Hello again everyone! We’ve made it through another year – an extremely long year at that – and you know what that means…
Time to recap my favorite songs from last year!
If you follow my sporadic ramblings and other updates on Twitter, you can probably already guess a few of these. I’ve listened to almost every single one on repeat while writing or revising one project or another, and many more times when I just wanted to decompress, so I hope you find something you like in this list!
#5 “Turns to Dust” by Sound Surfer & Verso ft. Nilka: This one barely squeaked in, and I’m fairly sure it was the last song I listened to in 2018. It’s atmospheric and futuristic, hopeful and very relaxing. And I kinda sorta really want to create a winter-guard (flag twirling) routine for it when spring comes in a few months.
#4 “Starlight” by Babymetal: This song gives off a heavy “anime opening” vibe and it is awesome. I absolutely love how the bass and guitars work with the soaring vocals and backing symphonic-type effects. It’s powerful and again, hopeful, bringing to mind the point when a character or hero finally realizes what they have to do to win or succeed and make a last-ditch effort to save the world/the ones they love.
#3 “See Through Me” by Orbit Culture: Although this song is much darker/heavier than Starlight, I still get a sense of optimism or hopefulness from it. But where Starlight is more lighthearted or happy, See Through Me more befits a character who has really gone through the ringer, arriving to a final conflict more to spite an antagonist or opposing force than actually save/resolve something. See Through Me is a “I’ll prove you wrong” song, whereas Starlight is a “I won’t let you win/you won’t get away with this” song.
And honestly, given our political landscape the last two years, I think we all need a survival or spiteful anthem. This one is mine.
#2 “Hip Hop Phile” by BTS: Let’s be honest–you had to know BTS would end up on this list sooner or later. (Honestly you should count yourselves lucky the whole list wasn’t just completely BTS.) But I digress – I absolutely adore HHP. I love the flow, love the stories RM, JHope, and Suga tell about how hip hop influenced them early on and what it means to them. Reading – immersing myself in fantasy worlds – was how I survived middle and high school, and is what drove me to writing: to creating my own stories, my own worlds, so that anyone who needed a respite from their own life, like I did, had one. That’s why HHP resonates a lot with me, I think.
The heart and soul they put into this song trying to convey what hip hop has meant to them throughout their lives is palpable, and when you think of how far they’ve come, how much they struggled (and still do) with aspects of being idols, it’s that much more powerful.
And the moment you’ve all been waiting for, which really should come as no surprise…
#1 “Fake Love” by BTS
Where do I even start? Actually, I know where — maybe it’s cheating but loving Fake Love basically means you have four official versions of the song to repeat to your heart’s content (and trust me – I have). Each one has its own flavor and vibe, too, making it easier to listen to over multiple projects.
To me, the first/original version feels like the darkest of the four, followed by the Japanese Remix version. The remix embraces the punchy, halting flow of the rap verse and switches out the effects to create a cyberpunk/futuristic feel. The original Japanese version (non-remix) is a touch less dark, with what sounds like an added instrumental in the background to help soften it (on top of the vocals themselves, which seem a little less…angry?). Last but not least brings the Rocking Vibe version, where the synths and EDM-style beat* are changed out for rock-style acoustic/electric guitars and drums, turning the track into a much more nostalgic, somber song.
And that’s without even getting into the visually stunning music videos. BTS is known for lyrics with word play and multiple meanings, so it’s no surprise the MVs for Fake Love are layered in much the same way. I went through some of the elements here , but it definitely doesn’t cover everything. Because the song isn’t just about romantic love, but self-love too, I think it’s pretty safe to say some of the members’ own struggles, fears, and/or aspects of “fake love” show up in the MVs.
Long story short: Fake Love is art. I don’t know how else to put it.
All in all 2018 was, musically, an amazing year. I feel like I listened more widely, more diversely than I have in previous years, though I’ll have to go back and look through my prior end-of-year lists to be sure. In any case I highly, highly recommend to check out BTS‘s Love Yourself: Tear and Love Yourself: Answer because they are the only albums I enjoyed, in their ENTIRETY, over the whole year.
Listen with your heart, and without judging based on another group/artist/song, and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Did you have any favorite songs of 2018? Any songs or album releases you were looking forward to, but then were let down by? Were there any songs that sneaked up on you, maybe one in a genre or style you don’t usually like but found yourself really enjoying? Let me know in the comments!
*Apologies if I butcher musical terms and whatnot, because I’m mostly just describing how I hear/what it sounds like to me.
Facets of Fantasy and Fangirling 