The Liked Songs Shuffle | Review #2
The Liked Songs Shuffle is a series I’ve created to explore music I’ve forgotten about. Here’s the first review if you want to start from the beginning!
I live for music: it’s been with me through amazing times and pretty awful times. Metal is my preferred genre, although I really enjoy rock as well. I don’t complain about poppy nostalgia tracks, though!
My Spotify Liked Songs playlist has 1,032 songs, and I don’t listen to many of them. I typically make a yearly playlist and stick to it. So, I’m going to shuffle my Liked Songs playlist and review the first ten songs that play. No skipping!
This review series will be a great opportunity to listen to some forgotten gems and question why others are on the playlist at all! Hopefully, this will inspire you to listen to these bands yourself: there are YouTube or Spotify links for all.
Relevant segue, and something I wanted to mention: There’s a fab, free site I enjoy playing with called Whisperify. (It’s something I use as a grounding technique for my anxiety as I love music and competing with myself!) You select one of your playlists, and you have to guess the song from a short snippet. I like to challenge myself to the two-second limit: Great fun, but not when it’s instrumental progressive metal I’ve listened to once! It would be helpful to acquaint myself with this playlist so I can beat my high score ;)
So, without further ado, let’s jump into the music!
1. Mallory Knox — California
My other half introduced me to Mallory Knox in 2019. They’re not my usual type of music as they lean a little bit pop rock for me, but they’ve got some great tracks nonetheless. We went to see them live at an intimate venue, and they weren’t the best, but their fans were awesome!
California is one of those great tracks! It’s so upbeat and there are some really catchy riffs. There’s a lovely bit where the instruments are stripped down and his voice sounds great. Sweet lyrics too!
Wired is one of their best albums, well worth a listen. They’ve since split up, but their old vocalist created a new band, Black Sky Research.
8/10
2. Alter Bridge — Never Born To Follow
As a big fan of Alter Bridge, I started properly digging into AB III this year, and it’s a solid album with some beautiful highlights (hi Words Darker Than Their Wings!). If you’ve not listened to Alter Bridge before, they’re a great mix of hard rock and metal, and Blackbird is probably the place to start.
Never Born To Follow’s lyrics speak to me, and it’s a top track. The bass is a delight, and there’s a cool outro too!
8/10
3. Pentakill — Lightbringer (Acoustic)
Pentakill is a virtual metal band for League of Legends. This track is a recent addition to the playlist! Jorn Lande is the vocalist for this Pentakill track, and he’s one of my favourite metal vocalists! His voice is pure magic, whatever the setting. It’s almost haunting on this track. Gorgeous!
I loved the original Lightbringer, but I think I prefer this version! It feels even more powerful and the piano addition is special.
9.5/10
4. Deaf Havana — England (Reworked)
Another rock band introduction from my other half! I much prefer the normal version of this track. Deaf Havana is a great live band too: the article photo is one I took when we went to see them.
The normal version is a song that I enjoy, but there are a few tone deaf lyrics in it. He’s cursing the white skin that he’s covered in and the country where he was born. While I similarly have issues with being from England and how it’s seen as a country now (cheers Brexit), and my skin burns from thinking about the sun, I also understand the inherent privilege I have thanks to it.
#rantover and song removed 😂
5/10
5. Celestial Ruin — Heart Shaped Ashes
I must have only listened to this song once through my Discover as I don’t recognise it. Unfortunately, the mixing on this track is off as you can barely hear the vocals in some parts.
I really like her voice and the guitar with symphonic metal vibes. It’s pretty catchy, so I’ve added one of their EPs to my “Listen” playlist. Another playlist to go through!
6/10
6. Hell or Highwater — Go Alone (ft. M. Shadows)
I’ve been addicted to this song for about a year now. Ignoring the disturbing murdery lyrics, it’s a catchy rock track and the vocalist sounds great alongside M. Shadows (Avenged Sevenfold).
Pray for me,
’Cause I’ve been searching for heaven
While running from hell
8/10
7. Inglorious — Glory Days
I used to absolutely love Inglorious, and then they released Ride to Nowhere and I lost my love for them. It was just a bit dull and lost the spirit of their previous two rock albums, which were amazing!
Glory Days is a gorgeous acoustic track from that album. Nathan’s vocals on this are outstanding, especially at 3:20, and the lyrics sit nicely in your heart. I saw them perform this track and it’s very stirring live, too.
My vocal preferences have changed over the years, and I find it a bit grating to listen to after a while! I won’t take itoff my playlist, but I won’t be adding it to a new one.
I’ve taken all your trust, I know you’ve had enough
But darling believe me, and I’ll never make the same mistake
8/10
8. SinHeresY — The Circle
This track will be from one of my artist playlists; I’ve found so many bands through Spotify’s awesome mixes. And many, many terrible ones 😂
The instruments are strong on this, but I struggle with the more synthy vocals on SinHeresY’s stuff. She’s got an amazing voice and it ruins it for me a bit! The solo will keep this on my playlist though.
Shockingly, this track is nearly eight minutes long! The instrumentals are really cool though, and it slowly turns into an acoustic outro, so I’ll give them a pass 😉
7/10
9. Biffy Clyro — Tiny Indoor Fireworks
A fairly new playlist addition! I listened to it a lot when I first added it, but I forgot about it. Time to put it on my 2021 playlist far too late!
The bass is really cool, and I love Simon’s vocals on this. It’s a little bit too “hey, hey, hey” for me, but I’ll tolerate it for the cool instrument business and the rest of the vocal performance.
8.5/10
10. Paramore — Born For This
Oh my, what a throwback! I’m not sure if you were also an “emo” 15 year-old when this came out, but I was. I still love this track (and the entirety of Riot!), and it makes me sad about new Paramore.
It’s an upbeat track, with cool riffs and great bass. Yes!
8/10
Wow, this was a solid shuffle! I listen to three of these songs regularly, and it was great to see them pop up. A special mention to Lightbringer; if you listen to any, pick that one!
I’m looking forward to seeing what the next shuffle brings!
If you listen to any of these bands or songs, let me know what you think. If this series inspires you to do the same with your playlists, drop me a tag and #shufflereview! :)
