10. Jessi J, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj – “Bang Bang” I would call this my “guilty pleasure” selection, but, as Colton and I have repeatedly noted, there should be no guilt in the pleasure of a finely-crafted pop number. The Max Martin-produced “Bang Bang” is probably my favorite pop radio staple this decade, with a sizzling beat,…
Sometimes, even our biggest heroes falter. Below is a list of bad songs by our favorite artists. Whether they’re disappointing, dull, or downright disastrous, these twenty tracks remind us of that lesson Billy Wilder taught us so many years ago. As always, we’ve included a Spotify playlist so you can listen as you read. Enjoy! (Or,…
Grant and I have written fairly extensively about Green Day in the past, so we decided to devote our second podcast together to ranking our top five Green Day albums. Both of us surprised each other with our picks. Whether you’re a fan or a newbie to the band, join us as we break down…
This is an Earn This Mixtape For the sixth entry in the Earn This Mixtape Series, Grant and I came up with twenty songs that give us serious cognitive dissonance. The first half of this mixtape is a list of songs where the chorus overpowers the rest of the song. The second half…
In the fourth entry of our ongoing Mixtape series — in which one or more writers picks about twenty songs from under a single umbrella — we’re digging deep into some of our favorite non-singles from well-known artists. As always, we’ve included a Spotify playlist to listen to as you read. Someday’s Gone – All-American…
This is the first in a hopefully-recurring feature where the writers of Earn This will choose some genre or theme, collectively pick twenty or so of their favorite songs under that umbrella, and write a few words about each song. If we’re motivated, we’ll even embed a Spotify playlist. For our first entry, Dan and…
In the summer of 2011, I was privileged enough to see Green Day play an impromptu, intimate concert at an Orange County, California venue normally reserved for bands who have sold about 1/100th as many records as they have. I had just moved out to southern California, and the area greeted me by placing me within…
“Silence is the enemy.” At some point on this past August 11th, at Jiffy Lube Pavilion in Virginia, it all went away. At some indefinable moment, while realizing that time had seemed to stop as Green Day obliterated tedium on their way through a legendary, two-hour-and-45-minute show, while observing that Billie Joe Armstrong is a…
American Idiot, 5 years later (4 stars out of 5) I distinctly remember negative emotions towards American Idiot when it first came out. My habitual response is still negative. Why? The same reason any level-headed guy comes to despise a good, popular album he should like: Overexposure. Green Day immediately went from the most underrated…