The second post in an ongoing series featuring select songs that we shuffled through in our family travels…
Amorphis – Into Hiding
As I mentioned in a previous post, it took awhile for the 11 year old to come to the Dark Side when it came to the gruff vocals. She’s still not completely sold on, say, grindcore. But anything that shows any type of melodic touches she can get behind it now. I thank Amon Amarth for that. One of the bands Amon Amarth should be thanking for their sound is Finland’s Amorphis. This particular track comes of their Tales From The Thousand Lakes album, which in my humble opinion is one of the best death metal albums of the 90s. This album really was unlike any other death metal record at the time – especially the clean vocals they would add to the mix as featured on this track.
AC/DC – Kicked In The Teeth
You are going to find out in an upcoming post just how much I love AC/DC and how much they meant to both me and my kids in the development of our musical tastes. They were my gateway band into metal as a kid and I still love them to this day. In fact, one of my lasting concert memories will be getting to see them live a couple months ago with my 15 year old in tow. They still put on a great show. Whenever AC/DC comes up on the car stereo there is more than one voice from the back of the van shouting out, “Crank it, dad!” It’s always awesome to hear. This is one of my favorite tracks from the Bon Scott era. A totally under appreciated track off a totally underrated record. I’ll never understand how a rock band can write songs as downright catchy as this one but to their credit AC/DC made themselves a career out of it.
Cyndi Lauper – Money Changes Everything
Brace yourselves because much like the shuffle function on my iPod things are going to get eclectic real quick. I’m a child of the 80s and because of that I cling to a certain fondness of the pop music of my childhood. Honestly, most of it is just the novelty of it. We listen to “Take On Me” because the kids think it’s hilarious when I try to hit those high notes. (And it is.) But there are certain pop artists from the 80s who actually wrote seriously amazing pop music that has stood the test of time. One of those artists is Cyndi Lauper. Even my two year old like Cyndi Lauper and most days he’s like Mikey from the old Life cereal commercials – he hates everything. I would argue that Lauper’s She’s So Unusual album is the most complete pop record the 80’s ever produced. Not a weak track on the album. This is one of the strongest tracks and kicks the album off in style.
And The Kids – All Day All Night
If (when) I put together a year end list of my favorite albums the stellar debut from Massachusetts trio And The Kids will absolutely be on there. Turn To Each Other is easily one of the best albums I’ve heard, not just this year, but in a long, long time. It’s filled with catchy pop hooks dressed up in all the indie rock accoutrements. It’s an album that just sticks with you after the first listen and this is easily my favorite track on the whole thing. It’s about as epic as an indie rock track will get without sounding completely pretentious. I could listen to this track on repeat…wait for it…all day and all night…
The Metal Dad 