Last weekend I spent some of my time doing something I love doing every year around the start of December: Creating my nominations list for the annual Dutch Top 2000 music list. One of our national radio stations; Radio 2 has been doing this for decades and starting around X-mas they start with this list, running all 2000 songs in succession, ending with the #1 before midnight on December 31st.

I always love sharing my list and this year I created my Top 2000 list as a playlist in Spotify, so people can listen to the music that I listen to. This year I decided to change things up a little bit. I added a lot of new favourites from bands/artists that I love listening to, but there’s also a lot of classics in the list as well. Especially the 80’s are represented firmly in my list. I’m an 80’s kid and just hearing those songs bring back childhood memories. And at my current age I started to appreciate them even more. I love song lyrics and whenever I find a song with really good lyrics I often share them with others, if I think they fit their current situation, or if I know they’ll appreciate the thought. 🙂

I’ve put the list together randomly, but I will share five songs (as well as the list) every time I post here and tell you why I chose them and what they mean to me. So, let’s go!

#35. Legend of Zelda: Suite — Koji Kondo

The Legend of Zelda is arguably Nintendo’s biggest franchise. The games have been around since the NES found its way into our homes and even then the main theme of the game was catchy and many people will instantly recognise it when they hear it. It’s definitely a song that is a big part of me and I can’t leave one of Koji Kondo’s greatest video game tunes out of my list! This edition is the orchestrated version, which really brings out the feeling of adventure that comes with playing the Zelda games.

#34. Through Glass — Stone Sour

When I found out Slipknot’s Corey Tailor was also in a band called Stone Sour, I just had to check them out. I was a big fan of Slipknot in my early twenties and Corey Tailor’s vocals were always so raw and awesome. Stone Sour may be a different band, but Tailor really shows just how talented he is. The lyrics to the songs are good and this song especially has such good lines. Especially the chorus:

‘Cause I’m looking at you through the glass
Don’t know how much time has passed
All I know is that it feels like forever
When no one ever tells you that forever feels like home
Sitting all alone inside your head

#33. Mr. Blue Sky — Electric Light Orchestra

Mr. Blue Sky is just one of those timeless classics from ELO. This song was also on the soundtrack of Guardians of the Galaxy and that’s a reason why I chose to include it on my list this year. Sometimes the reason can be simple 😉

#32 The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s theme) — John Williams

Star Wars. I could talk for hours and hours about it (which I sometimes do, to the annoyance of many a person). Besides the main theme there’s probably not a more iconic song than the Imperial March. And since I’m a big fan of the Dark Side, it shouldn’t be a surprise that I chose this song to represent my love for this pop-culture icon.

#31 The Truth of a Liar — August Burns Red

I may be hitting 40 next year, but that doesn’t mean I stopped listening to shredding guitars, grunt vocals and epic breakdowns. August Burns Red remains one of my favourite metalcore bands and Messengers is still my number one album. The Truth of a Liar is the opening song of this epic album and it’s just perfect. I love this snippet of the lyrics especially:

You might think you’re everything to everyone, to everyone.
Go ahead.
Partake in it.
Justify it.
Become engulfed in it.
It will eat you alive.

Stay tuned!

I’ll be handling more songs later this week. If you want to check out my nominations, just use the link below to give my list a listen! I hope you enjoyed reading/listening to this post as much as I had writing it and putting the list together!

Happy listening!

~Jeffrey