Welcome to another Mixtape Monday. If you missed the last one, you can find it here.
This week's theme centers on that feeling you get when you're young and everything that happens make it seem like it's the end of this effed up world. We've all been there and done that, and while I'm past that stage of my life, here are a few songs I listened to (or wished I had listened to) to get myself through the days of homework, tom-effer-y and hormones. So being a kid sucks - Join the Club.
To skip the banter and go directly to this week's playlist, click here.
While last week's playlist centered on starting the school year right, by the end of that week you'd have realized nothing's changed and you'll find yourself feeling as insignificant now as you've ever felt before. That's fine, in fact it's normal until you leave the house, get a job and grow a pair of balls. This playlist aims to either help you accept your fate as society's middle tier with the burden of saving its crumbing economy, dying environment and the plight of mankind OR embrace your childhood as the only time you have left to eff things up and not actually be blamed for it.
So let's get the ball rolling with our first song from 3OH!3. Though We are Young isn't one of their title songs, it has a reputation for having that drum line, football-pep-rally feel that we've all come to establish a love-hate relationship with.
After hearing that song, banging your head to the beat with that rebellious 'eff the police' attitude, you'll most likely crash and burn to the sudden realization that you have your entire life ahead of you and have no clue where to go from here. Right now, you're too young to take over and too old to ignore, so where exactly in your life are you? Jimmy Eat World answers that age old question with their well-loved song The Middle.
To quote the song directly, 'it just takes some time' and 'everything will be alright'. It's the truth that we all needed to hear as teens. Unfortunately for us, those are two of the many sentences we hate to hear and will eventually choose to ignore in our adolescence. Fortunately though, Jimmy Eat World packs those words in a catchy, house-party inducing song which drills the words into your head like an effing mantra. I don't know about you guys, but I feel like throwing my own half-naked dance party a la Skins right now.
Still feeling like you don't belong? The irony in your situation is that everybody else feels exactly the same way, I assure you. But just in case you want to relish in the feeling of being out of place, Amy Studt's Misfit is the song for you.
Although it may seem that this is a purely female-aimed song, it's has a pretty nice tune to listen to, and if you can seek out the official music video on google (it isn't available on youtube) you might just find yourself enjoying more than this UK girl's voice. This song is but one of her many songs, and don't let the upbeat generic pop tune fool you, her later works are very much underrated. There's just something to be said about the musical experience she gained after being found with drug possession and after spending a few years out of the limelight succeeding her initial success. Yehp, some really gritty sh*t right there.
On the more serious side of things, childhood can be rough because of legitimate problems and concerns. This blog goes out to everybody out there who's from a broken family or has just had it really rough - rougher than the rest of us can probably imagine. And while this writer tries to disguise a lot of deep-seeded feelings with sarcastic and cynical remarks, Everclear's song, Wonderful should sum up exactly how I feel about such situations.
This song is a staple for people who look back on their lives and reminisce. It's also a song that I wish I heard more often when I was a kid. Listening to it now as an adult, I can't help but relate to the lyrics. The song speaks miles from Jimmy Eat World in that while most would say that in the future things might get better, there are just cases that they don't, but somehow we're all gonna make it. This song, and a flurry of others marks Everclear as one of my personal favorite bands of the 90s.
Sentimental stuff aside, here's to another upbeat song reminiscent of the first song in our playlist, and by reminiscent I don't just mean it has the same three words 'we are young' in its chorus. Nope. MIKA's Kick Ass (We are Young) is yet another anthem-like song that kids seem to be flocking to.
Some of you may recognize this song from the soundtrack of the phenomenal movie adaptation of one of my favorite comic books, Kick-Ass. The song has a certain feel of empowerment to it and is a go-to for those power trips we all have when we're young. While being a kid definitely sucks at times, this song glorifies your childhood and reminds you just how much ass you could be kicking if you stopped moping around being sorry for yourself. Yehp, one song has never made running around in an embarrassing green scuba suit look any cooler. MIKA has a reputation of defying critics, and while most people are busy arguing about his sexual orientation, he couldn't care less and is instead making awesome songs that blow your mind. We should all take a cue from him and make the most of our youth while we still can.
To end this playlist on a good and inspirational note I leave the readers with the last song on the list - personally one of my favorite songs, Sooner or Later by Michael Tolcher.
The song itself was used as the theme song of yet another short-lived teen-targeted show, Life As We Know It. But I know it better from its use in Scrubs and for good reason as well. If you guys don't already know it yet, I'm a huge Scrubs fangirl and every song on that show's soundtrack roster is worth a check. Trust me.
Edging our way back on topic, Sooner or Later is a song that's laced with timely advice and relatable lyrics that I would have gone back in time just to be able share with my past self. Seriously guys, it may seem like the end of the world right now and damn right, being a kid sucks, but every little experience we go through ends up, as cliche as it sounds, building our character. I sure as hell wouldn't have ended up as level-headed as I am now without going through bouts of stupidity when I was younger. You guys can probably see that from my posts dating back to early 2008. And the funny thing is, I'm probably going to have to keep dealing with crap forever. But you know what? I'll become a better person out of it. Stuff like that never changes, and you realize that even as an adult - you'll forever be a kid, learning, making mistakes and effing things up, just with more responsibility. Sooner or later though, hopefully you'll all come to appreciate all the loads of crap you've had to endure to get wherever you will be in the future.
Thus I see no better fit way to end this playlist with this awesome and timely song, so that's it for this week's Mixtape Monday. If there are any songs you guys deem fit for this playlist, leave a comment below. I'd love to hear about you guys' awesome taste in music.
To view this week's full Mixtape Monday on playlist mode, feel free to visit my YouTube page or go directly to the playlist here.
Stay tuned for more Mixtape Mondays and comment below for next week's theme suggestions!
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