101 Songs of My Third Year (Part 9)

Please bear with me. This list runs for almost 7 months! I missed updating this 101 songs because—guess what—I'm busy doing what has to be done this 4th year. I told it on my past post.

But speaking of school...We're already down to the top 20 songs of my third year. These songs are pieces and parts of my past school year. These songs were the songs I got to listen to most of the time.

For this part, we have a new band to be featured—a distinctive band in the Philippines named Up Dharma Down. Also expect some Linkin Park, M83, FTP, and James Blake.

Don't know them yet? Know them here.

20. "Can you feel the rush rush?"

Davenport|Never The Strangers

At 20 we have a synth-filled, dramatic song of Never The Strangers. I don't really know why this is entitled "Davenport". It is either a place or the type of sofa.

But what I liked in this track is that it speaks of going away and being away, and it is spoken thoroughly. 

19. "Iindak na lamang ba sa tibok ng puso mo/At aasahan ko/Hindi mo lamang aapakan ang aking mga paa"

Indak|Up Dharma Down

I really like Up Dharma Down. I like their sound and the sweet vocals of Armi Millare, as well as the lyrics that are poetic and impressive.

This one, written in Filipino, amazes me. The piano notes, and that electronically produced beat before the refrain, and those remarkable lyrics. Wow!

For your information, the song tells me of dance, first of all. Then, it speaks of a person's confusion on who to dance with, on who will she choose. 

It tells me that this person isn't sure of what her decision will be, but she'll choose. And she'll dance, while someone is watching...While someone is sad.

Since it's "Indak", it'll be nice to be played at prom.

Actually, there's an album version of this song, but the one featured here is the first one I've heard, and I like it better.

18. "Nalilito na ako hindi na dapat gan'to"

Sana|Up Dharma Down

Yes. It's UDD again. It's another Filipino song worth hearing. 

From the beating intro to the video game-inspired music video, it's awesome. Here, we get to hear Armi's magnificent vocals in a more dynamic level. Also, we hear those heartfelt lines of wishes, somehow emptying to zero.

17. "Just waiting! Just waiting!"

Steve Mcqueen|M83

We have another M83 song here, which still comes from their recent album. The first seconds are like an entrance to a story-book world, or a different dimension, like Narnia. Then, synths and beats will burst like whirling matter.

It is a combination of the synthetic and the ambient. Of something from synthpop and something from house music and something from rock.

16. "Sana'y nagtanong ka lang kung 'di mo lang alam"

Oo|Up Dharma Down

Back to UDD.

This expressive song focuses on a person's frustration over another and his/her interest. This speaks of a hopeless feeling, or a regret over liking someone. But what I like here is that the lyrics is so clear and direct.

It's another dimension of UDD that is heard here, away from electronica and more of jazz. It's so brilliantly orchestrated.


15. "I tie my hands up to a chair so I don’t fall that way"

Helena Beat|Foster The People

FTP impresses us once again with their upbeat, keyboard-filled sounds, together with lyrics with deeper meanings.

"Helena Beat" is a party-perfect song. It tells us of a fall in humans, a fall they don't care about.

The beats that are heard as the song opens are what I think is the 'Helena Beat". It's an "ear-opener" for me.

14. "Waiting for the end to come/Wishing I had strength to stand"

Waiting For The End|Linkin Park

I felt this song all throughout, because—really—I waited for the end.

I waited for the end of the school year, the end of every tasks, the end of every hardships, the end of every sorrow.

And so this song hums with me.


13. "Is this the way I've always been?"

The Reeling|Passion Pit

The banging and dancing and running of every note and beat makes this Passion Pit single great. Another thing to consider is the additional choir sound care of PS22 Chorus.

Thanks to 99.5 before it became Play FM, I heard this electro-pop piece.

12. "Like a waterfall in slow motion"

Limit To Your Love|James Blake

Let's now slow it down.

I found this out from Live From Abbey Road. It was the first time that I heard something classical fused with something modern. The first time I heard a classical piano contained with drum-pad beats, push-button effects, and sounds coming from a Prophet synthesizer that's better than an Autotune.

But also, the emotions and colors that are conveyed in this track makes it good to hear. The lines travel through your consciousness, and somehow you're already in the vibe of the music.

11. "It doesn't even matter"

In The End|Linkin Park

LP's songs are really heartfelt and emotion-filled, aside from being distinctively rock.

This one is something that I felt anytime. Doing everything that you could, but having its value lost in the end. Having trust, then losing it when it's all over, even when it's not all over yet.


Do they sound good for you? Let's add one more.


Bonus track: "All of my life/In every season/You are still God"

Desert Song|Hillsong

Of course, contemporary Christian music isn't ignored by this blogger. This is my pick because it fits right into what I've gone through the past school year.

Here I was, barren, dry, baffled...But here's my God, who was—and still is—with me. He has a plan. He knows what's best for me—all of us. So there's still a reason to live...and to depend on God each day.


Get ready for the last 10 songs very soon! In case you've missed the songs before these, you may start here. Thank you so much for hanging out! 

101 Songs of My Third Year (Part 3)

Here I am again to continue the long roll of of the songs I like during my third year in high school. More local music to come your way, plus a pick from the 90's, then the typical electronic music. I really like it, you know?

I suggest that you listen to the tracks before or while you read my say about these songs. Hope you will like these more.

80. "Heart-stopping liar"

A Weeknight Memoir In High Definition|Taken By Cars

I unearthed this track coming from the days when I was an elementary student. Thanks to Internet, and Pedicab's Facebook page, I was brought into another great local act. Their mix of shoegaze(that genre of alternative rock that I can simply describe as making creative sounds/noises out of guitars and the effects pedals) and electronic music is worth listening.

The guitars are notable, with a pinch of synths.

And you wouldn't realize more and more, until you hear this, that girls' vocals in rock bands do rock. The vocals here sounds similar to the vocals from an 80s band, Romeo Void.

Recommended: This Is Our City (here, no more comparison to Romeo Void. This one's better!)

79. "Ayos lang. Sa susunod na lang" (It's fine. Next time.)

I'm sorry I cannot give the actual song. But I listened to this live version first before I could ever hear it right from the album.

La Liga Filipina|Pedicab

Pedicab doesn't stop making dance-able, funky and electrifying sounds.

Their latest album, or let's say EP(extended play), entitled Kaya Mo Mag Sando?, which I have as the first CD I've ever bought and owned, brings in fresh tunes coming up from a bass synthesizer, a brilliant play of guitar, drums with a great drummer hitting it, additional effects varying from radio samples and whooshes, and a vocal ranging from spoken word to rap.

And in my own opinion, I find the album well-mixed.

Again, I laud the colorful titles artists label in their songs. In this track, it feels like something historical, and obviously native.

Nonetheless, some of its lyrics make me feel the way I felt at school then.

Though I lost, I could hopefully do better next time.

78. "Cool kids never have the time"

1979|Smashing Pumpkins

This was discovered from searching through music info at Wikipedia.

The notable thing here is that it used samples and loops in the beginning—something that a 90s rock band like Smashing Pumpkins seemingly won't do.

But I like the song as a whole because it's not much gritty but still rocks so well. I could ride in to the chords, and the additional sounds, and the sing-able vocals.

I searched through people's interpretations of this song, and I agree with them. They all direct towards people like me, teenagers. I think it is better if I leave you with these comments I found at Song Meanings:

"I think this song is directed towards teenagers. In most schools, there are endless amounts of groups and cliques...And there's always that one group that doesn't exactly have a classification...They realize this, of course, but they don't care. That's what makes them the most valuable people in this age group: the fact that their image doesn't bother them."—dsrm_smile 

"1979 was the year the last of the babyboomers graduated from highschool. In 1979 if you made it or failed in life it was on you...When you have to fend for yourself, you get selfish and disenchanted. This song is not about teenagers rebelling...It is about kids being regarded as having responsibility at an age when they must accept it, but they are facing the future by themselves."—USMClawyer

77. "You're away, so far away... "


Keeping The Avenues Open|Moscow Olympics

Does this sound foreign to you?

Actually, it's from here. It's another independent local act, and another shoegaze track.

It begins with a simple beat that I guess was made through a drum machine. Then, these guitars come in, crashes through your ears, and seemingly envelopes you into a bluish or purplish cloud or cityscape.

The vocals will step in soon, and serenades in soft words that you'll rarely hear. It makes me think that he speaks somehow in a lonely way. That's a characteristic of shoegaze.

"Keeping The Avenues Open", which is a remodeled version of their past song, "To Keep The Avenues Open", helped me appreciate guitars more, and the effects they make by stepping on the pedals.

Another thing, the mood I felt in this song somehow equates to my mood in my complex and twisted school life.

A good beginning, then a dramatic end. That's a nice way to create and compose a song.

It is interesting that the name of the band comes from a worldwide 80's event—the 1980 Summer Olympics held at Moscow at the former Soviet Union. Their name's so attractive. I haven't expected a band name as cool as Moscow Olympics.

However, the band's not active as of this moment. And you wouldn't see a copy of their nice album—with a person in a study table as their cover—anywhere. I hope someday they'll come out and get more people listening to them.

76. "But I used to be free"

Black Chandelier|Biffy Clyro

This came out of the radio, on Jam 88.3, as a fresh hit, a song that aired on the station for the first time.

"Black Chandelier" has impressive lyrics, a remarkable intro (drip,drip,drip,drip), and a banging noise of guitars in the bridge, like it's something metal.

And again, I felt connected to the words, as if it speaks of a separation from all your burdens, from all the demanding people, from all the humans you cannot get along with, from all the mess and failure you've gone into.

75. "You're drowning in her"

Raspberry:Girl|Chicosci

Now another homegrown track.

I heard of the rock band when I was still a little child. Not that I hear them all the time, but I always hear the name.

My attention was turned when I saw their newest album entitled This Is Not A Chicosci Record. With the help of cable, I encountered this song. The title is so cute: Raspberry:Girl. It is not read as a ratio, for your information.

After hearing the song, I gave a second thought to all the emerging music that I didn't like before. I thought before it's all emo and nothing at all, but no. This is still rock, whatever you call it.

And this stays true to the title of their album. The composition is suitably embellished with that sample from the start, and the trumpets in the middle. It wasn't obvious that they made it.

But all in all, it's something you can ride into, especially if you're spellbound or fallen. I'm not saying I am.

74. "Like stars burning holes right through the dark"

Sleepyhead|Passion Pit

This is the first song I've heard from the electro pop group, out of their first release entitled Chunk of Change. This came out as a suggested video on YouTube, and I clicked it. From the start, it's beautifully made.

It sounds good, anyway, with all that sampling and all the colorful keyboards and synthesizers. Head-popping. And it amazes me that that kind of "crying" voice would come out from a man. I like it.

Did you hear that from the start: "And everything's going to the beat"? It was nice to know it came from a recorded voice of Beat writer Jack Kerouac reading his poem entitled San Francisco Scene. He's one of the authors whose book, On The Road, I wish I could read and have soon.

73. "We're all having problems. And we all got something to say"

Carried Away|Passion Pit

And so we have a back to back for the first time!

I didn't stop at Sleepyhead. There are many songs from the band that I like, and I think they'll be shown in this ongoing chart soon. One is this, coming from their album, Gossamer.

It's really hard to interpret lyrics, but I can somehow relate to the lyrics, at the least in those words: "I get carried away, carried away from you."

Simple yet cool.

72. "In my mind I know it's hard but we're getting it through"

This one's another live version. I hope you're fine with it. The whole song won't start immediately, so please have patience. Thank you.

The Shot|Pedicab

This one also came out from the EP. Here the band takes a break from their funkyness, coming up with an indie-pop tune. However, the EP has no lyrics in it, so we all have to rely on Diego Mapa's vocals.

But with just the title, "The Shot", I can relate to it.

Because in some ways we give our shot, the best shots we can make. A shot for a good grade. A shot for an accomplishment. A shot for an approval. A shot for a win.

71. "What I'd do for a pretty face"

Reverend's Daughter|Typecast

Before, I wasn't much attentive to homegrown rock before, until I see songs like this on Myx. And I'm thankful I finally became open to more kinds of music.

This good amount of Pinoy rock is simply harmonious, and the lyrics is straight to the heart, direct to the point.


How did you find numbers 80 to 71? You can comment if you like. Just click the title of this post first, then that comment box will appear. Why don't you share this blog to your friends? They may find it nice.

For the next set, more indie acts will be heard, as well as local artists. I hope you aren't bored by this. Keep updated. Thanks! Take care.