can also tell when I switched from just listening to songs to listening to entire albums. Here, I’ll show you, these albums show up nearly in their entirety on that year’s Top 25:
2010: “The Wild Hunt” by Tallest Man on Earth
2011: “Wild Flag” by Wild Flag
2012: “Gossamer” by Passion Pit
2013 “Southeastern” by Jason Isbell
2014: “Somewhere Else” by Lydia Loveless
2015: “Short Movie” by Laura Marling
2016: “My Piece of Land” by Amanda Shires
2017: “The Nashville Sound” by Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
2018: “Historian” by Lucy Dacus (Though Phoebe Bridgers’ entire “Stranger in the Alps” is on the list too)
2019: “The Highwomen” by The Highwomen

2008’s list is probably my favorite because it makes no sense. It’s The Decemberists, Liz Phair, The Hold Steady and then randomly “Peg” by Steely Dan. Who was I?

The one thing I tripped over that broke my stupid heart was Ryan Adams’ “Dear Chicago” showing up six times over the years. I fucking love that song and I have failed thus far at carving it out of my heart. It’s so hard to do and something I struggle with when I have fallen in love with art made by men who turn out to be bad people. Like, I get that he is a dirtbag extraordinaire, but my heart doesn’t nor do all my memories and associations with this song. WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?

Barf,
Jodi

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Top 25 Most Listened to Songs of 2016 (Or boy howdy do I know how to wallow)

Jodi Chromey — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 00:00:19 +0000

Are you super sad that it’s taken me like seven entire days to finally get around to posting the Top 25 most listened to songs of 2016? I don’t blame you. I kind of am too. There’s been a low-level funk hanging here at Supergenius HQ for most of March. I can’t seem to shake it. It’s probably seasonal. It could be residual grief from my Uncle John’s death. It could be that March is depressing.

I haven’t been writing. I haven’t been making anything good. I haven’t been listening to new music. I haven’t been doing anything at all. I have been existing. So that’s not too shabby.

But you didn’t come here to hear aimless whining about ennui, did you? Hell no. You came here for a list of random songs that I listened to a bunch from March 2015 to March 2016.

What’s with the weird Marchness of this list? Well, it came about because I got my first iPod back in March of aught five. Each year, around the anniversary of that very first iPod (called Roland for you trivia buffs out there) I reset the play counts and then type about all the songs I listened to that year.

I’m not too sure what the story of this year’s playlist is. Aside from the fact that I listened to a bootleg copy of Lydia Loveless’ “Out on Love” fifty-three times in the last 365 days (I wrote about the obsession back in April 2015). You can bet your sweet ass that about 90% of those listens happened right after I got my heart broken. This also explains the inclusion of “Someone to Pull the Trigger” by Matthew Sweet, which is the best break up song of all time, I don’t care what you say. Jason Isbell’s “Alabama Pines” kind of fit that mood too, especially hardly even know my name anymore, when no one calls it out it kind of vanishes away. Gah, that man slays me.

I guess the real news here is that I really, really loved Laura Marling’s “Short Movie” album. I think virtually the entire album shows up on this list. Same goes for Lydia Loveless’ Folkadelphia session from July.

Out on Love, Lydia Loveless (53)
Boy Crazy, Lydia Loveless (49)
To Love Somebody, Lydia Loveless (41)
Falling Out of Love, Lydia Loveless (37)
Really Wanna See You, Lydia Loveless (37)
Alabama Pines, Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit (36)
Warrior, Laura Marling (35)
Come Over, Lydia Loveless (34)
False Hope, Laura Marling (33)
Steve Earle, Lydia Loveless (32)
I Feel Your Love, Laura Marling (30)
Strange, Laura Marling (30)
Walk Alone, Laura Marling (30)
Don’t Let Me Bring You Down, Laura Marling (28)
Howling at Nothing, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats (28)
Easy, Laura Marling (27)
Short Movie, Laura Marling (27)
Gurdjieff’s Daughter, Laura Marling (26)
Someone to Pull the Trigger, Matthew Sweet (26)
Super America, Bad Bad Hats (26)
Divine, Laura Marling (25)
Milkman, Bully (25)
Trying, Bully (25)
Worship Me, Laura Marling (25)
Brain freeze, Bully (24)

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Top 25 Most Listened to Songs of 2014 (Or Music to Revise a Novel to)

Jodi Chromey — Tue, 17 Mar 2015 01:27:23 +0000

The obvious story of this year’s list is Lydia Loveless. Of course. If this shocks anyone clearly you are the kind of reader who skips every single post I make where I yammer about rock & roll. If you want to catch up: here I yammer on about seeing her at the Turf Club, this was a year ago when I discovered her and called her Liz Phair + Paul Westerberg, and she made the cut on songs about longing.

The perhaps not-as-obvious-but-still-kind-of-clear story of this year’s list is my continued love of Jason Isbell. If you take a gander at the 2013 Top 25, you’ll see he dominated last year. He did pretty well this year too, which is only shocking when you consider that Sea Songs came out on February 10th and I’ve listened to “I Follow Rivers” 53 times since then. I am nothing, if not obsessive (see Philomena at #24 and realize sixteen of those spins came in one day).

Also pretty clear, but not as clear as I would have thought? How much I loved that new Ryan Adams’ record.

The rest seems like a random hodgepodge of WTF. I get that. But many of these songs (the ones with the *) were tossed on a playlist called “Baby Can You Feel It” and listened to repeatedly for days on end while I finished up the revising the last few chapters of The Beast.

And the rest are just songs that I really love and need at certain points for reasons I don’t feel like getting into because I’m bored with writing this post.

Top 25 Most Listened-To Songs of 2014

Cover Me Up, Jason Isbell (85)
Dear Chicago, Ryan Adams (76)
I Follow Rivers, Jason Isbell & Amanda Shires (53)
Drive All Night, Glen Hansard (50)*
To Destruction, Dolorean (46)
Just Breathe, Willie Nelson (45)*
Mutineer, Jason Isbell & Amanda Shires (42)
Just Breathe, Pearl Jam (37)*
Boy Crazy, Lydia Loveless (37)
Really Wanna See You, Lydia Loveless (36)
Commie Drives a Nova, Ike Reilly (35)*
Crazy, Lydia Loveless (35)
The Only Answer, Mike Doughty (32)*
Head, Lydia Loveless (31)
Wine Lips, Lydia Loveless (30)
Trouble, Ryan Adams (28)
All I Know, Lydia Loveless (27)
Gimme Something Good, Ryan Adams (27)
Bad Reputation, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts (26)
Supernova, Liz Phair (25)
Colorado, Chastity Brown (23)
Somewhere Else, Lydia Loveless (23)
Title and Registration, Death Cab for Cutie (23)*
Philomena, The Decemberists (22)
Chris Isak, Lydia Loveless (21)

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Top 25 Most Listened to Songs of 2013 or Music for writing a book to

Jodi Chromey — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 17:02:19 +0000

For the first time in the nine-year history of the Top 25 I had to turn to the Last.fm charts, rather than rely on my ol’ iTunes play counts (which I reset every year around March 17thish). The entry of Spotify into my life has changed the way I listen to music. This is not a bad development at all, because using iTunes makes me want to light my eyeballs on fire. For real, iTunes is getting right up there with Excel and PowerPoint on the list of shitty software that eats my soul.

Another interesting note about this Top 25 is the lack of Jeremy Messersmith. He comes in just after the 25-song cutoff even though I listened to “Heart Murmurs” fifty million billion times. So much that I know every single word on every single song by heart. In fact, on Sunday at Family Dinner, Sister #2 and I did a sort of spoken word rendition of “It’s Only Dancing” for my nephew, Maxwell, because we were talking about what a wonderful, lovely song it is and he wanted to know why.

I attribute the lack of Jeremy to the fact that I got the actual vinyl album when it came out and listened to that more than anything else. It is a pink record, how can I resist?

And even though I got the Jason Isbell record too (for Christmas from Jaycie & Max because they rule), I listened to it on Spotify for about five months before (let’s hear it for being a broke freelancer).

The one thing you won’t see when I finally stop yammering and get to the list is Lydia Loveless. According to the Last.fm chart she has the #2, 7, 9, 10, 12, and 15 most-listened to track of the past 12 months. However, that record didn’t come out until a month ago & I’m just ridiculously obsessive sometimes.

So really, this list boils down to Jason Isbell & the songs I listened to while writing the first draft of The Beast, specifically in the form of Boy’s “Mutual Friends” album. It was perfect for writing to — innocuous but not bland; upbeat without being distracting; female voices. I needed all these things to get through that first draft of The Beast. Plus, “Little Numbers” is a great crush song, providing the inspiration for crush songs when my main character was writing about her own crushes.

With the exception of Stevie Nicks’ “That Made Me Stronger” & “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” most of the other songs in the Top 25 are mood setting for scenes in the book. As far as Stevie’s songs go, the former has become like my national anthem. I try to play it each time I open The Beast. The former? It’s got its own chapter in the book, a song my character covers with Eddie Vedder at a very important point in her life. Why Eddie Vedder? Because it’s fiction and because I wanted her to.

Anyway. . .

Top 25 Most Listened-To Songs of 2013

Little Numbers, BOY (67)
Stockholm, Jason Isbell (45)
Cover Me Up, Jason Isbell (44)
Traveling Alone, Jason Isbell (41)
Elephant, Jason Isbell (41)
Flying Over Water, Jason Isbell (38)
This is the Beginning, BOY (36)
Army, BOY (33)
Different Days, Jason Isbell (33)
Leather and Lace, Stevie Nicks (31)
Waitress, BOY (31)
Live Oak, Jason Isbell (31)
Songs That She Sang in the Shower, Jason Isbell (30)
Dear Chicago, Ryan Adams (28)
Drive Darling, BOY (27)
Laid, James (26)
Railway, BOY (26)
New South Wales, Jason Isbell (25)
That Made Me Stronger Stevie Nicks (24)
Head Over Heels, The Go-Go’s (23)
Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around, Stevie Nicks & Tom Petty (23)
Record Collector, Lissie (23)
Super 8, Jason Isbell (23)
Greeting to the New Brunette, Billy Bragg (22)
Waltz for Pony, BOY (21)

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It’s Sunday & I’m Boring: Top 25 most-listened to songs of 2012 Edition

Jodi Chromey — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 02:25:56 +0000

I had to go grocery shopping this morning which must have infected my sleep somehow because I woke up every twenty minutes from 5 a.m. until I got up at 8 a.m. This wouldn’t have been quite so much suck if I had gotten to sleep before 1:30.

This is a very long introduction into telling you how after watching the “Meet the Press” and then crying happy/sad tears over the Steubenville guilty verdict I took a nap at 10:30 or rather I read Cherie Currie’s memoir for a little bit and then laid on the couch and listened to the radio with my eyes closed with Paco curled on my hip. It was very nice.

My musical nap-like thing was interrupted by a text message from my brother-in-law kindly asking if I would mind making some tarter sauce for Sister #2. She is obsessed with my homemade tartar sauce which would make me super pumped if it just weren’t pickles, mayo, minced onion & garlic and a sprinkle of dill. But there you have it.

At this point I watched “Glee” which I only watch now so my niece, Jaycie, and I can bitch about it on Sunday nights. Then I ate lunch and watched “The Office” which included a charming little scene involving Dwight K. Schrute’s family sitting on the porch steps playing The Decemberists’ “Sons & Daughters.” Apparently I have my finger on the pulse of things.

The next boring thing that happened is that I wrote a review of Eleanor & Park for MN Reads. Oh wait, before that I listened to the Stevie Nicks & Don Henley song “Leather & Lace” four times in a row. I’ve been going through a real Stevie Nicks thing since I stumbled on this video at Rookie. Plus, I watched Sound City a few weeks ago. So it’s been real Stevie up in here for the past sixish weeks. And just now I discovered this exists.

You know what else exists? Dave Grohl & Will Ferrel covering the song.

So anyway I wrote about Eleanor & Park while listening to The Smiths. I’m still smiling in the afterglow of that book. Then I listened to music while farting around on the Internet until I decided to spend a little time reading the Jay Farrar book Falling Cars and Junkyard Dogs which totally goes against my “only reading women in March” thing, but it was on the chair here and the Cherie Currie memoir is on the iPad and the iPad is way over there.

At Family Dinner Jaycie & I argued about music. This is her new thing because I will tell her things like “The Lumineers are the Train of your generation” and she will get mad. I’ll also tell her that Lana Del Rey is the worst thing to happen to music since Gwen Stefani. And tonight we had this conversation:
“So you loved Rick Astley unironically?” She asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “We didn’t love things ironically. We didn’t know how to do that.”
“Wow.”

Now, in case you are curious or still reading, here are my Top 25 most-listened to songs. Yesterday was the annual clearing of the play count.

Just Breath, Willie Nelson & Lukas Nelson (31)
The Bare Necessities, Bruce Reitherman (30). This song plays a prominent role in the longish fiction thing I’m working on.
Carried Away, Passion Pit (25). Yeah, I really dug that Passion Pit album.
Take A Walk, Passion Pit (24)
I’ll Be Alright, Passion Pit (23)
Constant Conversations, Passion Pit (23)
On My Way, Passion Pit (23)
Mirrored Sea, Passion Pit (21)
Cry Like A Ghost, Passion Pit (21)
Hideaway, Passion Pit (20)
Two Veils To Hide My Face, Passion Pit (20)
Love Is Greed, Passion Pit (20)
It’s Not My Fault, I’m Happy, Passion Pit (20)
Where We Belong, Passion Pit (20)
The Nights of Wine and Roses, Japandroids (18)
Live And Die, The Avett Brothers (14) I’m pretty sure most of these listens happened the day after I discovered my biological father had died.
Call Me Maybe, Carly Rae Jepsen (14). I blame this on The Tibbles.
Fire’s Highway, Japandroids (14)
My Road Now, Paul Westerberg (14)
Beast of Burden, The Rolling Stones (14)
Evil’s Sway, Japandroids (13)
The House That Heaven Built, Japandroids (13)
Rocks Off, The Rolling Stones (13)
Under My Thumb, The Rolling Stones (13)
Far Away Eyes, The Rolling Stones (13)

The “It’s (Insert Day of Week) and I’m Boring” is a series that Christa and I do to pay homage to the beauty of old-school blogging. (I totally copied this nice explanation from Christa).

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