Got my mind on your body and your body on my mind...

12.) Demi Lovato - "Cool For The Summer"
Chart Points: 18518
Lead single, Confident
Chart Run: 32-1-1-1-2-4-4-4-4-5-9-13-16-20-25-31-37-45 (18 weeks)



Demi Lovato has always done well with me. I loved "Heart Attack", "Neon Lights" and "Really Don't Care" from her previous era, so I was pretty hyped for the next era. At first I thought that the sound was a bit too brash but then again... Demi's voice and personality can handle the 2002 Avril Lavigne type of pop punk sound. Of course I discovered it near the beginning of Fourth of July weekend (which explains the low debut), but the next day I just fully embraced the energy. Then more listening came and a giant move up the chart and three episodes of Teen Wolf later it's safe to say that this song isn't cool - it's smoking hot.

The song starts off a little subdued in a way that it's almost sensual. Demi's aiming to try something new: maybe she's gone through a bad breakup and needs a little rebound, maybe she's experimenting with lesbianism, maybe this is about her first time, the story is all the same. Then it starts building up, and that's when you know that Demi means business. I really loved the "TAKE ME DOWN!" parts of the final chorus where her belting voice is just enough to complement the background refrain, and the hard bass line is absolutely perfect for some kind of pillow fight or make up sex or whatever. As long as it involves something to lay down on.

In conclusion, Demi's lead single of her latest era has shown two things:
1.) Summer songs are supposed to be anthemic: a chorus that goes hard and colorful visuals usually do the trick.
2.) Cody Christian is one heck of a catalyst when it comes to this chart.

Loving these write ups, both are tunes, Cool For The Summer is so different and chilled I'd love to see something similar from her latest output.

Okay just got a wave of inspiration so I'm determined to actually finish this lol

*THE TOP 50 ALBUMS OF 2015*

http://i.imgur.com/cBB8jpa.png

10.) Bea Miller - Not An Apology
Cody Recommends: "I Dare You" | "This Is Not An Apology" | "Dracula

Album #10 better be amazing if it denied Carly the top 10 <_<

Well... Idk if you'll like this oops

Bea Miller came as a bit of a surprise to me. She never really stood out during X Factor US (how could she with Carly Rose Sonnenclar soaking up all the votes like a sponge?) so I wasn't aware about her post XF work until "Young Blood" was released and I got into that too late to consider it for charting. Then I heard "Fire N Gold" which took forever to grow on me but when it did I became OBSESSED. Fast forward a few weeks later and her album gets released. I was certainly not disappointed. The circa 2004 pure pop sound somehow meshes well with the flow of this album. Every song seems to get more anthemic than the next. I've talked about YB and FNG enough, so time to get into the album tracks.

"I Dare You" is by far the best song on the album. There's some sort of desperation within the chorus and at the same time displays so much inner strength. Which "Paper Doll" extends further. But then in comes "Perfect Picture" and it's the beginning of her breaking down her thick skin and letting someone in. There's still a bit of that innocent yet gritty girl within "Enemy Fire" much so that it almost sounds like she's channeling Demi Lovato's circa 2009. "Force Of Nature" is the climax of this - it's more stripped down and organic, and I feel like I see the real Bea in a shroud of anthems. The last four tracks are her "you know what? Girls just wanna have fun" type of songs, which sum up the album perfectly. And "Dracula" shifts the sound a bit but enough to make it still sound like a Bea Miller song.

So, in summary, there's something about this album that just separates it from the normal album-listening experience. It tells a story, strips down her character, and establishes a base for her sound so that she can figure out how to progress as she gets older. Carly was a flashback 80's hipster love fest, and Bea was a small taste of my childhood.

*THE TOP 50 ALBUMS OF 2015*

9.) Madonna - Rebel Heart
Cody Recommends: "Devil Pray" | "Iconic" | "Living For Love"

The interesting thing about every single time Madonna makes a new LP is that you never know what to expect. They usually seem to be a combination of songs that send a message, songs that are a blast from the past and make us think about 90's Madge, and the classic cheeky camp anthems. And Rebel Heart basically fits the bill. So we'll split it up into those three parts:

The Message: When you've lasted this long in the industry, people tend to ponder if you still have creative juices flowing within you. And it turns out Madonna did have a vision: the album is all about rebelling against what society tries to cement you in and listening to your heart. We start off with "Living For Love", which is carefree and something almost reminiscent of the Music era. And in true Madonna fashion, there is always some Christian influences to her vision, such as the demon horns with her backup dancers. And we'll get into this later. We also get a taste of what it feels like to discover the world and try new things. "Hold Tight" shows a bit of that (and also reveals itself as one of the most current album tracks on the album), "Rebel Heart" (which is an amazing closer) develops that further, but it's "Devil Pray" that gets the recognition for this type of message. Madonna knows that the best way to learn is to make mistakes, and that comes in the form of temptation, which is what this encompasses. The "devil's here to fool ya" line really hits the nail on the head. We also have "Illuminati" which is about secrets and conspiracies. There's also a bit of lust within this. See: "Body Shop", "Best Night" and most definitely "S.E.X."

The Allusions: The album still has its fair share of midtempos and ballads that show her age a bit. Which is what I feel "Wash All Over Me", "Ghosttown", "Joan Of Arc" and songs like that serve. They're more mellow and show that Madonna has gone through her career with her share of slower hits, and they show the wisdom she possesses (I mean, the woman is almost 60!). "HeartBreakCity" is more on the lines of the aftermath of whatever mistake you've made that caused a bunch of heartbreak. Maybe a rumor had spread, maybe there are things in life you regret - she gets it. "Ghosttown" is more intimate than the other lustful songs in that it develops a possible escape for two people. "Messiah" is basically the "a girl can dream" type of song. "Joan Of Arc" is Madonna admitting that she's still learning and it's a never-ending process. What do all of these have in common? They're more stripped down. And it shows that someone who has built an image with this infectious personality is still vulnerable in some way.

The Camp Anthems: Okay, first of all I'm putting "Holy Water" on this category because of the sheer wtf-ery of this entire song. Same with "Unapologetic Bitch", although it seems a bit more serious than it sounds. :P Same with "Veni Vidi Vici". The two songs that define this category in terms of this album are the brash "Bitch I'm Madonna" and the rather flashy "Iconic". BIM is in your face and full of sass, whereas "Iconic" has the lyrics of a RuPaul's Drag Race season theme coupled with a "Dark Horse"-styled drop. And the "I can/icon" thing was pretty cool.

And there's my take on the album.

(Also of note: not every post of commentary for the rest of the top 10 songs/albums isn't gonna be as long as this, I just had a lot to say)

*THE TOP 50 ALBUMS OF 2015*

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8.) Audien - Daydreams EP
Cody Recommends: "Rooms"

And behold the highest EP on this chart! Audien's sound is more tailored to progressive house fans, which I understand deeply, but I feel that there's still a bit of progression in his sound that he doesn't have to rely on a 2011 dance formula all the time. ("Crazy Love" in my current chart is a perfect example of this) And that's how we got "Pharaohs" - something that's more future bass sounding and not as dated as it should be. But there's still a bit of that progressive house Audien in him, which shows in the other three tracks. "Something Beautiful" I've championed for in the past and I think I've said everything I needed in its write up a while ago. So that leaves "Rooms" and "Monaco". The former is an interesting Zedd-style instrumental, while the latter sounds like something out of Enhanced Recordings. And just for the Zedd teas it gave me, "Rooms" becomes my recommendation for this EP.

Okay gonna get this done in the next three days so I can get started on 2016's first thing on Thursday

 

In the meantime...

*THE TOP 50 ALBUMS OF 2015*

http://i.imgur.com/GAWltbS.jpg

7.) Hilary Duff - Breathe In. Breathe Out.
Cody Recommends: "Confetti" | "My Kind" | "Arms Around A Memory"

Okay I'm highly aware that this album didn't go anywhere and that's a total injustice but HOLY CRAP WHAT A COMEBACK. This was exactly what I expected out of Hilary post-Dignity (let alone post-divorce) - something more poppy and commercial yet slightly under the Kylie Minogue vein kinda like "Sparks" was. Total H&M fodder. But, at the same time, it kinda sounds like the Hilary from back in the day when you were cruising in your parents' car belting out the lyrics to "What Dreams Are Made Of". (Yes, I am completely guilty of this.) It's the type of carefree albeit generic pop a la "Arms Around A Memory" and whatnot that just take me there.

So in the end, I'm sitting here thinking about what the hell went wrong with this, because it's a solid album. My guess is that management didn't promote this enough or give this enough exposure to radio, or radio might just be over her because she waited too long, or this type of pop doesn't really capture people like they used to (which is a total LIE, I mean have you heard Taylor Swift?!), so despite all these theories, there's no real culprit to this flopping. I'm just glad this isn't really disappearing into the ether for me or else I would be completely disappointed.

*THE TOP 50 ALBUMS OF 2015*

6.) Halsey - BADLANDS
Cody Recommends: "Colors" | "Castle" | "Control"

I've really upped my defense on Halsey over this past year and if anyone wants to call me a sad, despondent, Tumblr-influence millennial, tough titty I said it first. Something just clicks whenever I listen to her. It's a juxtaposition of so many things: her voice is calming yet screaming in anguish on some parts, the sound is hard-hitting but something you listen to on a cold winter day, and maybe it's my completely messed up mind but I want to dance to is as much as it makes me a bit depressed - I DON'T KNOW. Halsey just has that effect on me. And maybe the reason for this total enigma of feels is that her lyrics have a way of connecting with people in the same way that made me appreciate stuff like Blurryface. And really, if you just sit down and listen to the lyrics, they take you on a roller coaster through her psyche and maybe discover something about yourself. Like "New Americana"'s seeming glamorization of the "lifestyles of the rich and famous" sheltering this disdain for the rich and their ignorance to the lower tax bracket. Or "Colors" describing the conflicts of loving an older significant other. The juxtaposition of vice and virtue in "Control". "Castle"'s commentary on the patriarchy and the struggles of breaking through a revered industry as a woman. In the end, it's an escape from our own world and a portal into hers, where we discover the conflicts she faced that might have been echoed in your lifetime. And that's the gist of this album: it's a portal into the "badlands" and finding a way out.

*THE TOP 50 ALBUMS OF 2015*

5.) Tove Lo - Queen Of The Clouds
Cody Recommends: "Talking Body" | "Timebomb" | "Thousand Miles"

Segueing on from that is Sweden's own dark pop export Tove Lo, and while I haven't gotten into Lady Wood as much as this, I really admire her raw and personal take on her songs. She ends up splitting the album into three parts: The Sex, The Love, and The Pain.

"The Sex" is the honeymoon phase - you're young and in love and naive to the difficult phases of a relationship because you and your significant other haven't experienced that. And that's where my first and biggest recommendation, "Talking Body", resides. While the album starts off being fun and brash with "My Gun", it's "Talking Body" that becomes the real attention-grabber.

Next is "The Love". The couple have been together for a while now and they begin to know more about each other - deep secrets, pet peeves, the baggage that they carry. This is where the album begins to strip down the infectious beats and trades them in for hard-hitting motifs. "Moments" possesses the same "I'm not perfect but I can be the best you ever had" theme shown in One Direction's "Perfect" (while albeit not as cheesy), while "Not On Drugs" is her being so blinded by love that she ignores the privacy of her SO. And the love she possessed continues to break her down like a drug.

And that's where "The Pain" lead into. She became so consumed by love that it's taken a toll on her sanity and her love life - her significant other has left her, and she's suffering through withdrawals. She's looking for an escape from this heartbreak that she's encountered, and she's tried everything (as seen in "Habits (Stay High)"). At the end of this journey, she's acknowledged her problem and sought penance for her wrongdoings (in "This Time Around").

The entire album is symbolic to the first encounter with love. It can last thirty minutes, it can last thirty years. Sometimes it works out, but it doesn't always last forever. And that's what she's trying to show with this album.

*THE TOP 50 ALBUMS OF 2015*

4.) Taylor Swift - 1989
Cody Recommends: "Blank Space" | "Out Of The Woods" | "Style"

Soooooo another carry over from 2014. At first I was a bit apprehensive toward this drastic change in style (because at least Red had a bit of country despite the overflowing pop influences), but looking back, I'm kinda glad that this change became so successful because this was a change that was quite welcomed in the scope of pop radio. It was more of Taylor giving zero f***s rather than her shitting all over her boyfriends and ending they careers and sex lives. It's a refreshing change in that not only was the sound different but some of the themes changed with her as well. She doesn't just slander her exes, she's graduated onto the media and other pop stars. But at the same time, with songs like "All You Had To Do Was Stay", "Style" and others of that ilk, she tries to remind us little by little that the Taylor that we know and love isn't dead, she's just taken a new form.

"Welcome To New York" signals a beginning, it's the perfect introduction to this album and the new Taylor, almost like she's leaving the Nashville aspect behind and moving over to the big city of pop. So what's the next logical step? Come for the media, which is what "Blank Space" does, and as I said before, the song is a mere caricature of what the media and everyone paints herself as but she's self-aware and she knows that they're laughing at her, so she playfully dusts if off as if they're laughing with her. Genius. The rest of the album is pretty much her own show. So think of WTNY as the prelude, BS as the opening, and everything else as just one act to the Taylor Swift show and you're good to go for this album.