{"id":1792,"date":"2018-01-05T18:00:54","date_gmt":"2018-01-06T00:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intlwota.com\/happydisco\/?p=1792"},"modified":"2018-01-05T18:00:54","modified_gmt":"2018-01-06T00:00:54","slug":"my-top-25-songs-of-2017-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mescallado.com\/happydisco\/index.php\/2018\/01\/05\/my-top-25-songs-of-2017-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"My Top 25 songs of 2017 &#8211; Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>25.C-ute &#8211; Final Squall<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2l8-eUEO-qA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>2017 was the year that C-ute disbanded after what felt like an extended victory lap. Most of the last two singles of C-ute&#8217;s felt geared towards their eventual disbandment, and even then that&#8217;s after songs like Gamusha Life that directly focused on their lives as idols and performers. Of these final songs, Final Squall is by far my favorite. It has a great, dramatic feel and is the one song that feels like an ending, saying goodbye to fans. The strings sound fantastic and I love the emotional, but upbeat rock feel to it. Final Squall is the type of song that reminds you how great a group can be, and it certainly reminds me how great C-ute was for being a group for so long. It&#8217;s one of C-ute&#8217;s finest songs, and they left on a high note.<\/p>\n<p><strong>24. Osaka Shunkashuto &#8211; New Me<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/haILSAdymuA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Osaka Shunkashuto had a big year, with their major debut single with Avex coming out later. And while their first single with Avex, &#8220;Travelin&#8217; Travelin'&#8221; is fine, their first single of 2017, &#8220;New Me,&#8221; made a much bigger impact. It&#8217;s a departure for Osaka Shunkashuto for sure &#8211; it has a jazzy, upbeat feel that feels totally different to their other rock-inspired songs. That said, New Me is a lot of fun and has a catchy melody, great instrumentation and, most of all, Maina&#8217;s vocals continue to be the powerhouse that carry Osaka Shunkashuto.<\/p>\n<p><strong>23. amiinA &#8211; Callin&#8217;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0-GBZAisvZ4\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Separating an amiinA song to single out as being the best is a difficult one &#8211; their albums and mini albums feel like unified wholes more than any other idol group I can think of. I think that&#8217;s why Callin&#8217; is so low &#8211; it&#8217;s a great song on its own, a sweet country-inspired song that continues amiinA&#8217;s gentle, laidback music. But Callin&#8217;, as good as it is, works best in the context of the rest of &#8220;Valkyrie&#8221; as a mini-album. The intro song (also called &#8220;Valkyrie&#8221; ) works as a perfect intro to Callin&#8217;. Still, Callin&#8217; is a very catchy well-written song with some beautiful vocals. I don&#8217;t like it quite as much as some of their other songs from years past (&#8220;Drop&#8221; and &#8220;Atlas&#8221; both being highlights) but it&#8217;s a reminder of just how great amiinA is.<\/p>\n<p><strong>22. Sora tob Sakana &#8211; Ribbon<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fHBrIzHFff4\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>It took me a while to fully warm up to Ribbon. I always liked the song, but it wasn&#8217;t top 25 worthy until I had several listens, mostly due to Ribbon&#8217;s beautiful animated music video. That being said, once I got used to Ribbon it became one of my favorites of the year. It has a dreamy, laidback feel to it and its instrumental is so unusual. It&#8217;s almost indescribable, it just feels like such a departure from most idol music. It&#8217;s a sweet, lovely song that worked its way into my heart.<\/p>\n<p><strong>21. Gang Parade &#8211; Beyond the Mountain<\/strong><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sdsASPb4l4Q\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Alt-idol \/ anti-idol music isn&#8217;t typically my thing, with a few songs that are an exception. Beyond the Mountain is one such exception. It&#8217;s a big, powerful rock song that has a great sound and hits the sweet spot for alt-idol sound &#8211; it&#8217;s very listenable but isn&#8217;t just a thinly veiled idol song with rock trappings. This has a unique sound with a lot of power. Power is the thing that hits me about Beyond the Mountain more than anything &#8211; the initial wall of sound at about 20 seconds into the song consistently gets me pumped up. Beyond the Mountain is a really great outing for Gang Parade and I hope that they keep this up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-top-25-songs-of-2017"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mescallado.com\/happydisco\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mescallado.com\/happydisco\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mescallado.com\/happydisco\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mescallado.com\/happydisco\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mescallado.com\/happydisco\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mescallado.com\/happydisco\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mescallado.com\/happydisco\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mescallado.com\/happydisco\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mescallado.com\/happydisco\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}