The Latest 25 Mix – July 2014

It’s about time!  I finally filled up my “Latest 25” mix on my iPod with all new songs!  As you know, when I hear a song that I want to listen to one hundred more times I stick it on this mix, and then bump the oldest one off the list, so I have a constantly rotating playlist of fresh songs that I slowly get sick of and wonder why I ever thought they were good in the first place.  The last time I did this list I had just discovered Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, and yesterday I finally bumped them off, so it’s time once again to tell you what I have been listening to for the past several months.

1) Fixer Upper, from the Frozen soundtrack
Yeah, yeah, I know, you hate the trolls, this song was stupid, worst part of the movie, etc.  Well, sorry, this is my favorite song from the soundtrack I have heard 23,000 times in the last 8 months.  It reminds me that, hey, these people also wrote Avenue Q.  This song is fun.

2) Love is an Open Door, from the Frozen soundtrack
This one cracked me up too, the first few hundred times I heard it.  Had I known back in November just how much I would end up hearing all of these songs, I probably wouldn’t have put any of them on this list.

3) Let it Go, Idina Menzel version
Let it go, let it goooooo, can’t hold it back any mo-ho-hore!  Let it goooo, let it goooooooooo!  Turn away and sla-ham thu-huh doo-hoor!  Heeere I-ee stand, in the lah-eet of da-aa-aa-ayyyy.  Let the storm rage AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHN!  #thecoldneverbotheredmeanyway

4) Fighter, by Christina Aguilera
I am aware that this song came out approximately one billion years ago, but I did not think much of it back then, other than that it was fine.  And then, somehow, I heard it again and had to immediately blast it in my car on repeat during rush hour.  It happens.

5) Happy, by Pharrell Williams
I don’t care how many times I hear this song.  It always makes me happy.  And I know it.  So I clap my hands.  And dance.

6) Let Her Go, by Passenger
I think Bear put this one on here, so that whenever Ruby asked us to play “Let it Go,” he could put this one on instead and then tell her that he misheard.

7) Say Something, by A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera
Sometimes you just need to rock out to some depressing emo music.  This is the stuff.

8) Burn, by Ellie Goulding
And sometimes you just need to rock out with your children, dance party-style, in the middle of the living room floor, to a song that may or may not be about arson.

9) Timber, by Pitbull ft. Ke$ha
I didn’t even need to listen to this song before adding it to the mix.  It is Pitbull, featuring Ke$ha (or Kesha, as I think she is lamely called now), so you just know it is going to be terrible.  And awesome.

10) Live it Up, by Owl City
I don’t know if I have mentioned this before, but if there is an animated children’s movie that has been made in the past five years, Owl City probably did the song playing over the closing credits.  I don’t remember which film this one was from (Smurfs 2? The Croods?), but it’s a great song, like all Owl City animated film closing credits songs.

11) Everything is Awesome, by Tegan and Sarah, ft. The Lonely Island
How many songs from kids’ movies are on this list anyway?  You would think that all I do all day is hang out with kids and consume pre-teen-aimed entertainment.  And you would be right.  But this song is actually awesome and hilarious in ways that my children cannot yet appreciate.

12) I’ll Get You What You Want, from the Muppets Most Wanted soundtrack
It’s not my fault!  All my favorite entertainers are doing family entertainment now!  The Flight of the Conchords folks wrote this song!  This is clever, adult music disguised as Muppets, Legos, and animated snowmen.  Seriously though, this song is funny.

13) Beautiful Times, by Owl City
Ah, a song not from a kids’ movie.  Have you heard this song?  It might be my favorite.  It just speaks to me, and inspires me to keep going some days.  If you’re ever having a bad day, or a bad life, listen to this song.

14) The Walker, by Fitz and the Tantrums
Who doesn’t love a catchy, upbeat song with whistling?!

15) Human, by Christina Perri
This is a good song, but it’s ever better when it’s about hippos eating marbles.  Right?  right?  …?

16) Love or Money, by Kristian Bush
So for the past half a year or so I have been immersed in an app called “My Singing Monsters,” in which you breed these monsters, and feed them, and buy them things, etc.  You know, pretty standard.  But they all sing different things, and the more monsters you add to your islands, the more you can fill in the song, and so my musical tendencies got sucked into this, and so now I have bazillions of singing monsters.  And my favorite monster song was, as it turns out, based on this song.  So even though I generally try to avoid country music, I have been pre-conditioned to love this song.

17) Wolf Bite, by Owl City
I pretty much like everything by Owl City.  We did an Owl City song in church about a week and a half ago.  And it wasn’t the first time.

18) Girls Chase Boys, by Ingrid Michaelson
Man, if there were ever a song that stylistically belonged in the early 90’s it’s this one.  Which is probably why I love it so much.  I don’t know what it is about the sound of this track that makes me feel like I am up in my room trying to record it off the radio onto my boom box, but I can’t get enough!

19) NOW That’s What I Call Polka, by “Weird Al” Yankovic
If you read my post from last week, you know what I hard time I had trying to decided which tracks from Mandatory Fun were going to go on this list, but the polka almost always wins.  I could listen to it forever.

20) Mission Statement, by “Weird Al” Yankovic
The more I listen to the album, the more I realize that this is my favorite track.  By a lot.  Aside from the polka of course, which is its own thing.

21) Foil, by “Weird Al” Yankovic
Trying to pick my favorite parody from the album was hard, and “Word Crimes” is growing on me, but I went with “Foil.”  Because I couldn’t very well have “Tacky” and “Happy” on the same playlist, now could I?  Of course not.  That would be ridiculous.

22) Lame Claim to Fame, by “Weird Al” Yankovic
I know my general rule is “no more than three tracks on this list from any one album,” but I made an exception here.  Time will tell if I regret it.

23) Hideaway, by Kiesza
I don’t know how to say her name, but I know how to dance to her music!  [Editor’s Note: No he doesn’t]

24) Come Get it Bae, by Pharrell Williams ft. Miley Cyrus
Do any of you guys watch Once Upon a Time?  Do any of you every hear this song and think of Mr. Gold singing it?  Should I make a video where that happens, or have 12 other people already done that?

25) Rather Be, by Clean Bandit ft. Jess Glynne
I’m pretty sure I like this song.  I just heard it yesterday, but Ruby and Edward danced up a storm to it, and made me put it on again, so I added it to the list, partially because I thought to myself “Hey Tenor Dad, if you put one more song on your list, you will have a whole new set of songs from your last post about it, which means you could write a new post about it tonight, and then you would not have to think up any other ideas for the rest of the day!” but also partially because I enjoyed listening to it.

So that’s it!  25 new (or kind of old at this point) songs to jam to while I drive around town buying bread and stuff.  And, just between you and me, if you have any suggestions of other news songs I might enjoy, I would love to get Frozen off the list.  Nothing against those fine, award-winning songs.  I’m just saying.