recordyear
Diamond Member
album listener
Joined: January 2017
Posts: 14,808
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Post by recordyear on Apr 27, 2022 23:06:17 GMT -5
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recordyear
Diamond Member
album listener
Joined: January 2017
Posts: 14,808
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Post by recordyear on Apr 28, 2022 9:19:06 GMT -5
What will make up the Top 5? The Story, The Joke are locks. Party of One, maybe Right On Time because of familiarity? Hope Broken Horses would do well too.
Which song will be out first? A Beautiful Noise?
If there were to be any upsets, what song(s) do you think would be involved? Raise Hell is a fierce discovery!
Which album do you think will have the overall best showing? By The Way, I Forgive You
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on Apr 28, 2022 21:35:45 GMT -5
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on Apr 28, 2022 21:42:04 GMT -5
recordyear commented about a fierce discovery in this rankdown, which kind of got me thinking about how I want to approach the others in this series. While the purpose is to rank our favourites by the artists, there's also a great opportunity to dive into some of their greatest songs. The songs I selected for Brandi's rankdown were predominately singles, but if I had opted to go with what I consider to be my favourites, the list would have looked a lot different. So throughout, I'll also share some of what I consider to be Brandi's highlights with the hope that everyone can come away with a fierce discovery of their own! The first of these is a song originally on her 2009 album Give Up The Ghost. A few years after that, Brandi would record a live album with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, which put a new spin on a lot of songs from her previous two studio records. I generally don't find live albums to make any improvements over the tried-and-true studio versions but in Brandi's case, some of the songs from the albums came to life in these new arrangements. "Before It Breaks" was never a personal highlight for me from Give Up The Ghost, but on Live at Benaroya Hall, it's a monster! -- recordyear -- ccarter1023 -- Kris Kringle -- Devil Marlena Nylund -- tim -- samoπ¦ -- Mirago -- .indulgecountry --
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on Apr 28, 2022 21:58:22 GMT -5
#21 ~ MAINSTREAM KID from the album: The Firewatcher's Daughter (2015) Points: 28 ~ Average Rank: 17.5 ~ Standard Deviation: 5.2
I've never cared a lot for this song tbh. The Firewatcher's Daughter isn't my favourite Brandi album by any means, but I always found this song unconvincing and a bit of a sore thumb on an otherwise pretty good album. I forget if it was pushed as a single to AAA at all, but it did get a video shortly after the album's release.
Interestingly, despite finishing at the bottom, nobody ranked this last on their lists. It did get four #20 placements, and one person ranked it in their top 5 (sorry Mirago ).
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on Apr 28, 2022 22:00:28 GMT -5
(I'm also going to apologize for the errors I inevitably make throughout this reveal. It turns out I really don't know how to use the Numbers app on my new Macbook so I'm having to type everything manually. I'm kind of glad there's only 8 lists lmao. Next time, I'll just use my old computer and work on Excel again.
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on Apr 28, 2022 22:11:23 GMT -5
#20 ~ A BEAUTIFUL NOISE with Alicia Keys from the album: Alicia (2020) Points: 39 ~ Average Rank: 16.1 ~ Standard Deviation: 6.2
I haven't listened to this song very much tbh. It didn't grab me when I listened to it for the first time after it came out so it was an easy last-place for me. Apparently for others as well given half of us ranked it last. Yet another #5 is out though, sorry ccarter1023 .
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on Apr 28, 2022 22:21:30 GMT -5
#19 ~ WHAT CAN I SAY from the album: Brandi Carlile (2005) Points: 46 ~ Average Rank: 15.3 ~ Standard Deviation: 3.2
Brandi's first major label album is probably the one I'm least familiar with. When I got into her music, it was via her second album, The Story, so this one was kind of an afterthought when I got the CD (and later the record) several years later. I haven't revisited it too often because when I'm in a mood for Brandi, I usually want one of her other albums specifically. But this album does have a very comforting, familiar sound to it for anyone into Brandi's music. The album itself was actually made of rejects of The Story that her producer (or label? I forget exactly) suggested she release first and save the better songs for her next album. According to Wikipedia, this song reached #16 on the Triple-A chart. It also says it was her first song to chart, but I'm almost positive that at least two tracks from this album charted and I know I have those stats somewhere. (I did once edit that very Wikipedia page but because I didn't have a proper online source, they kept removing it). This song has one of the lower standard deviations, which I'm a bit sad with because that means most people ranked it fairly low. But it also makes sense, given Brandi's strong discography and the fact that this song is pretty middle-of-the-road as far as her music goes.
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on Apr 28, 2022 22:26:07 GMT -5
I might end it here for tonight and will hopefully continue with a few more reveals over the weekend, but if not, most certainly by Monday and I aim to have the entire rankdown revealed within the week, so YAY!
There is the reveal of someone's #1 coming sooner than later, so be prepared. And, with every reveal, someone will lose one of their Top 10 because every song in this rankdown got at least one Top 10 ranking.
I'll end the evening on this other Live at Benaroya Hall gem. Similar to Before It Breaks, this song SOARS in this version with the Seattle Symphony and the shivers it'll send to your spine. I've always said, imagine being in the audience when this was being performed. Wow...!! I definitely don't appreciate this song and version enough but whenever I hear it, I definitely want to say this is in Brandi's top 10 best things she's recorded.
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Post by tim on Apr 29, 2022 22:05:33 GMT -5
Solid start as I ranked the bottom 3 songs as such on my list, albeit in a somewhat different order. Both βMainstream Kidβ and βA Beautiful Noiseβ were really the only two songs that I felt no desire to come back around to when revising my list, so they were an easy choice for bottom 2.
The same can almost be said for βWhat Can I Sayβ, although I did revisit this one a few more times. I donβt think this was always down in my bottom 3, but it eventually found itself wedged between a few other stronger songs.
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on May 2, 2022 21:57:09 GMT -5
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on May 2, 2022 22:06:46 GMT -5
#18 ~ KEEP YOUR HEART YOUNG from the album: Bear Creek (2012) Points: 47 ~ Average Rank: 15.1 ~ Standard Deviation: 4.3
Brandi doesn't always have the best knack for releasing the best songs for her second singles. It was one of the things I watched for as the lists were being tallied for this rankdown: how did the second singles do compared to the first from each album. Now, to be fair, her first singles from most of her albums were quite strong that following them up with anything equal was already a challenge - but in the case of Bear Creek, she went with one of the album's weakest tracks. I liked "Keep Your Heart Young." It's a pleasant song with cute lyrics. It's the type your grandparents might have sung around a campfire when you were you were younger. Maybe that's what Brandi was going for. As a single, it certainly wouldn't be my next choice, but I still feel joy hearing the song because for years, Bear Creek was my favourite Brandi album (even among my all-time favourites) and the album's overall sound is just so warm, and that includes this song. With all that said, I'm still surprised this song is already out. Even though I got a perfect score, I think I would have expected it still to beat some of the others that are soon to come. Only one Top 10 loss with this.
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on May 2, 2022 22:14:31 GMT -5
#17 ~ DREAMS from the album: Give Up The Ghost (2009) Points: 55 ~ Average Rank: 14.1 ~ Standard Deviation: 4.8
I think "Dreams" being out already at #17 is an even bigger surprise! It's the first single from her album that followed The Story, so there was a little bit of a push behind this one. "Dreams" became Brandi's second top 10 at AAA, peaking at #8. The song had a slightly different sound than much of her previous album, which admittedly had a lot of songs that followed the same general structure as "The Story." "Dreams" was more of a rocker. While I liked the song when it came out, I didn't love it as much as a lot of the last record, and then when Give Up The Ghost was released, it didn't hit in the same way so I had almost passed Brandi off as a one-album-wonder... at least until Bear Creek came out and completely blew me away. All that said, 3 of us lose a Top 10 (myself included, because the song has regrown on me again in recent years).
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on May 2, 2022 22:23:49 GMT -5
#16 ~ CARRIED ME WITH YOU from the album: Onward (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2020) Points: 56 ~ Average Rank: 14.0 ~ Standard Deviation: 4.9
When it was announced that Brandi was doing the main song from Pixar's Onward, I kind of expected it to be bigger than it ended up being. Like, an Academy Award nom, maybe some chart action, some sort of trending status, something like that. Disney and Pixar movie songs, while not always major hits, are still pretty big deals. In the end, the song got a Grammy nomination in the Songs from a Film category. I do think a song like "Carried Me With You" is a good introduction to Brandi. While I wouldn't peg it anywhere near being her best song, I think it contains all the qualities that make her a great artist, channeled through a relatively simple and accessible song like this. This is about where I'd have expected this to end up. If I had to guess, I'd say it's probably less known among Brandi fans than those who might be less into her music, just by the general nature of it being a soundtrack song that isn't on any of her albums (and I presume one she doesn't regularly perform live).
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on May 2, 2022 22:37:33 GMT -5
#15 ~ DYING DAY from the album: Give Up The Ghost (2009) Points: 70 ~ Average Rank: 12.3 ~ Standard Deviation: 2.5 (second lowest)
In early 2010, "Dying Day" was released as the third single from Give Up The Ghost, very shortly after "That Year" was released as the second. I always thought it was strange. I don't remember if "That Year" was charting on AAA, nor do I remember if this song ever did (Wikipedia says no to both), but I suppose "Dying Day" was more radio-friendly to the AAA format. Though it's out before "That Year" so I guess we know which song is more liked. I like "Dying Day" but it's my least favourite of the three singles from this album, but it's also kind of a standard in Brandi's catalogue at this point. Only one Top 10 loss this time around, but half of us put it at #12. Not sure what it is that screams 12 about "Dying Day" but there we go. That also helped give this song the second-lowest standard deviation in the set.
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on May 2, 2022 22:41:29 GMT -5
I'll probably end here for the night. Our next set of reveals brings with it our first #1 loss and the song with the highest standard deviation (which may or may not come from the same song).
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on May 5, 2022 22:06:08 GMT -5
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on May 5, 2022 22:13:50 GMT -5
#14 ~ TURPENTINE from the album: The Story (2007) Points: 71 ~ Average Rank: 12.1 ~ Standard Deviation: 5.2
I've always thought of "Turpentine" as a Brandi classic. One of the songs that gets really great response at shows that longtime Brandi fans really love, so I admit it's quite a surprise to me to see it out at this point.
Earlier I mentioned how Brandi's second singles from her albums aren't always the best choices and this is one of those I'd include in that batch. When it was selected as the second single from The Story, I remember being a little disappointed. The Story is a great album with a lot of great catchy songs, and while I like this one, I'd still put it in the bottom half of the album. It did manage to make #14 on AAA though, which is pretty great considering her chart history isn't as extension as it really should be.
This is also one of her songs that I think is better performed live than on the album, with a whole audience interaction bit that you can hear on the Benaroya Hall album - AND it's one of the ones on her pre-major label album We're Growing Up, where I actually prefer the rawness of that version over the more polished one that's on The Story.
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on May 5, 2022 22:24:48 GMT -5
#13 ~ HOLD OUT YOUR HAND from the album: By The Way, I Forgive You (2018) Points: 71 ~ Average Rank: 12.1 ~ Standard Deviation: 8.2 (highest!)
Technically, this song is tied in the number of points with "Turpentine," but because this had a higher highest rank AND a higher median (the median to this is 12, "Turpentine" is 13), I used those as the tiebreaker. First off, our first #1 loss. (sorry Mirago ). I wouldn't have expected a #1 loss to come so early, mainly because with just 8 lists, I would have expected a bit more uniformity and the points from a #1 to be enough to at least keep it high -- but on that note, this song does have the highest standard deviation by quite a bit, with 8.2. We have one #1 and two #21s, both extremes, plus a #3 and a #20. So yeah, this song is pretty polarizing. This was the second single (lol) from Brandi's big Grammy-winning album By The Way, I Forgive You, and like with "Turpentine" and "Keep Your Heart Young" so far, this was another head-scratcher of a choice. I remember listening to the album for the first time and getting to this song. I like the first verse, but then it got into the chorus and it totally threw me off. I like both separately, but the contrast between the verses and the choruses weren't my favourite. This album is a complete gem, but this has been my least favourite from the beginning. Clearly, not all agree, which is totally a good thing because it speaks to the power of her range and the people who love her music!
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on May 5, 2022 22:33:59 GMT -5
#12 ~ THAT YEAR from the album: Give Up The Ghost (2009) Points: 75 ~ Average Rank: 11.6 ~ Standard Deviation: 5.8
"That Year," to me, is Brandi's most underrated song. This rankdown's results are indication enough of that. I'm also not sure if she's performed it live during the shows I've seen of her, but I'd also understand why she wouldn't.
I think it might be one of her best written songs, about a friend she knew who took his own life and it took her years to forgive him for that. The line "you should have taken a long break instead of a long drop from a high place/ten years I never spoke your name now it feels good to say that you're my friend again," never fails to give me shivers. It's so heartbreaking. She shared a bit of the story behind the song in her biography Broken Horses, which came out last year.
"That Year" was released as the second single from Give Up The Ghost. I don't think it charted on AAA (according to Wiki), which might be why they moved onto "Dying Day" so soon afterward. Four Top 10 losses this time around.
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on May 5, 2022 22:36:00 GMT -5
#11 ~ WHEREVER IS YOUR HEART from the album: The Firewatcher's Daughter (2015) Points: 76 ~ Average Rank: 11.5 ~ Standard Deviation: 5.2
When Brandi released "The Eye" as the lead single from The Firewatcher's Daughter, I felt conflicted. The song was VERY folky and not something I'd have expected her to launch an album with. Of course, it all made sense when the REAL lead single was "Wherever Is Your Heart." This song is much more suited for 'single-status' (although "The Eye" was later released to AAA officially).
I consider "Wherever Is Your Heart" to be a very middle-of-the-road Brandi song. She has a very strong collection of standouts from across all of her albums, and a few songs (to me) that I could do without, but then she has a healthy mix of songs slightly above 'filler' status that still satisfy any listen. It's a great start to the album and peaked at #8 on AAA.
3/8 of us ranked it in our Top 10.
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on May 5, 2022 22:43:54 GMT -5
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Post by tim on May 6, 2022 10:00:44 GMT -5
This is also one of her songs that I think is better performed live than on the album I'm glad you mentioned this because I actually feel this way about quite a few of her songs. It's in those live settings that I think a lot of the songs shine as the studio recordings sometimes lack some of that energy she brings to her shows. That goes not just for "Wherever Your Heart Is" but also "Hold Out Your Hand" and "Dying Day". As for any surprises, I was thinking that "Turpentine" would be a top 10 contender and so I was a bit disappointed to see it exit just inside the top 15. I initially had this in my top 5 and only moved it outside of that in my final couple of edits. I can see this not being a go-to for some, though, and is yet another song that is better suited for her live shows. All of my top 5 is still intact (as well as my top 10 for that matter!) with one bottom 5 song remaining. Speaking of, that particular song just happens to be one that I really prefer live over the studio version which more than not I skip over.
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on May 9, 2022 22:26:20 GMT -5
#10 ~ RAISE HELL from the album: Bear Creek (2012) Points: 80 ~ Average Rank: 11.0 ~ Standard Deviation: 6.0
This song wasn't a single, and I suppose if Brandi was more of a singles-oriented artist, that might matter in a rankdown like this. I debated including "Raise Hell" in this rankdown on that basis, but I've also heard this song on the radio (CBC Radio 2 morning, which caters more to indie and lesser known artists, so they do venture into non-single territory occasionally), and I'm under the impression it's one of the fan favourites so I went with it.
Like the rest of Bear Creek, "Raise Hell" has such a warm production and I think that's primarily the main reason why I love it as much as I do. It has pretty much all the qualities you can get from a good Brandi song. Her vocals, great lyrics, a folky element, a good stomping beat, good backing from the Twins, guitar solo. All of it!
Apparently its inclusion in here went well since it made the top half of the rankdown and is the first song so far to get 5/8 of us giving it a Top 10 placement.
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on May 9, 2022 22:37:09 GMT -5
#9 ~ FALLS APART AGAIN from the album: Brandi Carlile (2005) Points: 87 ~ Average Rank: 10.1 ~ Standard Deviation: 6.0
I forgot to mention it back when "That Year" was out, but Give Up The Ghost was the first album to lose all of its tracks in the rankdown: "Dreams" (#17), "Dying Day" (#15) and "That Year" (#12). It was a bit of a surprise to me that Brandi's debut performed better: "What Can I Say" (#19) and now, "Falls Apart Again" (#9).
"Falls Apart Again" was Brandi's first single, and though it didn't chart, I'd say it did fit in quite well with the general sound of AAA (and rock-leaning Hot AC) of 2005. Even now, I'd consider it classic Brandi, due to its chorus and general similar nature to much of The Story, which is definite classic Brandi!
My introduction to Brandi Carlile came via the same album as my introduction to Katy Perry -- and in both cases, I just glazed over their songs until being re-introduced to them both several years later. I got the soundtrack CD for the movie Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005) because it had two new songs by my then-favourite singer Chantal Kreviazuk. Including on the soundtrack was the song "Simple" by Katy Perry, and "Closer To You" by Brandi Carlile. "Closer To You" is another track on Brandi's debut album that now, years later, I'd put on the level of "Falls Apart Again" as being great songs from the earlier part of her career.
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on May 9, 2022 22:46:24 GMT -5
#8 ~ THAT WASN'T ME from the album: Bear Creek (2012) Points: 88 ~ Average Rank: 10.0 ~ Standard Deviation: 4.4
This might be the most painful reveal to me so far. "That Wasn't Me" was the lead single for Bear Creek and was probably the song that solidified Brandi as THE ONE in my eyes. After Give Up The Ghost didn't quite recreate the magic of The Story for me, I wasn't sure if she'd ever release anything again that would reach or surpass that level again.
"That Wasn't Me" ended up being a pretty big hit for her, reaching #4 on AAA (though she didn't yet receive any Grammy attention). The Bear Creek album ended up as my favourite of the year (and when I put together my decade-end list in 2019, I named it my favourite album of the decade), so it also saddens me that this album now joins Give Up The Ghost and Brandi Carlile by being out of the rankdown.
I suppose I can understand why this didn't perform as well as I'd have hoped. It's a bit of a gospel-tinged piano ballad, which is unlike most of what she's done, and it doesn't quite reach the epicness of "The Joke." I do think, however, that this is her best music video, which stars Kris Kristofferson as a man released from prison but unable to reintegrate into society again. Brandi's videos aren't really ones I come back to but this one I watch once in a while.
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on May 9, 2022 23:02:25 GMT -5
#7 ~ THE THINGS I REGRET from the album: The Firewatcher's Daughter (2015) Points: 91 ~ Average Rank: 9.6 ~ Standard Deviation: 6.5
I've always been a bit fuzzy on the rollout of the singles from this album. "The Eye" came first, but "Wherever Is Your Heart" was the first radio single. At some point several months after the album's release, I began to hear this song, "The Things I Regret" on CBC Radio 2, so I assumed it was pushed to AAA - however, a month or so later, "Mainstream Kid" went for adds on the format. At some point after "Wherever Is Your Heart," but before or after "Regret/Kid," "The Eye" was also pushed to AAA.
Either way, this song winds up as the second best performer from this album, where it's the second song to get a majority placement in our top 10s. 5/8 of us place it in our top half.
I like the song but at the same time, it also has a lot of the qualities that I didn't care for about The Firewatcher's Daughter album as a whole. I always felt the melodies of the songs on this album were too easy. Not that they're too catchy, per se, but they just seemed to be too far in the front and overpowered the other elements of the songs. If that even makes sense. It made the album easy to listen to, but also easy to get bored of.
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on May 9, 2022 23:20:43 GMT -5
#6 ~ THE EYE from the album: The Firewatcher's Daughter (2015) Points: 94 ~ Average Rank: 9.3 ~ Standard Deviation: 5.6
When "The Eye" came out, Brandi wanted to put more focus on her bandmates, Phil Hanseroth and Tim Hanseroth, "the twins," who had been with her since the beginning and who also write some of the songs they've recorded together. (for example, Brandi didn't write "The Story"). When they first released this song, it was with a video of the three walking through a forest. The above video is the 'Official Music Video' and it too is a live rendition of the song, rather than the audio from the album. They wanted to highlight how they all contribute to their sound.
I wrote earlier on how the song didn't do it for me in the beginning. I kind of wanted something more punchy that felt more like a "lead single," which is kind of silly when we think about the type of artist Brandi is -- but I guess I'll always have that element of charts and album eras and whatever else in my mind in the context of music. At any rate, the song did eventually grow on me and is probably my favourite from this album now.
Depending on how I/we look at it, "The Eye" was either the first, or second, or third/fourth single from the album. It reached #27 on AAA. Interestingly, The Firewatcher's Daughter was Brandi's first time receiving recognition from the Grammys when it was up for Best Americana Album (losing to Jason Isbell).
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on May 9, 2022 23:21:59 GMT -5
I'll end it here for the night and will aim to finish this tomorrow night. Five songs to go! For half of us, the entire top 5 consists of songs we ranked in our Top 10s!
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Post by tim on May 10, 2022 9:30:33 GMT -5
As I alluded to in a previous post, "Raise Hell" is a song that I much prefer in a live setting as I'm just never quite in the right mood for the studio version. It certainly fits the bill in concert, though!
Of the songs ranked in my top 5, I assumed that "The Eye" was the most likeliest to leave first. I absolutely adore everything about this song from the stripped-down production to the lyrics.
Speaking of the top 5, what an incredible list of songs! I pretty much expected each of the remaining songs to be contenders including "Broken Horses" which I know is a Pulse favorite. I'm not quite sure how far it'll get in the top 5, but I can see it being of the first two songs to exit. I'm also not confident enough in making any predictions, though, so I can't wait to see how this plays out!
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